“Lech lecha – Go forth from your land – your birthplace  – and the house of your father – to the land that I will show you (Bereshis 12:1)” [Please note that some details of the true story that follows have been changed.]  Dating is not a simple matter.  Finding a place to go is also not simple.  Nor is the cost of it all.  There is the car rental, the tolls, the parking and the cost of whatever it is that one wants to do. Hershel made a calculation that this date he needed to go all out.  The shadchan said that it had to be a bit more fun than the last two dates.  He decided to take Tzila to exhilarating Manhattan.  And now he found the perfect place.  Right in the middle of Times Square, there was a Glow-In-The-Dark Laser Tag arena.  The advertisement said that it was 2,500 square feet of exhilarating fun. Perfect. And the price was attractive as well.  It was $7 for fifteen minutes for walk-in customers.  If they spent an hour, the whole thing for both of then would only be $56.  Afterward, he could even take her to the very expensive La Marais, a French kosher steakhouse under the OU with rock-solid reviews. Indeed, Senator Joe Lieberman himself said about La Marais, “Where else would a non-Jewish Portuguese immigrant open a French bistro, hire an Irish-Italian Catholic as its executive chef, and create one of the finest and most successful kosher restaurants in the United States?” Hershel rented the car.  Paid for parking near Times Square and the two began to look for the Laser TAG arena.  They walked and walked and, contrary to his nature, he asked for directions.  The first two people he asked never heard of it.  Finally, the third person he asked said, “Straight, straight, and afterward straight.  It is on the right. Can’t miss it.” He still could not find it.  Hershel was at a complete loss.  Does this place actually exist?  Did it go out of business?  But he just saw it three nights ago!  How could it be? Finally, he decided to use WAZE on his phone.  And then he was in for a shock.  Times Square Laser Tag did, indeed, exist!  But it was 1666.6 miles away!  It was located in Katy, Texas (30 miles due west from Houston). Why, oh why, did it have to be so far away? *** “Lech lecha – Go forth from your land – your birthplace  – and the house of your father – to the land that I will show you (Bereshis 12:1).  Here too, we can pose the question – why did it have to be so far away? The simple answer is that Avrohom Avinu was destined for greatness. His future was to father a great nation that would change the world.  Rabbo Ovadiah Bartenura explains that everyone is influenced by his or her surroundings, whether it is from his or her country or land, or their place of birth, or even their more immediate surroundings.  All of these influences, writes Rav Ovadiah Bartenura can be equally bad. Rav Henoch Leibowitz zatzal, however, asks a question:  He points out that  Avrohom Avinu had recognized Hashem at the age of three.  He broke the Avodah […]

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