Parshat Lech Lecha - 5773

7/31/2019 Parshat Lech Lecha - 5773

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Parshat Lech Lecha

Rabbi Shaanan Gelman

Parshat Lech Lecha - The Gestation of Desire

Bar Mitzvah of Ben Rosenblum

7 years ago I came during the week for the second part of my interview

with this shul I was given a mock-scenario: speak about the parsha on

a week in which there was Israel was facing threats from surrounding

countries and enemies, massive destructive storms in the US and relateit to the bar mitzvah boy who is a direct descendant of the Kotzker

Rebbe.

Fortunately for me, I have kept the speech handy to this very day

While its not until next week that we read about the ultimate fate of

the city of , its nightmarish destruction and the heroic rescue of

Lot, our parsha contains the background to the story how did Lot

come to live in Sdom? Why did he move there in the first place?

The Torah informs us that upon leaving Egypt, Avram had become

extremely wealthy, as did , and as a consequence they found that

there was simply not enough room for the two of them. They decided

to split up, heading east, settling in (Sdom) and Avrahamreturned to ( (-" .We are informed briefly about the nature of s decision namely,

that he was inspired by the richness of the land, a land he observed to


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be well watered and is compared to the Garden of Hashem and The

Land of Egypt (naturally irrigated by the abundant flow of the Nile

River):

--,,--,--,-

,

And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of the Jordan, that it

was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and

Gomorrah, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou

goest unto Zoar.

However, we discover that despite that obvious advantages found in

the green acres of , the inhabitants of were men of

deplorable character:

The irony in this short narrative is immediately understood; Lots

insatiable desire to accumulate mass amounts of wealth had led him to

a place saturated in immorality and corruption.On the other hand, Avrahams destination was quite the opposite.

Although, we do not know precise information regarding the physical

stature of , certainly there is no reference to irrigated fields nor

to a ' . If anything there exists a reference to a land which is barren

and covered in dirt, endless and innumerable in nature:

:


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Avraham is next instructed to walk around the entire circumference of

the land (so as to make an acquisition). Furthermore, he is told that this

land is to be an inheritance to last forever in the possession of his

descendents.

"

The contrast between these two personalities and their choices is self

evident chooses a life of immediate gratification, seeking

fulfillment in the here and now, and Avraham embraces the barren soil

with the hope of planting and building for some future date to come.

As we move on to Parshat Vayera, we should not surprised to find that

it is Avraham who is called upon to bail out when is about to

turn into sulfur and ash.

But the most blatant illustration of their vastly distinct personalities

takes place in a brief moment immediately following their evacuation

from Sdom. and company were looking for an escape route from

, a new city in which they may take refuge:

()

:

():

()

:


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Lot elects to move to Tzoar a city nearby Sdom.

The Gemara in Shabbos (10b-11a) uses this as a basis to teach us aninteresting lesson:

Raba b. Mehasia also said in the name of

R. Hama b. Goria in Rab's name: A man

should always seek to dwell in a city but

recently populated, for since it is but

recently populated its sins are few, as it

is said, behold now, this city is near[kerobah] to flee to, and it is a little one.

What is meant by kerobah? Shall we

say that it is near and small? But surely

they could see that for themselves!

Rather [he meant,] because it has been

recently populated its sins are few. R.

Abin said: What verse [supports this]?

Oh, let me [na] escape thither: thenumerical value ofna is fifty-one;

whereas that of Sodom is fifty-two.

:

.

.

++

.

?-

!:

-.

:?-++

,"

,.

And so, concludes the Gemara, Lot had to leave Sdom because after 52

years the city had become so filled with impurity and evil that it was

condemned. But the nearby city was only in existence for 51 yearsand so it was not as corrupt as was Sdom .

Why should there be such a large distinction between Sdom and

Tzoar? If Tzoar is 51 years old, why would anyone in their right mind


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seek refuge there? Thats like waiting for the smoke to billow out of

the top of Mt. Saint Helens and then taking a hike up to the top.

But that is who Lot is, he operates in the moment, with a short

sightedness. Careless, headlong and imprudent, Lots objective is to

achieve the immediate fulfillment of his desires without a second

thought concerning his future. And so, if he will be able to set up shop

for one more day or one more year, thats enough for him even if it

means he may have to relocate yet again upon s destruction.

The difference between Avraham and Lot is the difference between a

healthy meal and proper sleep, and a 5 hour energy drink with a

snickers bar.

What comes to mind is a comment in the Gemara Sanhedrin (94b).

During the time of Yeshayahu, one of the evil was

. The Gemara tells us that Pekach ben Ramliyahu used to eat 40

Seah of doves for dessert alone, whereas Melech Chizkiyah would eat a

mere Litra of green vegetable for his meal:

'-,

.-

.

Rashi explains that the curse was on Pekach because he was never

satiated from what he consumed:

"


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'-.

About a year ago, a book entitled Willpower was published by Roy

Baumeister and John Tierney, in it they discuss an idea called Delayed

Gratification. The theory is that because children are so accustomed

to getting what they want immediately nowadays, there is less value to

it. Many Asian American parents on the other hand have a different

outlook, they dont withhold gifts and rewards; instead they delay

them.

For instance, let us say a child has a tantrum in the supermarket over a

piece of candy. Most of us would either capitulate immediately or sayno indefinitely. But Jae and Dae Kim, born in South Korea and living in

North Carolina, co-authors of the book Top of the Class (about Asian

parenting techniques) writes that when they would reach the checkout

counter at the supermarket, before the whining would have a chance

to begin they would preempt them by announcing that if they read a

book the following week, they would reward their children with a canfy

bar on the nextshopping trip. When their daughter Soo went off to

college and asked her parents for a cheap used car to get around, they

refused but offered to buy her a brand-new car if she was admitted to

medical school. Thus, these parents did provide good things for their

daughters but each treat was meted out as a reward for some valued

achievement.

Knowingly or not, they are employing the Confucian concept ofchiaoshun, which means to train to build up resistance and anticipation.

It may seem harsh to American parents but it really works.

Our whole culture caters to the mentality of the Lots of the world of

living in the moment alone. Baumeister calls this idea the Gestation of


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Desire let desires sit, not overly suppressed, but withheld until you

can grow to truly appreciate hard work, achievement and sacrifice.

Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt told me a story that when he was 9 years

old, he was crazy about animals, and the definitive work on species ofanimals was first published then, which had pictures of every animal

and the details of their genus and species. It was published in 1963,

and his father let him know that it was a book which was coming out ,

and he had decided to buy it in partnership with his son. Each week he

would receive a quarter for his allowance and they bank his weekly

allotment until he had enough money to purchase it. And he waited

and waited, and marked off the amounts in a little blue book, and the

days in the calendar. At last, after 6 months he purchased Ernest P.

Walker's Animals of the World.

What would have happened if today a kid who had a special interest

conceived a desire for such a book? The parent would go on the

internet and probably express shipment (because our little genius

cant wait) and the book probably would have stayed with him for as

long as it took to process the order.

Avraham Avinus choice to go to Eretz Canaan is about saving up and

marking off the amounts in a little book. Canaan was not the Land of

Milk and Honey that it would be one day it would take foresight and

investment and patience. Avraham knew that it would demand looking

beyond the present and myopic self in order to orchestrate a for

the next generation, and he took the plunge.

Many years later, one of Avraham Avinus descendants acted in kind.

The story takes place in the city of Wegrow, Poland (pronounced Ven-

Grov) about 55 miles northeast of Warsaw. Jews settled in Wegrow

early in the 16th century, and there were 6,000 to 8,000 of them when


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the Nazi occupation began on Sept. 7, 1939. A few weeks later, on Yom

Kippur, SS officers went to the home of the town's rabbi, Yaakov

Mendel Morgenstern, dragged him to the central marketplace and

ordered him to undress. They handed him a broom and told him to

sweep up the manure in the square and carry it to the town dump in his

velvet hat. After receiving numerous blows to the head, he was asked

to place the straimel on his head in front of the whole kehila. As the

rabbi tried to do that, a soldier came and drove a bayonet into his

abdomen, killing him. His synagogue was immediately closed and

ultimately destroyed.1

Ben Rosenblum, todays bar mitzvah boy, is Rav Morgensterns great-

great grandson.

In conversation with a relative of yours (Rabbi Jonathan Morgenstern of

YI of Scarsdale, NY) I learned a few things about the incident:

In the midst of receiving a brutal beating at the hands of the Nazis on

that fateful day in 1939, your great-great-grandfather is quoted as

saying to his congregants, who were staring at him with painful agony

in their eyes: It hurts me much more watching the pain on your facesthen all of the kicks and punches that Im absorbing right now.

Because Rabbi Morgenstern was an Avraham Avinu, he understood

that pain was much larger than his own immediate crisis he saw a

Tzibur which was larger than he was and whose well being was more

central than any personal experience.

I learned as well a part of the story that likely no one in the family

present today is aware of: At a Bris a number of years ago, inattendance was Rabbi Jonathan Morgenstern, and the father named

1http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/wegrow/rabbi.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/28/opinion/a-time-to-dance-and-mourn.html
http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/wegrow/rabbi.htmlhttp://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/wegrow/rabbi.htmlhttp://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/wegrow/rabbi.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/28/opinion/a-time-to-dance-and-mourn.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/28/opinion/a-time-to-dance-and-mourn.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/28/opinion/a-time-to-dance-and-mourn.htmlhttp://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/wegrow/rabbi.html


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his son after his grandfather who had miraculously survived the horrors

of WWII. He related that once they were in hiding and when the SS

discovered them, they began picking off the victims one by one with

the rap of a machine gun but after a dozen or so bodies hit the floor

and his grandfathers turn came to meet his Maker, the gun jammed

and he was able to escape. The father at the bris came to a close

and my grandfather swore that the only reason he survived was

because of one act he performed after the Vengrover Rav was

stabbed, he took Rav Morgenstern into a hidden location somewhere in

his home and cared for him and his wounds prolonging his life until

erev Succot and easing some of his discomfort. It was in that Zechus

alone, claimed my grandfather, that he survived the war.

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Parshat Lech Lecha - 5773