Minor Arcana Midrash: The Eight of Cups and Genesis 12:1, Lech Lecha

This week’s Torah reading starts at Genesis 12:1, and is known as Lech Lecha, from the Hebrew phrase:

וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהֹוָה֙ אֶל־אַבְרָ֔ם לֶךְ־לְךָ֛

Vayomer YHVH el Avram lech lecha

It’s most often translated as “And the LORD said to Avram, “Go from your country…” Avram (who will be renamed Abraham later on) hears the call, and answers, leaving Harran where he had been living.

Now the Eight of Cups is often interpreted as someone who is leaving something behind symbolized by the eight cups, in search of something else. Usually it’s interpreted as going off on a spiritual search, to seek the truth within, after becoming dissatisfied with the success represented by the cups. And as an “eight” card, it carries with it the meanings connected with the Sephirot of Hod: Surrender and Humility to start.

How does this card connect with this moment in Genesis? At first glance, while Avram is leaving what he knows behind, YHVH tells him it is in search of a land he will be shown, where he will become “a great nation” that is blessed. So Humility doesn’t seem to be in the picture. And becoming a “great nation” hardly seems to include Surrender. But the Chassidic masters don’t translate the words, lech lecha, as “go forth.” Because the words literally mean “go to you.” So they see this as a command to begin an inner journey where Avram must leave behind all he knows in order to find his life’s mission and his soul’s essence.

This means leaving “your country, your people and your father’s household.” So we start to see more of a connection with what’s happening in the Eight of Cups. And those cups could very well symbolize country, people and household. Except of course, that’s the surface meaning of the word in Genesis, and the Chassidic masters never stop on the surface.

The Lubavitch tradition interprets these words as:

Go to yourself: return to your inner core, by going—
From your land: that is, by transcending your earthly desires,
From your birthplace: by overcoming your natural habits and inclinations, and
From your father's house: by transcending the intellectual limitations of your animating soul (since the intellect "fathers" ideas and, eventually, emotions as well).1

Rabbi Lev Yitschak of Berditchev, gives this command to simultaneously go forth and go within a further Kabbalistic interpretation, saying that YHVH sent Avram to find his true spiritual roots and fulfill his destiny of restoring the fallen sparks he finds along the way. (See Kedushat Levi, Genesis Lech Lecha 4)

In this way we can look again at the eight cups in the card. As they are arrayed, it looks as though one cup is missing. This suggests that the journey the figure is undertaking will be to find what is missing and restore it to its proper place. And this figure begins this journey by the light of the moon, descending into the unconscious even as the figure begins an ascent up a mountain. Going within and going forth. Surrendering attachment to the ego and one’s desires. Approaching the journey with humility.

Next time you have the Eight of Cups appear in a reading, consider the resonances of this Biblical story, and consider how it might shed light on the meaning of this card where it shows up in your spread. And please share your thoughts.

Note : Search the Chabad.org site for Chassidic Insights on Lech Lecha