Abraham’s arrival proclaimed a new vision of the world. His message was man’s goal is not to accumulate power or seek maximum enjoyment but to seek Hashem everywhere and cling to Him. Man does not have to always be fully successful to accomplish this. Kedusha is a dialectical experience, it frightens man but at the same time it attracts him. He is driven to come close to Hashem even though Lo Yirani HaAdam VaChai, man must fail in fully realizing that goal. This was an astounding, unheard of message that slowly resonated with people of his generation. However Abraham endured great stress and personal sacrifice for propagating his beliefs. His own father denounced him to the authorities and he was thrown into an inferno. Abraham realized that he had to cut his ties with his family and set off on his own to continue his search and mission. His world crumbled around him and he had to rebuild his life elsewhere, together with his beloved wife Sara. Without parents, children or home, Abraham truly was in rebuilding mode. He was tested repeatedly with challenges, yet he persevered because his faith in the God he discovered and revealed was unshakable. Where Adam and Noah endured a physical rebuilding of their world, Abraham’s was a spiritual odyssey that ultimately left him all alone. Chazal refer to Avraham HaIvri because he stood alone on one side of the river while the rest of the world stood on the other, opposing his attempt to spread the word of the One, True God. Abraham’s mission was to rebuild a spiritual world out of a world void of spirituality.
The tenacity and dedication Abraham demonstrated for his mission to pursue Hashem and kedusha is alive and well in his descendants. I personally reconnected with that spirit over Sukkot as I listened with rapt attention, amazement, anger, admiration and love as my mother AMV’S told just a part of her heroic story of miraculous survival during the Holocaust from the depraved Nazis, yimach shmam, and the local Poles and Ukrainians that eagerly collaborated with them to exterminate our people. Her ordeal continued after the war as she navigated the cruelty of the Ukrainians and anti-Semitism of the Russians who occupied her town. I was spellbound as she related how she felt the hand of Hashem guide her at various low points during her terrible ordeal, giving her the hope and strength to persevere, survive and build a family of dedicated Torah observant Jews. Like Abraham leaving his homeland, she survived the hostile hordes dedicated to her destruction, overcoming them with the help and guiding hand of Hashem to leave her home and rebuild a new world out of the one torn away from her and reduced to blood soaked ashes.
My mother is a direct descendant of illustrious hassidic dynasties, including Rupshitz, Belz, Kretchnev, Narol. Her father, Hy”d, was a first cousin of the Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, ob”m. The Satmar Rebbetzin along with a veritable who’s who of hassidic royalty walked her to her chupah, standing in for her parents who were murdered al kiddush Hashem during the Holocaust. She and those who survived to rebuild Judaism in America after the destruction of their world are the true heirs of Abraham’s legacy. May Hashem grant my mother and all who survived to rebuild our Jewish world good health, long life and comfort from their anguish. May their rebuilt world finally herald the realization of Mizmor Shir L’Yom HaShabbat that Adam composed when he rebuilt his world, with the coming of Mashiach speedily in our days.