Start Walking – Lech Lecha
In the beginning of this week’s parsha HKB”H commands Avram (he wasn’t yet called Avraham)–
וַיֹּאמֶר ה' אֶל אַבְרָם לֶךְ לְךָ מֵאַרְצְךָ וּמִמּוֹלַדְתְּךָ וּמִבֵּית אָבִיךָ אֶל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ (בראשית יב, א).
The order seems reversed. First a person physically leaves his home, then the place of his birth and then finally his country. If Hashem would have simply said לֶךְ לְךָ מֵאַרְצְךָ, that would have been sufficient, because if someone leaves his country, משמע that he is also leaving his homeland and his home? Rabbeinu Bachyei says that when fleeing the יצר הרע and עבודה זרה, it is insufficient to move down the street or even to the next town. You must put the greatest possible mileage between yourself and the danger, not gradually, but decisively and immediately, לך לך - מֵהַלִכְלוּך. That is why it starts with מֵאַרְצְךָ, get as far away as possible so that you can escape the bad environment of your home, your homeland and your country, all in one shot.
Where does Hashem tell Avraham to go? “To the land that I will show you”, הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ. This was Avraham’s first נסיון, according to the shita of the Rambam (there are other shitot). The Ba’al HaTurim says that Hashem guided Avraham with a cloud. All Avraham had to do was follow the cloud, a kind of a WAZE icon (lehavdil) showing him where to go. How long did Avraham follow this cloud (that was constantly moving and never rested in one place), until he finally arrived at הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ? Sixty two years! Avraham went back and forth, up and down, Be’er Sheva, Eilonei Mamre, Chevron, Bet El, Kiryat Ono, back to Be’er Sheva וחוזר חלילה.
After a long, arduous departure from בבל, he finally arrives in ארץ ישראל and soon after he gets there, there is a רעב. Until then the concept of a רעב was unheard of. Avraham barely steps off the plane and BOOM!, suddenly there is a famine! (his second נסיון). This is the same Avraham who legged it all over Eretz Yisrael preaching about HKB”H, the Creator of the universe and the Provider of all, and davka when he arrives there is a famine? Only in Eretz Yisrael? It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out what suddenly changed. The sefer Toldot Yitzchak says that the inhabitants immediately blame Avraham for the famine. “This is your G-d? Provider of all?” Avraham doesn’t have an answer and is forced to flee and follow the cloud south to Egypt. The Torah doesn’t say that any other inhabitants of Eretz Yisrael also went down to Egypt in search of food, only Avraham. In other words, after Avraham left to go down south to Egypt, the famine in Eretz Yisrael stopped!
As Avraham approaches Egypt, the land of עריות, he suddenly “notices” that Sarah is יפת מראה. They have been married for how many years and only now he notices? The Mefarshim say that this was the effect of the טומאה of Egypt, even on Avraham – that until then it was not something he particularly paid attention to, but now the impurity of Egypt amplified the aspect of external beauty.
According to Chazal Sarah was one the most beautiful women in the world and Avraham, fears that the Egyptians would kill him, over her. Reb Yonatan Eybeschitz says that Avraham painted her face black and he hid her in a large trunk. They get to the customs at Cairo airport and the official says “What’s in the trunk?” “Stuff” replies Avraham. “What stuff?” the official retorts. “What is the highest customs tariff for goods per weight here?” asks Avraham. “Botox” is the response (Botox is the most expensive substance on the planet per gram). “OK, so weigh the trunk and I will pay the highest, Botox, tariff” replies Avraham (we know that Sarah did not need Botox, B”H). This arouses the suspicion of the customs official that someone is so eager to part with his cash - there must be something very valuable in the trunk. He orders Avraham to open the trunk and there is Sarah. “What is this?” the official asks. “This is my sister Sarah” says Avraham. “What is she doing in the trunk?” ask the official. “She likes sleeping in trunks, has ever since she was a little girl, she is agoraphobic!” says Avraham. Lot is with them in line and he could easily blab, but he keeps his mouth shut and nods his head “Yes, his sister, his sister!” (For this Lot was rewarded that Rut would be his descendant).
They rush Sarah off to the palace of Pharaoh (the third נסיון) and Hashem smites Pharaoh and the Egyptians with all kinds of נגעים until finally Pharaoh discovers that she is actually Avraham’s wife. Meanwhile HKB”H rewards Avraham with enormous material wealth and eventually when Pharaoh releases Sarah, they leave Egypt and both Avraham and Lot are laden with כל טוב – camels, donkeys, tents, silver and gold. To boot, Pharaoh gives his daughter Hagar to Sarah as a maidservant. What a sendoff!
On the way back to Eretz Yisrael, Avraham retraces his path and Rashi says that he purposely revisits every אחסניה that he stayed in on his way down to Egypt. The Chatam Sofer explains that this is so the inhabitants of Eretz Yisrael can now see the vast wealth he has accumulated and understand why Hashem sent Avraham down to Egypt in the first place. It is a slap in the face for all those who ridiculed him and HKB”H a short time prior to that.
Lot, now puffed up with his own self-importance after his sudden accumulation of wealth due to Avraham’s merit, starts straying from the path and this eventually leads to him and Avraham parting ways. Lot chooses to go to Sdom, perhaps the most evil city to have ever existed.
Following this is the episode of the war between the 4 kings vs. the 5 kings – the first war in history (Avraham’s fourth נסיון). The Torah devotes 24 psukkim to describing this turn of events in great detail, that seemingly has little to do with Jewish history, excepting for the capture and freeing of Lot. (In my shiur on parshat Vayeira you can read that there is much more to this story than meets the eye and that it is all about preserving and ensuring the lineage of Mashiach).
A פליט from this war – Og the king of Bashan, the same Og who was a stowaway in last week’s parsha in Noah’s ark - comes to inform Avraham that Lot has been taken captive (hoping that Avraham will go fight the 4 kings, be killed and then he, Og, will be able to marry Sarah). When does Og arrive? In the middle of Pesach. Avraham could wait a few more days until the end of Shvi’I shel Pesach, but no – he immediately recruits a force of 318 men (some Mefarshim say just him and Eliezer - the gematria of אליעזר is 318) and sets off to wage war with over 800,000 soldiers. No problem! בסייעתא דשמיא they manage to overpower Amrafel (Nimrod) and the other kings’ armies and free Lot, who returns safely to Sdom. מלכיצדק מלך שלם greets Avraham as he returns from the war with bread and wine, according to the Mefarshim - Lechem Hapanim and יין נסך and he relinquishes the role of Kohen Gadol to Avraham.
Sarah cannot have children, so she tells Avraham to take her maidservant Hagar as a wife to bear a child, which will be in Sarah’s merit. Avraham listens to Sarah and Yishmael is born (the fifth נסיון). Compared to Avraham’s other trials this may not seem much of a trial at all. In fact all the other Mefarshim (Pirkei DeRebi Eliezer, Avot deRebi Natan, Rabbeinu Yonah, Bartenura) do not consider this a נסיון at all. Only the Ramabam (whose shita we are following) does. The question is why?
The Mefarshim explain that the reason Sarah wanted Avraham to have a son from Hagar, was to expunge the זוהמת הנחש in Chava from the sin of the עץ הדעת. Giving birth to Yishmael, Avraham “got rid” of the impurity in his bloodline, so that Yitzchak could later be born זך וטהור. For a tzaddik like Avraham to knowingly and purposely bear an impure son was an enormous נסיון.
Thirteen years after Yishmael was born Hashem commands Avraham to perform a ברית מילה (the sixth נסיון). Having a bris when you are 8 days old is traumatic enough, but when you are 99?!!!! At this juncture HKB”H changes Avram’s name to Avraham and Sarai’s to Sarah.
We are now going to overlap a little into next week’s parsha, Vayeira, in order to complete the cycle of the ten נסיונות and to develop the principle of this shiur.
Continuing his endless travels, Avraham moves down south to Grar. A story, similar to that above with Pharaoh, occurs as Avimelech the king of Grar kidnaps Sarah (Avraham’s seventh נסיון). Again, HKB”H punishes Avimelech and his household and eventually Avimelech releases Sarah.
Yitzchak is born and Yishmael “laughs” (see last year's shiur on Lech Lecha to understand what exactly that laughing entailed). Sarah then tells Avraham to cast out Hagar and Yishmael from his house, something that is totally counter to Avraham’s attribute of חסד, but Hashem tells him to listen to Sarah. The expelling of Hagar is Avaraham’s eighth נסיון and expelling Yishmael is the ninth.
Avraham’s tenth and final נסיון is עקדת יצחק. Lech Lecha is this week’s parsha לֶךְ לְךָ מֵאַרְצְךָ , but there was a second Lech Lecha - וְלֶךְ-לְךָ, אֶל-אֶרֶץ הַמֹּרִיָּה.
Avraham diligently wakes up early that morning and again, he diligently follows the same cloud he had been following since Hashem told him his first Lech Lecha. The cloud leads him to Har Hamoriah, the location of the עקדה.
In the passuk it says –
וַיֹּאמֶר יִצְחָק אֶל אַבְרָהָם אָבִיו וַיֹּאמֶר אָבִי וַיֹּאמֶר הִנֶּנִּי בְנִי וכו' (בראשית כב, ז)
What exactly is this repartee between Yitzchak and Avraham? Yitzchak looks at Avraham and Avraham’s face is beaming with joy. Yitzchak cannot understand this – he is about to be sacrificed and Avraham is smiling? Avraham answers – “הִנֶּנִּי בְנִי, I have been wandering around Eretz Yisrael for 62 years following the cloud Hashem gave to guide me, a cloud that never rested in one place and was constantly on the move. Now I have reached Har Hamoriah, the cloud is at rest and not moving” (Chatam Sofer). According to the sefer Shemen Rosh Avraham says – “I have finally reached my destination, הִנֶּנִּי, after 62 years since HKB”H told me the first Lech Lecha (בני in gematria is 62)”.
Avraham reached his final destination at Har Hamoriah, the location of the Beit Hamikdash. This is where the cloud of the Shechina settled to rest and has not moved since. HKB”H at the beginning of the first Lech Lecha journey told Avraham what that destination will be - הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ, and Avraham named it ה' יראה. Its name until then was שלם (Malkitzedek the king of Shalem). HKB”H combined the names יראה and שלם and called it ירושלם.
The Midrash asks which was the hardest test, the first Lech Lecha or the last? Undoubtedly being told to sacrifice Yitzchak was Avraham’s toughest trial and this is the reason we mention it multiple times in our daily tefilot, that bizchut Avraham passing this test, HKB”H should have mercy on us. This, out of all the ten trials, stands out prominently as Avraham’s ultimate test of faith in Hashem.
Other Mefarshim qualify this. They say that Avraham could never have passed this tenth test unless he had first undergone the prior nine. Each time passing another test, another and another… gave him additional strength to be able to confront the following one. If HKB”H would have given Avraham the test of the עקדה as the second, fourth, seventh …. he would not have succeeded! According to this shita the first test was davka the hardest.
When Hashem tells Avraham his first Lech Lecha, it is a beginning and beginnings are always the hardest. HKB”H tells Avraham to start walking! Take the first step, then another and another. Follow the ענן as it guides him, until he finally reaches his ultimate destination and purpose.
Chazal teach us that Avraham and the other two Avot, Yitzchak and Yaakov, were tested by HKB”H. They all underwent tests in their lives that they passed with flying colors and that set the foundation for the future Am Yisrael. The Avot experienced every trial and tribulation during their lives that Am Yisrael would later experience throughout their history and they laid the infrastructure and the כלים for us to be able to meet these tribulations and emerge unscathed.
Avraham’s life is a model for our lives. Avraham’s most challenging נסיון was taking the first step, to start walking. He never knew exactly where he was going to end up. All he knew was that he trusted the Guide and would recognize his destination when he finally arrived, so he followed HKB”H’s cloud.
This is the way that Hashem guides us along the path of life to reach our own, personal destination, our purpose in life that our “cloud”, our neshama inescapably draws us toward. While we may not know what that is initially, we will recognize it when we find it. On the way we experience tribulations that are seemingly insurmountable, but each test we pass makes us more resilient and gives us greater strength to confront the next one.
And it all begins with Lech Lecha, taking a step, starting to walk, motion. That may be at age bar/batmitzvah or at age 52! All the paths you tread on the journey build you and give you the skills and the strength you need to meet the next challenge and the next, until you reach your own personal Har Hamoriah and ultimately, all of us collectively, as a nation בבי"א.
