Driving Two Ways on a One Way Street

Life seems to be taking us in so many, and often opposite directions. This can lead to confusion and despair. In truth, all directions that we travel revolve around and lead us to one overarching goal: We travel to Jerusalem to bring back its inspiration to our homes; to transform our lives into Jerusalem. LECHA LECHA

DRIVING TWO WAYS ON A ONE WAY

STREET

Lech Lecha and the Seventh of Cheshvan

This week’s Parsha of Lech Lecha coincides with a special day in the Hebrew calendars: the seventh day of Cheshvan. On that day the Jewish people in the Land of Israel begin to pray to G-d for rain. This prayer is supposed to begin fifteen days after the Festival of Sukkot, so the last traveler from Jerusalem, who had gone there on the annual pilgrimage, would get home before the rain would start.

The significance of the seventh of Cheshvan is not simply negative. It is not just the day until which the prayer for rain was delayed. Rather, that very negative aspect of this day—the delay of the prayers for rain until the travelers reach the border—indicates that the seventh of Cheshvan has a connection with the Festival of Sukkos itself. After all, it’s LECHA a two-way journey to Jerusalem. Celebrating the holiday of Sukkos included both going to and coming from Jerusalem. As long as the Jews who lived in the most remote places did not return home they were still rejoicing in and observing the holiday.

The seventh of Cheshvan thus marked the completion of the holiday. It was a day of descent from the heights of holiness the people experienced in the Temple in Jerusalem. It was like landing on earth after a long trip climbing the tallest mountains.

Let us now see if there is a connection between the theme of the seventh of Cheshvan and the theme of this week’s Parsha. At first glance the connection seems to relate to the idea of a journey. The seventh of Cheshvan marks the end of the journey of Jews from their pilgrimage to the Temple, and this Parsha highlights the journey of Abraham.

Climb up or Descend Down from the mountain?

However, this is where the analogy seems to break down. The opening words of the LECHA Parsha “Lech Lecha” means “go out.” Abraham was asked by G-d to leave behind his home and travel to the Land of Israel. We too are taught to apply this to our own lives, to leave our material concerns and comforts and ascend to the land of Israel — to elevate ourselves spiritually.

This seems to be in stark contrast to the lesson of the seventh of Cheshvan that teaches us to follow in the footsteps of those who left the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, to return home, to go back to our material involvement in the physical world, by descending from the heights of spirituality.

Is the lesson of this week to climb the mountain or to descend from the mountain?

Two Sides of the Same Coin

Actually, elevating one’s self spiritually and involving oneself in worldly concerns are inter-related. The purpose of Lech Lecha, of going forth, is to create a dwelling place for G-dliness. The spiritual elevation, the ascent to the Land of Israel, indicated by the journey of Abraham is not and end in and of itself. Rather, it provides the inspiration and LECHA direction, giving us the ability to “go forth” into the world and transform it.

This return home, associated with the seventh of Cheshvan, this descent into the material world outside the land and milieu of Israel, is really the climax and objective of the ascent to Israel, Jerusalem and the Holy Temple.

It does not end there, however. The purpose of our return home — indicated by the seventh of Cheshvan — was so that we could once again prepare for the journey back to Jerusalem to reach even greater heights, which we, in turn, bring back home with us.

The Ascent in the Descent of Exile

This can explain the phenomenon of exile in which we live and have lived for close to 2,000 years. For over 1,200 years, since the building of the Mishkan in the desert through the building of the First and Second temples, the Jewish people were able to ascend the spiritual heights. What is the purpose of this current period of exile?

One answer is that just as the ascent to the Temple for the Festival of Sukkos reached its LECHA climax when they returned home to the mundane world, similarly, all of our greatest spiritual achievements during our period of “ascent” have reachrd their climax when we brought them home, in the days of exile in the Diaspora.

And just as the period of returning home on the seventh day of Cheshvan marked the beginning of preparation for the next pilgrimage and ascent to an even higher level of holiness, similarly, our stay in exile is a prelude to a qualitatively higher level of elevation — the coming of Moshiach and the rebuilding of the third Temple.

LECHA

From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Lech Lecha by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.