Parshas Lech Lecha: Tried And Tested
Rabbi Elie Starr
The Mishna in Pirkei Avos tells us that Avraham was given 10 tests and withstood all of them. Parshas Lech Lecha opens with one of these tests, and the name actually is the test-“Lech Lecha”. HaShem appears to Avraham and tells him to leave his land, his birth place, and his father’s house and go to an unknown land in which he will become a great nation and be blessed.
There is a disagreement among the commentators as to what the 10 tests of Avraham were. However, they all agree that Lech Lecha was one of them and almost all of them include Ur Kasdim which was only alluded to in last week’s parsha. Whereas the test of Ur Kasdim is only hinted to and the test of Lech Lecha is explicit, what then is the significance for us of Lech Lecha compared to Ur Kasdim?
The test of “Ur Kasdim,” being willing to give up his life in a fiery furnace because he refuted Avodah Zara, seems greater than “Lech Lecha” and it was without any command from HaShem and before HaShem even appeared to Avraham. Avraham had to use his own logic to discern that there was a creator and he was practically arguing against the whole world. Avraham could have argued, if I die now who will take up the cause of teaching the world that there is a Creator. With Lech Lecha, on the other hand, HaShem came to him and explicitly told him to go and follow Him. Furthermore, HaShem promised that he would become a great nation and he would receive all sorts of Brachos.
The Sifsei Chaim, based on the Alter from Kelm, explains that all of the tests which Avraham Avinu had before HaShem revealed Himself to him, were within Avraham’s Seichel (logic) and not by the Command of HaShem. Those tests were only hinted to in the Torah. But Torah is beyond logic and the Torah wants to stress the Avodah of Avraham that was beyond logic: serving Hashem and overcoming tests by Mitzvos that are beyond our understanding. When a person understands a Mitzvah and fulfills it according to logic, it is easier because there is push from within. When there is a command from HaShem telling a person to do a Mitzvah, this involves being Mevatel to HaShem’s Ratzon, especially when there is no apparent logic to the command. This is how R’ Dessler explains Emunah, faith. It is not believing what you understand with logic, rather Emunah starts where Seichel ends.
The Lech Lecha test is explicitly stated in the Torah because it defies logic on many levels. R’ Zilberstein points out that Hashem did not tell Avraham at first where his final destination was going to be or even which direction he was going. Imagine what he felt like when his neighbors saw him packing up his belongings. “Where are you going?” “I don’t know.” “Why are you going?” “Because G-d told me to.” Avraham looked like a fool to them. Also, Rav Moshe points out that Avraham could have argued with HaShem that He could simply give him the blessings in his current location. Despite these apparent flaws in “Lech Lecha” and more, Avraham did not even question HaShem or make any complaints, even though it did not make sense logically. This is what separated this test and the rest of Avraham’s tests from that of Ur Kasdim. And this paved the way for our Avodas HaShem. We learn from Avraham Avinu that the foundation of serving HaShem is to first use our intelligence to bend our will to follow what we know is logically correct even if it is painful and difficult. Then we must approach that which is beyond our logic to follow the Torah and Mitzvos even where logically we don’t understand why HaShem commanded us to keep the Mitzvah. We just follow HaShem’s word because we were commanded to do so.
