Go Find Yourself

I saw something this morning that really blew my mind. Rav Yitzchok Isaac of Komarna explains that when Hashem told Avraham לך לך, what He was telling him is, "Go find yourself."

I want to elaborate on this idea based on what Hashem then continues to say to Avraham.

Hashem tells him to go מארצך, from your land. Land is the place of infinite possibilities. We can plant in land and let anything grow there. But oftentimes we limit ourselves in terms of the growth we believe is possible for ourselves. Instead of seeing the infinite possibilities, we limit our dreams and efforts to a finite set that sells ourselves short. Leave your land, Hashem is telling Avraham, leave the self imposed limitations on what you can be, on how you can grow, on your life's possibilities.

We can understand the next two statements in the same vein. וממולדתך ומבית אביך, and from your birth-place and from your father's home. At times the limitations that we place on ourselves come from the communities in which we live. Other times they may come from our families. Perhaps we have been told since we are children what it is that we should become, or what we can't possibly become. Avraham was now being told by Hashem that he had to leave all of this in order to find himself.

אל הארץ אשר אראך To the land that I will show you.

Go with no preconceived notions. Leave yourself open to whatever possibilities Hashem places before you. Only by leaving yourself open to the infinite possibilities that Hashem can open up for you will you truly find yourself.

See also: The Value of Self-Revelation in which I discuss the value of bringing forth one's inner self.

Testing...Testing...

In this week's Torah portion the Patriarch Abraham concludes the ten tests which God has placed before him. Many are troubled by God's putting him through these ordeals. Doesn't God know what is in the heart of Abraham? Doesn't he know that Abraham has love for God and truly understands the concept of fear of God? Why must God put him in the crucible as well?
I believe that in order to answer this question we need to understand why it is that God created the world. The father of modern Kabalah, the Arizal, writes that God had within Himself every possible good trait that exists. That was not sufficient, however. God needed to bring all of these traits to practice, he had to make them real. Otherwise, they were meaningless.
Each of us has a part of God within ourselves, we are chips off the old block, so to speak. To get the most out of our existence in this Universe, we need to be as Godlike as possible. Just as God had to make his good traits real, so too it is with us. It isn't enough to be kind, or loving in the heart, you must exercise that trait with respect to someone else to make it real.

The portion concludes with a short lesson on the offspring of the brother of Abraham. Many wonder why it is placed in this location. Some suggest that it is to tie in the birth of Rivka to the Binding of Isaac so as to teach us when she was born.

I would like to suggest an additional approach. Many find tests and the idea of tests difficult. Who was the prototype in the Bible for a person who is tested? Iyov-Job. Unlike Abraham of whom the Torah only describes his behavior in overcoming the tests and does not teach us of any struggles he underwent until he was able to pass them, in the case of Job the struggles are there for us to see. We can ponder and debate the philosophical issues that plagued him.

Job came from the land of Utz. Utz was a nephew of Avraham, the oldest one in fact as recorded here at the end of the Torah portion. At the conclusion of Abraham's tests the Torah wanted to allude to us about someone else who would be tested. It therefore mentions the birth of the grandfather of Job.