There was a famine in the Land and Avram went down to Egypt to sojourn there because the famine was very severe in the land.
-Bereshis 12:10

Avraham Avinu was tested with 10 tests and passed them all with flying colors. According to many commentators, one of his tests was when G-d made a famine in Eretz Yisrael to see how Avram would react and he passed! But the RAMBAN takes a much different approach in regards to how Avram responded to the famine in the Land. The RAMBAN states in very harsh terms that Avram committed a terrible sin. He went down to Egypt and put his wife’s life in great danger as the people there, especially Pharoah, were extremely immoral. G-d promised the Land of Yisrael to Avram and he should have trusted G-d would save him from the terrible famine. The RAMBAN ends by stating Avram’s sin of going down to Egypt caused the bitter slavery of the Jews in Egypt that happened in the future. Avram did something terrible!

One might wonder how the RAMBAN could write this, but, in actuality, this comment is just a reminder of how our religion is unlike all other religions. Other religions discuss their founders as being perfect, but in Judaism, the exact opposite is done. We actually point out the mistakes they made! The reason is because our goal in life is not to be perfect. We strive to get as close to perfection as we can, but we are not expected to reach that highest peak of being without flaw. Many people get depressed because they are not perfect and do not live a perfect life. As Jews, we just need to remember our greatest leaders were not perfect either. They did some sins in their life, and as the RAMBAN points out with Avram, sometimes they did extremely terrible sins. This does not mean they are bad people though. They made an error, but they did not become depressed because of it. They still did many great acts in their lives – many extremely great acts! Despite not being perfect, they have been our heroes for thousands of years.

When I was in college, I knew someone who was a neo-Hippie. He had long hair, loved listening to music, and did anything to bring peace. As time went on, though, he began to become depressed. He so desired to live in a perfect, peaceful world and found the world not reaching that standard. He so desired to be the perfect person that would bring peace, but found himself lacking. He became depressed and started to have thoughts of jumping off a bridge. Luckily, he didn’t jump. Luckily, he started learning about Judaism and Mussar. Luckily, he learned that one does not have to be perfect. I am very happy he did not jump off a bridge, because if he did, then I would not be writing this today.

People do not need to be perfect. The founder of our religion committed such a terrible sin that people were affected by it hundreds of years later. Of course, Avraham did many, many great things which we should strive to follow. One of them is not to become depressed if we unfortunately do something wrong. We are not perfect nor are we expected to be perfect. It is okay to make an error. Just try not to do it too much.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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