Monthly Archives: November 2006

Rav Hirsch on Lech Lecha

I’m a creature of habit. I say over the exact same d’var Torah for Lech Lecha every year. When I read Rav Hirsch’s commentary on the first pasuk I was hooked.

Rav Hirsh says that the addition of the pronoun lech to the verb lecha stresses the idea to “go for yourself, go your own way”, distance yourself from other things such as your family, friends and past. Hashem say to Avraham (still Avram), “Be different than your generation.”

Rav Hirsch continues to say that “every individual is directly responsible to Hashem for his personal conduct. If it becomes necessary, if the principle idolized by the majority is not the one which is truly devine, then the individual must go “alone, his own way, with Hashem”. This conviction was set by Avraham as the starting point for is own mission and that of the people to be descended from him”.”


I admit, when I read this I was 18. I was still idealistic, head-strong, ready to take on the world, and full of an explosive passion for yiddishkeit. Now, almost 36, I read Rav Hirsch and feel that way again. Torah is timeless.

This is not a blog posting

REVISED:

I once saw a great band t-shirt. The t-shirt said: THIS IS NOT A FUGAZI T-SHIRT. That was the whole shirt. IMHO this was a great marketing technique. It was a commercially non-commercial way to promote the band. Ironically, the t-shirt was not an official band produced shirt, as the band was totally against comercial marketing.

Ever since I’ve been reading blogs and, for sure since the inception of this blog, I’ve been impressed with those bloggers who post on a daily basis. I admire it and, at times, wish I had the diligence to do the same. Blogs (don’t feel bad if I don’t mention yours) such as A Simple Jew, Hirhurim, Emes Ve-Emunah, Serandez, Psycho Toddler, or BeyondBT serve up fresh postings on a daily basis. No only are the postings well written, but make one think and grow as a Jew. One of the keys to a successful blog is updated content, so I’ve been told.

Since Shabbos, I’ve taken a slight break from looking at blogs (with the exception of one blog yesterday) or posting on this one. It has little to do with lack of motivation to write (Baruch Hashem) and more to do with increasing my productivity outside the blogosphere.

Of course, in the next day or two, when I revert to looking at blogs, I’ll have a million posts on my google reader to go through, but that’s alright. To those that post daily…Kol Hakavod.

Postscript: The truth is that what I thought to be a cute title and post is really not so cute. To attempt to sensationalize my day to day life and spin it into something more than it is, is really norishkeit. As pointed out to me by a reader, this posting adds nothing to my own Avodas Hashem and is not in keeping with the themes and topics that I normally write about. To that reader, I say thanks!