Navigating The Crossroads of Life - Lech Lecha
Life isfilled with crossroads. When we come to these crossroads, do we imagine thatwhen choosing left or right, even if the two paths veer only slightlydifferently from one another, do we realize that as we continue in a direction,our choices eventually bring us to totally different places. Think aboutthe crossroads of your own life ? Do I go tothis School or that Do I marryhim or him Do I go intothis business or that Do we livehere or there Each ofthose decisions sets us into a direction which brings us to other crossroadsand other directions. Think of twolines on a piece of paper which start out together, then one veers one way andthe other, the opposite way. Can they meet again? Maybe? Or they go off thepaper never to see each other again. One mayrepresent what we could have been had we taken certain crossroads and anotherthe road we actually take. We canrarely be aware of the absolute consequences of each of those decisions at thetime we face them. Sometimes we think nothing of it, but that decision changedeverything. In thetelevision series Star Trek there was something called the prime directivewarning not to interfere in the development of a planet. We see this also inscience fiction with time travel often called a temporal prime directive. Theidea is that one small amount of interference, one seemingly inconsequentialmeddling and redirection can potentially shift an entire society or world intoa different path. In ourworld, Maamad Har Sinai – the revelation at Mount Sinai was Hashem shifting theworld and its reverberations are still being felt. Moses tellsus אֶֽת־הַדְּבָרִ֣יםהָאֵ֡לֶּה דִּבֶּר֩ הֹ’ אֶל־כׇּל־קְהַלְכֶ֜םבָּהָ֗ר מִתּ֤וֹךְ הָאֵשׁ֙ הֶֽעָנָ֣ן וְהָֽעֲרָפֶ֔ל ק֥וֹל גָּד֖וֹל וְלֹ֣א יָסָ֑ף Rashi: Werender this in the Targum by ולא פסק “and He did not cease”, — as the Gemarahwrites in Sanhedrin: for His voice is strong and goes on continuously In thisperasha which features the first words from Hashem to Abraham, advice was givenrelating to the path we take in life Lech Lecha On Saturdayevening when some went out for seuda shelishi, a few of us began discussing twostatements brought by the Zohar which some can suggest might be among the keyinstructions on living life and dealing with the crossroads we face. I saw abeautiful statement from Rav Yakov Nagen He writes:My teachers taught me that the first four parshiot of the book of Bereshit,“Bereshit,” “Noach,” “Lech Lecha” and “Vayera,” are a summarized guide tospiritual enlightenment. From one’s initial phase, “Bereshit,” one must come toa place of “Noach,” a place of calm and tranquility. From therehe can continue to “Lech Lecha,” the phase of journey. The double language of“Lech Lecha,” “go unto yourself,” teaches that the journey is a journey inward,and through this process a person comes to “Vayera elav Hashem,” the revelationof G-d, enlightenment. This week,parshat Lech Lecha, we will study the aspect of the journey itself. The ZoharHaKadosh in one place explains that the double language of “lech lecha” callson a person to embark on a journey into himself: “lech lecha unto yourself…toknow and to fix yourself” (Lech Lecha 67b-68a). In anawesome teaching in Orot HaKodesh, Rav Kook explains that when a person arrivesat an understanding of himself, he discovers Hashem Rav Kookexplained that The sin of Adam HaRishon was that he became disconnected fromhis true self. He conceded to thesnake’s advice, lost his self-ness, and was thus unable to give a clear answerto [Hashem’s] question “Ayeka?” “Where are you?” for he did not know his ownsoul, for his true self was lost from him… Rav Kookmakes a bold and awesome statement – when we seek and find the “I” ofo
