LECH LECHA I | ךל ךל א
Adapted from a sichah delivered on Yud-Gimmel Tammuz, 5714 (1954)
Introduction
We all know the story: Avraham shattered his father’s idols. The king of Ur subsequently cast him into a fiery furnace and G-d miraculously saved him. Interestingly, the Written Torah only alludes to this episode, choosing instead to introduce Avraham’s life with the command, “Go forth from your land, from your birthplace, and from your father’s house.”
The confrontation Avraham faced while in his father’s home was a personal trial of faith. However, the Torah begins to teach us about his life with Lech lecha, the command to go forth from his native land, because it is a story that speaks to every soul. This directive encapsulates the essential journey of every Jew’s life. Before birth, our souls exist on sublime spiritual planes. Yet they descend into bodies specifically so they can achieve levels loftier than their original source.
This teaching transforms how we understand our daily struggles. When we feel torn between spiritual aspirations and worldly demands, we are actively fulfilling the very purpose for which our souls descend. The challenge of Lech lecha – going forth from our comfort zones, our ingrained patterns, even our holy inclinations – defines the Jewish mission across all generations.
Avraham’s Trial: A Universal Challenge
A Trial Everyone Must Undergo
1. Our Sages taught, “Our Patriarch, Avraham underwent ten trials.” One of the first trials, and perhaps also among his greatest, was the trial of Ur Kasdim, where he was cast into a burning furnace. Nevertheless, this trial is not mentioned explicitly in the Torah, only by allusion. The first trial mentioned explicitly in the Torah is the trial of Lech lecha, when G-d commanded him, “Go forth from your land, from your birthplace, and from your father’s house.”
It can be said that the reason for this is that the challenge of obeying the command, “Go forth from your land…” exists within every person’s Divine service. More specifically, the challenge involves both “go[ing] forth,” descending “from above to below,” i.e., extending the spiritual into the lowly, material realm, and ascending “from below to above,” elevating oneself by changing and breaking through one’s natural tendencies and, moreover, advancing within the “below” itself, continuing to carry out this task without resting.
The Paradox of Descent
2. To preface with a brief summary of the concept: The soul’s descent into the body involves two contradictory motifs:
a) “Against your will you live” – The soul is compelled to descend to this world and live in the body. Before its descent, the soul was hewn from beneath G-d’s Throne of Glory. Moreover, even that lofty peak itself represents a descent for the soul. It also exists on a more elevated level, in a state of purity, as we say each day in our morning blessings, “it is pure.” And there are even more sublime levels within the soul’s hierarchy.
Thus, the descent of the soul to grant life to the body is one of great magnitude. Additionally, as the Rebbe Rayatz stated in one of his talks, before the soul’s descent to this world, it is shown the Garden of Eden and Gehinnom so that it will know what awaits it as a result of its life in this world. As such, the soul’s descent below to grant life to the body runs contrary to the soul’s will and natural tendency. This is the implication of our Sages’ words, “Against your will, you live.”
b) Conversely, however, despite the magnitude of the descent, it is precisely through this descent that the soul reaches a higher level than before its descent. As expressed in the well-known teaching, it is “a descent for the purpose of an ascent.”
To the Depths and to the Heights
3. These two aspects of the soul’s journey are alluded to in the verse, Lech lecha, “Go forth from your land, from your birthplace, and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” To focus on the soul’s descent from its lofty source: Mei’artzecha (מארצך), “from your land,” shares the fundamental root letters of the word ratzon, “will.” Thus, it represents the soul as it exists within G-d’s will. This level is loftier than the source of the soul mentioned in Tanya, ch. 2, which states that the soul derives from G-d’s wisdom, about which it is said, “He and His wisdom are one,” since will represents a loftier spiritual rung than wisdom.
(On this basis, we can understand the statement in a later chapter of Tanya, ch. 32, that the souls “are all identical.” This refers to their existence within the Divine will. “And they all possess one Father,” refers to their existence within Divine wisdom.)
“From your birthplace and from your father’s house” also allude to different Kabbalistic levels – the soul as rooted in the sefiros of chochmah (“wisdom”) and binah (“understanding”) – for conception and birth come from the father and the mother, and chochmah is identified with the father and binah with the mother.
“From your birthplace” corresponds to the soul as it exists in chochmah, for the power of conception stems from chochmah.
“From your father’s house” refers to the soul as it exists in the level of binah. (Although chochmah is identified with the father, “your father’s house” refers to binah, because binah is the house and conduit for “the father,” chochmah.)
Alternatively, it can be said that “from your birthplace” includes both parents, the sefiros of chochmah and binah, since together they serve as progenitors. “Your father’s house” corresponds to the soul as it exists in the sefirah of malchus (“sovereignty”) since malchus is the attribute that houses all the sefiros and enables them to descend to the lower realms.
On an even lower level, the phrase, “from your birthplace, and from your father’s house,” can be understood as referring to binah – zeir anpin (the emotive attributes of Atzilus), and nukva (malchus).
These three levels of the soul also exists as the soul descends through the chainlike order of spiritual worlds. “From your land” refers to the soul as it exists on a level loftier than the World of Atzilus (“Emanation”). “From your birthplace” refers to the soul as it exists in Atzilus, for the root of all souls is from Atzilus, and chochmah, which, as stated above, is the source of conception, shines within Atzilus as a whole; therein rests the yud of the Divine name Havayah, together with its milui. “Your father’s house” refers to the soul as it exists in the World of Beriah (“Creation”), where the sefirah of binah shines, and malchus (“sovereignty”) of Atzilus becomes the kesser (“the crown”) of Beriah.
The soul is told, Lech lecha, “Go forth from your land, from your birthplace, and from your father’s house,” i.e., it is instructed to depart from its root and source, including all the elevated levels mentioned above. It must journey “to the land that I will show you” – to be enclothed in a physical body. For it is specifically through the physical body that the soul reaches a more sublime level than before its descent.
The soul’s descent is reflected in the words of the morning blessings, “The soul that You placed within me, it is pure.” “It is pure” refers to the soul as it exists in the World of Atzilus, and “You placed it within me” refers to even loftier levels. Nevertheless, the soul descends from these lofty rungs, as the blessing continues: “You created it” – to the world of Beriah; “You formed it” – to the World of Yetzirah (“Formation”); until “You breathed it into me,” into an actual physical body.
It is specifically through this ultimate descent, “You breathed it into me,” that – as the blessing continues – the soul reaches the level of “You safeguard it within me.” The root of this level is loftier than the root of “it is pure” and even loftier than the root of “You placed it within me.” This is evident from the fact that one who guards is stronger than those he guards.
This is the meaning of the conclusion of G-d’s directive to Avraham to go “to the land that I will show you”: “I” – i.e., the Essence of G-d Himself – “will show you,” for it is specifically here on the physical plane that it is possible to tap the Divine Essence itself. As Tanya, ch. 4, states, “ ‘No thought can grasp Him at all,’ except when [G-d’s] thought is grasped and enclothed in the Torah and its commandments,” which are “not in the heavens,” but rather specifically in this physical world.
Two Journeys, One Command
4. After the soul has carried out the directive of Lech lecha mei’artzecha – going forth from your land – descending from above to below, departing from all its lofty levels and entering into a physical body, it receives the power to carry out the command Lech lecha mei’artzecha according to the second interpretation – ascending from below to above – “to the land I will show you.”
The evil inclination enters a person first; “its claim came first,” for it is present in a child from the moment he emerges from his mother’s womb. Thus, overcoming it requires strength. Accordingly, when the soul descends here to the earthly plane, it is empowered to be able to go forth:
mei’artzecha (מארצך), which shares the root letters of ratzah (רצה) “will” – from the desires of the animal soul
“from your birthplace” – from the fundamental assumptions which stem from a natural, worldly mindset and worldly character traits
“and from your father’s house” – from the tendencies derived from improper education and habit
The soul is charged Lech lecha, “Go forth,” from all these undesirable matters and proceed el ha’aretz asher areka, “to the land that I will show you,” to the synagogue and study hall, where the desires of the G-dly soul reign. This will nullify the natural worldly desires, the assumptions of the natural worldly intellect, and the natural worldly character traits and habits of the animal soul.
A Loftier Challenge
5. After the soul has carried out this stage of its Divine service – going out from the land, birthplace, and father’s house of the animal soul – a higher level of service is demanded of it: to go forth from the land, birthplace, and father’s house even of the G-dly soul.
The soul is charged with departing: “from your land” – from the inherent desires of the G-dly soul; “from your birthplace” – from the wisdom of the G-dly soul; “and from your father’s house” – from the contemplation of holiness. It must proceed “to the land that I will show you,” attaining a level that transcends reason and knowledge. This level is identified with the underlying foundation and the vision of wisdom, which reflects the inner dimension of Abba (“Supernal Father”) – a level that transcends intellect, even the intellect associated with chochmah.
