פרשת לך לך
In this week’s Parsha, Hashem commands Avraham Avinu to go forth from the land of his birth, and the comfort of his parental home, and to travel to the land of Israel. Hashem promises Avraham all sorts of wonderful guarantees if he acquiesces to this request of the all-mighty. At the end of the long string of blessings that Avraham will receive for heeding God’s word, he is promised that all the land will use him as the paradigm for blessing. For example, when they are blessing their children, they will say, may you be like Avraham. I would like to explain why this, as opposed to any of the other blessings seems to be the culmination of Avraham’s assurances.
Furthermore, at the end of the Parsha, we find that Avraham is commanded by Hashem to be the first person in history to circumcise himself. When he does this, he receives the name “Avraham”, instead of the previous name “Avram”. His new name is given on account of the contraction, “A father of many nations”. Again, we see Avraham’s essence as being one which connotes him as being a leader of the human race. Why is it that this role was so central for Avraham Avinu and why is this blessing given specifically after the circumcision?
The Gemorah in Nedarim (32) says that Avraham Avinu had mastered his passions to a great extent in order to make it to the level that he had reached to that point. But when Hashem commanded Avraham Avinu to perform the circumcision on his own flesh, He was demonstrating that from then on, Avraham would receive a special heavenly aid to maintain a new level of commitment to the mastery of his desires which unaided, would be a nearly impossible level to achieve. We know that at the circumcision, Hashem added a “ה” to Avraham’s name, signifying Avraham’s complete mastery over the 5 most difficult organs in the body to master, his eyes, his ears, and his reproductive organs. When Avraham received this gift, he completed the only aspects left in his personality that were not yet perfect, and in fact became very similar to the Creator of the World, who is also perfect by definition. When Avraham did this, he indeed earned the title, “The father of all the nations”, and was the source of all blessing which was to be dispensed to the world, because by conquering his personal desires as much as humanly possible, he had perfected himself and made himself similar to his creator. So when Hashem was going to pick a vehicle to dispense his blessing to the world, He naturally would choose someone like Himself, and Avraham thusly became like a partner with God in the creation of the world. With this principle, we can answer the question which we posed at the beginning. What better praise of Avraham Avinu is there then one which portrays his similarity to the Master of the World!
We too, must work as hard as we can to emulate the ways of our illustrious forefather and display a mastery over our passions so that we may resemble our Creator and join Him in the creation of the world. The Gemorah says that each and every Jew has to ask himself, when will my actions reach those of my forefathers. We must strive to the best of our abilities to acquire this lofty trait of perfection.
The Gemorah in Makos, (23) says that although Moshe was given the Torah, each and every generation was only able to uphold a fraction of the previous generation. David saw that his generation was faltering, and therefore decreed that they only need to uphold eleven Mitzvos. Yishayahu redacted this amendment to six Mitzvos, and Micha set up only three Mitzvos. He set up justice, acts of loving kindness, and modesty. Chabakuk came and summarized the Torah in only one Mitzvah – to believe in God with perfect faith. R’ Chazkal Levenstein, the renowned Mashgiach explains this esoteric Chazal by saying that certainly each one of these great leaders did not mean to detract from the voracity of the Torah, as this would have been heresy. If a bona fide profit comes and tries to take away even one Rabinic institution, he is immediately put to death. But rather each one of these great leaders saw that the Jewish people were hurting, but they were also aware of the principle that any one trait which is perfected completely, has the ability to spread and generate perfection in all areas of Torah observance. In other words, each leader tried to assess for his generation, which, if any Midah they could keep flawlessly, and by doing so, they believed that the Jewish people would eventually be inspired to perfect all the rest of their service that they may have been lax in.
This theory can be readily understood if one is aware of the Rabenu Yonah in Avos (2:9). Rabenu Yonah says that if a person works on any character trait, and perfects it completely, he will merit to perfect all of his traits. For example, if a person modifies himself in the arena of humility, he will eventually become flawless in all of his actions, as he will realize through his newly acquired trait of humility how nothing he really has is his own, and how much he owes to his creator, and this new realization will be present and inspire his entire service of God.
R’ Chazkal continued this masterpiece by explaining that if one pays close attention, he will notice that all the principles laid down by each of the leaders were issues of human development, and not specific actions. By perfecting one’s character development, even in only one area, one will eventually be led to the point in which he is keeping the entire Torah properly. Ironically, the category that we are left with by our most recent leader, Chabakuk, is the same one that Avraham himself had perfected – Emunah. Chabakuk chose the one Mitzvah that he felt would bring every Jew back to their roots – the trait of faith. By having perfect faith in Hashem – meaning – by seeing Hashem and living with Hashem in every aspect of our lives, we are guaranteed success in coming close to Him and in keeping all of the Mitzvos correctly. This is in fact the trait that Avraham himself perfected when he was commanded to circumcise himself. God said to him, “Walk before me and be perfect”. This command is a command to picture oneself as always walking in front of Hashem at all times, and always having perfect faith that he will only be led to good places. This also is a command to see God’s hand in all that befalls us and in all that we do, and allow this recognition to spread to all that we do.
May we all merit to walk with Hashem in all of our ways and allow this perfected trait of faith to spread to all our other service!