NY-Prague/Budapest-DC

One of the most meaningful Shabbat Morning Services for me at Central. It was Torah Portion "lech lecha", so significant to me and emotional. We received an Aliyah and beautiful prayer for families.

Abraham: Lech L’cha! - “Go forth!  “You should go” “Go for You,” “Go to You,” “Go within and find Yourself” … take on this impossible internal/external mission and I will make for you a great nation and you shall be a blessing as will all subsequent generations. “I will bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand that is on the seashore”.
Abraham was over 85 and was still without a son but had faith and courage … bringing him Ishmael and Isaac.



Lech l'cha, epitomized by Debbie Friedman’s Song, has been my deepest, maybe most meaningful prayer/song, since 1993….  and this is where it began...



I attended the October 1993 Reform Biennial in San Francisco. It was a breakthrough conference in many ways. It focused on Jewish Diversity with Rabbi Schindler urging Jews to actively pursue converts, there was a big push for LGBTQ+ equality, and there was the release of a gender-neutral prayer book.



ALSO, Debbie Friedman was introduced and, in person I watched her sing Mi Shebeirach (written in ’89) & Lechi Lach (written in ’88) for the FIRST TIME in a public setting. This song became very meaningful to many people and started a tradition of being sung at B’nai Mitzvot across the Country. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR7NCBTyXu4

Since that time, it has been my long-time favorite parsha. Like Abraham, I too had dreamed of having a son and for 10+ years struggled and tried many traditional methods and related to this Bible story of infertility and it’s struggles. Every Shabbat in Synagogue for many years I would watch children, relatives and friends, become a Bar/Bat Mitzvah and I would hear the cantor sing Debbie’s Lech L’cha. It always brought tears to my eyes (still does) and a sense that I had to work harder toward the goal and pray more intensely. Using science (and a lot of money) to “help” the natural methods did not work, and we eventually left behind the “familiar routes to parenthood” and moved on and found a new mostly uncharted path, bringing me a son in 1999 (feel free to ask me for more information). Fast forward and we now have a wonderful 26-year-old son. May our people continue to grow and thrive like the stars of the heavens and as the sand that is on the seashore.Okumaya devam et