dedicated to the ilui neshama of my grandmother, Sarah Rivka bas Rachel, who loved Eretz Yisrael
What great first words that have come to define an entire people -
Lech L'cha - Go! - a people constantly moving toward the realization of a dream...
We can imagine our ancestors - Abraham and Sarah, etc. as the axis of a wheel. Just as we believe in the concentric spheres of space/time, with the Holy of Holies somehow containing all of the space of the world, and Yom Kippur all of the days of the year, likewise we can see our ancestors as moving in this archtypal dance which opens for us Life and movement. As we say, the actions of the fathers are a sign for the children.
Moving within Abraham, and Sarah is the root of all of us - all of us are the individual chromosomes of the individual cells composing the body of a man and a woman who are governed by a passion that is far beyond one that we can imagine. They are stirred by a closeness to G-d, an awareness of Presence, of which we only dream. But, after all, we are called B'nei Elim - children of the mighty ones, which are, as Rashi indicates, our forebears. It is within us, at the center of us, it is the axis which turns us. In this parasha we are watching the very roots of us move through the special land of Israel, to and fro, davening here and there, or just walking about.
The reason I mention this is that I need to KNOW without doubt that I am a giving person. Because when I look at myself from afar, it is not so clear. So much of our giving is mitigated by considerations. As Rav Daniel said, we are always wondering "will this act set a precedent that I am willing to give this much all the time", or we wonder "does the person deserve it", or "should I save my resources for the best time to give", and so many more. But it is so important for us to touch, first, the place where we can give without limit.
We must touch our root in Avraham, that capacity within us to simply give, without limit, without worry. And then, when we are sure of it, we can start to consider how exactly it should be distributed. But if we start to consider too quickly, we end up doing what is called "receiving with the left" = we receive in a limited way, a limited amount of material. And then, even if we decide to give all of it, there is not so much to give. But if we set out to be open to receiving so much, because we are willing to give so much, then at least we'll have what to work with.
Reb Natan of Breslov writes about "lech lecha" meaning "go toward your source". For Avraham, that means going into Eretz Ysirael. This is amazing, because he was not born there, and yet his source is there. We get the feeling that when he gets there, he doesn't really need to do anything - just walk around, here and there. He is walking around in the physical representation of his deepest soul. He is walking around in his own soul.
Every tree, every rock, every wadi, glows with the glow of resonance and harmony. And yet we know that he is not just going toward something. He is also going away from something - from his land, from his birthplace, from the house of his father.
We are all doing this all the time - we are all walking away and walking toward. Not that we are walking away from our families, or from our origin. But we are walking from the past toward the future - and it is so tricky. Because if we only move forward without bringing up the past, without taking care of what needs to be taken care of, without dealing with what motivated us before the call came to go toward, then Amalek comes in -he hits the stragglers, whatever is being dragged behind. So we have to move like a caterpillar - first the front, then the back. First a vision, then bringing our lives in line with that vision.
The Netziv finds this so nicely in Avraham. When Avraham gets the call, he is ready to run toward Israel. So it says first in Bereshit 12:4 "And Avram went when Hashem spoke to him, and Lot went with him..." Where's Sarah? The Netziv writes that Avraham went immediately when Hashem spoke to him, and left Sarah behind to deal with their stuff, and she'd meet up with him later. But then in verse 12:5 "And Avram took with him Sarai his wife, and Lot, and all their stuff..." The Netziv writes that Avraham realized that it was not going to hold him back, to take the time to deal with his stuff. The opposite is true - it is a very important matter, to the extent that Moshe said it is proper to do things which are bizarre or impolite in order to guard one's posessions. Avraham goes through this transformation when he realizes that though this stuff is with him, and it will slow him down, yet it is necessary, it is his, and it can travel with him into new dimensions.
So too regarding all the memories, the birthplace, his father's house -these constitute an important part of the substance of the man who will now move into unprecedented dimensions of closeness to G-d. The body, the material, the color and images of the relationship will be in terms of, or in reference to, the flesh of his former life, before he discovered G-d, before he was told to move, before the furnace and the idols, before the burning city.
Avraham sees a burning city, and wonders "what's going on?", and G-d pops out and says "Here I am! I am the Master of this city!" We, you and I, us, we are looking at this burning city, our own city, where we have lived, the one we have burned down in our scathing search for the good, the Right, the path, and Avraham pops out in the middle and says "Here I am! You are all my children. Your path is the one that I have walked before you." At the root of us is Avraham, the walker, the mover, the dancer. Our movements are only ripples of his movements. Our Lech L'Cha is toward our roots, toward Avraham, and through him, to Hashem. Amidst the rubble, a path to him, and with him, within him, a path to G-d.
Good Shabbes!
Rav Gavriel Goldfeder
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Rav Gavriel Goldfeder is one of the first semicha recipients of the yeshiva. A graduate of Drew University in Religious Studies, he came to Bat Ayin after stints in other yeshivot and found a spiritual and intellectual home. Here he met his wife, Ketriellah, who was a student in our short-lived Women's Yeshiva. Upon graduation, Gavriel took the position of rabbi of the Aish Kodesh Congregation in Boulder, Colorado and together with Ketriellah and their growing family, they are busy creating (in Gavriel's words), "a community infused with Torah values, passion for learning and prayer, consideration of one another, and action, as well as deep celebration of the joys of life." |