Genesis 12:1

וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהֹוָה֙ אֶל־אַבְרָ֔ם לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ וּמִבֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יךָ אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךָּ׃

The Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”

If I can speak honestly: in this moment I am having difficulty thinking of anything but the war in Israel. On top of the pain of grieving the loss of life from a brutal act of terror, and the pain of not knowing the fate of hostages taken to Gaza; there are the headlines and social media posts. This is the turning of the knife. This one says that the responsibility for every life lost lies entirely with Israel, this one refuses to call a terrorist a terrorist, this one is blatantly antisemitic, and on and on.

“Lech Lecha,” God says to Abraham. Translated roughly as, “Go to yourself.” Abraham lived in a idolatrous society. Knowing there was nothing he could do to change their ways, he turned and forged ahead on his own path. We learn in a midrash that Abraham tried through logic to change the minds of those in his native land from following idolatry, but they could not be convinced. So, he forged ahead on his own path of truth, not trying to convince the inconvincible that they were mistaken, but living out the values and ideas that could not be heard in his native land.

For those, like me, who are weary from trying to combat misinformation and misunderstanding perhaps this is the advice we need this week. Don’t get me wrong – we must combat misperceptions about this war.  We can’t stand idly by and let misinformation spread. However, there are going to be times when truth cannot be heard, and people who refuse to hear it. When that happens, lech lecha. Go forth on your path. Instead of trying to change those who refuse to listen, put your energy toward living out the values and ideas we know to be true. After all, if Abraham spent all his energy trying to combat idolatry in his native town of Ur and never left, his story would have never been told.