The Weekly Sedra – Parshas Lech Lecha

The Rebbe says:

1. At the end of this week’s Torah portion the Torah tells us that Hashem (G-d) came to Avraham Avinu (Abraham our Father) and told him to circumcise himself .

2. The Rebbe now asks a question on this :

The Talmud tells us that Avraham Avinu kept the whole Torah even though it was not given yet to the Jewish people . If so, why did Avraham Avinu wait for Hashem to instruct him to give himself a circumcision if he did not wait to fulfill all the other Mitzvos (commandments) until he was instructed?

3. The Rebbe begins the answer:

In order to understand this we first have to understand the difference between the Mitzvos which we perform now, after the giving of the Torah, and the Mitzvos which our Forefathers performed before the Torah was given:

When our forefathers performed Mitzvos, they did so with their own power. They did not have special strength from Hashem to fulfill the Mitzvos like we do after the giving of the Torah . Therefore, since our Forefathers performed the Mitzvos with their own strength, they were not able to make the physical object with which they were doing the Mitzvah into a Holy object. However, when we perform Mitzvos with physical objects we have the strength to turn that object into a Holy object because we have the strength of Hashem.

Let’s take Teffilin (phylacteries) as an example: Our Sages tell us that by placing certain sticks by certain animals our Forefather Ya’akov (Jacob) brought down the same special and Holy energy that we bring down when we put on Teffilin . However when our Forefather Ya’akov was done using those sticks, he was able to throw them away in a pile of trash because the sticks had no Holiness in them. On the other hand, when we do a Mitzvah with a physical object we make it a Holy object.

4. The Rebbe now explains that although there is a great advantage to the Mitzvos which we do today (after the giving of the Torah) over the Mitzvos which our Forefathers did then, (that we make the physical objects Holy), there is something special about the Mitzvos which our Forefathers did:

Only because our Forefathers fulfilled the Mitzvos then (before the giving of the Torah) are we able to fulfill Mitzvos today . In other words, our Forefathers paved the way for us and gave us the strength to change physicality’s coarseness into Holiness, as it says, “Whatever happened to the Patriarchs is an indication for the children” .

5. The Rebbe now finishes the explanation as to why Avraham Avinu waited to be instructed by Hashem to fulfill the Mitzvah of circumcision:

Bearing in mind the abovementioned explanation, that our Forefathers gave us the strength to be able to change physicality into Holiness, we are forced to say that there was at least one Mitzvah that our Forefathers did which is exactly like our Mitzvos today which turn regular physical objects into Holy objects.

The one Mitzvah which our Forefathers did which affected physicality as it does today was the Mitzvah of circumcision.

And this is why Avraham Avinu waited until he was instructed by Hashem to circumcise himself:

As we explained earlier, we must have the strength of Hashem to be able to turn physical objects into Holy objects. Therefore, since Avraham Avinu wanted to have one Mitzvah which would change physical objects into Holy objects, because this would give the strength to his children, he needed to have at least one Mitzvah which he was explicitly instructed to do by Hashem.

Translated and adapted by Shalom Goldberg. Taken from Likutei Sichos volume three.