Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello, my friends, and welcome back to this week's episode of the Practical Parsha Podcast. This is Rabbi Shlomo Cohen, and I hope you are well.
[00:00:07] We're jumping right back into the weekly parsha. It's Parsha as Lechlecha. Jam packed. We're going to begin talking about Avraham Avinu Abraham.
[00:00:19] But before we do, as always, the usual spiel. Do you want to say hello, introduce yourself?
[00:00:28] Feel free to send the email shlomo konkohnmail.com I'd love to hear from you.
[00:00:34] This week's parsha is Parshas Lechlecha. Parshas Lechlecha is the introduction to Avraham Avinu to Abraham, the first forefather of the Jewish people. The Parasha tells us how Hashem God tells Avraham um Avinu to leave his homeland, the place of his birth, his father's house, everything, leave everything behind and go to the place that God will tell him, doesn't tell him where he's going, doesn't tell him the destination.
[00:01:05] And Hashem tells Avramavinu to go to the land of Canaan. And actually, this is the beginning of the 10 tests of Avraham, uh, Avinu, the 10 tests of Abraham that God, in order to see how much Avraham Abraham is dedicated towards him, he gives them tests.
[00:01:25] And these tests aren't meant to just play with Avraham M Avinu. They're not doing that. That's not what God does. God does tests to bring out the best in us.
[00:01:36] And actually, I've talked about this in previous episodes from Parshas Lechlacha. You can look it up, but the point is, is that if we don't work out that muscle, it'll never develop. And that's why Hashem gives us tests. This week's Parasha continues with the story of Avraham, how he goes to Eretzkena. And then after going to Eretzkenaan, the land of Canaan, Hashem gives him another test. He makes a famine in the land that he told him to go to. And now Avraham Avinu Abraham has to pick up himself and his family and go to Egypt, the most immoral place in the world. And when Avraham goes there, it's not just that his wife Sarah gets kidnapped.
[00:02:18] Finally, Paro, the king of Egypt, releases Avraham's wife and he sends him away with many riches.
[00:02:27] The Parsha continues how Avraham Avinu Abraham returns to Eretz Yisrael that land of Canaan. He parts ways with his nephew Lot, who is not following in the proper ways of the Torah. The shepherds of Lot and the shepherds of Avram, they're having a disagreement and Avram feels that it's not appropriate for him to stay together with someone who's not going to do the, you know, act appropriately. Therefore, they split ways. Lot decides to go where the fertile land is, to the land of Sedom, even though it's maybe not the best place for him to be, not the best influence.
[00:03:06] But Avraham uh, Avinu continues, they separate.
[00:03:09] The Parasha also tells us about how Lot is captured and how Avram Abraham goes out of his way to rescue his nephew from his oppressors. Another storyline in this week's Parasha is also the Brisbane Absarim, where Hashem God reassures Avraham that he will become a great nation, that he will have children, his children will have children, and they'll not just be a child, but his descendants will be as many as the sand and the stars. And he makes a covenant with him. It's called the Pris Baynabsarim. Also in this covenant, Hashem tells Avraham Avinu how his children are going to be exiled in the land of Egypt. They are going to have to go down to Mitsrayim. But when they go, they will come out.
[00:04:00] Even though they will go down into Egypt as slaves, they will come out and return to the land of Israel. The Parsha concludes with the covenant Abrist between Hashem and Avraham Avinu. Hashem God comes to Avraham Avinu when he is 99 years old. And he tells him, he says, you're going to have children.
[00:04:19] And aside from that, he gives Avram, um, a new name. Instead of being Avraham, he's Avraham.
[00:04:27] Additionally, he gives him the Mitzvah of Circumcision and tells him that his wife Sarai is now to be called Sarah, gives her a new name.
[00:04:35] Avraham Avinu takes the Mitzvah of circumcision and performs it upon himself and all the male members and household of his family.
[00:04:46] The first idea I want to share with you today takes us really to the overview of this whole Parsha and really all the parshios, the Torah portions that we're going to be having for the next bunch of weeks. Over the next five, six, seven weeks, we're going to be living with the Avos. We're living with our forefathers and our mothers, right? Avraham, Abraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Sarah, Rivka, Rachel, Leah, um, these are the founders of the Jewish people.
[00:05:18] Now, there's a concept which I've talked about in the past.
[00:05:21] It's called Maisa avos Simeon Labanim.
[00:05:25] That what our forefathers did in the past has an effect on us on the way we are now. This has many ramifications. And what I want to focus on today is, uh, something specific regarding this concept. But the general idea is that the way that we are today as individuals, as a nation, the Jewish people as a whole, the way that we're. So we have this perseverance that we're bound together, we're able to withstand challenges, persecution.
[00:05:58] You know, we have a certain drive for spirituality is something which didn't just happen by itself.
[00:06:07] It's something which was given over to us in our spiritual DNA. Uh, just like a parent gives over to a child DNA. And every generation, you add on to that DNA strand.
[00:06:20] So too, on the spiritual level, you know, when we do something good, when we do a mitzvah, we're fortifying our descendants with the ability to do the right thing.
[00:06:32] Now, this didn't just start from us. It starts from our forefathers, Avraham Avinu. It starts from Abraham. He was the first, you know, forefather. And Sarah, what they did, their actions of misiras, nefesh, of giving themselves over totally for Hashem, put into their descendants the ability to withstand any challenge and any temptation, no matter what's going to come their way. The fact that Jewish people are willing to give up their lives for the Torah, for God, for Hashem, um, every generation, no matter how, you know, disconnected or connected they may be, comes from Avramavinu, uh, and our forefathers, Avraham Mitzvah Gaakov.
[00:07:12] Now, I just want to focus in on one point of this idea. It says, maisa avos Simon Labanim. And literally, it means the action of our forefathers is a sign for the children.
[00:07:27] Now, I saw Rabbi Fran brings down that when we know when it comes to Avraham Avinu, when he came to Egypt, because of this famine, he was forced to go down to Egypt.
[00:07:38] The Parsha tells us that he looks at his wife Sarah, and he says, now I see you're a beautiful woman.
[00:07:46] And it's interesting, the question, the commentary is raised like, Avraham, um, married Sarah, and he never knew she was beautiful. Because the Parsha goes on to say that he had to hide Sarah, because Egypt was the most immoral place in the world. And he recognized a danger, that if he would come into Egypt with his beautiful wife, they would murder him to take her.
[00:08:08] So Rashi explains, of course, Avraham, Avina knew his wife was beautiful. He was married to her.
[00:08:14] But why is it necessary now to bring out this point? Why does the Torah tell us that Avraham recognized it? Says it, I know that you are a beautiful woman now, right? I'm, um, paraphrasing the verses in the Torah.
[00:08:27] The Torah says it. Why is it necessary for us to say this if Avraham, um, knew it? Right?
[00:08:34] And the answer that Rashi tells us is that because he was going to Egypt and now it was a dangerous time, he recognized that it was a time for action. He had to do something, you know, to prevent. To prevent danger, to prevent an immoral act from happening.
[00:08:53] So he took action.
[00:08:54] And I think this ties very well into the concept of maisa avos Simeon Le Bonim. The actions of our forefathers are the sign for our children.
[00:09:05] It's not the thoughts of our forefathers that are the sign for our children. It's the actions.
[00:09:11] And I think this is a very powerful lesson in life because we have to make decisions all the time.
[00:09:18] What to do, what not to do.
[00:09:21] And many times we're stuck on, um, what's the appropriate action to take.
[00:09:28] And sometimes we freeze and we don't do anything.
[00:09:33] The truth is, is that it's. We need to remember that we need to take action.
[00:09:39] We can't just be indecisive. We need to know how to act and when to act.
[00:09:45] I remember hearing that, you know, when it comes to car accidents, most car accidents are caused by indecisiveness because one person is not sure if he wants to go or he is sure he's not sure. And then they're, you know, that's how an accident happens when we make a decision.
[00:10:02] So then we made the decision. You could always come back and, you know, if it's the wrong decision, you could always come back and fix it up later. But indecision is worse than making a bad decision at times. Again, I'm not saying we should be rash. We got to think things through. But the point is that when it comes to doing, we got to keep moving forward. We got to keep, you know, trying to do the right thing. And I think this is a, uh, very powerful idea because it takes us to, uh, you know, another idea which I saw brought down in the name of the Chavez Chaim.
[00:10:35] The Chavez Chaim explains that the Torah tells us that Hashem commanded Avram, um, to leave his, you know, his land, his birthplace, his father's house, to the land that I will show you. But it doesn't say which land I'm going to show, you know, take you to. It doesn't say, Hashem didn't tell him, I'm taking you, you know, to the land of Israel, to the land of Canaan.
[00:11:00] But we see later on in the verses, it says, vayika ach Avraham es sora yishtoi ve's loyt benoche ve' ch kolash eruchoshem asherochoshu ah.
[00:11:14] Avram took his wife, Sarai and Lot, his brother's son, and all their wealth that they had amassed and the souls that they made in Haran, and they left to go to the land of Canaan, and they came to the land of Canaan.
[00:11:25] And it's actually interesting because in last week's Parasha, it also says, vayik, uh, achterach as Avraham Binoy vesloit ben Haron ben benoi ve' Sarai kalosa she Avram benoi ve' etzo yitama your Kazan lechazzar TZ Hakanan veivo adhoron vayishusham Avram and his Lot, the son of Haron and his grandson, his daughter in law, Sarai and the wife of Avram, his son. And they departed with them from Or Kazdim to go to the land of Canaan.
[00:11:52] They arrived at Haran and they settled there.
[00:11:55] Right now, it's interesting, it seems that Avraham Avinu, he knew instinctively that he had to get to the land of Canaan, land of Israel. And even though Hashem told him, he didn't tell him exactly where he's taking him to. But Avraham instinctively knew where he wanted to go.
[00:12:13] And I think the chavatz chayim brings out a powerful lesson here that every Jew has to go in the way of Avraham Avinu. Avraham Avinu. He knew what he wanted. He knew where he wanted to get to.
[00:12:26] His north star was pointed in one direction, which is to do with the will of Hashem to get to the land of Israel, right? For him, he knew that's the next place he needed to be.
[00:12:37] And I think the idea here is that when a person has in his mind to accomplish, he wants to get something done.
[00:12:46] And especially when it comes to matters of spirituality, you Know, doing good things, doing mitzvahs. If a person, you know, has the North Star, that in his mind, he has that goal set for himself, Hashem, God is going to help him get to the finish line, right? We see that. Avraham Avinu, he knew it instinctively.
[00:13:08] He knew that he needed to get there, and he got there, right? And that's the, uh, lesson, this week's Parasha, that really ties into the last idea. Because when we take action for the appropriate things in the appropriate fashion and we have our goals set out for us, we're going to get to the right place. We might make mistakes along the way, we might fall down at times, but we're going to get there. If we just keep up that positive attitude, we keep that vision, we know where we're supposed to be, and, you know, we have a plan to get there, God is going to help us succeed again. Ultimately, success is not in our hands. But if we have that, you know, we're pointed in the right direction and we keep pushing and have that positive attitude, and obviously, of course, Davin, who we pray to Hashem to give us that success, God willing, we're going to get there.
[00:13:59] The last idea I want to share with you today takes us to the Bris b', inabsarim, the covenant of the parts where Hashem makes a, you know, an agreement, a binding agreement with Avraham Avinu about his children, that they're going to be, you know, as numerous as the stars and the sand. He takes him outside and shows him, and he also tells them about the exile into Egypt and the different challenges, the, you know, the exiles that the Jewish people will face.
[00:14:30] The verse says something interesting in the conversation that Hashem has with Avraham Avinu. The Torah says, vehemim b' Hashem v' yachshevea loy litzdaka. And he trusted in Hashem and he reckoned it to him as righteousness. Meaning it seems that, right. Hashem gave special credit. He recognized the specialness of Avramavinu's faith, that how his emunah, his faith in Hashem was something super special, right? Avramavinu trusted God totally, right? He had the 10 tests, and throughout all these different tests, he never questioned God's motive. He never questioned anything. He did it faithfully, 110%.
[00:15:14] And Hashem recognized it, that his faith, his emunah, was meritorious. Now, the question that Rabbi Turski brings down, I think it's a valid question, is that if God would speak to you to me.
[00:15:28] Would we doubt for a moment that he's not going to keep his word?
[00:15:33] Right? Of course. If Hashem would talk to us, I would also have faith that it's going to happen. If God would tell me the lotto numbers, of course, I'll buy a lotto ticket to make sure with the numbers that he told me it's God. If God told me something's gonna happen, I'm gonna believe it. I'm not gonna question it. I'm gonna have faith in it.
[00:15:53] So what's so special from the fact that Avraham Avinu, that Abraham had this special faith in Hashem, that G D looked at in this meritorious way?
[00:16:05] Matorski brings down a beautiful idea from Rabbitcha Lechovitzer.
[00:16:10] He says that the Gemara, the Talmud tells us that when a person passes to the next world after 120, there's different questions that are going to be asked of him. And one of the questions that are asked of each and every one of us is, did we transact in faith? Meaning, were we honest in business? That's the literal meaning of the question.
[00:16:31] Do we, you know, did we do things honestly where we fear?
[00:16:35] You know, do we follow through with our word?
[00:16:39] The way that Mordechai Lechovitzer understands this and how it applies to our Parsha, he says that a businessman, when it comes to a transaction, he doesn't just settle for, you know, okay, I made a few bucks. He'll try to squeeze out every penny that he can to make the most profit, right? That's how a successful businessman is to use whatever leverage he has and, you know, techniques and abilities to maximize the profit of his investment, of his. Of his whatever, he's doing the business transaction.
[00:17:14] And he says that another way of understanding this and maybe on a. On a, you know, deeper level, I'll, uh, p. Drush expounding in a different way. The Gemara says, Amarava Bisha shemachnisara, Adam Ladin Oymon Loy says, when a person, Rava says, after departing this world, a person is brought to judgment. They're going to ask him different questions. And the first question they're going to ask is, nasasa vanasatah bemuna, did you conduct your business faithfully?
[00:17:43] Now, it's interesting, that same word. Did you hear that word?
[00:17:48] Did you do things honestly?
[00:17:51] So the way there of Mordechai Lechovitzer understands is that not just that when it comes to your amuna, to your faith in Hashem, not just referring to business.
[00:17:59] But were you like the businessman that tries to get everything out of it? Meaning, did you work on your emunah? Did you work on your faith? Did you work on your bitachon?
[00:18:09] Did you try to improve it?
[00:18:11] And if you take this idea to our question that we said earlier regarding Avraham Avinu, of course, if Hashem would speak to us, if God would speak to us, it would have an impact. But Avraham, uh, Avinu v', Abraham, that's not what happened.
[00:18:25] He's somebody. The reason why his faith was meritorious is bitachon. His trust in God was steadfast and special, is because that was something he worked on throughout his entire life, something that started one way. And we all know Avraham Avinu, he went through stages. He first, you know, before he realized about Hashem on his own, he went through phases, and he got to that point.
[00:18:46] And it's something that he worked on throughout his life to get to a place where he had no questions ever. He did everything faithfully.
[00:18:53] I think this is a very powerful insight, not just into emunah, about working on our faith, you know, to increase it as we go through our lives and to use the experiences in our life as springboards to exercise that muscle to make it stronger so that when we, you know, we're able to withstand the challenges and not question, not question. But it's not just for this, where we can use this idea from Avraham Avinu. It's really in all the mitzvos and everything we do.
[00:19:19] Because, you know, the way we daven a lot of times, it's the same way that we've been davening since we've been in first grade.
[00:19:27] Is it improving as we go through our lives? Is the way we keep Shabbos the same way we've been doing it since we learned about the laws of Shabbos? Is the way we do certain mitzvahs, we put on tefill in the same way we've been doing it since our bar mitzvah.
[00:19:41] The way we do things, you know, I'm saying first on a first level, spiritual level, is that it should be better as we go through our lives. Are we trying to get the most out of it? Are we growing with the mitzvahs that we do to become more and more connected with Hashem? And I can really take this even a step further into our, uh, mundane, physical lives. Are the things we're doing. Are we doing it the same way that we've been doing it for years, or are we trying to improve ourselves as we go through this journey of life? Uh, when it comes to the relationships with our loved ones, with our family, with our children, are we doing it the same way that we've been doing it for the last 25 years?
[00:20:19] These are questions we need to ask ourselves even at work.
[00:20:22] Are we getting stale? We need to constantly be trying to do things better and better as we go through life to become the best people we can. I think this is a very powerful idea we see from Avramavinu because the way that he had this special, you know, meritorious faith in Hashem was because it was something that he worked on. He's Nasasa venmuna. He worked on his faith throughout his life. And it's not just faith, it's everything. It's all the mitzvahs we do, we gotta improve upon them as we go forward. And it's not just the mitzvahs even. It's relationships. It's the mundane things we do just to become better people. It's a mindset, growth oriented. And it's, you know, you always see when you meet different types of people, there's just certain types of people, they're growth oriented and it's a breath of fresh air because, uh, when you're somebody who is looking to go up, you could, you know, you find like minded people and you, you become elevated and you elevate those around you. And I think that's a very beautiful idea. We see from this week's Parasha. So that one will finish for this week's episode. If you have any questions, comments, or would like to reach out, feel free to send me an email@rabbi shlomokon kohn.com have a great day.
