Parshas Lech Lecha

This week I learned that Parshas Lech Lecha shows how Israel belongs to the Jews. About Jews being the chosen people which doesn’t have the negative connotation that most associate with it. About Avraham listening to hashem and just going and how we can apply it to our every day lives. About how Lech Lecha could mean go to yourself, to became your potential. About Avraham Haivri and what the term Ivri means and what it teaches us. About the term Elonei Mamrei and how Elon can be translated. About the Obligation to live in Israel. About being happy in Israel since Avraham Aveinu met your Neshama there. About a cool kids menu that relates to the parsha. That motzei shabbos is Rochel Imenu’s Yortzeit.

From Something to Say:

Gaze, now, toward the heavens and count the stars… so shall your offspring be (15:5).

According to the simple meaning of the verse, God was assuring Abraham, who was still childless, that he would have as many offspring as there are stars in the sky. Rabbi Meir Shapiro of Lublin comments on this promise: One might wonder why God commanded Abraham to count the stars, for their numbers are so vast that they are truly impossible for any human being to count. God was saying, “Gaze, now… and count the stars- just as you see that it is impossible to count the stars using normal human powers, so will your descendants, the children of Israel, be blessed with powers that are above and beyond human comprehension.” Every Jew is blessed with tremendous resources, talents, and energies. Often these are hidden, even from awareness of the one who possesses them. The individual and collective accomplishments of our people through history, and their miraculous survival and maintenance of identity through the exile, bear witness to the special protection God affords us, and to the transcendent nature of the Jewish nation – a testimony that shines most brilliantly than all the stars in the sky.

At first when looking at this posuk I would think it means just that the Jews will increase in number and be many, just as the stars can’t be counted. But then there’s something else to it which gives us great insight. Although the Jews aren’t supposed to be haughty about being the Chosen nation. They do have a gene in them that makes them great and capable of great things. Jews are the highest level of a living thing. More is expected of us because of this. Our greatness is what enables us to survive every generation, it’s all in the stars!

Thank You Leora for the Stars!

Have a Great Shabbos!