The Torah portion or Parasha for this week is Lech L’cha. This is one of the Tanach’s most momentous passages as it is in this piece of text that we read about God speaking to Abraham for the first time and telling him to pack up his things, camels and all, and head to the land of Canaan. There are many striking aspects of this week’s portion, but the most striking, perhaps, is the grammatical structure of the phrase from which the parasha takes its title. The manner in which the phrase Lech L’cha is constructed leaves some ambiguity as its actual meaning. It is the phrase by which God instructs Abraham to go to Canaan and has been translated as “go by yourself”, “go for yourself”, and “go to yourself” by different translators. It is the translation “go to yourself” that is perhaps the most powerful. The implication here is that Abraham must first “go to himself” which is to say know himself or establish who he his before he can undertake his important journey.

This particular interpretation holds a profound lesson for us the Moishe Kavod’s Resident Organizers and anyone reading this who is engaged in community organizing. We are reminded to ask ourselves, “when are we ready for action”, when we have been prepared through learning and self-knowledge. Lately we have been lucky to witness many people and groups in our organization learning who they are in preparation for action. The resident organizers are all new to the world of community organizing and always engaged in a process of mutual mentorship and team learning. The Farm to Shul Team is embarking on a project studying the house’s buying habits in preparation to take their sustainable institutional buying campaign out into the community. The Sex Education Team just this Sunday completed a new round of facilitation training where soon-to-be facilitators got to better know their own understanding Judaism and Sexuality through group dialogue in preparation to pilot our new young adult sex education curriculum later this month. Lastly, the house as a whole is gearing up to begin some substantial conversation around the meaning of the Occupy Movement and what new directions they may take us and the rest of the community.

As usual, Moishe Kavod House is offering a number of opportunities to get to know who you are, what you believe, and what you are capable of. Whether, you are learning ways to fight for better healthcare, discussing the ethical implications of sexuality in your life, or learning to process your personal experience through art, it is our hope that your path to personal empowerment can start here.