Jewish Geometry: The Neuroscience of Faith and Presence

When life feels uncertain or overwhelming, we usually look around — side to side — out there – trying to figure out what's going on and who’s to blame, and why are they doing it to me!

But Lech Lecha invites us to look in a completely different direction — actually, two directions: inward and upward.

Hi everyone, I’m Chaya Parkoff, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, trauma therapist, coach for the soul, speaker, and educator of Ancient Jewish Wisdom — and this is ParshaRx: Mental Health Prescriptions from the Weekly Torah Portion.

This week, in Parshat Lech Lecha, we meet Avraham for the first time — not as a legend, but as a person standing at the edge of the unknown. Hashem says, “Lech lecha me’artzecha — go for yourself, from your land…” And with those words, Jewish history begins — and so does a model for how to live with courage and faith in times of uncertainty.

The first command is “Lech lecha” — go to yourself. That’s the inward journey — the invitation to look within. To find his center — to connect with his essence — the part of him that could hear and follow God’s call.

Then later, Hashem says, “Habet na ha’shamaymah” — look up toward the heavens. Go inward. Then look upward. That’s the divine sequence — presence before transcendence.

Judaism teaches that while things look like they are coming at us horizontally, everything is always coming vertically from Above. My friend and colleague Rochel Goldbaum calls this Jewish Geometry.

Avraham shows us that in daily life we need to move in both directions — we look up to remember that everything comes from Hashem, and we look within to feel it in our body, to integrate that truth, and to live from it.

“Looking in” means turning toward our parts with compassion — the anxious part, the frustrated part, the overwhelmed part — and reminding them they are not alone and they are ok. It’s the act of grounding, breathing, and reconnecting with Self — the Soul — the calm, curious center within us that can hold it all. When we’re grounded, we can truly receive the awareness that everything is from Hashem.

When those two directions meet — presence within and heaven above — that’s Jewish Geometry: the nervous system of emunah; faith embodied.

And sometimes, even when we look in and look up, life still feels so challenging. The Ramban teaches that the famine Avraham faced later in the parsha was a nisayon — one of his ten nisyonot — not a punishment, but training in trust. The Hebrew word nisayon comes from the root נ־ס־ה (n-s-h), which also means to lift up. A nisayon isn’t meant to push us down — it’s meant to raise us up.

And that’s the deeper pattern: a nisayon invites us to draw inward and upward, and from there, we are lifted up. As the Maharal explains, tests don’t show God who we are; they show us who we can become. Each challenge draws out hidden strength — resistance training for the soul — lifting our potential from possibility to reality.

And as usual, neuroscience confirms our Torah Truths: when we ground in the present and lift our awareness upward, the brain’s fear circuits quiet, the vagus nerve steadies, and we feel safe enough to trust. That’s the meeting place of heaven and earth right inside the human being.

So what is our ParshaRx for this week? When life feels uncertain, stop looking horizontally for control. Look in — notice your parts, breathe, and come back to the grounded Self. Your soul. Then look up — reconnect to the Source of your challenges and the Source of your strength. And trust that through it all, Hashem is using every nisayon to gently lift you higher. That’s Lech Lecha. That’s Jewish Geometry — faith embodied, presence activated, the soul lifted.

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