Thesis: serving God is about what you are doing now, not the end goal
Question: why does Hashem use lech lecha for the first and last test
Answer: to show that serving him is not about where you are from or where you are going, but what you are doing now.
Parshiyot are like fortune cookies!
They are amazing while we are enjoying the cookie and reading the fortune, but forgotten in minutes – no seconds – of finishing. We tend of view each parsha on its own and forget last week and not realize the connections. Part of the beauty in this week’s parsha is the way it relates to last weeks parsha
I would like to take a moment and take a look at the bookends of Avraham’s life and a fascinating parallel the Torah presents. The first test Avraham is given – and the way he is introduced to us in the Torah – is with his commandment to leave his homeland and follow Hashem wherever that will take him. His final test is in this week’s parsha when Hashem commands him to sacrifice his son Yitzchak.
Rashi, however, on this final test has a striking comment. He says that if Avraham is not able to pass this final test, then it will be as if all the earlier tests were worthless. The question is what does Rashi mean? How can this test determine if all the previous tests were successful. He passed them, didn’t he?!
I think the answer lies in the way the first and last test parallel each other. When we just look at the text we will see some fascinating parallels.
First, Hashem uses the words lech lecha twice in the Torah – and yes – they happen to be right here. Once at his first trial and here at his last trial. That is not the end of the parallel.
He uses a string of phrases to describe what to do.
With leaving Charan it says:
לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ וּמִבֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יךָ אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךָּ׃
He describes leaving his land, birth-land, and father’s house.
While here – at akeidas yitzchok – he says:
אֶת־בִּנְךָ֨ אֶת־יְחִֽידְךָ֤ אֲשֶׁר־אָהַ֙בְתָּ֙ אֶת־יִצְחָ֔ק
Take your son, your special one that you love, specifically Yitzchok.
Both lists start from general and become more specific. Hashem is slowly describing to Avraham the intensity of the mission he is about to go on.
Another interesting point is that the first lech lecha is the first time Hashem speaks to Avraham in the Torah and the second lech lecha is the last time Hashem directly addresses him in the Torah.
The question therefore becomes, what is the parallel between these two tests. And why does Rashi say that all the other tests dependent on Avraham passing this last test of sacrificing his son?
Nachama Lebowitz presents a beautiful idea that I would like to develop. When Avraham is first told lech lecha he is told to leave his house and everything he knows behind. Hashem is telling him that in order to move further he needs to realize that his past does not define his future and he needs to push past it to find his way of serving Hashem.
The second time Hashem told Avraham lech lecha – and the final time Hashem speaks to him – he is telling Avraham to give up his future for serving Hashem. Yitzchok was his only continuation of the Jewish people, and he was told to give that up in service of God. Hashem is teaching him an entirely different lesson: even without a future, there is still a deep value in service of God.
There are two paradigms that often quoted as excuses for avoiding religious growth. The first is “I don’t have a strong Jewish background”. It is true that learning and certain practices may be more difficult, but it certainly does not mean the inability to do anything. On the flip side, the paradigm is “there’s just too much to learn or do” and therefore it is not worth starting if I can never reach the end goal. Both are equally stunting to a religious development.
Avraham, the ultimate finder of God, started his journey by demonstrating that the past is not what defines us and we have the ability to move past difficulties to progress in our religious life. We are not expected to forget our past or deny it – the same way Avraham embraced his past identity in next week’s parsha by finding a daughter for Yitzchok from his father’s household.
However, we may have mistaken Avraham’s mission as destined to end somewhere – he had an end goal that he had to reach. When Avraham followed the first lech lecha – we may think that to serve God we need a destination to reach. That is why the last mission was so crucial. Even if he had to give up his future and admit there was no “end goal” – serving Hashem in the moment is what being a religious Jew is all about.
As I was looking back at parshas lech lecha I realized that Hashem was telling Avraham this all along by saying follow me – אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךָּ – where I will lead you. There was never an end goal in mind, it was just following Hashem day by day – doing whatever he could based on his capacity.
The Mishna in Pirkei Avos directly addresses this issue as well. It says:
לֹא עָלֶיךָ הַמְּלָאכָה לִגְמֹר, וְלֹא אַתָּה בֶן חוֹרִין לִבָּטֵל מִמֶּנָּה.
It has been made into a popular song, but the message rings true. It is not up to you to finish the work – meaning don’t worry if you wont make it all the way. However, you are also not free to sit around idly – regardless of what your background is – since it is all of our obligations to continue working.
Until now, I have framed Avraham’s journey as a message for our overall lives. Yet, I think we can also take this message as a paradigm for daily observances. For example, when we daven, we are usually distracted by the events that just happened and worried about the tasks ahead. However, Avraham can teach us that it is important to live in the moment. The past can be ignored during davening in the same way Avraham crossed the river to move on from his past. The future is not important during davening in the way Avraham sacrifices his future. All in order to teach us that service of Hashem requires being in the moment.
Whether we view Avraham as archetype for our overall lives or our daily observances, serving God requires being in the moment and realizing we all have the ability to serve – it does not require a specific history or future – it just requires the present.