Finding God in the Depths: Chizuk for Iron Sword by Rabbi David Walk

okay good morning everyone um this week's parure is called Vash and uh and it the the term Vos may actually mean to um to encounter uh I'm looking at the translation of uh rabay Kaplan Oliver shom he says walked up to Vish can also mean approach but it it also can mean a an encounter a a a face to face and this is really a para of encounters the most famous encounter is the beginning of the para um yadik with uh with yehudah but I'd like to discuss a little bit the later encounter which is really the last encounter between hes between God and yov and to set the scene Yakov is getting ready to go down to Egypt and um the night before the departure Hashem comes to him in a uh in a night vision in a dream in h in a prophecy and says um Yakov Yakov uh we see that idea of repeating a name for affection with uh here but of course with Abraham Abraham when hasem speaks to him and lat when we get into there going to be Moshe Moshe so with this addressing we clearly see that there is an emotional and a um a love relationship a connection between Hashem and Yu and so what is it that a kades says he says I'm the go God of your your father of your ancestors don't be afraid this is a common theme that speaks to uh yov and says alov which is the quote from Yu which ends up being one of the famous songs that many of us sing Mo Shabbat is part of malava Mala um so don't be afraid my servant Jacob and this is the third time in the Kash that Hashem tells y not to be afraid and what we know about instances when God tells somebody specifically yov to not be afraid that means they are afraid and the truth is Yakov has a very good reason to be afraid he doesn't want to leave Eris with his family his now extended family uh 70 souls and that's it's a problem because yakob from his 20 years in Khan living with his difficult father-in-law lvan knows the dangers of of galut of Exile of the diaspora it's very easy to assimilate get lost be taking advantage of punished uh physically abused we see that's happened throughout history and is going to happen to the Jews in Egypt they are going to be enslaved and and beaten so Yakov is understandably realistically rationally afraid of a real danger but Hashem says don't be afraid and ultimately the answer to why he shouldn't be afraid is the next verse in what it is that that Hashem says and what it is that Hashem says to uh uh to Yakov which is I I that's an emphasis on that first person I am going to go down with you to Egypt Alo and I am going to come back up with you I'm going to do the UR out of ER and I will make alah with you and your when you come back so um so what do what do these two things mean so obviously the first one going down makes s but what's it mean when he says that I that is g to come up with him so there are many answers that uh Hashem is saying I'm going to make sure and I'm going to accompany your coffin when it comes back to be buried in KRON um uh other people say that it means that I'm I'm GNA come up with your with your children with your DNA with your seed when they come up finally from uh at the end of the centuries that they're going to spend um in Egypt but the question is what is God really mean when he refers to himself as Ani so uh there are many ways of trying to understand the term Ani it could mean just I'm you know it's me to the exclusion of all others that's what ani means um according to theud who's quoting the bov an means it means a vehicle through which means a vehicle through which Yakov can Ascend because sometimes when you go down into a pit you can't get out on your own so Hashem is the means by which Yakov will be able and Ben Israel will be able to ascend to get out of this galute to depart from this terrible experience uh in Egypt it can't be done without the assistance of hash and Hashem personally as we say uh in the in the ha probably based on this verse that I God am going to be with you when when they're coming out of Egypt it says I am not an angel I am not a messenger I am not a sarra it is I myself who's going to bring you out and that's probably the anoi from uh from our pasuk um also the similar idea is in is in halel that when we uh we talk about uh the splitting of the Red Sea we we say um uh I wrote it down okay that uh here it goes in say why why did you split it split because again the an is is there with him so the first Ani is based upon how we're going to get out of slavery it's going to be through Hashem um other people say that Ani means the the divine presence and others are a little bit concerned with that shot because we're not so sure that is easily available outside of is encounted here in in in the mikdash but the answer that I'm really interested in this morning is the answer of theat and he's not the only one to give the preliminary part of this answer that the an in I will bring you out is the fromer I myself am the Lord your God who brought you up out of the bondage of Egypt and so theat says that an that IE will as descend with you to Egypt and that unoi will Ascend with you and that means the final Aliyah of that generation is going to be at har we know the Next Generation after the ones who leave Egypt we have a new Alia coming into ER Israel but that's a a separate a separate issue how come the people at Haren weren't those who go into erus Ro but what I what I really want to go further in this uh in in this fat with you is why is this why is this episode necessary why must the Jews go through this experience and the rebi the the second G rebba uh has to has to let us know that sometimes Hashem will be hidden and sometimes Hashem will be revealed sometimes there is Hare there is hiddenness and sometimes there is nigla there is open obvious encounters with Hashem and to to prove this point uh the rebi uses a pasuk from sherim from song of songs and he says that um my relationship with the Beloved that's Israel and Hashem the metaphoric love relationship is a garden which is na locked and the the lover and the Beloved their relationship is a spring a source of life giving water is also na locked and the rebi goes on to say that H panim the hidden locked aspect of our relationship with Hashem periodically is absolutely necessary why why must there be periods of galut H NOA locked up and he explains the verse means that there are some Torah Concepts which can only be brought from theoretical potential to actual real in concrete through a process of H and Exile this idea comes from the our verse which we're going which MOS is going to say just before he dies at I will surely hide my face from you why is it necessary that there must be periodic episodes of H ponim of difficult times where we don't quite know where we're going the path is hidden is dark the the reason the reason the Reby says it's not an accident it's the way of the Torah that often we can only understand a con a concept if we've lived with it and it's actually it's it's actually has caused us some physical harm laav I'm not trying to give a fcil analogy but it but it but it helps a little bit you know you can't learn how to ride a bike without sometimes falling down and scraping your knee and it hurts learning experiences for major difficult ideas often require us to work very hard and to not see where the solution is to work our way through and only when we emerge from the darkness into the light we say oh being in slaves in Egypt helped Bond us as a nation oh yes scraping my knee when I rode my bicycle that was part of the process process of learning how to ride a bike we don't see it when the process is going on but in retrospect we are better we emerge more whole from the experience I I really hope and I really pray that the difficult experience our nation is going through right now will quickly come to a an advantageous a good outcome I have faith that the outcome will be good for Claus and for ER Israel but it's a difficult time right now and we're suffering and we have to believe that a certain amount of this suffering is part of the process that's going to bring us to whatever it is we emerge from at the other end of this tunnel we do have to have faith that kades the an the is with us even in these dark times and that hopefully the Speedy Redemption result outcome of what we're going through now will make us see more clearly our relationship with Hashem with medat Isel with ER is with the people of Israel and we just have to have the strength we have to have the commitment the patience to go through this difficult time to hopefully see the better times that are going to follow it we do have to believe that the Hester is sometimes necessary even though when we're going through it it's very painful and difficult we're in the pain and the difficulty now but please God will emerge soon from these difficulties and understand how this experience has made our people our nation our country stronger because of the effort it should come to a speedy end very very soon