Rabbi Akiva Rutenberg - Parshat Lech Lecha - The Journey

[Music] shalom everyone i hope you are well this week's parashat is partial third partisan in the torah and the first partial where we're introduced to avraham avinu our forefather abraham the first jew the first person who was came on his own to recognize god's existence and in the first verse lot of firsts in this week's parasha god introduces himself to avraham and the first message that hashem says to avraham is go where should he go it doesn't tell where to go he tells them where to go from main arts from your birth from your land from your birthplace meebaytavika from your father's house el ha-oretsa at araka to the place the land that i will show you and i think in this verse we can learn so much about what our mission in life is and we can learn this from our forefather avraham avinu we know that myself symbol of what happened to our forefathers is a message to each and every one of us and i think in this first verse the first message that god gives to avram is a message as a calling to each and every one of us and what is that message and i think the first message is is a realization that we're on a journey a recognition that life is a journey life is not just about being stationary life is not just about going through the motions and and just going through going through the actions of life but life is a journey that's the first important message you're on a journey and the message is that you can do this and i will be with you but how do we do this journey what is this journey about and the message is that to a certain extent we have to let go of some of the things in our past in order to find our truest potential we don't deny where we came from we don't deny our existence our birthplace our land our parents house but rather we are supposed to incorporate those things into our life but to a certain extent let go of them to find our truest potential and how do we find our truest potential to to follow me to follow the direction that hashem guides us in and realize that there's going to be a certain amount of unknown in in this journey and basically embrace the unknown embrace that there is going to be an unknown but with the realization that hashem is with us that god is with us god is guiding us and if we continue in this direction being willing to let go of some of the limiting aspects of our past and our upbringing and our childhood and transcend and go in the direction that hashem is guiding us we'll end up in a very good destination and within this message really lies an idea that faith is a two-way street there's a faith of course that we have in god but there's also a faith that god has in us god is telling abraham avinu as he starts this journey i believe in you and we say this in the beautiful prayer every morning mode the first words that a jew is supposed to say out of their mouth as they wake up in the morning is the word gratitude first word should be gratitude and i say give gratitude to your god i'm the king who's alive and well who's continuing to create the world to be that you return my soul as we believe every night a little bit of our soul goes up to heaven you return to me my soul behemoth with tremendous love and the commentaries tell us this is not the faith that we have in god but this is the faith that god has in us believing in our potential believing in our ability to let go of these limitations and find our truest potential and i think within this message also lies an idea that we must have a direction in life we may not know exactly where we're going to end up but we must have a direction there's a saying i believe it's a tribute to the movie alice in wonderland that if you don't know where you're going every road leads you there and even though there is an unknown in life but there's a direction that we're supposed to be going in and by definition that means that we have to be thinking about the end we can't be so enveloped in the means that we forget what what the real goal here is one of the biggest mistakes people make is when they confuse the means with the end is when they get so enamored by all the details of life all the stresses of life and all the the the the the things that we get so busy with that we forget really what we're doing this what we're doing this all for and the message to avraham avinu is is that i want to give you the greatest blessings i want you to be the source of all blessings i want you to become the greatest nation but ultimately that means that you have to have a direction you have to have a direction i saw a very nice quote attributed to viktor frankl victor franco as we know was a psychiatrist psychologist who was trained in austria before the second world war and did therapy in the concentration camps and wrote a he helped save thousands of people's lives before the war and during the war and he wrote in his uh very famous book man's search for meaning um he wrote he wrote this really really special book and based on an idea called lago therapy purpose therapy meaning therapy and i saw this quote where he says if we take man as he is that's what he will be if we take him as he should be we make him capable of being what he can be and i think in that message is really what this pasuk is teaching us that we have to be willing to let go of our limitations look forward and reach towards our potential the whole essence of what we are as a human as a jew is to go beyond our current selves don't define yourself based on where you are but where you are going you know i met very often i'm asked a question by people who are our students who are dating and they ask me do you think this person might be the right person for me and very often there's differences in their religious level there's differences in other in other things in in other aspects of of their of their spiritual growth personal growth and what i often tell them is is that in addition of course to looking at where the person is right now sometimes as important if not more important is to look at the direction to where the person is going where are they going where are their aspirations what's what's their dreams where what's the direction that they're going in life and i think that within this pasuk is this message that we must have direction we must have a purpose we must be going somewhere it's not always clear where we're going but we must go somewhere we must have a direction and in order to do that we have to be willing to let go of our limiting beliefs the things that often hold us back from our childhood and our past and reach above reach reach ahead and embrace the unknown follow the direction that hashem is guiding us in and through this moving forward through this moving forward we will become this amazing nation become the source of all blessing by letting go of our limitations and being willing to embrace the unknown go forward have faith in hashem and realize that hashem has faith in us good travis everyone [Music]