Transcript
Okay, good morning. I want to thank our פרשה Parsha series for the year generously sponsored by Becky and Avi Katz and family in memory of David Grossman, their beloved father and grandfather. Our learning is לעילוי נשמת דוד בן מנחם מנש l'ilui nishmas Dovid ben Menachem Manish. Also, today's class in particular sponsored by Mrs. Golda Sadowsky in honor of her dear uncle and aunt, Rabbi Dr. Edward and Doris Kurtzer, our good friends. So beautiful, thank you for that sponsorship. Beautiful members of our community and source of inspiration. Two housekeeping notes before we begin. One, you may have seen when you walked in this morning, the new BRS cafe. Please frequent it, enjoy it. Who needs Dunkin' Donuts? Got coffee and pastries and fruit. So please, help support the שול shul by enjoying it and help support the beautiful family running it, the Len family. Number two, some of you asked about the friends of BRS. We are bringing it back. But you'll hear about it, please God, next week or the week after because we are going to be running an amazing, exciting raffle with phenomenal prizes by becoming a member of friends of BRS, you will automatically be entered into the raffle. Of course, you could up it and get more raffle tickets. You'll hear more about it. So those of you who are eager and knocking down the door to show your support and appreciation of BRS, if you're not members, for all the programs and activities and פרשה Parsha class, have no fear, we will find you. Okay.פרשת תולדות Parshas Toldos, page 124 in the Artscroll Stone חומש Chumash. ואלה תולדות יצחק בן אברהם, אברהם הוליד את יצחק V'eileh toldos Yitzchak ben Avraham, Avraham holid es Yitzchak. We know we pick up the פרשה parsha from last week, and how do we know that? Because the פרשה parsha begins with the letter ו vav. ואלה V'eileh, and these are the תולדות toldos of יצחק Yitzchak the son of אברהם Avraham, אברהם הוליד את יצחק Avraham holid es Yitzchak. Of course, the famous question, the obvious question is the redundancy. If יצחק Yitzchak is the son of אברהם Avraham, why does the Torah have to go out of its way to tell me that אברהם Avraham, in fact, is the father of יצחק Yitzchak? Don't we already know that?So, רש\"י Rashi tells us that the reason is, רש\"י Rashi tells us, the reason is, לפי שהיו ליצני הדור אומרים מאבימלך נתעברה שרה l'fi shehayu leitzanei hador omrim me'Avimelech nitzabrah Sarah, because the cynics and scoffers of the generation suggested that maybe in fact יצחק Yitzchak's not the son of אברהם Avraham. שהרי כמה שנים שהתה עם אברהם ולא נתעברה הימנו sheharei kama shanim shasu im Avraham v'lo nitzabra heimenu. They lived together for many years, אברהם Avraham and שרה Sarah. They were married how many years before they had their child? Almost 75. I don't even know what number or metal or mineral anniversary that is. מה עשה הקדוש ברוך הוא, צר קלסתר פניו של יצחק דומה לאברהם Ma asah Hakadosh Baruch Hu, tzar klaster panav shel Yitzchak domeh l'Avraham, והעידו הכל שאברהם הוליד את יצחק v'heidu hakol she'Avraham holid es Yitzchak. So השם Hashem made יצחק Yitzchak the spitting image of אברהם Avraham. One of my wife's favorite hobbies is trying to figure out who the baby looks like. Any baby. They look like the mother, the father, which grandparent, which side. When everyone looked at יצחק Yitzchak, nobody had a doubt. Nobody, nobody debated it. It was obvious. Who does יצחק Yitzchak look like? He's the spitting image of his father. He looks like אברהם Avraham's twin. Why? והעידו הכל שאברהם הוליד את יצחק v'heidu hakol she'Avraham holid es Yitzchak. וזהו שכתוב כאן יצחק בן אברהם, שהרי עדות יש שאברהם הוליד את יצחק v'zehu she'kasuv kan Yitzchak ben Avraham, sheharei eidus yesh she'Avraham holid es Yitzchak. So not only was יצחק Yitzchak the son of אברהם Avraham, but אברהם הוליד את יצחק Avraham holid es Yitzchak. And רש\"י Rashi tells us that the Torah's going out of its way to, so to say, waste space by telling us this, in order to debunk, in order to respond, in order to reject the cynical suggestion of the ליצני הדור leitzanei hador. And of course, you can't help but be bothered and wonder why the Torah would need to do such a thing. Why would the Torah have to go out of its way to address the cynics and scoffers? Who cares what they have to say? Haters will hate. Who cares about haters? אברהם Avraham had haters. And they looked at אבימלך Avimelech and they suggested he must be the father. שרה Sarah had infidelity. שרה Sarah was disloyal to אברהם Avraham. So number one, who cares what they have to say? But number two, and moreover, their argument doesn't even make any sense. Why? What do we know about אברהם Avraham? If אברהם Avraham and שרה Sarah are together for 75 years, don't have a child, what do we know that would make us assume that אברהם Avraham was not the source of the infertility? What do we know? He has a son. He has ישמעאל Yishmael. So why would the cynical, even a cynical person, look at the situation and say, hmm, אברהם Avraham and שרה Sarah don't have a child for 75 years, שרה Sarah finally has a child, it must be אבימלך Avimelech. What do you mean it must be אבימלך Avimelech? אברהם Avraham didn't have a problem. He fathered ישמעאל Yishmael. So the argument, the cynicism doesn't even make sense. And why would השם Hashem make a miracle that יצחק Yitzchak looked exactly like אברהם Avraham? And that's no less than a miracle. That's why רש\"י Rashi is telling it to us. That's why the posuk uses the extra language, אברהם הוליד את יצחק Avraham holid es Yitzchak. השם Hashem has to go out of its way to address cynics and scoffers. ליצני הדור Leitzanei hador, who cares? The answer is you see from here how powerful cynicism is. You see just how pernicious ליצני הדור leitzanei hador can be. That the haters, the cynics, the scoffers, the people who mock and ridicule within any community can be so devastatingly dangerous and negative. That negativity can destroy. Just dismiss it, ignore it. Why do you have to address negativity? Why do you have to address ridicule? And the answer is because הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu suspends the rules of nature. He makes a miracle, because if he doesn't, if he leaves it unanswered, then the ליצני הדור leitzanei hador are such a powerful and destructive force, they can have such a negative impact. But רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik addresses the מדרש Midrash in a very, very different way. I may have shared it with you before, but it's worth repeating. The classic understanding is what we just said, that they looked at אברהם Avraham and they said, look at that old man, 99 years old. I mean, seriously? Could he father a child? Even with the advent of modern medicine and technological breakthrough, but could אברהם Avraham father a child? And therefore השם Hashem made it obvious יצחק Yitzchak was אברהם's Avraham's son, they looked exactly like. That's the simple way to understand it. But רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik in one of the חמש דרשות Chameish Derashos, in one of the five famous talks he delivered for the מזרחי Mizrachi, he says the cynics didn't doubt אברהם's Avraham's physical ability to father a child. That was not what they were challenging here, that אברהם Avraham could not be the biological father. They were challenging something altogether different, and I think this is very relevant and very important for our time. They were doubtful that an old man with old, outdated ideas could communicate it to a young person from a new generation. 99 years old, like, you know, even my kids, I don't consider myself so old, but they'll tell me, you think that way because you're from the olden days. That's the words they use, you're from the olden days. And I have to tell you something, that the world is moving so quickly, so radically fast, that the truth is I am from the olden days. I can't explain to my kids that when Yocheved and I were dating, there was no cell phone. So in between when I left where I was leaving and got to where I was going, we couldn't talk. We couldn't text. There was no Waze to redirect me if I got lost. We're from another world and another generation. We're from an altogether different time. And of course we've adapted and we've learned and hopefully we have still much in common, but in many ways, we're from another generation. And that's at my young spry age. So imagine אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu, 99 years old. The cynics and scoffers, the ליצני הדור leitzanei hador said, old man, you've been standing on that soapbox preaching this radical monotheism. But you know, it doesn't speak to the young millennials. It doesn't speak to the young generation. It doesn't speak to a world of social media and Fortnite. It doesn't speak to kids who live on technology. And as much as אברהם Avraham had revolutionized the world and transformed countless individuals from paganism to ethical monotheism, there remained ליצני הדור leitzanei hador. Whenever you have success, whenever you have introduced light to the darkness, there's also an equal opposite force that rises to match it. So the ליצני הדור leitzanei hador, the cynics who say that'll never work out, that program is stupid, this doesn't appeal, why are you so on fire, they try to extinguish the fire that people create. They couldn't imagine. אברהם Avraham could successfully father a יצחק Yitzchak. How could an old man with extreme ideas inspire a son to embrace his legacy and to follow his footsteps and to live his lifestyle? It's impossible. It doesn't speak to them. שבת Shabbos and כשרות kashrus and תפילין tefillin and תלמוד תורה Talmud Torah, like, it doesn't speak to the generation who are enlightened and progressive and who've expanded their minds and broadened their ideas. How could that old, archaic, how could those traditions and how could that lifestyle possibly speak to them? Let me read to you רב סולובייצ'יק's Rav Soloveitchik's words. People laughed at the event. They didn't believe יצחק Yitzchak would inherit אברהם Avraham, that he, a young lad of the new generation, would continue to carry on אברהם's Avraham's visions and laws, and that he also would engage in building altars and calling in the name of השם Hashem. They laughed at אברהם's Avraham's dreams that his son would give his life for Torah and fight for the sanctity of אברהם's Avraham's house. The scoffers said שרה Sarah conceived from אבימלך Avimelech. Others claimed they brought themselves a foundling from a marketplace. It's impossible to pass on אברהם's Avraham's ethics, the מצוות mitzvos of אברהם Avraham, his statutes and laws to the modern generation, to young יצחק Yitzchak, who fights with a rifle, works in laboratories and thinks in modern categories of thought. When אברהם Avraham dies, people said his entire philosophy will perish. His altars will be dismantled, his שולחן ערוך Shulchan Aruch will be eaten by moths, and all trace of his life will vanish just as the grass will grow over his grave. And רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik continued the same theme throughout our פרשה parsha. He saw this theme emerging as well later in the story of when אברהם Avraham passes, the פלשתים Plishtim fill in the wells that אברהם Avraham had dug. And יצחק Yitzchak, what does he do? He redigs the very same wells. Difficult and arduous process, and he gives them the exact same names. He calls them the same names as his father. And we read this פרשה parsha and every year we raise the same question, not we, collectively we, everyone learning the פרשה parsha. That we say our שמונה עשרה Shmoneh Esrei every day, we begin אברהם, יצחק ויעקב Avraham, Yitzchak, v'Yaakov. אלוקי אברהם, אלוקי יצחק ואלוקי יעקב Elokei Avraham, Elokei Yitzchak, v'Elokei Yaakov. And we have the big three, our forefathers, אברהם, יצחק ויעקב Avraham, Yitzchak, v'Yaakov. But you know what, the Torah in ספר בראשית Sefer Bereishis is replete with stories about אברהם Avraham. We understand his legacy, we can feel his impact, we know his influence. Stories filled with יעקב Yaakov and his progeny and his leadership and his struggles and his breakthrough. Who's יצחק Yitzchak? When you say אלוקי יצחק Elokei Yitzchak, and we're trying to tap into the יצחק Yitzchak inside us, every time I, when I try to concentrate on שמונה עשרה Shmoneh Esrei, when I say אלוקי אברהם Elokei Avraham, I'm thinking of the God of of חסד chesed, and אברהם Avraham, and how do I relate to אברהם Avraham, and in what ways is my life similar to אברהם Avraham. The God of יצחק Yitzchak, in what way am I similar, is my life similar to יצחק Yitzchak. אלוקי יעקב Elokei Yaakov. I'm trying to tap into their experience that's shared with me, their qualities and their attributes and their traits that I relate to or I want to identify with, and using that, their life, to connect with השם Hashem. That's how we're beginning our עמידה Amidah. So אברהם Avraham I know what to think about, יעקב Yaakov I know what to think about. What in the world am I thinking about with יצחק Yitzchak? The big three. We have so little. He literally barely speaks. We have so little dialogue and we have so little narrative about יצחק Yitzchak. Who is יצחק Yitzchak and why are we glorifying him and why does he qualify to be one of the big three and what are we supposed to be thinking about when we say אלוקי יצחק Elokei Yitzchak? All very important questions. And the answer clearly is, it's brought by many. יצחק Yitzchak is the ultimate role player. יצחק Yitzchak is that link in the chain who hands the baton from אברהם Avraham to make sure that it gets to a יעקב Yaakov. And we live in a world that says, who is a יצחק Yitzchak? We dismiss him. He didn't have so many followers on on Facebook. He didn't have as many on Instagram. He wasn't an influencer. יצחק Yitzchak wasn't even on social media. People didn't know his name. He wasn't in the spotlight. And you know what his major contribution is? He redigs the, he can't dig new wells? So the פלשתים Plishtim filled in the wells of your father. So the wells of your father are old, they're outdated, they were filled in, they were deleted, they're purged. So dig new wells, find a new vocabulary, communicate his messages in a new way and across a new medium. What are you digging in the same wells? And the answer is that's also greatness. The role player who simply keeps the traditions alive. The role player who's a link in that chain of transmission, who doesn't need to make world peace or find the cure for cancer or do something radical, who doesn't garner a spotlight, isn't in the limelight, and doesn't measure his worth by how many followers or likes or retweets or Instagram, I don't even know what they're called, followers that you have. יצחק Yitzchak doesn't have by any of those measures, יצחק Yitzchak, excuse me for saying this, is a גאָרנישט gornisht. By those false measures that we've created today, יצחק Yitzchak is a גאָרנישט gornisht, and the Torah is telling us that's not the measure of meaning, and that's not the measure of purpose. יצחק Yitzchak is that role player, he gets it done. And this is very, very significant. Because he specifically does not find a new medium and a new language and doesn't have to be in the spotlight. He is satisfied with redigging the wells of his father. He's satisfied with taking the influence of his mother and his father, יצחק Yitzchak, the legacy of an אברהם Avraham and a שרה Sarah and living it in his life in his own quiet way, but a way that determines that there is a continuity. And there's nothing short of heroism in that. Have we not seen that with a generation of survivors from the Holocaust? Many of whom did make radical contributions and build great edifices literally and and figuratively, but many of whom simply kept Judaism going. They were the יצחק Yitzchak, were the bridge from another world and a previous generation to what we have today. And God forbid we look at their lives and see it as a failure because they didn't emerge as something major and radical. Simply being that link in the chain, redigging those wells, calling them the same name, making sure there is a continuity. Because I have to tell you, with all the influencers and with all the Jewish celebrities, we have a 70% intermarriage rate. And we are assimilating and disappearing. And I would argue not for now, that there's a radical assimilation taking place even within the Torah and Orthodox community of our values and of our lifestyle in many different ways. We are observant assimilated Jews. And therefore we should not minimize or dismiss the people who simply redug the wells and call them the same names and kept that value system and that legacy and those lifestyles very much alive. That was יצחק's Yitzchak's greatness. When you need something to think about when you say אלוקי יצחק Elokei Yitzchak, you think about simply getting through the day and remaining a Torah-true Jew, and raising children and grandchildren and ensuring there is a continuity of our people and of our values. And that's the meaning the Rav says of what it means יצחק Yitzchak redug the wells. He saw the conflict between the פלשתים Plishtim and יצחק Yitzchak is symbolic of the doubts and the cynicism surrounding אברהם's Avraham's philosophy and worldview. They filled in the wells of אברהם Avraham because they thought nobody would be interested in them anymore. These are outdated, expired ideas. And יצחק Yitzchak came along and he redug them and he said no, Torah's messages are timeless. Our values are eternal and immortal. They are relevant and they are the answer in each and every generation. He redug the wells and he gave them the same name and he made the statement and he affirmed that they are not part of the past, but they are what we need to ensure a future. And the Rav's interpretation, which was offered in the 1960s, is so much more true today when you look at the Pew study results and you look at what's going on all around us. The ליצני הדור leitzanei hador, who's winning? The ליצני הדור leitzanei hador? Or יצחק אבינו Yitzchak Avinu? The cynics and scoffers who are radically trying to change who we are and what we believe or have walked away from it all together, who see it as no longer relevant, who see it as not meeting the measure of of civil rights, and who see us, the Torah, as being something which is judgmental, the Torah as something which they can have no part of, or יצחק אבינו Yitzchak Avinu, who's who's who's winning? Let me just end this section by reading to you one more paragraph from the Rav. יצחק Yitzchak dug again and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them. The same גמרא Gemara, the same שולחן ערוך Shulchan Aruch, the same שבת Shabbos, the same laws of divorce. Who could have foreseen that the young modern יצחק Yitzchak would also say that a divorcée is forbidden to a priest? That he would demand a kosher kitchen and fight for religious education? Who could have guessed that he would speak with the same language that old אברהם Avraham spoke, as the author of the שולחן ערוך Shulchan Aruch, the רמ\"א Ramah, the גאון מווילנא Gaon M'Vilna, as רב חיים מוולוז'ין Rav Chaim of Volozhin? That יצחק Yitzchak embraced, and we see there is this battle, but יצחק Yitzchak is very, very much alive. And that is our mission, is not necessarily to measure and to live up to the אברהם Avraham and the יעקב Yaakov, to be satisfied to live the life of the יצחק Yitzchak. ואלה תולדות יצחק בן אברהם, אברהם הוליד את יצחק V'eileh toldos Yitzchak ben Avraham, Avraham holid es Yitzchak. יצחק Yitzchak embraced the legacy of his father and it's up to us to take that baton and to continue to pass it and to pay it forward. But here's another interpretation of what it means אברהם הוליד את יצחק Avraham holid es Yitzchak, that רש\"י Rashi says יצחק Yitzchak was the spitting image of אברהם Avraham. The גמרא Gemara actually learns from here, many know this גמרא Gemara, that if you have a need and you find someone else באותו דבר b'oso davar who has the same need, if you דאַווען daven for them, you're נענה תחילה na'aneh techilah. How do we know that? From where do we learn that? We learn it from אברהם Avraham and אבימלך Avimelech. Because when אברהם Avraham and שרה Sarah go visit אבימלך Avimelech, and אבימלך Avimelech is struck with a plague because he didn't know that שרה Sarah was אברהם's Avraham's wife, not his sister, אברהם Avraham דאַווענ'ס davens for אבימלך Avimelech. אבימלך Avimelech was cured and healed. And from this חז\"ל Chazal deduce that if you דאַווען daven for someone else who's going through the same challenge, חלילה chalilah has the same illness, struggling with the same infertility, going through a similar financial crisis, having similar anxiety, mental health issues, you find somebody with a similar challenge and you דאַווען daven for them, you're נענה תחילה na'aneh techilah. And רב בונם מפּשיסחא Rav Bunam P'shischa wonders, but אבימלך Avimelech didn't have the same challenges as אברהם Avraham. So how can חז\"ל Chazal say you דאַווען daven באותו דבר b'oso davar, the same thing, and you're answered תחילה techilah? אבימלך Avimelech was struck with a plague. חז\"ל Chazal tell us that every opening to his body became clogged. He had a blockage in every single opening to his body. Now that included therefore infertility, but it also included a lot of other major problems. And that was not the same problem אברהם Avraham had. אברהם Avraham, in fact, didn't have a fertility problem at all. As we know, he fathered ישמעאל Yishmael. So how could חז\"ל Chazal learn that אברהם Avraham דאַווענ'ד davened for אבימלך Avimelech, and therefore he was answered תחילה techilah? Listen to what רב בונם מפּשיסחא Rav Bunam P'shischa says. It's an amazing idea. He says, what would it have been in אברהם's Avraham's best interest for אבימלך Avimelech to remain sick? There were these ליצני הדור leitzanei hador, who because שרה Sarah spent a few moments secluded with אבימלך Avimelech, would later accuse that that boy must be the son of אבימלך Avimelech. So wouldn't it have been, bless you, in אברהם's Avraham's best interest to not דאַווען daven, to not intercede or intervene on behalf of אבימלך Avimelech? Let him suffer, let him struggle, and that way no one ever in the future could offer that false accusation. And yet, nevertheless, אברהם Avraham דאַווענ'ד davened for him. And חז\"ל Chazal were learning a different lesson from here, that when you דאַווען daven for someone even when it's against your best interest, then נענה תחילה na'aneh techilah. That's what הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu truly loves. When your empathy is so strong and powerful that you can't stand to see someone else suffer, and that feeling is so strong that you can't stand to see someone suffer, that you're willing to דאַווען daven for them even though by דאַווענ'ינג davening for them it could come back to hurt you, that's that's the מידה midah of אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu. That's the quality of אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu. You דאַווען daven for your competitor even though their struggle might make you more successful, but you can't stand to see them suffering. אברהם Avraham דאַווענ'ד davened for אבימלך Avimelech even though it wasn't in his best interest for אבימלך Avimelech. This is the מידה midah of אברהם Avraham. That's what it means חסד chesed, that's how far his empathy goes. It's going back a פרשה parsha, two פרשיות parshiyos, but you know when the מלאכים malachim come, it's asked, הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu sends three מלאכים malachim. Why? רש\"י Rashi there tells us, because every מלאך malach can only do one job. So one comes to say שרה Sarah's pregnant, and one comes to destroy סדום Sdom, and one comes to check on אברהם Avraham and help him heal. One comes to visit אברהם Avraham and comfort אברהם Avraham. But two questions. Number one, when רש\"י Rashi quotes it, he quotes it out of order. He says it in the order I just told you, to give the בשורה טובה besorah tovah, give the good news about שרה Sarah, she's pregnant. Number two, destroy סדום Sdom, and number three, to visit and comfort אברהם Avraham. Question number two is that חז\"ל Chazal tell us that the מלאך malach who came to destroy, to comfort אברהם Avraham, also came to save לוט Lot. What happened to the rule? A מלאך malach can only do one job. I thought that was the rule. Isn't that מלאך malach doing two jobs? So I saw the most magnificent פשט pshat. It's quoted in רב Rav. He says, why did רש\"י Rashi give it to you in the order he gave it? It's not chronological. The angel should have first come to visit אברהם Avraham, then give the good news about שרה Sarah, then destroy סדום Sdom. Why is the order the news about שרה Sarah, destroy סדום Sdom, comfort אברהם Avraham? So he says, this is because you're making a mistake. If you think that that third מלאך malach came to comfort אברהם Avraham for the ברית bris because he had a surgery with no anesthesia, he didn't come to do ביקור חולים bikur cholim to comfort him from that. You know what he came to comfort him from? The destruction of סדום Sdom. אברהם Avraham was in more pain by the thought that human beings, that an entire city were being wiped out, he needed to be comforted and visited from that more than the surgery that he had. And therefore that מלאך malach wasn't doing two jobs by saving לוט Lot and comforting אברהם Avraham, that was the same job, not two jobs. You see the degree, the level of empathy that אברהם Avraham had, both סדום Sdom were evil, wicked, and yet אברהם Avraham still, אברהם Avraham still can't stand the thought that people are dying so tragically. He needed to be comforted from that thought, even the demise of wicked people. אבימלך Avimelech, what would it been in his best interest for אבימלך Avimelech to continue to struggle? And yet, he דאַווענ'ד davened for someone, even though it went against his own interests, because his empathy, his care, his concern, his sensitivity, his capacity to feel the pain of another was so great that it overrode even his own self-interest. That's what you see from this פשט pshat. Good. Let's go weiter. Let's keep going. Although I was going to tell you one other thing, but I think it's important to get past the first posuk. Maybe. I was going to tell you, I'll just bring up the question, that you'll notice the Torah tells us a similar thing about יצחק Yitzchak and אברהם Avraham, and it tells us a similar thing about ישמעאל Yishmael and אברהם Avraham. The difference is it says אברהם הוליד את יצחק Avraham holid es Yitzchak, and when it says about Hagar, it says ילדה yaldah, she bore יצחק Yitzchak. What's the difference between הוליד holid and ילדה yaldah? It's a fundamental, very important difference between הוליד holid and ילדה yaldah, and I'll leave that for you as a question. But the פרשה parsha continues. You guys do some homework too. I'm not doing all the work here. Continuing. Torah tells us. ויהי יצחק בן ארבעים שנה בקחתו את רבקה בת בתואל הארמי מפדן ארם Vayehi Yitzchak ben arba'im shanah b'kachto es Rivka bas Besuel HaArami mi'Paddan Aram, אחות לבן הארמי achos Lavan HaArami. יצחק Yitzchak was 40 years old when he took רבקה Rivka, the daughter of בתואל Besuel, who came from פדן ארם Paddan Aram, אחות לבן הארמי achos Lavan HaArami, the sister of Lavan. This was her שדך shidduch resume. Can you imagine? Her שדך shidduch resume is, my father's בתואל Besuel, my brother's לבן Lavan, I grew up in פדן ארם Paddan Aram. That was her שדך shidduch resume. I don't know if it had a picture, no picture, or she posing by the well, they brought in the photographer, he photoshopped the image of her leaning on the well. Fine. I know. ויעתר יצחק לה' לנכח אשתו כי עקרה היא Va'yiter Yitzchak l'Hashem l'nochach ishto ki akara hi. But we know that יצחק Yitzchak and רבקה Rivka were barren. They struggled with fertility. חז\"ל Chazal tell us it's one of the most painful, painful challenges that a person could have. Unbearably painful challenges that a person could have. Unbearably. I'll tell you an amazing story. There was the the בעל הלשם Baal HaLeshem. Anyone ever hear of the לשם Leshem? Was a great, great kabbalist. And he had a daughter. And his daughter got married to a Robinson and they were married for 17 years with no child. 17 years with no child. And the לשם Leshem, this great kabbalist, said to his daughter, \"Travel to Russia, I heard of an expert there. It's the last shot, it's your last chance.\" So she traveled to Russia, spent three months with this expert, undergoing evaluations and testing and experimental treatments. And finally the doctor called them in and said, banged on the table and said, \"You have as much a chance of having a baby as this table.\" Great bedside manner, apparently in Russia in that time. And of course she was distraught, despondent, broken. 17 years of longing and waiting and hoping and wanting and dreaming, all crushed and broken. She came home and her father said, \"It's good news.\" And she said, \"Good news? The doctor told me it's impossible, it can never happen. How could that be good news?\" And he said to his daughter, \"My dear daughter, כל זמן kol zman, so long as you thought there was a doctor somewhere on the planet Earth who could only do this treatment or intervene in this way or adjust this part of your lifestyle, then your dream would come true, you held out hope for him. And your דאַווענ'ינג davening was just דאַווענ'ינג davening to השם Hashem, but you really just held out hope to find that doctor. But now that you know that the best doctor on earth has told you it can't happen, now your דאַווענ'ינג davening will be as sincere as it gets because you realize there is only one source. There is only one source, and there's only one who can do it.\" And so then she דאַווענ'ד davened, and her דאַווענ'ינג davening was altogether different because she had given up hope that the solution didn't lay with any man or any person or any treatment, but there was only one solution which was the רבונו של עולם ribono shel olam. And of course, I wouldn't be telling you the story unless nine months later she had a baby boy and she named him יוסף שלום Yosef Shalom, and he was רב יוסף שלום אלישיב Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, רב אלישיב Rav Elyashiv. The לשם's Leshem's last name was Elyashiv and רב אלישיב Rav Elyashiv took his mother's last name as his name in gratitude to his grandfather, his maternal grandfather, the בעל הלשם Baal HaLeshem, for inspiring his mother to דאַווען daven in that way for him to be born. After 17 years of waiting, she דאַווענ'ד davened from the depths of her heart with no hope for anything else, turning all her trust, we're up to in סידור siddur, that's we didn't get up to it last night, but we're up to the first הללוקה haleluka after אשרי Ashrei, אל תבטחו בנדיבים בבן אדם al tivtechu bindivim, b'ven adam. Don't trust in man. And the מפרשים mefarshim say, don't trust in someone, בן אדם ben adam, they come from the אדמה adama, they're going back to the אדמה adama. If you trust in men, they can't even take care of themselves. No doctor can prevent themselves from getting sick. No doctor can heal everything. We're all going back to the earth from which we came. So אל תבטחו al tivtechu, when we have our בטחון bitachon, when we put our trust, it shouldn't be in men. Of course, we take our השתדלות hishtadlus and we go to a doctor and we listen and we express our gratitude for their hard work, of course. But ultimately, and in the end of the day, and where our בטחון bitachon and trust should be placed is אל תבטחו בנדיבים al tivtechu bindivim. So why am I telling you all that? Because in our פרשה parsha, יצחק Yitzchak and רבקה Rivka are suffering from infertility, and the posuk describes ויעתר יצחק לה' לנכח אשתו va'yiter Yitzchak l'Hashem l'nochach ishto. יצחק Yitzchak is דאַווענ'ינג davening to השם Hashem לנכח אשתו l'nochach ishto. What does the word לנכח l'nochach mean? Opposite his wife. כי עקרה היא ki akara hi, she's barren. ויעתר לו ה' ותהר רבקה אשתו Va'ye'ater lo Hashem va'tahar Rivka ishto. And השם Hashem allowed himself to be to be appealed to, to be appeased, and רבקה Rivka conceived, and רבקה Rivka conceived, it worked, it worked. What does it mean that יצחק Yitzchak is דאַווענ'ינג davening לנכח אשתו l'nochach ishto? So רש\"י Rashi tells us עומד בזוית זו ומתפלל וזו עומדת בזוית זו ומתפללת omeid b'zavis zo u'mispallel v'zu omedes b'zavis zo u'mispalleles. Each one stood in their corner and they דאַווענ'ד davened, and they דאַווענ'ד davened from the bottom of their heart. And why did they each have to דאַווען daven like that from the bottom of their heart? Because they each had to דאַווען daven like it entirely depended on them. If you're married to a יצחק Yitzchak, you say, I'm going to mumble my דאַווענ'ינג davening over here, but really, he's the גדול הדור gadol hador. I'm relying on him. And if you're יצחק Yitzchak, you say, I'm going to mumble my דאַווענ'ינג davening, but my רבּעצין Rebbetzin, she's a צדיקת tzadekes. She's mamish unbelievable. So I'm going to let her דאַווען daven, she's going, I'm going to ride her coattails. So they each went to their own corner because of the image that they had to דאַווען daven like there was no one and nothing else and everything depended on the quality, on the, on the, how genuine, how authentic, how true their turning to השם Hashem would be. Their turning to השם Hashem would be. You know, one of the reasons which is suggested of why we don't have mixed seating when we דאַווען daven, which is the הלכתי halachic, we just had at Shabbos this past week our scholar in residence talked about the famous case from Michigan and the whole fight for the מחיצה mechitza in America, which is in the Orthodox community no longer a fight, but once upon a time was a very serious fight. So why do we insist on דאַווענ'ינג davening separately? And one of the reasons which is suggested, of course, it's a הלכה halacha, השם Hashem says it, goes back to the בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash, and it applies within a שול shul, but one of the reasons which is suggested is because if you allow a family to דאַווען daven, so the husband might say, I'm going to check this box, she's got this covered. Nobody says תהילים Tehillim like my wife. The wife might say, I'm going to sit here and and and my mind will wander because my hus… In דאַווענ'ינג davening we have to realize that we're דאַווענ'ינג davening for our family, but we're on our own in דאַווענ'ינג davening. הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu invites and welcomes and wants each of us to דאַווען daven, not leaning on the other. You got this. You remember the family's birthdays and I remember the... No, you've each got responsibilities and you each have to step up and you each have to take care of it. And that's the image of רש\"י Rashi that they each went to a separate corner because they each had to דאַווען daven like the בעל הלשם's Baal HaLeshem's daughter. to his daughter, without which we wouldn't have had a רב אלישיב Rav Elyashiv in our in our time. So that's רש\"י's Rashi's פשט pshat. They each went to their own corner. Who's דאַווענען davening is holier? רבקה Rivka or יצחק Yitzchak? חז\"ל Chazal tell us, אין דומה תפילה ein domeh tfila of a צדיק בן רשע tzaddik ben rasha to a צדיק בן צדיק tzaddik ben tzaddik. Which is entirely counterintuitive. If you'd ask me who's דאַווענען davening is holier, I'd say רבקה Rivka. You come out of a house of a בצואל Besuel, you grow up next door, your bedroom is next to a לבן Lavan, and you come out a צדקת tzadekes, your דאַווענען davening is gonna be even holier than a יצחק Yitzchak.So I saw once a beautiful interpretation, I forgot where I saw it. I forgot where I saw it. I saw a beautiful interpretation that you know, when you're the daughter of a רשע rasha, on the one hand, it's extraordinary that you emerge a צדקת tzadekes. On the other hand, you look at your father and you want to run the other way. But when you're the son of an אברהם Avraham, you can never live up to it. How many children of great people go off the דרך derech? Because they don't even want to compete, they don't even want to challenge themselves because they think they can't even reach the toenail of their father, why bother? There's a whole study of second generation of survivors in this area. Because you're going to come home and complain that you fell off your bike and skinned your knee, and your parents are going to feel bad for you when they went through Auschwitz? So there's a whole psychology of second generation, not everybody, and I'm not an expert in it, but there are people who studied it, who talk about when you're a צדיק בן צדיק tzaddik ben tzaddik, it's much, much harder to stay, or it's much harder to become a צדיק בן צדיק tzaddik ben tzaddik. You can become a בינוני בן צדיק beinoni ben tzaddik. You can become a רשע בן צדיק rasha ben tzaddik. But to be a צדיק בן צדיק tzaddik ben tzaddik, that is really, really hard. And that's why it's counterintuitive, but יצחק Yitzchak, who became a צדיק בן צדיק tzaddik ben tzaddik, is in some ways even more, even more impressive. What does it mean לנוכח אשתו l'nochach ishto, opposite? So רש\"י Rashi said the image is of the two opposite corners. The רשב\"ם Rashbam says he דאַווען daven'd בשביל אשתו bishvil ishto, for his wife. What does that mean for his wife? Is that condescending? Is it disparaging? He דאַווען daven'd for his wife like she needed him, the big יצחק Yitzchak. What does that mean? So on the one hand, you could simply say because she's the one who needed to conceive, she's the one who needed to carry a baby. He was דאַווענען davening for his wife for the prayer that she would conceive. The משך חכמה Meshech Chochma, רבי מאיר שמחה מדוינסק Reb Meir Simcha of Dvinsk says, no very practically speaking, much like with אברהם Avraham, יצחק Yitzchak knew that the problem, the fertility challenge did not lie with him. And how did he know that? How did he know that? יצחק Yitzchak, how did יצחק Yitzchak know that? Because when יצחק Yitzchak gets his name, the תורה Torah tells us לזרעו אחריו l'zaro acharav. יצחק Yitzchak is given a promise that he will be the continuity of אברהם Avraham. So he knew he would have children. He wasn't worried for himself. For whom was he דאַווענען davening? לנוכח אשתו l'nochach ishto. Because he knew his mother had challenges and his father therefore found הגר Hagar. So if it wouldn't work out that רבקה Rivka would be the matriarch of his children, but he knew זרעו אחריו zaro acharav he was going to have children. So therefore his תפילות tfilos were לנוכח אשתו l'nochach ishto, his תפילות tfilos were on behalf of whom? On behalf of, on behalf of his wife. On behalf of his wife.Good. The אמשינובער Amshinover has a different פשט pshat. I'm grateful to my friend Rabbi Murzoff who shared this with me. ר' יעקב דוד מאמשינוב Reb Yaakov Dovid of Amshinov says on this פסוק pasuk, וכי לא היה יצחק אבינו מקום להתפלל רק לנוכח אשתו v'chi lo haya Yitzchak Avinu makom l'hispalel rak l'nochach ishto? He only had a place to דאַווען daven like opposite, staring at his wife? What, what's the image? כי הנה רבקה הצדקת היתה מתפללת שיהא לה זרע בזכות יצחק, ויצחק מתפלל שיהא לה זרע בזכות רבקה הצדקת. Ki hinei Rivka ha'tzadekes haysa mispaleles she'yeheh la zera b'zechus Yitzchak, v'Yitzchak mispalel she'yeheh la zera b'zechus Rivka ha'tzadekes. כי ליצחק אין רבותא שצדיק הוא, כי אביו גם כן היה צדיק. Ki l'Yitzchak ein ribusa she'tzaddik hu, ki aviv gam ken haya tzaddik. אבל רבקה שהיתה בת רשע ועמדה בצדקתה, זכותה גדולה מזכותו. וזהו פירוש לנוכח אשתו. Aval Rivka she'haysa bas rasha v'amdah b'tzidkasa, zechusa gedolah mi'zechuso. V'zehu peirush l'nochach ishto. מה שהיא היתה מתפללת בזכותו, היה הוא מתפלל בזכותה. Ma she'hi haysa mispaleles b'zechuso, haya hu mispalel b'zechusa. It's the opposite of what we said a moment ago. It's a beautiful image. יצחק Yitzchak is דאַווענען davening and he says, you know, that I'm a צדיק tzaddik? I grew up in the house of אברהם Avraham. But השם Hashem, you know why you should answer us? לנוכח אשתו l'nochach ishto, because of her. You see her? Do you know where she came from? Do you know what she emerged to be? Do you understand the virtue and the merits of my wife? The רשע rasha, the evil home she came out of? So השם Hashem, don't answer me because of me, because I grew up in the house of a צדיק tzaddik. It's no big deal that I became a צדיק tzaddik. But her, לנוכח אשתו l'nochach ishto. He says the opposite פשט pshat. לנוכח אשתו l'nochach ishto, that יצחק Yitzchak is invoking the merit of רבקה Rivka to suggest just how incredible, just how extraordinary she is, and that's why השם Hashem, and that's why השם Hashem should answer. Okay. Let's make it past the second פסוק pasuk.Even though there's so much more to talk about in the גמרא סוכה Gemara Sukkah. ויעתר va'ye'etar is a pitchfork. Just like a pitchfork turns over the hay, so too we can change השם's Hashem's mind. It's a fundamental question about תפילה tfila from here. I'll pose this to you again as a question. So I'll give you two pieces of homework. You look like you people can handle it. Two pieces of homework. ויעתר va'ye'etar, a pitchfork, it turns it over. Why would I want to turn over השם's Hashem's mind? This is a classic question. I'll leave it to you to talk about and think about. If we believe כל מה דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד kol ma d'avid Rachmana l'tav avid, that everything God does is for our best, by definition, He is infinite, I'm finite. He's omnipotent, I'm limited. He has the broadest vision, he's all-knowing, he can see it all, and I'm limited by what I can see and where I am. So if השם Hashem determined something is in my best interest, why would I want to change his mind? Why would I want to turn over ויעתר כעתר va'ye'etar k'eitar, like a pitchfork that turns over hay, so too תפילה tfila functions like a pitchfork. I can change or transform השם's Hashem's mind. Why would I want to change his mind? If the premise and the assumption is that everything השם Hashem does is for my best, then whatever I am, whatever's happening to me, whatever I am enduring is for my best. Why would I want to even try to change השם's Hashem's mind? It's a very important and a significant question with a lengthy answer, not for now. ויתרוצצו הבנים בקרבה Vayisrotzetzu ha'banim b'kirbah. So השם Hashem answers her and she becomes pregnant. And now she has twins. ותאמר אם כן למה זה אנכי Va'tomer im ken lama zeh anochi. And she says, \"Whoa, what's going on? Why me?\" ותלך לדרוש את השם Vatelech lidrosh es Hashem, she goes to inquire of השם Hashem. And השם Hashem tells her, ויאמר ה' לה שני גוים בבטנך ושני לאומים ממעיך יפרדו ולאום מלאום יאמץ ורב יעבד צעיר Vayomer Hashem lah shnei goyim b'vitnech u'shnei le'umim mimei'ayich yiparedu u'leom mil'om ye'ematz v'rav ya'avod tza'ir. Don't worry, you're feeling all this kicking, a whole commotion going on inside you? It's because you have twins. There's two nations, the fathers of two nations who will ultimately be separated. The might will pass from one to the other, and the older one will serve the younger one. And what is רבקה's Rivka's reaction? Well, that's great news, fantastic, שכוח shkoyach. And I now I understand it, now it's all good. Now I can live with the rest of my pregnancy. And מפרשים meforshim are bothered and wonder, as you may be and I am, what in the world was that answer? I don't understand. She's bothered, she feels all this activity. השם Hashem says, \"No, no, don't worry, there's twins.\" Oh, there's twins, two nations. I'm good. What is going on? What is going on there?So there's an amazing כלי יקר Kli Yakar. You have your your, if anyone still brings their מקרות גדולות Mikraos Gedolos, you can look at the כלי יקר Kli Yakar. ותלך לדרוש את השם Vatelech lidrosh es Hashem, she goes and she asks, she gets the answer. She has a 3D ultrasound, she sees both twins. I don't know who they look like, you have to figure that out. We know who who יצחק Yitzchak looked like אברהם Avraham, we don't know who these twins look like. So the כלי יקר Kli Yakar says the following. כלי יקר Kli Yakar says, you know what she was concerned about? שנאמר ויעתר יצחק לנוכח אשתו לפי שהוא היה צדיק בן צדיק על כן היה מובטח שמצדו יולד לו זרע הגון. She'ne'emar va'ye'etar Yitzchak l'nochach ishto, l'fi shehu haya tzaddik ben tzaddik al ken haya muvtach she'mitzido yevled lo zera hagun. אך היה ירא מצד אשתו כי היא בת בצואל. Ach haya yarei mi'tzad ishto ki hi bas Besuel. ואחות לבן, שלא יצא ממנו איזה זרע פסול שיאכר אחריו. V'achos Lavan she'lo yeitzei mimenu eizeh zera pasul she'yakar achareha. יצחק Yitzchak, like, I'm good to go. I come from אברהם Avraham and שרה Sarah. My genes are pretty good, my DNA is pretty good. I'm confident in what I'm going to create. But look at her DNA. Look where she comes from. Look at her שידוך shidduch resume. Check out her יחוס yichus. ממנה נמשך אחר כך על כן היה ירא פן יצא ממנו זרע בלתי הגון כמו שיצא ישמעאל מהגר. Mimena nimshach achar kach, al ken haya yarei pen yeitzei mimenu zera bilti hagun kmo she'yatza Yishmael me'Hagar. So he says, just like my father who was great, from הגר Hagar got a ישמעאל Yishmael, what if I'm going to get out of her, she comes from בצואל Besuel and לבן Lavan, who knows what I'm going to get? So maybe that's the reason that she's barren, so that I don't have to endure having a ישמעאל Yishmael. וכאשר נתרוצצו הבנים בקרבה, אחד מפרכס לצאת אצל פתח בית מדרש, אחד מפרכס לצאת אצל פתח עבודה זרה. U'ka'asher nisrotzetzu ha'banim b'kirbah, echad mefarches l'tzeis eitzel pesach beis medrash, echad mefarches l'tzeis eitzel pesach avodah zarah. בזה הרגישה שודאי אחד צדיק ואחד רשע, על כן אמרה למה זה אנכי. B'zeh hirgishah she'vadai echad tzaddik v'echad rasha, al ken amra lama zeh anochi. So when she feels the kicking, we know רש\"י Rashi quote, she walks by the בית מדרש Beis Medrash, one, יעקב's Yaakov's trying to get out. She walks by the בית עבודה זרה beis avodah zarah and עשו's Eisav's trying to get out. She says, למה זה אנכי lama zeh anochi? כי כמוני כהגר, ומה אנכי טוב ממנה, ולמה זה התפללתי, ותלך לדרוש את השם, מה הוא לתפילתי? Ki kamoni k'Hagar, u'mah anochi tov mimena, v'lama zeh hispalalti, vatelech lidrosh es Hashem, mah hu l'tfilasi? She feels kicking in both places. She doesn't know that there's twins. So she says, uh oh, on the one hand, the kid's kicking when I walk by the בית מדרש Beis Medrash. And that is a good sign, that he must have gotten from his father, from יצחק Yitzchak. But my kid is also kicking when I walk by the בית עבודה זרה beis avodah zarah. Uh oh, what was the point of all my דאַווענען davening if this kid got the genetics also of my side of the family? And that's what she's told, \"Don't worry, שני גוים בבטנך shnei goyim b'vitnech.\" זה רבי ואנטונינוס. Zeh Rebbi v'Antoninus. והועילה תפילתך שגם עשו יצא ממנו זרע כשר כאנטונינוס, ושאר גרי צדק, מה שאין כן בישמעאל, ובזה את טובה מהגר. V'ho'ila tfilasech she'gam Eisav yatza mimenu zera kasher k'Antoninus, v'shaar geirei tzedek, ma she'ein kein b'Yishmael, u'v'zeh at tovah me'Hagar. הגר Hagar only got a ישמעאל Yishmael. And from the ישמעאל Yishmael, we know what we got. We're still dealing with it today. But from עשו Eisav came אנטונינוס Antoninus, came a convert. From עשו's Eisav's line came conversion back into the Jewish people. So yes, right now kicking to a בית עבודה זרה beis avodah zarah, but there are two. The כלי יקר Kli Yakar basically says the following. Says the, רבקה's Rivka's fear was that she was pregnant with one child, one child with multiple personality disorder, who on the one hand wanted to get out in the בית מדרש Beis Medrash and on the other hand wanted to get out. Why did he want to get out when he passed the בית מדרש Beis Medrash? What's the, we just learned in דף יומי Daf Yomi, those learning the דף, נדה daf, Niddah, we just learned, what's the baby doing in the womb? Learning with the מלאך malach. So why would he want to get out in the בית מדרש Beis Medrash? There's no way that whoever's the רבי Rebbe or the ראש ישיבה Rosh Yeshiva of that בית מדרש Beis Medrash is not going to be better than a מלאך malach. You know what they say from here? When your חברותא's chavrusa's עשו Eisav, doesn't matter how good your רבי Rebbe is, you got to get to a new ישיבה yeshiva. Your חברותא chavrusa is even more important than your רבי Rebbe. By the way that that גמרא Gemara, the דברצינא רב Debreciner Rav in his תשובות teshuvos quotes that גמרא Gemara that we're learning in the in the womb with the מלאך malach, when he was asked if you're allowed to schedule an induction for pregnancy, can you schedule an induction? So he says, if it's medically mandated, absolutely. The doctor says you need to be induced early for whatever reason, 100%. What if it's not medically mandated, it's just that you really like that birthday, or the ברית bris would be really convenient if it fell out on that day, or you really want to work around the upcoming holiday weekend? So you're going to induce for that reason. So then he says if it's not medically mandated, then it's אסור assur. And he gives two reasons. He says number one, when you're in childbirth, you're in a, you're a חולה שיש בו סכנה choleh she'yesh bo sakana, it's a life-threatening situation. So when that happens from השם Hashem because it's time to give birth, of course. But for you to induce a life-threatening situation electively, you shouldn't. But then he brings a second reason. You know what the second reason is? ביטול תורה Bitul Torah. What's the ביטול תורה Bitul Torah? That the husband has to leave כולל Kollel to take his wife to the hospital to be induced? No, the ביטול תורה Bitul Torah is the baby in the womb, he says, who's learning with the מלאך malach, why would you want to cut that learning short? So if medically the doctor says you got to cut, cut the חברותא chavrusa, we got to get to the hospital, fine. But for you because you like the birthday, you like the ברית bris to fall that day or it's convenient with the holiday weekend, we don't, we don't engage in ביטול תורה Bitul Torah for that reason, he quotes that reason. So says the כלי יקר Kli Yakar, she thought that she had one child with multiple personalities. And she's relieved to find out that her children have convictions and they are consistent. And even though one of those children has the wrong convictions, but if children have convictions, you can redirect them. But if you're wishy-washy and you flip and you blow with the wind and you can be convinced of anything, that's when we're in trouble. If you at least have convictions, then you can be taught the right thing and you'll follow it in the right way. But if you have no convictions, then you're in trouble. The גמרא אין פסחים Gemara in Pesachim on דף ס\"ח daf samech ches quotes רבי יוסף Reb Yosef who eats his שבועות Shavuos would tell his, his household to create a beautiful meal with lavish meal with delicacies and treats. And he said the reason, because he said if not for this day, namely the day that we got the תורה Torah, כמה יוסף איכא בשוקא kama Yosef ika b'shuka. So the simple translation is, he was saying if not for the receiving the תורה Torah, I'd be like every other Yosef, I'd be like every other Joe in the שוק shuk. But the בעלי מוסר Baalei Mussar say no, that's not what he was saying. כמה יוסף איכא בשוקא Kama Yosef ika b'shuka. If not for תורה Torah that creates a unified personality within me, that gives me convictions to stay true to and strong to, כמה יוסף kama Yosef, I'd be made up of multiple personalities. I'd act differently when I'm around different people and I'd think different things depending on who I just listened to and who I just spent time with. And so therefore, רבקה Rivka was concerned that there was one child with multiple personalities, but when she is convinced that it's two children, at least they have convictions, someone who has convictions, those convictions can be steered, those convictions can be, can be turned around. Okay, so who comes out? We know. וימלאו ימיה ללדת והנה תאומים בבטנה, ויצא הראשון אדמוני, כולו כעדרת שער, ויקראו שמו עשו. Vayimle'u yameha laledes v'hinei tomim b'vitnah, vayetze harishon admoni, kulo k'aderes se'ar, vayikre'u shmo Eisav. The first one's coming out with a ruddy complexion, and they name him עשו Eisav. Who else comes out with a ruddy complexion? Who else in תנ\"ך Tanach do we know has a ruddy, אדמוני admoni, the same description? דוד המלך Dovid HaMelech. We've talked about this in the past, we won't get into it now, but some bold commentaries point out that being אדמוני admoni, having a ruddy reddish complexion, if you have red hair by the way, studies show, I have a child with red hair who once needed, reddish hair, who once needed anesthesia, she had surgery on, she had broken her leg. And do you know the studies show that you need more anesthesia for a redhead? The redheads are filled with such energy and vigor. Anesthesiologist studies, I'm not making this up, you can Google it. Must be true, you can Google it. So we know that that a redhead, again, it's a generalization, but אדמוני admoni, a reddish complexion is more energy, enthusiasm, vigor, dynamism, all wonderful, positive qualities. עשו Eisav has it. יעקב Yaakov is an איש תם יושב אהלים ish tam yoshev ohalim. יעקב Yaakov can sit and שטייג shteig and hear זיצן פלייש zitzen fleish and he doesn't have to move, he can sit and he can focus. And עשו Eisav, if the תורה Torah would have had this terminology, רש\"י Rashi would have said, what does it mean איש יודע ציד איש שדה ish yodea tzayid ish sadeh? פירוש Peirush, ADHD. That's what רש\"י Rashi would have said. עשו Eisav, he didn't just have ADD, he was in high definition, ADD. He had attention deficit hyper disorder. עשו Eisav couldn't sit still. He needed a standing desk, he needed more frequent breaks, he needed, he couldn't take it. He was אדמוני admoni. And so was דוד המלך Dovid HaMelech, אדמוני admoni. So דוד המלך Dovid HaMelech takes that and channels it to become the greatest warrior of the Jewish people, the greatest king, who pours his passion into the poetry of תהלים Tehillim. And עשו Eisav becomes עשו הרשע Eisav haRasha. And רב הירש Rav Hirsch says, you know why? Because יצחק Yitzchak and רבקה Rivka made a mistake. I'm not saying this, I couldn't say it, you could stand near me, lightning won't strike. I'm simply quoting others. They said they made a mistake because they tried to put יעקב Yaakov and עשו Eisav in the same class and have the same expectations and put them in the same box, and turned to עשו Eisav and every day עשו Eisav would come home from school with a note from the teacher of how much trouble he got in, and they would say, why can't you just be like יעקב Yaakov? Why can't you just sit quietly and listen and learn and be well-behaved? And עשו Eisav couldn't put it into words, I don't know why, but I just can't. I can't sit still. I can't stop moving around. I need longer to take tests. I need a break. I need a standing desk. עשו Eisav couldn't put it into words, and his parents didn't realize they needed to, individual attention, individual education. דוד Dovid got that individual attention, and when you do, you become a דוד המלך Dovid HaMelech. And if you don't, and your whole life you're just not measuring up and you're a failure and you're an embarrassment and you're an underachiever, you become an עשו Eisav. And that's not on עשו Eisav or דוד Dovid, it's on יצחק Yitzchak and רבקה Rivka, it's on us. Again, a lot more to say here. These are not my original thoughts, but that same word אדמוני admoni describes דוד המלך Dovid HaMelech as it does describe עשו Eisav. And then, then יעקב Yaakov comes out, he's holding on to עקב עשו akev Eisav, ויקרא שמו יעקב vayikra shmo Yaakov. He's holding the heel of his brother, they call him יעקב Yaakov. ויגדלו הנערים Vayigdlu ha'ne'arim, they grow up, and only when they grow up do we see their personalities. עשו Eisav is יודע ציד איש שדה yode'a tzayid ish sadeh, he's manipulative, he's a hunter. And יעקב Yaakov is איש תם יושב אהלים ish tam yoshev ohalim. That word תם tam, it can throw us off. Where do we think of that word תם tam from the most? The four sons of the הגדה Haggadah. And how do we think of the תם tam in the הגדה Haggadah? We do not think of him in an impressive way. He's simple. He's a very simple son, he's unsophisticated, he's simple, he can't articulate a question. He's very simple. So I saw הרבי מלובלין haRebbe miLublin פירש על דבר שאינו יודע איך את מרמה הוא קרא תם. peireish al davar she'eino yode'a eich es merameh hu karai tam. מי שיודע איך את מרמין ואינו מרמה הוא קרא איש תם. Mi she'yode'a eich es meramin v'eino merameh hu karai ish tam. You see, if you know how to be a trickery or תם tam, but if you know how and you don't do it, you're an איש תם ish tam. יעקב אבינו ידע איך לרמות, שהרי העיד על עצמו כשהיה בבית לבן, נהג בלובן מנהג רמאות, אחי אתה ברמאות. Yaakov Avinu yada eich l'ramos, she'harei he'id al atzmo kshe'haya b'veis Lavan, nahag b'Lavan minhag ramaus, achi ata b'ramaus. יעקב Yaakov knew, he was street smart, he knew how to operate, but he chose not to. יעקב Yaakov wasn't a תם tam, he was an איש תם ish tam. He knew it, but he knew also how to hold it back and not do it. The של\"ה הקדוש Shlah haKadosh, רבי ישעיה הלוי הורוביץ Rebbe Yeshaya Halevi Horowitz writes, he says, אנו למדים כי התמימות היא מדה הנעלה ביותר anu lomeidim ki ha'tmimus hi midah ha'na'alah b'yoser. שמכל המעלות טובות שבודאי היו ביעקב אבינו לא מצאה תורה לכתוב בשבחו כי אם היה איש תם Shemikol ha'ma'alos tovos she'vadai hayu b'Yaakov Avinu, lo matz'ah Torah lichtov b'shivcho ki im haya ish tam. משמע שאין לו מידה גדולה מן התמימות Mashma she'ein lo midah gedolah min ha'tmimus. Of all the wonderful qualities, of all the amazing things you could say about יעקב Yaakov, you know what was on top of his שידוך shidduch resume? איש תם ish tam. We shouldn't dismiss it, kind of goes back to the whole יצחק Yitzchak and the redigging the same wells and giving them the same names. You know, we think that today you have to be able to use big fancy words, axiological and ontological, that today you have to be able to, scholarship and academia, that today you have to spotlight and bright light and followers and fans. יעקב Yaakov was an איש תם ish tam. Sometimes there's greatness in simplicity. In the simplicity. And the של\"ה Shlah says the fact that the תורה Torah tells us this is his greatest quality, tells us everything we need to know about what the תורה Torah values in a person, namely being an איש, being an איש תם ish tam. Being an איש תם ish tam. So I want to tell you something amazing about about, where does the time go? Okay, I'll tell you a couple of the cute וורטלעך vortlach and end with one more thing. So anyway, you know the rest of the פרשה parsha. We don't have to do the whole overview of the פרשה parsha. You got it. You got it. But the פסוק pasuk says, אולי ימושני אבי והייתי בעיניו כמתעתע ulay y'musheni avi v'hayisi v'einav k'mista'tei'a. What does that mean? פרק כ\"ז פסוק י\"ב perek kaf zayin, pasuk yud beis. פרק כ\"ז י\"ב Perek kaf zayin, yud beis. Top of page 136. What's going on here? רבקה Rivka has recruited יעקב Yaakov. Again, we've spoken about in the past, I'm not going to talk now, why did, how could יצחק Yitzchak have made such a mistake, thinking that עשו Eisav was the one? He underestimated יעקב Yaakov. How did he underestimate יעקב Yaakov? רבקה Rivka got it. So the debate really the מלבי\"ם Malbim says is, יצחק Yitzchak wanted an earner, רבקה Rivka wanted a learner. יצחק Yitzchak said עשו Eisav knows how to hunt, he knows how to provide, he knows how to take care. If this whole experiment my father started is going to continue, we need an earner. And רבקה Rivka said, \"Relax, we need a learner.\" Now the truth is יעקב Yaakov became an earner-learner. He knew how to do both. Those with grandchildren or children in שידוכים shidduchim know this bizarre language I'm using right now. Which is absolute bizarre language which isn't part of our מסורה mesorah. I'm embarrassed to be using it. I'm embarrassed to be using it. But we've talked about it in the past. What was the debate between יצחק Yitzchak and רבקה Rivka? How could יצחק Yitzchak have been so, how could יצחק Yitzchak have been so wrong in putting his faith and trust and thinking עשו Eisav was his continuation? How could he have misjudged or underestimated יעקב Yaakov so much? But that helps us understand the rest of the פרשה parsha because רבקה Rivka is busy, not trying to, I can imagine the pillow talk the night after יצחק Yitzchak realizes רבקה Rivka was the one who schemed the whole thing to fool him with the ברכות brachos? I don't know how the marriage continues after that. But the answer is, רבקה Rivka every night tried to convince יצחק Yitzchak, \"I'm telling you, you're betting on the wrong horse. We love our two sons, we tell them we love them equally, and probably we do somewhere, but I'm telling you, I'm telling you יעקב's Yaakov's the one.\" And יצחק Yitzchak says, \"No, no, no, יעקב Yaakov doesn't have it. He's תם tam, he's an איש תם ish tam. He's too simple. He's too trusting, he's too believing. He he lives in the ivory tower of the בית מדרש Beis Medrash. Our people, he'll never survive גלות galus. How will he ever learn how to live through the pogroms and the exterminations and the exile? We can't rely on a יעקב Yaakov to take this people through that. We need an עשו Eisav. A hunter, who knows how to be manipulative, who can operate in the field, who has street smarts.\" They were having this debate every night. And רבקה Rivka every night was telling him, \"You're underestimating our little יעקב Yaakov. And if you don't believe me, I've come to the conclusion this is the only way to show it to you. יעקב Yaakov, come over here. We need to show your father that you, עשו Eisav has nothing on you. That even when you're קול קול יעקב kol kol Yaakov, you can have ידיים ידי עשו yadayim yedei Eisav. That you will, when you'll need to form an IDF, and when you'll need to take up weapons, and you'll need to defend yourselves and to found the Jewish homeland, even though קול קול יעקב kol kol Yaakov, there's never been a bigger supporter of תלמוד תורה Talmud Torah in the history of the Jewish people than the state of Israel, than the government of Israel. The finances of the government of Israel, the קול קול יעקב kol kol Yaakov in ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael, the ישיבות yeshivos, the כוללים kollelim in Israel today are greater than at any point in all of Jewish history. And the biggest supporter who is financing that קול קול יעקב kol kol Yaakov is the state of Israel. Make no mistake about it with all the people who want to pin them as hating religion and so on and so forth. It is by far the biggest supporter of תלמוד תורה Talmud Torah in the history of Israel. Our קול קול יעקב kol kol Yaakov is resounding and echoing strongly. But, רבקה Rivka was right. When we need it, we have ידיים ידי עשו yadayim yedei Eisav. When we need to, we have those ידיים ידי עשו yadayim yedei Eisav to protect our people and to do what we need. And רבקה Rivka was manipulating, was with יעקב Yaakov manipulating the situation to prove to יצחק Yitzchak, עשו's Eisav's got nothing on יעקב Yaakov. He's got it, he could do it. So in this, in this context, יעקב Yaakov is hesitating, and he says, \"But what are you talking about? My brother is like a hairy beast. My brother's a hairy guy. And I'm an איש חלק ish chalak. I דאַווען daven by the אשכנזים Ashkenazim. There's no way. אולי ימושני אבי ulay y'musheni avi, maybe my father will feel me, והייתי בעיניו כמתעתע v'hayisi b'einav k'mista'tei'a. He's going to feel me and I'll be a mocker in his eyes. והבאתי עלי קללה ולא ברכה V'heveisi alai klalah v'lo brachah. He's going to figure out this whole facade, this whole fraud. He's going to see through it. And then I'm going to get a curse, not a ברכה brachah, and I need a ברכה brachah. So רבי נפתלי מרופשיץ Reb Naftali of Ropshitz, the רופשיצער Ropshitzer says, אולי ימושני אבי ulay y'musheni avi is not talking about יצחק Yitzchak. אולי ימושני אבי ulay y'musheni avi is אבי שבשמים Avi shebashamayim, ימשמש ויבדוק את כל מעשיי y'mashmeish v'yivdok es kol ma'asai. What if השם Hashem sees that I'm a fraud and I'm a faker, that I שאָקל shokel so hard in דאַווענען davening when I'm at שול shul, that I purport to be this religious, virtuous person when I'm in public, but really in private והייתי בעיניו כמתעתע v'hayisi b'einav k'mista'tei'a, that really, חלילה chalila, I'm somebody. That's how we should read the פסוק pasuk, says the רופשיצער Ropshitzer. That it's not just our physical father, but that we should live our lives, the עולם ירא אדם כאילו עין רואה ואוזן שומעת olam ye'adam k'ilu ayin ro'ah v'ozen shoma'as, a person should, should realize, אולי ימושני אבי ulay y'musheni avi. Where did he get that from, that language? ימושני y'musheni is we חז\"ל Chazal encourage us to be ממשמש במעשיו m'mashmeish b'ma'asav, to examine, to feel our own actions. אולי ימושני אבי Ulay y'musheni avi, אבי שבשמים avi shebashamayim, maybe my father in heaven is going to feel me and figure out who I am. I was going to tell you this whole beautiful, incredible וורט vort from the רב Rav, I don't have time for it. So I'll end with one last thing, which is a beautiful קאָצקער Kotzker. Also these are חסידישע וורטלעך Chassidishe vortlach on the פרשה parsha. A beautiful קאָצקער Kotzker. ויהי אך יצא יצא יעקב מאת פני יצחק אביו ועשו אחיו בא מצידו, פרק כ\"ז פסוק ל'. Vayehi ach yatzo yatza Yaakov me'eis pnei Yitzchak aviv v'Eisav achiv ba mi'tzeido, perek kaf zayin, pasuk lamed. Page 138. What happens? יעקב Yaakov gets the ברכה brachah from יצחק Yitzchak, he pulled it off. That's why יצחק Yitzchak and רבקה Rivka can stay married. That's why not only is there a pillow talk comfortable, but יצחק Yitzchak says to רבקה Rivka, you were right. I should have listened to you all along. You were right. יעקב Yaakov pulled it off. Look at that. Our little boy יעקב Yaakov. Who knew he had it in him? You were right all along. ויהי כאשר כלה יצחק לברך את יעקב, ויהי אך יצא יצא יעקב מאת פני יצחק אביו. Vayehi ka'asher kilah Yitzchak l'varech es Yaakov, vayehi ach yatzo yatza Yaakov me'eis pnei Yitzchak aviv. יעקב Yaakov left מאת פני יצחק אביו me'eis pnei Yitzchak aviv, from the face of his father אביו aviv, ועשו אחיו בא מצידו v'Eisav achiv ba mi'tzeido. And his brother עשו Eisav came from where? From his hunt. From hunting. Says the קאָצקער רבי Kotzker Rebbe, that at the moment that we leave מאת פני יצחק אביו me'eis pnei Yitzchak aviv, when we walk away from קדושה kedusha, you know what fills that vacuum? עשו אחיו בא Eisav achiv ba. When we are יצא יצא מיעקב yatzo yatza mi'Yaakov, עשו אחיו בא Eisav achiv ba. Either we are living lifestyles and promoting holiness, or in the vacuum and the absence of holiness, it will be filled with the mentality and the attitude and the lifestyle of an עשו Eisav. And that's why he says the קאָצקער רבי Kotzker Rebbe, I don't personally have this מנהג minhag, but many do, that on מוצאי שבת Motzei Shabbos when the קדושה kedusha of שבת Shabbos leaves, in order to fend off what could be the כח koach of an עשו Eisav, we say ויתן לך v'yiten l'cha. Where does ויתן לך v'yiten l'cha come from? It's our פרשה parsha, that's the ברכה brachah that יצחק Yitzchak gave to יעקב Yaakov. When שבת Shabbos leaves and in the vacuum of the holiness of שבת Shabbos, the challenges, the struggle of the weekday, the עשו Eisav could come, in order to fend off the עשו Eisav, we say ויתן לך v'yiten l'cha, some have the מנהג minhag of saying ויתן לך v'yiten l'cha, which is exactly the ברכה brachah that יצחק Yitzchak gave to יעקב Yaakov. A lot more to talk about. Wishing everyone a wonderful day. Feel free to get a coffee or pastry at the BRS Cafe.
