“…Go for yourself from your land, from your relatives, and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you…” (Bereishis 12:1)

“… to give him (Avraham) reward for each step that he took.” (Bereishis Rabba 39:9)

“… to give him (Avraham) reward for each utterance that Hashem said.” (Rashi 12:2)

While the words of Rashi sound very poetic, they really need an explanation. Is there truly more reward for every word uttered? Indeed, this question is discussed at the beginning of creation: Why was it necessary to have so many statements from Hashem to create the world? However, in our situation, I think that the answer is quite obvious. I know a man who was having issues with his parnasa. He went to America to earn some money, only to have his earnings taken away from him unjustly. Now he is working in Israel in a city away from his family, and upon pondering his situation he said, “It seems to me that I have a Heavenly decree to be in exile. I appreciate that Hashem has lightened my sentence and my exile can be observed here in the Holy Land.” But how long and how painful is it for this man to depart from his family every week, returning only on Erev Shabbos? For this man, every week is difficult as he wonders when his exile will end.

Every statement which directs us closer to a goal, but is ambiguous and lacks clear definition, makes one more unsettled, and causes the test to be that much more difficult.

However, the Medrash Rabbah uses a different terminology than Rashi and says that Avram would get reward for each and every step that he took, as he was not told where he was going.

HaRav Berel Parvarsky Shlita wonders why would one get more reward for each and every step? Is it due to the extra effort to take the step, or is there something else going on? He explains based on a Ritva in Sukkah (25) that sometimes we have a mitzvah to perform someplace, and the journey is just preparatory for the main mitzvah. Other times the journey itself is the mitzvah. In this case, where Hashem did not tell Avram where to go, but just said, “Go”, it became a situation in which each and every step was not just a preparatory step to get to a new place, but rather a mitzvah unto itself.

I would like to suggest a similar idea based on a gemora in Sotah. The gemora tells us of a lady who would go a great distance to get to a synagogue. The Tanna asked her, “Don’t you have a synagogue in your neighborhood?” to which she responded, “There is schar pesios (reward for the steps).” (The Marshag asks why is it if there is a reward in the steps, the halacha is that when one gets an Aliyah he should take the shortest route to the Torah. Perhaps he should instead take the longest route to the Torah and get a greater reward? I believe the answer is that it is wonderful to get more reward, but not at the expense of the congregation!)

One will get a reward for all actions that lead to his performing a mitzvah. It is obvious to me that when one spends much time and effort looking to find a Lulav and Esrog, even if the Rav ends up declaring either to be passul, one will still get reward for his search. Isn’t this obvious? It seems to me that this is being referred to in the verse in Tehillim (55:15), “Biveis Elokim Nihalech birogesh” (a person should go to the house of Hashem in RoGeSH = Ruach Geshem SHeleg – winds, rain, snow). The act of going to synagogue is part of the mitzvah. We enjoy the service of preparing for the service. Whereas with other mitzvos, such as blowing the shofar, there is no inherent benefit gained by going a longer distance to hear the shofar.

In our service to Hashem, many times we wonder, “What is the right thing to do?” We get upset because we don’t understand exactly what Hashem wants from us. We need to realize that this lack of clarity in our journey is part of our mission. The journey itself is serving Hashem, and sometimes in an even greater way than if we knew where we are going or what we are supposed to be doing. I think it is worthwhile for us to realize that this journey to find the proper way to serve Hashem may actually be our avodah in and of itself and the place of our greatest growth.