Lech Lecha - War of Abraham and the Final War

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast recorded with hashem's never ending assistance in ra Israel 5775 2015 this week's para is par the Torah gives us the story ofo of Abraham and the Commandment of God to go to the land of Israel and the statement of God the blessing of God that that Abraham and his progeny would be blessed all those who bless the Jewish people all those who bless Abraham will be blessed wherever he goes he will bring blessing with him comes to the land of Israel the Torah enumerates a few different stories a few different uh occurrences that happened around ainu the one that I'd like to focus on specifically today is the story of the M the war between the Four Kings and the five Kings as we read the psim the Pim tell us about this whole War the five Kings battle against the four the mighty ones conquer the weaker ones then Abu comes along and he's able to destroy those forces return the people of sidom return his nephew Lo and bring them back and you know free them from captivity Etc now in looking at the story and looking at it through the eyes of the medish there's something much deeper that's going on in this war you know as I was thinking about what to speak about this week on the paraa you know we have the story of of Abraham and and Sarah and them being captured Sor being captured the story of Lo the interaction between ab and l l choosing to go to Stone we have the story of Hashem telling Abraham that he's going to have a miraculous child at the age of 100 there's lots of different things to talk about but I wanted specifically to speak about this war and the and the reason that it came up for me and the the the thought process that led me to start looking around in the midashim and mafor about this war was that it just hit me that or perhaps I've seen this before but it hit me that that war between the four and five kings that cataclysm World War which actually the medish says it was the first time that there was war in the world this war was not just any War it was the war to begin all wars so that war to me must represent something AB Abraham is getting involved it must have something to do with the the war which the kazal speak about our SES speak about the verses speak about the war of Goo the final war which happens before the coming of Messiah before the Messiah and the reason I was thinking this way is because we have a concept in in our sages that that whatever happens to the forefathers whatever happens to Abraham Isaac and Jacob to to Sarah Rifka and ra and Le Etc whatever happens to all of our progenitors the ones who are the foundation the root of the Jewish people so that's something that we see repeated in their progeny in their children in us in our lives and throughout history now as I was thinking about this idea so I opened up the m and and it opened the first page that it opened to with was the page which speaks about this war speaks about this entire story and gives us a foundation for what this story what this war is about because the war looks like it has to do with these Four Kings and the five Kings but the medish makes it very clear that it actually had very little to do with their interaction but rather the purpose of War the M says was to draw Abraham to draw Abraham into the war which is what happened indeed and the goal was to kill Abraham to destroy Abraham to destroy the Jewish people at the root at the very beginning before they would have a chance to bring their message to the world and we'll see what that means as far as how that can play itself out in the future time before the Messiah comes what the ramifications of that are for us us but let's look at this medes I'd like to share with you the mes because it's very interesting the medish sets up in a very interesting way it says like this the story starts off saying that it was in the days ofel the king of shinar now who is this person am Rael who is this guy who is this King where is this place Shar what's it speaking about so before explaining it the medish tells us a story very interesting story that happened which seems at first to be unrelated but as is always the case with MIM the M always gives us stories that are related even on the surface they don't seem to be related or just seem to be peripherally related but the stories are always directly related on you you have to think about you have to to to dig deeper in order to understand it but it says like this from in the name of he he started saying his D he started saying his lecture and he said he brought a verse it says into hm in Psalm 37:14 the evil one started off with a war with a sword Etc the verse continues they started off with war they had a certain intent but their very swords their very weapons shall return into their own Hearts meaning their intent was a certain intent but their intent will turn back on them and they will be destroyed by their very intent that's the verse now the Mish brings a story the story is very interesting was a story with a certain Rabbi his name was Al all of his brothers they had some kind of business together and they used to they were all Farmers his brothers would do their farming in a in a flat area but he would go onto the mountain for whatever reason which where whereas the as the mafor explained here was much more difficult it is much more difficult to do farming on a mountain as a result of the fact that he was working on a mountain his cow which he was using in order to do his work there to do his farming it fell and it broke maybe broke a leg whatever it was it was no longer usable Omar said my cow this happened to my cow for my own benefit this is a good thing at that point he gave up his business he ran away and he went to study with who was a great amazing Sage one of the greatest of his generation now this Ben hus was so poor he had so little to live on that he he actually had to eat pieces of dirt pieces of of Earth in order to survive I guess there were some kind of minerals in the earth and he had a horrible breath his his breath smelled horrible because that's what he was eating so the other students of came to the teacher and said has horrible horrible breath he understood he understood immediately what had happened he understood that it was because he was so poor he had given up everything in order to study Torah in order to have a relationship with God so he said to him he said to hus just like that your breath became smelly because of T because of you're studying the Torah so to as a result of your my nees your willingness to give up everything for God so your Torah your studying is going to be something which spreads out throughout the entire world from one end of the world to the other now listen to this this is amazing part of the story after some time his father didn't even know what happened to him he knew that he quit his job he knew that he ran away but he didn't know that he had gone to study Torah so he had decided the father decided that since his son had gone off and wasn't working anymore didn't know what happened to him he thought maybe he had gone to just be a lazy good for nothing he decided that when he dies he's going to leave him out of his will so he wanted to officially say this in front ofak the Great Sage of the generation who he didn't realize was a teacher now of his son and so the father came and he saw his son he was saying a lecture and all the great people of that country were sitting there listening to him all these extremely wealthy famous people of that time and he found that he was daring and saying a lecture about our verse about this very he was saying an understanding of the verse in in Psalms which we quoted earlier chap 37 7:14 the verse speaks about the the evil ones who they started off these wars this is a reference said hus in his lecture this is a reference to Amel this king of shinar and his friends the verse continues and says that they started this war in order to destroy to kill to cause a downfall of those who were poor who is that a reference to it's a reference to L the nephew of Abraham and their intent was to slaughter those who were on the proper path Z Abraham their intent was to slaughter Abraham they started this war their full intent was to try to get AR to destroy the path that AR was setting out upon the verse inm says that their very intent returns to their hearts their very sword shall go through their own heart what happens what happens Abraham comes with his servants with his men with 318 of his people and he's able to Vanquish those who wished to Vanquish him so now his father hines's father was standing there and and he heard this amazing Dr he heard this amazing lectur he saw all of these important people coming to listen to his son he says I'll tell you the honest truth I came here in order to exclude you from my will now that I see that you've become a great scholar and a great Sage as the result of your merious neish of your willingness to give everything up I want to give you all of my possessions only to you I'm not even going to give anything to your brothers so hus responded to his father I'm not willing to accept your gift I don't want to take anything away from my brothers I'm not willing to accept anything I want only whatever you know this an equal portion as my brothers would have gotten now I want you to hold on to that story because soon we'll get to what is the connection between this story rebar and hus and the story of of Abraham going to fight with these Kings but the mid continues and speaks about what is the like why was it indeed that who was fell why did he want to destroy Abraham what was the what was the reason what's what's going on here behind the scenes so there's a few different M I'm not going to actually read them inside but I'll tell you just the gist of them one M tells us that who was am Rael am Rafel was actually the same person as Nimrod we heard about Nimrod last week Nimrod was somebody who was the king he was the first one who had been the king over the entire world so to speak all the people had gathered into his area and he led them all in their fight against God that's why he was called Nimrod the root of nimrod is mered which means to defy to Rebel he was rebelling against God and when aaham a when Abraham had been trying to convince people to steer away from AAR to steer steer away from idolatry believe in one God so Nimrod had tried to kill him threw him into the into the fire as we spoke about last week now the mes tells us that this Amel is the same guy it's the same Nimrod shinar is the same place where Nimrod was and he came along because he knew that Abraham was still if if Abraham is allowed to be in the world something major is going to happen something major is going to happen that's going to adversely affect himself it's going to adversely affect Nimrod and therefore Nimrod felt impelled to destroy Abraham not to allow him to live so what was the reason so the M tells us in the name of going to read this one inside what did they come for why did they come to do War they wanted to battle against the the apple of the eye of the world what does that mean so the mafor explained here that it's a reference to Abraham who was the apple of the eye so to speak of God he was the one who was indeed fulfilling the world fulfilling the purpose of the world trying to bring the world back on course back into a relationship with God now as a result of that I mean why did nro care so much what what was his big deal what was his big beef the next line of the med is very telling this I Abraham who's the apple of the eye as far as doing goodness so they want to take that eye of God as it were that eye which judges they're going to take that eye and they want to Blind that eye and here's a classic mistake of AA of those who do sins the classic mistake is that the sinner think that if I can destroy the one who's better than me if I have done a sin and I can get rid of the guy who's doing good stuff so then what happens to me is that I won't be judged so harshly it's only that I'm going to be judged harshly as long as there's good guys out there who are doing better than me but the moment that they are destroyed thinks the aaran think the person who's the sinner thinks nimr if I can destroy Abraham then the judgments will be destroyed there won't be any judgments on me now hold on to that thought for I just want to throw in one more important point because it needs to be kind of inside of one's mind as we're we're learning about this that there's a parallel here as we said at the very beginning there's a parallel here between all that's going on with AB with Abraham and these nations were are trying to pull him into the war and something that's going to happen in the future time with the Jewish people and the final war before the Messiah Comes The Measure says like this it says an amazing thing amazar Barina this is also in the same context this whole War it says like this said if you see many nations many countries that they are fighting one with the other in a parallel way to the way the Four Kings here fought with the five Kings you can look out and expect the feet of the Messiah to start coming to start walking in as it were you should know that this is true how do you know it's true in the times of Abraham as a result of these four and five Kings fighting against one another that is how a Redemption came to Abraham right after the story he's about to find out that he's going to have a child that indeed there will be spiritual and physical progeny who will continue his message in the world until our very times that was something that was about to be told to Abraham he was about to experience that and it seems that it was a result of this war that this is all connected everything that's going on is connected so it tells usina that in the future time before the Messiah there will be a similar upheaval in the world the the just like there was a first war there will be a final war and that war there will be a in a parallel way will precede will be that event that comes before the final Gula the Redemption that's going to occur to the Jewish people so it's important the meish makes it very clear that there are parallels the parallels are amazing very interesting and now I'd like to come back to the the points that we were making first of all about the story the story with reab Lesar and Hines trying to understand the story what is it connected to AB to Abraham the whole story with him you know losing his job and then going off to learn and then his father being ready to remove him from the will but then giving him everything and then him saying no I don't want everything I just want just equally what does that have to do with our story of Abu so I'd like to show that there's an amazing parallel that occurs here you know Amel or or as we could call him Nimrod he thought that he has to destroy Abraham he has to kill out Abraham in order that he should be able to get Scott free to get to get off the hook so to speak from all the things that he was doing wrong in his relationship with God now he was wrong what happens in the end the very sword that he took out that he UN sheathed in the end destroyed himself what happens in the end he loses the war AB Abraham comes and destroys all those kings including am Rael now he comes back and he brings sidom sidom represents the the deepest evil in the world in fact Sodom is going to be destroyed nowu does something amazing and very interesting and seemingly incorrect AR ainu he comes back from the war he's come to retrieve his nephew L bring back all the people of sidom back to the land of Israel back to where they belong and the king of Sodom comes out and he says to Abraham you know you can keep the spoils but I want you to return my people now Abraham says no I'm not going to touch anything you are going to get back every single thing that you deserve now what's interesting here is that why didn't a keep them why didn't a keep them maybe he could return them to the straighten Arrow maybe he could lead them and guide them and direct them so there's a m that points out that actually if you look at theuk it says that he returned the women and he returned the the r he returned all of the of the booty but it doesn't say he returned the children and indeed the the maam explained that he took the children with him he was able to beag them to direct them towards God he couldn't get the the parents out of their state of evil out of the the spiritual decadence that they experienced that they were that state that they were in but he was able to save the children so it's very interesting now if we look at this we can see the parallel with hus it's almost like God is saying look Hashem is saying I I want to give you AR ainu all of the reward that there is I want you to be my only Heir just like hinness his father and a is saying you know I don't want to take everything for myself I want things to be distributed fairly I don't want to take all these people I don't want to take all of the r he could have taken all of that all of the booty all of the money everything and and certainly had a right to do that but by symbolically by not taking the rush not taking the the Bounty what he was saying was I don't want to be the only one who steps into the world to come I don't want to be the only one who gets there I want even the Sinners the people who don't deserve it as much I want them to be able to step in there I want my my Merit to be distributed to everyone else as well I don't want to be the only one there so am Rael Nimrod his whole concept is let me destroy Abraham let me destroy him so that God won't judge me and and God won't just give Abraham all the good that there is just you know in comparison Abraham takes the opposite attack and he says no he says I'm going to win and ultimately the Jewish people will also succeed the war will occur and it will look like the world is saying look the let's get rid of the Jews let's get rid of them because they shame us in a certain sense they're so good like why you know you think about it it's crazy like the Jewish people are the the most moral people in the world even secular amongst the Jewish people even they have a a moral standard which is much higher but and yet you look at the the way that the the news the media presents Israel presents the Jewish people as if we're morally decadent as if we're horrible destroy the Jewish people the Iranians want to destroy us even the president of the United States says that Israel is at the root of the problem in the Middle East I mean these are things that don't make sense like we are the we're we look at ourselves and we say we're doing what's right we're trying to follow God's will we're trying to be morally proper we're trying to do what's right and upstanding and yet we are judged negatively what's theot it at the at a on a deeper level I don't believe that this is true perhaps on a on a conscious level but certainly on a deeper level on a spiritual level there's a statement here which is the same that let us destroy those who are morally Superior so that we won't be judged in a way because let us be the ones who are the greatest let us be the most morally Superior as it were and now what is the result ultimately of what occurs in this Final War as it parallels the story of aru just like Abraham said I'm not taking all the r I'm not I'm not willing to take all the reward for myself not willing to take all the Bounty the booty the spiritual booty for myself I want it to be distributed I don't want to I don't even want to take the people because if I take the people really I'm taking away their I'm taking away their free will I want them somehow to be able to choose on their own to be able to have a relationship with God that they should be able to be present hereu in in in speaking on behalf of Sid is saying you know I want you God not to give up on them it's in next week's par but I want you not to give up on them let them be able to choose you let them have another chance God said they they are just too far gone but in saying that in not fully taking the people of sto under his wing completely in a certain sense that would have taken away the and they wouldn't have been able to be present at all by him saying saying no I can't take them with with me I need them to be able to choose on their own what he's really saying is that there has to be an effect yes I can affect them but if I'm too close to them I'm affecting them too deeply too too much the Jewish people throughout history have done the same thing we've been there we we've never tried to convert anyone we've never tried to force anybody to be like us here we are this is our message please choose to be like us in a certain sense please choose to have a relationship with God please choose to believe in one God please choose to believe in humility in in kindness all the things that the Torah espouses but we never Force anybody and in doing so we're really doing is we're saying there's this goodness that in you know we have all rights to we're the ones who have all along so to speak been doing what been been in a relationship with God and we have all the rights to to inherit the world to come to inherit this relationship with God to have a real relationship but we say no we don't want to be the only ones there we want this to be something that everyone has access access to we want this to be something that all the people of the world can have a chance to access and indeed there's a Gulu that occurs to Abraham as a result that the that which they try to destroy us that which the nimro tries to destroy Abraham the result is no the result is the opposite Abraham is able to indeed bring back the children of Sodom perhaps not the Sodom the sodomites themselves but he can bring back the children of Sodom and a similar way the Jewish people won day we'll be able as as oural tell us as our as the prophets speak about one day the Jewish people will be the source of spirituality for the entire world it may not seem that way it may seem like the opposite but it's something that will occur and something that occurs in a difficult and challenging way because evil needs to be destroyed and evil needs to destroy itself but indeed just like we see that hus it seemed like it was something that he was doing wrong it seemed like he was going to be lost it seemed like he was going to be out of the will ultimately he was in the will and how did it come as a result of him explaining these very verses and Not only was he going to be in the world he's going to get everything but he says no I don't want to get everything and the same way the Jewish people speak that way Abraham speaks that way and ultimately the entire world will be Z will Merit and I hope and I pray and I bless you and please bless me that we should all Merit to be able to see the coming of mhia with compassion and with a revelation of Hashem through us thank you so much for listening have a wonderful chabas this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.wag.com or search on iTunes Ari goldwag