Can you imagine saying goodbye to your iPhone 4S, iPad 2, iPod, Android, Blackberry, GPS or laptop? Forever? Like for-real-forever?

Impossible! Unthinkable! Ludicrous! 

How would we communicate, organize revolutions, share pictures, music or jokes? What kind of life would it be without Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging, YouTube or email?!? You've got to be kidding. Hello?!? It would be like living in the dark ages!

Now try to imagine giving up all of the above, and in addition, moving away from friends and family… forever...and leaving behind no forwarding address or satellite coordinates!

Unless you were completely anti-social, on the FBI's Most Wanted list, or joining the Federal Witness Protection Program, the above scenario is almost beyond imagination!

Yet this is precisely what the Almighty commanded our Patriarch Abraham: “Lech Lecha”: Pick up and go! Leave your entire social structure – your family, your friends, your comfort zone – leave it all behind, and travel to...destination unknown!

Outlandish! Unreasonable! Ridiculous! 

Incredibly, Abraham did just that. He picked up and left his home, each step taking him further away from the familiar life he had known; each step taking him closer to an incredible, eternal, heretofore unknown relationship with his Creator. 

What a difficult challenge! 

Abraham surely must have been troubled by questions of Why? And why me? Who wouldn't wonder about this, and possibly hesitate to act? So, what was Abraham's secret? Where did he get the clarity of vision, the understanding, the courage of his convictions, to do as G-d asked in the face of what must have been such an overwhelming test? 

The answer is that Abraham had his eye on the prize. He realized that he was created for a purpose. A higher calling. One that went beyond fulfilling every physical desire. A mission that demanded a deep relationship with the spiritual...with none other than the Creator Himself! 

Abraham understood that to truly infuse himself with the Divine he would first have to unplug himself from his surrounding society and its decadent culture. He realized that he would have to reorient himself to living on a spiritual plane.

"Lech Lecha”: Go to you, for you, for your sake," says G-d, and you will be rewarded with a fresh, new, rejuvenated, pristine beginning. A life of long-term accomplishments. A life of purity of heart and mind, unencumbered by baggage from the past. A relationship with the Almighty for all eternity. 

In every generation we are faced with similar challenges. We struggle. Do we bow to the social mores of our times, or do we unplug and reconnect on a higher spiritual plane?

As the living legacy of our patriarch Abraham we certainly have the spiritual DNA to rise to any and all occasions. Let us keep our eye on the ball, unplug from the morass of spiritual interference and reconnect to The Almighty.

May we all merit to find meaning in our lives, and thereby bring much nachas to our “Zaidy” Abraham and to our wonderful Father in Heaven! s