Lech-Lecha 2018

Becoming a Vessel

This week's Torah portion is Lech Lecha in which God tells Abraham to leave his land, his family and his birthplace, and "go to a land which I will show you."   Why, ask the commentaries, doesn't God just tell him where he is being led; to the Land of Israel?  Why all the mystery?  The Sefat Emet, Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter of Ger (19c.), answers that there is something valuable to be learned from following without full knowledge.  Abraham is forced to give up so much with out retaining control over his destiny.  There is great value in making oneself a vessel for the will of the Divine, letting go of our need for control and dominance.  At times, it is only through this nullification of the self that we can become fully open to spiritual experience.  May we merit a Shabbat of letting go of ourselves and our ties to all the physical, to become vessels of reception for the spiritual.