Ari Goldwag - Vayeshev - Space for Others

you're listening to the weekly paraa podcast with ar goldwag recorded with's nevering assistance Isel 5779 2018 this week's paraa is Paras VV and in our para we have the story of ysep Joseph and his brothers the dreams that he has how he sold down to Egypt and as the paros continue we'll see how he of course becomes the leader over Egypt Etc nestled into our parure this week however is a different story and that is the story of Yehuda Yehuda who was the greatest of his son of the sons of yakob the greatest of the brothers and who indeed would be the great great grandfather of David H King David destined for greatness for kingship the Torah tells us a story and from this story which I'd like to focus on we learn some amazing incredible deep things as i' like to share with you from freedlander Torah tells us that Yehuda marries a woman has two children with her air and Onan a marries Tamar who areal SES say was a righteous woman who was actually the daughter of the granddaughter of Shame and air is not interested in conceiving with her he doesn't want to ruin her beauty he wastes his seed Tor tells us he dies on does the the Mitzvah ofum which we'll discuss what is the concept of the mitz of he marries his brother's wife Tamar in order K shame L the idea of ium is to cause the name of the Dead one to come back onen 2 is not interested in providing an opportunity for his brother's soul to be rectified he wastes his seed he dies Tamar ends up with Yehuda through some interesting means Yehuda ends up uh fathering two children who redeemed The Souls of his sons Aaron own the two sons that are born from Tamar are named parats and zerak and they parats ultimately becomes the great great grandfather of King David so that's the story in a nutshell but what is the idea of ium what is the idea of the leverate marriage of a brother and in this case in the torah's times the the father uh anybody who's an inheritor someone who has the ability to to if the person dies he would inherit the possessions of that person so such a person has the ability at least in the tor's times to perform aate marriage be make him the shame ham bring back the dead person's somehow redeem his soul what is the idea here what is the concept what is the depth of it and how can we learn something from it so i' like to read to you from rim friedlander so at first he speaks about the fact that there is such a thing before Torah the Torah is given that you can have the leverate marriage not just for brothers but even for a father or for a different new a different person who's who could in theory inherit but I want to get into I want to get into um what's the idea okay so let's let's read this inside he says like this thean explains that what is the concept of of the leverate marriage before the Torah was given this guy very interesting very deep whoever is able to inherit that person so they're able to perform liate marriage boas we find regards to Yehuda and Boaz as well who was The Offspring of Yehuda was the Great grandfather of what is the idea what is the connection between someone who has ability to inherit to also perform the leverate marriage to perform what is the idea also we need to understand that it's no longer possible to for it to be done by a by a father only a brother is allowed to marry the the person who passed away his wife no longer is it is it possible to be done by anyone who could inherit we see from the ran which I didn't read inside but we see from the ran that the concept of the leverate marriage is directly intimately related to the concept of yusha of inheritance and the V is something that we've spoken about in the past which I'd like to expand upon and that is that yusha inheriting something has to do with a continuation of the purpose the life's mission of the person who passed away froms explained the idea of that children what do they get they receive the property of the person who passed away their father Kusha because the idea of inheritance is that the child continues the life mission of the father service of God which is our purpose in the world is split amongst the people of Israel amongst the tribe the families in each individual family within those families every family within CL Isel we're speaking about here he's speaking about the families that are described in the Torah has a special purpose in service of God the purpose of the children is to continue with the with the mission of their parents in the world and we can see that this is true from from the very genetic makeup of the child we find often that a child's personality traits are similar to their parents even their facial features are also similar to their parents you know we think about it we know it's natural to us we don't even don't really think about it the fact that a child looks like the parents but why is it indeed so what's the idea the external appearance of a person is an expression of what's going on inside of the person what's going on spiritually with the person the inner personality can be seen in the face when a child resembles the parents both in the way that they look and in their in their characteristics the reason is because their purpose in the world is to continue the mission of their parents now in order to continue the the mission of the parents they need to receive the same vessels the same uh instruments that were used by the parents in their service of so they get it in regards to their facial features they get it in regards to their personality traits and also in regards to the the the the wherewithal that their parents have it's given over to their children in order that they have the full ability to continue in their parents footsteps so comes out the fact that a child receives the inheritance of the parents is not just a a you know it's a a right that they get but rather it's an obligation they receive an obligation as a result of that in order that the children continue in the pathway of the parents service of God they shall also the children will continue in that in that service of God this says freedlander is the concept of as well amazing interesting thing that just like there is a continuation of service of God in regards to the children of a [Music] person right when a person passes away so there are individuals who theoretically can inherit from him if there's a child the son inherits from him the father can inherit from the from the son other people who are C him other other um close relatives but what is the idea again the Yim the people who inherit it symbolizes the fact that they too have an obligation to continue in the pathway in the service of God and what that person represents in the world they continue the purpose the mission of the person who passed away and this is also accomplished through through bearing a child who is a continuation of the one who passed away and through the obligation of the leverate marriage so a person this is very interesting and this is a point which I hope to hope we'll see we'll be able to to expand on but the the the brother who marries his dead brother's wife so in a certain sense the children his children are continuation of his own tough kid but his brother had a specific tkid a purpose a mission that wasn't fulfilled because he passed away so the surviving brother is obligated to give an opportunity for that mission of his brother to continue and the way that it's done is by marrying the woman that his brother who passed away was married to and by by having a child with that wife so the brother who passed away his spiritual Legacy has an opportunity to continue but notice and we'll see more about this but notice that what happens is that the brother who is surviving the brother who's alive who marries his dead brother's wife in a certain sense he has to give something up so we'll see that that's what on didn't want to do on was not willing to give up his own uh mission in life so to speak in order to provide a space for his brother's mission to come into the world as well okay because there's a there's a certain giving up that a person has to do in order to provide space for someone else's mission to be fulfilled he needs to give up a certain to a certain extent his own mission it's very interesting now the asks a question on the Rashi who said that the the sun very interesting the sun is given the same it sounds like he's given the same name as a child raan says that's not always true we find that that that when a child is born doesn't get the same name who was the name for example Boaz had a with Russ and he was considered the the go he was the one who brought the souls of M and kilan who died who who gave them an opportunity for their mission to be continued in the world the child was not named after mlin rather the child's name was oade right so what is the idea explains ran Freelander and the ran what is the idea the idea is that the name that we're speaking about that we have to make him shame we have to establish give for the dead person's name to come back into the world it means the name of a person represents his personal tasket his mission in life the name of a person is a description of the essence of who he is and so when we say that the the person who's the the new child is going to be born is going to uh be given a name the name of the person who passed away the idea is that he continues the mission of the person who passed away okay continues Onin did not want to do a spiritual kindness with his brother who passed away as we explained the on on was what was the what was the problem with on he didn't want to do kindness with his brother to give up a portion of his own service of God his own mission in life to help out his brother to to give assistance to his brother who had died he wanted his own child to have a continuation of his own personal mission that his child should not be a continuation of his brother his brother's Mission as we said is a is a spiritual kindness that the Y gives his brother a place in this world to continue his mission generally speaking when a person dies and he has children so the child continues with the purpose of the father continues in the mission as we find refer to the concept that a son is a Contin is is the is the legs the extension of the father when a person dies without children what is the idea of then in the place of the fact that his son will continue so the child that's going to be born born through the lever marriage will continue the mission of the one who passed away wanted his his own children to be his own legacy and not to help out his brother and it's an amazing thing there was something missing in his in his kindness a spiritual kindness of course as says which we we didn't read but the ranti says that we have to understand these were great righteous people we need to understand that they were being judged on their level nevertheless there's a certain spiritual selfishness not to give any space in his own spirituality to his brother that spiritual selfishness actually had an effect on future Generations it played itself out many many years later okay what was the how did it play itself out later and this is very interesting the Torah tells us extensively as to what was the situation when par and Z were born they were the in the process the Twins were in the process of being born and what happens the one of them sticks out their hand and the the Midwife tied a string onto that child onto that hand this one came out first that child stuck its back in the other one came out wow how you had burst forth so the one who stuck out his hand first was not born first the other one burst forward my parot that's why his name was parrots which means to burst out and he the one who was burn born first was called parrots and he was the great-grandfather afterwards the other one came out the other child he was called Z and what was the idea so he brings I'm not going to actually read it inside so I'd like to kind of uh be makat here today want to you know do it a little bit short and bring us to the idea the the Crux of what I want to understand here and what I want to uh bring to ourselves here that the idea here is that what happens he brings from Rashi that there was a great great grandchild of zarak zerak stuck out his hand first he wasn't meant to be the firstborn parat was meant to be the firstborn but zerak stuck out his hand first and there was a sherish there was a a root that was there of someone trying to grab something that's not theirs trying to stick out his hand to a place that's not his where do we see it that is expressed later many many years later there is a great great grandson of zerak his name was akan aan lived in the times of yahushua of Joshua and aan when the Jewish people came into the land of Israel so they captured the city they destroyed the city of eure of Jericho and they were instructed not to take since it was the first city that they overcame a first city that they conquered so in order to to be to to inculcate into themselves the recognition that it wasn't themselves but rather it was God who did it the Torah asks them God asked them not to take anything from the Biza from the from the shalal from the booty aan was the only one who did and as a result because aan took something that wasn't meant to be taken from in the next battle 36 righteous individuals passed away because when aan took from the booty he he created an effect on the entire Jewish people the entire Jewish people was held accountable his sin it's like it's like being the mush that the sages give is like being in a boat and someone making a hole in the boat you know drilling a hole in the boat and saying what do you mean it's just me it's just in my in my corner of the boat but of course it affects everyone because if there's a hole in the boat everyone's going to drown okay so so that was the sin of aan where did it come from it was rooted in in a sherish in a in a root which went back to zerak zerak stuck out his hand early even though he was not supposed to be the firstborn he tried to grab something so to speak that wasn't to him that wasn't his but where did it come from with zerak zerak was a Reincarnation of Onan Onan who wasn't willing to to be make him Onan wasn't willing to to impregnate Tamar and bring a spiritual rectification a continuation of the mission of his brother air he didn't care about his brother spiritually his soul came into zerah Zer also didn't have a recognition at at a very Elemental level we're speaking here we're speaking obviously everyone has everyone has free choice this is we're talking about babies here but but there was something within him that said I I I will grab something that's not mine I don't care about someone else's portion that expressed itself in his great great grandson aan aan was willing to take something that wasn't his have have a negative effect spiritually and physically on the entire Jewish people and cause the deaths of 36 people so what is the bottom line here what we see the the lesson here which I'd like to take home from this is two things number one each and every one of us has a purpose in life each and every one of us has a mission in our our service of God and why we're on this Earth and that's something that's expressed in all of the tools that we have at our disposal within our disposal and within our lives something that we give over to our children physical appearance um uh character traits Etc and as well as well as all of the all of our Bounty all that we have but there's also an obligation we see here there's also a a requirement that Torah obligates Us in something called arus arvus means that I need to care about the spirituality of another person sometimes it might mean that my mission my mission in the world may not be fulfilled in the same way it might seem like I am losing something from my mission in order to help out someone else's mission in the world and the Torah tells us that just like I have an obligation Not to cause someone else damage through my sin I also have an obligation to open up a space for somebody else to be able to fulfill his spiritual mission in the world and that's what we see it's the depth of what we see from the obligation ofum the story of Yehuda and Tamar and the births of parat and zerak and ultimately the the the soul that comes forth from all of this is the soul of King David the soul of Messiah of the Messiah and he's the one who rectifies and brings everything into the place where they're supposed to be that's the job of the king is to place everybody into to their proper place to make sure that the Jew this Jew is doing his mission this Jew is doing his mission each Jew is doing their mission when everyone is doing their mission properly that's when we that's when we're in the times of the Messiah of Messiah and that's the purpose the main goal of mhia so I want to bless you and I ask you to bless me hasem should help us to recognize our individual mission to utilize the the means at our disposal in order to fulfill our missions to be able to give over to to our children the purpose for which they are in the world as well to continue our missions in the world hasem should help us to also be able to make space and to provide opportunities for others to be able to fulfill their missions even if it seems that somehow our mission will not be fulfilled to the same extent thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabas 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 [Music]