פרשת לך לך תשפ"ז
KEDUSHAS ERETZ YISROEL
“Go forth from your land and from your birthplace and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you” (12:1).
It says, “lech lecha”, for your own benefit, because as long as Avraham Avinu was in chutz la’aretz he could not attain high levels of sanctity, and he was therefore forced to move to Eretz Yisroel. Even before Matan Torah it was not possible to attain complete sanctity outside Eretz Yisroel, because only there does the Shechinah reside.
However, those levels can only be attained by someone who lives with the awareness that he is living in the Palace of the King, the inheritance of Hashem that parallels its celestial counterpart, the Eretz Yisroel shel ma’alah, and intends to keep the mitzvos there. Moreover, someone who goes after his evil inclination and sins in this country is thereby rebelling against its sanctity.
Unfortunately, in our times many of the residents of Eretz Yisroel do not live with this awareness. It is a general principle that a mitzvah cannot be fulfilled if one does not intend to perform the act constituting the mitzvah (i.e. if he is merely misasek), and mitzvas yishuv Eretz Yisroel is no exception. It can only be performed properly through a constant awareness of where one is living and the ramifications of that fact.
Our erring brethren have succeeded in minimizing the feelings of love and awe which Jews had throughout the generations for Eretz Yisroel, and supplanting them with foreign nationalistic attitudes. Those teaching in Torah institutions should endeavor to infuse their students with love of Eretz Yisroel, and explain to them how privileged we are to be able to utilize the opportunities of living here (for example, this past Chol Hamoed Rav Sternbuch mentioned what an incredible privilege it is to be able to celebrate Sukkos here in the holy city of Yerushalayim) and how careful we have to be not to desecrate its sanctity by engaging in sinful or inappropriate behavior.
Jews overseas, who do not enjoy the privilege of living here, should support b’nei Torah learning Torah in Eretz Yisroel, and thereby become partners in Toras Eretz Yisroel. That way they can partake of some of the light emanating from the sanctity of the Holy Land.
UNQUESTIONING FAITH
“I will make you into a great nation” (12:2). Rashi: "Hashem promised him children, wealth, and fame.”
Both Rashi and the Rambam (on Avos 5:3) state that Hashem’s commandment to Avraham to leave Charan for an unknown destination was one of the ten trials by which he was tested. Since Hashem promised him children, wealth and fame, why was this considered to have been such a great test? Surely the difficulties involved in leaving your birthplace pale in comparison to the benefits promised by Hashem. Furthermore, the commandment was given by Hashem Himself, so who would not have obeyed it?
The Rambam writes (Hilchos Avodah Zara 1:2-3) that Avraham brought tens of thousands of people close to Hashem by disassociating them from idol worship. The rewards for these actions were very great, because Avraham was credited for all the good deeds performed by these people (see Chovos HaLevavos, Sha’ar Ahavas Hashem, Ch. 6), and now Hashem was telling him to leave all his students and work and depart to an unknown destination.
He had no idea whether he would be as successful in his new place of residence, but instead of telling Hashem: "Please let me stay here to continue my important work", he had pure and simple trust in Him and asked no questions, in the complete conviction that everything Hashem does is for the good.
Hence, the main trial was not whether Avraham would obey the Will of Hashem, but whether he would follow it happily and unquestioningly.
Rav Dessler said that throughout history, Jews were faced with the choice of saving their lives by abandoning their religion or dying al kiddush Hashem, but in the Holocaust the Nazis sought to kill everybody without distinction, even apostates. In such a situation, sanctifying the Divine Name consisted in not attributing death to natural causes and in not complaining that Hashem had abandoned them, but rather accepting the Divine decree lovingly and going to their deaths with the feeling that this was the Will of Hashem and that they were performing it. That way they would be sanctifying the Divine Name.
Rav Sternbuch recalls a conference that took place in London after the War, under the auspices of Agudas Yisroel, which was attended by representatives from Jewish communities all over Europe, as well as survivors of the camps. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss why Hashem had meted out such terrible suffering on the nation.
One speaker got up and said that it was due to widespread chillul Shabbos in Europe before the War; another said it was because of rampant immorality; a third speaker said that not enough had been done to protest the sins of the public; and yet another speaker argued that more should have been done for Eretz Yisroel.
At that point, Dayan Abramsky banged his fists on the table and declared that we are not allowed to judge Hashem. There were no more speakers after that. The Brisker Rav too did not agree to hear any reasons for the Holocaust, nor did Rav Yitzchok Hutner.
While private misfortunes should indeed make a person engage in introspection to determine why they might have happened, a public calamity of the scale of the Holocaust cannot be fathomed by the human mind.
KIRUV GUIDELINES
“And you shall be a blessing (brachah)” (12:2).
The Midrash reads brachah as breichah (pool)—just as a pool (mikvah) purifies the impure, so shall you purify those who are far removed from Hashem. The Kesef Mishnah (end of Ch. 6 of Hilchos She’ar Avos HaTum’ah) writes that a mikvah does not affect purification for a person still immersed in it, but only once he has left it. Similarly, those who engage in outreach work must realize that they cannot make do with delivering several shiurim in the hope that they will have the desired effect.
Even those who become observant can fall by the wayside after the initial period, if they do not receive emotional support subsequently. Their mentors must follow in the footsteps of Avraham Avinu. He did not merely deliver speeches and inspire his followers; rather, he became a father to thousands, who became members of his household. It is especially incumbent on kiruv organizations to ensure that young people find appropriate marriage partners.
GIRLS' SCHOOLS
“And he pitched his tent” (12:8). Rashi: “First he pitched his wife’s tent and afterwards his own.”
Why did Avraham act that way? The key for the future of the Jewish nation lies with the women, who are responsible for educating future generations, especially in a generation in which immorality is rampant. Avraham, who lived in a generation of heresy, recognized the importance of the woman’s task, and therefore pitched his wife’s tent first, since her influence was paramount.
In pre-War Poland girls lacked appropriate educational frameworks and many left the fold, to the extent that there was a shortage of girls willing to marry yeshiva bachurim. The establishment of Beis Yaakov schools saved the generation.
Even though she was a widow who found it difficult to make a living, Rav Sternbuch’s mother hired private teachers for each of her daughters to teach them halachos, mussar and Nach. She made do with the bare minimum for herself but spent generously on her daughters’ education, realizing how crucial it was to prepare them for their future roles as mothers.
INDIVIDUAL SHULCHAN ARUCH FOR BITACHON MATTERS
“And there was a famine in the land, and Avram descended to Egypt to sojourn there because the famine was severe in the land” (12:10).
The Ramban says that Avraham should have had more faith in Hashem that he, his wife, and his possessions would be saved, and he should not have gone down to Egypt, thereby endangering her. How can we understand this Ramban? Why was it considered a defect of faith to go down to Egypt in circumstances of famine? Surely Avraham was obligated to do so in order to perform his duty of hishtadlus. On the other hand, if he should indeed not have acted this way, how could it be that Avraham, the pillar of faith, could have been lacking in faith?
When it comes to matters of faith and human effort, every person has his own individual Shulchan Aruch. The greater a person’s level of tangible faith, the less human effort does he have to invest. Someone with a uniquely high level of faith should not put in human effort to make a living or perform medical procedures but should trust in Hashem to take care of those matters, whereas someone with a less than perfect level of faith is obligated to make standard amounts of hishtadlus. Avraham, on his unusually high level, was expected not to go down to Egypt and wait for Hashem to sort matters out.
ENVIRONMENTS
“Behold now I know that you are a woman of fair appearance” (12:11). Rashi: “Until now, he did not recognize her because of the modesty of both of them, but now he recognized her following an incident.”
It is brought down in the name of the Arizal that initially Avraham had no notion of materialism, like Adam before the sin. Only when he came to Egypt, steeped as it was in immorality, did his level descend, and that was when he realized that the pull of this tumah could be so great that the Egyptians were likely to kill him in order to obtain his wife.
In a similar vein, the Baal Shem Tov explains that the reason Avraham noticed his wife’s beauty for the first time when he went down to Egypt was that he enjoyed an intensely close relationship with Hashem so that his sense of sight was spiritual, and he did not derive material enjoyment from what he saw. The pasuk says that “Avram descended to Egypt” (12:10), meaning that he descended from his previous level as a result of coming into contact with the spiritual contamination of the Egyptian nation. Consequently, it was then that he noticed his wife’s beauty for the first time.
Clearly, such levels are not attainable nowadays, but this does teach us that if contact with an immoral environment can have a detrimental effect even on the greatest people, how much more so do we have to be on our guard to eliminate, or at least minimize, such contacts. Doing so results in sundry spiritual and material blessings.
MACHLOKES BETWEEN BRETHREN
“And Avram said to Lot, ‘Please let there be no quarrel between me and you and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are kinsmen’” (13:8).
The end of Avraham’s statement (“for we are kinsmen”) implies that a machlokes between brethren is even worse than one between people who are not close. Since it is an especially serious sin, the yetzer hara invests a lot of energy into attempting to entangle people into it.
Rashi (on 13:14) cites the Midrash that as long as Lot was with Avraham Hashem did not communicate with him, and yet until this stage Avraham did not abandon Lot, because he preferred to attempt to draw him closer to the Shechinah rather than enjoying an intense closeness to Hashem. On the other hand, as important as it was to Avraham to stay with Lot, even at the cost of losing out on an intense closeness to Hashem and prophecy, if continued contact with Lot would involve a machlokes, he would not hear of it, because machlokes is detestable and must be avoided at any cost, especially since a great chillul Hashem would have resulted from such a machlokes becoming publicized.
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