Parshah Lech Lecha

There was once a person who was traveling from place to place and he saw a palace in flames. Said he: "Can it be that there is no master to this palace?" So the owner of the palace looked out to him and said to him: "I am the master of the Palace." By the same token, because Abraham would go around saying, "Can it be that the world has no master?" G-d looked out and said: "I am the owner, the master of the world."

(Midrash Rabbah)

From the time that G-d said to our father Abraham "Go from your land..." and "Abraham went on, journeying southward", began the process of birurim -- of extracting the sparks of holiness that are scattered throughout creation, buried within the material existence.

By the decree of Divine providence, a person wanders about in his travels, as the Cause of All Causes brings about the many circumstances and pretexts that bring a person to those places where the sparks that belong to his or her soul await their redemption.

(Rabbi Sholom DovBer of Lubavitch)