Chevre, this week’s parsha is Lech Lecha (לך לך). The idea of leaving your home and going to your homeland makes this parsha very special to Olim. For me this week, this is a very poignant parsha. I was reflecting on my path of Teshuva. In Aug 2001, I was at the kotel for the very first time and put on tefillin after seeing them for the first time in my life. This week we were back at the Kotel, but this time as Israelis with a son who was there promising to defend the country.

The parsha has the war of the 5 kings after Lot was kidnapped. The story of Hagar and Ishmael and the promise to Sarah to have a child.

In the past, I’ve related this parsha to leaving on-prem and moving to the cloud. However, this time around, I want to focus on the covenant that is created. There is a covenant created after Abram’s name is changed to Abraham between Abraham and HaShem. This covenant is reiterated a few times in the book of Beresheit (Genesis). And when I think of the covenant it reminds me of the Shared Responsibility Model. There is a clear line as to what is the responsibility of the user and what is the responsibility of the cloud provider. And here, there is a clear agreement as to what HaShem will provide and what Abraham and the Jewish People will provide.

I bless you and please bless me back to always hold up your end of the bargain.

Shabbat Shalom