A vort from the Rebbe on this week's parashah, Parashat Lech Lecha. In the beginning of Parashat Lech Lecha, Hashem speaks to Avraham and he says, \"לך לך מארצך וממולדתך ומבית אביך אל הארץ אשר אראך\", leave your place and go to the place that I will show you, and he tells him as a reward for that, \"ואעשך לגוי גדול\", I'll make you for a big nation, \"ואברכך\", and I'll bless you, \"ואגדלה שמך\", I'll make your name big, famous, \"והיה ברכה\", you'll be a brachah, whatever the pshat is there. And Rashi even explains that the Eibershter had to give him this brachah because when a person travels a lot, these three things are minimized: It minimizes children, that's why he said you'll have a great nation, and minimizes the person's money, that's why Hashem says I will bless you with having money, and it minimizes his name. So he needed these three brachot. But one of the three brachot is \"ואגדלה שמך\", I'll make your name big, which means I'll make your name famous. Rashi has another pshat also there that it means I will add another letter to your name from Avram to Avraham, but the simple pshat in the words is Hashem said, \"You will become famous.\"

And the Alshich asks the kashya, what kind of a brachah is it to Avraham that he will become famous, his name will become known, the name will become big? Avraham needed that? Avraham was the epitome of anivut, of humility, of what chasidut calls bitul. As the pasuk says that Avraham said, \"ואנכי עפר ואפר\", I am sand, dust, and ashes, and this means that I am nothing, he was nothing in his own eyes. We know that the expression, \"I am like sand\", expresses a person's bitul to Hashem. That's why at the end of Shemoneh Esrei we say, \"ונפשי כעפר לכל תהיה\", I will be like sand to everybody, which means I am nothing, really. When we do ביטול חמץ becomes before Pesach, and we have to nullify the chametz in the person's mind, so we say it should be batel and hefker, \"כעפרא דארעא\", like the sand of the ground, which means that it's really a representation of bitul. So Avraham Avinu was the epitome of bitul to Hashem. Why would he care whether he's famous or not famous that Hashem gave him a brachah, \"ואגדלה שמך\", I'll make your name big, I'll make your name famous?

And the Rebbe says you can answer the sheilah the contrary: Because he was so batal, that's why the brachah this brachah was a important brachah. Since he was batal to Hashem, and everyone knew that he represents the unity of Hashem, Avraham, what he did was he traveled all over and he spread the name of Hashem, showing that \"אין עוד מלבדו\", there's nothing but Hashem, and trying to explain to the people. So he epitomized this idea of recognizing the unity of Hashem. So that went together with Avraham. Avraham represented that. So when Avraham is famous, it's not that he is famous as who he is as an individual. He is famous means that his philosophy is famous, that what he represents is famous, and this is the biggest brachah that Avraham could get. He wanted to spread the unity of Hashem, and therefore the Eibershter told him by going, \"ואגדלה שמך\", your name will become famous, and people will know about you a lot, meaning knowing what you represent, and this is something that is the greatest brachah. And to Avraham, this meant a lot, because Avraham wanted to spread Hashem's name, and Hashem told him, \"You will be successful in doing this.\" So it works the opposite. It's not a contradiction to being batal to Hashem, but it goes together. Because he's batal to Hashem, that's why the fame the the being famous, his name becoming famous and everyone knows about him, is the true recognition of Hashem's unity, and it has nothing to do with the ego of the person himself.