Lech Lecha

The journey of actualization is to break free of limitations.

When you’re feeling distraught, what do you do to calm yourself? Do you try a new experience or do you revert to what is familiar to you?

No circumstance in life is so low and so depraved that no good can be gathered from it.

I just received our monthly credit card bill. On it was a month's worth of food shopping, as well as my utilities and phone bills. There were no luxuries; everything was a bare necessity. I gasped when I saw the total. How are we going to make it?

Abraham’s plan would effectively remove himself from Pharaoh’s hit list . . . and make Sarah available for Pharaoh’s hedonistic abuse! Talk about a lack of chivalry! Is this Abraham, the first Jewish husband and the ultimate mentch?

Each Jew must look at him- or herself and ask the question, “Who am I? What do I believe?” For we are not intended to be robots; we must do, but we also must know and understand . . .

What influence does your name have on you--on your personality, on your behavioral patterns and on your life choices? Or does it?

Even when we are experiencing our personal famines, our relationship with G‑d is still present and accessible.

Is money good or bad? Is it only a means to an end, or is there some intrinsic spirtiual component to money that makes it so powerful?

Have you ever experienced a level of altruistic giving? How about absolutely selfless taking?

Even in modern times, when we have reached unprecedented advances in the treatment of women, we need to rethink and challenge our value system.

Abraham’s greatness allowed him to recognize and submit to his wife’s power--and to realize that she had abilities that he did not.

Most of humanity would rather yield to the prevailing status quo and social pressure than deviate from its accustomed behaviors.

The idea of harmony is not to give up our identity for the sake of the collective. The ideal is that each of us should achieve maximal individuality, developing all our unique strengths and talents, while coming to appreciate and value each other for what we are.

This weekly study packet is part of theJewishwoman.org “Be a Leader” initiative. Print it out and learn it with your study group.