Ari Goldwag - Vayetzei - Purifying Challenges

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast with Ari Gold wag recorded with a Shem snap running assistance in Rome aperture muscies rel 5778 2017 this week's parsha is parshas by eight say I ate say we have Yakov Aveeno Jacob leaving the land of his forefathers leaving the Land of Israel a land of Abraham and Isaac and leaving car leaving Bear Sheva and going to Horan coming to the home of lovin of Laban the AI Rami the aramean also known as the RAM I the trickster and the Tor describes amazing unfolding of the store the Jewish people as Jakob avi no Jacob marries the two sisters Leia and then Raquel Yaakov is in love with Raquel she's beautiful and he feels that she's her saw his soulmate and Leia feels that she's not loved and as I read the story as every year as we read the story it's a great challenge to understand the foundations we're speaking about the foundations of the Jewish people and the foundation of the Jewish people is in this story a story of dissonance a story of disharmony of seems lack of love of favoritism and the story continues from our parsha into the next parsha with with Yaakov Aveeno showing favoritism to Yosef who is the son of his late wife Raquel his beloved wife and there's a few different aspects to which I want to understand which I want to try to unravel what what what's the message of the Torah there's a theme that's going on in this parsha in the next week's Barcia and really truly throughout the entire Torah whether it's the slavery of the Jewish people or whether it's the challenges that the Jewish people go through in the mid bar and the wilderness there's a theme and this theme you know when I was thinking about it I feel like it gives like a such a it's so real these stories are real stories about real people and not just but these people the the stories that were reading about of Yaakov Jacob his wives Leia Rocko Billa Zilpah his children Reuben Shimon etc all the children these are real stories and not only are these real authentic stories but they're stories that are replayed these are stories that we experience ourselves these are experiences that we have and we go through ourselves so these stories are so relatable they're so real or so they're just this is us so it's important to understand that going in we try understand we're trying to stay in the foundation of the Jewish people and we're also trying to understand the foundation of who we are because each one of us each member of the Jewish people is really a gilgul is really reincarnation of some aspect of those cemani souls that Jakub Aveeno and his children came down to egypt with and the 600,000 souls are left Egypt etc so when we look at these stories we need to understand these are real these are real stories these are real events that took place yes three thousand three hundred years ago but events that have taken place continuously over the last three thousand three hundred years so well one thing is the issue is the is the tension around Yaakov Aveeno his relationship with his wives his relationship with LaVon his relationship with a so the fact that he's being chased by a 7-hour parsha he's being chased by loved one and loved one is this employer who gives him his two daughters in exchange for Yakov's fourteen years of work and then another six years of work and Jakob works intensely and he works honestly and Yaakov basically gets all of the blessings that he's brought to Lovins house he receives them himself because they truly are his own there they came to Loven because of him and that goes back to what we spoke about last week with the chamber of exchanges and how that which really rightfully belongs to one person ends up in the hands of another person who was not righteous and we certainly see that right here in our parsha as well but i want to understand a few things number one Yaakov Aveeno and his relationship with love on what's with this thing why you have to be chased and challenged and why did he have to undergo this difficulty with loved one also it comes on the on the custom heals a vase of in lassies parsha and it's gonna continue back to a sever the beginning of next week's parsha what's the understanding of that what is the understanding it's very interesting if we look carefully at the at the Torres description of what happens when the when the wives of Yaakov have the twelve tribes the twelve tribes are born so we read the description throughout Leia her experience lay imagine you know our Leia most of the Jewish people come from her come from the tribe of Judah from Leia some of us come from Benjamin some of us come from Lavy but any one is from Lavy or from Yehuda is from Leia so Leia you may know Leia is our matriarch and she has an incredibly difficult challenge because she has she knows that her husband loves Rahul her sister and she doesn't she was only she only became the wife of Yaakov through a trick of her father it's interesting to note that Yaakov got the brockless why at the instruction of his mother his mother was at Sudeikis Leia and then of married to Yaakov because of the instructions of her father who was in Russia it's just interesting to note but Leia throughout her time he we keep seeing as she says I'm hated I'm hated I'm not loved and each time she hopes that her child will the the fact that now she has this child maybe my husband will love me now maybe my husband will want to be with me right so Leia has that great challenge that great challenge and she has amazingly first she has four kids she has roofing Shimon Levy and then you who duh hoot is born she says a palm is a Shem amazing thing she says now I can thank God you who does me leshawna hodo to thank now I can thank God also beautiful that the entire Jewish people were called Jews from Judah right the essence of who you are is those who think like Leia you may know like our matriarch was able to thank God she saw that she had gotten more than her portion they knew that there would be twelve tribes four wives of you / for each one should have three she ended up with four upon a desertion but then she stops she's unable to have children at that point she doesn't continue to have children right away ends up Bilhah and Zilpah the maid servants in the marital Yaakov they have two each and then Leia again has children she has to give something up she she gives to do da to Rocco Rocco gives something up Leia is allowed to have her night with Yaakov lands up lands of having two more children you saw Karns wound interestingly that brings her to six so half of the Jewish people half of the tribes of Israel descend from Leia also interesting in sovereigns wool and those two came later they were the ones who are classically known for their relationship there into the way that they had that unique relationship where you saw her was learning Torah and swollen would go out to a partner saw provide for you soccer they had that that partnership then what happens finally Rock Hall after all the children are born Rock Hall has Joseph 11th child 11th child after all of the the pain of England I meet up children and begging her Osman give me children she ends up having finally 11 the 11th child and then the 12th and she dies in childbirth so she dies and talking with Benjamin within Yemen and so the story the the description here is so challenging it's like everything that happens here is just heart-rending it's so painful and that's the beginning of the Jewish it's the beginning of the Jewish people is this heart-rending story so I want to understand it you know I'm spoken about in the years past but I want to understand a new depth in it because there's a theme here there's a depth the Torah is trying to teach us and it's something that applies to us these stories are real like I said these stories reoccur they recur in our lives what is the message of this particular story what is the message of Yaakov's challenge and the challenge of the annoyance of the matriarch of the Jewish people also another aspect of it it's very interesting as we read them a fortune as we the commentaries so as I mentioned so there was an awareness the yakoo was meant to have 12 tribes so after Leia stops having children so she's had four kids already like we said Rocco Rocco see she's not having children she takes her maidservant billa and she says I will be able to be built through her just like Avram Aveeno Abraham had sorry gave her Hager and then she had your Schmo that didn't work out so well but maybe it will work out for me which was indeed what happened so Billa so she has she has done enough Tully and those two children are named by Rocco and they're completely part of the Jewish people so then Leia goes interestingly and she gives Yaakov her maidservant Zilpah and she goes on to have God and usher those two children are also named by Leia by the matriarch so it seems difficult to understand what's what's Leia doing why is she doing that she's already had four children why does she feel like she needs to give her maidservant to Yaakov it's not natural for someone to bring aids are alike cause I'll say it sara is a co wife people don't just they're not interested in bringing a co wife into their husband's house and the hosel explainers the commentaries explain that they knew that twelve children were to be born to Yaakov that there were twelve there were to be twelve tribes and there was a jostling there was a wrestle there was a there was a match to the finish who could pray better almost who could get in who could be the one to mother the children who would be the foundation of class or the foundation of the Jewish people and so there was a spiritual war almost and and the language of Rahel is when she names Naftali which who was born from Bilhah is that there's a there's a an intertwining the Fatah Lee's milosz own patil which means a scuse me I'm losing my English there's a string the wick the wick of a NER of a candle it's called a patil it's and it's it's you strings and you wind them together so she's basically speaks about the fact that she's wound up with her sister and there's clearly a a war spiritual war that's going on here between these two women Leia and Rockland the war is who is going to be the matriarch who is going to be the foundation of the Jewish people and the truth is that this war both sides one they both ended up you know Rahul was the mother of Joseph and Benjamin who would be the grandparents of machine yo safe shoham Elif came from Binyam and Mordecai and Esther came from in Yemen great great people throughout history came from that that that part of the Jewish people and Leia as we know as we mentioned became the the matriarch the great-grandmother of of David a Malacca yahuda of David of Mashiach Ben David so each one indeed mariner to have a great portion in the great nation of the Jewish people but but it's so so difficult to understand what's going on here with this with this war the spiritual war so after asking all these questions I think that the foundation the the real foundation the realness of this story and the way that it relates to us is that true spiritual accomplishment only a curse only is obtained through get great challenge through great challenge it's only earned and there's different ways that we earn the spiritual accomplishments Rampal lays it down for us that there are three different ways that a person accomplishes the spiritual attainment and here the spiritual attainment manifests as these children who are the tribes Yaakov Aveeno comes my eighth see a commercial viola karana he needs to leave he needs to leave from the challenge of Asaph and he comes to a new channel which is the challenge of love on the three ways that a person obtains spirituality in this world corn sorrel call number one mitzvahs we form the commandments of God that is the foremost way the easiest way I would say to purify our souls to obtain spirituality but now there are two other ways one of them is called chuhwa chuhwa is where we repent if we've done something wrong we do chuhwa we repent for that thing that's done wrong and that cleans us off that's challenging it's difficult to admit that I've done something wrong to truly be willing and then to change that's very challenging that's a great accomplishment that's a great difficulty and so that cleans us off that brings us to the spiritual realm the third way is called Eucerin you surround his challenges and difficulties and I would say that by far it seems to me it seems to me that that is the the most used way by Hashem Hashem can't force us to do the mitzvahs some cannot force us to fulfill the commandments that's something that we choose some cannot force us to do chuhwa Jim cannot call it you can encourage us perhaps but we have to choose that on our own but now what happens if we're not doing those things so there I'm Kostas a Shem still has a back-up plan Shem wants every human being to obtain the world to come to have true spiritual accomplishment to get to the place where they have closeness to God the third way is you sore knees challenges difficulties and those challenges can be you know something very difficult very challenging a sickness any any number of challenges it can also be something very small very simple I have a cold right now it's really challenging I'm a singer and I need to sing and it's hard for me to sing when I have a cold that's a challenge that's difficult and so but that's even a small challenge that cause I'll say when you stick your finger when you stick your hand in your pocket and you want to pull out a diamond instead he pull out a penny that itself is called you sore and it takes away from one's Ganim from one's need to go to purgatory to go through hell it's not necessary if a person has already cleaned himself off in this world has has experienced challenges in this world so it's not necessary for him to go through go to go to hell to go now the idea here the depth of what's going on in this parsha and really this is the depth of what's going on throughout the Torah whether it's the Jewish people's time in Egypt as slaves or whether it's the Jewish people's challenges that they go through in the wilderness everything that occurs to us each each and every one of us in our lives are the nation of the Jewish people it's always to purify us and to bring us the ability to receive spirituality just to receive spiritual good excuse me now Yaakov Yaakov Aveeno so he had to have these challenges he's about to create he's about to father the Jewish people he has to have an ace of chasing him away and he asked that go through the challenge and the difficulty of a lovin who's a trickster he wants to marry Raphael he ends up marrying Leia he has to learn how to love Leia he has to learn how to to accept the fact that Rahul doesn't have children that's a great challenge for him as well and he has to he has to respond to rock Allah may know to him the matriarch Rafah when she says give me children yes the he makes mistakes to Leia he may know Leia our matriarch so she also has to go through challenges she comes into the marriage or the alcove Aveeno and she's not loved or so she feels she feels she's not loved she knows that Yaakov loves Rafa wanted to marry Rahul she's just a replacement so it seems at the beginning but slowly slowly indeed the relationships change as very interesting to his thinking about it that Rockley may know when does she stop having children first she has children because she's so she feels so intensely that she's hated shed the pus accessor sham sees that she was hated meaning that she had such intense challenge the fact that she had such an intense challenge was what gave her disgust the word disgust means a merit but it also means a purification zakah means pure she was purified of the gosh meanest of the physicality of the ego that prevents a person from receiving spirituality and thus she was able to be the first one to have the children and in fact have for the Jewish people half of the tribes of the Jewish people came from her the Jews today are named after you who died after her child why because she had it hard because it was difficult because she was child it cuz she felt hated when does she stop having children by Yehuda when she feels like oh I'm okay I'm good it's very interesting very interesting you hooda leaders hashem now I feel like I have my portion at that point she no longer feels the the drive she no longer feels the difficulty she no longer is being purified by the Asuran by the difficulty she stops having children it's only after she she feels it again she feels I'm missing something I'm missing something I'm I you know that's when she has children again later after she said she becomes jealous right is very interesting because jealousy also jealousy there's two types of jossie one type of jealousy is regular jealousy which rots the bones as cause I'll say kinna and causes the bones to rot it's the the essence of the person who takes it I sense more person because one type of Kenna is where I I wish that the other person wouldn't have it I don't want him to if I don't have it he shouldn't have it either that's one kind of Kenna that's one kind of jealousy the other kind of jealousy is a cause I'll call kenneth Safran which is the jealousy of a scribe if I see someone else becoming scholarly if I see someone else becoming accomplishing I want to accomplish - it drives me to want to accomplish - so there I use McKenna which is a negative force I used my ego to obtain a spiritual accomplishment so that's a positive force better of course - you know to purify my motives to become willing to do what it takes without being jealous but jealousy can be used in a positive way and that's what happened that's what's happening here the Malcolm of the war between Leia and Rael who's going to have the tribes yes it sounds to us like a negative thing but on a certain level it was a motivator it was something that created a difficulty inside person who Eucerin oh she has more she has children and I don't Rahul felt Leia felt she's loved and I not so there was an intensity in that and that intensity opens up the possibility for each of them to receive and eventually Rahul does have children she has Yosef and she has been yamin and let's not forget that Yosef ends up being a double tribe at Fryman Menasha so you're so Rahul ends up with three tribes Binyamin Manoj and a-frame okay it's just important to think about bottom line and and and Leia loses one because Lavy is not counted whenever we count Manoj in a frame but she doesn't really lose that one that one is a higher one that one is on a higher level maybe is the one who serves God in the Mishkan in the temple Yaakov Aveeno is chaste Rockley man who Leia they all have this challenge you know this difficulty that's the foundation the torres teach us this is the theme it's a foundational theme in the torah that how does one receive spirituality when does one receive spiritual things how does one accomplish in this world it's not sitting back and in a lounge chair with a lemonade in one hand as a Rebbe of mine use the same with lemonade in one hand and the art squirrel gamar in the other hand it requires effort requires toil requires going through difficulty and challenges and that's what this world is about I can I can bypass that right cause I'll tell us that a person who is completely involved in learning Torah who's completely involved in study just excuse me so then that person if he puts out himself the yoke of Torah the all huh Torah so then he's parking mental all derech Eretz all mouth loose they take off from him the if a person has the yoke of Torah they take off from the yoke of having to earn a living the yoke of of the government why what's what does that mean what Scott was all telling us because learning Torah itself is something which is challenging it's a yoke it's difficult it's hard to understand what's going on here it's hard to understand the themes it's hard to understand the Gemara it's a real difficult thing so if a person chooses that difficulty so then other difficulties were taken away he doesn't have to have it he's chosen person chooses to do the mitzvahs to fulfill the commandment so I just need to have other you Suren and some people do have both that's suckish broken we don't understand the depth of of why a sham does everything that he does but the idea here is the depth of the idea is the theme the Torah gives us here in this parsha and throughout the parshas and throughout the Torah the theme is that spiritual accomplishment one of the powerful ways of receiving spiritual goodness spiritual light is difficulty going through challenges so we look at challenges we don't ask for challenges we say well I'll I'll you do you Suren she'll help us purify us but not through difficulties and challenges but we need to know that the challenge is when they come and they do come each one of us experiences our own unique challenges when they do come they come for our benefit somehow they serve to purify us they serve to make us greater they serve to make us deeper they serve to make us more real so these stories when we read our parshas we need to understand this is talking to us these stories tell us the challenges that I have a challenges that you have the challenges that we all go through the little jealousies that we have they should be jealousies that help us strive for greater spiritual accomplishments the challenges that we have with difficult people in our lives those things purify us they're unpleasant we don't like them but those things make us into greater people we become higher when we face off with those challenges and we recognize it's all from a Shem it's all out of Hashem love and it's all a purification process and in order for us to be able to receive a greater good a greater depth a greater spiritual depth or greater relationship with Hashem so I want to bless you and I ask you to bless me i Shem should help us that of course we shouldn't have to go through your sermon we shouldn't have to go through challenges and difficulties but if they do come Shem should help us to be able to face them afford sued to face them with with with the awareness that these challenges are for good or for our growth some should help us to grow not through and not despite but because of our challenges thank you so much for listening have a wonderful Shabbos this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.carmensognonvi.com/newsletter [Music] you