This week the section called Lech Lecha ( literally: Go to/for yourself) is read in Jewish Synagogues. For those of you who might not be familiar with the Old Testament, It’s the third section from the start and deals with the Lord telling Abraham to leave his former home and go to Canaan. Canaan, of course, is where modern day Israel is found. I was born in Florida in the USA. Today I live in Israel. I made the move because I felt it was something I needed to do.
I never heard voices telling me to go. My parents, indeed, my entire family, were never Zionists that extolled going to Israel. My father’s family had been in a Reform Jewish congregation since 1840. My mother’s parents fled Russia after the Kishinev Pogrom that took place near where they lived. They came to America and lived on a farm in South Dakota. It was a quiet, inner, voice that told me that being Jewish, Israel (the land) was where I should be living. When I went to University I got involved in a Zionist group. At the time, it was mostly about support for a homeland for persecuted Jews. Since I lived in America, that did not seem to include me.
Wetherhorn 