לֹך לך spiritual journey

לך לך מארצך ממלדתך ומבית אביך אל הארץ אשר אראך –בראשית יב:א
(Go, go* forth from your land, from your homeland, from your father's house, to the land which I shall show you. -Genesis 12:1
*the second "go" (forth) is also the word for "to yourself")


Indeed, the journey toward oneself- that is, the whole enterprise of לך לך (Lech lecha), of Avraham's archetypal religious journey, which leads to the ברית (covenant), also leads to tzedaka u'mishpat (justice and righteousness). Rav Hutner casts some light onto the notion of ברית, explaining that we might conceive of all the מצוות עשה (positive commandments) as expressions of ahavat Hashem (love of Gd) and all מצוות לא תעשה (negative commandments) as expressions of yirat Hashem (awe/respect/fear of Gd). He compares our relationship with Hashem to our relationship with a bat-zug (partner in a romantic relationship), noting how one performs certain acts to foster the sanctity of the relationship (ahava) and likewise one refrains from certain acts out of concern for its well-being and fear of what would result were it disregarded (yirah). The kesher (connection) with one's partner nourishes and graces one's life even when he leaves the immediacy of his partner. (Happier, Tal ben Shachar, p. 111?) Likewise do we aspire to live with the grace that comes from the constant awareness of relationship with the Other, affecting everything we do, which affects our becoming, and therefore, our relating. In order to feel a sense of togetherness with Hashem, we must first find Him in our lives. This is not so different from a man's relationship with a woman- he must first find the appropriate bat-zug before he can cultivate a zugiut (loving partnership) with her, as it says in the Gemara (Kiddushin ג:א),

דרכו של איש לחזר על אשה...משל לאדם שאבדה לו אבידה...(ו)בעל אבידה מחזר על אבידתו
(It is the way of man to court woman...as a man who lost something...he goes out in search of that which he is missing.)
for as we learn in בראשית
’לזאת יקרא אשה כי מאיש לקחה–זאת.' (בראשית ב:כג
(This one will be called woman, for from man was she taken.)
Adam, the archetypal human, begins thus and moves toward his purpose, completeness,
described in the very next pasuk,
"על כן יעזב איש את אביב ואת אמו ודבק באשתו והיו לבשר אחד.''
(Therefore will man leave his father and his mother and cleave to his wife, and they will become one flesh.)

Note the parallel between Avraham leaving home (לך לך...מבית אביך...Go...leave your father's house) in order to heed the call of Hashem, and Adam leaving his father and mother in order to unite with that which completes him. Analogous and in addition to the human companionship and completion, the fullness of life requires also relationship with Hashem/the Divine, which we attain in the process of responding to His call.

Paul Tillich adds, "the first duty of love is to listen." (Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life, 18) If we, like Avraham, are to hear the call, we must listen with the sensitivity and keenness of a lover, for Hashem calls to us in a still, small voice (1 Kings, 19:12) discernible only via the cultivation of emunah, as Abraham Joshua Heschel describes it, "not assent to a proposition but an attitude of the whole person, of sensitivity, understanding, engagement, and attachment." (Between God and Man, p. 17) For as Rav Soloveitchik has explained to us, Avraham did not comprehend God (i.e. cerebrally), but rather he apprehended God (i.e. through his refined sensitivity to the Divine suffused throughout the world).

How fascinating the suggestion that the journey towards oneself, emanating from לך לך, seems to lead to togetherness with the Divine; likewise, how fascinating that the journey of becoming oneself is connected to achieving tzedaka u'mishpat (as suggested in the association of Avraham's journey with his covenant with Hashem, for which this is the express purpose). This means that if we earnestly desire and aspire to a society of tzedaka u'mishpat, then we ought just as earnestly foster the individual's spiritual journey. Of course, when we understand that לך לך is actually a matter of personal spiritual journey and self-discovery/actualization, the absence of detail regarding the journey's destination, "הארץ אשר אראך,'' makes sense in that one cannot be told how one is to turn out before the fact, because this identity evolves davka from the process.

We have a need for a personal encounter with the Divine, a personal experience of the spark within us, a personal experience powerful enough to warrant the investment and risk of embarking on a spiritual journey. Undertaking such must come as a response, for all the kindling in the world serves naught without a spark to light it. We must be aware, however, that it will be just a spark and our refined sensitivity and loyalty, our emunah, is the conductor which connects the spark to kindling and also the tenant who nourishes the flame. For many of us, in order to apprehend the Divine, we have to embark on that path of personal exploration, for as explains theologian Frederic Beuchner, "The atheisms within us...are not so much denials of whatever is godly in the world, but denials of people telling us what to believe, what to do, what to think." (Callings, p. ?) Abraham Joshua Heschel elaborates similarly, "Responsiveness to God cannot be copied; it must be original with every soul. Even the meaning of the divine is not grasped when imposed by a doctrine, when accepted by hearsay. It only enters our vision when leaping like a spark from the anvil of the mind, hammered and beaten upon by trembling awe." (Man is Not Alone, p. 91)

Though we ought imitate Avraham, we should not fall into the trap of confusing leaving "בית אביך,'' (my parents' house) with a necessity to reject or disregard one's parents' way of life. I need not disdain my parents in order to recognize that my spiritual fulfillment, and accordingly, the best realization of my potential to contribute to tzedaka u'mishpat necessitates a journey beyond the boundaries of my childhood. I will always be nourished by the roots my parents gave me and I include in this even the awareness that I needed to grow beyond the household and community in which I grew up. In nature, it is davka breaking into the above ground world which marks the healthy maturation of a plant, growing away from its roots (and toward the light), yet nourished by them at the same time– why should it be any different with people? Only with such a combination of courage and respect will we actually be able to "stand on the shoulders of giants" without falling down.

It is striking that those of us who engage earnestly in spiritual seeking actually have a degree of "religious" authenticity lacking in those who just tow the line, for we are continuing the path of Avraham towards that hazy place of promise, faithful to Hashem's call as we each discern it and with the prerequisite faith that its/His promise will be worthwhile. This is the faith(fulness) required to realize the promise. It is simultaneously and perhaps even indistinguishably a faithfulness to Hashem and a faithfulness/integrity to oneself. Further, we have seen the undeniable beneficence and the corresponding danger inherent in following or neglecting one's spiritual calling. "Whence solace comes?" asked Thomas Hardy, answering himself, "In cleaving to the Dream." (Callings, 323) Gregg Levoy elaborates, "Our personal voice and the Larger Voice that wants to speak through us...also speak as one. Where the personal voice and the transpersonal voice coincide...life-giving energy pours through us into the world." (Callings, 324)
Levoy explains the danger of neglecting the call,
"Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul, wrote, that "repression of the life-force" is the most common reason he sees people in therapy. By ignoring our passions, we dam up our energies and cut ourselves off from a vigorous source of calls, and rather than demonstrating our passions in the world, we put them in the position of having to demon-strate themselves to us. Passions become needs, and if those needs are not met, they become symptoms of one sort or another." (Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life, 71)

In listening out for that calling, for that vocation which will sustain and nourish our souls, Frederick Buechner advises, "The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet." This is where you will find the missing part to complete you, this is where you will feel the presence of Hashem, where you can tune in to His soft, small voice, where as a lover you are acutely attuned to the needs of the other and as a faithful lover you are actively responsive to them.

The challenge for us is to understand that Heschel's claim that "life is a work of art," is not a description but an imperative to be always painting. Our task is to discover our unique hue and hone its application, for without it the spectrum, ie Hashem's painting, will be lacking. Just as we are seeking to acquire those as yet unactualized aspects of our personality, so Reb Tzadok suggests that Hashem too, קונה הכל, is, in the the Creating and noursing of the world, seeking the as yet unactualized aspects of His Divine personality. Each of us plays a role in elaborating this for .אם אתם עדיי, אני א–ל. ואם אתם לא עדיי, כביכול, אני לא א–ל (You are my witnesses and I am God, if you are not my witnesses, I am not God) (ישעיהו מג, יב). She who really lives leaves a trace of her paint on everything she touches- because she is really engaged with it, she touches it. The touch is in the involvement, the engagement, the investment. As Buber said, "All real life is meeting."

It takes significant courage to venture out on the journey of becoming oneself. In fact, one clue as to which direction to go is to consider that place or engagement where we are most afraid of failing, of being exposed, the place where we are most vulnerable. The fear comes because that place is nearest to our heart, where a challenge means a threat to our very legitimacy, yet at the same time, being so close to our heart it also provides the best channel to birth our inner selves into embodied living. The courage to make this push is tied up in the faith of the Divine promise that it will all be worthwhile. In a deep sense, we know that this is the only way we can be really alive, the only way we can hope to approach fulfillment, completion, wholeness, the only way we can really be faithful.

This vulnerable opening of oneself cultivates the sensitivity inherent in spirituality, which is needed to hear the voice calling you. Its development sensitizes you to the other- human, natural, Divine- around you and to your interdependence in hearing, honing, and painting, imbuing an understanding that the others around us are our canvas as we are theirs, and inhering in our highest self-actualization the realization of the interpersonal ethic of tzedaka u'mishpat promised to us as a result of the ברית and as a result of our personal spiritual journeys.
It is no surprise then, that as we put on tefillin in the morning we say,
וארשתיך לי לעולם, וארשתיך לי בצדק ובמשפט, ובחסד וברחמים. וארשתיך לי באמונה, וידעת את ה'.
(I will betroth you to Me forever, I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in kindness, and in mercy. I will betroth you to Me faithfully, and you shall know Hashem.)
We see that the Divine approach towards man, which man is to imitate (imitatio dei), reflects a loving relationship manifested in ethical and loving relation, through which faithful relation Gd is made known and relationable to man.