And Hashem said to Avram “Lech Lecha” – go (to) – (for) yourself from your land and from your birthplace and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. (Breishis 12:1)

If Hashem wanted Avraham to travel from point A to point B on the map, then all He had to say was “Lech” – go! What does the next word “LECHA” “TO” or “FOR” “YOURSELF” add to the equation. Oddly, Avraham is not even told where he is to get himself to. The destination is unknown! What is he to plug into his GPS?

And we can also wonder why he is requested to leave three different areas, his land, his birthplace and his father’s house. Once somebody leaves the land, then they have effectively already left the birthplace and the father’s house. The order of the exiting is also calling out for an explanation. Why is he to leave the outer of the three circles first and then the innermost circle last? Obviously, this is not just a horizontal movement. So, what type of journey is this? What exactly does HASHEM expect from Avraham?

In one way it is a spiritual self-discovery directive. Go to your-self! However, we also know and we see from Avraham‘s response that there was a requirement to actually get up and to begin to travel, for his benefit and the benefit of the world. So which direction is it? On the one hand, it’s a journey inward and on the other hand or with the other foot, he is not meant to be sitting in a room by himself or on the top of a mountain, but rather to go and to keep on going.

Somebody who was just beginning Learn about Torah and Mitzvos once asked me what would be the best way for them to learn the Hebrew language. They were a little bit taken back by my answer, but I do believe that this is the best approach. I told this person that what he should do is to take on a project of teaching somebody else the Hebrew language. The immediate response was, “I don’t know Hebrew!”

I told them that if you’ll teach someone else you will begin to know it better and better. Stay one lesson ahead and keep being prepared. It will force you to know it! This is what they did and remarkably so, it worked. This can also be applied to learning the Talmud, or Chumash or any other area of life where a person is seeking to gain expertise and mastery.

When the Jewish people received the Torah, we said unanimously that “we will do and we will learn.” Sometimes we have to do first, in order to be able to learn! Someone can get a doctorate on the subject of Shabbos. They can study the history and the laws and the behaviors and the benefits and the beauty, the menus and the songs like an anthropologist or an apologist. All of this encyclopedic knowledge is worthless and meaningless, and hollow until one actually enters into and immerses themselves in an actual Shabbos setting.

Then the proverbial lightbulb goes on. What was once theoretical and in the realm of potential is now actualized and made real! It’s the “AHA” moment when the inner world of possibility meets the outer world of the actual. Once somebody gets that flavor, then they can park their doctoral thesis, and begin to live for Shabbos. Only somebody who has experienced this, can even begin to understand what is being written here. I believe it was Groucho Marx, who famously said amongst many other sardonic and witty things, “I’m not a big fan of reality, but it’s still the only place you can get a good meal.”

I heard the following quote, “life only begins when you exit your comfort zone.” Every step that we take and every time we meet a new challenge, we awaken within ourselves and discover new abilities. In that way, Avraham is being told, and the little Avraham within each and every one of us thousands of years later still, is being told to start moving out of your comfort zone, and in doing so, discover your-self and make it real!