The Lech Lecha Torah portion opens with a startling command:

Go forth from your land, your birthplace, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.

God tells Abram, at seventy-five years old, to get up, leave his home and family, and go to a new land. In this clip, Rabbi Akiva Gersh turned that ancient injunction into a modern moral challenge: to leave the comforts that have formed us so we can become who we are meant to be. For Rabbi Akiva that journey was literal and culinary. He explains how, at eighteen, he learned about the hidden suffering behind the foods he had always eaten and made a conscious break — leaving familiar tastes and habits in order to live in harmony with his deepest values.
 

The Spiritual Meaning of “Lech Lecha” — Go to Yourself

In Hebrew, “Lech Lecha” can also mean “Go to yourself.” Rabbi Akiva draws out this nuance to show that leaving the familiar is not rejection but return — a journey inward toward authenticity.
 
That is the core of Rabbi Akiva’s message, and it is simple and radical at once. Judaism asks more than “What may I do?” It asks, “Who do I want to be?” When God says to Abraham, “Go,” the text can be read as an invitation to become — to shake off inherited patterns and to let new convictions shape action. Rabbi Akiva reframes dietary change not as deprivation but as a moral pilgrimage: uncomfortable at first, yes, but essential if our food choices are to reflect the compassion, stewardship, and holiness our tradition teaches.
 
The connection between Torah and table runs deep. The Torah’s earliest dietary vision points to a vegan diet; rabbinic ethics insist on preventing unnecessary suffering and caring for creation. By eating plant-based, we practice tza’ar ba’alei chayim (preventing animal suffering), bal tashchit (avoiding waste), and shmirat ha’adamah (care for the Earth). Each meal becomes an act of avodah — sacred service — aligned with the values of mercy and stewardship that define our tradition.
 

The Moral Pilgrimage of Eating Differently

Rabbi Akiva reminds us that these are not abstract doctrines but invitations to practice: to allow our values to steer the ordinary act of eating. If we pray for a world of mercy, if we bless God for life, then the choices we make at the plate matter. Leaving the familiar — the families of dishes we were raised on, the cultural comforts we reflexively reach for — is a spiritual exercise as much as a dietary one.
 
Practically speaking, leaving does not require heroic perfection overnight. Rabbi Akiva’s own path began with awareness and gradual change. That’s a model JVL encourages: begin with curiosity, make one compassionate swap, let ritual and reflection reinforce the shift. The goal is alignment — small, steady acts that over time transform habit into identity. In other words: become the person who lives by the values you say you hold, and let your meals be one of the easiest, most regular ways to practice that fidelity.
 

Jewish Vegan Life: Building a Compassionate Community

There is also a communal dimension to this journey. Rabbi Akiva’s words likewise invite us to a movement. Changing what we eat is easier when it is shared. Jewish Vegan Life builds that shared space: gatherings, recipes, holiday programming, and local hubs where people who want to live Jewishly and compassionately can learn, cook, and celebrate together. The sukkah, the Shabbat table, the community potluck can all become workshops for transformation — places where the new habits taste good, gather joy, and become the familiar for the next generation.
 
If Rabbi Akiva’s charge resonates, here are three small steps you can take this week: 1) Notice one meal that you routinely eat on autopilot and choose a plant-based version of it; 2) Bless that meal slowly and ask, “Does this bring me closer to my values?”; 3) Bring one plant-based dish to a communal meal and share why you made it. These tiny acts are the everyday work of becoming.
 
Rabbi Akiva closes his reflection with a phrase worth returning to: “Go to yourself.” That journey is not a solitary escape from the world but a return to a truer, kinder way of living inside it. Jewish Vegan Life invites you to make that journey with us — to leave what no longer serves you, to learn the taste of newness, and to let your practice reflect the values you pray for.