GO INWARD – This Shabbat is the yahrzeit of my mom (Frida Levona bat Shalom), so with her neshamat aliyah in mind, I wanted to share some thoughts on this week’s parashah.
Most of us find it challenging to truly go inward. With life’s endless stream of distractions, our desire to be loved and to fit in keep us focused outward. Avraham discovered the Truth by searching what it meant to be his true self and the responsibilities that come with being one’s true self, while those around him had fallen to worshipping desires and false idols. As we see from this Parashah, sometimes to go further in, you have to go further out.
This week in the Torah is the first time Hashem mentions blessings explicitly, right after telling Avraham to go to the land that Hashem will show him, but without telling him which land it is. The Zohar explains that Avraham evaluated the spiritual nature of each land that he passed through, until he reached Israel, where he was able to experience Divine Providence directly. By not knowing which land to go to immediately, Avraham had to discover for himself which land Hashem meant, thereby building up his desire for the Holy Land. When we are tested, our knowledge of what we must do is constricted and hidden from us, and only through our desire to do good, focused on our connection with God, do we find the right path to follow. The answers are in the truest path – the path connected to the ultimate connection, the Creator.
Avraham is commanded to separate himself even further, not only spiritually, but also physically. Hashem commands Avraham Lech-Lecha: “go from where you came from and go to where you should be, your Promised Land.” But translated literally, the phrase means, “Go to yourself”, as in go and reach your promised land within.
The Talmud says “A change of place, a change of luck.” So, on a personal level, it’s often good to get out of the space you’re in physically in order to get out of the difficult space you’re in mentally. In the Biblical narrative, Avraham needs to reach the Promised Land so that we all can reach it and receive the blessings that are contained through this journey.
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Thanks for listening/reading.Much love, Erez Safar
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