Bet: The Hero’s Journey Home. Go Forth, Go Within

We begin this story of our ancestry with Abraham, the hero, the first patriarch of patriarchy, the big father.

His name, Avraham, literally means big father.

You might know him as Ibrahim or Abraham or Avraham or Abe.

He is the first human in our Hebrew story, which becomes a much bigger story, to go on the journey of self-discovery.

This is the beginning of patriarchy, but it's important to know that actually there is a pre-patriarchal aspect to the story.

Ever heard of Abraham's mother? She's not in the Bible or the Quran, but we will find out more about her later.

So Abraham, 10 generations after Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis, after Noah and the flood, this guy shows up.

We don't know much about him, except that at one point, there is a call inside his head, an invitation he cannot refuse, perhaps an inner command to willingly leave behind all that was familiar and let go and go on the journey to an unknown land that will become his homeland, the home and land for many of us today.

Like all journeys, this one began with a whisper.

Hey, take a walk on the wild side.

Let's go.

Whether you are Jewish, Jewish, Jew-jacent, Hebraic, monotheistic, Semitic, Christian, Muslim, other, all of the above, We are, in many ways, the children of Abraham, the big father.

His imprint on our lineage of culture and the patriarchal vocabulary is huge.

And his is a complicated legacy we will explore and wrestle with.

Because part of this patriarchal legacy we received is an either-or paradigm.

Which of his sons gets to be the heir? Older or younger, me or you? whatever happened to both and.

And as we today, Abraham's children, are at war, it matters and it calls on us to ask these questions.

How do we get to the healing? By getting to the root of the story, that very first moment of Abraham's go.

What is the story we've been telling so long and who is our father? His mythic journey is our own, and it is our first step, critical, to make sense of our personal stories, our collective ones, hero and sheroes on our path to liberation.

One step at a time.

That's how all journeys go.

So let's begin.

Genesis, chapter 12, is the verse that we will go to.

But before that, why don't you join me for just a breath? And maybe you would like to close your eyes for just a couple seconds and to pause and ask yourself, Was there a moment in my life when an inner call or a conviction got me to question what I was doing and where to maybe pick up and leave a place or change a state of mind? Was there a pivotal shift in my life that got me to transition and begin a journey that has brought me here and now? You might know the answer to this question already, or perhaps some moments are coming for you now.

Maybe you want to jot it down or just note it.