Every week we read a different Torah portion. This week’s Torah portion which I have just read is called Lech Lecha. There is a special message that I have learned in honor of my bar mitzvah that I would like to share with you. The Torah portion begins with the verse “Go forth from your land, to the land that I will show you”. So Avraham went as G-d had spoken to him. G-d tells Avraham to leave his home and travel to a place that he will show him.

We are all creatures of habit. We feel comfortable with the warm and familiar. Change is often scary and stressful. Many of us would rather stick to a painful situation than risk the change. Now consider this: One fine day, G-d appears to our forefather Avraham and with no warning tells him to pack up and move, forever. The terrifying part was not even that he was told to pack up and go, but he was not told where to go. And guess what? He was cool as a cucumber. Avraham knew that the reason he was leaving was for a higher purpose, to better the world. When we enter the unknown empowered with a strong sense of mission and goal, the fears fade away.

Now, as I become a bar mitzvah, I become an adult and am responsible to do Hashem’s mitzvot. Leaving my childhood and entering adulthood can be scary. There will be many times that I will have to leave places and things I am familiar with and face the challenges in the big world. But there is no reason to fear. I have my moral GPS with me, with Torah and with G-d as my guide throughout my life. I know I have nothing to fear.