Going Straight Forward is the Way to the Goal
By Rabbi Shimon Raichik
This week is parshas Lech Lecha. We need only to look toward the Rebbe’s guidance to find the way forward today. When it comes to safety in Eretz Yisroel the Rebbe’s consistent message is that compromise does not help. The Rebbe spoke against the Camp David accords for security reasons, basing his argument on one quote from Sulchan Aruch; if the enemy comes to your border for any reason, arise and attack them preemptively, even on Shabbos. Today all of Eretz Israel is like a border city. So too with regard to the Sinai, the Rebbe spoke about how it serves as a buffer zone for the rest of Eretz Yisroel and should not be given up.
The Rebbe saw that the Camp David accords weaken us because they began a process of cyclical demands and pressure followed by compromises. These compromises have been harmful to the vital interests and safety of people of Israel and the Jewish people worldwide.
From this we can learn an important lesson in our daily lives. We live in a world of passions and of compromise. We are confronted on a regular basis with cyclical demands and pressure to acquire and have more physical possessions and to look the other way and to compromise in our lifestyle. As we see in Israel these compromises do not bring us to the desired result. There are knives in the streets. So too within ourselves, these compromises over time turn against us and endanger the fundamental purposes of our lives and our service of Hashem.
There are tests in every generation. We are all called upon to repeat Avraham Avinu’s journey of Lech Lecha in our own personal way. To leave our land ‘artzecha’, to go beyond our personal will and desires (artzecha is similar to ratzon-will), from ‘moladetecha-your birthplace’ which refer to our natural inborn comforts which includes the comfort of giving in, and from our father’s house which refers to the limits of our intellect. To go to the place where Hashem wants us to be, and then it will be a bracha.
There is a story from Rabbi Shalom Ber Gordon of Maplewood NJ who brought two boys who were preparing for their Bar Mitzvos from his Talmud Torah to the Rebbe for a yechidus. The Rebbe asked each one of them if they were planning on continuing with Talmud Torah after their Bar Mitzvah. They said that they wouldn’t be continuing. When the Rebbe asked why they answered because none of their friends were attending. The Rebbe asked each one of them separately what he’s learning. The first one answered that he was learning about Noach who was a Tzadik and how Hashem asked him to make the Teva. Because he did that the world was saved. The second one said that he was learning how Avraham stood up against his father and broke all the idols in his store. The Rebbe replied to them that if Noach would give into everyone on his block and Avraham would give into everyone on his block (meaning give in to peer pressure) we wouldn’t be here today.
May Hashem give each and every one of us the strength and the abilities to do what He wants of us and may we merit together the immediate revelation of Moshiach Now!
A Good Shabbos