Shnayim Yomi - Lech Lecha - Rishon - #1 - Rabbi Chaim Zvi Senter - Discovering Your True Self

Hello everyone and shalom aleikhem. Welcome to this amazing initiative shnayim yomi. This week's parsha is parshas lech lecha. The beginning of the parsha it speaks about one of the nisionos of Avraham Avinu. And Hashem says, "Vayomer Hashem el Avram lech lecha me'artzecha u'mimoladetecha u'mibeis avicha el ha'aretz asher areka." Now there's a lot of things to discuss in this pasuk, but I want to focus on one particular nekuda which is the order of which Hakadosh Baruch Hu tells him. He tells him he's leaving. But where's he going from? He's going me'artzecha u'mimoladetecha u'mibeis avicha. He's really going from one place, but there's three different descriptions. Now I want to draw you back to a an incident that I remembered when I was in a taxi in Eretz Yisrael. And there was a very big case that was happening. It was extremely charged. It was I would say the O.J. Simpson case of Eretz Yisrael at the time when there was a political um politician who was who was accused of a crime and he was going to jail. And at the time there were thousands of people that were walking him from his home. Uh they were they were escorting him. And I was in the I was in the taxi and they were talking about you know, he's leaving his house in Har Nof. He's now left the street. He's left the city limits. He's now and they were describing step by step because it was such a a um impactful moment. And it starts with he's leaving his house, he's leaving his street, he's leaving his little city and then eventually leaving the entire area. And over here the pasuk when it discusses Avraham Avinu leaving it says the opposite. It says lech lecha me'artzecha which is your land, your country. U'mimoladetecha is your neighborhood. U'mibeis avicha is from your father's home. It goes out of order. It should have been the other way around. This question Rav Breuer speaks about in his sefer Chochma U'Mussar and he says that this journey of Avraham Avinu, know, nisayon of Avram was not a physical journey. It wasn't about a physical challenge just to like go on a road trip. This was a spiritual journey. Spiritual journey of leaving the influence. You see, environments give rise to certain particular cultures and character. And Hakadosh Baruch Hu was telling him, "Lech lecha. Go to be you." Be you means leave behind, shed the influence that there was of being from a certain country because there's an influence of the country that you're in. There's a character you get from being in a specific country. That's one part of your journey. And then there's leave your neighborhood, your friends cuz they also have influence. Not just the global society, but also just your neighborhood. And then the biggest influence is the influence of your parents' home. And Hakadosh Baruch Hu was telling Avraham Avinu, "This is your challenge to go be you." And the inner self is governed by one voice. That voice is is when a person is being is being genuine to who he is. That was the nisayon of Avraham. Lech lecha. You be you.