By Phillip Ratner. This is a series by Dr. Rabbi Moshe Dror. He is a futurist, lecturer and teacher. In this series he will explore the hidden meanings of the great stories of the Bible. In this time of profound changes Dr. Dror will help unpack some of the hidden gems waiting to shine light through the inspiration of the revealed text. We hope you will be inspired by this series and encourage your comments.
Hello
Greetings
Welcome
I would like to invite you to join me on a journey.
I have been on this journey for about forty years or so.
Half of the world’s population has been on this same journey for about 4,000 years.
And now most of the world is joining this analogous journey now and into the future.
What am I talking about?
I am referring to the Journey that Abraham began when God told him
“Lech Lecha” (Genesis 12:1).
This has been translated into many different English phrases:
Go Forth…
Walk yourself away…
Go unto yourself…
My journey is basically a Midrash- a commentary on this phrase for the Cyber world that we all are living in. My journey is a Cyber Midrash on this theme.
This midrash is a set of personal meditations, ruminations, musings , and probes to seek out and to inquire what this might mean for us now in 2009 living in our the post Digital world.
I personally like the comment from a Chasidic source that suggests that this means: “Go Unto yourself-that is go to yourself; go find your own potential; become your authentic self.”
What does “authentic” mean? It suggests an ongoing appreciation of tradition. It also has a root meaning that is similar to “author”. To live authentically is to be the author of your own life- to have full power over your life.
This quest is not just limited to the Bible.
One of the most famous aphorisms comes from ancient Greece. The phrase “Know Thyself” was inscribed in large golden letters on the lintel of the entrance to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, Greece.
So, this project is a response the question of what might it mean to be an authentic human for the 21st century.
Now, what does this have to do with Abraham?
Abraham was the first Hebrew. There were neither Jews nor Israelites at that time. Now about half of the world’s population is part of the faith communities of Judaism, Christianity and Islam—Abrahamitic religions.
What does the word “Hebrew” mean?
It is derived from the term meaning-“crossing over”.
In the days of Abraham, the crossing over was of a river or a desert.
So basically Abraham was a “boundary crosser”.
The personal significance of Abraham was to cross over conceptual boundaries
And develop a new world view.
Every living thing has some sort of boundary. What lets it be alive is that the boundary is a semi-permeable membrane that lets certain information, chemicals to selectively enter the cell. It lets some information to enter and other information to leave.
What Abraham seems to have done is to let some of the culture of his period to enter his living organism and to block and keep others out and develop radical new ideas.
To be continued…
