Lech Lecha - Paving Paths for our Children

You're listening to the weekly partial podcast with Ari Goldwag, recorded with our shows and our learning assistance in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel, 5787, 2026. This week's parsha is parshas Lech Lecha. The Jewish people, Avraham Avinu, Abraham, our forefather, is the beginning of the Jewish people, and Hashem commands him and commands all of us, Lech Lecha, go, go for yourself, get yourself moving, get yourself moving towards Eretz Yisrael, to the land of Israel. And in his travels and in his journeys that we talk about in our parsha this week, so one of the encounters that he has after he arrives in Israel, he also has to go out of Israel. And he ends up in Egypt. And there in Egypt, he's faced with an incredible nisayon, one of the 10 nisyonos, one of the 10 tests that he is to face in his lifetime. And there, he tells his wife to claim that she is his sister. She's taken into the house of Pharaoh. And indeed, in the end, of course, she's released. And Pharaoh gives to Avraham Avinu, to Sarah, when he gives to come out of there with great wealth. I'd like to share with you a midrash and a very deep idea, and I think that it very much has a profound teaching for each of us. V'Avram heitiv b'vura, v'hi leitzanei v'oker, v'gomer. V'yitav lePharaoh anashim v'shifchos, so the pasuk says in chapter 12, verse 16, that after Pharaoh realizes the mistake that he's made, he gives gifts to Avraham Avinu, which is very interesting. And he commands the power of commands to some some of his men to accompany him to send him out to to keep him safe. Rebbe Pinchas b'Shem of Hoshaya Rabbah Omer Or Kodesh b'Chol Avraham Avinu Say u'Chveish es derech l'vnei vonecha. Let me just point something out which it's a little bit hard not to notice, but it's it is possible not to notice that if we look at the story of Avraham Avinu the fact that he goes down to Egypt, the fact that he is um oppressed by the Egyptians they take his wife then he ends up going out with great wealth. It sounds very similar to what happens with the Jewish people themselves, the nation that would come out of Avraham Avinu. Midrash tells us Rebbe Pinchas in the name of Rebbe Hoshaya the Great says that Hashem said to Avraham, "Go out and and pave the path before your children." Which means to say in the most simple understanding of it that we have a concept of the Maaseh Avot Siman Banim and this this is what I'd like to talk about today that the actions of the forefathers are indicative maybe they're a lesson for or maybe there's a parallel or maybe energetically, spiritually whatever the forefathers do, their children are bound to do as well. But the language of the Midrash is simple, it's go out and pave the path for your children. The things that you experience, Avraham Avinu, that Abraham experiences Torah tells us these stories not just because they're interesting, which they are, not just because we learn about Avraham Avinu's greatness, the fact that he's a prophet, the the power of his prayer, the greatness of his kindness, we do want to learn from that, but it's telling us that he was the foundation of the Jewish people and his spiritual genetics and the actual events of his life were implanting, paving the road, implanting the seeds for what would be in the future, paving the road that his children would would walk upon. When Avraham Avinu was told go to Eretz Yisrael, that's for all of us to know that we have to go to Eretz Yisrael. When he gets sent into Galus, that's for all of us to know that part of life is being sent into exile. And when he experiences what he experiences in Egypt, he comes out with great wealth, that's also something that has to do with us. Says the Medrash in more detail, "Ad me'od kol ma she kasuv ba'Avraham, kasuv b'vanav." We find that everything that it says by Avraham Avinu, it also says by his sons, his offspring. Ba'Avraham kasuv, "Vayehi ra'av ba'aretz." In regards to Abraham, it says, "There was a famine in the land in Eretz Yisrael." Therefore, that's why he went down to Egypt. Kasuv, "Vayehi ra'av ba'aretz b'Yisrael." I'm sorry. B'Yisrael kasuv, "Ki yesh shanah achas ra'av ba'aretz." Pasuk says that the Jewish people, the the Israelites, specifically the children, the offspring of Yaakov Avinu, of Yisrael, they came down to Egypt as well as a result of a famine. Ba'Avraham kasuv, "Vayeired Avraham Mitzrayimah lagur sham." In regards to Abraham, it says he went down to Egypt to live there. B'Yitzchak kasuv, "Vayeired Yitzchak Mitzrayimah." It says the same language, they went down to Egypt. Be Avram Sifla Gursham Be Yisrael Sifla Gur Ba'al Smon. The Israelites also said, just as Avram, it says by Avram he went to live there. We also went to live there. And by the way, when you go to live somewhere, of course, you're going to be impacted by that location, by the culture, by the people, by the style, by their clothes, by their language, by the way they think. Be Avram Sif Ki Kaveen Avram Be Eretz Kenaan. Be Yisrael Sif Avram Kaveen Ba'aretz. Using the same language, the famine was very heavy in the land. Both by Avram Avinu and by the Israelites. Be Avram Sif Va'Yhi Ka'asher Hechriv. Yisrael Sif Ki Sivu Par'oh Hechriv. The parts here in the middle of this concept to teach you something very beautiful that the Marzu says that it says by Avram Avinu, that's what the Medrash is saying, that that he came close. He came to the land of Egypt. It also says in regards to the Jewish people, interestingly, doesn't say of the Jewish people, it says about Par'oh that Pharaoh came close. He was chasing after them and he came close to them. So, the Marzu points out, one talking about Avram, one talking about Par'oh, how does that have to do with the people of Israel? And he explains and he says that after he wrote down this idea, he saw in the Zohar which which I love the language, he says "Be Simchati Ki Kivanti Be Da'at Simcha Le Mitat Shel Torah." The Marzu was excited because in in trying to understand the Medrash he was Mechaveen exactly to what the Zohar says when he explained the Medrash. But he explains the Medrash beautifully and he says that Paro, the say was he he came close to the Jewish people. He was he crave. And tell us that it means that he caused the Jewish people through his chasing them to come close to a sham. Right? The whole the if if we could describe the journey of Abraham or the journey of the Jewish people through Egypt and and coming out of Egypt and being faced with the challenge and be slaves, etc. The whole purpose of it was he crave. When he runs after them, they turn to God. They turn to a sham and they say, "Sham, please help us. Sham, please save us." The effect of having an enemy like Iran, having an enemy like whatever the enemy of the Jewish people is, we always have an enemy. But the purpose of it is to cause us to come close to God. It's to not mistake where our salvation comes from. To remember that we only exist because of our connection to So Paro brought us close by chasing after by chasing after us. He brought us close to our creator. He awoke us to our to our spiritual connection to a sham. And I don't know if you know also by enduring the difficulties, the challenges that he goes through in Egypt. His wife is kidnapped. These challenges cause him to pray like we mentioned earlier. He was a nobody, he was a prophet. And he was and he prayed on behalf of of the Pharaoh. There was a threat of death which I was addressing when he told his wife to say that it's his sister, that she's his sister. But he was afraid they he be killed. Indeed, later on the babies of the Jewish people were thrown in the in the Nile. They were killed. The boys were killed. The women were not. Interesting. Abraham Avinu says, "Tell tell her that you're my sister so that things will be good for me." Which in the partial shot means I won't get killed. That's good. But as as you read the later on, we do see that Abraham the Pharaoh gave him all kinds of possessions because of the fact that he had oppressed him, it seems. So too we'll find that there was something good that was done through a lie, interestingly. And Abraham Avinu says to his wife to lie and say that it's his sister. That she's his sister. There was also a lie that the that Pharaoh Pharaoh told the Jewish midwives that they should kill the children the babies of the Jewish people. And they said, "Well, but the women were too strong. By the time we got there, the baby was already born. We couldn't kill them." So they lied. And things worked out well for them, right? God God was pleased with that. In regards to Abraham, it says, "It was when he came to Egypt." It speaks about the names of the people of Israel who came down to Egypt. In regards to Abraham, it says that he left when he left Egypt, he was very heavy. He had a lot of cattle. And that he had received as gifts from Paro. He struck the Egyptians because of his own. The says in Tehillim in Psalms chapter 105 verse 37 that the Jewish people were sent out with a lot of gold and silver. Right. The says also small ice. They had gold and silver and clothing that they received as we could say parting gifts by the Egyptians. So it parallels how Avram Avinu was also given these gifts. He also left with great wealth. But Avram Avinu Paro he struck the Egyptians because of his own. Right, we read at the beginning that Paro sent some people to go along with or to encourage Avram Avinu to leave. Protect him maybe. So too when the Jews left Egypt, they were strongly encouraged to leave. Get out of here. We don't want you here anymore. The Avram Avinu the massive struck the massive in Israel. But it just finishes off by saying that by Avram Avinu it says that he continued on to his journeys. And of course we know the Jewish people also continued on to their journeys as they as they went through the wilderness. So Avram Avinu he is so less than that. He paves the path. He he he trods the path that we are all to go upon. And he and he makes that path he makes it clear whatever he's going to do is what's going to happen to all of us. Okay, so this is a powerful lesson and I and I would I'd like to say that we all have that experience. We all have that type of a cry as I would say responsibility. Because whatever we do whatever path we take our children will also take a parallel path. And so we have a responsibility to ourselves and to the next generation to face off with our nisyones, to face off with our challenges and recognize that they're opportunities as we said before. For par yechruf, the challenges themselves can bring us closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and if we do that, so then we are paving the way that our children's situations and challenges should also bring them closer to Hashem. Now, I'd like to point something out and really take this as a lesson for the way that the right type of chinuch, the right type of guiding our kids. Of course, we've been along this path. We've been We've had some experience, maybe 20, 25, 30 years more of experience than our kids by the time they come around and get into the age that we were. Right? So we feel that, you know, we have paved the path. We expect them to walk on this path. That's a natural feeling, that's a normal feeling, that's a human feeling. We want to see our children succeed. We also want to see them follow in our own footsteps. We feel like we've found a path that's good for us, that's worked. We want them to continue in that. And I would like to bring out something from Avraham Avinu and the way that he is the is the forebear of the people of Israel and the way that he teaches us to to go on that path. And that is clearly, you know, Avraham Avinu did not live in the time that the Jewish people were going down to Egypt. Avraham did not live in the time when Jewish people came out of Egypt. Avraham did not live through all of the experiences that his offspring had. And yet, the Torah is showing us that he paved path for them. He served as an example for them how to face the challenges, of how to be a machnis oreach, how to bring in guests, how to be a certain type of person that he was. I'd like to share with you something that I I don't remember if I've mentioned it in the parsha podcast, but over last year and a half plus I've had the opportunity had the idea, which was taught to me that I do every single morning, and that is that I write I write every single day except for Shabbos, I write every day as if Hashem is speaking to me. I write. I'm not claiming nevu'ah here. That's not what it's about. It's just what if if I would have a conversation with Hashem, what would it look like? What would he be telling me today? What would the morning message from God be? And so I do this every day, and I and it's very helpful for me. I I find it to be very useful. I connect into my highest self. I connect into what I think Hashem wants to say to me today. And sometimes something comes out that I don't know if I would have thought of myself. Maybe Hakadosh Baruch Hu is guiding my hand, guiding my thoughts. But I wanted to I want to share with you a little bit of what I wrote this morning. And I wrote like this. And And this is the idea which I'd like to bring across. Now, this is Hashem speaking to me. Know that I believe in your unique talents and abilities. And know that the people I've placed in your life you hold so dear they each have a unique destiny that is theirs. Your job is to facilitate them being who they are. Be careful not to confuse your destiny with theirs. And always remember that I am there for each of them and for you to support and bring you all to the world I wish you to create. Lech lecha. Go on your unique path with your unique personality and abilities. Be like Avraham in love and kindness encouraging people's relationship with me. Help them see I am their source. Keep reminding yourself as well. And I, you know, as I was thinking about this midrash and I was thinking about what to say, so it it was clear to me that in our lives we have people who Hashem places as our children, as our as those who we are meant to have influence on, as students, whatever it is, the people in our vicinity who watch us, who see us. We interact with our friends. And there are different ways of approaching the way that we have an impact on those around us, whether it's our children or our students or our friends. And I think I, you know, I see in the midrash that the midrash is telling us something profound about how we pave the path for others. Avraham Avinu paves the path for all of Klal Yisrael. But he's not directly instructing. He's not saying, "Klal Yisrael, do this. Go down to Egypt when there's a famine." He's not saying, "Klal Yisrael, face off your challenges and connect Hashem." He's not saying, "Klal Yisrael, don't worry. You're going to you're going to leave Egypt with with great wealth." It's not an instruction with words. It's not a direct statement. It's not it's not a mussar. It's not a tochecha. It's not a rebuke. It's not a statement. It's just this is how I lived my life. This is These are the events that occurred to me. And you will all have similar events in your lives. And you will be able to have me as an example of what to do and how to face your challenges and how to come out of those challenges even more connected to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, to Hashem, to your creator. And how to come out of those challenges and reap the rewards of those challenges. Come out of Egypt with great wealth. And the physical wealth, the gold and the silver is just representative of a spiritual type of wealth, which is the relationship that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has with us. And it's the Torah being received and it's all of those things. We as parents, we as teachers, we teach best by example. And we can make a mistake and think that I need to instruct. And sometimes I do need to instruct. But 99% of the teaching, 99% of paving the path for my kids is done by them seeing who I am, what I am, and what I do. And they may not even notice or or realize that they've done that they are following my path. It's deep. It's It's subconscious. I was recently, this past week, I was at a a shiva of a friend of mine who his father passed away. And he was commenting on how um the realization that he has of how much of who he is is because of who his father was. And and I commented that we reach a certain age and we notice for a wise, I would like to think I'm a little wise, we notice that much of who we are is almost a carbon copy of who our parents are. And and our children will at some point realize the same thing. And and I think that there's a resistance when we overtly say to our child, this is how you should be, there's of course that brings up a resistance. They they can't receive that. Each person wants to be who they are. Each person wants to be their you know, make their own path in the world. But of course we don't make our own path in the world. That's just not how the world works. To some extent maybe we do. But even those people who have forged a different path perhaps than their parents or who have different talents and abilities than their parents or who, you know, we don't all go exactly in the way exactly of our forebears, but even when we do, even when we don't, or we do, that's inside of us. Remember a comment from Rabbi Kive Tatz. Rabbi Kive Tatz is a an amazing teacher of Torah. And he was part of the Ba'al Teshuvah movement in South South Africa decades ago and went on to become a great teacher of the Jewish people. And he commented how many of the children of those of those families weren't as religious, they went on to become more religious. But they had to admit that who they were, their commitment to truth, their commitment to Yiddishkeit that was new found for them, but it was founded on the type of people that their parents were. The type of truth-seeking people that their parents were, the type of of people who were committed to the specialness of their Yiddishkeit. And that brought their children to a maybe a different level, maybe beyond who their parents were, but we don't always see, we don't always recognize that who we are is a result of who our parents were or are. And it's it's important for us as parents looking to our kids to know that the best teaching doesn't happen with words. The best teaching happens with action. The best teaching happens by who we are. Avraham Avinu teaches by example, exactly who he is. The path that he goes through, the way that he faces off with his challenge, the prayer, the tefillot that he says, the the getting out of the situation with a with a deeper connection to Hakadosh Baruchu. Coming out with great wealth. These are just examples for us. The path that he travels is the path of Klal Yisrael. The the coming to the Holy Land, the Lech Lecha, going into exile, coming out of exile, enduring the challenges. These are all the paths that the Jewish people are going to inevitably walk through. >> [snorts] >> But he's not there to actually guide us when we reach those places. He's not alive anymore. But his story is still there. We still remember who he was. Interestingly, one of the things that I my my The Yeshiva would mention is that there was a particular historian who would speak about the Jewish people and he would say, "What's unique about the Jewish people is that they live in a way that Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov are still alive. We live with the story of the Avos and they're still uh they're our grandparents. They're not a great great great great These are not legends from from 3 and 1/2 thousand years ago, 4,000 years ago. These are not legends. This is alive. The Torah is alive. The story is relevant to me. The story is my story. That's what the Medrash, I think, is teaching us. The Medrash is teaching us that we have these examples. We have these people who went through things in life and and we learn from their example. Not so much from their teachings. We learn from who they were and how they lived. The Torah has many stories. The Torah teaches through stories cuz we learn the best through stories. Our guard is down. Our resistance isn't as strong. Hearing a story of how If I hear about how somebody failed and picked themselves up, that's much more more powerful for me than if someone tells me, "Hey, you failed. Pick yourself up." It's not the same. And it's essential It's essential that we recognize this type of teaching. We are there for our kids. We have gone through stuff before. And we teach through our example and that is the best teaching. Who we are. How we emotionally approach things. How we use it to intensify, strengthen our relationship with the Kodesh Boruchu. That is the best teaching that there possibly could be. So, I want to bless you and ask you to bless me. Hashem should help us that we all should be able to learn from Avinu. we all should be able to see the path that he paved for us and sham should help us that we should be able to do the same for our kids and we should pave that path and be that example for them so that they can succeed in their service of a thank you so much for listening have a wonderful Shabbos. >> This podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.arigoldwag.com [music] or search on iTunes Ari Goldwag.