Get out

Genesis 28:10 – 32:3

Sometimes the best thing to do is simply get out.

You may be comfortable at home, relaxed and at ease. Your life may be filled with family, friends and tradition. So, you may wonder: Why get out?

If you are secluded or withdrawn, it makes sense why there’s a need to get out. If a person is on social media and devices and lost in their own world, they also might need to get out.

But why a student immersed in his or her studies? Why the outgoing, friendly, family man? Why do they need to get out?

Living a nice life, with meaning and purpose, should be sufficient. A life with Torah, keeping Shabbat and kosher is what we all aim for.

So why get out?

Vayeitzei Yaakov M’Beer Sheva: “And Jacob went out from Beer Sheva.”.

Jacob left his home, from the wells of wisdom and life that his father, Isaac, and grandfather Abraham had dug and cultivated. Beer Sheva had become an oasis in the desert, the source of G-dly life. A place of kindness, learning and
love in the middle of a dry and parched world.

There were the fruits of mitzvahs, warm homes of Torah and wellsprings of divine connection. Jacob was the perfect student incorporating and learning it all.

He was in heaven on earth, and yet he had to get out. And to where? To a far, cold and angry land.

So why go out? Why does our Torah portion demand we get out?

We all must get out because G-d gave each and every one of us a mission, a shlichut — a charge to help another make the world a Beer Sheva, an oasis of life.

One human or one place in this world that is still dry, cold or searching, is a call for us to get out.

Get out and do something to help bring warmth, life and Torah to this individual or place.

This is our mission and call from G-d to each man and woman: Get out!

Get out of your perfect cocoon and change and perfect His world. You have been prepared well, and now it’s time to go.

Get out and you will fly.

Shabbat shalom. PJC

Rabbi Elchonon Friedman is the spiritual leader of Bnai Emunoh Chabad. This column is a service of the Vaad Harabonim of Greater Pittsburgh.