Transcript
Okay, good morning everyone. It's great to resume our Sunday חסידות נתיבות שלום Chasidus Netivos Shalom on the פרשה parsha, really charges the whole week with the insight into the פרשה parsha.So this week's פרשה parsha we're introduced to אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu. And אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu, who is of course אב המון גוים av hamon goyim, he's the father not only of the Jewish people, he's the father of ethical monotheism. And even that is to a large degree a misnomer. There were many before אברהם Avraham who had already discovered השם Hashem, brought קרבנות korbanos to השם Hashem, had a relationship with השם Hashem. What made אברהם Avraham different, what made him stand out, is that unlike those individuals who maintained a private relationship with השם Hashem, he stood on a soapbox and he tried to convert the world. He tried to bring it to the masses. He tried to proselytize. What we don't do today, אברהם Avraham did do. He stood on a soapbox and he and he was largely successful. If you look at the world population today, and you assume Islam is monotheism, this is according to the רמב\"ם Rambam, and Christianity, according to the מאירי Meiri, obviously very controversial, but has elements at least of monotheism, and you look at the population of the globe, of the world, you'll see that אברהם Avraham was largely successful. We live in a country that's based on Judeo-Christian values. They love to say that, which is a strange phrase because Judeo-Christian is really Judeo, because Christian is based on Jewish values. So, you know, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, they have Jewish terms, they have biblical terms all throughout. So אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu comes on to the scene and he literally transforms the world, the way we know it, the way we know it today.What kind of terms? Okay, we're we're we're being recorded here. אחר הדברים האלה Achar hadvarim ha'eileh. We are on on the page אנוכי מגן לך Anochi magen lach. אחר הדברים האלה היה דבר השם אל אברם במחזה לאמר Achar hadvarim ha'eileh hayah dvar Hashem el Avram bamachazeh leimor. After these things, השם Hashem appeared to אברם Avram in a in a dream, in a cloud, saying, אל תירא אברם Al tira Avram, אנוכי מגן לך שכרך הרבה מאד Anochi magen lach scharcha harbeh me'od. Don't be afraid אברם Avram. אל תירא אברם Al tira Avram. We say this מוצאי שבת Motzei Shabbos. אל תירא אברם Al tira Avram. אנוכי Anochi I'm your shield. You have a lot of reward waiting. ספרים הקדושים, רבי ספר הקדוש באר אברהם מבאר מורנו הרב סופר הקדוש מסלונים זכותו יגן עלינו Sfarim K'doshim, the Sefer Hakadosh, Be'er Avraham, meva'er, Moreinu Harav Hasofer Hakadosh mi'Slonim, z'chuso yagen aleinu. הנה אברהם אבינו היה מתירא אחר כל הנסים הגדולים שעשה עמו הקדוש ברוך הוא באור כשדים ובמלחמת ד' מלכים, פן יגרום לו על ידי זה התרוממות עליו, ויבוא חס ושלום לזכות הדעת Hinei Avraham Avinu hayah misyare achar kol hanisim hagdolim she'asah imo Hakadosh Baruch Hu b'Ur Kasdim u'v'milchemes daled melachim, pen yigrom lo al yedei zeh hisromemus alav, v'yavo chas v'shalom l'zchus hada'as. What was אברהם Avraham afraid of? השם Hashem comes and he reassures אברם Avram. Don't worry, don't be afraid. I am your protector, I am your savior, I am your shield. I've got your back. I've got your back. I know you're worried what could be, what's going to happen. I've got your back. No worries. So says the סלונים רבה Slonimer Rebbe, the באר אברהם Be'er Avraham, that אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu was worried that he had used up all of his merits. Here השם Hashem had intervened and interceded on his behalf in extraordinary ways, saved him from the fiery furnace in אור כשדים Ur Kasdim, saved him from the war of the four and the five kings, and maybe now he was going to get arrogant. Maybe now he was going to be מגיע לי magia li. He's going to come to expect השם Hashem's always going to be there to bail me out, and things will happen exactly the way I want. שהיה בנפשו שהקדוש ברוך הוא עשה לו כל כך מסתמא ראוי לזה shehayah b'nafsho she'Hakadosh Baruch Hu asah lo kol kach, mistama ra'ui l'zeh. Maybe if השם Hashem is always helping him, maybe he's worthy of that. אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu is worried that it's going to go to his head. He's going to think he's all that. That I'm all that. I'm the greatest in the generation. I'm doing השם Hashem's work, so he's always going to have my back. I don't have to try, I don't have to worry, I don't have to דאווען daven, it's all going to happen. לכן הלביש עצמו ביראת שמיים, שזוהי עצה לזכות הדעת, שעל ידי זה כשמאור בליבו גדול יראה, מתבטל ממנו זכות הדעת Lachen hilbish atzmo b'yiras shamayim, she'zuhi eitzah l'zchus hada'as, she'al yedei zeh k'she'me'or b'libo gadol yirah, misbatel mimeno zchus hada'as. So when a person is is at the brink of זכות הדעת zchus hada'as, you're you're worried, you're anxious, you're fearful, the response, the right thing to do is to buckle down on your יראת שמיים yiras shamayim. Just when you think, you know what? I'm about to lose my merits. הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu is not going to have my back on this one. Maybe it's going to go to my head. That's when you have to buckle down and redouble your efforts for יראת שמיים yiras shamayim to realize there's a השם Hashem in the universe. There's providence. He's in charge. I'm in awe of him. I defer, I submit to his will. אמר לו הקדוש ברוך הוא Amar lo Hakadosh Baruch Hu, but השם's Hashem's response is, אל תירא אברם Al tira Avram. אינך צריך לאחוז מדת היראה כדי להינצל מזכות הדעת Eincha tzarich le'echoz midas hayirah k'dei l'hinatzel mi'zchus hada'as. Don't worry. אל תירא Al tira, יראה yirah. אברם Avram, you don't have to turn to redouble in your יראה yirah. כי לך יש עצה אחרת Ki lecha yesh eitzah acheres. Because for you, I have another, I have another strategy, I have another piece of advice. אנוכי מגן לך, היינו שהרי כל הנסים שעשיתי עמך היו מכוח הבטחון שהיה לך שאנוכי מגן ומחסה לך. וכיוון שיש לך בטחון הרי שכרך הרבה מאד Anochi magen lach, hainu sheharei kol hanisim she'asiti imcha hayu mikoach habitachon shehayah lecha she'Anochi magen u'mechaseh lach. U'keivan she'yesh lecha bitachon, harei scharcha harbeh me'od. I am your shield. It's not יראת שמיים yiras shamayim that you need to work on again, but rather it's בטחון bitachon. Now the סלונים רבה Slonimer Rebbe here is assuming that we understand the differences between these terms. We have a lot of terms that overlap: אמונה emunah, בטחון bitachon, דבקות dveikus, יראת שמיים yiras shamayim, אהבת השם ahavas Hashem. All these refer to our relationship with השם Hashem, our acknowledgment of השם Hashem, his role in our life, but there are important differences between them. אמונה Emunah is the philosophical knowledge that there is a first cause, that there is a creator, that there is a השם Hashem. The world didn't come to chance randomly or coincidentally. Maybe or maybe there wasn't a Big Bang, but if there was a Big Bang, the source, the cause of the Big Bang, which even science is yet to determine, but we know was השם Hashem. That's אמונה emunah. אמונה Emunah is looking around this world and knowing like every painting had a painter, every building had an architect, every sculpture has a sculptor, every book has an author, so too this world, which is no less detailed, intricate, complicated, complex, it too has a designer, and that designer is השם Hashem. I have אמונה emunah. I have knowledge. Like אמן amen. אמן amen, אימון imun means I affirm. I affirm that there's a creator to this whole world. Now, maybe that world, maybe that creator moved on. I have a nice painting hanging on my wall and I look at it and I see that the paint came together to form an image. I'm not talking about what's that called, what's that kind of painting that looks like my kid knocked over the paint bottle? Impressionist? Yeah. What? Abstract. Abstract. I'm not talking about abstract. People spend millions of dollars, it literally looks like, looks like a kindergartener spilled a bottle of ink. I פשוט pashet don't get it. But fine. So, but when you look at a normal painting, normal to me, so, and you see, wow, it's a magnificent, look at the background, the shading, the images, the people, the whatever is in it, so you say, oh, there's a painter. That doesn't mean you have a relationship with the painter. Doesn't mean you know who the painter is. It doesn't mean the painter knows who you are. The painter could be long gone. The same is true with the building and the book and the sculpture and so on and so forth. So בטחון bitachon is going a level beyond אמונה emunah. Not just I have knowledge that there's a creator, but I have faith that the creator is involved in my life. I have בטחון bitachon, like בטחון bitachon in Israel, security, trust. I have my security, my trust is in השם Hashem that he's intimately involved in my life. דבקות Dveikus is, once I know there's a God, he's intimately involved in my life, I'm choosing to cling to him. I'm sticking with him. Sticking with him. The the רבי מאיר שמחה דווינסק, בעל משך חכמה Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, the Meshech Chochma, beautiful image, that דבקות dveikus comes from דבק devek, which is glue. Stick with. New person comes to work and is very worried, where do I go? What do I do at the meeting? What do I say? How do I do? You say to them, just stick with me. I got your back. Just stick with me, follow me, stick with me. הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu says דבקות dveikus, just stick with me. If we stick with השם Hashem, he's got our back. Then there's אהבת השם ahavas Hashem. There's the notion of an intimate, loving connection with השם Hashem, the feeling of his presence in our life, his love of us. And then there's יראת שמיים yiras shamayim, a sense of awe that הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu is in charge of everything, and I have awe. I live with a sense of awe that he is in control. So all these terms are not interchangeable, but they certainly overlap. So אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu said, I'm worried. I'm worried that השם Hashem, I've used up all my merits. He's intervened on my behalf, it's going to go to my head and I will be unworthy. I'm going to have a spiritual collapse. To which השם Hashem says, and therefore אברם Avram says, I better double down on my יראה yirah. How will I convince השם Hashem to continue to grant favor to me? By living in awe and in fear of him. By shaking in my boots. By when השם Hashem says jump, I say, how high? And השם Hashem says, whoa, that's not the response. That's not my relationship with you. I am your מגן magen, I'm your shield, I'm your savior. I've got your back. How? כח הבטחון Koach habitachon. When you place your trust and faith, when you realize that I'm involved in your life in every detail and I care about you. מאד Me'od. שכרך הרבה מאד scharcha harbeh me'od, the פסוק pasuk says, your reward that's waiting for you is great. הוא דעת מה שאמרו חז\"ל מאד מאד הוי שפל רוח Hu da'as mah she'amru Chazal, me'od me'od hevei shfal ruach. And what does this come from? The משנה Mishna in אבות Avos that says מאד מאד הוי שפל רוח me'od me'od hevei shfal ruach, be exceedingly humble. שאף ששכרך הרבה שהקדוש ברוך הוא נותן לך הרבה, אין זה מביא לזכות הדעת, אלא למאד, לשפלות רוח She'af she'scharcha harbeh she'Hakadosh Baruch Hu nosen lecha harbeh, ein zeh meivi l'zchus hada'as, ela l'me'od, l'shiflus ruach. Even though השם Hashem has enormous reward waiting for you, even though he's got enormous reward waiting for you, don't let that go to your head, but rather מאד me'od. מאד מאד הוי שפל רוח Me'od me'od hevei shfal ruach. That should increase and promote your sense of humility. לשפלות, שידע תדע שכל כוחך הוא רק מכוח בטחונך שהקדוש ברוך הוא מגן ומחסה לך. אז כל הנסים שעשיתי עמך מביאים רק לשפלות רוח בשביל רום לב L'shiflus, she'yeda teida she'kol kochacha hu rak mikoach bitchoncha she'Hakadosh Baruch Hu magen u'mechaseh lach. Az kol hanisim she'asiti imcha mevi'im rak l'shiflus ruach bishvil rom lev. So, one of two reactions can happen when you feel that everything comes together. You're like, wow, I got the roof, I've got the over my head, I've got the wife, I've got the family, I've got the job, I've got my health, everything seems to be working out. These incredible things that I didn't think were going to work out, coincidence, chance, randomness, no, everything seems to be working out in my favor. So either that could go to your head and you say, thanks God, I don't need you. Nature's got my back. And I'm I am all, I'm all that. It's my hard work that's earned that money. It's my charm, charisma, and good looks that's earned this wife. It's my parenting that's produced this beautiful family. It's all me and I am all that and no thanks, God, I don't need you. Or you could say, wow, everything's going so well, everything seems to have come together. I feel so humbled by it. I feel so humbled by it. I'm so worried that the other shoe's going to drop at any moment. I am so humbled, I'm so unworthy, I feel so inadequate, and I'm so incredibly grateful to השם Hashem for all the ברכה bracha, for all the things that are happening in my life. The feeling that זכות אבות zechus avos. I always attribute a lot of stuff to... Right, that that the like we talk about every יזכור דרשה Yizkor drasha, that our grandparents davened, they cried, they invested, and we're cashing out on on their on their זכיות zechuyos. Absolutely. Which is partially what this is, we'll get to it in a moment. מגן אברהם Magen Avraham, when we דאווען daven, we're tapping into his זכיות zechuyos too. So אברהם Avraham, the the שכרך הרבה מאד scharcha harbeh me'od, you have a lot of reward, the מאד me'od should remind us of the מאד מאד הוי שפל רוח me'od me'od hevei shfal ruach that אברהם's Avraham's reaction is to be incredibly humble. ובזה הוא משה בכה חותמין בברכה ראשונה של שמונה עשרה מגן אברהם U'v'zeh hu mah she'bachah chosmin b'vracha rishona shel Shmoneh Esreh 'Magen Avraham'. And this is why, true, we acknowledge יצחק Yitzchak and we mention יעקב Yaakov, but בכה חותמין b'chah chosmin, that's at the beginning of our פרשה parsha when השם Hashem tells אברהם Avram you're chosen, through you the nations of the world will be blessed, and ובכה חותמין u'v'chah chosmin, they will seal, they will conclude with you. How, where is it that we conclude with אברהם Avram? In our שמונה עשרה Shmoneh Esreh, in our דאווענען davening, we say אלקי אברהם אלקי יצחק ואלקי יעקב Elokei Avraham, Elokei Yitzchak, v'Elokei Yaakov, but we end מגן אברהם magen Avraham. שאברהם אבינו עורר רחמי שמיים על כל הדורות מכח בטחון שהקדוש ברוך הוא מגן ומחסה she'Avraham Avinu orer rachamei shamayim al kol hadoros mikoach bitachon she'Hakadosh Baruch Hu magen u'mechaseh. Why? What are we invoking about אברהם Avraham? Each אב av had incredible qualities, אברהם יצחק ויעקב Avraham, Yitzchak, v'Yaakov. We're invoking about אברהם Avraham is, אברהם Avraham is not only the first to have אמונה emunah. אברהם Avraham's not only the first to look at a world and say, huh, it doesn't make sense that a book has an author and a painting has a painter and and yet we think this world came through these stone idols. No, there must be a creator, there must be a designer, there must be a first cause. אברהם's Avraham's not only the first to introduce us to אמונה emunah, he's the first to introduce us to בטחון bitachon. That he lives his life with a feeling that השם's Hashem's got his back and he seeks to cling to him. And that is the model that we follow. So we say מגן אברהם magen Avraham. When we place our trust in השם Hashem, השם Hashem is our מגן magen, he's our shield, he's our protector, he takes care of us. It's just so hard to remember this in the moment. Last week there was a person who was going through a certain crisis, and they were worried about a certain interaction with a certain person, and I just tried to remind them, you're worried over something that has not yet happened, may or may not happen, likely won't happen. Your worry will not in any, there's no way you can explain to me how your worry can positively influence the situation. It will not relieve or alleviate the scenario that you're worried about. So the only thing that your worry could do is rob you of your happiness, your serenity right now, your relationships, the impact that you think it's going to have, you're going to bring upon yourself. So I reminded this person who's a בעל בטחון baal bitachon, the person's a person who learns and davens and a strong בטחון bitachon, I said, what are you worried about? השם's Hashem's got a plan. So this person you're worried about this interaction that may or may not happen, and if it happens, it likely won't happen, and if it does happen, there's a reason it's happening. And either way, you'll figure it out. There's a plan. There's a plan. The person said you're right. You know, we forget that. We we דאווען daven, we learn, we talk about it, we listen to classes about it, but when the rubber meets the road and we're in that moment and we have to feel it. So we're we're late to the airport and we may miss the flight and we're flipping out and we're sweating and we're going crazy. We forget everything, there's a reason for everything. So מגן אברהם Magen Avraham, serenity now, but the serenity now is not George Costanza's serenity now, it's the serenity now of מגן אברהם Magen Avraham. That just like אברם Avram found the peace, the serenity, he had the ability to overcome whatever obstacles came his way because he always put his בטחון bitachon in השם Hashem and השם Hashem therefore was his מגן magen. He's our מגן magen. But for השם Hashem to be our מגן magen doesn't mean everything works out exactly the way we want. It doesn't mean every illness is healed, every infertility has a baby, every lonely person finds their שידוך shidduch. The מגן אברהם magen Avraham is not that at that moment, השם Hashem actually provides everything you want. Sometimes the answer is no, but השם Hashem is being our shield even in those moments. Even when we don't realize it, sometimes he's protecting us from ourselves. He's a shield against what we think is in our best interest but really wasn't. Like in the תחנון Tachanun it says it's a מצוה mitzvah to דאווען daven to השם Hashem, especially in times of need. But then the רמב\"ן Ramban comes down and יליש הדאווען yalish hadaven, bother him when you're you know really in danger. Exactly. Or, unless you decide everything is a time of need because really... והיינו דבפרשה כתיב אנוכי מגן לך, שהשם יתברך היה מגינו ומבטחו של אברהם אבינו, שתמיד החזיק מיוחד מדת הבטחון בהשם יתברך, וכח זה עבר לכל זרעו V'hainu d'b'parsha ksiv 'Anochi magen lach,' she'Hashem yisborach hayah magino u'mivtacho shel Avraham Avinu, she'tamid hechzik meyuchad midas habitachon b'Hashem yisborach, v'koach zeh avar l'chol zar'o. Through this quality of אברהם Avraham, not just an abstract God who's in theory philosophically out there, but a real השם Hashem, who when he's stuck in traffic, when he's having a negative interaction, when he's worried about the stock market plummeting, that whatever's happening in his life, he's a בעל בטחון ba'al bitachon, he says, there's a reason, there's a reason. I will not worry. I have serenity. I'm able to attain a מנוחת הנפש menuchas hanefesh because I have בטחון bitachon. וזה גם שמעות חסימת הברכה הראשונה שהיא כנגד אברהם... בלשון מגן אברהם V'zeh gam mashma'us chasimas habracha harishona she'hi k'neged Avraham... b'lashon 'Magen Avraham'. על שם מדת הבטחון שהיה אצלו. ויש להבין מה נשתנה עניין הבטחון להיות מיוחד לאברהם אבינו Al shem midas habitachon shehayah eitzlo. V'yesh l'havin mah nishtaneh inyan habitachon l'hiyos meyuchad l'Avraham Avinu. But why are we associating בטחון bitachon with אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu? מצאנו בעוד עניינים שהם מדת אברהם אבינו Matzinu b'od inyanim she'hem midas Avraham Avinu, because we find there are two other qualities that are identified with אברהם Avraham, namely, האמונה, שהיה ראש לכל המאמינים ha'emunah, she'hayah rosh l'chol ha'ma'aminim. He was the first to, as we said, he wasn't really the first to discover God, but he's the first to promote the belief in God. וכן מדת החסד והאהבה V'chein midas hachesed v'ha'ahavah. And also loving kindness, כמו שנקרא אברהם אוהבי kmo she'nikra Avraham ohavi. פניין הבטחון מיוחד בעוד עניינים אלו? P'inyan habitachon meyuchad b'od inyanim eilu? כמו שביארנו שיסוד הבטחון כלול בדברא ראשונה מעשרת הדברות kmo she'bi'arnu she'yesod habitachon kalul b'dibra rishona me'aseres hadibros. So the סלונים רבה Slonimer Rebbe says the answer is because בטחון bitachon is rooted in those two qualities. When you philosophically know that there's a God out there and you're a lover, you're a person who's filled with love and חסד chesed, you feel השם's Hashem's love and חסד chesed to you, so the only result, the only reaction will be to feel בטחון bitachon in השם Hashem. As it says in the first of the Ten Commandments, אנוכי השם אלקיך Anochi Hashem Elokecha, שהוא מצות אמונת ואמנת השם she'hu mitzvas emunas v'amanas Hashem, שכלול בזה ב' חלקים, אנוכי השם, האמונה שהבורא יתברך שמו הוא בורא ומנהיג ועושה הכל, וגם שהוא אלוקיך, הקדוש ברוך הוא אלוקים שלך she'kalul b'zeh beis chalakim: Anochi Hashem, ha'emunah she'haBorei yisborach shmo hu borei u'manhig v'oseh hakol, v'gam she'hu Elokecha, Hakadosh Baruch Hu Elokim shelcha. אלוקים שלך Elokim shelcha, שבין כך ובין כך נקראו בנים she'bein kach u'bein kach nikre'u banim. In the first of the Ten Commandments is included both of these qualities of אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu. First of all there's אנוכי השם אלוקיך Anochi Hashem Elokecha. אנוכי השם Anochi Hashem is God says, I'm here. I'm the first cause. I set everything in motion. I'm in charge. I'm the creator. I've always existed, I always will exist. That is the השם Hashem of of existence, the השם Hashem who is the creator. But then there's also אנוכי השם אלוקיך Anochi Hashem Elokecha. השם אלוקיך Hashem Elokecha, it's not אנוכי אלוקים Anochi Elokim. It doesn't say I am God in the abstract, אלוקיך Elokecha, I'm your God. I'm your God. בין כך ובין כך נקראו בנים Bein kach u'vein kach nikre'u banim. It doesn't matter how you're behaving. A parent loves a child no matter what. And children disappoint, and children go a different path, and children fail to invest in the relationship and reciprocate with us, and yet a parent naturally continues to always see the best and be forgiving and love the child. And השם Hashem is the same with us. We're called בנים banim no matter how we treat השם Hashem. He loves us. And that is included in אנוכי השם אלוקיך Anochi Hashem Elokecha, your God. שהוא לא ישתנה והוא אלוקיך בכל המצבים she'hu lo yishtaneh v'hu Elokecha b'chol hamatzavim. This is what it means to be a Jew, is to feel השם's Hashem's love in every moment and at all times. Now, again, we're supposed to do the right thing and there's no question there's an increase in the love in those moments. But there's a love at all times. There's a love at all times. תוקף עבודת הבטחון בהשם יתברך צריך להיות מבית הקדמות אלו Tokef avodas habitachon b'Hashem yisborach tzarich l'hiyos mibeis hakdamos eilu. But in order to have faith that השם Hashem loves me no matter how I'm behaving, like a parent, then you have to first have the first two, the other two, you have to have the other two premises. האמונה והאהבה שהם מדותיו של אברהם אבינו Ha'emunah v'ha'ahavah she'hem midosav shel Avraham Avinu. שמגודל אהבת השם יתברך שהוא אוהב את השם יתברך, והשם יתברך אוהב אותו, מגיעים לשלימות הבטחון, שבוטח בהשם שיעניק לו מה שטוב הוא עבורו She'migodel ahavas Hashem yisborach she'hu ohev es Hashem yisborach, v'Hashem yisborach ohev oso, magi'im l'shleimus habitachon, she'bote'ach b'Hashem she'ya'anik lo mah she'tov hu avuro. You have to believe there is a God and you have to believe he loves you. You have to know you have a parent and you have to know your parent loves you. And when you do, you may not always be happy with your parents' decision. You know, especially a child, a teenager, the parent grounds them, the parent slaps them for running in the street or sticking their finger in the outlet, and the child cries, you don't love me and I hate you and you hate me and I don't want to be in this house anymore. And the parent only sits back, we as parents sit back and say, look, I don't expect you to love every decision I make, but I want you to know that everything I do is out of love for you. It's all out of love for you. I get no benefit from it. It's because I feel I'm responsible, I'm the steward of raising you, and I'm trying to do the best I can to protect you, secure you, empower you for the best life. So when I say you can't go to that party, I tell you you can't run in the street, when I tell you you can't have that device unfiltered, when I tell you you can't, it's not because I don't love you and I'm trying to deprive you of happiness. It's because I love you. And השם Hashem is the same with us. So sometimes you're not going to be happy. I deprive you, I put you in time out, I take away things or people that are important to you. And I don't expect you to always be happy with my decision, but I want you to know that it comes from loving you as a father. So in order to feel that, that he's our loving father and that everything that happens is for a reason and is an expression of his love, we have to believe two things, that he's our father and that he loves us. Only if we believe those first two things can we end up with the בטחון bitachon, which is the trust that everything that's happening is the result of his love for us. My friend's mother has a great line. She said, if you don't like what I do, next time I run for mother, don't vote for me. There you go. Exactly. Exactly. These kids today would, would vote against. ואברהם אבינו מכח האמונה שלו, מכח האהבה שלו, אכן הגיע לשלימות הבטחון, וזה רמוז בבכה חותמין מגן אברהם V'Avraham Avinu mikoach ha'emunah shelo, mikoach ha'ahavah shelo, achen higia l'shleimus habitachon, v'zeh ramuz b'v'chah chosmin 'Magen Avraham'. So even though we don't identify אברהם Avraham with בטחון bitachon, suggests the סלונים רבה Slonimer Rebbe, the two other qualities we do identify with him automatically, inevitably, are the source of בטחון bitachon. Because אברהם Avraham was the father of spreading monotheism, he was the big believer in השם's Hashem's existence, and coupled with his knowledge that השם Hashem loved him, so automatically then you place your trust in him. ויש להבין מה שאמרו חז\"ל בעשרה נסיונות נתנסה אברהם אבינו ועמד בכולם V'yesh l'havin mah she'amru Chazal, b'asarah nisyonos nisnasah Avraham Avinu v'amad b'chulam. אין עמידה אלא תפילה Ein amidah ela tefilah. So how was he עומד omed? How did he withstand his ten tests? Which we are to understand is a מעשה אבות סימן לבנים ma'aseh avos siman l'banim. We all endure ten tests in our lives. A test, a נס neis can go one of two ways. The root נס neis can be, you can וינוס vayanas is to flee, is to run away. When you're confronted a test, you could run the other direction, you could try to run away from it, try to escape that test, or you can confront that test, you can overcome the test, you could persevere, and it will reveal, like the רמב\"ן Ramban says, מן הכח אל הפועל min hakoach el hapoel. You take a potential that was latent inside you and you realize it. Until you were pressed into the corner, you never knew the kind of strength that you had physically, emotionally, spiritually. You didn't know the capacity you had. So that test brought out something in you you never knew you had. And then נס neis means a banner, to wave a banner, to wave a flag, to plant the flag that here through this experience I discovered something in myself. So that same root word of נסיון nisayon can mean can come from וינוס vayanas to run away. You can run away from a challenge or you could confront that challenge, embrace that challenge and allow that challenge to bring out the best version of of yourself. So אברהם Avraham was tested with ten tests and that is really a template that all of us are tested with our own ten tests. One of the challenges is to go through חומש בראשית Chumash Bereishis or the פרשיות parshiyos of אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu and try to find what were his ten tests and to go through our own lives and try to identify, where were the ten tests that shaped my life? Where were the ten junctures that I could have gone different directions? I could have reacted, וינוס vayanas, I could have run away or I could have confronted and it brought out the best in me, something in me I never knew, I never knew I had. אין עמידה אלא תפילה Ein amidah ela tefilah. He didn't succeed because he Googled, what do I do when they want to throw me in the fiery furnace? What do I do when I have to negotiate with a low-life עפרון החתי Efron HaChiti? What do I do when I think I did the right thing with the עקידה Akeidah only to discover that it scared my wife literally to death, that she died because of something I did. All these are among the things that people identify as tests. So אברהם Avraham didn't start Googling. He didn't call Tony Robbins. He didn't read a self-help book. What did he do? כי על ידי שבקש מהשם יתברך והוא ישרך יעבור עליו Ki al yedei she'bikesh me'Hashem yisborach v'hu yishrach ya'avor alav. He turned to השם Hashem and he said, השם Hashem, give me some insight. What do we do? תוקף ובהירות הבטחון, שהוא תולדות בהירות האמונה והאהבה V'tokef u'v'hirus habitachon, she'hu toldos b'hirus ha'emunah v'ha'ahavah. When you have בטחון bitachon in השם Hashem, he's the one you turn to. להבדיל, להבדיל, להבדיל L'havdil, l'havdil, l'havdil, I work occasionally with the Evangelical community on Israel things, and I every time I'm startled. My my good buddy Pastor Mario, Mario Bramnick, who who's a, heads a pastor's network that he's responsible for hundreds of thousands of evangelicals. And when we're together, we're planning an event, we're wondering what to do about a certain thing, he'll say, Rabbi, let's take a moment and pray on it. Let's pray. Let's pray for clarity what we should do. I was like, really? Wow. I think we're supposed to be doing that. I think we were supposed to introduce that to the world. And like, wow, like how many of us react that way? We have דאווענען davening, I did that in שול shul, check, I put on my טלית ותפילין tallis v'tefillin, I davened. What does that have to do with the business decision I have to make, or the personal decision I have to make, or what what does that have to do with? The idea that we pause and we say, let's stop and pray for a moment that השם Hashem give us some clarity. Let's connect to השם Hashem with the hope that he will open my eyes to what the right thing is to do. That's בטחון bitachon. תוקף ובהירות הבטחון Tokef u'v'hirus habitachon. על ידי זה הגיע אברהם אבינו לשלימות הבטחון, ולכן בכה חותמין מגן אברהם Al yedei zeh higia Avraham Avinu l'shleimus habitachon, v'lachen b'chah chosmin 'Magen Avraham'. אברהם Avraham so introduced it to us that we invoke it. So three times a day when we end that first ברכה bracha, מגן אברהם Magen Avraham, not יצחק ויעקב Yitzchak v'Yaakov, but אברהם Avraham, the מגן magen we're tapping into is השם Hashem is our shield, he's our protector, he he the arrows are being flung at us but we have the ability to persevere. Why? Because we put our trust in him. וכח השם יתברך מגינו ומבטחו עבר לכל צאצאיו הקשורים בו ביותר V'koach Hashem yisborach magino u'mivtacho avar l'chol tzeitza'av hakshurim bo b'yoser. בכח הבטחון נכנס לתוך כבשן האש באור כשדים B'koach habitachon nichnas l'soch kivshan ha'esh b'Ur Kasdim. That's how he persevered over the ten tests. It's with the faith and trust in השם Hashem that he went into the fiery furnace. כי בודאי היה מוכן להישרף Ki b'vadai hayah muchan l'hisaref. He was ready to burn. אבל הכל היה מתוך בטחון שהשם יתברך הוא טוב וגדול אהבתו Aval hakol hayah misoch bitachon she'Hashem yisborach hu tov v'gadol ahavaso. He knew השם Hashem is capable of saving me from this fiery furnace, but if he wants me to burn, I'll burn. If he wants to save me, I'll save me. But I'm not worried either way because this is what השם Hashem has placed before me and I put my trust in him. הוא דעת מה שאמרו מרנן ורבנן הקדושים מקובלים Hu da'as mah she'amru maranan v'rabanan hakdoshim mekubalim, כי איזו רבותא שאברהם אבינו לא נשרף בכבשן האש, רבותא גדולה מזו היא שהכין את עצמו להישרף בכבשן האש מלהט אהבת השם ששרתה באברהם אבינו ki eizeh rabusa she'Avraham Avinu lo nisraf b'kivshan ha'esh? Rabusa gedola m'zu hi she'heichin es atzmo l'hisaref b'kivshan ha'esh m'lahat ahavas Hashem she'sharsah b'Avraham Avinu. The fact that he didn't burn, he wasn't consumed by the כבשן האש kivshan ha'esh is evidence of השם's Hashem's love of him. מזה מובן מה עניין הדבר, במה מדובר? הרי אנו רואים את דברינו אנו שאומרים שאין לנו שום השגה בעבודתם של הצדיקים, מדרגה של רוממות גודל אהבת השם ויראת השם, בבחינת לית מחשבה תפיסא ביה כלל Mizeh muvan mah inyan hadavar, bameh medubar? Harei anu ro'im es dvareinu anu she'omrim she'ein lanu shum hasagah b'avodasam shel hatzaddikim, madrega shel romemus godel ahavas Hashem v'yiras Hashem, b'vchinas 'leit machshava tfisa bei klal'. We can't even tap it, we can't even begin to understand. Now, our generation can begin to understand because we have, we have extraordinary survivors who went into their כבשן האש kivshan ha'esh. How many Jews went into the or or martyrs who went into the gas chambers with שמע Shma on their lips, with the בטחון bitachon and said to השם Hashem, השם Hashem, if you want some miracle and it's going to malfunction and I'm going to live, and there were people in those scenarios, it'll happen, and if not, I won't live, but that's also part of your master plan. And with great faith, we have testimony of people who heard the singing of אני מאמין Ani Ma'amin on the way into the gas chambers. It's an altogether different level. We lose our בטחון bitachon when the Wi-Fi speed is slow on the airplane where it was supposed to be free and, we lose our בטחון bitachon with the most minor, insignificant, pathetic thing. Ah, I have no Wi-Fi, I have no coverage cell coverage, there's no God. There's no God. My team got knocked out of the playoff, there's no God. These people went through their own כבשן האש kivshan ha'esh and they מגן אברהם magen Avraham. They tapped into the מגן אברהם magen Avraham is a reminder that when I'm ready to give up hope, when I'm ready to stop thinking that there's meaning or order to this experience, מגן אברהם magen Avraham. ובזה עניין עשרה נסיונות נתנסה אברהם אבינו ועמד בכולם U'v'zeh inyan asarah nisyonos nisnasah Avraham Avinu v'amad b'chulam. אברהם Avraham davened his way through all of them, with a deep love and אמונה emunah and בטחון bitachon. And that's the כוונה kavanah that we're supposed to have when we say those words, מגן אברהם Magen Avraham, to kind of reaffirm and reignite that בטחון bitachon in us, that whatever we're going to face in our day, to know, I'm not going to worry, I'm not going to stress, I'm not going to be anxious. מגן אברהם Magen Avraham. השם Hashem was אברהם's Avraham's shield and he'll be mine as well. There's a little bit more of them.
