In the Medrash Rabbah (Chapter 39), Rav Yitzchok comments on the first pasuk in this week’s parsha: לך לך מארצך וממולדתך ומבית אביך אל הארץ אשר אראך - ”Go forth from your land, your birthplace and the house of your father to the Land that I will show you” (Bereishis 12:1) – by citing a pasuk from Tehillim (45:11): שמעי בת וראי והטי אזנך ושכחי עמך ובית אביך - “My daughter listen to me and see; turn your ear and forget your nation and the house of your father.” This is how Rav Yitzchok would begin his exposition on Parshas Lech Lecha. He would reference this pasuk from sefer Tehillim. The question is – what does this pasuk in Tehillim have to do with Parshas Lech Lecha?
Rav Eliezer Kahan who was a mashgiach in Gateshead explains in his sefer called Nachlas Eliezer as follows:
Rav Yitzchok is coming to answer a question that many meforshim ask: The pasuk, לך לך מארצך וממולדתך ומבית אביך, contains an inherent problem. The Ribbono Shel Olam is asking Avraham to go away from his country, his city, his father’s house and to go to Eretz Yisroel. As we all know, if we go anywhere – especially if we go out of the country – the first place that we leave is our home. Then we leave our city. Then when we get to the airport and take off toward our destination, and finally leave our country. The pasuk should therefore have really been written in the reverse sequence: Go forth from your father’s house, your birthplace (i.e. – your city), and from your land (i.e. – your country); not vice versa as the pasuk states.
The famous answer to this question is that the Ribbono Shel Olam is not requesting a change of location, venue, or zip code from Avraham over here. Rather, the Ribbono Shel Olam is asking for Avraham Avinu to become a different person, literally to go ahead and wipe the slate clean to the extent that there is no remnant of his past existence.
To what can the matter be compared? Often, after a number of years computers/laptops start to work very slowly, and the best thing to do is to wipe the hard drive clean and reload everything again. In today’s disposable generation, they just tell you to buy a new one, but in the past, they would wipe the hard drive clean.
HaKodosh Boruch Hu is asking Avraham “Wipe your hard drive clean.” There should be no zecher [memory] left of your previous existence, of who you were. “I want a fresh start. I am going to build a new nation from you and therefore everything in your past needs to be deleted.”
Now the pasuk makes eminent sense. The country one lives in often effects those who live there in a certain way. Americans are different from Israelis, Israelis are different from Russians, and Russians are different from Iranians. Everyone is different based on the cultural practices of the country where they grew up. This is the reality of things.
But the influence that a person’s country has on him is not in his bone marrow. That is the easiest influence to get rid of. That can be accomplished in quick order. Therefore, “Go out of your land” comes first in the pasuk. Next comes “and from your birthplace”. We are all influenced by the cities we live in. Different cities have different cultures. This influence has a little more profound impact on a person’s identity than “your country”, but again it is not part of the person’s DNA.
But then there is the person’s family – beis avicha. This is part of our very essence. This influence comes along in our mother’s milk. This is the hardest thing to get rid of – the walls that we were raised in, what we heard as children from our parents and our siblings. That is really who we are.
Therefore, HaKodosh Boruch Hu is not really telling Avraham to change location but to become a different person and to delete all former influences. The way to do that is artzecha, moladetecha, and finally beis avicha.
This now helps us understand what Rav Yitzchok was saying by linking the opening pasuk of the Parsha with the eleventh pasuk in Chapter 45 of Tehillim: שמעי בת וראי והטי אזנך ושכחי עמך ובית אביך - “My daughter listen to me and see; turn your ear and forget your nation and the house of your father.” This is exactly what was occurring at the beginning of Lech Lecha. Avraham was commanded to forget his nation and then forget his father’s house – in that order!
With this understanding, we can also resolve another problem in the first pasuk of our parsha. Rashi comments on the words Lech Lecha [go for yourself] – for your benefit and for your own good! There is another famous question that everyone asks: This is supposed to be a test for Avraham. There is a difference of opinion whether it is the first or second of the famous Ten Tests that Avraham was given, but it certainly is considered a “Test” and a challenge. So Hashem is telling Avraham: Guess what? Here is a test. If you pass this test, you are going to be in good shape!
If “Go where I ask you to go” is supposed to be a nisayon, why isn’t the challenge being given without any promises? Let the promises come after Avraham passes the test and gets to “the Land he will be shown”?
The Nachlas Eliezer addresses this problem by citing a fundamental principle of Rav Yisroel Salanter in terms of how to live life. Rav Yisroel Salanter said, that to successfully pass a nisayon [test], a person needs two elements: A person must have Yiras Shomayim. That is, if the Ribbono Shel Olam asks you to do something, you must comply because you fear the Ribbono Shel Olam. But the key to passing a nisayon is to minimize the test and make the challenge seem less great than it really is.
A person needs to convince himself – “psych himself out” – that it is not the highest mountain to climb, it is merely a hill. We can give an example. Let’s say that someone needs to exercise every morning. The only way a person can exercise every morning is by getting up at 5:00 am. That is the only time when it might fit into the daily schedule. Now, who wants to get out of bed at 5:00 am? Why do you need to do exercise? Because you need to lose weight and it is good for your cardiovascular system. So you tell yourself – why am I getting up so early? It is because it is good for my weight. It is good for my heart.
You make a “deal” with yourself. You say, if I get up at 5:00 am in the morning, I am going to treat myself to a cup of “Keurig-made coffee”, if I don’t get up at 5:00 o’clock then it is Nescafe. So why am I getting up then? I am not getting up because I want my heart to be better or because I want to lose weight. I am getting up because of the geshmak of having some Keurig-made coffee. I love that coffee.
Rav Yisroel says this is the approach a person needs to use in yiddishkeit. Do not make it hard on yourself! Make it easy in your mind. HaKodosh Boruch Hu is telling Avraham – become a different person. Do you know how hard that is? Avraham Avinu is not 15 years old at the beginning of Lech Lecha. He is 75 years old. It is not easy to “erase a person’s hard drive” at the age of 75! In order for Avraham Avinu to pass this test, it was necessary to minimize the challenge. Therefore, he was promised that this move would be “for your benefit, and for your own good.”
One final point: The pasuk says: והיה ברכה - “And be a blessing” (Bereishis 12:2). Rashi explains: “The blessings are given over into your control. Until now, blessings were in My Hand. I Blessed Adam and Noach. However, from now on, you will bless whomever you desire.” This gift was unprecedented in the history of the world. The keys to blessing were given over to Avraham Avinu.
We can again provide a contemporary example: Imagine a billionaire who is fantastically wealthy. He gives out tzedokah most generously, but he appoints a gabbai tzedokah to oversee his charitable contributions. Now if he tells this gabbai tzedokah – not only will you oversee my contributions, but I am no longer going to even sign the checks. You will be the one who gives out my millions of dollars based on whatever you think is appropriate. No strings attached. No oversight on my part. This is the nature of the blessing והיה ברכה as Rashi describes it.
The reason the Ribbono Shel Olam gave this gift to Avraham was because Avraham became a different person. He wiped his entire previous life experience clean and became “kulo l’Hashem” – totally devoted to the Hashem.
Now we can understand something that is truly mind boggling. The pasuk says in Parshas Chayei Sarah: ויהי אחרי מות אברהם ויברך אלקים את יצחק בנו –“And it was after the death of Avraham, Hashem blessed Yitzchok his son...” (Bereishis 25:11). Rashi asks – why was it necessary for the Ribbono Shel Olam to bless Yitzchok – after all, He had given the “keys to blessing” to Avraham to bless anyone he wanted. Why didn’t Avraham bless Yitzchok himself while he was still alive? Rashi answers: Even though the Holy One handed over the keys of blessing to Avraham, Avraham was afraid to bless his son because he saw that Eisav would descend from him. Avraham said, “Let the Master of Blessing come and Bless who ever finds favor in His Eyes.” And the Holy One came and blessed Yitzchok.
Which of us, if we controlled the power of blessing in this world, would withhold it from our own son – even from the “Yitzchok that you love” (Bereishis 22:2)? Yitzchok is a tzadik yesod oilam! He was prepared to be offered as an unblemished offering at the akeidah! Avraham Avinu said, “No. I am not going to take the responsibility of giving a berachah to Yitzchok because Eisav is going to come out from him.” How selfless can a person be? How does a person get to such a spiritual level?
A person gets to that level by working on himself and allowing himself to depart from his land, from his birthplace, and from the house of his father. He becomes a new person – a person Hashem trusted with the power of berachah. (R’ Frand)
