The biblical account of Abraham begins when he is 75 years old. In the opening line of Parashat Lech Lecha, God calls to Abraham and commands: “Go forth (lech lecha) from your land, from your birthplace and from your father’s house.” (Genesis 12:1) The Bible does not explain why Abraham, already advanced in years, was chosen for this singular mission. Moreover, nearly everything that happened to Abraham prior to this pivotal moment remains shrouded in mystery.
Many interpretations have sought to fill this gap. The Zohar (I:77b–78a) offers its own account:
At the moment they went forth, what is written? “… to go to the land of Canaan” (Genesis 11:31) — for their desire was to go there. From this, we learn that whoever arouses himself to purify himself is aided from above. Come and see: Since it is written, “… to go to the land of Canaan,” (Genesis 11:31) and immediately it is written, “God said to Abram: Go forth …” (Genesis 12:1) — but before he had aroused himself, it was not written, “Go forth.” (Adapted from the translation of Daniel C. Matt, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition.)
If you read the biblical account carefully, you will notice that Abraham leaves his homeland, Ur of the Chaldeans, and sets out for Canaan (Genesis 11:31) before being called to do the same by God at the opening of Parashat Lech Lecha (Genesis 12:1). For reasons not explained by the text, after leaving Ur on their own initiative, the family settled in Haran, never reaching their destination. The Zohar’s interpretation of Abraham’s story begins with this “double departure” — first from Ur, then from Haran. The first departure, the Zohar notices, was initiated by Abraham himself, and only after this did the heavenly call to proceed to the same destination follow. The Zohar interprets this as a double awakening, an arousal from below and an arousal from above. It is Abraham’s initiative, his “self-awakening,” that prompts God’s response. Abraham was chosen because he had already taken the first step.
Having solved the interpretive problem of the double departure, the Zohar could have concluded its commentary at this point. But this is just the beginning because now it dives deeper into the mystical reading, which, for the Zohar, is its true essence.
The mystery of the words lech lecha — Go forth! — is this: The blessed Holy One gave Abraham a spirit of wisdom, and he knew and examined the mysteries of the settlements of the world. He looked into them, weighed them in the balance, and recognized the forces governing the settlements. When he reached the central point of the inhabited world, he weighed it in the balance, but it did not succeed in his hand. He gazed to know the power appointed over it but could not cleave to it in his desire.
He weighed many times and saw that from there the whole world was planted. He looked, examined, and weighed to know — and he saw that the supernal force standing over that place is profound, hidden, and unlike the other grades of the settlements… He looked, examined, and refined further, to stand upon the clarification of that matter, but he did not know and could not cleave to it. When he saw the power of that place and could not stand upon it, “they came to Haran and settled there.” … When the blessed Holy One saw his arousal and desire, He revealed Himself to him and said: “Go forth… to know yourself and to correct yourself.”
Come and see: Since they had gone out from Ur of the Chaldeans and were in Haran, why did He say to him, “Go forth from your land and from your birthplace”? Rather, the essence of the matter is as has been said: “To the land that I will show you” — meaning, I will show you that which you were unable to perceive, that which you could not comprehend — the power of that land, which is deep and hidden.
According to ancient Jewish thought, each inhabited region on earth was governed by subordinate powers within a divine hierarchy — whether a star, an angel, or a celestial prince — while only the land of Israel was under the direct rule of God. In journeying toward Canaan, therefore, Abraham embarks on a mystical journey toward not just a place, but the one true God. The journey to the land of Canaan represents no less than the journey toward divine encounter — the longing to attain and cleave to God.
Crucially, Abraham’s initial movement toward God is the fruit of his own initiative: Endowed with a spirit of wisdom by God, Abraham “weighed in the balance,” “examined and refined and weighed to know” — verbs expressing his mystical effort to investigate the powers governing the various regions of habitation. In all this weighing, the one force that remained hidden and unknowable to him was that of the land of Israel, the “central point of the inhabited world” — that is, God. Haran, where the family settled on its way to Canaan, represents the limit of human capacity. God, realizing Abraham’s yearning to reach the divine summit, to fully encounter God, responds by guiding him to the land of Canaan, yes, and also divine encounter.
In the Zohar’s understanding, then, the story of Abraham is the story of the mystic striving toward divine encounter. God is revealed to someone who has, on their own, pursued experience of the divine. But there is a limit to what human effort can achieve. Whoever reaches that boundary cannot presume to succeed; they can only hope that God will reach out across the divide. As we learn from Abraham’s epic quest, the encounter between human and divine is always a tango for two.
This piece was originally published as part of an original series produced by My Jewish Learning and Sefaria called A Year of Zohar: Kabbalah for Everyone. Sign up for the entire series here.
