ALL PARSHA - Lech Lecha: How Did Avraham Know Where To Go?

Welcome my boy, and welcome everyone to a special edition of all parashah parashah lech lecha. Fundamental themes of the Ramban in parashah lech lecha. One of the most fundamental themes in all of the writings of the Ramban is found in parashah lech lecha, but we've discussed it in our previous series of the Ramban on lech lecha. There's a extremely important Ramban towards the end of the parashah by the bris bein habesarim that if the enslavement of the Jewish people was preordained, was predicted beforehand, then why were the Mitzrayim pun- punished for enslaving the Bnei Yisrael? However, in this presentation, we're going to try to put two Rambans together and look at the second Ramban in light and the context of the first. The Ramban in the very beginning of the parashah, Vayomer Hashem el Avram, "Lech lecha me'artzecha, mimoladetecha, umibeis avicha." Where should Avram go? "El ha'aretz asher areka." To the land that I'll show you. So, Ramban is bothered to think about it. If Hashem says, "Go. Go from your land, from your father's household, from everything you consider familiar. And where should you go? To the land I'll show you." Well, then first of all, until Hashem shows Avraham where was he supposed to go? He was supposed to just walk out his front door and randomly go somewhere, but he has no idea where to go. And even more, was it Did Hashem ever show Avraham where to go? The Ibn Ezra learns that even though it's unspoken, it doesn't say it in the Chumash, Hashem told Avraham before he left his house where to go. There's a sefer that suggests, well, maybe at the Akeidah Hashem suggested to Avraham where to go. Hashem says, ha'eleh, hayah devar Hashem el Avram." "Kach Pinchas Yechidcha asher ahavta es Yitzchak "Velech Lecha el eretz Hamoriah." So, the "Lech Lecha el eretz asher areka" Hashem ultimately showed Avraham. But, the Ramban does not learn this way. The Ramban says Avraham began wandering migoy el u'mimamlacha el am acher. Avraham randomly wandered from one nation to the next, from one kingdom to the next ad she'ba el eretz Kenaan till he came to Kenaan. And then when he got there, Hashem said, "Lezaracha atain es ha'aretz hazos." I'm going to give you this land. Ah! So, now Avraham Avinu knew what eretz asher areka was. Now it became identified el ha'aretz asher areka. And that's where Avraham stayed and he settled. So, at first Avraham Avinu merely wandered and he happened to go to Kenaan and that's where Hashem said, "Okay, this is the land I'm going to give you." And then it was fulfilled el ha'aretz asher areka. But, question. So, then how did Avraham know even what direction to take when he opened up his front door? When he left, how did he know where to go? So, why did he head to the land of Kenaan? Says the Ramban, when the pasuk says he went to the land of Kenaan, he had no intention of settling there. He didn't know that that was the land that Hashem would command him. The Ramban says "Ochas tzadik darkei derech eretz." Kenaan. The re- that the tzadik took root to Kenaan. Why? He was planning on going there to begin with. His father and him left Ur Kasdim to go to Kenaan. They just happened to stop off in Charan. So, when Hashem said, "Go." Avraham said, "Okay, I don't know where to go. I'll continue going where I was going to begin with." And this is substantiated by the fact that when Avraham left Charan, the pasuk says perek chof pasuk yud gimmel, "Vayehi ka'asher hisu" osi mibeis avi, it was when Hashem made me wander from my father's house." Avraham Avinu was wandering. He had no idea where to go. He didn't know whether to go right, left, up, or down. He went to Eretz Yisrael because that's where he was and originally headed anyway. But then the Ramban says further, "No, Avraham Avinu knew. He had a very strong hunch that if God says go to the land I'll show you, that land was Eretz Canaan. The Ramban says, "Hinach lach Hashem ubayis Hashem cholkai." After all, Eretz Canaan is the inheritance of God and that Avraham knew for certain would be the land that Hashem gives him as his portion. And he believed, Avraham believed, that the land that I will show you, Eretz asher are'eka, must be a remez to the land of Canaan, either the entire land or some area in Canaan and that's why Hashem told him to go, so Avraham Avinu headed there. That will be for sure the land that Hashem will show him. I want to bear this Ramban in mind when we come to another epic Ramban in Parshas Beis, possuk Beis, where the Ramban learns on with the episode of Avraham Avinu going down to Mitzrayim, even though many hold, many Rishonim hold, and this is the opinion of Pirkei d'Rebbi Eliezer, that this was one of the Nisyonos that the Pirkei d'Rebbi Eliezer says, Avraham Avinu was commanded to go to Canaan and the moment he got there, it's a disaster. There's nothing to eat and there's a famine only there. That's the only land that there was a famine in and the Pirkei d'Rebbi Eliezer adds, there was never a famine ever before in history. So, Avraham, for the first time, is following the direct command of Hashem and Hashem s- sends him wandering and Avraham Avinu figures must be Canaan. And he gets to Canaan and Pink lock, there's a famine in the land of Canaan, and it's only in Canaan, and there was never a famine before. And yet the Ramban says that Avraham Avinu sinned egregiously. Not intentionally. By first Ramban says, by bringing Sarah into such a dangerous situation and advising her to say that she is his sister. Because Avraham Avinu was afraid that they would kill him. Well, what should Avraham Avinu done? Says the Ramban, he should have had faith in God. He should have trusted in God. He should have been talking to him that Hashem would save him and his wife, and not to fabricate the story that they were brother and sister and have Sarah be taken. Avraham Avinu should have proudly said, "We're married. Don't lay your hands on her." Avraham Avinu was afraid, and that lack of bitachon, says the Ramban, was chait chata chait gadol bishgaga. Now, there's a big question. Where did the Ramban get this from? That this was an egregious sin. In the notes in the Mossad Rav Kook Ramban, Rav Chaim Dov Shavel brings the Zohar in Parshas Tazria, Pasuk Rav Elazar, when Avraham told Sarah imri na achoti at, Avraham Avinu was so God-fearing and he would say such a thing? So this the Rav Shavel says is the source of the Ramban that Avraham Avinu sinned egregiously. But then the Ramban continues, even Avraham's leaving Eretz Yisrael, that he was commanded to go to originally, his leaving the land out of hunger was a big sin. Why can't God protect him in hunger? Elokim barov yifdenu mimaves, God could redeem him in hunger. Says Rabbenu it was such a severe sin that for this act it was decreed on the descendants of Abraham to go into galus in Mitzrayim in the hands of the Pharaoh because says Rabbenu "B'makom ha'mishpat shama ha'cheit." Where one is judged, that is where the sin is. If somebody sins in a certain place, their punishment will be in that place. Therefore, because Abraham sinned by going to Egypt and going to the Pharaoh, the Jewish people were punished that they had to go down to Mitzrayim and they were enslaved by the Pharaoh. So the Rabbenu is revealing to us that the whole Holocaust of the descent to Egypt was because of the terrible sin of Abraham Avinu that he left the land of Israel and he went to Egypt. Now, aside from the fact that the Maharal in Gur Aryeh Hashem, perek tes, aside from the fact that the Maharal asks that he has such strong questions on the Ramban, he's oiker the Ramban's commentary "Nekudot ha'Torah" because Abraham Avinu repeated this when he went to Avimelech, he also said she's a sister. And if it was such a terrible sin, why would Abraham Avinu repeat the sin? Why would Yitzchak Avinu do the same when he came to Gerar? So therefore, the Maharal dismisses these comments of the Ramban as an impossibility that this should be the reason that the Bnei Yisrael had to go down to Mitzrayim. But the Ramban understands that Abraham Avinu sinned egregiously. And again, Rav Chaim Dov Shavel shows that there is such an opinion in the Zohar ha'Kadosh that Amar Rabbi Yehuda, it's the Zohar in Lech Lecha, "Tachazi, keivan d'nachas Avraham l'Mitzrayim, ishtabidu bnei b'Mitzrayim arba me'ah shanim." Rav Yosef Shalom Halevi Natan zon said that the Ramban criticizes Avraham that he should have had bitachon in Hashem, but at for the defense of Avraham says the Divrei Shaul, Avraham Avinu felt that he wasn't worthy of a miracle. But what I would like to bring to your attention is this was considered a sin for Avraham even though you could ask Hashem according to the Ramban never explicitly told Avraham El ha'aretz asher arecha is the land of Kenaan. Hashem just said, "Go." So Avraham Avinu says, "Okay, I'll continue on my desired path. I was heading here anyway." Now the Ramban in his first shot says, "Well, once he got there Hashem said, 'Okay, I'm going to give you this land.'" So at that point it became revealed that Eretz Yisrael is the eretz asher arecha. But in the Ramban's second shot it was just that Avraham Avinu knew this must be the land that I'll show you. But you could ask but when he got there and there was never a famine before in history and now there's a famine only there Avraham Avinu reasonably could have thought, "Well, obviously the eretz asher arecha is not this land. Now God is showing me perhaps the eretz asher arecha is Mitzrayim." So even though it was not absolutely clear, Hashem never spelled out and articulated, "This is the land that I was referring to." Nevertheless Avraham Avinu was supposed to have known with such conviction to go to Eretz Yisrael and that when there was famine, according to the Ramban, he was expected to realize he shouldn't even leave. That there is not a possibility, there's no way in the world Mitzrayim could be the eretz asher arecha. So this Ramban is seen in a different light in light of the opening comments of the Ramban that the eretz asher arecha was something that Avraham Avinu did not know through absolute divine communication. Any event, this just a flavor for some of the fundamental themes of the wishing everyone a wonderful have a wonderful and a good time.