Parshat Lech Lecha 5778
Rabbi Jablinowitz
We read in this week's parsha (Chapter 15, Pasuk 5), Vayotzei Oso HaChutzah, Vayomer Habet Na Hashamaymah U'Sfor HaKochavim, Hashem took Avraham outside and He told him to look up to the heavens and count the stars. The pasuk continues and states that just as you can't count the stars, you will have so many descendants you will not be able to count them.
Rashi comments on the words Vayotzei Oso HaChutzah and brings a few different explanations for what it means that Gd took Avraham outside. One of the meanings he brings is that He took Avraham out of this world and lifted him up above the stars so that Avraham was actually looking down upon the stars. What is the significance of Rashi teaching us that Avraham was brought outside of this world looking down upon it?
Earlier in the parsha, we read that Hashem tells Avraham (Chapter 13, Pasuk 14), Sa Na Einecha U'Re'eh Min HaMakom Asher Atah Sham. Lift up your eyes and look out upon Eretz Yisrael from the place where you are standing. The Meshech Chachmah teaches that Eretz Yisrael was a holy place in which the Shechinah resided. Nonetheless, as the Torah teaches in the beginning of the parsha (Chapter 12, Pasuk 6), V'Ha'Cana'ani Az Ba'Aretz, the Canaanites were at the time ruling over Eretz Yisrael. Therefore, Hashem was teaching Avraham that he should lift up his eyes. Look beyond the place you are actually standing and see the holiness of the land. Even though it is presently being ruled by the Canaanites, lift up your eyes from your present reality and see the holiness of Eretz Yisrael and the presence of the Shechinah contained throughout the land.
The Sfas Emes explains a similar idea on the words in our pasuk Vayotzei Oso HaChutzah. He teaches that the Avos, and all of Bnei Yisrael, come from a higher place. Yet we are placed in this world in order to bring Kedushah into this world. We come into this world and are meant to lift up our eyes and feel the holiness of the world and spread this holiness. As the famous Medrash Rabbah (39, 1) teaches about Avraham Ra'ah Birah Dolekes, Avraham saw a big building burning and said, does the building not have an owner? The owner of the building looked down upon and said I am the owner. Similarly, we need to understand that Hashem rules over the world and He is the Ba'al HaBirah.
Once we understand Hashem's role in running the world, He lifts us up beyond the limits of this physical world and gives us a higher perspective. This is what Rashi means in explaining how Hashem took Avraham outside. He showed him the stars; in our world the stars look tiny but from the higher perspective they are huge. And Chazal teach that Bnei Yisrael are like the stars and counted like the stars. Hashem was showing Avraham the greatness of the Jewish nation which will come from him.
The Sfas Emes compares this taking out of Avraham to the mitzvah of Succah. After we endure the judgment of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in which we are held accountable for our deeds in this world, we leave our physical home in this world and enter the Succah. Just as Hashem tells Avraham to count the stars, we sit in the Succah where we can see the stars through the Schach. We live in a unique environment where we have no physical protection, just the protection of being directly under the influence of the Schach which the Zohar Hakadosh calls the Tzila D'Himnusah, the shade of belief and connection to Gd. After our judgment in this world, we leave this world and enter the Succah.
The first command to Avraham that we read in the beginning of our parsha, Lech Lecha, where Avraham is told to leave the comforts of his home, also parallels the mitzvah of Succah. Just as Avraham is told Lech Lecha, similarly everyone is told at the onset of Succos, Tzei M'Diras Keva, V'Shev B'Diras Araiy. Leave your permanent dwelling and live in temporary quarters. Our living in temporary quarters represents a life where we constantly search for something deeper and more meaningful than the physical reality we see before us. And this sums up the life of Avraham Avinu, who was always searching and moving forward in order to find the presence of Gd in this world. This is why Hashem told him to leave his home and go to Eretz Yisrael, and this is why He told him to lift up his eyes and see the Kedushah of Eretz Yisrael, and this is why He lifted him above the world to look down upon the stars. And this life is incumbent upon us as well as expressed in the mitzvah of Succah. Though we left the Succah two weeks ago, it should never leave us. The experience of the Succah is meant to stay with us throughout the long winter and to instruct us to always feel a close connection to Hashem.
Good Shabbos
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