The Secret of a Jew's Power to Stand Alone Against the Entire World | Parshas Lech Lecha in Light of Chassidus

00:00 The Frierdiker Rebbe relates in one of his sichos that when he was a young boy of ten, he once entered the room of his father, the Rebbe Rashab. It was Shabbos, Parshas Lech Lecha, and he saw his father sitting with a Chumash, beginning to read the weekly parsha—twice in Hebrew and once in translation, as prescribed by halachah. “And Hashem said to Avram: Go forth from your land, from your birthplace, and from your father’s house.” He saw that just reading those words moved his father so deeply that tears streamed from his eyes. At the same time, he sensed tremendous joy. In other words, two emotions were being expressed: he saw tears streaming from his father’s eyes, but the atmosphere was one of uplift and joy. These were not tears of bitterness or sadness, but tears of joy. The Frierdiker Rebbe, as a child, was deeply moved by this, and decided to ask his father about it. After Shabbos, on Motzaei Shabbos, they spoke about various things, and then he remained standing there. His father asked, “Tell me, did you want to ask something?” He said yes, and told him, “Today, when you were reading the weekly parsha, I saw how joyful and moved you were, and I saw tears come to your eyes.” The Rebbe Rashab said to him, “Let me explain.” He told him that the Alter Rebbe’s chassidim used to study the weekly parsha every day, dividing it according to the days of the week. That is, on the first day of the week they studied from the first reading to the second; on the second day, from the second to the third, and so on. Once, the Alter Rebbe came out and said, “We must live with the times,” and the chassidim did not understand the message. We must live with the times. They began asking around, and learned what the Alter Rebbe meant. They asked

02:23 his brother. The Alter Rebbe had an older brother, Rabbi Yehudah Leib, the Maharil, and by asking him, they discovered that the Alter Rebbe meant the study of the weekly parsha. The message he wanted to convey to the chassidim was that it is not enough to study the parsha; we must also live the parsha. We must live with the times—that is, live with what we are reading. The Rebbe Rashab then told his son, the young Frierdiker Rebbe, that when we do not merely read the parsha but actually live with the weekly parsha, we see that Parshas Bereishis is a joyous parsha: the creation of the world. Generally, when we begin Parshas Bereishis on Simchas Torah, everyone is happy and excited, even though the end of the parsha is not so happy. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is grieved; He wants to wipe out mankind, G-d forbid. Parshas Noach is a rather sad parsha, with the Flood and everything connected to it, but its ending is joyous: Avraham Avinu is born. The parsha that is truly joyous from beginning to end, though, is Parshas Lech Lecha. Every day of this parsha we live with Avraham Avinu, our first forefather, the Jew who gave his life to spread the name of Hakadosh Boruch Hu throughout the world. He passed on his self-sacrifice and his faith to his descendants and their descendants, through all generations. So when we come to Parshas Lech Lecha, we begin to live with Avraham Avinu. It comes to show us a way to live in the times we find ourselves in today. The weekly parsha, Parshas Lech Lecha—simply reading it, studying it, and, as we said, living it—is so important to our daily lives. In our present situation, with everything happening around us, the challenges of daily life, the difficulties, the darkness around us, the state of the world, the situation in Eretz Yisroel, the situation

04:53 and all sorts of things in daily life and in our personal lives—the message of Avraham Avinu, his story, and really every part of that story, from its beginning, “Lech lecha,” to the end of the parsha, is so important, so relevant, so alive. We can draw something from every part of the parsha. Today I want to focus on the basics. We’ll talk a little about Avraham Avinu’s name. What can we learn from the names Avraham Avinu has? We know that the Torah calls him Avram. That was his original name. At the end of the parsha we learn that Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells him that from now on his name will no longer be Avram but Avraham, “for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.” So today we’ll discuss the meaning of the name Avram. What does Avram mean, and what does Avraham mean? And what does that tell us? We’ll look at the plain meaning of the verse, as Rashi and the Torah explain it, and of course we also want to understand the inner explanation, the explanation of Chassidus based on Kabbalah. What lies deep within these names, Avram and Avraham? What do they tell us today? But Avraham Avinu has other names too, and we’ll try to touch on those, at least briefly. We know that in the parsha Avraham Avinu is also called Avram Ha’ivri. In other words, he is not just called Avram; there is an addition: Avram Ha’ivri. What does that name mean? We know Rashi’s explanation of why he is called Ha’ivri: because he came from beyond the river, from the descendants of Ever. But surely there is a deeper meaning to this name as well, something within it that speaks to us. As the Baal Shem Tov taught us, a person’s name is not

07:00 arbitrary. Every name has meaning. A name is a person’s life; it gives meaning to a person’s life. So the fact that the first Jew, whose descendants we are all called, received this name means that the depth of our lives is contained in it. What does Avraham mean? What does Avraham Ha’ivri mean? There is also another, less well-known name. The Gemara in Bava Basra says: Eisan is Avraham—“A maskil of Eisan Ha’ezrachi.” Avraham Avinu was called not only Avram, not only Avraham, and not only Avraham Ha’ivri. He has another name: Eisan, as it says, “A maskil of Eisan Ha’ezrachi.” Eisan Ha’ezrachi in Tehillim refers to Avraham Avinu. The Gemara also brings another verse: “Who roused one from the east to righteousness?” “East” refers to Avraham Avinu, and that verse is from the haftorah of this week’s parsha, Parshas Lech Lecha. What do these names tell us—Avram, Avraham, Avraham Ha’ivri, and Eisan, Eisan Ha’ezrachi? Let’s begin with Avram. Looking in the Chumash, the Torah says: “Your name shall no longer be called Avram; rather, your name shall be Avraham.” From now on, you are no longer Avram. The Gemara even says that it is forbidden to call him Avram. Someone who calls Avraham “Avram” transgresses a prohibition, a negative commandment. We must say only Avraham, with the added hei. Rashi tells us that Avram, without the hei, meant that until then he was the father of Aram. Avraham Avinu came from Aram Naharayim, as the Torah relates; that is where he grew up, where he was born. So he was called Avram. The meaning hinted at by that name is that he was a father to Aram: he was a leader, a prince. Avraham Avinu was a born leader; he had the character of a leader. We know Avraham’s history, but where was he a leader? Only in the region

09:06 his own surroundings. From now on he would be Avraham: “I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.” What is the message here? The basic message for us today, as children of Avraham, is that just as Avraham Avinu was a leader and an example not only to his own people, where he was born and raised, but became the father of a multitude of nations, so too we have a role beyond our own surroundings. He was a symbol and an example to all the nations of the world. We all know the account of Avraham Avinu: “He called there in the name of Hashem, G-d of the world.” Our Sages say, “Do not read ‘he called,’ but ‘he caused others to call.’” Wherever he went, he brought the name of Hakadosh Boruch Hu to the lips of everyone. We all have that role. A Jew must be not only Avram, but Avraham. A Jew cannot be content with his own four cubits, his own place. A Jew must bring light to the entire world. The Jewish people are called a light to the nations. In the haftorah of Bereishis, the Jewish people are called upon to shine, to be a light for the whole world, an example and a symbol. How important that is today, when the whole world can see anything in an instant, as they say. The whole world knows, watches and sees—especially when it comes to Eretz Yisroel. We see how Eretz Yisroel is at the center of the world today. Everyone is talking about it, some in favor and some against, but today we can see clearly how the Jewish people, and every Jew, stand at the center of creation. When we conduct ourselves with Jewish pride, with faith, with justice and integrity, that is a light to the nations. Avraham—the father of a multitude of nations. But let’s go a little deeper, according to the inner dimension of Torah. What do the names Avram and Avraham mean according to Chassidus? The Alter Rebbe explains that in Kabbalah, av, “father,” refers to chochmah. The faculty

11:23 of chochmah is called “father.” In Tanya, the Alter Rebbe explains that chochmah and binah are like a father and mother. In other words, the intellect, the mind, is the father—the inner father. And here we speak of Avram. Avraham Avinu’s chochmah was extraordinary. He was a man of profound understanding, with a remarkable depth of wisdom and intellect. That was his strength, what made him unique. In the Alter Rebbe’s words, Avram means “an intellect hidden from all thought.” That expression appears in the liturgical poems. Avraham Avinu possessed intellect, but not just ordinary intellect: a hidden, lofty intellect, beyond what an ordinary person could grasp. He was on a very, very high level. Hakadosh Boruch Hu said to him: No, the time for an intellect hidden from all thought is over. You must become Avraham. You have a task. “Lech lecha”—go forth. Leave your lofty place, the high and exalted holy level of Avraham Avinu’s soul, the chochmah of the World of Atzilus, as explained in the maamarim of Chassidus. What was Avraham’s lofty level? Hakadosh Boruch Hu told him: Go forth. You must descend. You must leave your exalted, elevated place. This is the reverse of the plain meaning of the verse. Of course, in the plain meaning, “your land” is the land outside Eretz Yisroel, where Avraham was, in Charan; and “the land that I will show you” is Eretz Yisroel. But in the inner interpretation, according to Kabbalah and Chassidus, there is another story here as well. It concerns the descent of Avraham Avinu’s soul into this world. Hakadosh Boruch Hu told Avraham Avinu: You have a lofty soul. Av ram—a lofty father, an intellect hidden from all thought—comes from an exceedingly high place. Now you become Avraham, with the letter hei. The letter hei represents the descent into our world. It corresponds to the letter hei

13:34 in the name of Hashem. According to Chassidus, the letter hei is the sefirah of binah or the sefirah of malchus. It represents the descent of Avraham’s lofty soul into this physical world, to become “the father of a multitude of nations.” What does “the father of a multitude of nations” mean? The Alter Rebbe explains that it refers to the sparks of holiness found throughout the world. We all know what Chassidus explains: many, many sparks of Divine light are scattered throughout the world, within every physical thing, in every corner of the world, among all the nations. The Jewish people go into exile from place to place in order to refine those sparks—to seek out, uplift and elevate the sparks of holiness within everything in the world, the Divine spark, the Divine life-force. A Jew, wherever he is, says a blessing, eats for the sake of Heaven and conducts his business for the sake of Heaven. Wherever he goes, he speaks words of Torah. A Jew has that power, and that is our task. The Jewish people go from place to place in exile for this purpose: to make this entire world a dwelling place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. In the words of the Arizal, to refine the sparks, to elevate them and bring them into holiness. That is the meaning of “I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.” The Alter Rebbe explains that this is what the Gemara means when it says that the Jewish people were exiled only so that converts would be added to them. There is a teaching of our Sages that the whole reason the Jewish people wander in exile is so that we will have more converts. The Alter Rebbe asks the obvious question: Is it really our task to convert people? Have you ever heard of such a task? There is no such thing. On the contrary, we know that when a non-Jew comes wanting to convert, we try to explain why it would not be to his advantage. We do not seek converts—quite the opposite. So what does it mean that the whole purpose of exile is for the sake of converts?

15:42 The Alter Rebbe says something remarkable. This does not mean converts in the sense of non-Jews becoming Jews. The “converts” are the sparks. These sparks we have been discussing—the Divine spark within each and every thing, in every place—are the Divine life-force present throughout the world. In a sense, each is a ger, a stranger. What is a ger? “Your descendants will be strangers.” A ger is somewhere he does not belong, and he must be brought to his proper place. The sparks are Divine sparks, Divine energy and Divine life-force, scattered about. Chassidus discusses this profound subject of the shattering of the vessels, which left sparks scattered throughout every part of creation, even in things associated with impurity, kelipah and the sitra achra. When a Jew performs a mitzvah, when he thinks about the letters of a word, when he walks down the street thinking words of Torah, when he engages with the things of this world for the sake of Heaven and makes the name of Hakadosh Boruch Hu known wherever he goes—anywhere in the world—he is, in effect, bringing those sparks out of the realms of kelipah and the sitra achra and returning them to holiness. That is Avraham. In essence, we are all Avraham. Every Jew, wherever he may be, whether in Eretz Yisroel or outside it, is a descendant of Avraham. “I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.” We must go from av ram, a lofty father, to the father of a multitude of nations: take the lofty soul we have, descend into this world, gather the sparks of holiness, bring in another Jew and another thing, and make this world a brighter, holier place. Eisan. What does the word eisan mean? Eisan means strong. The Frierdiker Rebbe explains in his sichos that eisan has three meanings. It means strong, it also means hard, and it also means ancient. There is the verse “nachal eisan.” It appears in Parshas Shoftim, and there are several interpretations there. What does “nachal eisan” mean?

18:01 One interpretation of “nachal eisan” is a valley where no one has ever dug, grown anything, or sown anything. That is one meaning of “eisan.” In other words, it is an ancient valley, a place that has been there all along and has never been touched. So the word “eisan” conveys a great strength, expressing the strength of Avraham Avinu. He was not called Eisan for nothing. He was a person of tremendous strength, and this is also connected to the name we discussed, Avraham HaIvri. How did Avraham Avinu’s strength show itself? What was his strength? It was that Avraham was an Ivri. What does that mean? The Midrash tells us that the entire world was on one side, and he was on the other. What an important message that is. Avraham Avinu was called an Ivri not only because he came from across the river, from outside the Land of Israel into the Land of Israel. He was called Avraham HaIvri because he was eisan. He stood alone against millions, billions of people in the nations of the world in his time. As the Rambam explains at length in the laws of idolatry. Wow. The world was in such a state when Avraham Avinu was born that the great and holy Name had almost been forgotten. As the Rambam says, the great principle had almost been forgotten. The world had forgotten Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The world was in a terrible state. Then came Avraham Avinu, one man alone, and, as the Rambam describes there based on the Midrashim, his mind kept searching. Day and night he thought: Who is in charge? Who is here? Who rules this palace, this place? It cannot be the sun, the moon, or the stars. Until he reached a conclusion, and the Master of the palace appeared to him,

20:14 as the Midrash says. Hakadosh Boruch Hu revealed the light of the soul within him. He began to sense: There is something deeper. This palace has a Master. There is a G-d in the world. And once Avraham discovered this, he did not keep the secret to himself. He stood before the entire world. Avraham HaIvri: the whole world on one side, Avraham on the other. He stood before the whole world without fear. He did not wage wars; he simply declared, with tremendous confidence, resolve, and faith: This is the truth. And that is how he drew thousands and tens of thousands who followed him, “the souls they made in Charan.” In the weekly parsha, Avraham brings the men to the faith, and Sarah brings the women. We are not talking here about conversion—again, conversion to Judaism was not what this meant at the time. It means bringing them to faith, instilling faith throughout the world. “And he called there in the name of Hashem, G-d of the world.” As they explain, do not read it as “he called,” but as “he caused others to call”—as the Gemara in Tractate Sotah says. And this is the connection between Avraham Avinu’s three names. Avram was his former name: a lofty, exalted, elevated, holy person, associated with supernal wisdom. Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells him: From today, you are no longer Avram. You are Avraham, “father of a multitude of nations.” Your task is to illuminate the world, and that task, Avraham Avinu, is to be a light to the nations. Avraham, with the added hei, brings the Shechinah into the world. In doing so, Avraham Avinu gathers the sparks and illuminates the world. And Avraham Avinu’s strength is eisan: the resolve to stand firm, stubbornly, without being shaken, afraid, or ashamed. What does the world say? He is not ashamed to speak about his faith, even though he stands alone and those around him do not go along with him. Nevertheless, Avraham Avinu stands alone against the entire world. The meaning of eisan

22:24 in the sense we mentioned—something old, ancient, not new—refers to the soul’s strength, the strength a Jew has to be like Avraham Avinu. It is not something that has just come into being. I do not have to invent strengths I do not possess. I simply have to reveal what I have had since long ago. This is the power of the soul, which is truly a part of G-d above. That soul was with Hakadosh Boruch Hu even before the creation of the world. “They sat with the King in His work.” The Midrash says this refers to the collective soul of the Jewish people, the souls of Israel, who were with Hakadosh Boruch Hu even before the creation of the world. With whom did Hakadosh Boruch Hu consult about creating the world? With the souls of Israel. The souls of Israel were with Hakadosh Boruch Hu before the creation of the world, before everything, and it was through them that Hakadosh Boruch Hu decided to create the world. So with this strength, eisan, I can stand on one side with the world on the other, and I will prevail. We have the strength to prevail, to transform the world, to make it a world full of light. It is very interesting. Avraham HaIvri. Yonah the prophet, too. In the story of Yonah, he is on a ship. There is chaos, a storm at sea, and the ship is breaking apart. They come to Yonah the prophet and ask him: Who are you? What is the first thing he answers? “I am an Ivri.” He uses the same expression as Avraham Avinu, Avraham HaIvri: I am an Ivri. Why did he say that? Yehoshua bin Nun, too. At the end of the Book of Yehoshua, in his final days, Yehoshua calls all the Jewish people together and speaks to them. “Thus says Hashem”—he is about to give them a prophetic message—“Your ancestors lived across the river long ago.” What is he trying to tell them? The Zohar asks: Is he telling us history? Did they not know who they were? Did the Jewish people not know where

24:29 they came from? Did they not know their history? What is he teaching us? Know this: across the river. The simple meaning, as we say in the Pesach Haggadah, is that we were once idol worshippers, Terach, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu, in His mercy and great love, brought us out of Egypt, and now we are here in the Land of Israel. But there is a deeper message here. And here comes the wonderful, profound explanation in Chassidus, which gives each and every one of us today the same message that Parshas Lech Lecha gives us; the same message Yehoshua bin Nun gives the Jewish people as they enter the Land of Israel and conquer it for the first time; the message Yonah the prophet also conveys when he faces a difficult test, a storm at sea. And it is the same message for us. We need to know who we are: Ivrim, from across the river. What does “across the river” mean? Where is—what is this river? Let us look at the parsha. A short time ago, in Parshas Bereishis, we learned about a river. The Torah says: “A river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided and became four headwaters.” There is a river that flows out of Eden, and there it divides into four rivers, spreading to different places in the world. The Alter Rebbe says, and Chassidus explains, that the river is the source of the world. The river is where separation begins, the world of separation: “from there it divided.” Our world is a world of separation. The river is a flow of Divine influence. Just as a river’s waters spread everywhere, the river symbolizes the Divine influence that divides into four headwaters: the four worlds of Atzilus, Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah. Across the river, above the river, are the souls of Israel. “Your ancestors lived across the river.” Know what your strength is: the strength of Avraham Avinu, the strength of the Jewish people as they enter the Land of Israel with Yehoshua bin Nun, the strength of Yonah the prophet when there is a storm at sea, and the strength of every

26:50 Each and every one of us has this: “Your forefathers dwelt beyond the river.” Remember who you are, where you come from. Terach, Avraham’s father. Avraham Avinu was Terach’s son, surrounded on every side by millions of Terachs. He had every reason to be afraid, to be ashamed, to back down. What gave Avraham Avinu the strength to stand alone against the entire world, overcome it and transform it? “Your forefathers dwelt beyond the river long ago.” It is the power of our neshama to remember who we are and what strengths we have. When you know who you are—that you are Avraham HaIvri, that you come from beyond the river, above the river, above the world, above everything; that your neshama is literally a part of G-d above—then you have the strength. That steadfastness gives you the strength and fortitude to stand against the entire world. And then, even if the whole world is on one side, you are on the other, and you prevail. How important this message is right now, in these days, when we face seventy wolves and even more nations of the world, from everywhere, with criticism from every side, including within Eretz Yisroel. To be a Jew, a Jew who observes Torah and mitzvos; to be a Jew who walks down the street with the pride of Yaakov, without fear or shame. A Jew who lives Torah, who lives mitzvos. This is the strength we received from Avraham Avinu. So remember again—let us all remember who we are: Avraham, father of a multitude of nations. Eisan, the steadfast one; Avraham HaIvri. These words, these names, are what give us the strength to stand before the world and to act—to truly be a light to the entire world. A father of a multitude of nations. And to prepare the whole world, as we move closer and closer each day to the long-awaited moment when we will truly merit to see the Jewish people become a light unto the nations in the most open way, and “all the nations will stream to him,” as the book of Yeshayahu says of Moshiach. May we already merit to see

29:06 it with our own eyes: how the whole world and all the nations will recognize and know, all the inhabitants of the earth, that “the kingship belongs to Hashem, and He rules over the nations.” “And Hashem will be King over the entire earth. On that day, Hashem will be one and His name one.”