Editorial notes: This post was found in ‘Draft’ mode in the original blog and may be incomplete. It is published here in its original state. It was last updated on 11/11/2016.
These are my thoughts. It is my intention and hope that they not contradict what has already been established. In only a few places will I include methods. This is also an exercise in communication (i.e. in general).
I wonder what the words of Lech Lecha mean; in four chapters between two parts:
Part 1
First
The text tells us that Avram was told to lech lecha from his land, birthplace, household to a land he would be shown, that he travelled as far as Schem, as far as alon morah, that (due during a famine) Avram departed for Egypt and asked Saray to say she was his sister.
Second
We know that aretz (land) is everything qua not-heaven (shamayim). We know this from ele toldot shamayim va-aretz, which have been explained as being an initial creation that contained everything else. Also many places where it is described as the place of work. *Check who says that first point.
My understanding of birthplace (mimoladetcha) is by reference to Yaakov and Esav, from which we learn that (normally) it is one’s birth that define’s what one’s purpose will be.
My understanding of household (beit-avicha) is by reference to the beit of the Kohen Gadol in the halachot of Yom Kippur, which means his wife, and the woman as the bina (wisdom) of a family/culture in kabbalah.
My understanding of Schem is by way of Ramban, who references the activities of Levi and Shimon, which in turn I understand by way of the blessing which Yaakov gave to his sons in adddition to the absence of those sons in the final blessing of Moshe, along with the heritage of the tribe of Levi in the land of Israel.
My understanding of alon morah includes the explanations of Ramban (???) regarding this being outside the communities of the Cna’anim.
Third
My understanding of the words lech lecha begins from an unusual position, but reveals itself to be a bridging between Rashi and Chazkuni (??? re 3 reasons) and Or Hachayim (on Sarai).
Fourth
My (separate) additions to Or Hachayim are not necessary for what comes before. But stem from Ramban on korban kipur (in Vayikra), and apply his explanations of zot onto the use of the word by Adam to express the creation of Isha and how that transcends into the zot of the brit olam with Noach (which Rashi had linked in Vayikra).
Part two
Will be told as a reflection of part one. Explaining everything there, but phenomenologically.
First
How to make space for Judaism within our mind. Basically and very simply and very accessibly.
Second
How to understand the areas in the mind which are made accessible
Third
The architecture of the chaf sofit in these contexts. Don’t explain in terms of letters. Too distracting and not necessary.
Fourth
NOT TO BE EXPLAINED. Instead explain what this means in terms of time, Torah, and self.
Epilogue.
Re-tell what was said in part 2 chapter 4: What it means to wake up a Jew today.