Destination Unknown
Parashas Lech Lecha
Harav Hagaon Yosef Elefant Shlita
This past week was the yahrtzeit of our unforgettable rosh yeshiva, Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel z”tl, whose gadlus was multifaceted: in his bein adam lachaveiro, in his bein adam laMakom, in his hasmadah, in his learning, in his caring for everybody, in the scope of his vision for growth in Torah. I’m reminded of an incident with the rosh yeshiva I witnessed, related to this week’s parashah, that captures one aspect of his incredible personality.
I was once sitting in his dining room at some sort of meeting, when a little boy came in with his father for a brachah. The rosh yeshiva zt”l asked this little boy, “What are you learning?” and the boy said, “Lech lecha.”
“If someone would tell you to go somewhere,” the rosh yeshiva asked, “but not tell you where to go, would you start to move?”
The little boy didn’t know what to answer. So the rosh yeshiva pointed to himself, tapped on his chest, and looked at me and said, “That’s me — I’m going. I don’t know where the finish line is, I don’t know where I’m heading, but I’m forging ahead.”
The Sfas Emes points out that Hakadosh Baruch Hu told Avraham Avinu to go, without saying where to go, because there actually is no finish line. If anything, the opposite is true: When a person grows and takes a step forward, and gets to a certain place, the world unfolds in front of him. It’s as if he’s climbing a mountain and with every step that he takes he sees that there is so much more ahead of him, so many more opportunities for growth.
In Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s first revelation to Avraham Avinu, he told him simply to “go”: he didn’t tell him where to go, he didn’t tell him where the end is, because in ruchniyus there is no finish line or end goal. The goal is the growth itself. It’s not a means to an end — the means is the end itself. In Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s first dialogue with Avraham Avinu in the Torah, He was teaching him that a person’s relationship with Him is defined by movement, by growth. There doesn’t have to be a specific destination or finish line, because the growth is meant to be constant, and the road of that growth is eternal. The minute a person reaches one place, he sees that the “finish line” has moved.
The Yetzer Hara Attacks on the Path
On the passuk in Parashas Zachor: זָכוֹר אֵת אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה לְךָ עֲמָלֵק בַּדֶּרֶךְ בְּצֵאתְכֶם מִמִּצְרָיִם, the Sfas Emes wonders why the Torah would specify the geographical location of where Klal Yisrael were when Amalek came: בַּדֶּרֶךְ. Why is that significant?
The Sfas Emes answers that the reason the Torah highlights the fact that Klal Yisrael were “on the way” is that the yetzer hara comes and ambushes a person precisely because he is בַּדֶּרֶךְ — when he hasn’t reached the finish line yet. Amalek, or the yetzer hara, challenges a person by saying, “What have you accomplished? How far have you gone? You’re only on the way, and that has no meaning.” In the world of gashmiyus, it’s the results that count, but in the world of ruchniyus it’s only the efforts, the growth, the forging further that count. So the meeting place of the yetzer hara with the human being is on the derech, when he’s forging ahead but hasn’t reached any tangible goal. The truth is that there is no end goal — all we are aiming for is to be on the derech, but the yetzer hara challenges that derech of growth by demanding, “Well, what do you have to show for yourself? You haven’t reached the finish line!” The answer to that is that there is no finish line, it’s just lech lecha: the journey is all about growth and getting closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
A prime tactic of the yetzer hara, then, is to whispers in our ear, “What have you accomplished?”
Accordingly, Hakadosh Baruch Hu revealed himself to Avraham Avinu specifically with the message of lech lecha, of moving ahead without an end goal, and without a specific yardstick of accomplishment. Rather, it’s the progress itself, the actual growth, that has value.
We find that the name Eisav, who was the progenitor of Amalek, comes from the word עשוי. Eisav was born fully formed and complete, which symbolizes that he had no room left for growth, for effort, for the derech — there’s only a finished product. In the world of Eisav and Amalek, there’s only the finished product; only the results count.
The battleground of the yetzer hara is over the question of whether growth has intrinsic value, even if I haven’t gotten to where I want to get to. That’s alluded to in the phrase בַּדֶּרֶךְ בְּצֵאתְכֶם מִמִּצְרָיִם, and in the command of lech lecha to Avraham Avinu.
Constant Growth
The message and essence of Avraham Avinu was constant growth. At the beginning of Sefer Iyov (1:3), Rashi quotes the passuk in Sefer Yehoshua (14:15) where Avraham Avinu, who is buried in Chevron, is described as הָאָדָם הַגָּדוֹל בָּעֲנָקִים. Why, asks Rashi, does the passuk use two hei’s to describe him? He answers that the two hei’s represent the number ten, corresponding to the ten nisyonos Avraham withstood.
What Rashi is really teaching us is that the reason Avraham Avinu was called הָאָדָם הַגָּדוֹל בָּעֲנָקִים — the ultimate human being — is that he overcame his ten nisyonos. The Maharal teaches in many places that a human being is called adam because adamah, earth, represents potential for growth, as all life forms — vegetation, animal life, and human life — emanate from it. All that lies in the potential of the adam. The essence of humanity, then, is bringing out potential, through constant growth. A human being is called adam not because of the results per se, but rather because of his inherent potential for growth.
The purpose of the nisyonos of Avraham Avinu, the Ramban says in Parashas Vayera, is to uplift a person. The word nisayon comes from the word nes, meaning a banner, as in ושא נס לקבץ גליותינו. Just as a nes, in the sense of a miracle, is above nature, a nisayon lifts a person above his comfort zone.
A nisayon, says the Ramban, brings the person’s potential מהכח אל הפועל, allowing the person to move forward and step out of his comfort zone. During a nisayon, the person’s regular comfort zone is taken away, challenging him: Can you shteig? Can you go further? Or are you limited only to your comfort zone? A nisayon uplifts a person by allowing him to operate in a place where he normally doesn’t operate, so he’s taking a step forward in life.
A nisayon, then, is a step of growth, taking the person one step up the ladder. That’s all it is — the nisayon per se doesn’t have any intrinsic value.
Avraham Avinu is called הָאָדָם הַגָּדוֹל בָּעֲנָקִים, with two hei’s, because he became the ultimate adam through his nisyonos. That’s because the ultimate goal of a person is to grow and move further, not to stay in one place, in his comfort zone. Lech lecha means to move, and Avraham’s ten nisyonos took him from place to place, from one comfort zone to another. As the nisyonos got harder and harder, Hakadosh Baruch Hu kept raising the bar and saying okay, go a drop farther. Through that Avraham became the הָאָדָם הַגָּדוֹל בָּעֲנָקִים, making the ultimate use of his potential to grow. That’s what defines an adam, and that’s why Avraham Avinu was called הָאָדָם הַגָּדוֹל בָּעֲנָקִים, a person who was able to grow and thrive and maximize his potential.
Rav Chaim Volozhiner notes that one Mishnah says (according to the girsa of his commentary, Ruach Chaim): עשרה דורות מנח עד אברהם, while the next Mishnah says: עשרה נסיונות נתנסה אברהם אבינו. He explains that only when Avraham withstood his nisyonos is he referred to as “Avinu.”
The definition of an av is something that has toldos, meaning the ability to take the next generation further, so that they should grow and thrive. The ability to be an av involves injecting and bringing out the potential and growth of Klal Yisrael. I always say that a person who can’t invest in himself and take himself out of mediocrity can’t do that for his kids. The primary job of parenting is to develop the potential of children, but a person who doesn’t develop his own potential can’t develop the potential of his children. So Avraham Avinu, in order to be an av — “Avinu” — had to overcome the ten nisyonos and become הָאָדָם הַגָּדוֹל בָּעֲנָקִים. Once he brought out his own potential, he was able to bring out the potential of Klal Yisrael.
So Avraham Avinu is all about growth, about bringing out one’s potential, about going further. Lech lecha —constantly moving from place to place and shteiging, without a destination in mind, without a goal, without a measuring rod. And that was Rav Nosson Tzvi: he was always moving, as he said, “That’s me.” We don’t know where we’re going, we don’t know where the end game is, but we’re forging ahead, constantly moving in the direction of Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
