Weekly Essay
-
Parashat Lech Lecha — 5759 ThemeThe meaning of continued התהלכות is in terms of emergence, rather than stasis. That question boils down to the issue of עבודה זרה vs. עבודת השם, which is itself the question of לךָ vs. selflessness, in its essence the אח"ר of אלהים אחרים. For אברהם must use consciousness to define his next step as part of emergence itself as part of תמימות.
Download -
Overview of Lech Lecha — 5758 ThemeThe meeting of אברהם ושם in which were united two totally different approaches of אהבה ויראה, revolution and tradition, provided the basis of a new כהונה and a new אומה in the עיר שחוברה לה יחדיו-ירו (אברהם) ושלם (מלכיצדק). This is defined in ישעיה מא the haftara of לך לך.
Download -
Lech Lecha for Executives — 5760 ThemeThe meaning of continued התהלכות is in terms of emergence, rather than stasis. That question boils down to the issue of עבודה זרה vs. עבודת השם, which is itself the question of לךָ vs. selflessness, in its essence the אח"ר of אלהים אחרים. For אברהם must use consciousness to define his next step as part of emergence itself as part of תמימות. This consciousness is defined only through ויוצא אותו החוצה, which allows escape from מזל and the system in which he was trapped. The end of chaos into guided evolution also means the growth of full consciousness, so that again one defines evolution rather than being defined by it: a step beyond התהלכות תמימה and which requires the involvement of the more hidden elements of evolution to again blend, through Lot and Ruth, with the approach of אברהם himself. The brit with Bnei Noach was essentially reactive, incapable of taking responsibility, something that was given, something in which the earth essentially defined the nature of things, while the brit with Avraham Avinu was a brit that was proactive, full of responsibility and needed to be achieved by himself for himself. This difference was reflected by the two contrasting pesukim: את הא' התהלך נח and התהלך לפני--walking hand in hand, in a maintenance kind of mode, as opposed to a brit in which Avraham was expected to walk ahead.
Download -
Lech Lecha for Undergraduates — 5761 ThemeRecognizing the difference between the primitive first-stage פירוד which is possible only through the development of the sustainable 70, each of which has the potential of full cultural development, and the integration which must follow בהפרד בני אדם יצב גבולות עמים למספר בני ישראל. Just as ongoing adolescent individualism runs counter to integration and ultimately brings collapse, so too does the extension of פרידה into the individual lead to the perversions of Sedom. Avraham’s יציאה is not a continued הפרדה but is rather a rising above, leading to צא מן האצטגנינות שלך, leading not to a constriction but to an expansion. This expansion must by definition include the 70 who now have been defined, making it possible for them to preserve their childhood in a universe that will maintain them and give them a place within שבעים לשונות ושבעים פנים ושבעים סנהדרין. But לוט continues instead to separate out and the result is a complete loss of integration and a complete alienation מכל משפחות האדמה-נבטל תורת רגל מארצנו. This is a regression into ערוה and leads to לוט וסדום. The contrasting levels of differentiation and integration, from the first generations, to the נפרדו, to the enforced integration of נמרוד , to the ultimate פרידה of סדום, to the integration of מלכות through recapturing רות, the פירדה טובה . Seeing that the defintion of ישראל the way that the אומות are defined as נפרדים is totally wrong, instead it is through the integration of ממלכת כהנים which specifically demands the incorporation of the אומות העולם that we are ourselves. This is the ויוצא אותו החוצה and the ורוממתנו מכל הלשונות.
Download -
Lech Lecha - Transitions — 5762 ThemeThe special nature of מגן as the מקור of בושה in כלל ישראל.
Download -
Lech Lecha - Developments — 5763 Themeלך לך as the rescue of Avraham from the pernicious influence of his society! So claims the רבינו בחיי in an amazing introduction, which turns out to touch on the central theme of brit as context, as control of non-effective development. This is the שד-י element of ברית which demands control just as the original שד-י controlled the unlimited expansion of the universe. In this it becomes identical with the דרך ה' which must define what is ineffective, which defines כל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים, and sacrifices the rest as the infant brain sacrifices its plasticity and most of its inter-neural connections in the development of intelligence. This is שכר מצוה נגד הפסידה ושכר עבירה כנגד הפסידה The only real path to כיבוש cannot be based on either Nimrod’s control or Avraham’s fundamental integration at the root of things, for chaos does not allow a lid to be kept on the continued development of separate detail. This parasha indeed defines the breakdown in Avraham’s approach (even to the extent of Lot leaving the community and joining the forces of Nimrod-like, only anti-integration, Sedom), and brings him to recognize that only continued development and integration within מלכות based on identification of higher self with כיבוש itself can work, and thus he must fight the wars on a path of identity that seems paradoxically similar to Nimrod at the onset. Although he had dealt with everything that science had dealt with up until the discovery of quantum mechanics, there was no way that he could have gone farther on the basis of experience—brit/covenant requires Other.
Download -
Advanced Lech Lecha — "Advanced FrameWorks" Series presented to Kollel Fellows, 1995 ThemeDiscovering the underlying nature of Avraham’s life work in the double word לך לך. The need to accept one’s own self as the essence of good and the basis of חסד, the only possible gift to God and therefore the only possible עבודה. The unity of Avraham’s עבודה that in the nature of existence found monotheism, חסד and a detest of secondary explanations and externalized searches.
Download