By Marc Meltzer

This week’s Parsha is Lech Licha. The Parsha begins G-d telling Abram that he must leave everything he has and depart to Canaan. This decision to leave his fathers house for Canaan is questioned, because Abram was leaving a very fertile area to an area of infertility. In addition, Abram leaving began a new Jewish aspect, which was the essence of acting differently from society. Throughout history, this had a huge impact during Jewish History.

Abram spent a brief amount of time in Canaan, as a famine forced him to leave the land and travel to Egypt. While his time in Egypt, Pharaoh took his wife Sarai, because of her beauty. However with the help of G-d, she was saved as G-d plagued Pharaohs’ palace, and Sarai was returned back to Abram. After this scene, both returned to Canaan.

After Abrams victorious battle against the 4 kings of Sodom, G-d rewarded him with righteousness. However, Abram was not satisfied with this, because he is at age 99, and still has no child. He questions G-d why he would promise him this holy land if he’ll have no child to inherit it after his death. G-d responded to Abram saying: “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars, if thou be able to count them” (Bereshit 15:5). G-d is telling Abram that he will have countless amount of children, because his children will be Jewish Nation.

The conclusion of the Parasha is extremely significant, as it is a tradition still practiced in today’s Jewish world. His practice is referred to as Brit Milah or in English, circumcision. This was a covenant between Abram and G-d, and now looked upon today as a symbol between every male Jew and G-d. In fact, this was an example of us being different from society, as no one would be circumcised back then.

(*interesting fact to end the Parsha is that G-d changed the names of Abram and Sarai to Abraham and Sarah. )

In my opinion, this Parsha is extremely significant to Jewish life. The fact that we were granted the holiest land on the Earth 3000 years ago, and went through numerous horrific events to keep it as our land is incredible. The Jewish could never be taken down. From the Babylonian exile to today, we have stayed strong enough to be rewarded a Jewish state. I have been to Israel several times in my life, and believe that every Jew should at least take one trip to Israel during their life. In fact, this is one of the reasons why I love the idea of MBI, because it gave many teens my age the chance to experience Israel, as most of them may not return to Israel for the rest of their life. This summer I experienced MBI with my national Kvutzah, and had an amazing experience. One of the amazing things MBI does for a person is give them passion towards Israel. I believe that during my MBI experience, everyone grew at least a bit of passion towards Israel. I strongly suggest for everyone to go on MBI as it was a program I don’t think I’ll ever forget.