Jumping from limitation, to Infinity

B"H

In this week's Torah portion, we first learn about our beloved 1st Jew, Avraham. Who was Avraham?
Avraham was the 1st person to recognize there was a G-d and to spread that awareness to others around him. He became world-renowned, and was even known as "ish ivri"- (which is where the name "Hebrew" comes from) which literally means "other side."
Avraham was on 1 side in his views, and the whole world on the other. Avraham imparted to every Hebrew descendant of his, every Jew, this power to stand as a minority with confidence, determination, and pride as a Jew. As a believer in the 1 true G-d and His Teachings, His Torah.

SO now, one would think that the 1st time Avraham is mentioned in the Torah, we would find him teaching wayfarers about G-d. Or maybe about
the time when King Nimrod threw Avraham in a furnace for disclaiming the worship of idols, though leaving unscathed. Maybe at least in this week's portion we
could hear a preface about Avraham's greatness, his righteousness, his beautiful, pure belief and commitment to G-d. But no, nothing of the sort.
The 1st sentence in this week's portion is: "And G-d Said to Avraham: Go from your land, from your birth-place, from the house of your father, to the land which
I will show you."

Excuse me?!

WHEN the Torah 1st mentions Noah in last week's portion, it describes him as "a Righteous man in his Generation" & "Noah had found favor in the eyes of G-d",
and that's why he was saved from the flood. And we see this by every Jewish figure and hero throughout scripture. So what happened with our father who started off the whole ballgame of Judaism??

The answer to this question is a deep one, and perhaps one of the most fundamental tenets of Judaism:
For all of Avraham's amazing actions and feats (that occurred before he's introduced in this week's parsha); spreading his belief in G-d to others, even being thrown into a fire for this belief(!), all of these amazing actions were his and not G-d's.
G-d is Infinite; we are finite beings. The gap between us is just that; infinite. But there is 1 way to bridge that gap, and connect our limited selves to G-d's Infinite Being. And that is through a Command from the Infinite one. This command, when listened to, connects us much more than any thing we could think of. In our days this command is known as a "mitzva," to Avraham it came in the form of "Go from your land...to the land which I will show you." G-d was telling Avraham: "Leave yourself, as amazing and holy as you are now, and go to a level you never dreamed of reaching. Nullify youself to my Will completely and go to the Land of Israel that you don't know". By listening to G-d, Avraham, and today any Jew, leaves his limited existence and connects to G-d's Infinite existence. That's the only true and logical way to bridge the infinite gap. A person could go to India and meditate for 20 hrs. a day for 70 yrs. about G-d. Yet it will always be in that person's limited existence. Doing 1 physical mitzvah; lighting Shabbos candles, eating kosher foods, putting on physical cow's hide in the morning (Tefillin), visiting a lonely or sad person, that's infinite. Because the Infinite One Said He Wants that.
"Go from your land, from your birthplace"-leave your existence, what your comfortable with, your birthplace, and I'll take you much higher than you ever dreamed.

Let's do it! One commandment at a time.
Have a great week-

-Daniel