20 Oct SURVIVING THE FLAMES

Cheshvan, yahrtzeit of Rochel Imeinu. This
year, the night of October 21 and the day of
Thursday, October 22.
As we read Parshas Lech Lecha, telling us
of Avraham Avinu’s life journey, we recall
the journey of Rochel Imeinu. A journey
that took her from the house of Lavan, to
that of Yaakov Avinu, where she became an
Eim b’Yisroel. A journey she took not only
in life, but in death, as she was buried by the
roadside in Beis Lechem.
“Rochel mevakah al boneha , Rochel weeps
for her children. (Yirmiyahu 31:14) Always
the mother, she pleads on behalf of Am
Yisroel. Yaakov knew that a day would
come when the nation will be exiled to
Babylonia. Pained and shackled, they will
pass by and daven at the kever of Rochel.
As they turned to Rochel with words of
prayer, they were strengthened knowing
Rochel is listening and intervening on their
behalf.
This past week, while I was visiting my
daughter, her 6-year-old needed “mommy

time”. She hopped onto my daughter’s lap,
and dramatically announced, “I need my
mommy. I’m not going to sleepaway camp,
I’m not going to seminary, and when I get
married I am moving in.”
We all had a laugh. Her words brought a
smile to our faces, but the truth is, like my
granddaughter, we all need our mommy –
Mama Rochel. No trip to Eretz Yisroel is
complete without a visit to Kever Rochel.
My mother would often say, that no matter
the language, Rochel is always identified as
our mother. Be it Rochel Imeinu, Mama
Rochel, Mother Rachel, Mère Rachel, or
Mamá Raquel, Rochel is there for her
children.
We are living in trying times. We need
tefillos desperately. This past Motzoei
Shabbos, after straightening out the kitchen,
I turned to the news. What I heard gave me
chills and shudders. France was burning.
Demonstrations about the educational
system and the downward-spiraling
economy, escalated to mass riots gone out
of control. Hundreds of thousands on the
streets. Buildings set ablaze. Windows
shattered. Stores looted. Mobs running in,

grabbing whatever they pleased, and
destroying the stores’ interior in the process.
Just hours earlier, we read in Parshas
Noach, “Vatimale ha’aretz chomos, The
land became filled with robbery.” The
breaking point for the generation of Noach.
What marked the end of their society.
Robbery. Chaos. Turmoil, Violence.
By Sunday morning, it only worsened. A
shul in Paris was vandalized. A protest
about the educational system and economy,
inexplicably turned to acts of anti-Semitism.
When a group of men arrived for minyan,
they discovered that their shul was
ransacked. The shelves were emptied. Tallis
bags and tefillin strewn on the floor. The
Aron Kodesh was opened. The rabbi’s
study a total mess, papers and seforim
thrown onto the floor.
Pictures of Kristallnacht flashed before my
eyes. How could it be? The words of the
parsha came alive. Robbery, a total
disregard of another’s possessions marks
the breakdown of society. And then, they
turn to the shul, the Jews. That’s the world
we live in. A familiar and painful feature of
Jewish history: the tendency to scapegoat
Jews for problems they did not cause.
I could just hear my mother a”h. Over
twenty years ago, she would say, “The
world is burning and we are sleeping.
Europe is becoming Eurabia, and the
world is silent”. It’s not just Paris. It’s
Marseille, Toulouse, Lyon, Bordeaux and
Montpellier. And it’s not just France. The
unrest has crossed the borders to Milan,
Brussels and Lisbon. Europe is on fire.
Once again, the breakdown of society.
Today, literally, the world is burning. And
yes, we are still sleeping, thinking all will
be ok. It’s alright. It will pass. It is not in
my neighborhood. Until it is.
In this week’s parsha, HaShem tells
Avraham, “Lech lecha.” Lech – to go.
Lecha – for yourself. As Rashi explains,
“la’hanoscha u’letovascha, for your
benefit, for your good”. Avraham leaves
Ur Kasdim, his country, his birthplace,
his home, his family. A test. We know that
Avraham was tested ten times, each one
making him spiritually stronger. By
passing them all, he became worthy of
being the father of Am Yisroel.
Lech Lecha was not Avraham’s first test.
Many commentators count his refusal to
worship idols and believe in one G-d as
the first of the ten. The Midrash tells us
that he came to the realization that if there
is a world, sky and land, sun and moon,
flowers, plants and trees, animals, birds
and fish, if there is the miracle of life,
there must be one Creator, One G-d.

In the pagan world that Avraham was born
into, that belief was heresy. A crime
punishable by death. For his refusal to
worship idols, and steadfast belief in one
G-d, Avraham was thrown by King Nimrod
into a fiery furnace. Miraculously, Avraham
survived the flames, unscathed.
There is a well-known Midrash Tanchuma,
“Ma’aseh avos, siman l’banim, What
happened to our forefathers is a sign for the
future generations”. I think of Avraham’s
surviving the flames of Nimrod, and I think
of our nation that survived the fires of hate
and anti-Semitism. The fires of the Romans.
The fires of the Inquisition. The fires of the
Holocaust. And now, the fires of our
enemies who surround our Holy Land, and
the fires of Europe.
As we study the parsha, we have to ask
ourselves, what is the message for us today.
Lech lecha. There is a time when we have to
leave our comfort zone in order to do,
accomplish, and fulfill our mission. On
another level, perhaps lech lecha is our
wakeup call. To be aware of what is
happening in the world around us. To
realize who our enemies are. Lech – to
leave the mindset of denial behind us.
Lecha – for our own benefit.
HaShem tells Avraham, “Look to the
heaven and count the stars… so too, will be
your offspring.” (Bereishis 15:5) The Baal
Shem Tov teaches that when we look at the
stars, each one looks tiny, like a dot in the
sky. Yet, in reality, they are quite large. So,
too, are our people. We may look small, but
our power is great. The power to survive.
We must remember that we are the children
of Avraham Avinu. The stars that HaShem
promised would be his descendants.
Avraham’s emuna and bitachon, his strength
to answer the call of lech lecha, is within us.
We only have to realize it. That, together
with the tears and tefillos of Rochel Imeinu,
will b’ezras HaShem carry us through.