Living With the Parshah
Just Like Abraham

"Danny, raise your head and start listening to what is being said in the classroom, please." Danny jerked his head up and tried to put on a paying-attention look.

This time he had not been sleeping; his head had been down because he was busy thinking about his family moving to another city. First of all, what was he going to do about his friends? Everything was going to be new and all the things in his life that he'd been used to in the past would be gone, very soon. The future did not look bright for him.

"At least you won't have Rabbi Katzen as an alarm clock all day long," Eli, his friend, had comforted him earlier on the way to school. Danny smiled at Eli's sense of humor. Everybody knew about Danny's falling-asleep-in-class problem as well as the fact that Rabbi Katzen was forever waking him up. But Danny did enjoy listening to Rabbi Katzen's classes when he wasn't sleepy. Like now.

"And G-d said to Abraham, 'Go from your land, away from your father's house and everything that is precious to you in your life, and go far away to a country which I will show you.'

"G-d did not even tell Abraham where his destination was. He only said to him, 'Go!'" Rabbi Katzen explained to the class. "Abraham had complete faith in G-d that everything was going to turn out OK, as the Torah portion continues, 'And Abraham went, just as G-d told him.'"

Danny felt as if Rabbi Katzen had been talking to him, because what Rabbi Katzen was describing sounded just like what was happening to him. He too was leaving his school and all his friends behind and moving to a new place - to make a new beginning, just as Abraham was doing in the Torah portion.

"And the lesson from Abraham," continued Rabbi Katzen, now looking directly at Danny, "is that no matter where we must go or what we have to do we must always trust in G-d that it will turn out right. Because at the end of the day it is G-d Who decides what will happen to us and where we will end up. But we have the choice to enjoy and make the most of every situation in which we find ourselves.

"And the main thing is to trust in G-d and be happy. This is the greatest mitzvah of all, because when we are happy, even the greatest challenge, like leaving everything behind and starting up in a new place, becomes a good experience."

Suddenly Danny felt good. It was exciting to be moving, he thought to himself. Just like Abraham.