Dedicated in honor of Libi Warmund becoming a
Bat-Mitzvah
October 24, 2015
In Parshat Lech Lecha
(Breisheet 13:14-17) we read: “God said to Avraham after
are, to the north, to the south to the east and to the west. For all the land
that you see I give to you and to your descendents forever. I will make your
descendents as the dust of the earth so that if a man can count the dust of the
earth, then your descendents too will be countable. Rise, walk the land through
its length and breadth, for to you I will give it.’”
A few chapters later in
Breisheet 15:5-6 we read: “He (God) took
him (Avraham) outside and said: ‘Habet’, ‘Gaze’ toward the Heavens and count
the stars if you are able to count them!’ And He said to him ‘so shall your
offspring be!’ And he trusted in God, and this He accounted to him for
righteousness.”
After Akedat Yitzchak (the
binding of Isaac), God promised Avraham (Breisheet 22:17-18): “I will greatly
bless you and make your descendents as numerous as the stars in the sky and
like the sand on the seashore. Your descendents will inherit the gate of their
enemies. Through your children will be blessed all of the nations of the world
because you heeded My voice.”
In Breisheet Raba 44:12 we
find the midrash where God took Avraham out of the terrestrial void and lifted
him above the stars. The word “Habet”, “Gaze” signifies looking from above to
below (meaning: looking down at the stars).
God showed Avraham that he is
above and beyond the astrological influences. God controls the constellations
and Avraham as a Navi (prophet) has the ability to pray and change his own
destiny. Just because the astrologers read in the stars that Avraham would not
have a child did not mean that it was an ultimate destiny.
In Megilat Ester 6:13-14 we
read: “Haman told Zeresh, his wife, and all his friends everything that had
happened to him. Then his wise men and Zeresh, his wife, told him: ‘If
Mordechai, before whom you have begun to fall is of Jewish descent, you will
not prevail against him, but you will surely fall (naphol tipol) before him.’”
In the Talmud, Megillah 16a,
Rabbi Yehuda bar Ilai explains why there is a double expression of falling
(naphol tipol). They told Haman: “the nation of
compared to the stars. When they descend, they descend to the dust but when
they rise, they rise to the stars.”
According to Maharsha, when
they descend, they descend to the dust that anyone can trample on. However, when
they rise, they rise to the stars where they can not be harmed.
Throughout Jewish history
there were many cases where the Jews were trampled on like the dust of the
earth. With the formation of the State of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces,
the Jewish people can now reach for the stars and serve as an “ohr lagoyim”, a
light upon the nations.
has the obligation to protect those who have come from all over the world to
make
God’s promise to Avraham that the
inheritance of the Jewish people.
May
like the stars in the sky!
