'For Your Pleasure' or 'Mixed Messages' – Parshat Lech Lecha

We sometimes get mixed messages about different values in life. Mercy, honor and generosity are just some of those values where we find opposing messages about the worthiness and appropriateness of these values.

Seeking out pleasure is another one of those values which seem to get 'negative press' in Jewish sources. We talk about this world as being just a foyer in advance to our passing on to the next world, so why invest here in physical amenities. On the other hand, there are times during the year when we are expected to eat fine foods and enjoy other pleasures of life. How do we make sense out of this?

This question is even highlighted by the very first sentence in this week's parsha, Parshat Lech Lecha. There is seemingly an extra word in that sentence which many commentaries note and offer explanations for. "Go forth" is the quote where the word 'forth' seems to be unnecessary.1 After all, God tells Abram (his name is later changed to Abraham) to leave his country and go elsewhere. Rashi comments that the extra word comes to tell us that God is telling him to go for his own good and pleasure. For his own pleasure? Yup, you read right. His own pleasure. And God is telling him to do it!

So, what is the pleasure that God is sending Abraham towards? Rabbi Yochanan Zweig defines it as such: "If man would realize that the greatest possible pleasure, a pleasure which transcends base physical gratification is the feeling he receives from doing what is right, all of his internal tension would dissipate."2 So we are not talking about regular pleasure and nerve endings shooting out messages – rather it is a higher level of pleasure – a pleasure of doing the right thing.

Have you ever had that feeling of doing something just because it was the right thing to do? It is a wonderful sense of accomplishment. It's definitely a higher level of pleasure than eating a good meal. It is a pleasure of the human spirit – that higher level of being that we have.  And so the pleasure is also on a higher level. Even physical pleasure can be experienced on that higher level. In psychology, it is branded as the noetic level.3 That is the level where we experience a healthy joy and exuberance of life. That is the level where we experience responsibility to ourselves and to others. That is the level of the defiant power of the human spirit! That doesn’t mean to not enjoy the physical pleasures - we are expected to 'live the moment' as well. It means to be aware of our human uniqueness. It means that we can always strive for better and higher while accepting where we are at any moment.

So yes, we want pleasure.  And even God says - go for your own pleasure. Enjoy. You can even let the enjoyment be on different levels simultaneously – on the physical level and on the higher, noetic level. It is your choice to kick your enjoyment up a level - and enjoy a fuller life.

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Notes

  1. Bereishit 12:1 – forth is not a great translation for this seemingly innocuous but obviously very meaningful word. It is apparently an accepted Lit. "go for yourself"
  2. Rabbi Yochanan Zweig - 'Redefining Pleasure' – org
  3. Viktor Frankl has discussed this at length in many of his books on logotherapy. Most notably, in 'Man's Search for Meaning ', in part 2.

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