Emet Inspire - Rabbi Mordechai Kraft - Parashat Vayetzei

[music] Welcome back to this week's EMTT inspire paras we see something which is is a magnificent quality of eu in this para we understand that when the imos were having to trying to have children so we know that everyone was able to conceive except for ra there's an incident that's recorded in which apparently Leia's son Ruv and he's going to the fields to find something called dudyim which are a fertility plant and he was going to offer to his mother that she could have more children. Overhears this conversation and she says to Leia that could she please give her those fertility plans. She has not yet conceived and of course so wants to. And there's a dialogue that takes place and it says as follows. It says and went out. He found the these these plants in the field. He brought it to his mother said, "Please give me from these fert fertility plants." And Le says back to there, it's not enough that you took my husband and now you also want to take these plants that are used for fertility says, "Let me have them, but we'll exchange nights as it were." This dialogue is very difficult to understand because we look at the story at its inception we understand that really Raul was designated for Yakov and at the last moment Raul has a change of heart and she realizes that if Leia is not going under the hoop love and the father is going to spread that around it's not going to be modest it's going to be embarrassing for Leia and to save Leia that embarrassment [music] and to spare her the this this moment of immodesty that people should talk about such a thing she delivers what's called the the signs to Leia. Apparently, Yakov and Rahob were concerned that Lavan would try to create exchange lea and they had signs between them and so she gave over the signs to Leia so that under the who was it really was really it wasn't Rha. So it's very difficult to understand this when Ra is making a legitimate request. I don't yet have children. Can I have those dud tonight? And and Leia's response is it's not enough. It's not enough that you took my husband is gone. You also want to take these fertility plants. How could you say such a thing? She she didn't take you didn't take from didn't take Yakov from Lea. It's the other way around. Took Yak from Rael. So how do we understand this this very difficult statement in the Torah? There's a beautiful perman the the mid of Jerusalem and offers a a a fascinating explanation. His explanation is as follows. He says that if you trace through different statements of the midrashim it seems that Leia never even knew that Rahul was supposed to be married to YaKob. Apparently gifts were sent from Yakov to the house and took them. He hid them. He took them for himself. Rahul never told Leia that I'm designated for YaKob. So what happened? Well, when she realized that Love is going to do some sort of switch and it's going to be embarrassing to Leia, she somehow communicated to YaKob or excuse me, she communicated to Leia what these signs were, what these were. She didn't say that YaKob and I had made up these signs. She just put it out there. She said, you know, by the way, when a woman gets married, there are three mits she has to do. and and of course the mitzvah of and of course the mitzvah of Shabbat and therefore when Jacob asked her these questions she knew what to answer. So according to she was never given the R told her here you take the signs she handed it to them and as a result Leia knew what to do and apparently Leia never even knew that Raul was designated for Yakob. So can you imagine now here they are and Leia accuses Rahul Rahul you took my husband and that's so untrue. It's completely the other way around. And what does Rahul do? She remains silent. She doesn't say [music] a word. She doesn't respond. This is love of a sister at the highest level. This is what it means to say your covet, your honor is the most important thing here. That self-restraint that she showed is probably one of the most magnificent acts of self-restraint that we could possibly imagine. And that's Rahul Mayu. That's who we have as our role model. And of course, that's the value that we should all try to achieve. [clears throat] How can we remain quiet when when insulted or maybe even unjustly? Can we be so concerned for the other's honor that we can actually remain silent and of course create enormous peace [music] and build a beautiful beautiful relationship the type of relationship that a koshu wants. Wishing everybody Shabbat shalom. [music]