Do I have to?

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Amudim’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

Hashem's very first words to Avram are not a command to be kind or to give charity or to daven. It's a command to know himself. Lech lecha. Go for yourself. Go to yourself. Leave your land, strip away every layer of what other people have told you that you are. Every habit inherited without choosing, every identity handed to you before you were old enough to decide if you wanted were old enough to decide if you wanted it. Go find out who you actually are. The Kotzker Rebbe z"l said something that has stayed with me since the first time I heard it. He said, "If I am I because I am I, and you are you because you are you, then I am I and you are you. But if I am I only because of you, and you are you only because of me, then I am not I and you are not you." What he was saying is a person who defines themselves entirely through

Jump to a moment

1. 0:00Hashem's very first words to Avram are not a command to be kind or to give…
2. 0:30were old enough to decide if you wanted it. Go find out who you actually are.…
3. 1:01defines themselves entirely through other people's expectations, who cannot say no because they have never learned…
4. 1:31out of not knowing that the answer could be no, out of never having been taught…
5. 2:02Know yourself. Teach your children to know themselves. Teach them that their body is theirs. That…

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