Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello, my friends, and welcome back to this week's episode of the Practical Parasha Podcast. This is Rabbi Shlomo Cohen, and I hope you are well.
[00:00:08] Before we begin this week's episode, we are living with our forefathers. The parshas jam packed with lessons and inspiration.
[00:00:22] And every week you've heard me say this in the past week, living with Avraham Yitzchak, and in the coming parshios, the coming Torah portions. Yaakov, these are our grandfathers, our grandmothers, Right? Sarah. Rivkah. Ah, Rachel.
[00:00:39] And it's something special to just take it in as we go through all the weekly parshas. The story of Bereshas, the book of Genesis, the story of our people.
[00:00:49] And before we begin, as always, if you have any questions, comments, just would like to say hello.
[00:00:57] Please don't hesitate.
[00:00:59] Send me that email. I know you've been thinking about it. Just do it.
[00:01:04] The email is in the show notes. Or you could reach out to me directly at Rabbi Shlomo konkohanmail.com I'd love to hear from you. Additionally, if you enjoy this show, I would ask of you kindly if you could share it with your friends. Spread the word. Thank God. We've been getting a record amount of downloads recently.
[00:01:30] And please God, it should continue spreading Torah to the Jewish people. This week's parsha is Parshas Vayera. And just to give a quick overview of the parsha. The Parsha begins with Hashem appearing to Avraham Avinu is in a prophecy in the land of Mamre. And actually, in fact, we learn from this encounter between Hashem G? D and Avrama, uh, Avinu, about the mitzvah, uh, of Bikar cholim, of visiting the sick. There's a commandment in the Torah to visit people who are ill, who are not well. And we learn from this. How Hashem himself visited Avraham Avinu, how he visited Abraham, we learn out of this obligation. Additionally, the Parsha tells us about the three angels that visited Avraham Avinu. That these three angels came to Avraham to tell him two things. Number one, to tell him that he would have a son in a year from now. And number two, that they were on a mission to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and additionally rescue Lot, the nephew of Avram from that city. The parsha continues with Avraham Avinu, with Abraham beseeching on behalf of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. And I'LL just refer to it as Sedom. These were five cities where they were doing evil things. They had extreme levels of cruelty. Now, maybe we'll get into that a little bit in the Parsha today about where they went wrong and what we can learn out from that. Avram pleads for the cities to be saved, and eventually he acquiesces to the decree of Hashem. You know, Hashem decided to destroy them. There's no righteous people there as a merit to save the city. And the city is to be judged and destroyed.
[00:03:13] The Malachim, um, these angels go to the city of Sedom. And the Parsha tells us in detail how they go to the city. They go to Lot's home to rescue him from the city. And actually the locals find out about this, that there are these strange beings in the city and they're trying to, you know, capture them. And the Parsha goes through this intriguing back and forth how a miracle happens that they're not able to harm the Malachem, the angels, and Lot's family, and they're able to escape in just the nick of time before Sodom is destroyed. The Parasha also tells us about Sarah, who gets abducted again by King Avimelech. And Avimelech's house is stricken from the fact. They take Avraham Avin, they take from the fact they take Sarah, the wife of Avram.
[00:04:04] His household is punished.
[00:04:07] And they find out that Sarah is a married woman and they release her unharmed. Additionally, the Parasha tells us about the birth of Yitzchak, the son of Avram, who has been promised to Avraham and Sarah. Sarah has this boy, Avraham Avinu. Abraham circumcises him on the eighth day. The Parasha tells us Hagar, who was also married to, was a maidservant who was married to Avram and who gave birth to Yishmael, who was also a. That Avram was his father.
[00:04:38] That Hagar and Yishmal are expelled from the house because Yishmuel, they're being a negative influence on Yitzchak. And Hashem, uh, agrees that they should be sent out. And obviously they're sent out with provisions. And on their journey they run out of supplies because Yishmael drinks everything up. He finishes everything.
[00:05:03] And the Parsha tells us how Hagar puts Yishmael, uh, on the side and sort of just to not see and just cries. And God appears to her and gives her a prophecy that Yishmuel will become a great nation and shows her in front of her, this oasis of water. And they survive.
[00:05:25] Finally, the parsha finishes off. Probably the most famous story of this parsha is about Akedas. Yitzchak is the binding of Isaac. And we know we've been talking about the 10 trials of Avramavinu. And according to most, uh, commentaries, this trial, this test, was the biggest test. It was the big one. It was the hardest.
[00:05:49] And Avraham Avinu comes, and Hashem comes to Avraham Avinu, and he tells him, yitzchak, your son, your only son, who's supposed to inherit you and become this great nation, you are to go and sacrifice him, to bring him up as a human sacrifice. And Avraham Avinu doesn't question the word of Hashem at all.
[00:06:14] He brings him. He does everything he needs to do. And actually, the parsha tells us that Yitzchak was a grown man at that time. He also realized what was going on, and he did it together with, ah, Avraham Avinu, with Abraham, happily to do the will of Hashem.
[00:06:30] And at the last moment, right before Avraham Avinu, Abraham is going to do this. Hashem says, stop, don't do it.
[00:06:39] I was just testing you to see if you would fulfill my will.
[00:06:44] And this act of selflessness to do what Hashem wants is something that stands as a merit for the Jewish people to this very day.
[00:06:53] So the first idea I want to share with you today takes us to the beginning of the Parasha.
[00:06:59] In the beginning of the parasha, it talks about how Yishmael and Hagar, right, this maidservant, wife of Avraham of Abraham and her son, which was also the son of Abraham of Avram, was to be expelled from the house.
[00:07:18] And the reason that they were expelled was because they were a very bad influence on Yitzchak, on Isaac. And Sarah, the mother, you know, mothers have the best instinct.
[00:07:31] She knew the greatness of Yitzchak, and she didn't want Yishmuel to bring down Yitzchak, that he should learn from his bad ways, from his evil ways.
[00:07:44] And therefore she goes to Avraham, uh, Avinu, to Abraham, and says, you know, Yishmael, Hagar, they're having a negative influence in the house. And this is actually something very difficult for Abraham because Abraham represents chesed. He represents kindness.
[00:07:57] He excelled in that trade. He would bring people in to give them what they need. And it was very challenging for him to send away his son, right?
[00:08:08] And we see in the parsha that he. He asks of Hashem what to do. And Hashem, uh, says to listen to Sarah, that she's correct.
[00:08:18] So he sends them with what they need to make it to where they're going to go to go back to, you know, her people.
[00:08:27] And on the way, Torah tells us how they run out of supplies.
[00:08:33] So what does Hagar do when they're running out of supplies? They're in the desert.
[00:08:39] The posseq says, vayichlu amayim minacheimas vatishlach vatashlei chesayele tachas achar hasichim. And the next posse continues.
[00:09:06] She went and she sat herself down at a distance. Some bow shots away for she said, let me not see the death of the child. And she sat at a distance, lifted her voice, and wept. And really, the parsha delineates after. After that point that Hashem came to her and she said, go back to the child and take him, and I'm going to make him to a great nation. And she looked up and she saw that there was water, and she was able to survive.
[00:09:33] But there's a, uh, very fascinating explanation that's brought down from Rav Hirsch.
[00:09:38] Rav Hirsch explains about these two verses that when the. When. When the water and the skin was consuming this water bottle that she had, she cast her child in a bush, right? And she sat down at a distance and said, let me not see the death of the child.
[00:09:54] She says, I don't want to see him die. And she just turns away.
[00:10:00] So Rabbi Hirsch brings down a very important point for us.
[00:10:04] He says, this is.
[00:10:06] This episode of Hagar and Yishmael is an episode, is a story of what not to do.
[00:10:17] It's the imperfection of the human character.
[00:10:21] You know, us as human beings, we have. There's such a concept of humanity.
[00:10:26] What is considered right and moral, what is considered the right thing to do?
[00:10:32] And these are questions we need to ask ourselves all the time, every day.
[00:10:38] But what we need to try to do, what's our duty? What's our responsibility?
[00:10:44] When we have a child, a child, when we, you know, when we bear children, when we bring children into the world, they didn't ask to be brought into the world.
[00:10:56] We bring them down, right? Obviously, there's three partners, Mother, father, and Hashem, and they're here.
[00:11:03] And the child is the parent's responsibility to raise them.
[00:11:08] Obviously, at a certain point, you know, everyone has their own. Makes their own decisions. A child stands on his own. But in the formative years, a child is the responsibility of his parents. And in fact, actually, in Jewish law, a child is not responsible for damages. The parent is. You know, the parent is responsible for the child.
[00:11:29] He's not liable.
[00:11:31] But the point is, we see this overwhelming responsibility that a parent has when it comes to dealing with a child.
[00:11:39] And what should have been Hagar's reaction? What would have been the reaction of a loving, caring Jewish mother, that even though a person's in a horrible situation, they're not just turning away because they can't handle their sense of duty. Their sense of responsibility overpowers the pain and the emotion that they're feeling at that time. Right? So even though Hagar, she didn't have anything to give her child, the child was crying.
[00:12:13] We don't take the child.
[00:12:15] We never take our child. Throw them in a bush and turn away. So we shouldn't feel.
[00:12:20] We shouldn't feel pain. Right. We would do whatever we could to soothe the child, to calm them, to overpower our emotion, to not let us just act crazy, to act without that responsibility.
[00:12:37] I think this is a very powerful idea when it comes to ourselves and realizing, number one is child rearing, and that's number one, that's important, that it's our responsibility, that it's not about us necessarily. It's about doing what's best for our children. It's overcoming no matter what pain we have. And I think this is given for most parents that no matter what it is, they'll do whatever they can for their child, Even overpowering their pain because of the responsibility for their children. And they want to do that. It's not about them.
[00:13:12] But I want to take this one step further, because it's not just relevant to parents and children.
[00:13:18] This is relevant to everybody.
[00:13:21] You know, we have responsibility to ourselves, to our jobs, to our friends, to our communities.
[00:13:30] And sometimes it's easy to let our emotions and our pain push us away to do what's not best. Maybe forever for the situation, but rather maybe just to give in to that pain, to give in to that emotion and just turn away from our responsibility.
[00:13:50] We see from here that it's always about mastering our emotions, you know, over the pain, over the challenge, Meaning we can never let our emotions rule the day. That no matter how bad we're feeling, no matter how much, you know, we want to just turn away and be in the corner and look away, right? Like, hug her. She wanted to just. Just be away and not see the bad situation that's going to happen. No, that's not the way to Handle the situation. We have to deal with things head on.
[00:14:20] To realize our responsibility to our family, realize our responsibility to our friends, to our community, to our co workers, to ourselves, to Hashem, that, you know, we have obligation to God. We have obligations to Him. We have, you know, in the United States, we talk about rights, but we also have obligations.
[00:14:40] Right? Hashem put us here. We have our obligations to Him. So it's. We, uh, shouldn't just let our emotions, because we don't feel like a certain way, you know, dictate how we act. We have to realize that we have this responsibility, that mastery, you know, realizing that we always have to be in charge and overpower that feeling is something we need to work on our entire lives.
[00:15:05] The second idea I want to share with you today takes us to the episode of Sedom. So the Parsha tells us how Sedom was an evil city.
[00:15:14] And Hashem comes to Avraham Avinu and he tells them that he is going to destroy Sodom because of their evil acts.
[00:15:21] And the commentaries tell us that Sodom was actually the most fertile area in the entire world.
[00:15:27] It was the most prosperous area in the entire world. And the people were super successful.
[00:15:33] And it was because of their success that caused their corruption. That because they were afraid that other people might come to, you know, too many people might move there and, you know, there wouldn't be enough riches and wealth for everybody. They instituted laws to discourage anyone from moving there unless they had certain means and were well connected.
[00:15:58] So anyone who was more poor didn't have as much money, they would, you know, be very. They had a lot of cruelty towards them, right? If someone gave tzedakah, if they gave charity, they would kill them because they didn't want any poor people in their city. And the midrashim. The midrash tells us of the extent of their cruelty and their sexual perversion. You know, one thing leads to the other. But it's actually very fascinating because Avraham Avinu, Abraham, when Hashem comes to him, he says, I'm going to destroy the city. And the commentary is discussed, why did God need to come to Avraham Avinu? Which is a separate discussion. But either way, there's a whole back and forth in the Parsha how Avram beseeches Hashem to spear the city of Sedom and Gomorrah, these five cities, these wicked cities which were filled with wicked people.
[00:16:49] And he says, if there's 50 righteous people in these cities, will you spare it? And he says, there's not, he says, what about 40, right? There's not 30.
[00:16:59] Spear all the city for these 30 righteous people. There is not. And finally goes down to 10. Avraham asks Hashem that if there are 10 righteous people who are truly righteous in public, righteous, will you spear the city? And Hashem says there is not. Meaning he says, if there would have been, Hashem would have spared the city because these people would have gotten everybody else to maybe there was a chance that they would repent.
[00:17:25] And after Avraham, um, comes back and he asks that Hashem please save the city for these 10 people and their merit. Hashem says there's no 10 people left, and there's no 10 people that are righteous. Avraham, um, gives in to what God wants to do, and the city is going to be destroyed. And the question is, why is Avram beseeching Hashem for this city? Like, why is he advocating for these places which are truly evil, the most evil of evil? I mean, the stories, um, that the midrashim tell us about how cruel they were are mind blowing, right?
[00:18:06] The midrash tells us that someone once fed a, uh, poor person. They saw he was living too long, and they staked out that area to see who was doing it. And they discovered that there was a girl who happens was one of the daughters of lot was feeding this poor person. And they poured honey on her and put bees there. And they did all these terrible things to her.
[00:18:28] Very terrible people. And Avram was beseeching Hashem to save the cities. What's going on over here?
[00:18:34] So, you know, obviously, if there's such a concept of judgment, but we see from Avraham Avinu the greatness of Avraham, um, that obviously he wasn't just saying that, just save them for no reason. He wanted that there should be 10 righteous people and they would have an effect on everyone else. But the point is that Avram didn't look at the people and hate them personally.
[00:18:59] He looked at what they did, and they are doing evil acts.
[00:19:04] He was able to separate the two. I think this is a very important, um, thing to think about, because we think about tolerance. It's a very big word these days, intolerant tolerance. And a lot of the time people are tolerant of people who share their views. Anyone who has a different view than them, they're intolerant of. But the point is that tolerance is really an example from Avramavinu, how he, you know, gives us talks, teaches us about tolerance.
[00:19:31] Because Avramavinu, he treated people he loved people, and he wanted them to do teshuvah. He wanted them to return, but at the same time, he realized what they were doing was wrong.
[00:19:44] And I think this is a very powerful lesson that we have. People doing things that you don't agree with, that are wrong, that are not according to the Torah. And sometimes it's to even be your own family members where they're doing things that are wrong.
[00:19:57] You could separate the two. And I'm not saying it's an easy thing to do. It sometimes can be hard that there's the person and the things that they're doing.
[00:20:06] It means there's the person which you love and you care about, but there's certain actions that they're doing that you don't agree with. Right. And I'm not saying this is something so easy, but I think this is something we learn from Avraham Avinu, from the fact he beseeched for these people. He didn't have a hatred towards them. He didn't. You know, he realized that they were doing things bad and obviously they needed to be punished. But he realized that if there would be these 10 people, it could save the city. Their merit would save the city and could change things around.
[00:20:37] He was able to split to two.
[00:20:39] His love of humanity and seeing the goodness of others, was able to be able to beseech Hashem to save them, maybe when others would have written them off and even though they were deserving of destruction, which Hashem obviously did to them. But the point is, we're able to sometimes split the two of the person and the acts that they're doing.
[00:21:02] So even though you could love somebody, but you don't have to accept what they're doing, it's not always the easiest, but it's something we see from this week's Parsha.
[00:21:11] The last idea I want to share with you today takes us to. To the Akedah, the binding of Yitzhak, the binding of Isaac.
[00:21:19] And Hashem gives Avram the ultimate test.
[00:21:24] He tells him to take his.
[00:21:26] His son, Yitzhak, the son that will be, you know, continue his mission that will, you know, lead to this great nation that Hashem has promised Avraham, Avinu, Abraham, and to slaughter him, right? So we could just imagine for a minute, you know, Hashem tells him, this is your son, your only son, who will be the one that will, you know, lead on your mission, will give birth to the Jewish people.
[00:21:52] And now he's told to slaughter him.
[00:21:56] It seems inconceivable, right? Uh, it seems you know, it goes against logic, and there's a lot to be discussed regarding the Akedah, the binding of Yitzchak.
[00:22:08] But one thing I want to bring out, which I saw today, actually brought down in the Beis Halevi on Bitachon, is an Orachayim hakadosh. He says that Yitzchak was born incapable of having children. And it was only because of the Akedah, only because of this going through the experience of the binding of Yitzchak, that Hashem gave him the ability to have children, that he merited to have that ability to give birth to children after that, right? So originally you look at the situation and it seems that. How could it seem. It goes against logic. It's inconceivable, right?
[00:22:52] But it was that act of doing the will of Hashem that got him the ability to. To fulfill the vision of Hashem, meaning it was the act of going through the Akedah, of going through the binding of Isaac, the very act which seemed to go against logic, which gave him the ability to give birth to Yaakov, to give birth to Jacob, to have the Jewish people.
[00:23:24] So it comes out that only because Abraham, Avraham listened to Hashem, was the promise of his offspring getting the land of Israel and becoming the Jewish nation fulfilled. If Avraham um Avinu of Abraham had made his own calculations with Aqeedah, maybe it's better God made a promise for me that I'll have children, that I'll have great grandchildren, that they'll inherit the land. He would have made his old calculation and not brought Yitzchak as an offering.
[00:23:53] He would have never had any children, and the promise of his descendants would have never been realized. So what seemed to be his destruction was actually ensured its realization that bringing Yitzhak to the Al Qaeda made this reality, that the children of Abraham should inherit the land of Israel.
[00:24:17] I think the very powerful lesson we take from this is that we think that we can get ahead.
[00:24:26] We make decisions sometimes based on our rationalizations of what we need to do, what we should do, and sometimes maybe we'll even do things, maybe not the right way, because we think we need to get ahead.
[00:24:43] But it's when we do things the right way, that's how we get to the correct results that we're supposed to have. Meaning, the best way to understand this, if a bank robber robs a bank and steals $30,000, he could have made that same $30,000 by doing the right thing, by doing the will of Hashem.
[00:25:06] And actually, I saw it brought down in this sefer, in this book that there was a famous, you know, mobster. His name is Lucky Luciano, and Lucky Luciano, that was his name, because someone tried to shoot him once and they missed. And actually, During World War II, this mobster, um, you know, the Mafia was in charge of the ports. And the government made a deal with him that they should, the Mafia should keep an eye on the ports to watch out for German spies. And they were able to help the U.S. government. And later on in his life, when he got caught for other organized crime, because he had helped the government, the United States sort of like sent him to Sicily to live the rest of his life in peace. They let him off.
[00:25:57] And later in his life, he was interviewed and they asked him, like, about, you know, organized crime and what's your takeaway from it all? And he said, he said, looking back, I could have invested the same effort to earn money legally.
[00:26:11] It takes the same amount of work to make a legal dollar as it does to make an illegal dollar.
[00:26:17] He came to this realization himself. But the point is, and we see from the parsha this idea that when we do what's right, you never lose out, you always gain. So with that, I'm going to finish for today's podcast. I hope you enjoyed. If you have any questions, comments, or would like to reach out, feel free to send me an email at Rabbi Shlomo Kohn Kohn at gmail com. Have a great day.
