By Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D.
SAN DIEGO — Want to move beyond your limits and extend your potential? To do so requires that you forcefully replace any limiting thinking, and “Go out of your land, our native country, and your father’s house.” Contemporary self-help and self-awareness meant to help us grow and shift, suggests asking, “Who am I?,” “What do I desire from my life?,” “What purpose do I have in life?,” “What am I called to do in my life?,” and “What am I truly grateful for in my life?”
Here’s another question not often suggested in self-help corners of the internet… “Why Torah?” The Rambam tells us, “The Torah as a whole aims at two things: the welfare of the soul and the welfare of the body. As for the welfare of the soul, it consists of people acquiring correct opinions corresponding to their respective capacity…As for the welfare of the body, it comes about by the improvement of their ways of living one with another.”
Torah, when learned and practiced, leads us to a more pleasant version of ourselves that we can bring to society at large. This is like the weights in a gym. Until we go over and DO something with them, it’s just metal sitting on a rack. This personal decision, to learn and to do, is what helps us discover ourselves and go to ourselves in an improved way.
This week’s parasha teaches that to live a meaningful life, turning inward and reflecting on these questions are important, yet we may also have to ditch the links to our past and project a new course…guided by Torah as our road map to discovering our real purpose. We may have to leave our comfortable Haran to go to our Canaan, our Land of Israel.
The Sfas Emes teaches that Hashem instructs each one of us, “Lech Lecha.” We need to take an inward stance to create a better circumstance. Before we go anywhere healthy in life, we think about ourselves and where we are going.
For Avraham, this was the second of 10 “tests” that Hashem provided for him. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch says the Hebrew word for test, nisayon, is related to the word nassa, to elevate, as well as the word nisiya, to travel forward. Every test, every challenge in life, is an opportunity FOR us to help us move ourselves forward, to personally grow, and to elevate ourselves. The Ramchal, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, in Mesilat Yeshurim and Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, the Ramban, also teach us that everything in our life, good and bad circumstances, challenges and adversities, are truly opportunities, tests, for us from which to grow. Those who see this are most fortunate.
Every step we take in life carries with it magnificent opportunities, but when we are promised that we will be made into a great nation, that we will be blessed, that we will become a blessing, what would make us hesitate to take that step? Abraham, following his Divine calling more than 3700 years ago, took a step that changed the world.
Avraham’s journey, beginning in this week’s parasha, is a paradigm for the journeys of our own lives. As Ramban explains, “ma’aseh avos siman la’banim,” – the stories of the ancestors are prototypes for future generations, just as ours are models for our own children and their future generations.
The parasha directs us to find our true selves by leaving our comfortable present surroundings and, to fully eliminate any humanly imposed limits, listen to the voice of the Lord, not to one’s own will, desires, goals and plans.
| And the L-rd said to Avram, “Go forth from your land and from your birthplace and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you.” | ַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהֹוָה֙ אֶל־אַבְרָ֔ם לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵֽאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ וּמִבֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יךָ אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךָּ: |
The Alshich, in Or HaTorah, tells us that Lech Lecha commands “go for yourself from your land,” i.e., “go to yourself,” or “to your essence.” This was the first mitzvah that Avram received from G-d, indeed, it was the first time He speaks to Avram, and one of the ten tests that G-d gave to Avram. Oh, and Avram was 75 years old at the time. Think about what you might be doing at 75, reinventing yourself with a new challenge in life, far from your home?
Avram didn’t think, “Why not? That’s a good idea. I think I’ll do it.” No, Avram followed this mitzvah because G-d commanded it and as a result, this strengthened his connection to Hashem. In fact, it says in Kiddushin (31a), “A person who observes a mitzvah because he is commanded to do so is greater than one who observes it without having been so commanded.” The Ramban explains that the tests we undergo during our lives are entirely for our benefit – not G-d’s. His tests of us afford us the opportunity to transform our potential into genuine spiritual achievements beyond our imagination. By following Hashem’s voice, we are rewarded with deeper self-insight and greater self-actualization.
Perhaps this is an ultimate lesson this week. Who doesn’t experience adversity or challenges in life? Avram focused on the voice of G-d. Avram kept his awareness on where he was being led TO, not simply focused on what test he was going THROUGH. We have the same opportunity and choice to make. Do we listen to our own limiting voice and feel self-defeated, terrified, panicked, depressed, or do we grow through our tests by continuing to go forward following the mitzvot of Hashem, Lech Lecha?
Are you inspired to “go away from–but into–yourself,” to grow beyond where you sit today in life…to take risks, renew and achieve the greatness you were promised, to search for spiritual Y’rushalyim shel ma-alah? Do you hear the urgency of לֶךְ-לְךָ to go beyond your inner comfortable frame of reference, or are you choosing mediocrity? Like Abraham, when you allow yourself to be guided by Hashem, there are no restrictions on your growth.
What about you? Ever stop to think – really consider – your Divine calling? Do you even believe, recognize, that you have one, or have you convinced yourself that Hashem’s promise is for the other guy? Lech Lecha inspires us to rise to the occasion, to T.RU.S.T. (“Totally Rely Upon Spiritual Truth”) that just as Abraham’s blessings were fulfilled following his Divine step, so will yours.
Perhaps it is because I’ve devoted my life to being a psychological and educational catalyst, supporting people’s transformation from the inside out, that I find this parasha continually appealing and thought-provoking. We are each Avram called to go deeply into ourselves and are each Sarai, simply trying the best we can, even struggling at times with jealousy. The journey that Avraham went on, and our own mission to come to know and understand ourselves, are one. This is not simply the voyage restricted to our early years or mid-life, but rather a journey we are on repeatedly…including right now. We are daily called to a grander target to live a life of significance and magnitude.
Fortunately, we have a guide. Our Torah is our road map leading to a deeper life of purpose, meaning and positivity. This guide can help us find greater understanding, compassion, care, kindness, and empathy in life. As I write this d’var Torah, the powerful prayer Eilu Devarim אֵלּוּ דְבָרִים, comes to mind, what some consider to be a prayer for happiness. As we “go to ourselves,” what better place to go to generate genuine happiness than to follow the starkly simple words of this special prayer?
“These are the things that have no limits.
A person enjoys their fruit in this world,
and lives upon their principal in the world to come:
• honoring father and mother;
• performing acts of love and kindness;
• arriving at the house of study punctually
mornings as well as evenings;
• showing hospitality to guests;
• visiting the sick;
• providing for a couple about to marry;
• seeing to the needs of the deceased;
• praying with devotion;
• and being a peacemaker.
• studying Torah leads to all the others.”
May we use our Torah and prayers as guides, daily in our lives, and may these lengthen our days.
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Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D., prepares a weekly D’var Torah for Young Israel of San Diego, where he and his family are members. They are also active members of Congregation Adat Yeshurun. He may be contacted via michael.mantell@sdjewishworld.com