Avraham: pouring the soul's light into the body

לך לך להודיע טבעך בעולם ובמדרש לריח שמניך כו' שמן תורק צלוחית של אפרסמון שלא הי' ריחו נודף ע"ש.

"Lech Lecha" — to make your nature known in the world; and in the Midrash, on the verse "to the fragrance of your oils," the Sefas Emes brings the parable: oil that is poured out — a flask of balsam (afarsimon) whose fragrance had not yet spread; see there.

Avraham was sent to travel so that his inner essence should become known. As long as the oil sits sealed in its flask its scent stays hidden; only when it is poured out does the fragrance fill the world. So too Avraham's avodah was to spread his hidden kedushah outward.

דכתיב בהבראם באברהם.

As it is written: "when they were created (b'hibaram)" — which Chazal read as "through Avraham (b'Avraham)."

The very letters of "they were created" rearrange into "Avraham," teaching that the world was brought into being for the sake of Avraham.

אם כן אברהם הוא עיקר הבריאה נשמת הבריאה והוא כח התורה כדאיתא שמאברהם התחילו ב' אלפים תורה.

If so, Avraham is the essence of creation, the neshamah (soul) of creation, and he is the koach (power) of the Torah, as it is taught that from Avraham the two thousand years of Torah began.

Avraham is not merely one creature among many; he is the inner life-force of the whole world, and that life-force is the power of Torah, which is why the era of Torah is counted from him.

ומקודם הי' תהו ובוהו.

And before that there was tohu va'vohu (chaos and void).

The two thousand years before Avraham are likened to the unformed emptiness that preceded creation — a time when the inner point had not yet been revealed.

היינו שנקודה הפנימיות היתה נסתרת כמ"ש ויבדל גנזו לצדיקים.

That is to say, the inner point (nekudah penimis) was hidden, as it is written — He set apart [the light] and stored it away for the tzaddikim.

The "chaos and void" really means that the penimiyus, the hidden inner light, was concealed — the original light of creation that Hashem ganzu (stored away) for the tzaddikim in the future.

ולכן הצדיקים שהיו מקודם היו רק בחי' ריח כמ"ש במדרש שה"ש ראשונים ריחות היו ואנו שמן תורק תרי"ג מצות.

Therefore the tzaddikim who came earlier were only on the level of "fragrance," as the Midrash on Shir HaShirim says: the earlier ones were [merely] fragrances, but we are "oil poured out" — the 613 mitzvos.

The earlier generations could only sense a faint scent of holiness, a hint of the inner light. With Avraham and the Torah's 613 mitzvos the oil itself is poured out — the kedushah is no longer just a distant aroma but is fully made available.

וזה לך לך שיתפשט הארת התורה ברמ"ח איברים דאברהם שורש רמ"ח מצות התפשטות הארת התורה וזה עצמו מ"ש בזוה"ק פי' לך לך שאומרים אל הנשמה לבוא לעוה"ז להתפשט בגוף ע"ש.

And this is "Lech Lecha" — that the light of the Torah should spread through the 248 limbs; Avraham is the root of the 248 positive mitzvos, the spreading of the Torah's light. And this is the very thing the Zohar HaKadosh says, explaining "Lech Lecha" as the call to the neshamah to come into this world to spread itself within the body; see there.

"Go for yourself" means the Torah's light should radiate through all 248 limbs of the body — paralleling the 248 positive mitzvos rooted in Avraham. The Zohar adds that the same words are addressed to every soul: descend into Olam Hazeh and clothe yourself in a body, so that the soul's light spreads into physical action.

והוא פי' אחד עם הפי' הפשוט שהליכת אברהם הי' התפשטות הנשמה בגוף.

And this is one and the same idea as the plain meaning — that Avraham's journey was the spreading of the neshamah within the body.

The mystical reading and the simple reading are one: Avraham's physical travels embody the deeper truth of a soul extending its light into bodily life.

ולכן נמסר לו ברית מילה הסרת הערלה שהוא מסתיר חיות הנשמה ובהסרת הערלה מתגלה הארת הנשמה בגוף:

Therefore the bris milah was given to him — the removal of the orlah (foreskin), which conceals the vitality of the neshamah; and through removing the orlah the light of the neshamah is revealed in the body.

Bris milah is the physical act that completes this mission: the orlah represents the barrier of the body that blocks the soul's chiyus (vitality), and removing it lets the neshamah's light shine openly through one's physical self.

Summary: Avraham is the soul and inner life-force of creation, the root of Torah. His mission of "Lech Lecha" is to pour out the hidden inner light — like balsam oil poured from its flask — so that the radiance of Torah and the neshamah spreads through all 248 limbs of the body, a process sealed by the bris milah which removes the barrier concealing the soul.