“Now the Lord said unto Abram: ‘Go forth from your country, from your relatives and from the home of your father, to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you will be a blessing.’”

Starting the Journey by Separation

This is the start of your Abraham’s journey with those desires he was able to attach to himself: Sarah, his household, and his students. The journey is “out of your country, away from your relatives and away from the home of your father.” In other words, you must break away from all of it.

“Breaking away from the earth” means parting from all the desires that you still cannot correct. Their time will come, but for now you leave them behind and retain only those desires you can attach to Bina, the part of the Creator in you, this fervent will to bestow that you’ve acquired. You will need to take these desires and arrive with them at the spiritual level called the (First and Second) “Temple,” the level of desires at which kings David and Solomon exist.

We also need to clarify that once you’ve attained their level—the complete correction of those desires you’ve “taken with you”—you will need to once again fall into the abyss of egoistic desires you have temporarily left behind. Having achieved correction, you will need to once again mingle with Nimrod, with Terah, and with Haran, for you will now have the strength to correct them.

Indeed, the purpose of your creation is the complete correction of all your desires. Only then will you merge with infinity and achieve the absolute bliss that exists even now, only you cannot feel it because of your uncorrected vessel.

Precise Self-Examination, Sorting with the Creator’s Help

It is written in the Torah, “Go forth from your country.” That is, “Leave the place where you were born and have lived until now, reject your egoistic desires. Start developing above them, as though they do not exist.”

That is followed by: “…and from your relatives and from the home of your father…” meaning “Part from your previous degree, leave behind your old environment that didn’t engage in the spiritual pursuit.”

“…to the land that I will show you.” That is, “Make use of the desires that will awaken in you. They will be the desires you’ll attach to your intention to bestow, called ‘Abraham.’” The Creator will awaken these desires in you, and He will help you correct them. Thus He will lead you into the land of absolute bliss.

“And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you will be a blessing.”

What is the “great nation” spoken of here? There are numerous conjectures surrounding this “great nation.” Some say this refers to the nation being chosen by God, but this is incorrect. In fact, this kind of separation and sense of superiority of one nation over another is precisely the root of all problems, as we can clearly see in our world.

Everything becomes clear and takes its rightful place when we realize that the Torah speaks only about desires that exist within us. It follows that the notion of “great” refers to one who has reached the quality of bestowal and learned to truly love others. Therein lies true greatness. Once you grasp that concept, you will immediately wish to belong to this “nation.” Indeed, the ultimate goal is to make the entire world “great.”

“… and I will bless you …”

What is a “blessing”? Whenever we receive a blessing in life, we are absolutely certain that it’s given to keep us healthy, successful at our jobs, and so on.

In truth, a blessing does not pertain to our egoistic world at all; it is a spiritual notion that leads us to the spiritual world. It has nothing to do with worldly affairs. A “blessing” is the force or Light that descends to us and corrects our intentions, transforming them from egoistic to altruistic.

Because you are connected to Abraham, you are granted this force. Once you have it, all the desires you’ve identified, those you’ve taken with you “from your country” and those you have yet to meet on your journey, are all corrected with this force called “blessing.”

Conquering the Spiritual Ladder Following Abraham’s Lead

Here stands a harsh passage from the Midrash: “I free you from the obligation to honor your father. You may leave him without a second thought. Your father and brother, who appear very friendly, are in fact hatching evil schemes. They’re planning murder…” This reads like something straight out of a thriller.

But by now you know that the passage references your old states, which you’ve lived with before and which cannot agree with you. These desires see that you are right and thus admit that you have risen above them.

The Midrash says the following about Abraham: “He didn’t ask the Creator a single question, like, ‘How long will my journey take?’”

That is because your ascension happens at the degree of Abraham (Bina) inside you, and at this degree you don’t ask questions; you only ascend, breaking away from egoistic desires until you are strong enough to deal with them.

The written Torah continues, “So Abram went, as the Lord had spoken unto him.”

What does it mean, he “went”? It means you have begun to conquer the spiritual ladder. New egoistic desires keep popping up within you, which you can correct by attaching them to “Abraham.” That is, you can view them through the prism of Abraham, constantly comparing them to Abraham’s quality, thereby attaching them to him, to the quality of Bina in you. And so you will always be able to rise above them.

“What Is the Meaning of the Lord Saying to Abraham ‘Go Forth from Your Country’ in the Bible?” is based on the book, The Secrets of the Eternal Book: The Meaning of the Stories of the Pentateuch by Semion Vinokur.

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“Abraham married his niece Sarai, daughter of Haran. She was ten years younger than Abraham, but was no less righteous, and later even surpassed her spouse in the gift of prophecy.”

Whenever the Midrash mentions any woman, it refers to “your inner woman” (whether you are a male or a female). Therefore, Sarai, who later became Sarah, symbolizes the desire to receive within you, which is your inner woman.

As long as the woman inside you exists without the right intention, she serves the destructive ego. But once the right intention is attached to her, the woman becomes a constructive force.

So it is here. “Abraham,” the intention to bestow, marries Sarah, the desire to receive, and thus transforms her into a righteous woman.

By unifying with Abraham, Sarah, the desire to receive, acquires the intention to bestow and becomes a pure and exalted state, and you begin to understand the meaning of true happiness, what it means to think about others instead of yourself, and what true love feels like.

Subsequently, Sarah becomes more exalted than Abraham because she contains an egoism that’s absent in Abraham because he is inherently pure, the quality of Bina in you.

Next, Sarah becomes the mother of all.

Abraham begins to attach the egoistic desires to himself and purify them. The first and closest desire to him is Sarah, followed by his students, whom we will discuss soon, then his sons—Isaac, Jacob—until you’ve achieved complete purification.

As you’ve learned time and again, we’re always talking about what is happening within you.

It is written about Sarah that “She later even surpassed her spouse in the gift of prophecy.”

There is no doubt about it because the Abraham in you is absolute bestowal and is therefore detached from egoism. Sarah, however, epitomizes your egoistic desire. Hence, in unifying with Abraham, she becomes a very significant figure (desire inside you).

Sarah is closer to the earth. It is written that she (as is every woman in our world) is not “detached from life,” and at the same time she is connected to Abraham. This is why she can prophesy while being understood and admired.

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Genesis, 12:1-17:27
This Week’s Torah Portion | October 6 – October 12, 2013 – Cheshvan 2 – Cheshvan 8, 5774

In A Nutshell

The portion, Go Forth, begins with Abraham being commanded to go to the land of Canaan. When Abraham reaches the land of Canaan, the hunger forces him to go down to Egypt, where Pharaoh’s servants take Sarai, his wife. In Pharaoh’s house, Abraham presents her as his sister, fearing for his life. The Creator punishes Pharaoh with infections and diseases, and he is forced to give Sarai back to Abraham.

When Abraham returns to the Canaan, a fight breaks out between the herdsmen of Lot’s cattle and the herdsmen of Abraham’s cattle, after which they part ways.

A war breaks out between four kings from among the rulers of Babylon, and five kings from the land of Canaan, Lot is taken captive, and Abraham sets out to save him.

The Creator makes a covenant with Abraham, “the covenant of the pieces” (or “covenant between the parts”), which is the promise of the continuation of his descendants and the promise of the land.

Sarai cannot have children, so she offers Abraham her maid, Hagar, and they have a child named Ishmael.

Abraham makes the covenant of the circumcision with the Creator and is commanded to circumcise himself and all the males in his household. His name changes from Abram to Abraham, and his wife’s name changes from Sarai to Sarah.

At the end of the portion, the Creator promises Sarah that she would have a son whose name will be Isaac.

 Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman

All the stories of the portion before us happen within us. In the correct perception of reality, this world does not exist, and neither do history or geography, nor the story of the portion. All of them are occurrences that take place within us.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that perception of reality is a profound matter, relating to our innermost psychology, to our senses and to our physical structure.

The Torah speaks the truth about the way we developed, and all the people and events that it describes are our mental forces. Abraham, for instance, is the tendency to develop toward spirituality, the desire to approach and discover the Creator.

The story of Abraham in Babylon is really the revelation that only one force exists and manages the world, and the desire to discover that force. Anyone who feels the desire to discover who is managing one’s fate and why, or is asking, “What is the meaning of my life?” is at the same starting point of Abraham, and the force of Abraham is working within that person.

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• Go Forth
• Canaan
• Hunger
• Sister
• Maidservant and Woman
• Fertility, Birth
• Covenant

Go Forth

Go forth from your desire, regardless of how fine it may seem to you. You must come to a new state, a new degree. Each time, “Go forth” indicates that you will constantly be on the way, going upward.

Canaan

Canaan is the land of Israel when it is still not fully corrected.

Hunger

Hunger means I cannot satisfy my will to receive, if I am as an Egyptian, or that I cannot satisfy my desire to bestow, if I am as a Jew, seeking unification with the Creator.

Sister

There are several names that we use to refer to the will to receive. Among them are “sister,” “wife,” and “servant.” The word, “Sister,” refers to the will to receive you can use with filling of Hochma (wisdom), as it is written, “Say unto wisdom, ‘You are my sister’” (Proverbs, 7:4).

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Continuing the story of Abraham’s defiance of Nimrod, Abraham is thrown into a dungeon for ten years.

The dungeon that your Abraham is thrown into is the optimal state for your development at this time. Your Abraham must realize that he is hopelessly attached to his ego. He must experience it first-hand, not conceptually, but really feel it. And the only way to feel it and clearly see that the ego is an evil force of darkness robbing you of your freedom, is to put yourself “deep into the earth,” in the dungeon—the darkest and innermost part of your ego, where you can’t help but feel terrible and shackled by it. This can only be done in the prison of the ego, in the bowels of the earth.

Here, Abraham is going through a phase that every person who cannot let go of his ego goes through. You try everything in your power to reconcile the ego with what you’re studying; you wish to remain an egoist, yet connect to the Creator at the same time. Thus, Abraham finds himself imprisoned.

You already know about the existence of the Upper Governance when you are already with Abraham, but you realize that your nature cannot be defeated.

This is the state called “imprisonment,” which lasts until you begin to realize that you can regain your freedom, but not by your own efforts. Rather, you can be free only if the Creator rescues you.

It takes time to realize this.

As the Midrash states, your Abraham remains in prison for ten years. Needless to say, we’re not talking about corporeal years, for your liberation can happen in an instant. Ten years later, Nimrod finally realizes that Abraham cannot be broken, and orders to have him executed.

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