לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ וּמִבֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יךָ אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךָּ
Go out, from your land, your birthplace, your father's house, to the land which I will show you.
Hashem's command to Avraham that begins our parsha not only lacks detail, but also asks for a level of trust that doesn't come easily to most of us. He asks Avraham to get up and leave a place of comfort, somewhere he's used to, and go into the unknown. The Ramban emphasizes the difficulty of Avraham's actions. He is leaving his brother, father, and entire life behind for the sake of Hashem. The Ramban underscores the love and absolute faith Avraham must have in Hashem to make such a decision.
The doubled use of לך in Hashem's command can help us see two different aspects of what Avraham is doing. The first לך is Avraham's physical departure from Charan. He is actively getting up and going away from the place he has been living for so many years. The second לך is an emotional one. He is leaving the place he calls home, and his entire community of friends and family. Home is something that is valued incredibly highly by everyone. It's the place we grow up, begin building our lives, and that we remember and miss when we aren't there.
On top of his decision to leave, Avraham wasn't leaving his home with a destination in mind. He went אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךּ, to the land which I will show you. He was simply meant to wander until Hashem showed him the place that would become his new homeland and that of his descendants. Even so, the Or HaChayim tells us that he sets out immediately. All he wanted to do was fulfill the request HaKadosh Baruch Hu made of him.
In the two verses following the command of לךלך, Hashem makes a promise to Avraham about what will happen if he listens. Avraham is to be rewarded for taking this step and exemplifying his trust, belief, and love for Hashem. In leaving his home for the land of Israel, he will merit being made into a huge nation, his name being made great, being blessed by Hashem, and being a blessing to those around him. As fantastic as these rewards are, heeding this request seems illogical. Is he really leaving the most developed society of his time (Mesopotamia) for an underdeveloped and obscure part of the world? Why? Because of his complete trust and belief in Hashem. Avraham is demonstrating his loyalty and love for HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Even when his actions seem irrational to everyone around him, he stays true to what he believes.
Belief and trust are what form our connection to Hashem. For everything we know, there's something that we don't. This is what makes or breaks our relationship with Hashem. So much of how we practice our Judaism is based on our connection to Him and our desire to strengthen that relationship. Avraham exemplifies the highest level of trust we can have in HaKadosh Baruch Hu. He chooses to leave everything behind, putting himself in Hashem's hands, demonstrating full and complete trust. This trust gave us the homeland that all our hearts desire.
Avraham's actions at the beginning of our parsha are teaching us about not only the relationship we should strive to build with Hashem, but also the type of relationships we should aim to build with each other. When building a relationship with someone, we need to learn to put them before ourselves, focusing on their wants and needs. Avraham left everything he knew because Hashem needed him. He was rewarded in the end for his trust in HaKadosh Baruch Hu, but he couldn't have been sure that would happen. He followed the command because he loved and trusted Hashem. When working and connecting with others, trust strengthens the relationship.
Additionally, connection requires vulnerability; letting down our walls and trusting someone else to support us. We can't always give ourselves the support we need, and thus we need others to help us as we live our lives. It is important to remember that other people are looking for the same thing. They want to trust us, love us, be vulnerable, and have that reciprocated. Initiating and deepening our relationship with HaKadosh Baruch Hu is our responsibility.
It is notable that Avraham's discovery of Hashem isn't mentioned at all. There's no pasuk, no outline, nothing on how or what is done to achieve this. This week, a teacher of mine said something that stuck with me on this topic. This is one of, if not the, most important things that has happened in our entire history. Our patriarch's discovery of Hashem, the essential event that formed the basis of everything we practice, is conveniently left out of our history. The reason behind this is simple: Hashem doesn't tell us the way to discover and build our relationship with Him because there is no one way to do so. Every relationship a person will have in their life will be unique; none are the same.
The same goes for our relationship with Hashem. The way I discover Hashem's greatness and the way you deepen your connection with Him won't be the same; we each have our own way of doing things. The mefarshim debate what Avraham's age was when he discovered Hashem. Some say he was 3, or 40, or 47. The truth is that it doesn't matter. The purpose of understanding Avraham's relationship with Hashem isn't to show us how to do it ourselves, but to give us a connection to which we can aspire.
