What’s With The Change?
Avraham is praised for being active in his pursuit of supporting people and teaching them about monotheism. But in this week’s parsha, he makes an eshel, a inn for travelers or a food-producing orchard, and lives in the land of the Plishtim for a long time. Is this a good thing? Has he slowed down?
One answer, through a Seven Ways lense, is as follows:
Each of the seven great leaders who relate to the seven sefirot do not simply perform general acts which relate to their middah throughout their lives (e.g., Yaakov doing tiferet-oriented acts, Yitzchak gevurah ones); they each go through seven major sub-steps within their life, which reflect the seven sefirot, as well.
For example, in the first part of Yitzchak’s life, he did acts of gevurah-chesed, then he did gevurah-gevurah, then gevurah-tiferet and so on. The beginning of their lives were filled with constructive, high level acts, but, as they progressed, their actions became more sophisticated and developed. Yitzchak’s acts of gevurah-chesed are great, but when he does gevurah-gevurah it has a more advanced aspect to it.
The same thing happens with Avraham. When Avraham starts out supporting people and teaching about monotheism, he is active and opens his tent to all people. However, in a certain way, setting up an inn or an orchard in which people come to him is more advanced.
The message is that you can dazzle people and get them on board with your plan for the time being, but unless they make a personal choice, they aren’t truly connected to you. You can get individuals interested in religion or convince them to let you help them, but when people come to you for advice or for help they are much more likely to take it seriously and to heart.
Actively pursue helping and sharing, but know that it’s often more effecting to wait until people come to you.
IB
