Lech Lecha!

Sefaria has existed for 10 years. And they celebrate that, among other things, by giving us the opportunity to get our own Hebrew letter in the digital Torah.

Mazel Tov Sefaria!

To me, this means so much.

It has been a long journey that I have been able to undertake over the past 20 years.

So touching, that 20 in the Torah means perfect waiting time.

Anyway, for the new readers among us, I have found out that I am Jewish, because of the journey I have been able to make, which G-d himself started with the words that I will never forget:

"You will find a Jewish cemetery, and then you're going to meet someone who deals with Jewish graveyards. Then you're going to discover what the great 'I Am' has planned for you."

It really happened like that. Or should I say started?

Because indeed on a beautiful summer day, on our way to a nice walk in the woods, we suddenly found ourselves at a dead end.

Yochanan got out of the car and walked over to the thick impenetrable hedge that had inexorably forced us to stop.

While I was left grumbling slightly, because I wanted to walk so badly, I suddenly saw Yochanan wildly waving his arms and shouting something. As I opened the door, I heard him say: “Come here, you have to see this.”

As I walked towards him, I saw that he had slightly opened the hedge with his fingers.

And when I looked through it, to my surprise and bewilderment I saw a Jewish cemetery. Weeks later, we traveled to a meeting, where one of our favorite speakers took care as always, of having a sold-out, building. And there we met “the man who deals with Jewish graveyards”.

And looking at me, in a penetrating way, he spoke emphatically:

“I feel I must invite you to come and see our Synagogue.”

That also happened. And I remember what I experienced when I stepped in there.

An overwhelming feeling of coming home. So deep, almost heavy, that I felt like I was going to pass out.

Years later I would have this same feeling again, at Ben Gurion airport in Israel.

It goes too far to tell everything, anyway, to try to do this within the length of an average column.

But I can say with my hand on my heart, it has been a journey full of surprises, bewilderments, and happiness. Because if our G-d tells you something, then you can be sure that it will take place.

Thank you for being part of the Global Community Torah Project! Your letter comes from Parashat Bereshit, meaning “in the beginning.” It is the very first parashah (weekly portion) in the Torah and describes the beginning of the world.

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But it also has consequences. For HaShem has made it clear to me that now is the time for new beginnings.

That 1 year after receiving my Hebrew name, I am standing in front of a door that HE will open.

And that I have to leave all the old behind me, in the form of social media, and so on.

Maybe to be able to start again later, maybe to follow a completely different path. I don't know yet.

What I do know my Bubbe would sigh, "NU?" If she should read this story. And what I never realized, until this journey started, this word comes from Yiddish, and she used more words from that same language.

For this is also the goodness of HaShem. The whole journey of discovering my roots is filled with surprises and with people He placed into this road I had to walk.

Together they form a necklace that now has a medal pendant.

Being part of the Sefaria community and seeing that beautiful new name appears in the digital Torah, when I place my mouse on "my" letter.

The displaced feeling that I had for a lifetime, of not belonging, being rejected, hated, not allowed to play with the others, because they found me strange, and so on, is over. The plaster on the wound that I will go home together with Yochanan at HaShem's perfect time. To Israel my homeland.

I close with these words, because they so aptly describe the end of this column, while also pointing to the future.

For those who don't get the pun: "nu" is a Yiddish word equivalent to English words like "so?" or "well?" and can be used all by itself to mean "What's new?" What's new as in - “What will start now, what will come next, and as a reference “-

There is nothing new under the sun, If G-d is the main character in your life, you will experience things, such as the miracles, our ancestors in the Torah, also have experienced.

Lech-Lecha, Lekh-Lekha, or Lech-L'cha (לֶךְ-לְךָ ‎ leḵ-ləḵā—Hebrew for "go!" or "leave!", literally "go for you"—the fifth and sixth words in the parashah) is the third weekly Torah portion ( פָּרָשָׁה ‎, parashah ) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading.

Bereshis 12

[1]

Now Hashem had said unto Avram, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from the bais avicha, unto ha’aretz that I will show thee."

Towards The New, leaning on The Beloved! G-d Of Avraham Yitzchak and Yaakov!

GUT SHABBES BELOVEDS, ♦🐝D'Vorah Pnina🐝♦ (דבורה) Meijer