Thinking Outside the Box – Lech Lecha
וַיּוֹצֵא אֹתוֹ הַחוּצָה וַיֹּאמֶר הַבֶּט נָא הַשָּׁמַיְמָה וּסְפֹר הַכּוֹכָבִים אִם תּוּכַל לִסְפֹּר אֹתָם וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ כֹּה יִהְיֶה זַרְעֶךָ. (בראשית טו, ה).
Avraham had just completed a successful military campaign, miraculously vanquishing the 4 kings and rescuing Lot. I say miraculously, because with a small force of only 318 men (some say, just Avraham and Eliezer alone), they managed to defeat the armies of all four kings, numbering in the hundreds of thousands (or more).
The perek begins אַחַר הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה... (בראשית טו, א). When the Torah uses this phrase, it indicates some kind of קִטְרוּג in Heaven, for example, just before the Akeida (בראשית כב, א), or with Yosef and Potiphar's wife (בראשית לט, ז). Rashi, on the first passuk in our perek, says that Avraham was afraid that the miracle that HKB"H performed for him in defeating the 4 kings, would detract from his reward in olam habah. This sparks a conversation between Avraham and HKB"H.
HKB"H reassures him אַל תִּירָא אַבְרָם אָנֹכִי מָגֵן לָךְ שְׂכָרְךָ הַרְבֵּה מְאֹד, "Do not fear, none of your שָׂכָר in olam habah will be diminished". Avraham asks מַה תִּתֶּן לִי וְאָנֹכִי הוֹלֵךְ עֲרִירִי, "All the wealth you have given to me is meaningless. I am barren and cannot have children".
Meir Panim (פרק יג, קלו) explores the true meaning of wealth, what it means to be עָשִׁיר and comes to the conclusion that it is – children. Children are our true wealth. Although Avraham returned from Egypt laden with untold material riches, all of it was meaningless, without the true wealth.
The Gemara (Yevamot 64a) says that both Avraham and Sarah were born with a congenital defect that prevented them from having children אָמַר רַבִּי אָמִי, אַבְרָהָם וְשָׂרָה טֻמְטֻמִין הָיוּ. Avraham asks HKB"H הֵן לִי לֹא נָתַתָּה זָרַע וְהִנֵּה בֶן בֵּיתִי יוֹרֵשׁ אֹתִי, "You have not given me the ability to have children (not to me, nor to Sarah).
The conclusion of this is that Eliezer, my servant, will be the one to inherit from me". HKB"H replies לֹא יִירָשְׁךָ זֶה כִּי אִם אֲשֶׁר יֵצֵא מִמֵּעֶיךָ הוּא יִירָשֶׁךָ, "Eliezer will not inherit you, but rather - your own biological son".
Then we get to our passuk from the beginning of the shiur. HKB"H takes Avraham "outside" and says to him "Look up to the heavens and count the stars if you can, so multitudinous will be your natural offspring". Rashi on that passuk says there are two ways to understand it. The first is according to פְּשָׁט, that HKB"H literally told him to walk outside his tent and look up at the sky.
The second way is according to דְּרוּשׁ, based on a Gemara (Shabbat 156a), that HKB"H said to him, צֵא מֵאִצְטַגְנִינוּת שֶׁלְּךָ, "Look beyond your mazal". In other words, do not limit yourself to examining your physical reality or your "fate" (mazal).
According to the Torah, everyone is born with a specific "mazal", a "star sign" for want of a better word, that defines certain of their characteristics and personality traits. For example, Yosef's mazal is דָּגִים, and just like עַיִן הָרַע has no control over fish (Bava Metzia 84a), so too is Yosef unaffected by עַיִן הָרַע.
Basically, what HKB"H is telling Avraham is "Think outside the box. Do not limit yourself to the conventional ways of thinking".
The phrase "think outside the box" was coined by psychologist J. P. Guilford in the 1970's in his studies of creative thinking and has since come under criticism from academia. According to more recent consensus amongst experts, the path to true creative thinking is not to "step outside the box", it is to "imagine that there is no box at all".
In other words, the very concept that a box exists is limiting. True creative thinking, according to modern psychologists, stems from a premise of "limitlessness".
In this shiur I would like to explore the technique of creative thinking from a Torah perspective (we see that it originates from the Torah - our passuk above) and how it pertains to our daily lives.
Another psychologist, Edward de Bono, coined a different term for the same concept, he calls it "lateral thinking". Here are a few examples of the technique, to illustrate.
A person wants to get from point A to point B. The person asks "How do I get from A to B?" In modern times, most people defer this task to WAZE, but as we will soon see, WAZE (which I call oy veyz) is not always the best tool to provide the answer to this question.
WAZE is programmed in such a way that it will tell you how to get from A to B in the shortest possible time, taking into account - traffic, and other mitigating factors, such as accidents on the road, demonstrations, etc.
What if the question is more complex, like "How do I get from A to B using the most scenic route, or the most interesting route?" WAZE cannot answer that question (yet). Perhaps by taking a small detour, costing a few extra minutes of your time, you may discover something totally unexpected that could possibly change your life forever.
Or "How do I get from A to B in the safest way?". WAZE cannot answer that question either (yet). We often have visitors coming to workshops in our institute and WAZE sends them on a route, that, while it may take the least time, quite frankly sends them through some problematic Arab villages that might not be the safest thing to do.
If we relied on WAZE exclusively to resolve all our commuting issues, we might potentially be missing out on many of life's experiences, or worse, we may be placing ourselves in possible, even life-threatening, danger. If this is the way a person lived their entire life, it is obvious how limiting such a life would be.
This is not to say that WAZE does not have its uses, I often use it to navigate complex areas with one-way streets, or when my criterion is simply saving time.
It all depends on how you define the complexity of the question and what resources you want to expend. Many of us couldn't be bothered and defer to WAZE as the default, out of pure laziness, instead of investing the time and energy to discover other, perhaps more appropriate, solutions. This is perhaps the greatest threat of AI technology - that it makes us lazy and stifles creativity and independent thought.
Many of us go through life in this way. We come to rely on a standard "toolbox" of definitions and solutions to steer us through life using a path of least resistance. We inherit/acquire this "toolbox" from our parents, teachers, society … and it defines for us the "realm of the possible".
If a person was born with a congenital defect in biblical times, like Avraham and Sarah, according to the standard toolbox of knowledge at the time, there was no possible way Avraham and Sarah could have children. If a person is physically missing a womb (אַיְלוֹנִית), they cannot give birth to a child.
One comes to accept the "reality" and learns to live with it, however difficult it may be. HKB"H's answer to Avraham is – use lateral thinking, pretend there is no box.
Another example of lateral thinking is מִשְׁפַּט שְׁלֹמֹה. Shlomo HaMelech is confronted with two diametrically opposing claims. He has no way of verifying either claim – there are no witnesses and DNA testing has not yet been invented. According to the "box", the toolbox of knowledge and solutions, Shlomo HaMelech has two choices.
He can either cut the child in two, in which case both women (and the child) lose. Or he can randomly pick one woman, in which case the probability of justice is only 50%.
Any "regular" judge would probably go for the second option, at least there is a 50% possibility that justice will be served. As opposed to the first option, where 0% justice is served. If you opt for the second option the best-case scenario is that the child will be returned to the rightful mother.
The worst-case scenario is that the child will be given to the wrong mother and the true mother will live a life of longing without her child - but at least the child will be alive.
Shlomo HaMelech, however, is a lateral thinker, he does limit himself to the box. He ignores the box – there is no box – and examines the case anew, from a completely different perspective, suddenly discerning nuances that would not have been visible if examined within the confines of the box.
How does one engage in lateral thinking on a practical level? De Bono describes different techniques – random idea generation, provocation, movement, fractionation, etc. To explain them all are beyond the scope of this shiur, you may read about them online, or read De Bono's book.
What I am trying to achieve with this shiur, is not to teach how to be a lateral thinker, but rather to convince you that you should be one. The Torah is based on us being lateral thinkers, it demands it of us.
You might say, how can we ignore the "box"? The Torah itself is a box, a toolbox of solutions and knowledge that defines how we live our lives. It has rigid parameters and halachot for every facet of our lives. If we ignore the box, then anarchy ensues and we run the risk of straying from the path of HKB"H?
The answer to that question is that the "box", the Torah itself, is telling us to think outside the box. It is a seeming paradox, but in fact is not.
The Torah is the absolute truth and as such, is not insecure of scrutiny - even the deepest, most "apikorsi" type of scrutiny. The Torah is so secure in its absolute truth that it knows that there is no type of scrutiny that will not eventually arrive at that same … absolute truth. On the contrary - the deeper the scrutiny, the closer one gets to that absolute truth.
Contrast this with other man-made "religions" that stifle independent thought. They do so because they are threatened by it, because they are not the absolute truth. When you dig deeper, sooner or later you will discover the lie.
Let us illustrate with an example. There is a halacha in the Torah, to refrain from eating certain types of food that are not Kosher. It is an explicit prohibition. You can live your entire life within the "box", not deviating left or right, many of us do.
We have complete faith that if HKB"H told us to do something, He knows what is best for us and we would not dream of transgressing such a prohibition. This is commendable, a big מַעֲלָה and we should all be zocheh to achieve it in all facets of the Torah.
However, what can you do, there is also something called the yetzer hara, which tries to tempt and test us by lying to us - that what is written in the Torah is not the absolute truth. The yetzer hara tempts and tests each of us differently, according to our own weaknesses, or tikkun that we need to do in this world.
With someone it is eating Kosher, with someone else it is observing Shabbat, with someone else it is controlling their mouth, their eyes, their greed, their anger, etc.
The yetzer hara says to someone who is weak in the area of Kashrut – "Don't live only in the 'box', think outside the box, try something else and get a different perspective. Try this Belgian fried bacon, you have never tasted anything so delicious. You have not truly lived if you have never eaten Belgian bacon".
The Torah, the absolute truth, is not afraid of such a test, it is not afraid of such scrutiny. The test is for us, not the Torah, how do we respond to such a challenge?
If we succumb and eat the forbidden food, we fail the test. However, if we say to the yetzer hara "OK, you claim that life is incomplete without eating Belgian bacon. Let's check. Let's pretend there is no box – no halacha against eating pork. Let's compare Liam Janssen from Antwerp, a non-Jew, who eats fried bacon every morning for breakfast, with Shmuel Berkowitz from Manchester, a devout Jew who would never eat bacon in his wildest dreams.
We will not compare their physical health – the prohibition of eating non-Kosher food is not because it diminishes your physical health – Liam Janssen is the picture of physical health and he looks like Mr. World. Let us compare their 'spiritual health', their level of morality and sensitivity.
Shmuel Berkowitz may not be Mr. World, he has arthritis and limps on his left side, but when you compare levels of spirituality and sensitivity, Liam Janssen may be a 'strapping' guy, but he is also prone to 'strapping' his wife and beating her senseless, when he has had a pint too many.
You know what yetzer hara, it is true! I may not have 'truly lived' if I never ate Belgian bacon, but if that is what you call living, then I'll pass".
Even if you do succumb and chalila eat the bacon, you will immediately regret it, because in reality it can never match up to the false hype and deception of the yetzer hara.
Either way, the person will arrive back at the absolute truth eventually, it is unavoidable, because there is only one absolute truth. Rachmana litzlan, sometimes it just takes some people longer to reach point B, but they eventually do. For them, the detour was a necessary element of their journey, they may have been delayed longer in reaching point B, if not for the detour.
For this reason, it is important to maintain a close connection and a loving relationship even with those who have strayed from the Torah and let them arrive at their destination on their own, in their own good time, without coercion. This is why it is called חוֹזֵר בִּשְׁאֵלָה, because the person will eventually return and will do so, by means of asking questions and discovering the absolute truth.
This concept is not really so surprising, because the Torah as such is not really a "box". The Torah is infinite and limitless. When you think the "Torah way of thinking", your thinking is similarly limitless and infinite.
The Torah places no boundary on human possibility. There is no "box" for human possibility. A human being can transcend all conceptions of limit, both in an upward direction and also, Rachmana litzan in a downward direction (spurred on by the yetzer hara). We need to freely choose which direction we want to aspire to, upward or downward.
The Gemara (Shabbat 156a) above says that all the other nations are governed by "mazal", by the natural order in the world. Am Yisrael, the only nation to unceasingly aspire upwards, defies mazal. We have the true realm of infinity before us.
Avraham Avinu, in our conversation above, was trapped in his "box" way of thinking. HKB"H took him "outside the box" and introduced him to the infinite realm of possibility that lies within the power of the Creator, the One who created the "box" that is our world, the One who has the capability of recreating it in any way He chooses, whether it is giving a womb to a woman who is born without a womb, whether it is making the sea split, or the sun stand still in the sky.
At the same time HKB"H was laying the foundation principle for Avraham's descendants, Am Yisrael, to think out of the box, to be secure in the Torah to such a degree that we are not afraid to scrutinize, to ask questions – these only strengthen our bond to the Torah and bring us closer to HKB"H.
It is impossible to end this shiur without addressing the results of the American elections and the landslide victory for president Donald Trump, especially since it relates directly to the topic of this shiur.
If you remember, in my shiur for Rosh Hashana I brought some gematriyot for the letters תשפ"ה and one of them was "דוֹנַלְד טְרַאמְפּ נָשִׂיא". We do not have נְבוּאָה today, but there are hints - if you know where and how to look for them. This is what תּוֹרַת הָרֶמֶז is all about.
There are a number of important מוּסְרֵי הַשְׂכֵּל that we can derive from this.
The first is how privileged we are to be living in this generation, to be witness and participant in the process of the Geulah in real time. How HKB"H is "turning" the entire world – for Am Yisrael, to bring about the Geulah. It is at the same time exciting, terrifying and gratifying to see how much HKB"H loves us, His Chosen People.
We all need to say an extra מִזְמוֹר לְתוֹדָה today (תהילים ק') to thank HKB"H for this result which is לְטוֹבַת עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל בָּאָרֶץ וּבַתְּפוּצוֹת and a serious blow for our enemies worldwide.
The second important lesson we learn from this is how important it is to think "outside the box". A disturbing trend in the world today is how much people rely on the "box" to understand the "reality" in the world. They think that by looking at the TV screen, the computer screen and the cell phone screen, they will understand the true reality that exists in the world.
What they don't understand is that these "boxes" are not mirrors of reality. They are vested interests of various groups with agendas. What we see in these "boxes" is not what is real, but what they want us to think is real – engineering of consciousness. This is what the Torah means when it says אֱלֹהֵי מַסֵּכָה לֹא תַעֲשֶׂה לָּךְ (שמות לד, יז).
If you want to understand the true reality, you need to think "outside the box" and connect with the true reality on the ground. If you want to know what the actual people, the real, living population think – you will not go to the "box" for the answer, you will connect with the real people on the street. That will give you the true picture.
The picture on the "box" in Israel is how Bibi is a fascist, how he hates the hostages and wants them dead and how he is a threat to democracy, yada yada yada. The picture on CNN, ABC, MSNBC, etc. etc and most of the other mainstream "boxes" in the USA is how Trump is a reincarnation of Hitler and a (you guessed it) threat to democracy, yada yada yada.
This is what the boxes are pumping out and it is all lies and manipulations. Reality check – media does not elect leaders, people do. You can try lie to people as much as you want, but deep down, most people in the world have basic common sense and can tell the difference between fantasy and reality.
What won Trump the election was of course HKB"H causing him to win, but it happened on the ground because the person on the street hears the lies the "box" is telling them and it doesn't correlate with their bank balance and the food in their pantries.
Deep down, their souls reject the Woke nonsense and they voted with their feet today and made that very clear for all the world to see. We are going to see similar trends continuing throughout the world, in Europe etc. as they wake up from the illusions they have been living in, with a trojan horse on their doorstep.
Am Yisrael are streets ahead of everybody else in this regard. Despite what the "boxes" here in Israel are telling you, we are a few years ahead of the USA and Europe, who will soon be following suit and addressing the true threat to life on earth (hint – it's not global warming).
For us, Am Yisrael, we need to continue to strengthen our bond with HKB"H and act as the beacon of light to the rest of the world, which is our destiny.
Shabbat Shalom
Eliezer Meir Saidel
Machon Lechem Hapanim
www.machonlechemhapanim.org