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Why does Hashem (ה׳) command Avrohom "Lech lecha" — go for your own benefit — when He then lists all the rewards waiting for him? The shiur argues that the test of "lech lecha" is whether Avrohom can experience pleasure not from the rewards themselves (children, wealth, fame) but from the connection to Hashem that giving them represents. True avodas Hashem means wanting reward not as an object separated from the Giver, but as a deepening of relationship — the ultimate challenge being to live with blessings and never make them "mine."
The parsha begins with Hashem (ה׳) commanding Avrohom to leave Charan and go to an unspecified land, promising him children, wealth, and fame. The fundamental question the shiur addresses is: what did Avrohom do to merit this? The Torah (תורה) does not tell us about his greatness — his rejection of idolatry, his willingness to be thrown into the furnace — it simply begins with "Lech lecha" as if Avrohom's worthiness is a given. Why does the Torah not give more play to Avrohom's spiritual accomplishments? Why does the story of Avrohom begin here, split between Parshas Noach and Lech Lecha, rather than presenting a unified narrative? The most glaring difficulty is the phrase "lech lecha" itself. Rashi (רש"י) explains it means "go for your benefit, for your pleasure." But if Hashem is promising tremendous rewards in the very next sentence — children, wealth, fame — then going is obviously for Avrohom's benefit. What kind of test is this? The Kotzker Rebbe suggests that the test was to go not for pleasure but purely because Hashem commanded it, yet the pasuk says explicitly that Avrohom "went as Hashem told him" — which was to go "lech lecha," for his own benefit. The contradiction seems insurmountable.
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