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Parshat Lech-Lecha: We Must Make the Best of a Sometimes Dark World
A Torah scroll. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
After the Torah chapters that describe stages of early humanity, we come to Abraham (Avram) and the beginning of the monotheism we recognize. God tells Avram to leave Mesopotamia, his land and his birthplace to go somewhere where he will become a great nation and will be blessed. And through him, humanity will be blessed.
But no sooner does he arrive in the Land of Canaan, that things go wrong. The land he was told would be fertile is stricken with a famine. He has to leave and go down to Egypt together with his nephew, Lot. There his wife Sarai is taken into Pharaoh’s palace on the assumption that she is Avram’s sister, not his wife. Initially, this works to Avram’s advantage. But when he discovers the truth, Pharaoh is furious and they are driven out of Egypt. In one way, Avram benefits because under Pharaoh, he succeeds in amassing wealth, livestock, and slaves.
Avram arrives back in the land of Canaan. But tension between him and his nephew lead them to separate. Lot’s choice of the Jordan Valley gets him involved with the corrupt men of Sodom and Gomorrah. A war between rival kings drags Avram into it, to save his nephew. Then Avram faces a personal complication because Sarai, his wife, can’t conceive. She offers her maid servant Hagar as a surrogate but then there are tensions between them. God intervenes to reassure Avram that despite all his difficulties, he will succeed and overcome them.
Through all these difficulties, Avram remains strongly convinced that he’s being guided by a superior power in which he has enormous faith. But faith is something abstract and can be just a theological concept. It is how one lives that matters.
As it says this week, “He ‘believed’ in God, who valued his righteousness” (Bereishit Chapter 15 verse 6). The text is obscure. Normally translated as “He believed in God” — it can rather be understood to mean, “He trusted in God.” But then the text adds, “and God valued (or appreciated) it.” Because the word Tsedakah implied an ethical commitment to correct behavior.
The Torah is telling us that when things go wrong, the best way to cope is to think and act positively and hope for better things. This does not mean we should respond passively and wait — although sometimes we may have no option. Perhaps we may need to change something in ourselves or our decisions. Some people when faced with a challenge give up. Others persevere.
The Torah text keeps on stressing the failures of human relationship and the challenges of alien societies. It may sound as if God values suffering, and we should welcome pain, but this is not a traditional Jewish thought. It goes against our tradition. We are certainly not masochists. But the models the Bible gives us are of people triumphing over adversity.
The reality of life is that nothing is perfect, and we all have to go through difficult periods as well as good ones. Nowhere is this more obvious than the world in which we are in today. We assumed we were blessed, and God was on our side, and everything would go well and smoothly — only to discover that in terms of society, we find ourselves challenged and subjected to abuse. It is almost as if this is the nature of being Jewish, and something we have to embrace instead of trying to escape .
Life is not easy. Many years after the Torah was written, the schools of Hillel and Shammai debated whether it was better to be born or not. After years of arguing, they concluded democratically it would indeed have been better not to have been born, given that life is so tough. But they agreed that since we are here in this imperfect world, the best thing is to get on and make the best of it. That was the message then, and so it applies today. That’s what being Jewish means. It is sometimes painful, and yet think of the wonderful gifts it bestows.
The author is a writer and rabbi, currently based in New York.
The post Parshat Lech-Lecha: We Must Make the Best of a Sometimes Dark World first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.