[00:00:00] Hello, my friends, and welcome back for this week's episode of the Practical Parsha podcast. This is Rabbi Shlomo Cohen, and I hope you are well.
[00:00:09] Before we begin this week's episode, I wanted to make a request of you, the audience.
[00:00:17] So, as many of you know, been doing the podcasting for the past few years, something which I enjoy tremendously.
[00:00:26] And, um, I'm so thankful for you, the listeners, and the great feedback that I've gotten over the years, as well as the, uh, friends and relationships that have been built through this podcast. Thank God it happens to be that I'm not a full time podcaster.
[00:00:44] I do it on the side.
[00:00:46] I still have to make a living for my family.
[00:00:49] And for the past few years, what I've been doing, um, my job has been the director of outreach and programming at the Bensalem Jewish Outreach center in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. And now, actually, I'm coming to a point in my career, uh, where I have to change jobs. Nothing, uh, bad. It was a great experience. Just time to move on to new endeavors.
[00:01:13] And the organization that I previously worked for, they are honoring my wife and I at their upcoming dinner, which is going to be coming up this coming Thursday.
[00:01:24] So you might say to yourself, so what does that have to do with me? You know, I'm not coming to the dinner.
[00:01:30] But the answer to that is that really this podcast, the way it got started, really has a lot to do with the organization that I worked for for the past few years, being involved in Jewish education, Jewish outreach.
[00:01:46] And it was really this position that I was in previously that helped give me the springboard to do podcasting, gave me the wavelength in my mind to do such a thing, to accomplish such an endeavor. Thank God I'm doing it. Don't get nervous.
[00:02:02] Still planning on doing the podcasting and keeping it going, God willing, for many, many years. But I believe that this organization, opportunity that I got from this organization helped springboard me to start my podcasting career.
[00:02:17] And really what that means is not about me. It's not about career, but it's about spreading Torah and connecting Jews to their heritage.
[00:02:24] And it really would really mean a lot to me. Even though maybe you're in different parts of the world, but if you enjoy this podcast, it would mean so much to me if you could perhaps make a dedication in the journal in the honor of my wife and I. You know, we're doing this, we're taking this honor. Everything has its time and place. We are taking this honor. And I want to do my part to make sure that this event is a success. It raises the necessary funds for all the great work that's done over here with this organization.
[00:02:58] So I ask of you humbly, if you can make a contribution. It could be a page, it could be two pages, it could be a smaller donation.
[00:03:07] You know, any amount is accepted. The link is in the show note below.
[00:03:12] And you could pause for a moment right now. You know, we say Zrizim, Makdim and Mitzvos, that when you have a chance to do a mitzvah, you do it right away.
[00:03:21] So you could put this podcast on pause for just a moment, go right down to the show notes, click on it, put that ad in and continue the show.
[00:03:33] And as always, before we continue into the podcast, my email address is rabbi shlomokon k o h nmail.com and I'd love to hear from you. This week's parsha is Parshas Vayera.
[00:03:47] Now, Vayera, there's so much in the parsha, but just to give a quick overview, the parsha starts off with Avraham Avinu Abraham, after his Brismilah and Hashem sends three Malachim to visit Avraham.
[00:04:03] And they, they come to tell Avraham different messages. And one of the messages that the Malachim tell the angels tell Avraham is that he's going to have a son from Sarah. He also learns about the destruction, impending destruction of Sedom, that Lot should be saved.
[00:04:22] And Avraham Abraham prays that the city of Sodom should be spared. It should be saved.
[00:04:29] Hashem, um, listens to Avraham and says, if there's, you know, if there's, if there are some righteous people, we will save the city. And Avram prays and prays and prays, and it comes out that there are not even 10 righteous people that have a merit of saving the city. And God has to destroy the city of Sodom. The parasha continues with the um Malachim going to save Lot from the city of Sodom, which they do by taking Lot and his daughters out of the city before it is destroyed.
[00:05:03] We also discussed in this week's Parsha how Sarah is abducted again by Avimelech, how he's Avimelech is stricken by taking someone else's wife. Hashem strikes the house of Avimelech. He realizes what he's done, releases her, makes a treaty with Avraham, Avinu with Abraham. Finally, the parsha finishes off with perhaps what this Parsha is known for is the Akedah, the binding of Yitzchak, the binding of Isaac, where Hashem tells Avraham Avinu to take Yitzchak, who has been born to him.
[00:05:40] His. You know, the. The offspring that Hashem says, this will be your son. This will be who you. You know, your generations will come through him.
[00:05:48] And Hashem promised him that he's going to be a great nation and all the good things. And we know that Avraham Avinu, Abraham spent his years telling the world about the evils of human sacrifice. And now Hashem tells Avram to take Yitzchak and to go slaughter him.
[00:06:07] This is Akedas Yitzchak.
[00:06:09] And the Parsha tells us about Avraham Avinu listens to the word of Hashem. He takes his son.
[00:06:15] He's about to shecht him. And Hashem says, he's about to slaughter him. And G D says, stop. Don't do it.
[00:06:22] And this is, uh, one of the tests of Avraham Avinu.
[00:06:26] According to most commentaries, this is the 10th of the 10 tests that G D tests. Avramavinu.
[00:06:33] The first idea I want to share with you today from this week's Parsha takes us to the beginning to the first verse of the Parsha.
[00:06:42] What does it say?
[00:06:43] So Avraham Avinu, Abraham is recovering from giving himself a circumcision, from giving himself a brismila.
[00:06:51] And G D makes it very hot outside because he doesn't want Avram Abraham to be troubled.
[00:07:01] So no guests should come, no people should be outside. He doesn't want. Emmy knew that Hashem, that he knew that Avramavinu always took care of the wayfarers, the travelers, and he made it extra hot so that there should be no one found outside.
[00:07:15] But this pained Avraham Avinu. The Parsha begins with Hashem appearing to Avraham Avinu and visiting him.
[00:07:24] And we see, actually, there's many. Uh, this is one of the sources of the mitzvah of Bikar cholem, of visiting the sick.
[00:07:32] This concept that the Shechina, the divine Presence, is with a sick person, that G D himself came to visit Avraham when he was recovering, when he was getting better. The verses begin, vayeroi love Hashem, uh, belaynei mamrei vuhuyosheh pesachayol Kehem Hashem, ah, appeared to him in the plains of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance of the tent in the heat of the day.
[00:07:56] Now, if you look at Rashi he makes a very interesting point.
[00:08:00] Rashi says, in the plains of Amre, um, Mamre was a person.
[00:08:07] So this event of Hashem, of G D appearing to Avraham Avinu happened in Mamre's area, in the plains of Mamre. Now, if you think of it for a second, why is it necessary to say whose property God appeared himself on? Right. Why do we need to say that God appeared to Avram in Mamre's area, in the state of Mamre? Why is that important to the conversation, to the context of the Torah? Nothing's extra. Everything's exact. So Rashi says as follows. Hushenasen, laitza alamila. It was Mamre that gave Avraham Avinu, that gave Abraham the advice to do the brismila, nigla e'. Love.
[00:08:51] Therefore, Hashem, uh, rewarded him, or he merited that God should be revealed in his portion, in his area, in his state, in his city, right? Because he gave good advice to Avraham Avinu, to Abraham, to get the prismila. So now the reward was that he appeared to Avraham Avinu, that Hashem appeared to Avraham Avinu on the in the plains of Mamre.
[00:09:15] Now, just to give a little background here, that about this advice and this episode of what happened, it's brought down the midrash that before Avraham Avinu went to do the brismila, he asked for advice from his friends. He asked Enar, Eshkol and Mamre.
[00:09:33] And he said, he asked Enar, should I get a brismila?
[00:09:39] And he said, no, you shouldn't get a brismila. He asked Eshkol, he said, should I get a bismillah? I says, no, you shouldn't get a bismillah.
[00:09:46] And he asked Mamre, and Mamre says, yes, if Hashem is telling you to get a bismillah, you should get a bismillah. Only Mamre gave him the advice to do it. The other two said, you're old, it's too risky. Don't do it. It's dangerous.
[00:10:00] But only Mamre said it. He said, even if it's dangerous, if it's what Hashem, uh, said, that's what you should do.
[00:10:06] And there's a beautiful insight I saw brought down from the Sephsemes, one of the great Hasidic masters.
[00:10:12] He says, so what's so special that Mamre gave advice to Avramavinu and now he gets rewarded? That Hashem reveals himself in Mamre's portion.
[00:10:26] What's going on over here in this episode with Enor, Eshkol and Mamre. And now that he gets this reward.
[00:10:32] And he says something very interesting and insightful, which I think is very applicable to each and every one of us.
[00:10:39] He says that when Avraham, uh, Avinu was asking his friends, should I get a brismila? Right? God commanded him, go get a brismila. Avramavino was very old. It was very risky. So he's asking advice, should I do it? Should I not do it? Right? Something we do, we ask our friends for things. We ask our family and friends for advice, what to do, how to deal with things. And he asked for advice. And when he asked for advice from his friends, what he was saying, in essence, is that when he was about to get the brismila, he was going to be separated now from the rest of the world. Because if you look, the whole idea of bismillah, of circumcision, is this idea of separation, that the Jewish people are separate. It's a reminder to that fact.
[00:11:22] And he was in essence asking them, should I get the prismillah? And Enor and Eshkol, they said to themselves, says, if Avraham Avinu, if Abraham gets this brismila, he's not going to be one of us anymore. He's going to be separate, he's going to be different. And we don't want to lose Avraham Avinu.
[00:11:40] He's our friend, he's close to us. He's a tremendous spiritual benefit for us to be with. And now we're going to be separate from him because he's going to have this bras mila, and we're not.
[00:11:53] And therefore they advised him to not go through with it because it was too risky. But Mamre.
[00:12:00] Mamre was also a friend of Avram Avinu. And he was also going to be separated from Avraham now because he wasn't going to. He didn't have the commandment of the bristmila. Only Avram did. Only Avram had the commandment to circumcise himself. Mamre wasn't going to be circumcised. There was going to be a separation here between Mamre and Avraham Avinu.
[00:12:19] And what was his reaction to Avraham Avinu asking this question?
[00:12:24] He said, if that's what Hashem wants from you, you should surely do it. That even though he was personally going to lose out from Avraham Avinu going through this circumcision with this brismila. That didn't matter to him, because what was important to him was the will of Hashem, was the will of the Almighty, that even if he was going to lose out, because he was going to lose out on Avraham Avinu to have that separation, he felt that it's more important that there should be kiddushem Shemayim, that there should be honor brought to God. That's more important than his personal friendship with Avramavinu. And I think this is a very beautiful idea that we could take for ourselves.
[00:13:04] Most of the time, we always think about our situations. We think about ourselves first, and that's normal.
[00:13:09] But I think when it comes to our spirituality, when it comes to serving Hashem, you know, we can't just think about ourselves.
[00:13:18] We have to think about, you know, bringing honor to Hashem.
[00:13:23] And really, you know, many times when we get into fights with people, we get into arguments or we're thinking about ourself.
[00:13:29] But if we remember that it's not about us, it's about the honor of Hashem.
[00:13:34] And even if we're, quote, unquote, gonna lose and Hashem's, uh, gonna gain, we should always pick that Hashem should gain.
[00:13:41] Because when Hashem gains, everybody gains. And I think this is an important idea when it comes to every Jewish person, to know that there's a bigger cause here that's not just about you, us, it's about the whole Jewish people. It's about the honor of Hashem, it's about the glory of God. So it comes out that if someone's going to do something better than us, you know, when it comes to kvoit Shamayim, to the honor of heaven, right. Think about shul committees or different jobs that have to get completed.
[00:14:16] And we have our egos. We want to feel good, we want to have pride, right? But if there's someone else going to do it better, who cares if it's me? Who cares if it's him? It's about the honor of Hashem getting to its full strength.
[00:14:29] So if someone else could do it better, let them do it. Uh, and there's a lot of ways where this idea could manifest itself that it's not just about us, and it's about the bigger picture. It's about Klal Yisrael, it's about the Jewish people, and it's about Kfoid Shamayim, it's about the honor of heaven. And the it's. And we see from Mamre, though, that even when a person is mimayit bikvoit atzmay, when he lessens his own honor for the sake of the honor of heaven, right, he takes away from his own honor, like Mamre did. He says, you know what, Avraham Avinu, you should get the brismila. You should do it. God told you to do it. Even if it's going to be, we're going to not be friends anymore, we're not going to be so close, we're going to not going to have the same connection when a person does that, you always gain. Because we see from here that Mamre, even though he thought he was losing out, in the end, he gained, because that's what it means in Rashi. Because since he gave Avraham Avina to do it, to get the bras mila right, even at his own expense, but he realized it was for the Kvoth she Mayim, it was for the sake of heaven, he got rewarded. That when Hashem came to Avraham Avinu, when he revealed himself to Avraham to Abraham, it happened in his portion. And I think the lesson for us is that when we lessen our own honor for the honor of heaven, in the end, we never lose out because we're doing the right thing now. And in the long run, we always come out ahead.
[00:15:59] A second idea I want to share with you today takes us the commandment that God gave to Abraham, to Avram, to slaughter his son, to Akedas Yitzchak.
[00:16:09] And what does the posse say?
[00:16:12] Vayoimir kachnu as bin cha as Yechidcha, asherahavta as Yitzchak. Velechlacha al eretz hamaria va'. Aleushamloela.
[00:16:20] Hashem said. He said, please take your son, your only one, whom you love, Yitzchak, right, Isaac, and go to the land of Maria. Bring him up there as an offering. Now, I saw Rabbi Twersky brings down beautiful idea. How did Avrama Avinu know when he got this commandment?
[00:16:37] That maybe he was hallucinating. Maybe.
[00:16:40] How did he know that this was, uh, the right thing to do, to go and slaughter his son? As I mentioned earlier, this was the antithesis of everything that Avramavinu, that Abraham stood for. His entire life, his entire life he was fighting against all the paganism and the human sacrifice that was widespread in the world at that time.
[00:17:04] And he pushed against it. And he changed. He really Avramavinu uh, brought monotheism to the world. He brought this concept of monotheism that there's one God, that there's one Hashem.
[00:17:15] And before then, this didn't exist on a mass scale.
[00:17:20] So now Avraham Avinu, who spent his entire life promoting the ideas of that there's one God. And Hashem, he's running the world. And he wants the people to serve him and not to serve idols and not to serve the paganism, to do these rituals of sacrifice, human sacrifice, take their children and do it.
[00:17:39] He gets a commandment from Hashem to do something which is the total opposite of what he stood for.
[00:17:46] Maybe he's hallucinating. Maybe he's just, uh, you know, maybe this.
[00:17:52] Maybe he misunderstood. Maybe he misunderstood the commandment from Hashem. Right? It just. To us, it doesn't make sense. We wouldn't be able to process.
[00:18:03] So there's an answer, which I saw. We know that the Gemara tells us that a person needs to serve Hashem, to serve G D with his yetzer ah Tov and his yetzer hara, his good inclination and his evil inclination. And we've talked before about this idea of the two forces that are pulling inside of us. We have the good, the pull towards good, and we have the pull towards bad. And there's different ways of breaking it down. But the basic idea is that there's a yetzer Tov, there's the good inclination, and there's the yetzer hara, the bad inclination. But the question is raised is, how do you serve Hashem with your evil inclination? We understand, with. With, uh, the yetzer Tov, with the good inclination that to do good, there's a pull to do good. So I understand how you could serve God in that capacity. But when it comes to the yetzer hara, how do you serve God with your yetzer hara, with your evil inclination, Right? He wants you to do bad things.
[00:19:00] And the answer to that lies in the story to the Akedah.
[00:19:05] When Avraham Avinu was traveling to bring his son up to Harhamaria to sacrifice him as a offering. The Midrash tells us that the Satan, which really the embodiment of the evil inclination, appeared to him.
[00:19:24] And he said, you know, he tried to convince him out of doing this mitzvah, to convince him to not perform the Akedah.
[00:19:36] And when Avraham Avinu met the yetzer Hara, when he met the Satan, and he realized that he's trying to convince him out of doing what he thought, uh, how he understood the commandment of hashem. He knew for sure that he was doing the right thing. He realized right then and there that it wasn't a hallucination anymore. This is exactly what G D wanted me to do.
[00:19:59] When he had the forces, the other side, the yetzer hara, trying to convince him out of it.
[00:20:05] So then he knew for sure that he's doing the right thing. And every logical explanation that the Satan gave him was just another reason that Avram, that Abraham made up in his mind that he was going to do this mitzvah. And really, this idea takes us back to the original question that we had.
[00:20:27] When the Talmud tells us that a person needs to serve Hashem, to serve G D with the yetzer tov and the yetzer hara with the evil inclination and the good inclination, it means this right over here from this week's Parasha about the the yetzer tov. The way it works is that it gives us a command. We have a commandment. It tells us to do something, but it doesn't nag at us. Maybe there's guilt that can nag at us, but it doesn't tell us, do this, do this, do this.
[00:20:54] It's only the yetzer hara that tries to stop us consistently and prevent us in our tracks from doing good. And it'll do whatever it can to hold us back from achieving that goal.
[00:21:08] And when it says in the Gemara in the Talmud to serve hashem with, uh, both the good, the yetzer harah and the yetzer tov, it means that we should use and learn the tactics of the yetzer hara to serve hashem fully. That when we are trying to do something and we are not sure if it is the right thing or not, and sometimes we have things, uh, that get in our way, hurdles that try to hold us back, or we are trying to logically think to ourselves all the reasons why we shouldn't do a mitzvah or we shouldn't do something good. So that should reinforce in ourselves the desire to complete that mitzvah. Because most of the time, 99% of the time, it's the 8 Zehara trying to not get us to do it. And that's what it means to serve hashem with both of our, uh, inclinations. Because the good, we understand to follow that good inclination and through the bad, that when the bad inclination, when the yetzer hara tries to hold us back from doing something, and it gives us those logical reasons of all the good reasons in the world why we shouldn't do it, and Many times he gives us these very religious reasons, very firm reasons why we shouldn't do a good a mitzvah. So then we should use that, we should use that inclination and that idea, uh, to really reinforce ourselves, to actually complete the mitzvah and use it to completion. And that's what it means to not let him, not let him convince us out of it, but rather to have that resolve within ourselves to get the job done and to complete the mitzvah, to get to the place where we want to get to. And that's something we see from Avraham Avinu, how he himself, maybe he wasn't sure about something, but when he saw the yetzer hara trying to give insom out of it, he recognized there and then that this was the right thing to do. So when it comes to our own lives as well, to have that same resolve to not let the yetzhara use his tactics to convince us out of something and to see all our mitzos to completion. So that is finished 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 protected] have a great day.
