[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.
[00:00:07] Before we begin this week's episode, the usual. If you have any questions, comments, would like to reach out.
[00:00:14] Don't be afraid, send me that email. I'd love to hear from you.
[00:00:19] Rabbiishlamokon kohnmail.com this week's parsha is Parshas Vayera and it happens to be. It's a jam packed parsha with so many different stories and lessons.
[00:00:37] Just to give a quick overview of the weekly Torah portion. The parasha begins with Avraham Avinu, Abraham, who has just given himself a circumcision. He just did the Mitzvah of and now he's recovering. And Hashem, God sends Malachim angels to visit him and to give him a special message.
[00:01:04] These Malachim, these angels tell Avraham Avinu that he's going to have a son.
[00:01:12] Additionally, the Malachim, the angels tell Avram, um, that Sedom, the wicked city of Sedom and Amora, these five cities are going to be destroyed. Av Avram does his part to try to intercede on behalf of the people of Sedom. He begs Hashem, he begs God to please save the city if there's righteous people there. And he starts off with if there's 50 righteous people and there are not 50 righteous people. And then at uh, the 40 and there's not 40 righteous people and then 30 and 20 and 10.
[00:01:47] Until finally Hashem tells him that there's not even 10 righteous people there. At that point Avram falls back and Hashem is going to destroy the city of Sedom and Amorah. The parsha continues with the angels, the Malachim that were previously with Avraham Avinu, with Abraham, they go to rescue Lot, the nephew of Avram in the city of Sedom.
[00:02:11] And the parsha speaks about lots of very interesting fellow he was.
[00:02:16] He grew up in the house of Avramavinu. But yet at the same time he made the mistake of letting the pull for money, for desire for financial success pull him to make some bad decisions, which was to live in the city of Sodom. Sodom was known to be a very prosperous area. But at the same time the prosperity that the people had translated into a horrible society which totally focused on money and there was different roles. The Midrash tells us that Sedom was an evil city where if somebody would feed a poor person, they would be killed. And if people did acts of chesed of kindness, they would be run out of the city because people were afraid of, of anybody else settling there to take away their money. That's where the evil stemmed from. But either way, alot ends up in Sedom and the Malachim. You know, it was ingrained in Lot, the mitzvah, uh, the ideals of Avraham Avinu, even though it wasn't fully implemented to a certain degree to do akhnasis orchem to open your house. And these angels come in, they're the guests of lo. He takes care of them and they tell him that the city is going to be destroyed.
[00:03:37] Lot tries to convince his son in laws and married daughters to come with him, but they don't heed his warning. Rather he takes his single daughters and his wife with the Malachim and they run out of the city.
[00:03:54] And actually on the way the Malachim, they tell the family not to look bad, they tell the family not to look behind them as the city is being destroyed. But Lot's wife doesn't heed the warning and she turns into a pile of salt. And actually they say, the tour guides, when you go to the Dead Sea, don't know if it's true, but this is what they say. There's a big huge pile of salt, tower of salt, they say that is Lot's wife. Don't know if that's true or not, but either way that's what the tour guides say in Israel.
[00:04:27] But the point is that Lot is saved from the destruction of the city.
[00:04:31] And the Parsha continues how the two daughters of Lot, thinking that the world has been destroyed and there's nobody else left, they live with their father and actually bore from them, from the children that are born from them is the uh, are the nations of Ammon and Moab.
[00:04:51] The Parsha continues with the birth of Yitzchak, the birth of Isaac, and how he is being raised in the house of Avraham Avinu.
[00:05:00] We know from last week's Parasha that Avram um had a son before Yitzhak, before Isaac, from Hagar.
[00:05:08] His son was Yishmael.
[00:05:11] Yishmoel was born from Hagar.
[00:05:13] And the Torah tells us how Hagar and Yishmo are becoming a negative influence on Yitzchak.
[00:05:20] And Sarah sees this and tells Avraham um Avinu to banish them from the house.
[00:05:27] Avram, who was the epitome of kindness, the epitome of chesed, of doing for others. It's very hard for him to drive away his own son.
[00:05:37] He asks Hashem what to do. He asks G D. And G D agrees with Sarah, and he has to send them away.
[00:05:44] The Parsha tells us how Avraham and Hagar are miraculously saved and how Hashem promises her that her son will become into a great nation.
[00:05:55] Finally, the Parasha concludes with probably the climax, which is the 10th and final trial of Avraham Avinu, which is the binding of Yitzchak Akidas Yitzchak, that after all these years of Avraham Avinu, Abraham preaching to the world against idolatry, against sacrificing your children, Hashem ah comes to him and says, you, Avraham Avinu, should take your son, your only son, the one that I promise will be coming to a great nation to take him and to slaughter him.
[00:06:29] And Avraham Avinu, he listens, he hears the word of Hashem, he takes his son and he goes to follow the commandment of Hashem.
[00:06:41] The Parsha describes the journey that Avraham and Yitzchak go on to fulfill this mitzvah, to fill this commandment.
[00:06:50] And at the last moment before Avraham Avinu is about to Shacht, is about to slaughter his son Yitzhak, Hashem uh, says, stop, I'm just doing this to test you.
[00:07:02] And we've talked about in previous years the idea of a test, what Hashem was trying to do. But I think one idea just to give a quick, really synopsis and maybe a quick lesson here before we dive into the deeper ideas of the Parsha, is that the idea of tests, and I think this week's Parasha specifically emphasizes for us the concept of mind over our emotions.
[00:07:28] You know, we have a heart which drives, driven by feelings, by emotions.
[00:07:33] Then we have our mind, our intellect, which we make decisions, and we want to make the correct decisions.
[00:07:40] Now, many times we let our heart, our emotion, our desires, things that pull us affect the logic when we make a decision.
[00:07:52] And that a lot of times ends up with bad decisions.
[00:07:57] In this week's Parsha, we see that when it comes to the decisions we make. And our relationship with Hashem has to be mind over emotions, intellect over emotions.
[00:08:08] Because if Hashem tells you to do something, even if we have the most emotional feeling to do something different, we have to use the Seichel, the intellect that Hashem uh has given us, that G D has given us to make the correct decision. I think this is really what's emphasized the most from the Akedah Avraham, uh, Avinu. He knew what his purpose in this world was. He had to fulfill the will of Hashem.
[00:08:34] And no matter what emotion he felt, that was what he needed to do. Even the love for his son that Hashem had promised him for all these years of waiting and waiting and waiting, he didn't let that override the commandment that God had given him to go and slaughter his son. And this is a very powerful lesson just in general, when it comes to our decisions we make in life, we can't let the emotions rule the show. It's a very powerful thought. Right? Think about it with children for a minute. That if a child just cries to us because they don't want to get a shot, they don't want to go to the dentist, the parent is harming the child.
[00:09:12] If the child just cries and the parent doesn't want to do anything, he's harming the child.
[00:09:18] Right? It's not a good parent. Parent has to do what's best for the child, even if the emotions are pulling on him. I think this is just the lesson in general, when it comes to our outlook in life has to be intellect over emotion.
[00:09:31] Now, the first idea on the shivdi today takes us to the beginning of the parsha.
[00:09:36] So, as I said earlier, the parsha begins with Avramavinu. He's recovering from his circumcision.
[00:09:43] And the parsha tells us how Hashem took the sun out. He made it very, very hot outside.
[00:09:51] And what was the reason why he did this? He did this Hashem so that Avram Abraham shouldn't be bothered with any guests.
[00:09:59] Avraham Avinu, he, you know, he represents chesed. He was something he was so involved with. He always did chesed. He did kindness for another people. People would come to him for food, for drink, for lodging, and he would provide.
[00:10:13] So in order that Avraham Avinu Abraham should recover from his, you know, surgery that he had. Hashem made it, the sun should be extra hot, that there should be no travelers. And Avraham Avinu could rest. But we see that Avram, it bothered him in the beginning of the Parasha. It bothered him that there's no guests, and he's looking at the doorway to see if there's anybody passing, if there's anybody he can invite to be his guests.
[00:10:40] And the question I actually heard, um, one of my chavruses, one of my study partners, Rabbi Weiss Shabiga, benched. He said, the question that's asked is that you know, there's many chesed organizations, there's many beautiful organizations that do amazing things for the Jewish people, right? You think about it, there's organizations that help people with cancer. There's organizations that give people kosher food in the hospital.
[00:11:05] There's volunteer ambulance services, right? These are all amazing organizations. Chesed. It's kindness to help the Jewish people, help people.
[00:11:15] And you know, the question he asked is that if there would be, you know, no people in the hospital for bikar cholem, for the people who, you know, to give kosher food to, would we be sad, right? If there would be no calls for hatzalah, the volunteer, ah, ambulance service to go to, would we be sad? Would it bother us that we can't do the mitzvah of chesed, right? If there's no bigacholem, there's no hatzalah, we would be happy. There's nobody to serve. It's such a great. It's such a happiness. There's nobody for us to do chesed for. There's nobody for us to do kindness for. There's no sick people. There's nobody who needs lodging because everyone's taken care of. There's nobody who needs an ambulance service, because nobody needs ambulances.
[00:11:59] Why would it bother us? We would be happy.
[00:12:02] And the question that is asked is that if Avraham, you know, if there's nobody out there to be serviced, right? There's nobody traveling around that needs a lodging, right? So why does it bother Avraham Avinu? Why does it bother Abraham so much that he needs to have a guest?
[00:12:18] Why is he looking? He should be happy. Everyone's taken care of. Nobody needs a place to stay, nobody needs a meal. Everything's great. Just relax and be happy that, you know, nobody needs anything.
[00:12:30] So the answer to this is really, I think maybe we could bring it out in some of the experiences I've seen, you know, a lot of times you're dealing with families and I'm not, you know, I don't want to say this in the right way to be sensitive. Sometimes you hear from people who maybe who've lost a loved one and let's say a loved one was in a situation where they couldn't really respond, they couldn't really.
[00:12:55] You don't know if they're hearing you or not. And it's hard. Those situations, they're not eating, they're not talking, they're not communicating. Maybe they're even in a vegetative state. That's an extreme of it.
[00:13:05] And sometimes when people pass on, there's a certain feeling where people say, okay, you know, they're in a better place and, you know, they're not suffering. And I'm not taking away from that. But the Jewish outlook, when it comes to life in general, life is sacred.
[00:13:20] You know, you're never allowed to pull the plug on somebody. There's a lot of halachos, there's a lot of, you know, areas of Jewish law that govern this. And we value every single moment of life. Even if a person is, quote, unquote, you know, not alert, not oriented, it's, you know, it's sacred. And really the question is, is like, you know, why is this? If a person is not responding, a person is not there.
[00:13:43] Why is it so sacred? He can't do any mitzvahs anyways? Like, what's the. What's the point? What's the point of them being here? They're just sitting there in a vegetative state, in an unresponsive, you know, mode.
[00:13:54] So what good is the fact that they're in this world, right? You could think of that thought.
[00:13:59] But the truth is, is that when a person is in that state, sometimes, you know, what's the, you know, there's other people, you know, it's fine. They can't do anything. They can't do a mitzvah, uh, they can't do act of kindness, they can't speak.
[00:14:14] But other people can do for them, right? The children have to work together to take care of their parent, right? Or their loved one, right? And what comes out of this is that, is that even though this individual can't do anything, but it comes out that through this person who's in this state, who's unresponsive, through them, comes out a tikkun, a sanctification of Hashem's name, or a, uh, fixing up for the children that are helping him.
[00:14:46] So even if they're not doing anything, the fact that the person is there is helping others get to the perfection they need to get to.
[00:14:54] It's, uh, a very beautiful thought because, you know, a person could always be the cause of doing good in this world. And just to take it back to this week's parsha, we see by Avraham, uh, Avinu, why did he want to do chesed? Why did he want to do kindness? Because. Did he want to help people? Sure, he wanted to help people. And sure it's important when it comes to chesed to do for others. That's a major part of it. But ultimately, when it comes to doing good for others, or just doing good in general, to do chesed, who is the person who benefits the most from that?
[00:15:32] Is it the person you're servicing or is it us? Is it me? You, the person who's doing the chesed? So Avraham Avinu, he loved chesed so much. Sure, he liked to help others and to give them that meal and to give them that lodging. But the real reason why he wanted to do it, he knew the deeper sense of it. He wanted to fix up himself, to get to the highest place, to serve Hashem in the highest mode. I think it's just an amazing thought. When it comes to doing mitzvahs, to doing for others, it's not about, you know, doing for others is important, but ultimately we are the biggest receivers of the things we do.
[00:16:08] And if we think about it in that sense, it makes the mitzvos when it comes to chesed. Chesed is not easy. Doing for others is not easy. People are difficult sometimes it can be annoying, it could be challenging, it could be going out of our way. But ultimately, who benefits the most from this? And the answer is us, because we become better people, we improve ourselves, we make the world a better place. And like, that's. That's chesn. That's why Avraham Avinu is so bothered that people weren't passing, because he wanted to be better, he wanted to improve himself. I think that's a very powerful idea we see from this week's Parsha. The second idea I want to share with you today takes us to the story of Avram beseeching Hashem to save Sedom.
[00:16:48] Now the parsha tells us that Avram said, if there's 50 righteous people, Hashem please save Sedom.
[00:16:56] And Hashem responded, There's not 50 righteous people. Hashem would have saved the city. And Avraham keeps going down and down and down. He says, 40 righteous people. There's not 40 righteous people.
[00:17:07] 30, 20, 10. Right. If there would have been even 10 righteous people, Hashem would have saved the cities of Sedom.
[00:17:16] It's an amazing thought.
[00:17:18] Because of this small minority, these metropolises would have been saved from extinction.
[00:17:26] Now the meshechochokhma Rav Meir Simcha Koyn from Dvinsk, he explains from this, you know, this episode in the Parsha that there's two types of good.
[00:17:39] There's absolute good and then there's good when it's considered in relationship to, you know, know, evil around it.
[00:17:48] So when it comes to the Story of Sedom Avraham Avinu the Great. You know, Omar Hased, the pillar of kindness that he was. What did he request?
[00:17:58] He didn't say the whole city should be righteous people. He said just 50 people, or even 40, even 30, 20, 10, 10 people, please save the city.
[00:18:09] And because of those 10 people, the merit, their merit, the city would have been saved.
[00:18:16] Right? So this is a very important concept just circling back.
[00:18:21] You know, a lot of times we think of ourselves as we beat ourselves up. We beat ourselves up, we say, ah, we're no good. We think about all the things we're doing wrong.
[00:18:33] But the truth is, is that, is that the correct attitude that we need to have?
[00:18:39] If we think about the story of Avraham Avinu and Sidon, he was focusing on the 10 righteous people.
[00:18:47] And if you think about that, it's not so much, but those 10 righteous people compared to everybody else would have been enough to save the city.
[00:18:56] So the meshechachma Meir Simcha explains that if we, when we think down upon ourselves, right, but the question is, maybe we should compare ourselves, you know, to everybody else, you know, with comparison to the rest of the world, I think we're doing pretty good, right? Uh, from what we're doing last year, let's even ourselves, are we doing better? Probably, yes.
[00:19:18] So we got to think of ourselves, you know, in comparison, that we're doing good because we compare ourselves to what else is going on in the world.
[00:19:26] But at the same time, if we start feeling haughty and we think we're too high and we're perfect, so then we have to think of ourselves, that how much more for us to attain. Think about all the righteous levels, the high levels of Torah ideals that we need to get to. And that having that in mind of where we need to get to, of absolute good brings us back to the humility that we need to have. So it's a balance of the two, because on one side we have ideals, maybe we're a perfectionist. And, you know, we just want to be the best. So if we're not becoming the best, we beat ourselves up. So we got to remember that in comparison to everybody else, we're doing great.
[00:20:07] And the flip side, if we start feeling too, you know, too high, we're getting haughty. We have to remember how much further we need to go. And this, actually, this is really epitomized very much by Avraham Avinu, because we see that at certain times he says to himself that he refers himself as dust and ashes.
[00:20:29] But that was in one pocket, and the other pocket is B' shvili nevre'. Olam. Um, because for me, the world was created. We know that Avraham Avinu says. Hashem tells Avraham Avinu, you're going to be a nation like the sand and the stars, and really have to have in both of our pockets, we have to have that the world was created for us on one hand, and on the other pocket, we need to remember that Anuchi Afar v' efer that we're like dirt. Not that we're like dirt, but we have to be able to level, to be balanced out. And I think this is a very, very powerful idea because, you know, sometimes we think of ourselves, we really beat ourselves up sometimes. But if we just focus on the good we're doing and weird things were beforehand, you know, how are you doing now versus, uh, seven weeks ago or ten weeks ago or a few months ago, or for everyone else around you, the situation. If you find yourself in a new job and you're not sure if you're doing good or not, ask yourself, is, is this place better than it is now, than it was, you know, a few months ago? And if the answer is yes, it's a success.
[00:21:26] But at the same time you're getting haughty from the position that you're in, then you got to remember, oh, there's so much more I need to get to. There's so much more I need to accomplish. It's just like, you know, I think it could be applied in a lot of different areas in our life, whether it's spirituality and the things we're accomplishing, even in our.
[00:21:43] The general goals that we have for our life. And I think this is a very beautiful idea. We see from this week's Parasha. The last idea I want to share with you today takes us to the story of Avram Abraham sending away his son Yishmael and his wife Hagar. So the Torah tells us that it was very difficult for Avraham Avinu to send away his maidservant Hagar and Yishmael his son. But the Torah tells us that Avram gets up early in the morning and he prepares them provisions and. And he sends them out.
[00:22:15] So this is actually very interesting because we know the commentary tell us how hard this was for Avraham Avinu. But yet Hashem, uh, told him that he had to do this. It was the right thing to do.
[00:22:26] And yet what was his action? He didn't delay.
[00:22:29] He got up right away in the morning, did what he had to do, went and moved forward.
[00:22:36] So I think this lesson is super important for us.
[00:22:39] There's so many times when we just procrastinate. There's things we don't want to do and we push it off, push it off, push it off. There's an expression that a friend of mine said, is that in the business world they say you got to swallow the frog. You swallow it right away in the morning. You do the thing that you're most not looking forward to do first, because if that's the right thing to do, you need to do it. Don't push it off. Because if we procrastinate, most likely we're going to procrastinate more. The idea is that if we need to get it done, even if we don't want to do it, but if it's the right thing to do, get up and go and do it. And that's another idea we see from this week's Parsha. 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
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