A few years ago, I was lucky enough to be in the Baltimore area on a Thursday night and heard Rav Yissochar Frand speak. He mentioned that our Sages tell us Avraham Avinu (Abraham, the first Jew) was tested with ten trials and was successful in all of them. According to most opinions, the first trial was hinted at in the end of last week’s parsha: the story of Or Chasdim. Avraham refused to bow down to idols. As a punishment, he was thrown into a steaming hot furnace, but he came out without the slightest scar. The second trial is the beginning of this week’s parsha, Lech Lecha. Avraham is told to leave his homeland, birthplace, and his father’s house. Now think about it, which would be a harder trial for you: being told you would be thrown into a burning furnace (a few thousand degrees hot) or being told to live in a foreign land. Personally, I would think the furnace would be much harder. But this cannot be true because we know that each trial of Avraham’s was harder than the previous one.

In 1940, Disney released Pinocchio, a movie about a puppet that is determined to be a real boy. A blue fairy tells Pinocchio that if he is “brave, truthful, and unselfish”, he will merit becoming a real boy. He is untruthful and a brat during most of the story. Then at the end, Pinocchio saves his father, Gepetto (the man that formed him into a puppet), from a sea creature and is rewarded by becoming a real boy.

During the summer, I visited a puppet theatre and they put on a version of Pinocchio. The ending was different though. Pinocchio saves Gepetto from a sea creature, but he does not become a real boy after that happens. The story continues and we learn that Pinocchio was very careful to go to school and improve his behavior for a full year. After the year is up, the Blue Fairy returns and tells Pinocchio that since she has seen how he has changed during the past year to become brave, truthful, and unselfish, he now deserves to be a real boy.

Which of these endings is the better one? I think it is clear that the theatre’s version is definitely better. In the Disney film, Pinocchio did one act of bravery. It was certainly a great act, but we do not know what he did after that. He probably went back to his regular ways of acting like a brat. To do the one act takes no great skill. On the other hand, in the theatre version, Pinocchio showed that he could change. Pinocchio struggled every day for a full year to improve himself. That is something great. It is not just one act, but it is a daily struggle.

And this is why Avraham’s tests are in the order they are. Being thrown into a fiery furnace is certainly a big test, but it is only one moment. It is one act of heroism. There is no improvement after the act. The act is over and the test is over. Lech Lecha is a very different type of test. Every day for the next 100 years of Avraham’s life he lived away from his birthplace and his father’s house. He had to live the rest of his life in a foreign land. He had to move away from his home and everyday was a struggle. Even though the people that get the headlines in the newspapers are the ones that do the single acts of heroism, the “real” heroes are the ones that work daily on improving. The ones that have a test everyday and don’t give up. And that was the test of Lech Lecha.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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