Shalom Friends;
Our Parshat Lech Lecha vort is being sponsored by Zev and Sarit Schonberg of Ramat Beit Shemesh who dedicate this vort in the Zechus of their children, Aryeh and Amit Schonberg, Akiva and Shira Schonberg, Adina and Shua Dembitzer and Moshe Eliyahu Dembitzer and Racheli and Yehuda, as well as dedicated for the safety of the Chayalim and their return home whole physically, mentally and spiritually as well as for the liberation of all remaining hostages and for the good health and security of kol Am Yisrael. To the Schonberg family, many thanks for your sponsorship and your continued kindnesses.
You can celebrate a Simcha — a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a Chassuna or other Simcha event in your life, or commemorate a Yahrtzeit of a loved one, or for whatever other reason by sponsoring (or as the case may be, co-sponsoring) a Parshat HaShavua.
Please forward to your relatives and friends and encourage them to sponsor a Parshat HaShavua. And please be in contact with me with any questions, or for further details.
Best Regards,
Moshe Burt
olehchadash@yahoo.com
Subscribe to the Israel and the Sin of Expulsion blog, to ask questions or to sponsor a Parsha Vort at: olehchadash@yahoo.com
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Torah relates the opening posukim of our Parshat Lech Lecha:
“Hashem said to Avram, ‘Go for yourself from your land, from your relatives, and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation; I will bless you, and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those that bless you, and him who curses you I will curse…. Avram took his wife Sarai and Lot, his brother’s son, and all their wealth that they had amassed, and the souls they made in Charan; and they left to go to the land of Canaan, and they came to the land of Canaan.” (Sefer Breish’t, Perek 12, posukim 1 – 3, 5 rendered to English in The Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash)
The Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash provides commentary on two points of posuk 5 (page 55):
“Took.” Avraham took Sarah through persuasion, because a man is forbidden to take his wife to a foreign land without her consent. (The Artscroll Chumash citing Zohar)
“The souls they made [in Charan]” The souls refer to those whom they had converted to faith in Hashem, for Avraham converted the men and Sarah the women. According to the simple meaning, however, it refers to the servants they had acquired (The Artscroll Chumash citing Rashi), who agreed unanimously to accompany Avraham on his mission. (The Artscroll Chumash citing Radak)
Rabbi Zelig Pliskin provides a persuasive commentary on Sefer Breish’t, Perek 12, posuk 5 in his sefer, “Growth Through Torah,” (pages 39 – 40) :
When Avraham made up his mind to travel to the land of Canaan, he followed through on his plans and reached his destination. This stands in sharp contrast with Terach. his father, about whom we read in Parshat No’ach (Perek 11, posuk 31) that he started out to go to the land of Canaan, but when he reached Charan in the midst of his journey, he settled there and never made it to Canaan. This said the Chofetz Chayim, is a lesson that we should learn from Avraham. If you accept upon yourself a goal to accomplish something, don’t become sidetracked. (Rabbi Pliskin citing Chofetz Chayim al HaTorah)
To succeed in any venture you need to complete what you start. Especially when you have a goal that is very important to reach, become obsessed with it. While obsessions can be negative, they can also be very positive. Learn to finish what you start.
Rabbi Shmuel Goldin provides the food for this vort in his sefer, “Unlocking the Torah Text” (Sefer Breish’t, Parshat Lech Lecha, pages 60-62):
The Torah’s message is clear. Success in life depends not only on originality and inventiveness but also upon the often overlooked qualities of persistence and constancy. What separates Avraham from Terach, on one level, is that Avraham finishes the journey while Terach does not. How many individuals across the face of history have made a real difference simply because they have been willing and able to finish the task?
The Torah teaches us the important lesson of “staying the course” within the context of Avraham’s journey to the Land of Israel. This… message… could not be more pertinent to our times.
Today’s diaspora community of Jews exists at a time when return to Israel is possible. And yet, for a variety of reasons, some more compelling than others, our personal journeys to our homeland have been aborted. Like Terach, …[many, most] have decided to stay in Charan at a time when other choices exist.
…That might explain why one can currently observe, even within the affiliated community of Jews, a growing apathy to the miracle that is the State of Israel. We care about Israelis; we are concerned for their safety; but in our eyes the State of Israel has, to a great extent, lost its luster. Israel’s existence no longer moves [many] of us as it once did.
This growing apathy is reflected in the ambivalence of [many in] the “Yeshiva world” towards the state, in the declining spirit of the Religious Zionist community in America and [the]… growing tendency [among secular Jews] to make… support for the State of Israel conditional upon its adherence to… [their] political positions. [Example being “JewStreet”]
Time is precious, and we cannot afford the luxury of avoidance. Tension [as this author understands: concern over growing world anti-semitism] can be productive if it moves us toward positive action.
….We must remember and our children must learn that we live in a time when the dreams of thousands of years are being realized.
Not all of us have the strength or the ability to be an Avraham, but at least, we must avoid being a Terach. We cannot afford to be comfortable in the diaspora.
By recognizing that the journey is not yet over and that… [many of us] are not yet home, we will play a role in ensuring that our people finish the journey.
The sefer “Torah Gems”, by Aharon Yaakov Greenberg provides a succinct commentary on Sefer Breish’t, Perek 12, posuk 1 — “Go for yourself…”:
…Whoever moves to Eretz Yisrael ascends spirituality. The Jewish soul cannot find its true place except in Eretz Yisrael, for “the eyes of the Lord, your G’d are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year” (Sefer Devarim, Perek 11, posuk 12 [translation as rendered in the Artscroll Stone Chumash, page 995 Parshat Eikev, as cited from Olelot Ephraim]
This word to Jews in Chutz LAretz: just as Avraham Avinu came to recognize, on his own, the existence of The Supreme Creator and King and heard a Voice calling for him to leave the land of his birth, of his family; masses of World Jewry should have similarly heard the same voice calling to them to return home — “Return again, return again, return to the land of your soul….” After all, not in nearly 2,000 years has Aliyah been so doable, so within reach, soo spiritual an option.
This author, writing as one whose awareness of his Jewishness, identification with and connection to Israel was from earliest cognizance (noun: awareness, realization, or knowledge; notice; perception) back in Philadelphia — in the “Old Country,” found that being in Chutz L’Aretz was “not where it’s at.”
As a new Ba’al Teshuva in the late 1980’s, one of this author’s earliest hosts asked; “Are you player, a fan or merely a spectator in Judaism?” And so, regarding Aliyah, one could ask Jews in Chutz L’Aretz the same question regarding their level of connection with Israel, even in the midst of Israel’s nearly two year, multi-front Melchemet Shel Torah?
Yet masses of Jews have remained, have hung around in the countries of their birth: in the UK and throughout Europe where the Islamic population grows by leaps and bounds, poses a dire threat to long-established law and where Islamics sit as cabinet ministers in governments. Or in the United States, where Israel’s War of 7 October has brought an ongoing surge in Pro-Hamas, Pro-“palestine
It seems to this author that because masses of Jews stayed put in their respective birthplaces, in their fathers’ lands when they could have comfortably reached for spirituality in Eretz Yisrael, Aliyah will now become a compelling necessity borne out of terror, lawlessness, oppression, persecution and possible Jewish blood-letting and loss of life in those lands, including the United States.
May our government and military bring about the total and complete, Final and Decisive victory over Hamas, their 7 October so-called “civilians(sic)” collaborators and the entire terror cabal, B’Yad Hashem, and become Totally self-sufficient as to manufacture of military equipment and aircraft, weaponry, munitions — heavy munitions, as well as showing independence of actions responding to any threat, regardless of so-called “super powers.”
May we see, from here on, that border guard personnel at all points of possible danger are listened to and treated with respect and dignity. May we see our Chayalim totally eradicate Hamas, Islamic Jihad, those so-called “civilians(sic)” who collaborated on 7 October, as well as Hezbollah, the Houthies, the Mullahs of Iran and all their terror accomplices while liberating all deceased hostages and their return home for Jewish ritual burials, B’Yad Hashem and mandated by a government secure in it’s foremost service of, and emunah in HaKadosh Borchu, B’Ezrat Hashem! And may we see the restoration of true unity within Am Yisrael. May these words come to fruition B’Esrat Hashem.
May we, the B’nei Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently re-settled in Gush Katif, once the IDF, by the Yad Hashem, destructs and eradicates the wild beasts of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, all other terror entities, and if necessary Iran, and that our brethren be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them, that the thrice expelled families of Amona be restored to their rebuilt homes and the oft-destroyed Yeshiva buildings in Homesh be rebuilt, as well as the buildings of Yishuv Elchanan, all at total government expense. May our Chayalim return from battle unharmed — physically, mentally and spiritually and may all of the remaining hostages brutally taken by the wild beasts of Hamas be liberated and brought home to their families. Baruch Hashem that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard is now in his fifth year at home in Eretz Yisrael and continues in a new chapter in his life. May Esther Yocheved bat Yechiel Avraham have an aliyah in Shemayim and may her spirit and memory continue to lift Jonathan to at least 120 years. May the MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem — as with the return in April, 2019, via Russia, of the remains of Zachariah Baumel, the recent recovery of the remains of Tzvi Feldman as well as the recovery of the remains of Oron Shaul as should the remains of the other chayal from the Gaza War of ten years ago. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and prevent Chas V’Challila the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nei Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem Al’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bimhayrah b’yamainu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
Good Shabbos!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
Moshe is available for editing of English language documents, articles, manuscripts and more. Please be in contact with him at olehchadash@yahoo.com for your English language needs.
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