Sending a child off into the world brings with it a mix of emotions. This week, as my son leaves for yeshiva and my daughter leaves to spend a year in Israel studying, I find myself feeling the pride of watching them take these next steps, together with that little ache that comes when our children begin to build lives beyond the walls of home. We spend years raising them, teaching them, guiding them, packing their lunches, and being there for the big things and the countless little things along the way. And then, slowly, we begin to send them out into the world. There is something powerful about watching our children leave the comfort and familiarity of home in order to devote themselves to something greater, to Torah, growth, and becoming the people they are meant to be.
This week’s Torah portion, Ki Teitzei, begins with the verse, “When you go out to war against your enemies.” The Torah is speaking about an actual war, but our sages also understand these words as describing the personal battles each of us faces. Maimonides describes the extraordinary mindset of a Jewish soldier. Once he enters battle, he puts aside his personal concerns and focuses completely on the greater purpose for which he is fighting. How can an ordinary person rise so completely above himself? Chassidut explains that deep within every Jew is a G-dly soul that is not limited by our individual wants, fears, or comforts. We are called “the army of G-d” because each of us has the ability to tap into that place within ourselves and live for something larger than our own immediate needs.
Most of our battles do not look like battles. They are the quiet choices we make every day between comfort and growth, between what feels easy and what we know matters. Sometimes we are sending our children off to yeshiva or to a year of learning in Israel, and sometimes we are the ones being asked to step beyond what is familiar. Life is not only about protecting our own little world. We are each part of something much bigger, with a purpose that stretches far beyond ourselves. When we connect to that purpose, we discover strength we may not have known we had, the courage to leave what is comfortable, move forward, and become a little more of who we were meant to be.