Latest / The Frum Health Club Podcast / Parshas Lech Lecha Lessons and Inspiration Dr. Rubie Minkowitz
Transcript
- 0:00SPEAKER_00: Gujab is Parshus Lechha The first words Hashem told Avram, the first Jew was Lechha.
- 0:08SPEAKER_00: Go forward, never be satisfied with your achievements, the Rebbe says.
- 0:14SPEAKER_00: Our role is to move forward, physically and spiritually.
- 0:18SPEAKER_00: And this week the Yem Yam tells us that we should live with the times, meaning we should live with the terra portion and not just learn it, but live with it.
- 0:29SPEAKER_00: So Lechakha, go for a walk or a job to get your 10,000 steps in.
- 0:35SPEAKER_00: And the deeper meaning of Lechcha, Chasidis teaches us, is to go to you.
- 0:41SPEAKER_00: Go to your true inner self, the divine soul, by leaving your baggage behind and achieving your true potential by connecting to it.
- 0:52SPEAKER_00: And I love this explanation that everyone is on a journey.
- 0:57SPEAKER_00: And the destination is not yet known to us.
- 1:01SPEAKER_00: As the verse says, Asher Aracha, that I will show you.
- 1:05SPEAKER_00: And to find out who you really are, your core, it's about the journey you take by connecting to your soul, and Hashem will lead you to your destination.
- 1:18SPEAKER_00: And the Rebbe reminds us that Hashem determines where we go.
- 1:22SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we may think that we have taken a wrong turn.
- 1:27SPEAKER_00: We should remember that it is all in God's plan, and it is in our free choice to decide whether we get frustrated over how our plans changed or to capitalize on the Hashka Pratus, the divine providence, and to use this as an opportunity to fulfill our mission in the place where God has led us.
- 1:52SPEAKER_00: An Avram is called the Ivri, which translates to Hebrew, an Ivrit, but the word really means the other side, since Avram was from the east of the river.
- 2:04SPEAKER_00: And why is he called this?
- 2:06SPEAKER_00: Because the whole world stood on one side and Avram stood on the other side.
- 2:13SPEAKER_00: Think about this.
- 2:15SPEAKER_00: The first name the Terra gives our people is not about power or land.
- 2:20SPEAKER_00: It's about willing to stand apart.
- 2:23SPEAKER_00: This is not easy.
- 2:25SPEAKER_00: And we see nothing is easy for Avram.
- 2:28SPEAKER_00: He gets tested at every turn.
- 2:31SPEAKER_00: He listens to Hashem to go to a foreign land, and then there was a famine.
- 2:38SPEAKER_00: Then his wife gets taken from him.
- 2:40SPEAKER_00: Later in the Parsha, his nephew Light is taken as a hostage.
- 2:46SPEAKER_00: All these stories are lessons to us about Bitofan, and we see after Avram and Sarai went down to Mitsraim, poor and starving, they returned with wealth.
- 2:58SPEAKER_00: And Rashi says that they stayed in the same hotels as they did when they traveled down to Mitsraim because of loyalty.
- 3:08SPEAKER_00: And Rashi also says that they went to the same places to repay their debts.
- 3:14SPEAKER_00: And Rabbi Gordon adds a beautiful explanation on this.
- 3:19SPEAKER_00: That Avram was spreading and teaching Terah about one God, and behind his back people were talking and saying that he is spreading the word of God and was promised great things.
- 3:32SPEAKER_00: But look at him, he is poor and starving, and needs to go down to Egypt instead.
- 3:37SPEAKER_00: So now he returns to show the blessings that he has and to repay the debts of promises that Hashem gave to him.
- 3:46SPEAKER_00: And the lesson to all of us is that life can be difficult at times, and we stand alone, but Hashem will repay his debt to us, the children of Avram Yutzakan Yakiv.
- 3:59SPEAKER_00: So stay the course.
- 4:00SPEAKER_00: And as we read in the parsha, those who bless us shall be blessed, and the opposite, those who curse us, the anti Semites, shall be cursed.
- 4:09SPEAKER_00: And may we be blessed to go, Lechha, to the land, to the holy land that Ashem promised, Avram, our father, with Mashiach, and the whole world will see what Avram taught that Hemakad Ushmachad Amen.