"You gotta go."
"Yeah. Seems like I do. But if we part, where will you go?"
"Don't worry, my sweetest brother, for I'll always be within reach."
It pained him in a deep way to say those words to his brother. The one who resembled him so closely -- how he looked, where he'd been, but in a sense he was already far away. The land was telling him it was time to go, but it broke his heart to realize this would be but one of the many seperations he would have to make in his long life.
* * * * *
Rashi tells us that Avraham and his nephew Lot (called a brother since Lot was the son of Avraham's brother) looked so alike physically, that should a passerby see Lot tending to his sheep that were eating from another's grass illegally, they might think it was Avram committing the crime. Rashi also tells us that the land in which Avram and Lot were pasturing their flocks after their return from Egypt couldn't support all of their grazing animals. This reality was the cause of much tension and fighting between the two groups of shepherds, so Avram told Lot that he should split off, go to the right or the left and Avram would go in the opposite direction.
So Lot, being quite the opportunist, chose the fertile Jordan Valley. Why not? After all, there was plenty of water and lush greenery for his flocks. We even learn that this valley was "like the Garden of Eden and like Egypt." What could be better, right? Well, the same verse that brings this description of the land also mentions that this was how the valley appeared "before G-d destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah." On this, the Malbim brings an interesting perspective that Lot was unable to have. The Garden of Eden, though perfect and lacking nothing in its heyday, soon lost its luster when Adam and Eve were forced out… the honeymoon ended. So too, Egypt. With the ever-fertile Nile River Valley, it seemed a perfect place to establish the Jewish people in the days of famine in our land, but it was this same land that became mitzrayim -- "narrow straits" threatening to destroy the Jewish people forever. So too, the valley that Lot chose would soon be transformed into a salty wasteland when Sodom and Gomorrah went up in flames and the Dead Sea would be the result -- a beautiful sea in which nothing can live.
When Lot went to this land in the west, we read that he came there mikedem -- "from the east." Onkelos reads this to mean, "From the one who is old -- from G-d." So does this mean that Lot had lost interest in his connection to G-d and was only out for himself, only looking for a beautiful paradise in which to lose himself? Probably not. More likely, Lot was a lot like us.
Lot knew that his uncle Avram was the holiest man alive. He knew that by clinging to him, he would amass wealth and live well. But eventually, the time came for Avram to lech lecha (i.e. travel out) again. To get to an even deeper level of self realization, he had to let Lot go. What made Avraham so sad at this split wasn't just that his "brother" was leaving, but that he could see or at least sense the destructive future that Lot was headed for. But Avram had to let him make his own choice. He saw him headed toward Sodom, a city situated in the Jordan Valley; he saw him headed toward sin, but what Avram also saw was something beautiful that would be born at the end of this dark path… Mashiach. That which would eventually do so much fixing in the world could only come out from its opposite, the warped existence of Lot and his progeny.
So how are we like Lot? Every day we make decisions based on what we see, what we feel, what we know right now. Far less often do we make decisions on what we sense will be in the future, on what we can't see, on what we might only vaguely feel. Yet we do have an innate sense of where the future lies, of where the emet (truth) is. Like Lot, we thrive from being in places of and with people of faith, of creativity, of love. But when the time comes for us to lech lecha, to go out for ourselves, for the purpose of getting to the real place of ourself, it's a serious challenge to be able to continue that sense of vision, connection and purpose that being with that person or place gives us.
* * * * *
"I won't be far."
"Yeah. I know you won't."
"Be strong. Take strength from the incredible distance you've come."
"And from the distances we've yet to go, my brother."
* * * * *
May we be blessed with the strength to consider the future, to understand consequences, and forsee a time when we'll dance and sing down the path we've laid out.