Parshas Lech Lecha: “1. Overcoming a negative upbringing
Bereishis 12:1 ‘Go, for your own sake, from your land and from your birthplace, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you’
Many kinds of dark and false situations derive from the [nature of the] land and city in which they arise. For, despite the fact that every place contains much in the way of good, in the sense of truth – nevertheless,ha’klippah kadmah le’pri (the peel/evil precedes the fruit/good) and zeh l’umas zeh bara Elokim (’G-d created one [evil] in contrast to the other [good]‘). Therefore, every place contains its own particular negativity, seeking to darken the light of truth in its own special way.
Similarly, there are types of darkness and falsehood that attach to a person as a result of certain birth [genetic] factors, as David said (Tehillim 51:7): ‘I was fashioned [from conception] in iniquity…’
In addition, all kinds of nonsense and falsehood attach to a person because of his family status. Thus, some people over inflate themselves with their important lineage. They conduct themselves with such gross self import, as if the entire world’s honor belongs to them alone.
Whoever wants to walk the holy path must go, exit and turn – from the path of everyone else. He must draw himself to the point of absolute truth that is rooted within his soul that is ‘a portion of G-d on high’, the quintessence of truth. For the soul is man’s essence. When a person says ‘me’ or ‘mine’ or ‘yours’, he is really referring to man’s essence, the soul, not the body that is merely flesh and blood.
This explains the verse: ‘Hashem spoke to Avram: ‘Go, for your own sake (lit: for yourself)…’. It is specifically ‘for yourself’, for your very essence, which is none other than the point of absolute truth that is rooted within you. And this is the meaning of ‘from your land, birthplace and father’s house’: We need to turn our back and completely pass away from all the falsehood, lies and confusion – in all their configurations – that seek to lay hold of us. This applies whether or not they derive their character from our place of domicile, or from birth/genetic factors, or from our particular lineage.
We just need to draw ourselves to the point of absolute truth [within ourselves]. Then we will attain the eternal goal [the next world] that corresponds to ‘the land that I will show you’.
Hilchos Geneivah 5:7
2. Searching for Hashem through the darkness
Bereishis 12:17 ‘And Hashem plagued Paroh and his palace with great afflictions because of Sarai, Avram’s wife’.
The incident of Sarai being taken to Paroh’s palace expresses the following idea: The tzaddekes/righteous woman was required descend to such an impure and filthy place in order that, with her tremendous spiritual power, even in such a place she would request and search after Hashem.
It was through this that she ascended mightily with Avraham – as in (13:1): ‘Avram went up from Egypt, he and his wife…’ – preparing a tremendous rescue for the Jewish people during the future Egyptian exile – that the impurity of Egypt had no control over the Jewish people. It also caused their exit from Egypt by way of the ten plagues, by way of the precursor of ‘Hashem plagued Paroh and his palace’ after taking Sarah there, as Chazalteach us.
Sarah created a path for the Jewish people that wherever they would find themselves in exile, even in the spiritually filthiest places – even there – they would request and search for Hashem. This is the concept ofayeh/where [is the place of His glory] in Likutei Moharan II: 12. Through this the Jewish people were extricated from there.
This also is the idea behind Esther having been taken to Achashveirosh’s palace. It was then [in such a desperate situation] that she [sought after Hashem and] exclaimed (Tehillim 22): ‘My
G-d! My G-d! Why have you forsaken me?’ (as the Gemara states in Megillah 15b). And it was through this that the toppling of Haman – the personification of the polluted might of the sitra achara/incorporation of evil forces – was engineered. Everything here also reflects the above idea: Showing the Jewish people that even in the filthiest places they must cry out to Hashem, searching and beseeching Him. This is precisely what Mordechai and Esther did when they assembled the Jews to greatly cry out to Hashem.
So it is in every generation, as it applies to the populace at large – or to the individual in particular. Every single one of us must constantly search for Hashem in every situation, crying out at all times to Hashem as expressed in the verse (Yonah 2:3) ‘from the belly of Hell I cried out’. We must never despair of crying out and beseeching. We must continue until Hashem looks and attends to us from heaven.
Hilchos Nefilas Apayim 6-9
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(Via Likutei Halachos – Rebbe Noson of Breslov.)
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