Reply To: Short & Sweet

Lech Lecha: Inspired by the Emptiness

The Parsha begins with Hashem’s first command to Avram: לך לך מארצך וממולדתך ומבית אביך, go from your land, your birthplace, and your father’s house, אל הארץ אשר אראך, to the land that I will show you.

R’ Aaron Lopiansky asks, why do we need the whole first half of the command? Wouldn’t it be enough to tell Avram where to go to? Why did Hashem go into so much detail about the place Avram was leaving from?

He answers that the place Avram was leaving was actually the impetus for his journey. Avram grew up under Nimrod, in a land of idolatry. But because he grew up with it, he appreciated just how empty it was. His exposure to an ideology that he knew to be false was what inspired him to seek the truth.

Sometimes, we are drawn to do the right thing by an appreciation for what is good. But sometimes, we are drawn to what is right because we are repulsed by the evil of what is wrong. The very emptiness of the world around us can be what inspires us to seek out something more.

לע״נ דוד חיים בן ישראל דוב הכהן
לע״נ ר׳ חיים דוב בן ר׳ בןציון שלום