Today we will discuss a Bitachon thought based on this week’s parasha, Lech Lecha.
There is a midrash that gives a mashal for Avraham Avinu:
A man was traveling from place to place when he saw a palace burning. The man asked if it was a palace without a controller. In response, the owner of the building called out the window, “I run this palace.“
Likewise, Avraham Avinu was going through the world, wondering whether it could be that this world was running without a leader.
At that point Hashem revealed Himself and spoke to Avraham and said, “I am the controller of the world.“
That is the mashal.
But what exactly is the nimshal, what is this compared to? And why doesn’t the owner of the palace put the fire out?
I once actually experienced the answer given to this question.
I was in a building that had an old heating system, when someone saw smoke billowing out of the building and called the fire department.
In essence, it was nothing more than the typical boiler room activity. It was the heating system. The fire was under control.
That is really what is going on in the world. Hashem is saying, “I am controlling the world, and there is no fire going on.
Sometimes a fire department uses controlled fire. This world is controlled fire. Hashem was letting Avraham Avinu know that things aren’t what they look like.
There is a beautiful thought on a pasuk in Tehilim, 148,8 where it says, “רוּחַ סְעָרָה עֹשָׂה דְבָרוֹ
a thunderstorm, a hurricane, a whirlwind does His word.”
Why is the term ‘Does His word” used specifically regarding a hurricane or tornado? The previous pesukim talk about the mountains, the trees, the fruit… why doesn’t it say that those are doing the word of God?
The answer is that everyone realizes that the fruit tree is doing the will of God, as well as the cedar trees, the mountains and the hills. But when a hurricane wind, which looks like haphazard chaos, comes along, and it looks like there’s no control over that, it is similar to some situations in life, which seem very haphazard, like a tornado coming through. In those times, we have to realize that it is God’s word. That is why it says of Avraham Avinu, “He went back on his travels.”
Rashi gives two reasons for this:
One is that he traveled back to Eretz Yisrael the same way that he traveled to Egypt. This was either because it is considered proper derech eretz to stay in the same place going that you stayed in coming. When he returned, he was wealthy, but he gave the same respect to the people that he stayed in when he was poor. Derech eretz means that one should not change his host, even if his status has changed.
The second reason Rashi gives is that he had to pay back his debt. On his way, he went on credit because did not have money. Now that he was on his way back, he had to pay everybody back.
And what does it mean, “pay off his debt?
The Chatam Sofer says that it means that he wanted to show all those that mocked him for believing in God, when he was sent to a land that he had to leave due to famine, and then his wife got kidnapped. When
Avraham Avinu came back a wealthy man, with cattle and all types of wealth, the people said, “Oh look what’s going on! All of that craziness, all that chaos, all of those hurricanes, were actually controlled chaos. It was Hashem controlling everything for Avraham.”
That is our lesson: The owner of the palace looks down and says, “It is not a fire at all. It is just the heating system. You don’t understand it, but it is all under control.”
Have a wonderful day and a Shabbat shalom.