Avraham's Walk - Tehila Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

hi everybody I want to share some remarkable verses that really struck me in reading the portion of this week so even just starting from the name go unto you there's this verb that keeps repeating itself again and again and you just can't escape it walk go it can't possibly be a coincidence even just in the very first verses of our portion it appears again and again Hashem commands avraham walk to the land that I'm going to show you then he walks the Torah describes him walking describes a load walking and then even within the land Hashem says walk here walk there all around the land and after he finishes walking around the land Hashem says walk her before me it's just this constant command to keep on walking so if you had to describe avram's career as a patriarch I mean we don't have a lot of teachings we don't have a book that he wrote we don't have his divart tours but Hashem says walk before we walk to the negative walk walk he's like a professional Marathon Walker even his career is a Shepherd what does a Shepherd do you mainly walk around and Yitzhak Isaac he wasn't like that he stayed in one place primarily yaakov even though he had to move around quite a bit is described in his fundamental personality as yaakov is the person who sits in the tent why is avram walking around so much you know people tell me oh I'm trying to get in 10 000 steps a day if aphram had a Fitbit or a smart watch he'd be in Peak Performance he's always walking so here we are meeting essentially the first paycheck the first person to establish the people of Israel to settle the land of Israel and it's like he's setting the stage what is the fundamental spiritual posture of Israel and so why is it the message of the Torah to tell us that avraham's main activity was walking being on the go it gets even more interesting when you compare avram to Noah Noah has described as being this perfectly righteous person now then all the bad people die in the flood and it's just him and his children why didn't Hashem turn him into the father of Israel give him the land of Israel give him the Torah wouldn't everything be good there are no bad guys what was it about avraham that made him the right candidate and not Noah now if you look at the verses it's actually like the Torah is screaming out this comparison you know in Genesis 6 9 it says these are the generations of Nach was a righteous man he was perfect in his generation Noah walked with God but then look at avraham in chapter 17 verse 1 it says and avram was 99 years old and God appeared to him and he said to him I am the almighty God walk before me and be perfect look at this Mirror Image Noah was perfect perfectly righteous and therefore sort of as like a an outcome of that he was walking with God he was with God because he's already there he's at such a high level that's just who he was but there's no actual progress in his personality and we know what happens in life when we're not making progress we can all experience this in our own personal experiences we start to slide backwards I've heard it be said that taught that why is it the Torah always um talk about the altar as having a ramp and not stairs because stairs you can go up a few stairs and just stand on the step that you're at but our ramp the second you stop going upwards you start rolling backwards the ramp of going up to the altar is to teach us that if you want to move upwards you need to always keep going you can't stand in place or you're going to start sliding down and that's exactly what happened to knock once there was no challenge there's no evil in the world not really anywhere to strive what happened to me fell into the Temptations of alcohol and immorality and even look at his name the name Noah in Hebrew actually means comfortable rest like if I sit in a comfy chair and I'm talking here I'll say oh what a no after tear I'm sitting in what a comfy chair I'm sitting in his name is the opposite of movement in growth it's like Stillness and comfort avram's command is the exact mirror opposite walk before me and be perfect what is walking before me means becoming perfect you aren't perfect but by being in a walk before God trying to get closer to God you're trying to grow and you're becoming ever more perfect that's the kind of nation that Hashem wanted not perfect people but people who always want to be on a growth trajectory before Hashem now that's not easy it's so the Hebrew language teaches us so much if you put the words walk to you together it actually spells which means to get dirty meaning it's great to be a knocker in your boat you're protected from trouble you're Noah it's comfortable walking out into the messy world into the unknown challenges is not easy and you run the risk of getting your hands dirty but the command to avram is so marvelous it says go to the land that I will show you avraham starts walking not knowing in the beginning where it's going to end up the mudrash fills in the blanks and tells us that for years you know the verses are juxtaposed it sounds like well Hashem said go and he just went and went to you know the land of Canaan but the major says he didn't know where to go and he was stumbling around for years the mistress says that he was like a lost sheep just wandering around think about the faith that must have taken from avram to just keep on walking waiting for Hashem to show him where he's going and even when he gets to the land constant challenges constant movement he never gets to just chill out and be there and maybe that's just the point there's a beautiful midrash and our daughter Adam shared it in her Bat Mitzvah that avram was walking through Aram through the Fertile Crescent where everything just grows you flop some seeds into the ground and things just grow on their own and he saw everyone relaxing he said Hashem please don't let this one be my land and then he came to Canaan and he saw people working and plowing and planting who would want that I mean wouldn't you want fertile land where everyone just has free time to meditate and to learn Torah no he saw the land of Canaan people working hard and he said oh Hashem please let this one be the land that I get and so it was and Hashem said yes this is your land could it be a coincidence that up until today the Jewish way of life is called the walk it literally means the walk people say oh the Jews live under the law it sounds like something limiting like we're stuck in this box like we're paralyzed but it actually means movement the Jewish way of life is constantly propelling us forward so it's like in this little word we see the template that avram is setting for us as people he wants us to be people who are not perfect but willing to move forward all the time people who are willing to work hard on the land to keep the land people were willing to get dirty people who are willing to step out not always knowing where we're going but knowing that Hashem will show us the way and maybe that is why avraham was chosen to be the father of our people and set out that example for all future Generations so with that I wish you guys a week of growth of walking of moving forward you might not know where you're going but knowing that Hashem will eventually show you the way have a great week everybody