The first words which Hashem spoke to Avraham in Bereishit are in the verse 12:1 - And the Lord said to Abram, "Go forth from your land, and from your birthplace, and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you.

Rabanu Bachya brings the verse from Proverbs Chapter 13:20 as an explanation: "He who goes with the wise will become wise, but he who befriends the fools will be broken". Hashem told Avraham to move away from the heretics of his society so that they would not infect him.

The first verse in the first Psalm of David HaMelach states: "The praises of a man are that he did not follow the counsel of the wicked, neither did he stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the company of scorners."

Rashi explains: And these are the praises of a man: that he did not follow, because since he did not follow, he did not stand, and since he did not stand, he did not sit.

We see the importance of not associating with the wrong people. Our father Avraham needed to leave the evil environment in which he was entrenched in order to become the Avraham we know today.

Modern culture blinds us to the true and eternal values that exist in Hashem's Torah. One cannot help but to measure and evaluate themselves based on their local society. We naturally tend to determine "who we are" and "where we are holding" based on our family, friends and associates. Yet in HaShems eyes this assessment may be way off the mark. We all need to introspect deeply in order to penetrate who we really need to be independent of "imposed" values systems. Only great people can step outside of themselves to see the truth.

The Chasam sofer explains that the words "Lech lecha" (Go forth) literally mean "go to yourself." A person's inner soul and personality are always pure and good. It is their environment, their country, their relatives and their father's house, which prevents them from reaching their true spiritual potential.

An addition to the Chasam Sofer regarding the inner purity of the individual:
In the morning prayer, we recite My LORD, the soul which you you have given to me is pure.
This recitation reflects the noble Jewish approach that does not weigh down the individual with original sin and senseless guilt. We belief that there is an inner purity.
It is to be noted that there is a pause after uttering the word Eh'lo'kiy (there is a comma) before reciting neshamah, because G*D is not one's soul --implied if one reads the first two words together.
Kol Tuv
and Shabbat Shal*m
Shlomo Grafstein
shlomoeg@juno.com