The Current לך לך Circuit

It is פרשת לך לך this week. One of my all time favorite פרשיות. Not because of its obvious connection to Aliyah, but because my great grandpa אברהם אבינו was one of the coolest people I know. And, his adventures in this פרשה alone, were enough to form my entire outlook and focus in life. Dramatic, I know, but the things that אברהם accomplished in לך לך were pretty dramatic. Not to mention super מעשה אבות סימון לבנים -esque. 

While we are introduced to אברהם (as אברם) already in last week’s פרשה, it still seems pretty random to start this פרשה with the directive for him to leave his home and go to the land that Hashem will show him. There seems to be a missing backstory. Why him? Why now? What precipitated this command?

If we look back at the end of פרשת נח, we see that immediately proceeding “לך לך”, is the story of the כבשן האש. It is true that this monumental episode later serves as the paradigm for יציאת מצרים, but it also had instantaneous repercussions. אברהם’s complete and total declaration of ה’s authority over the world was in effect the world’s very first קידוש השם. And the likely explanation for how the מדרש credits אברהם with being מתקן for אדם’s sin, but we will get to that. 

First, let’s explore what a קידוש השם is and how it works. In the simplest of terms, a קידוש השם is the result of a physical action here on Earth whose consequence creates spiritual space for Hashem’s presence to rest. Hashem created us for this very purpose. We are meant to transform the physical world into a place that can effectively hold the ultimate in spirituality, ie. Hashem. This is why the בית המקדש is always our goal. It represents the idea that we can create a home for Hashem with us here on Earth. Hashem’s ability to reveal His presence in this world is directly correlated to the kind of environment that we create. אברהם’s dramatic choice to choose Hashem’s כבוד over all, at the expense of everything, sent shockwaves through the existing reality and transformed it forever. And now everything has to shift in response. Hence the call for “לך לך”. 

Why was לך לך the appropriate response to this action? To answer this we need to understand how reality shifted with אברהם’s declaration of Hashem’s authority over Earth. As we mentioned earlier, Hashem created man to transform this world by connecting the separate aspects of physical and spiritual, and He designed us to do just this. Man is the only creation to possess a physical and a spiritual aspect, so he alone is empowered to connect these two separate elements of שמים and ארץ. He is the point where these two parts already meet, and it is because of this that he is the conduit that will facilitate all future connections between these opposing forces. This sheds light on why אדם was initially created as male and female together. “אדם” at his highest level is a unified connection of physical and spiritual and male and female. Hashem separated אדם into אדם and חוה in order to remind אדם what he is meant to do. The natural attraction that exists because they were once attached would serve as another expression of what he was meant to do with the rest of the world. Imagine the sky is filled with cords and plugs that are just suspended over the Earth. Now imagine the ground is filled with sockets. אדם was meant to connect the plugs with their appropriate sockets and with that, power the entire world. But he doesn’t understand this, and when he has a set back that holds all of the potential for restoration, he is overwhelmed, and he gives up. And the world suffers from it. Until אברהם shows up on the scene. 

אברהם understands the job, and takes full responsibility, at the expense of everything, even his life. He successfully yanks a plug down from the sky and plugs it into the proper socket, and the world is forever changed. Electricity exists for the first time, and there are consequences. First and foremost, אברהם has restored himself to “אדם” status. He was no longer a man with separate physical and spiritual sides, but he was an active fusion of the two, now extending that fusion to the world around him. He leveled up from the status of “man” to the status of “אדם”.

אדם represents the fusion. When a man engages on the level of man and not on the level of אדם, his appropriate partner is a woman. איש to אישה. When he upgrades himself to אדם (which requires connecting to his female counterpart spiritually and physically), they together form a new entity that requires a new appropriate partner to continue to transform the world. If איש is to אישה, then אדם is to אדמה. When אברהם and שרה reach אדם status, ה’s response is: “You have leveled up. You have a new partner now, and that is the אדמה.” 

And what does Hashem say will happen when אברהם comes to the land? “…ונברכו בך כל משפחת האדמה.” All of the people of the world will be blessed through you. When you come as the “plug” אדם to your appropriate “socket” the אדמה of ארץ ישראל, you will create the electricity that will power and bless the world. You will literally be the light unto the nations. 

Remember how we said that the כבשן האש served as the paradigm for יציאת מצרים? Well, I would like to suggest that “לך לך” serves as the paradigm for coming to ארץ ישראל. Coming to ארץ ישראל is the response to leveling up. It is the decision to be active in pulling down more plugs and connecting them with their sockets and creating magic. And it works. Let the current (pun intended) reality in ארץ ישראל be a proof. The land was desolate 80 years ago, and look at it now. It got its power source back. But we are not done yet. The land is waiting. There are plenty of plugs that still remain disconnected because their “אדם” isn’t here yet facilitating the connection. May the reading of פרשת לך לך this year be the call to come take your part as the conduit in making magic happen. We need you.