PARSHAS LECH LECHA 5776
In this week’s parsha, Hashem appears to Avraham Avinu and gives him two exceptional promises: 1-He would merit children, and 2-His children would receive Eretz Yisrael. Afterwards, it states that Avraham “built a mizbe’ach to Hashem, who appeared to him.”
Avraham was surely full of joy, as he had been praying fervently for years to merit a child. As for Eretz Yisrael, he knew that this was a uniquely holy land. Why doesn’t the verse state that he built a mizbe’ach for these two reasons? Why only for “Hashem who appeared to him?”
The Ramban and others explain that “Hashem appeared to him” means that Avraham merited a new and greater level of nevuah. Until now, Hashem had communicated with Avraham verbally, but had not “appeared” to him in a visual sense.
Still, why is this new and higher level of nevuah emphasized as the only reason why Avraham built the mizbe’ach? Why is Avraham’s joy over the tidings of meriting children and Eretz Yisrael left out entirely?
The Ohr Hachaim answers that producing blessed generations of children, or settling in the holy land, are not the tachlis. As important as they are, these are only sub-categories in the overriding principle of “closeness to Hashem.” Gaining closeness to Hashem is the tachlis of our existence. Therefore, as joyful as the other tidings were to Avraham, they paled in comparison to his gaining the tachlis — a greater closeness to Hashem, Who now had actually “appeared to him.”
The Ramchal expresses this idea in the beginning of Mesillas Yesharim, that “true perfection is achieved by clinging to Him, may He be blessed.” This is the “only true pleasure,” states the Ramchal. This has to be our foremost aspiration, and for Avraham, it was.
In the 7th chapter of Shemoneh Perakim, the Rambam explains that the barriers that keep us from closeness to Hashem “can be in the realm of knowledge or character traits. Desire, anger, vanity, brazenness, greed, etc., create blocks between us and Hashem.”
It may sound obvious, but the lesson here is that if one wants to reach closeness to Hashem, middos are the place to start. Adds the Rambam, Moshe Rabbeinu only asked of Hashem that He reveal to him His glory after reaching what he felt to be perfection of his character. Even though the levels of anger or desire that Moshe possessed even before this time were very slight, and to us would have been unnoticeable, the presence of these bad middos nevertheless served as a barrier between Moshe and Hashem. All the more so must we address our bad middos in order to break down the barriers that separate us from Hashem.
The Chazon Ish once commented that if a Jew labors in Torah but ignores a certain bad midda, it is not that he is doing well in one thing but not another; rather, that bad midda is a barrier interfering with his ruchniyus as a whole.
In addition to working on one’s middos, prayer must also be utilized to gain closeness to Hashem. Rav Moshe Wolfson, mashgiach of Yeshivas Torah Vodaas, says in the name of the Arizal that while Talmud Torah is the most important mitzvah, in our generation (meaning the Arizal’s, and surely our own) the first step a Jew has to take is getting close to Hashem through tefilla.
The Ramchal (Derech Hashem 4:5) writes that prayer serves as a means to develop a relationship with Hashem. Several times a day, Hakadosh Baruch Hu Himself comes to hold a meeting with us. We are commanded to leave all our worldly existence behind at that time and meet with Him. The truth of this is reflected in numerous halachos. We have to take three steps toward Hashem before beginning our silent prayer, and three steps back after we finish. We cannot stop our prayer in the middle, nor can we speak or even respond quickly to someone else at this time. Can a meeting with the King of the Universe possibly be interrupted because “something more important came up?” Moreover, we refer to Hashem as “You.” Has there been such a king in history who commanded and expected such closeness from his subjects? How fortunate we are!
“We should be overjoyed simply by the fact that we’re having a meeting with Hashem,” a rebbe of mine used to say. He would add that “some people look at tefilla as simply a way to make requests of Hashem. For me, the requests are just a way of being able to speak to Him! I look at prayer the way one might look at the opportunity to meet a gadol b’Yisrael. In the presence of a gadol, people look for some matter they can talk about with him, but whatever subject they find is not what’s really important to them. What’s important is getting the chance to be with the gadol. All the more so in prayer. The main joy is simply being able to meet with Hashem.”
May we be zoche to come closer to Hashem!
Exciting news! Rabbi Krieger will soon be publishing a sefer featuring the “best” of the weekly Parsha sheet. If you would like to share in this celebration, please go to www.bircas.org for further details.