This is it. The opening story of our father Avraham. We might have heard many stories about his childhood and young adult life. Stories brought by the midrash about breaking idols, jumping into fires etc. However, the first time we read about Avraham is here. A command from Hashem telling him to leave everything….at the age of 75. The earlier stories are not only exciting and interesting, but they are rich with lessons.  Why are we waiting to meet the father of all monotheists, especially our people, the champion of kindness and gratitude, when he’s already an old man? 

It’s quite telling. Moshe sees the burning bush and begins his service to the Jewish nation at the age of 80, same question. There are many lessons that we will have personally experienced and learned from throughout our lives. There are the smaller challenges that affect us and our closest friends and family. There is also a time in everyone’s lives, perhaps when they least expect it, when they are called upon to do something that might affect a much wider circle of people or many generations to come. 
 

The Tomer Devorah, written by the16th century by Moses Cordovero, a Jewish kabbalist in Safed speaks about the ripple effect of specific actions. Sometimes, even unbeknownst to us, a decision that might seem small or private will ripple throughout the world continuously. This happened to our father Avraham. This is where his life will change the course of human history. 

You might be thinking, ok Avraham heard the actual voice of Gd telling him to leave all that was familiar and embark on one of history’s biggest adventures. What about us? 

What if on our own level, between all the external and internal noise, we are called upon by the very same Gd to engage in the adventure of a lifetime. Again, we don’t know which adventures are the big ones. How about one kindness that saves someone’s physical or emotional life? What about the life they get to start because of that kindness you might have forgotten about?  What about the lives they raise in their home and the kindnesses that emerge from that small seed you began? That’s just one example of the infinite effects of one good deed, one mitzvah. Even if it doesn’t feel like it. Even if you’re 75 and still waiting. The mysterious world we live in has a precise plan for us to add our infinite light to a universe that needs it.

May we be open and sensitive enough to heed that call to greatness and use our potential to create heaven here on earth