Vayishlach - Sacrificing for Israel

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast with Ari goldwag recorded with hashem's NeverEnding assistance in rap Israel 5784 2023 this week returns to the holy land with his wives with his 11 sons and a 12th son bamin is about to be born Benjamin the Torah tells us that that Rael as she's giving birth to Benjamin she's giving birth to bamin she has trouble in her birth she ends up passing away from this birth and they told her don't worry don't worry uh says the verse says the verse the second part of the verse says don't be afraid because this is a son as well and we're going to discuss at the end of this Mish exactly what they were trying to do what was the intent of the mdos the women who were helping her give birth or were they trying how are they trying to encourage her but it's a sad moment it's a sad moment ra we know of course till this very day we can go to her grave she C for am Israel the Jewish people when they leave the land of Israel when they're exiled they pass by her grave and they cry there and she cries for them so we know that death is not the end and raal manu's story lives on but it's still sad it's a sad story she has ysep she has bamin all the Jewish people today come either from Yehuda or Benjamin so she certainly has an incredible Legacy down to this very day day but what is the depth of what we're supposed to take from the story of RA Manu dying at the precipice of the Jewish people's return to the land of Israel and in the death in her death Benyamin is born let's let's learn together a mish which takes off takes us off in a different direction but at the same time teaches us a very interesting and important lesson which applies to this p says says that she was she had a difficult time giving birth Etc the M tells us a story that took place in the times of the Greek persecution of the Jewish people there were two students of the Great Sage RAB Yeshua and these two students in order to protect their identity because anyone who was detected as being a Torah student they would killed them so they Protected Their identity by dressing up just like the Greeks very interestingly and I I'll offer a theory as to what's going on here because on the surface of things it's a little difficult to understand but there is a particular sardot sardot is a Greek General somebody very important in the Greek army he met up with these two people with these two students tourist students he he looked at them and he saw the way they were dressed and he sensed it seems that something was strange about them they didn't seem to be real Greeks or they didn't seem to be real hellenists and yet they were dressed in the Garb of of Greeks so he says to them who are you what's your story you seem to be people who are uh Torah Scholars students of the Torah why why are you dressed like us first of all why are you dressed like us why are you trying to fake us out if you're if you're B A Torah if you're Torah scholar so then let yourself be killed let us identify you so they saw the gig is up so they said they said we are students of Torah and we are willing to give our lives for the study of Torah but why did we dress up this way we dressed up in Greek clothing because we don't have to call attention to ourselves and make it clear who we are we're willing to die for the Torah we're not going to stop studying the Torah but we're not going to draw attention to ourselves so that we can be easily [Music] identified so this Greek General said like this I'm going to ask you three questions based on your Torah and if you give me a good answer if you give me a satisfactory answer to my three questions about your Torah then I'll let you go but if you don't give me good answers for my questions I'll destroy you so it's very interesting because the sardot this Greek General seems to be familiar with the Torah seems to be familiar with different aspects of the Torah and as we'll see Not only was he familiar with the Torah itself but he was also familiar with the very teachings of their Rabbi reab Yeshua of their teacher so he brings as for explain in each of these PUK he's trying to show them that they're wrong for studying Torah that they're wrong for staying steadfast to their Torah ideology to their Jewish identity the first verse that he brings is like this one verse says it's a verse in Isaiah 3:3 God stands up when when he wants to judge so one verse indicates that God stands in judgment however when the verse refers to the Judgment that God does on the nations of the world which which is a p in yel in Joel 4:12 says I will sit in judgment on the go about the nations of the world and the here explains that what he was implying was that that God in standing in judgment over the nation over over the Jewish people that's how he understood it clearly the first pk is referring to the Jewish people he stands in judgment over the Jewish people when he judges the nations of the world he sits in judgment so clearly the general was saying that God is more angry at the Jews that god holds them more accountable that God stands in judgment and Strikes them down but with with the nations of the world God sits takes his time so he was saying it's it's not a good idea to be Jewish the verses themselves your very Torah indicates that you're at a disadvantage for being Jewish join us become like us be like the nations of the world God won't judge you as much so they said to him look you misunderstand the verse When God judges the people of Israel it's true he judges them standing but what does it mean that God stands as it were in judgment when it comes to the people of Israel it means when a person is standing it means he's on his way out the door he's ready to go he's he's going to do things quickly he's he's going to he's going to be nicer he's not going to do it in a way that's so you know sitting relaxed taking care of things properly he's going to just do things to get things out of the way but he's going to have more Rus say this these two particular students of R Yeshua Hashem has more Mercy on the Jewish people the fact that he's standing doesn't indicate his anger at the Jewish people the other way around it it indicates that he's going to have mercy on the Jewish people and he's going to find a way a loople for the Jewish people when he judges the nations of the world so he sits he sits down and he's very careful in the Judgment of the nations of the world and he looks he he extends the Judgment in such a way that he finds all the problems all the things that they've done wrong it's not worth it it's not worth it to be part of the nations of the world said these two students in response to this General amem so interestingly the general responded and said you know I had to tell you the truth I know something that it seems you don't know because I know what you re said are you not aware of what Rua your teacher actually said on these verses he said quoted the general the Greek General said quotes R Yeshua and says that both of these verses are actually speaking about the nations of the world m he said you're correct he sits first in his Judgment of the nations of the world and he does he does Judge the nations of the world slowly and he's careful and he looks at every detail and he is going to get the nations of the world for all they've done wrong and the standing part also has to do with the nations of the world after he judges them sitting as a judge God stands up God stands up and he acts as the prosecutor because God besides for himself besides for being the judge himself of course he's the ultimate judge but he also has a court a Heavenly Court that's with him and he stands before the Heavenly court and he prosecutes he speaks against the nations of the world so first he sits and then he stands as it were so the general admits that they're that they're really correct in understanding these verses that way and understanding that it's not a good thing for the nations of the world it's not so it's not such a uh it's not so K to become a member of the nations of the world he says he brings him another verse which seems to indicate that they approaches wrong you're sitting and studying Torah you're rejecting the Pursuits of the physical world you're involved in intellectual Pursuits Torah Pursuits spiritual Pursuits but why don't you agree to the Greek philosophy we have to develop our physical bodies we need to work the land the PK itself says in Mishay in Proverbs 28: 19 the one who works the land he will have he will be full with bread the end of the verse says if you do empty things you'll be poor so the very King Solomon the wisest of all men points out the general he said you can't just sit and learn you can't just study you can't just be involved in spiritual matters you need to work the land if you want to eat if you're involved in empty matters which I would say you are as a general is implying so then you'll be poor that's not a praiseworthy thing it seems according to King Solomon they said no you misunderstand what this verse is speaking about it's not talking about a literal field it's talking about somebody who is studying the Torah studying someone who is pluming the depths of what the Torah teaches us of what it means to be spiritual of what it means to come close to God and the verse is saying that a person can focus on one piece of land on one Su in the on one particular section of the of the vast amounts of knowledge that there are and a person can also spread himself very thin and try to and try to work every single field that there is in the world don't make that mistake the verse is telling us it doesn't mean it doesn't mean a person lit a literal a literal piece of land it means someone who's studying the Torah focus on one topic until you want understand it down to its depths if you want to be satisfied from the the the bread of Torah so then you need to work the land down to its down to the end but if you try to get too many different understandings of too many different areas of the Torah you're going to end up empty you'll just end up with lots of holes in the ground and you won't have benefited completely from the Torah that you studied that's how they explained it but it's talking about a spiritual acquisition it's not talking about the Physical Realm schl the wisest of all men wasn't telling us to involve ourselves in physical Pursuits all of our Lives heaven forbid the general responded and said you know I have to tell you what your very teacher said are you aware said the general that your teacher Rua he said the following understanding of this very verse it says in the the one who works the the Earth he understood it doesn't mean to work the Earth literally it means oade is is a person who works who serves Hashem who is a servant of God ad don't read it ad it's land but read ad until he dies the person who serves Hashem until he dies that's the person who's going to be satisfied in the world to come the person who runs after empty things he'll just he'll just be empty in the end the general himself admitted whatua said again about the emptiness of the lives of the idolators of the nations of the world in the end they're empty in the end they have nothing they can't they don't have anything to satisfy themselves with in the world to come CU they have run after AAR idolatries they've run after the physical idolatries the gold and the silver they've run after the money and wealth and all the things that they think will will help them in this world but ultimately they're left with nothing so in a certain sense he admitted that they were right the verse is not just talking about a a superficial version of reality he talking about a deeper version and finally he brought them from our verse and he wanted to understand why does the verse tell us that when Ra was about to pass away she was having difficulty in labor she was about to [Music] die what does it mean when the verse says that she was having difficulty in her birth and then what is the end of the verse say the end of the verse says as we quoted earlier that they told her they told her don't worry sorry I have a hard time finding it don't worry you have a a son how did they he asked them how is raimu consoled by the fact that she's about to have a son she's dying how is she consoled and I would say that the implication the implication that he was saying was look what is the result of ru's life she strove all of her life to have a son to to have a Yos to have a byin to have a in the Jewish people and then she just dies so the implication from the general is you're spending your whole life in spiritual Pursuits and then you just die your life in this world is is is just it's so short you don't even even see in this world that the sadic the Rous individual ra she didn't live a long life she died at a very young age what is the what is the consolation they said that this is how they encourage a woman they try to help her that she shouldn't pass away when she's about to die as she's giving birth they say to her as explain what what they were telling her was don't worry you have a son you're giving birth to a son and the son says you're not going to die they they were trying to encourage her that she shouldn't die didn't work out but don't worry you're not going to die there's a Simon of life you're having a son there's a Simon of Peace you're having a son not just any son sadik Benjamin and then he says back to them something else he says I want to tell you what your teacher Dar how he understood this verse every single tribe when each tribe was born so a twin was born with the tribe meaning ruin was born he had a twin sister born shim was born a twin sister was born with him each of them was born with a [Music] twin and the consolation was according to rishu according to this General that she had an extra twin born besides for bamin and it seems besides for the regular twin that was born a girl that was born alongside each twin there was another twin there was triplets that's what it seems to be saying so so what there's a and he was acknowledging the general that when there's a an accomplishment when there's a great accomplishment when a person knows even as they die that they are bringing a son two daughters into the world members of the Jewish people and each of these daughters according to the the menish according toim they they married they married each other meaning the each of the shat married their sister their half sister excuse me so so what is the what is the message what is the message and it's so interesting to me that this General he had the sensitivity he knew obviously about the Torah maybe he was even somebody who had converted to to to the Greek way of life maybe he himself was a helist had originally been a Jew had did he know this information my son said they were interested in in information they were interested in knowledge so he knew maybe he wasn't but he was somebody who had information and he and he was it was a it was a he's willing to let them live if they would stand up for what they believe and he even understood their side and what's interesting is he understood that from the Jewish perspective the spiritual accomplishment is is worth it it's worth dying for it because that is still life right it's interesting into contrast you see that in the Arab world they're willing to die for what they believe as well but they idealize death we don't idealize death we idealize life we idealize life but still there's a time when we understand that in the death there is new life there's new life that's born in ra death in the potential death of a Torah scholar in the times of the Greeks in the times of the hellenists they knew that that was how they would bring continued life just like Ru just like Rachel was consoled by the fact that she had so much life that was coming into the world through her death and so sometimes we need to know sometimes we need to understand sometimes we need to think about what is our purpose here in life is if for this world is it so I can accomplish in this world and work the Earth or is there something deeper going on and is the the fact that a person is focused as the nations of the world are focused overly focused on this world overly focused on the Physical Realm overly focused on parnasa on livelihood overly focused on what's in front of me unable to focus on the spiritual Realms on the World to come on the ultimate truth on what happens in the future on the life that we're giving birth to through our children through teaching them the Torah through the accomplishments that we have which produce a life in the world to come is that what's important to us that's the difference between us and the nations of the world and from ra we learn she she had a hard death she had a hard birth but still there's a consolation sometimes we have challenges in life sometimes in order to do what's right it's hard it's hard to live in Earth Israel it's it's hard to live in the land of Israel it's a challenge people come here and they go through difficult times and some people can't hack it and they go back and some people continue on despite it all and they succeed anything good anything spiritual anything that has to do with the future of Amel there is AA there's a there's a difficulty that we have to pass through but it but it produces that's the it produces it's hard to be an immigrant it's hard to be an English speaker in the land of Israel my kids speak Hebrew they grew up here it's a challenge for me it's a challenge for them as well they're children of immigrants but it's less of a challenge and for their children it will be even less of a challenge but the point is that in order to get where we want to get to which is the future which is life we have to be willing to sacrifice we have to be willing to recognize that it's about that future and we're investing in that future I want to bless you and ask you to bless me hasm should help us that we should be able to understand that Hashem judges us differently when our focus is on what's right and that Hashem wants us to to work to serve him to be a servant of him and not a servant to the ideals of the nations of the world and Hashem should help us to recognize that when we do so so the result is an incredible consolation it's a it's a production of a spiritual an incredible spiritual result thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shamas 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