By Chaya Sora Jungreis-Gertzulin

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.