Parshas Lech Lecha: Walking the Land

The Sources in Hand

This week Rabbi Adi sent out marked-up pages from the Ha'amek Davar before the call and went through them one by one: four ideas of the Netziv on Parshas Lech Lecha, with the lines he wanted everyone to see underlined. The year of learning the Netziv continued straight from the sources, and it ended with a personal story that brought one of them to life.

Seeing and Hearing

The parsha follows Avram Avinu through his journeys and his tests, through all the amazing things he did in his life. Early in the parsha, once Avram arrives in the land, the Torah says:

וַיֵּרָא ה׳ אֶל־אַבְרָם וַיֹּאמֶר לְזַרְעֲךָ אֶתֵּן אֶת־הָאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת

And Hashem appeared to Avram, and said: To your offspring I will give this land. (Bereishis 12:7)

The Netziv points out something striking. The first time Hashem spoke to Avram, at the very beginning of the parsha, the Torah does not say that Hashem appeared to him. Avram heard Hashem's word; he did not see. Why? Because, in the Netziv's words, the place he was in then was not fit for gilui Shechinah, for Hashem's presence to be revealed, and not for the service of korbanos, until he came to Eretz Yisrael. Now that Avram was standing in the land, Hashem appeared to him. This is one of the themes we will see over and over in the Ha'amek Davar: the beauty and the amazingness of Eretz Yisrael, that it is like no other place, the place where Hashem's presence constantly dwells.

Rabbi Adi said this reminded him of an idea of the Maharal, a great philosopher. We believe that Hashem is everywhere in the entire world, so what does it mean that Israel is special? There is a concept of hashgachah, Hashem's watching care: Hashem watches over all of the Jewish people wherever they may be, whether they are in Jerusalem, in New York or New Jersey, or anywhere else in the world. But there is hashgachah pratis, personal care, and hashgachah klalis, general care. Outside the land, Hashem cares one hundred percent, but, so to say, He sends His most trusted advisors: He sends His CEO, He sends His CFO, He sends His angels, and they watch over His children. In Israel, He Himself is personally watching over everybody, and that is the place He will never leave.

The Famine Test

Then comes the first great test of the parsha:

וַיְהִי רָעָב בָּאָרֶץ וַיֵּרֶד אַבְרָם מִצְרַיְמָה לָגוּר שָׁם

And there was a famine in the land, and Avram went down to Mitzrayim to sojourn there. (Bereishis 12:10)

Avram had just been told to pick up his whole life and travel to the land. It was hard, and he went. And now, a famine forces him out of the very land Hashem showed him. The Netziv writes, in the line Rabbi Adi underlined, that in this was a test for Avraham Avinu: shelo hikpid, he did not take offense and did not question, but understood that such was now Hashem's counsel. He could have been very upset: Hashem, You just told me that I should be going to this land, and now You are chasing me out? Instead, he took the challenge upon himself and accepted it with love. There was no food and he had to sustain himself, so he packed up and went.

Rabbi Adi pointed out that this is not like the Ramban, and the Netziv himself says so in these lines: the Ramban writes that Avraham erred here, that he should have stayed in the land and trusted Hashem that there would eventually be food. Not so, says the Netziv, and this is how many others understand it as well: Avraham certainly trusted as far as it was possible to trust, but this is how it arose in Hashem's plan. The lesson, as Rabbi Adi explained it: sometimes life is hard, and the status of things changes. A week ago the ideal place for you to be was Israel; now, through no fault of your own, the ideal place for you is somewhere else, because right now there is no food there for your family. Instead of getting upset about it, pick yourself up, meet the new situation, and be proud of overcoming the challenge.

Sarah in the Box

On the way down came a new danger. Avram knew that his wife Sarah was the most beautiful woman in the world, and that if he walked into Mitzrayim with her, the Egyptians would kill him and take her to the king. What did he do? Rashi, citing the Midrash, learns it from the wording of the pasuk:

וַיְהִי כְּבוֹא אַבְרָם מִצְרָיְמָה וַיִּרְאוּ הַמִּצְרִים אֶת־הָאִשָּׁה כִּי־יָפָה הִוא מְאֹד

And it was, when Avram came into Mitzrayim, the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. (Bereishis 12:14)

The pasuk says when Avram came, in the singular, and not when they came, because Sarah was hidden in a box. At the border the Egyptians went through the boxes, basically a customs check, and when they opened this one they found her, and she was taken to Paroh. Avram had told Sarah to say that he was her brother and not her husband, so that they would not kill him, and from there the story continues. The Netziv asks a simple question: what was Avraham thinking? Did he believe he could keep his wife hidden in a box for the entire time they were going to live in Mitzrayim? Impossible. She had to be able to come out and live. The Netziv answers: Avraham planned to hide her from the crowds only at the beginning, when he first came in; and afterwards, when he reached his lodging place, he would look for a different solution, with Hashem's help. And, the Netziv adds, Hashem indeed devised a different way to save her.

Rabbi Adi said this is a very important concept that comes up in all parts of life: a business decision, a parenting decision, a spiritual decision. It is on us to be as analytical as possible: understand the problem in front of us, look at all the different sides, and come up with the best solution we can. Sometimes that solution will not be a full solution for everything that could come up later. But you cannot let that paralyze you from moving forward. Take the first step, even though it is scary, and do the best you can. After you pass that first hurdle, there may be more hurdles; then you analyze again and come up with the next solution. And through it all, have bitachon and emunah, trust and faith, that Hashem is going to help solve everything, just as Avraham trusted that by the time Sarah had to come out of the box, Hashem would show him the next step.

Walking the Land

After Avram and Lot separate (that story in a moment), Hashem gives Avram the great and most beautiful promise: that He will love and care for Avram's children in all future generations, be there for us at all times, never forget about us, and that the land of Israel will be ours forever and ever, a promise later sealed in the Bris Bein HaBesarim. And with the promise comes an instruction:

קוּם הִתְהַלֵּךְ בָּאָרֶץ לְאָרְכָּהּ וּלְרָחְבָּהּ כִּי לְךָ אֶתְּנֶנָּה

Arise, walk about the land, its length and its breadth, for to you I will give it. (Bereishis 13:17)

What was the walking for? Many explain, as the Ramban famously teaches, ma'aseh avos siman labanim: the deeds of the fathers are a sign for the children. Avraham was taking ownership of Eretz Yisrael for all future generations; the Gemara in Bava Basra brings the view that walking through a property is a way of acquiring it. By walking the land from end to end, Avraham was, so to speak, performing the kinyan on the land of Israel for the Jewish people forever.

The Netziv, in the piece Rabbi Adi saved for last, reads the pasuk as a promise about our own era. Hashem was giving Avram the gift of the land a second time, and this time He was describing how it would look far in the future. Your children will be punished and go into exile; they will be diminished and grow fewer and fewer; and then they will return to Eretz Yisrael and settle it. But not in the way they entered the first time, in the days of Yehoshua, right after Moshe passed away, when Hashem conquered everything for them and the Jewish people did not build houses but found everything ready before them, a complete miracle. In the later returns, the Netziv writes, the Jewish people will have to build the houses and establish the settlement by themselves, just as Avraham himself had to walk the land. And why does the pasuk say hishalech, walk about, rather than simply go? Because Avraham could not possibly have covered every single meter of the land naturally; his walking was accomplished with Hashem's power. So too, says the Netziv, the settlement of the land will be done by Israel themselves, but with Hashem's help.

And this, Rabbi Adi said, is exactly the time we are living in. Since the establishment of Israel there has been a tremendous, tremendous amount of hishtadlus, of hard work: the financial infrastructure, the military infrastructure, the yeshivos, all the different infrastructures of Jewish life, built up with hard work, and there is still a lot more work to be done for Israel to be completely set up for the future of Mashiach. But we have to hold the balance the Netziv describes: we put in every single thing we can, and we realize that we are not doing it alone. We are doing it with our Father, with Hashem, who, as we learned at the start of the call, watches over Israel personally, not through His CEO or His CFO, but He Himself. The whole Jewish people are continuing to build up the land: especially those living in Israel, and everyone who takes part in building its future, educating people, bringing people to the land, and spreading the beauty of Israel, the beauty of Judaism, and everything that we stand for.

The Shepherds and the Onlookers

One more piece from the parsha, which Rabbi Adi connected to a personal story and a lesson he taught his own family this week. Lot, Avram's nephew, benefited tremendously from being at Avram's side. The Netziv explains: so many people came to Avram for advice, for a tefillah, for a word of wisdom, in Torah matters and in life, that Lot became the go-between, passing Avram's guidance to the people who came, and people would give him presents for it. Lot became wealthy, with sheep and cattle and shepherds of his own, and he grew in knowledge as well: he had come along as a simple helper, and he became a student. And then the parsha tells us that Lot's shepherds and Avram's shepherds got into a fight, and the pasuk closes with words that seem out of place:

וְהַכְּנַעֲנִי וְהַפְּרִזִּי אָז יֹשֵׁב בָּאָרֶץ

And the Canaani and the Perizzi were then dwelling in the land. (Bereishis 13:7)

Why does the Torah tell us who else was living there? The Netziv writes, in the lines Rabbi Adi underlined: the Canaani and the Perizzi were dwelling there without quarrel and without dispute, while between the camps of Avram and Lot there was a fight. That was a chillul Hashem, a desecration of Hashem's name, because the people watching knew the greatness and the holiness of Avraham and his household, and they would say that this is where Avraham's faith leads. People who carry Hashem's name are watched, and how we behave in front of the world matters.

Then Rabbi Adi shared what happened to him this past week. He was flying back to Israel with his eleven-year-old son, and a travel agent had booked them the last two seats on the flight. At the gate they were stopped: the seats were in an emergency exit row, and his son clearly does not look sixteen. Rabbi Adi assumed they would sort it out on board with a quick switch, but it was a packed overnight flight where almost everyone was flying as a couple, nobody wanted to move, and the crew grew more and more upset about how this could have happened. Toward the end of the flight they woke him up and said: we figured it out. You lied. The booking had his son listed as sixteen years old, even though the system also had a picture of the passport showing his real age. As they landed, the crew told him: you are a religious man, and we are let down that you would lie to get yourself a better seat. He told them the truth: it was the travel agent who filled in the information, and he never would have done such a thing.

And after he landed and davened, he did one more thing. He drove to the travel agent's office in Jerusalem, a man he had never met, sat down with him, and told him what he had caused on that plane: I never would have agreed to fly under these conditions, and I hope you never do something like this again, because of how it made the Jewish people, and religious Jews especially, look. It ended well; the crew understood that he had not been the one lying. But the lesson, Rabbi Adi said, is the lesson of the Canaani and the Perizzi. People are watching, even at times when we ourselves did nothing wrong. We have to go above and beyond to act appropriately and to live a life of values in front of everybody, for ourselves and for all of mankind. And every once in a while it is even worth going to another person and giving a little mussar, loving correction, so that it never happens again.

In Avraham's Footsteps

Lech Lecha is the parsha of moving forward. Avraham walks into the land where Hashem is seen and not only heard; he accepts leaving it without complaint when the situation changes; he takes the first step into Mitzrayim with a plan that only covered the first step; he walks the length and breadth of the land to acquire it for his children, who would one day build it up themselves with Hashem's help; and the story of the shepherds reminds us how carefully the people who carry Hashem's name must walk in front of the world. May we follow in those footsteps.