Lech Lecha - Through the Fire

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast with ari goldwag recorded with hashem's name running assistance in ramachamish israeli 782 2021 this week's parish is part of abraham the first jew first israelite the first hebrew is told by hashem says to abraham go out of your land go out of go away from your people the place that you were born the people you were born into go away from your family your father's house the medjush wants to understand why is it that the verse talks in reverse meaning the torah should have said leave your house your parents house leave your the place of your birth leave your country it should have gone sequentially why does it go backwards opened and explained shimibas we find the verse also in reference to avraham aveeno to abraham first into him psalms chapter 45 verse 11 listen oh daughter the daughter is a reference to avraham avinu listen o daughter and see bahati and turn your ear to listen forget your nation and the house of your father so in this verse it also refers to the fact that first we speak about the the country the the nation and then we speak about the person's father's home what is the idea why does it speak in this way why does it speak in this order so in explaining this concept so the hcisif explains that the the command of the god was giving avraham wasn't just that he'd leave his physical location but rather that he leave the culture that he leave that which he imbibed from those around him and the first thing the least difficult is to leave the general culture that one's involved and one was connected to a person leaves the country he leaves that culture but then there's a family culture not just a you know a nuclear family culture but the the culture of the family of the extended family leave that culture as well and then the deepest most difficult thing is to leave the culture that a person grew up with in his home the foundation of who a person is is the culture that he grows up with in his home and that's the hardest to leave so hashem was saying him not just physically which he was also saying leave your physical location but he was saying in order to get anywhere in order to accomplish something in order to grow in rukhnis in order to become a greater person a different person in order to truly serve hashem in the way that god wants us to serve him it's only possible if we reject the parts of the culture around us that are not conducive to our service of god if we reject the parts of the family culture that's around us that's not conducive to our service of god and if ultimately we reject even the very culture that we experience from the from the very foundation of who we are to the extent that it doesn't support our service of hashem so that's the understanding of this first section very interesting and very powerful now the message continues and says i'm i think that he's coming to explain and we need to just follow along as we're reading it because it's a little bit not so clear the connection between the first and second sessions but we need to look at the fact that why is hashem saying why is hashem saying to him to reject the culture what's the idea behind it why is hashem drawing his attention to the fact that the culture is a negative influence on him so it comes as a response to the following concept it's analogous to somebody who's going from one place to another he was traveling he saw a a very large building of some sort a castle excuse me a castle of some sort and it was on fire on my terminals this is a very famous analogy but listen carefully because the analogy is not presented often precisely and the it's important to understand it precisely to understand what's going on here as i'm unfortunate explain so this person is passing from one place to another he sees a building is on fire it says could it be that there's no one in charge of this building and the reason that he asks this question is because there's no firemen around there's no one putting out the fire it doesn't seem like anybody cares about the fact that this building is burning down tomorrow where's the where's the one who owns where's the one who who cares about this building is gonna this doesn't seem to be that the owner of the building cares to stop the fire hates it so love balabira so the owner of the building looked at him looked at this traveler and he said to him anihu balabira i am the one who owns this building okay so he asked the question if the where's the guy who owns the building doesn't seem like he's interested in saving his building and the guy says it's my building in other words this is my building i want it to burn okay in a similar way in a come in a comparative way avraham avina looked around the world and it seemed like god did not have any interest in the world anymore why because as my fortune explained the people rebelled against god god destroyed the world with the marble destroyed all of its inhabitants noah came along started a new world then god split them up amongst the nations the dora flaga which was right around the time of abraham of abraham it seemed like god was not interested in mankind it seemed like the world was on fire so to speak people not serving god properly or serving idolatry maybe god is not interested in mankind anymore and that's what it seemed like the world is on fire and the balabira does not doesn't care the world is on fire people are being destroyed people are being punished spread out hated to love so god took a look at him god was mated to a very interesting language he he peeked at him but um he said i'm the master of the world and as i understand it what it's saying is hashem was saying to avraham of into abraham i recognize the the terrible nature the degenerate nature of the people around you of the society around you i recognize that and i've caused them to be punished to be separated with the marble they were all killed however my plan is not over yet i still care about mankind i still want people to serve me and therefore i say to you i say to you i want you to start moving i want you to start going and by you going and by you moving as as the before she explained you will inspire others to come into a relationship with me and you will indeed bring everyone back to their connection with me which is what we're going to see in the next section of the message but let's just finish off this piece in the madrish the verse says in it's the next verse in to him the next verse the verse said listen o daughter and see and forget your nation forget the house of your father the next verse says the king desires your beauty is your master what does that mean god says i want you to be the one who's going to become famous in the world because by you becoming famous in the world by you becoming a great person it's going to attract others to you and as a yes explains that when people see this is such an important thing such an important idea an amazing idea when people see that you serve god when people see that you are somebody who indeed is successful because of your service of god because of the fact that you do what's right you succeed others will want to join you others will want to be like you others will be drawn to do what's right so it looks like the world is on fire it looks like i've rejected the world i don't want any connection with the world that's where you come in avraham hashem was saying the end of the verse says and you shall bow down to him which means that you're going to go to the land of israel which is the place which is the place to serve god really as the force would say and as you've heard me say kala you can't compare living in in outside of israel to living inside of israel the main place to serve god as the force would say here why did hashem send him to israel that's the place where you can truly serve god that's the place in national like god's eyes are on the land for from the beginning of the year to the end of the year especially special divine providence special connection to god which you don't have anywhere else so if you want to know avraham it seems like everything the entire world is rejected by god no no no go to israel go to the place of ashikaka pratis the place of divine providence where everyone will see that when you do what's right you get divine assistance and that's where it's indeed going to be the beginning of the jewish people whose mission throughout history has been for the last 3 800 years since avraham avinu since abraham 3800 years the mission of the jewish people has always been to serve as a connector between mankind and god to serve as an example of what it looks like to serve god properly what it looks like to put god at the center of our lives that's why hashem says to them leave your land leave your people leave behind that old culture leave behind the people that you recognize and it's true you recognize that i god have rejected them leave them and you're gonna start anew in a place where you'll have the ultimate success which is only the land of israel and here's where the next section in the major such beautiful beautiful midrashim comes by the verse says in song of songs chapter 8 verse 8. refers to a younger sister that she's undeveloped she's uh she's still a minor who is this undeveloped younger sister is a sister the manager understands that it can also mean something else and it's a reference to abraham he came to bring together to to to mend something that had been rent something that had been torn apart avraham avinu abraham came to men to fix to bring back together it's like somebody who takes a torn garment and sews together the pieces of the torn garment and brings it together as the fortune explain because as we saw before god in a certain sense rejected mankind for the sins that they did the man the the human race was designed and intended to be in a relationship with god to have closeness to god to serve god and to receive goodness through their service of god instead they rejected that service instead they rejected that relationship and they chose to go out on their own which is something that nimrod did tried to lead them too with the tower of buffalo as i'm a fortune explained etc however avraham avinu even though god had separated himself from the from the world punished them separated them amongst 70 nations 70 lands 70 languages nevertheless avram came to to mend that tare meant to fix that which was separated to bring it back together to bring god back into the world to bring mankind back to a realization in recognition of god in their lives kitana wisely referred to as we said means the word which normally means sister is a reference to avram who is he brought together broken parts katana why is he referred to as small when he was very young he was according to one major only three years old when he discovered god when he recognized that god exists so he's called kitan he's called small young because he recognized god from a long from from when he was young from a long time ago he's not developed the younger sister who's not developed she has no uh ability to nurse did not receive any nursing so to speak he wasn't nourished by anyone else with information about how to serve god properly he figured it out all on his own jumps into something very interesting and that is the connection between which is god's command to go to the land of israel which we've spoken about until now to something that happened immediately before and that was ur kazdam avraham avinu was given a test he was told that if he doesn't bow down to avoid to idolatry if he doesn't denounce renounce his connection to god that he will be thrown into the fire now in this test was the foundation of god deciding so to speak whether or not he would send avraham vino on this mission a mission that would be not only for himself but for his children and grandchildren all the way down through the generations until our very time and it depended on what would happen with this test would he be willing to go through the fire to give up his life for god beyonce the day that nimrod decreed that he would have to go down into the fire he would have to be burned because of his belief in god hashem says like this look and this is the verse in sharoshim if it's a wall we will build upon it it's a reference to abraham of abraham will stand like a wall he will he will be strong in his conviction and his commitment to god unwilling to waver not willing to bow down willing to be thrown on the fire to give up his life for god if that will be the case then we will be able to build on him a nation will starve from him de la sue but if he is a delos which means he swings like a door he's not strong not sure it's not going to not going to work out and he's not going to be the one that's going to be the chosen nation in dalhou as the majestic explains if he's weak if he's sparse he's not willing to stand up for for his principles if he's not going to be able to stand up for his principles for his values the result will be that hashem will not stay with him it will just be a passing phase that there's somebody named avraham who did some good things he spoke you know he inspired people but that will be the end of it so avraham responds to this test and he says i am a wall i'm a wall i am steadfast i i'm not going to i'm going to stand up for what i believe i'm going to uphold this matter i will not bow down to the idol i'd rather die the what is the result the result is that now this sister this little sister grows and becomes developed and is able indeed to have to provide sustenance to her babies through the milk that she's endowed with what does that mean it's a reference to the fact that not only did avraham avinu through standing up to this test not only did he accomplish something for himself but he now it became his genetic makeup he gave it over to the next generation and the next generation to the next generation on through the ages until today the ability to sacrifice for what's right michelle there were three prophets who were willing to to go through the fire and not to give up and not to bow down to idolatry through his commitment to god through his willingness to sacrifice his life for god imbued in himself he changed his dna through that choice he changed his spiritual dna such that he would be someone upon whom could be built a nation that would last throughout time that would inspire the entire world to a recognition of god so it's an amazing thing i think you know in the first section of the madrish we saw that hashem that that avraham said hashem where's the balabi or what's going on with this fire and the response was that's really an important question that's an important statement about reality but you are the one you personally through you're going through the fire interesting right he saw this burning he saw a burning building but you're going through the fire your willingness to give up your life is what's going to turn the whole history around all of history will be changed because of one man his name was avraham avinu abraham she was called avraham ivory ivory means a hebrew but the the way our sages explain it is that he was somebody who stood on one side ava means on a side the world has different sides those who take the side of truth those who take the side of untruth the whole world was on the side of untruth avraham stood on one side on the other side by himself and he was able to bring over all of the world to his side that's why hashem says you can go because you you must go you're the one who's gonna be able to enter israel you're the one who's going to be able to develop a true relationship with me you're the one who i will be able to show and this is one of the important points i'll be able to show the world that when you do what's right you get good you get good hashem blesses you because you've done what's right avraham avinu because he did what was right because he was willing to be mice or nephesh and this is another important point because he was willing to give up his life it was real to him it wasn't a joke it wasn't like a fly-by-night thing it wasn't even something that was nice you know it was his nature to be a nice person you figure it out as three years old i'm saying a three-year-old figuring out that god exists when everyone around him is talking about idolatry his father is one of the main priests for idolatry for avraham avinu to figure it out mandy had a lot of natural good in him but natural good is not the same as willingness to give up and to sacrifice your life for what you know is right that's what creates a foundation upon which a nation can be born and a foundation upon which others will be attracted to become like you so avraham says where's the balabira hashem says i'm here and you're you're part of my plan why because you are willing to go through the fire so i want to bless you and i ask you to bless me hashem should help us that we should indeed recognize that if we see things around us are not okay we can choose to be the ones that are okay if we see so many people who are not living in arts israel or not living living in the land of israel we can choose to be the ones who go to earth israel to live there to join almost 7 million jews who already live here if we are the ones who see that indeed there's a cara there's a a terror the relationship between mankind and god is not what it's supposed to be we can be like an avraham avinu and we have to be willing to be meister nefesh we have to be willing to sacrifice because the only way to accomplish anything that lasts forever that truly lasts forever is through sacrifice so bless me please and i bless you hashem should help us to recognize all these concepts and incorporate them into our lives thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabbos this podcast was made possible through the 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