"I Walk Childless" - Lech Lecha

Parashat Lech Lecha 5782

So often we frame conversations about infertility around women, but Parashat Lech Lecha depicts Avram as someone who also wrestles with infertility.

Right before this passage, we read about how Avram rescued his nephew Lot from enemy kings then refused to accept any reward from the king of Sodom. Avram’s motivation lies not in tangible rewards, but rather in potential paternity. In response to the Divine’s assurance to Avram that “שְׂכָרְךָ֖ הַרְבֵּ֥ה מְאֹֽד - Your reward will be very great” (Genesis 15:1), Avram laments his barrenness. He and Sarai are elderly and have no children. Yet the Divine encourages Avram to look toward the heavens and try to count the stars:

This is not the first time the Divine has spoken to Avram of his future descendants. Previously in this parashah, the Divine told Avram to raise his eyes and see the land that “לְךָ֣ אֶתְּנֶ֑נָּה וּֽלְזַרְעֲךָ֖ - to you and to your seed I will give” (Genesis 13:15). Again, the word for offspring is זרע, or “seed.” Typically, when we think of seeds, we think of planting them in land — but what might it mean for land to be given to seeds?

Although Avram asserts that he walks childless, the Divine has already told him:

My translation above attempts to encapsulate the reflexive phrasing of “לֶךְ־לְךָ֛.” The Divine calls upon Avram to walk both internally and externally, as Avram’s seeds are not able to grow in his internal and external homeland. Avram is tasked with walking simultaneously toward his essence and toward a land that Divinity will show him. Perhaps, after the Divine reassures Avram about his seed in Genesis 15:2, Avram finally believes that he does not walk childless; on the contrary, he carries innumerable seeds. However, it is only in a new land, the land of Avram’s essence, that these seeds will encounter the soil they need in order to grow.