344. Go Forth
1980
“Go forth from your land, from your kindred, and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you.” It is written in the Midrash, “Hear, daughter, and see and lend your ear, and forget your people and your father’s house, and the king will desire your beauty.”
To understand the proximity of the verses, when beginning to guide a person to walk in the ways of the Creator, the beginning is through education. One is brought up to observe the Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] in a manner of Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], as Maimonides said in Hilchot Teshuva.
Afterward, when he wants to walk on the path of truth, he is told “Go forth from your land.” Eretz [land] comes from the word Ratzon [desire] (as it is written in Midrash Rabbah, “Why was she called Eretz? Because she Ratzta [wanted] to do her Maker’s will). In other words, a person must walk away from the previous desire, which was only to satisfy the will to receive, called Lo Lishma.
“From your kindred, and from your father's house.” This pertains to one’s prior upbringing, which is called “going by rote.” This is regarded as “your kindred.” “To the land that I will show you” is the desire to bestow.
However, he cannot obtain this desire because it is against nature. This is why it was said, “that I will show you,” that the Creator shows the person this land, meaning the desire to bestow. A person can assist the Creator in showing him the desire to bestow only with the desire, when he wants to be rewarded with such a desire. However, by himself, a person cannot emerge from his customs.
It is to this that the verse intends by “Hear, daughter,” meaning man’s internality, the dwelling place of the soul, which can hear that there is such a thing called “bestowal,” but it is not within man’s hands to see this, meaning to attain it.
This is why it was said that only if you have hearing, meaning that the person will consider this quality a privilege, then the verse promises a person, “and see,” meaning that he will also be rewarded with seeing. “Lend your ear” to hear that there is such a thing in reality that a person can work only to bestow and not for his own sake. Then you will be rewarded with “forget your people and your father’s house,” and then “the Creator will desire your beauty,” meaning the new qualities, which are to bestow and not to receive.
This is called “to the land that I will show you,” that the Creator will show him this quality, that He will give him the power to be able to work in order to bestow. This is called “Cursed is the man who trusts man,” who thinks that there will ever be a time when the body will permit him to work in order to bestow. Rather, this is a gift from heaven. This is the meaning of “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord.”
By this we will understand the Midrash (2, Chapter 39), “Rabbi Levi said, ‘When Abraham the patriarch walked to Aram-Naharaim [Mesopotamia] and saw them scurrying, eating and drinking, he said, ‘I wish to have no part in this land.’ When he came to Sulam Tzor and saw them engaged in weeding at the time of weeding, and in hoeing at the time of hoeing, he said, ‘I wish I had a part in this land.’ The Creator told him, ‘Unto your seed will I give this land.’’”
“Aram-Naharaim,” when he saw them scurrying to receive reward, for eating and drinking implies the reward he receives for the work, meaning that he is working for his own benefit. At that time, he said that he will not have a part in this land, meaning in this desire that is for his own benefit.
“When he came to Sulam [Tzor],” as in a “Sulam [ladder] that is set on the earth and its top reaches the heaven,” for Tzor implies Tzur Israel [the rock of Israel], and saw them weeding, meaning uprooting the bad qualities within them, since it was time to do so, and not because of a reward, and also hoeing because it was time to do so, which is called “at the time of hoeing,” and not because of his own benefit, he said about such a desire, “My lot will be in this land.”
Then, the Creator promised, “Unto your seed will I give this land,” meaning He will give them the desire to bestow.