Walk Before You Run

Lech Lecha

At the end of last week's parsha, Noach, we read about the birth of Avram (not yet Avraham), the first of the three Patriarchs. The Midrashim fill in many details about Avram's childhood and youth, but these are absent in the pesukim. What is the first independent "action" the Torah lists Avram as doing? Marrying Sarai (Bereishit 11:29).

The way of the world is that when someone gets married, they settle down and start a family. This is how we would expect the Torah to continue the story. However, the next "action" that the Torah lists Avram as doing is "walking" to the land of Canaan (Bereishit 11:31).

Thus begins Avraham's saga of "walking." In the following three parshas Lech Lecha, Vayeira and Chayei Sarah … Avraham does a lot of walking. If you count the number of times the Torah mentions the action of walking in connection with Avraham, you will find 18 "walkings" – sometimes Avraham walking alone, sometimes together with others (with Yitzchak to the Akeidah, e.g.). The number 18, Chai, seems to indicate that there is a connection between walking and life!

How do we know that the word lech means actual walking (by foot) and is not simply an expression for "traveling" (perhaps by donkey/camel, etc.)? From the later parsha of the Akeidah! The Torah tells us that Avraham indeed took his donkey along for the journey. Perhaps you might think he rode on the donkey? The answer is no! The donkey carried the wood for the sacrifice, which Avraham later loaded on Yitzchak to carry up the mountain. Then we read how Avraham leaves the donkey behind with Yishmael and Eliezer and continues with Yitzchak … on foot.

In this shiur I would like to discuss the physical action of walking (there is more to it than meets the eye) and what walking signifies on a more spiritual level in the Torah.

The action of walking is closely connected with many Torah concepts.

One example is – chametz. How can one determine whether dough (flour mixed with water) has become chametz or not? It has to be mixed within a certain time. If from the time water is added to the flour and mixed, 18 minutes have passed – the dough is considered halachically chametz. Why 18 minutes? The Gemara (Pesachim 46a) says that this is the time it takes to walk the distance of a "mil" (approx. 1km).

A second example is from the Mishna (Avot 5:14). There are four characteristics of those who walk to the Beit HaMidrash: Someone who walks to the Beit HaMidrash but does not learn Torah there (falls asleep during the shiur), he gets reward for the very act of walking. Someone who learns Torah (at home) but does not walk to the Beit HaMidrash, gets reward for the very act of learning. Someone who walks to the Beit HaMidrash and learns there is called a Chassid. Someone who does not walk to the Beit HaMidrash and doesn't learn at home either, is called a rasha.

There are many others.

To understand the significance of walking in connection with Avraham specifically, we need to examine a concept discussed in sefer Meir Panim (Chap. 14, pg. 149). HaKadosh Baruch Hu created us humans as a combination of a physical body with a spiritual neshama. Although the physical body and the spiritual neshama are made from different "matter," they have the ability to communicate with each other, in both directions. Meir Panim discusses this communication "highway" in the context of the concept of joy.

When our neshama experiences spiritual joy, it communicates this joy to our physical body, which results in the physical body "reflecting" the joy of the neshama via a physical manifestation, a smiling face. The converse is also true. By forcing ourselves to smile voluntarily (not in response to joy), we can initiate physical joy (nerves in the face stimulating the excretion of hormones in the brain). This physical joy is then communicated back to the neshama and the neshama experiences additional joy. So, when someone is happy in their they smile. The physical act of smiling itself causes a hormonal action in the brain which accentuates the joy (termed the Feedback Effect), which is communicated back to the neshama.

Similarly with walking. When the action of walking is initiated by the Neshama, this is communicated to the physical body and is manifested by the body physically walking. The very action of walking itself results in a feedback effect, which is then communicated back to the neshama.

Avraham has 18 mentions of the word "walking" associated with him in the Torah, representing Chai, life. We learn from Avraham Avinu that walking is synonymous with life. To really live, one must walk – a lot. HaKadosh Baruch Hu told Avraham "Do not sit around for too long in one place. Walk the length and breadth of the land."

A large degree of the ailments of modern society is attributable to our sedentary lifestyle. We get out of bed, drive to work, take the elevator to the office and the reverse back home. Most of the day we sit at a desk or stand. Technology is wonderful, but it is severely detrimental to our health – it makes us physically and mentally lazy. The Torah knows the way to live a physically (and spiritually) healthy lifestyle, the way Avraham did.

We need to learn from Avraham and Sarah that getting married is not the end of motion, of walking, it is only the beginning. The more walking (physical and emotional) in a relationship, the better the relationship.

Parshat HaShavua Trivia Question: What gifts did Pharaoh give to Sarah when he released her?

Answer to Last Shiur’s Trivia Question: What personal connection did Nimrod have with Avraham? Avraham's father Terach was Nimrod's chief of staff.