Parshat Lech Lecha opens up seemingly out of nowhere. Hashem tells Avraham, “Go!” But who is Avraham? Why does Hashem decide to speak to him? Why won’t He tell Avraham where he’s going? We’re not sure. Like Avraham, we just have to follow along, and see where Hashem is taking us. Rav Shapiro tells us that this is exactly the point. Lech Lecha was the moment Hashem promised Avraham that he would be a nation. And that required a moment of complete newness, a moment of stepping out of everything known, because that was the nature and the greatness of Avraham’s emunah and the founding principle of our nation.

We usually translate emunah as faith, which unfortunately does very little to help us understand what Emunah is really all about. Rav Shapiro explains that emunah is based in reliance. Specifically, it is our reliance on Hashem because we recognize that there is a limit to our understanding and abilities. The nature of the world we live in is that it has both an external layer, and an internal, hidden aspect. We see this represented physically in the nature of the earth that we walk on. Hidden within the earth are two types of treasure. There is tremendous energy that we have only begun to harness. And there are precious rocks and stones. None of this is visible on the surface.

The nature of the physical earth is representative of the nature of the Torah, which was the blueprint for our physical reality. The Torah also has a peshat level, a simple level, which we can understand on the surface, and then endless layers of spiritual depth when we begin to dig. People are created in this same mold, with external kochot, and internal kochot that come from our eternal soul, which are usually not apparent on our surface.

We don’t always think about it, but the way Hashem guides us in time follows this pattern as well. There is the external reality, the history that we can all study and understand. But there is also an internal level, the spiritual guidance of Hashem that is hidden within the history of the world. Pirkei D’Rebbe Eliezer (Chapter 8) explains that Avraham understood this fully and was in possession of a tradition that had been passed down from Adam to Chanoch to Metushelach to Noach and then to Shem. It was called the mystery of intercalculation, and it is a tradition that was passed down to us as a nation.

The intercalculation of the year is the way that we synchronize the solar calendar with the lunar calendar. The solar cycle is the cycle that is established and firm. This is the shana, the yearly cycle, which is connected to the word shoneh, repeat, because it does not change. The lunar cycle is the cycle of the month, the chodesh, from the word chadash, new. It is a cycle that is full of ascents and descents and is constantly renewing itself. Intercalculation is the power to perceive the internal content and hidden treasure that exists in the seemingly unchanging external cycle of the sun.

In Hebrew, intercalculation is called ibbur, pregnancy. Pregnancy, of course, is where one complete being exists in another. The chachamim tell us that the history of our world is also pregnant. There is another course that is taking place through history, which is beyond what we see on the surface. There is an internal plan, Hashem’s plan, leading to Hashem’s goal. In the end, the revealed course of the world will give birth to the internal course.

Avraham understood how to integrate the revealed physical world, in all its realms, with the inner spiritual reality of the world. He understood that Hashem was guiding him and the entire world. This was the basis of Avraham’s emunah. Rav Shapiro points out that the world considers those who are faithful as closeminded. The opposite is true. A person without emunah is a person who refuses to move beyond what his five senses and his limited intelligence tell him. He feels the need to be in control of his entire reality, and so the only reality he will admit to is what he already knows.  

A person with emunah is a person who understands that he doesn’t understand, that the world is much more than he can grasp. Emunah means understanding that I am not the One who establishes reality, and therefore I don’t know exactly what I will do next. I have reached something beyond me, and that is what I will rely on. This was lech lecha. Avraham was asked to go to a place that could not be showed to him before he got there. It cannot be understood until it is experienced. So he followed Hashem, and he went.

And because he went, the promises Hashem made to Avraham when He spoke the words “lech lecha” came true. Rashi, based on Pesachim 117b, understands those promises in a surprising way. He understands that they are fulfilled through the words we say at the beginning of our Amidah, mentioning our Fathers. Brachot 26b teaches that the tefillot were instituted by our Fathers. This is not just an ancillary fact. Rav Shapiro tells us that this is an important facet of how our Fathers were revealed as Fathers. Instituting the tefillot was intrinsic to their nature as our Avot.

What does it mean to be an Av? It’s primary meaning in our daily life is father. But the first time it is used in the Torah it does not mean that. The Torah tells us (Bereisheit 4:20-21) that Yaval was the father of all who dwell in tents and breed cattle and Yuval was the father of all who handle the harp and the flute. Obviously, they were not the literal fathers of all musicians and cattle herders.

Radak in Sharashim connects the world ‘av’ to the ‘avoh, to want.’ An av is someone who strongly desires something, and from his desire for it, creates the space for it to exist in the world. Yaval and Yuval had a desire for human development. And that desire and vision created the place in the world for all those who came after.

Avraham also had a vision, and a desire. His desire was to follow Hashem, and to live in Hashem’s spiritual reality. And this is exactly what Hashem promised him. Within the natural order of the world, there was no ability for Avraham to have children. But Hashem told him (Bereisheit 15:5 with Rashi), go outside of your mazal, outside of what is possible in the natural world. Hashem made a new space for Avraham from within the inner spirituality of the world. And that space is the space that we exist in today.

Our ability to pray is due to our Fathers. Rav Shapiro tells us, this is how they left themselves with us. They created the space we stand in when we pray. And our tefillah is the way that we move ourselves into the space that Avraham created for us to exist in the world. We therefore begin our prayers mentioning Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaacov. When we daven we are the fulfillment of the promise that Hashem made to Avraham at Lech Lecha. We are a great nation, and we are blessing.

The Gemara tells us (Brachot 6b) that whoever sets a fixed space for his prayer has the G-d of Avraham as his helper. What does it mean to set a fixed space for our prayer? It means giving our prayers the correct aspect of space. When we pray, we enter a new place, another realm of existence. We are facing our Creator. We return to the supernatural space that Avraham created for us in this world. If we only take a moment to understand what this means, we can understand the tremendous power Avraham bequeathed to us with each and every prayer. May we all be zoche.