פרשת לך לך

In this week’s Parsha, the Torah tells us how Avraham Avinu’s nephew Lot was captured as a prisoner of war by four powerful kings of that region. When Avraham heard of this, without hesitation he waged a war between himself and the four kings who were so dominant in their region, that they had previously been successful in overpowering the five ruling kings of that area. After Avraham’s successful military victory despite being incredibly outnumbered, the king of Sedom, (one of the previously defeated kings) “generously” tells Avraham that in terms of the booty of war, Avraham was welcome to “help himself”, and that he didn’t want any of it accept for all the human captives. (One could certainly ask exactly what right the king felt he had to any of the spoils, despite the fact that he had done nothing to emerge victorious in the war). In any case Avraham responds by taking an oath that he would partake of nothing from the spoils, from a string to a shoe lace, lest anybody say that it was the king of Sedom who enriched Avraham.

The Gemorah in Sotah (17) says that in the merit that Avraham didn’t want to take a string, his children merited to receive the Mitzvah of Tzitzis which contained a string of Techeiles, and in the merit of his not wanting to partake in shoelaces, they received the Mitzvah of Tefilin. The Gemorah poses a difficulty: I understand why they received Tefilin, because the verse says about Tefilin, “And the nations of the world will see that the Name of God is upon you and they will be afraid of you”, but why did they receive Tzitzis? The Gemorah answers that since the Techeiles reminds us of the sea, and the sea reminds us of the heavens, and the heavens remind us of God, they merited the Tzitzis which has a string of Techeiles. This Gemorah requires explanation. Firstly, what does Avraham’s refusal to take strings and straps from the booty have anything to do with Tefilin and Tzitzis? Is the sole connection that they are both made of strings? Secondly, why does the Gemorah quote the verse which states that the Tefilin will generate fear and awe in the non-Jews? Is this the most remarkable quality of Tefilin? And finally, why indeed did Avraham refuse to partake of the spoils of war which were rightfully his?

I once heard a brilliant explanation from R’ Elchonon Wasserman which fields all of these difficulties beautifully. R’ Elchonon begins by laying down a premise that Avraham’s sole desire in this world was to sanctify God’s name and bring honor to that name in any way he could. Even his wealth, or lack thereof, was only a function of Avraham’s desire to glorify God’s name. In other words, to the extent that Avraham felt his being wealthy would bring honor to God’s name, because he would be able to publicize his wealth’s source, he wanted to be wealthy, and if he could bring more honor to God’s name by being impoverished, then that was his desire. With this explanation, we can easily understand Avraham’s refusal to accept the king’s “generous” offer. Avraham knew that the king would try to take credit for his wealth, and this kind of money would detract from God’s glory, so Avraham completely rejected this offer. Similarly, we can now understand why he merited the Mitzvah of Tzitzis and Tefilin, and why the verse for Tefilin was the one which indicated that all the nations of the world would now recognize God. Just like Avraham’s sole desire was to publicize the grandeur of God’s name, similarly he merited two commandments whose primary goal is to do just that – Tefilin to publicize God’s presence on this earth to all the nations around us like the Gemorah said, and Tzitizis which has the string of Techelies which also reminds us of God.

On a parallel vein, the Chasam Sofer explains the strange blessing which Avraham receives at the beginning of the Parsha. Hashem promises Avraham at the beginning of the Parsha that He will make him famous. This seems like a strange thing to promise to Avraham Avinu, one of the greatest men ever to live. Did Avraham desire fame? The Chassam Sofer answers that yes, Avraham did indeed desire fame, but only because he knew he could utilize that fame to publicize God’s great name. By way of Avraham becoming well known, he could be a much more effective tool in portraying God’s magnitude to the world.

It comes out that all of Avraham’s personal possessions, and even his physical and emotional talents were recruited for the service of God. We too, must learn from our great forefather, who paved the way for us and taught us how to act, that we must use all of our emotional and financial resources solely for the service of God. To the extent that we do this, we can transform every aspect of our “mundane” life into holiness as Avraham Avinu did. The Tzanzer Rebbe illustrates this beautifully with the following scenario. Take two people who go to work every day. One of them has in mind that all the money he makes will be used to further his service of God and continue to glorify His name. Every single penny earned by such a person will have the status of a Mitzvah and become a holy endeavor. However, the second person, who goes to work with the sole intent to try to make as much money as he can for the sake of success or power, although he will have put in the same amount of hours in learning and working as the first one, will receive little or no credit for all of his toil and will be surprised to learn that his labor has been in vain from a spiritual standpoint. It comes out that a person’s intent can completely change the status of his actions from a Mitzvah to an Aveirah, even though the actions are identical.

The Chovos Halevavos gives an interesting parable to demonstrate how a person must utilize each gift that he had been given to serve his creator. He compares this to a person who earned 1,000 pounds of produce. If he tithes any less then 100 pounds of produce, even though this is a lot of money, his food will be forbidden to eat from the Torah. Yet a person who only generated 10 pounds of produce need only tithe 1 pound to permit his food to be eaten. Similarly, a person who is brighter then his friend or wealthier, this is not a cause for celebration or self-aggrandizement. All this means is that more is expected from that person and that he will have to answer to God for what he did with all the blessings he received.

I would just like to conclude with the sharp words of the Rebbe from Kotzk. There is a Mishnah in Avos which says, “One shouldn’t say, ‘I will learn Torah when I have the time’, because you may never get the time”. The simple understanding of the Mishnah is to not rely on your retirement to learn all your Torah because you may die before then. But the Kotzker learns this Mishnah, “Don’t say ‘When I get the time, I will learn’, because maybe you are supposed to learn without every getting the time”. In other words, maybe Hashem specifically wants your learning to be done out of pressure and lack of proper financial or intellectual resources, and for you, there is no better way to serve Him. This attitude will certainly generate great happiness and contentment in a person for the lot he has received. We all have circumstances which we think are not ideal for our service of God, or things in our lives that we would like to improve, but Avraham Avinu is teaching us that we are meant to take those circumstances, whatever they may be, and glorify God’s name in whatever way we can by doing His will with the tools we were given, and through this, we may find our true purpose in this world.

May we merit to serve God and glorify His name with all that we do!