Close To Torah

It is well known that a number used in the Torah is connected to all other incidents of the same number. There were ten words or the Asarah Mamaros used in creating the world. There are ten generations that separated Adam HaRishon and Noach. The next “ten” are the ten trials of Avraham Avinu known as the Asarah Nisyonos. Then the Eser Makos, Asseres Dibros, the Eser Sefiros among others. I would like to focus on the Asarah Nisyonos that Avraham Avinu faced. The Rokaiach says that the reason that the way that Hashem spoke to Avraham Avinu beginning with the word “VaYomer“. He continues to say that the choice of this word was due to the fact that the World was created with the Asrah Mamaros in Avraham Avinu’s merit. In other words the world was created with the Asarah Mamaros due to the merit of the Asarah Nisyonos that Avraham Avinu faced. At the same time the World rests upon the shoulders of the great tzaddikim. This concept is best illustrated by the pasuk in Mishlei:

“עֲטֶרֶת זְקֵנִים בְּנֵי בָנִים וְתִפְאֶרֶת בָּנִים אֲבוֹתָם”

On the same note the first and last of the Asarah Nisyonos was to “go”, lech. This is a concept deeply rooted in secrets of the Torah, the crown or kesser is seen through the kingship or malchus. There are two aspects of the kingship of a king, the glorious crown that rests upon his head, and the kingdom that he rules. The kesser is a sign of his kingship and is really beyond the kingdom rather it shows the awesomeness of the king and all that stems from it as it lays upon his head above it all. The kesser sits above the head of the king but it is only as glorious as the king and his kingdom. The respect and diligence of the subjects of the king intensifies the radiance of the crown which he wears. Simultaneously the crown sums up the kingdom and all that they do. Looking into the crown reveals the greatness of the kingdom and their service to their great sovereign.

There must be a connection between the first and last of the Asarah Nisyonos as well as their significance as merit that the very essence of the World rests upon. The Zohar HaKodesh asks a very obvious question giving a not as obvious answer. As we have already established the first conversation as you will between Hashem and Avraham Avinu began with “VaYomer”, then it continued to “Lech Lecha”, an obligation. Asks the Zohar, later on in the parshah Hashem says “Ani Hashem Elokaichem” for lack of a better word an introduction. You can say many mussar vorts that Avraham Avinu was expressing the concept of Naaseh V’Nishma and need not be told why or anything but the will of Hashem. The Zohar answers with a not so simple answer, one that the Zohar isn’t fully happy with. The Zohar says that the gematria of Lech Lecha is one-hundred and the Zohar wanted it to be known that at the age of one-hundred Avraham Avinu will father his son Yitzchak. As I said before the Zohar seeks a further explanation to this question. We will get back to that momentarily. First we still need to understand why Avraham Avinu needs to be told that he will father a son in such a way and not he a more “personal” introduction. Firstly we must realize the connection between the first pasuk and the next. The next pasuk contains three berachos: you will be a large nation, you will be blessed, and your name will be great. Hashem begins by telling Avraham Avinu to go on a journey, to leave behind his past and embrace the path the Hashem has set before him. To ensure no doubts as one may ask how a man of seventy-five with a wife of sixty-five with no children could be the father of a large nation. Hashem started off by being mavtiach Avraham that the berachos will be fulfilled. It is still slightly troubling that this havtachah would precede the actual berachos.

The second explanation of the Zohar is a sod. The commandment of Lech Lecha is to go to Eretz  Kanaan, which is Eretz Yisroel more specifically the place where the breah essentially began. There and only there can Avraham attain the closeness with Hashem beginning with the malchus which contains one-hundred levels. In other words the Lech Lecha which is gematria one-hundred is the first step in attaining closeness. It is no coincidence that the last of the Asarah Nisyonos which is Lech is Akaidas Yitzchok which took place upon Har HaBais. This is an expression of the relationship between Kesser and Malchus. We now can understand the next pasuk by seeing the connection to the last of the Asarah Nisyonos.

Avraham Avinu is called a Kohen Gadol in many different place in the Chazal. One reason is because of the avodah he was prepared to do to his son Yitzchak. There are many references to Kohanim and more specifically Birchas Kohanim in the next pasuk.

וַאֲבָרֲכָה מְבָרְכֶיךָ וּמְקַלֶּלְךָ אָאֹר וְנִבְרְכוּ בְךָ כֹּל מִשְׁפְּחֹת הָאֲדָמָה:

The Sefer HaRamuzim L’Rabainu Yoel says that “ואברכה מברכיך” is the gematria “כהנים מברכים בניך” as it is know the gemara in Chulin (49a) regarding Birchas Kohanim being learned from Avraham Avinu. Rabainu Efraim says that the previous pasuk “ואעשך לגוי גדול” has sofai tavos כל”י standing for כהנים לוי ישראל and כל”י is gematria sixty. Sixty or more precisely sixty thousand is a number used to refer to all of Klal Yisroel. The next pasuk ואברכה is a remez to Birchas Kohanim which contains sixty letters.

This concept of Kahuna and Birchas Kohanim being attributed to Avraham Avinu learned from the beginning of this parshah tells us a lot. The kohanim represent Midas HaChessed and Midas Hod which is represented by Aharon Kohen Gadol is also towards chessed. Avraham Avinu is keneged Midas HaChessed as that was his nature. Rabainu Efraim says a very interesting comments, אברם לך לך is gematria גשם. He explains: just as rain begins in one place (a cloud) and no one can recognize the benefit of the rain until it showers upon the land, so too Avraham Avinu stood in one place until he went (through לך לך) then the world saw the berachah. This is the chessed of Avraham Avinu, just as rain causes grown in plant life so too Avraham Avinu will cause ואגדלה שמך, that is the thought of Rabainu Efraim. Through the Lech Lecha Avraham Avinu watered our world and grew Bnei Yisroel. The Sefer HaRamazim L’Rabainu Yoel says that the word אראך is gematria בעננים. I cannot help but to feel the need explain the connection between the גשם of לך לך and the עננים of אראך as they are not coincidently found in the same pasuk. You may have asked where is this path that Hashem is taking Avraham Avinu? Just as Bnei Yisroel were shown through the midbar Avraham Avinu was shown his path through the clouds. I find it interested that the first place he goes is to Mitzrayim which is where Bnei Yisroel begin their journey. This must be a bechina of מעשה אבות סימן לבנים. It is from עננים that גשם falls from, the עננים represents the path that Avraham Avinu will follow and the גשם represents the fruit of his toil. גשם is called a berachah which is gematria זכר as Chazal say that Avraham Avinu “ששמך זוכרים בברכה יותר מכולם” in the end of the first berachah of Shemonah Esrai we say מגן אברהם not any of the other avos. That is the  “והיה ברכה” that Rabainu Efraim says, meaning it is a berachah given to Avraham that his name will be remembered by us, but all the more so…we remember it through a berachah! It is the גשם that comes from the עננים or it is the merit of creation that comes from Avraham Avinu. The rain comes from the cloud but the cloud ceases to be without the humidity of the rain. That is the kesser and the malchus. That is the Asarah Nisyonos and the Asarah Mamaros, that is the true gadlos of Avraham Avinu.

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Parshas Lech Lecha