Is Serving G-d Supposed to Make Your Life Better? (Parshas Lech Lecha)

so I heard that 80 percent of accidents happen within 10 miles of the home so I moved 11 miles away from my house so that accidents only the 20 percent of other accidents would happen to me that's why I moved 11 miles from my house thank you okay so this week's Torah portion Hashem tells avram he was called avram back then go for yourself which means leave get out of this place leave your home it wasn't his homeland he had already left his homeland or caused him but leave the place where you have settled that you made home it's called Haron and uh go further and and Hashem didn't even tell him where he's going to go he just said go and I'll I'll let you know when you get there so uh I just want to take a look at the first couple of verses where this instruction to leave home is described Hashem said to avram he wasn't yet avraham with the extra letter hey it was avram go for yourself from your land from your birthplace um from your father's house to the land that I will show you that's the first verse second verse I will make you into a great nation and I will make your name great meaning your your reputation I'll make you famous and you will be a blessing okay those are the first two verses now when we want to understand simple meaning in a Bible verse we look in the commentary of rashi rashi is the preeminent commentary there are literally thousands of rabbinic commentaries on what they call the Tanakh on the scripture but Rashi is the go-to as far as straightforward simple meaning okay so Rashi tells us go for yourself it's a little bit of an unusual turn of phrase go for yourself some say go to yourself that but that has a deeper explanation like an act of self-discovery but she's just explaining the simple meaning obviously every Torah verse has layers of meaning but we just want the straightforward meaning here okay so go for yourself Rashi explains for your benefit and for your welfare for your good for your own good meaning to say go for yourself it will be good for you it will pay off for you I'm telling you something that's going to turn out good for you that's what the local part means go why for you it's gonna I'm not telling you don't do this for me do yourself a favor do it for you okay the shaman there where wherever it is that you'll go I'll make you into a great nation you know those words those are the words from the next verse in other words Rashi is connecting verse 1 to verse two he's explaining the flow go for yourself what does it mean for yourself well the next verse tells you what it means for yourself that there once you get to this destination what you're going to become a great nation the con furthermore here where you are now you're not going to Merit to have children that there you will and another thing I want to make you famous I want I want everyone to know about you okay and which is basically what's described in the next verse which we read but I want to read the Rashi on the next verse as well get ready so Raja in the next verse explaining those words I'm going to make you into a great nation if you go I'm going to make you into a great nation so Rashi explains what is the meaning of the of these words see before Rashi explained the meaning of verse 1 by using words from from verse two now I want to understand verse two see we're moving in a in an order here okay so what does it mean I'm going to make you into a great nation go and I'll make you into a great nation lafi Rashi says the traveling Derek means the the way but it literally that literally means the the way of it figuratively it means traveling traveling causes three things traveling causes three things it diminishes being fruitful and multiplying that's that Mitzvah that we actually mentioned in the first color portion as well as the second portion so it diminishes being fruitful and multiplying it's hard to be fruitful multiply while you're traveling and it diminishes wealth it's hard to amass wealth while you're moving around you got to sort of stay in one place and build your assets Hashem and traveling diminishes renown it makes it hard to establish a reputation when you're always just rolling into town you're the new guy as opposed to someone who sets up shop and he builds his reputation becomes well known you guys played the board game Risk right start with one country and then you build Okay so traveling generally diminishes these three things this is just a known thing traveling makes it hard to have a family a traveler makes it hard to amass wealth traveling makes it hard to amass or to gain a reputation therefore who is needed these three particular blessings to offset what traveling normally causes shift God promised him you're going to have children and you're going to have wealth shame and you're going to have Fame okay so normally traveling diminishes these three things building a family Building Wealth and building a reputation therefore Hashem had to specifically guarantee don't worry in your case I'll take care of you I'll make sure that you're gonna have an extra Divine boost in those areas you won't suffer you'll only gain okay simple question simple question the first verse said go for yourself for your own benefit this is this is good for you do yourself a favor it's going to be good for you in a number of ways and in fact three particular ways family wealth and reputation and the next verse he says I'm going to guarantee you success divinely blessed success in these three areas because normally traveling makes those three things particularly uh hard to succeed in so there's a little bit of a contradiction here is Hashem telling avram that if he's going to travel he's going to succeed because in those three areas because of the traveling or in spite of the traveling the first verse the way Rashi explains it you're going to succeed in those three areas because of the traveling if you travel it'll be good in these three ways but the second verse the way Rashi explains it sounds pretty clear no naturally speaking these three things are going to really suffer they're going to take a beating when you travel but I'll offset it and I'll make it go the way it's not normally supposed to go because I can do that you know God's saying so that's our question is avram succeeding because he's following God's instructions to travel or is he succeeding in spite of following God's instructions to travel now you're going to say that doesn't really sound like such a bombshell question it's not going to keep me up at night like if you don't answer this question I'm not going to lose sleep right and I guess that's okay that's all right I'm not I'm not discouraged by that it's called reading the room I'm looking around people like this is the setup because not really that engaged but that's okay and there are cookies in the back so you could always justify you came out you got a cookie and at worst you heard a mediocre October class and you had a good cookie so what would what would you rather have a good Tober class and a mediocre cookie or a mediocre class in a good cookie so take your pick okay at any rate I want to tell you a story the story is about a guy who I actually just saw him recently not too far from here we're on Central Avenue in Cedarhurst New York and I saw him at the oh hell at the resting place of the lababa which is in Queens about four and a half miles from here and his name is Ami pakowsky and he's an Israeli guy who uh he has a very interesting story he has many interesting stories but I'll tell you one story that I just think is very powerful and that is he like I said he's Israeli and like most Israelis raised very secular Israeli not Jewish right but he actually had some semblance of awareness of Jewish ritual or religious law because that's actually how he began to know about the rabbit he was on a business trip to China I think it was China it was definitely the Far East back in the 70s or the 80s and he always had a thing that he didn't eat pork he was not at all religious like completely secular but that was his one thing for whatever he didn't eat pork and then when he was at a business meeting in China he accidentally ate pork and then he found out he was very upset and I don't know who but somebody told him to write to the LA Baba and he did so and he asked for a tikkun a way of correcting it so that's actually how he began his religious Journey so I don't know I mean who am I to even wonder but sometimes you wonder like why to something the poor guy the one Mitzvah that he kept was not eating pork but you see that it's not a good thing that he accidentally ate pork but his reaction to it is actually what started his whole uh development and his spiritual growth at any rate so he starts becoming a little bit more uh religious and eventually gets to a point where he feels like it would be appropriate for him to be showing my Shabbos to keep Shabbos now the problem was that he was in retail and specifically he was the owner of a sporting goods not really Sporting Goods more like sports clothing store in downtown L.A so this was this was all retail this was all people just walking in off the street and buying a tracksuit or whatever and um 95 of his business literally 95 if not more percent of his business was all on Saturday that's when people came and they walked into the store and they tried on clothes and they bought clothes so he came to a point where he decides you know what I have to keep Shabbos and even though it's gonna wipe out 95 of my business and I really don't have a way to recoup that but I'm just gonna have to do I'll have to do what I'll do and uh I let the chips fall where they may he had one problem that complicated it and that was that he didn't own the building it was an entire the building where he had the the sports clothing store in downtown L.A was an entire city block it was massive it was an entire city block and he didn't own it he rented it and he had rented it for a 20-year lease and when he signed the 20-year lease the owner actually told him do you know what you're doing right now you're signing a 20-year lease I'm not joking around if you ever think that you're going to break this lease you will never ever break this lease if you try to get out of paying I will chase you for the rest of your life you will not get away from this do not sign this unless you're ready to keep a 20-year lease and he says I know what I'm doing I want it and he signed it and he committed to a 20-year lease so the problem was he was ready for his store to basically go bankrupt but how is he going to pay the the rent so he started looking around for somebody who might want to take over the lease and he told people other people in retail I don't want anything for this I'm not asking to you know to to take a cut for brokering the deal I simply want somebody to take over this lease and everyone laughed at him and they said nobody wants a 20-year lease so he didn't know what to do and he wrote to the rabbit so this was his second time writing to the debit his first time was after the pork incident this is the second time okay so he writes to the rabbit and he said my plan is to close on Shabbos most of my business is Shabbos but I'm ready to take the hit I'm right into the rabbit I'm asking for a blessing that I shouldn't get hurt that's how he wrote it that I shouldn't get hurt so he said he got a response from that they're very unusual he received 18 from the Reba a ten dollar bill a five dollar bill a two dollar bill and a single dollar bill ten five two one eighteen and the debit wrote a response with three points Point number one was and this he said blew him away because what he didn't tell the rabbit he told it up in general terms I'm going to close on Shabbat what he didn't say was that he had in mind what that meant was Saturday day it did not mean Friday night and in his mind that in the winter on Friday when store hours would go past the beginning of Shabbos he would just continue working and then whenever he closed the shop Friday night that's when he would start Shabbos he was ready to commit to Saturday not to the Friday night part of it you know in the summer it's not a problem Shabbos comes in very late eight nine o'clock so you can close the store and it's still not candlelighting yet but in the winter when Shabba starts coming in earlier he he accepted already that wasn't part of the deal he wasn't ready for that like I said he wasn't religious he just was taking on one Mitzvah at a time and this is where he was at he was at this point where he felt it was the right thing he's a Jewish person he owns a store he should his store should be uh should be Shoma Shabbos to whatever degree he was that meant to him so and he didn't tell the rabbit that was his plan he just told that I'm starting to close on Shabbos it's 95 of my business and I'm asking for a blessing I shouldn't get hurt so I told you there was three points first point was Point number one material hakama you should begin meaning begin your Shabbos observance before the setting of the Sun and you will have great Merit so he saw right there what he felt was a miracle that I've been knew somehow that he didn't intend to close before sunset on Friday and the devil was basically saying I'm saying to him yes you're going to keep not just Saturday day but You're Gonna Keep Friday night as well no matter what time it comes in the second thing he told him that you should disperse or disseminate Torah teachings joyfully and La tet the third one was late you should give it's not you should give charity over there so and then he had and again he had the eighteen dollars the ten the five the two and the one so he was uplifted by this and he felt very encouraged so he says okay you know what I got to have his blessings and uh that's it I'm gonna go down to the to the landlord and I'm gonna tell him I'm a Jew I'm keeping Shabbos and I'm breaking the lease and that's it and I'm sorry this is what I got to do I gotta do what I gotta do so he marches down to the landlord landline had an office and uh there was a secretary there receptionist and he said I'm here to see Mr so-and-so the owner and she said he's not here today a little anti-climactic because he got himself all hyped up because he got to have his answer he marches down uh he's he's not here okay fine so he goes back to his store and he's working in the store for a little while and a little while later some guy walks in and says um I need to know how to uh I I need I need to know who has who has the least to this to this uh building so he says you want to know who owns it I don't know and I'm not the owner he says I know you're not the owner I was just at the owner so he's like very confused okay yeah so I yeah I'm I'm the one ranting I said I know you're the the the the the did you have a lease you're the one running I'm the owner okay so listen I just tried to buy this building from the owner and he tells me you're holding on to the lease and you got a 20-year lease and he says he can't sell it to me because of you so tell me what you want to break this lease so Ami was totally Blown Away here he was he was trying to find somebody who would take over the lease then he was ready to go March down and tell the guy you know whatever happens happens now all of a sudden this guy's chasing me he's begging from him tell me what you want tell me what you want what are your terms that you should you should break the lease so that I can buy the the building from the owner so he's like I don't I don't I don't know like it never occurred to him so the guy takes out a checkbook and he writes a check I mean never said the number the amount okay what he said was the guy wrote a check he shows it to me and he's like will this be enough for you to get up and get out of here and allow me to buy this building and he said sure I don't know the number but he said the the amount of the check just the amount of that check was enough to buy a home and to start a factory and he got into manufacturing got out of retail he went into manufacturing and uh did much better in manufacturing than he ever did in retail and and bought a house for himself so that's that's like I said I find that to be a very powerful story the question is this foreign was ready to take a big hit whatever that would mean maybe even you know bankruptcy Maybe is going to get sued he's going to lose everything he's ready for it he's ready for it why Shabbos he's ready to do the right thing whatever happens and in the end not only nothing bad happens to him but something totally unpredictably good happens to him beyond what he had dreamed so the question is breaking the lease was not a good move they would not there would not be something normally that would be good for him but keeping Shabbos forced him to do it so he did it and then he became rewarded for that well rewarded did he succeed in this disproportionate way because he did something that normally would have caused him Financial ruin or did he have this disproportionate success in spite of the fact that he was ready to do something that would normally cause him Financial ruin I mean this is our question about avram avram's told get up go travel well traveling we know causes generally speaking three things it's going to diminish the ability to build a family it's going to diminish your ability to build uh assets and it's going to diminish your ability to build a reputation that's Naturally Speaking what it causes and yet I'm from traveling not only didn't cause those three areas of life to suffer but it caused him disproportionate success he built the family we're here right we're his family and he built an Empire he was very wealthy not right away but eventually and he built the reputation we're talking about him right now you ever heard of the abrahamic faiths you know he built the reputation he's pretty famous all because he got up and he traveled when normally that would have been a really bad move but God told him to do it so he did it so here's the deal when we do the right thing when we do hashem's will and we surrender our own will the idea isn't that well now Hashem owes me and now it's going to be good in fact that's my guarantee by doing the right thing I'm now guaranteed success no actually by doing the right thing you're guaranteed failure and you have to be ready to sign up for the failure you have to be ready to accept the fact this is going to ruin you like I mean walking down to the landlord's office ready to be wiped out and when you're ready to get wiped out that surrender that placing aside of the ego the ego the edging got out makes room for something infinitely greater than what we could have done through our own human power so it's not the question of did album succeed because of traveling or in spite of traveling he succeeded because he was ready to embrace failure if that's what doing the right thing required it's interesting at the end of last week's portion we were already introduced to avram just a little bit we got a little genealogy about avram and at the beginning of this week's Torah portion he's already 75. he's already 75 years old but in the very end of last week's Torah portion we're introduced to avram at least we're told about about his family about his father terak and we're told about his brother Horan Horan was actually the father of of sodai later Sarah and Horan died back in her costume her costume was in Mesopotamia that's where he grew up that's where um album grew up in Mesopotamia do you know what the world's first pun was we sure made a Mesopotamia that's translated from the cuneiform tablets Mesopotamia pretty right so back in or costume uh Horan the brother of avram died it says he died but uh in the Scripture it doesn't say how he died in the oral tradition we we learned how he died and the oral tradition deduces it from the fact that it says that he died before or in front of his father and explains what that means is that after the whole famous smashing the idol Shop Story which we all know which I'm not going to tell um so Tara actually complained to the king you know who the king was at that time was nimrod or nimrod the do you know that the expression of calling somebody a nimrod the theory is that it comes from uh Bugs Bunny and that he called Elmer fought and nimrod and it was actually a very accurate biblical reference because Nimrod is described when he's introduced in parashas Nayak as a mighty Hunter and The Bugs Bunny was sarcastically calling Elmer Fudd a nimrod because he was not a mighty Hunter it was an incompetent Hunter there's a theory about that yeah because they don't find that Nimrod was used as an insult before that time it's not that old even though it's a biblical phrase or name so just an interesting uh Theory at any rate so the King was numeroid or nimrod and terak the father of avram when he complained to Nimrod and he said my son just busted up the idol shop and listen kids I want to tell you something don't talk to police okay they're not your friends do not talk to police you just say I want my attorney present and that's it so he thought he was just schmoozing by the way I'm not joking about that um yeah that's very serious but yeah uh you think you're just schmoozing you think you're just showing that you're friendly oh where you been tonight where are you going oh so he thought he was just schmoozing tenora thought he's just smoothing with uh with uh Nimrod and he's like oh my son busted up the idols and nimrod's like oh really bring him here and he arrested him he arrested avram and he said we're gonna throw him in the in the fiery furnace capital punishment and um what happened is a miracle that avram survived they threw him in the fiery furnace and who survived at any rate they asked Haram the brother of avram well what's up with you you are you are you like your brother are you like your father are you like a normal guy like an idol worshiper like your father you wanna these crazy monotheists like your brother so harun said to himself well let me see I'm gonna see what happens if avram gets miraculously rescued that means this monotheistic deity is pretty good so then when they ask me I'll be like yeah I'm a monotheist too like like my brother but if he dies then I'll just tell him what they want to hear and I'll be like yeah I'm one of you so that's exactly what transpired avram was miraculously rescued they asked harun and what's with you is that I'm like him and they said great then you'll go in the furnace like him they throw him in the furnace and he burnt and he died and he left um Two Little Orphan daughters one of them was Sada or yiska and she married avram because after his brother died like that then he didn't what in the ancient world was considered the right thing is he married his uh his niece in order to take care of her because she she was orphaned and he felt Abram felt somewhat responsible for that at any rate you see here there's a person who's ready to lose it all avram is ready to lose it all and instead he's miraculously protected Hardin was not ready to lose anything he was hedging his bets he said let me see if there's nothing to be lost by proclaiming my faith then I'll Proclaim my faith didn't work out for him so if I were to say to you does traveling does avram traveling cause him to succeed because he traveled or in spite of traveling or if I would ask you did Ami get this big fat check out of nowhere because he went uh because he wanted to break the lease or in spite of wanting to break the lease it's the same question is did avram experience a miraculous rescue because getting thrown in a furnace is normally fatal or in spite of the fact that getting thrown in a furnace is normally fatal the answer is that if you're ready to embrace the fact that you're going to suffer because of this you're going to lose because of this then you're making room for something to happen that's much bigger than you if you're doing this because it makes sense in any type of a rational way any type of a natural explanation that it could be a good strategy okay then maybe it is a good strategy maybe it is but it's only going to be as successful as human power is capable of making it you're not going to get any Miracles no Miracles a human being could succeed okay but you're not going to pull off any Miracles so if something Naturally Speaking is gonna have a certain effect you're not going to get out of it there's no way getting out of it with just pure human power you're going to do something that's a crazy business move that's going to bankrupt you and you're running on human power it's going to bankrupt you that's what's going to happen but if you're going on godly power well God is unlimited and Anything could happen and the dumbest possible move could actually become the most lucrative the most successful move so it's not about does the act itself cause help or harm that's not the point the point is that the state of surrender of being ready to embrace losing it all if that's what's required not that anyone wants to lose it all but being ready to lose it all that surrender that moving the ego out of the way that's what makes space for something disproportionately infinitely greater to rush in and to fill that and to cause miracles to happen now I just wanna just briefly talk about a related concept and that is that well I'm going to read to you here from this is maimonides this is the rambam mission this happens to be the book of Mata the first of the 14 books and I'm and I'm looking in chapter I'm looking in the laws of repentance so it's called pedicure that's chapter 10 base the second paragraph he says like this someone who serves Hashem out of love is he occupies himself entirely and he follows in the paths of wisdom foreign not because of anything in this world meaning not for any payoff or reward not because he's afraid of negative stuff happening to him the LIE today and that in order to accrue any benefit anything good Ella but rather is he does the truth because it is true he does the right thing for its own sake because it's the right thing not because of any negative thing would happen to him if he doesn't do it not because of any positive benefit that he will incur if he does do it and in the end good things will happen because of it but it's incidental it's incident okay you gotta work it'll probably work out but that's not the point that's not my motivation I'm doing the right thing because it's the right thing okay umaila Zoo this is I'm reading from maimonides here from the Rambo um and this quality that we just described serving Hashem without any concern for how it will personally affect you it is an incredibly High lofty level not everybody is able to reach that level the Himalayas of Roja mavinu it is in fact the level of avram avinu Our Father Abraham whom Hashem referred to as the one who loves me meaning he does things purely out of love for me not because of what it'll do for him simple question we just described avraham as being so selfless that he served Hashem without any concern for how it would affect him so then why did he have to be told oh by the way you're going to travel it normally causes these three problems I'm going to offset that I'm going to make it work out well for you avram shouldn't care that shouldn't even be on his mind and furthermore if I just gonna if I can just add to the question um if you go later on in the Parsha to uh you know the war with the Kings when so uh light becomes uh light is the is the brother of uh of Sarai so but why don't you call it yeah light yeah light was the brother of of yes and um so he gets kidnapped he's actually a prisoner of war and avram goes and fights like a World War against the whole Alliance of Kings in order to save his nephew and after the war they're sort of like dividing the spoils of the war where is this uh they're dividing The Spoils of the war and they want to pay him off they want to divvy it up and they want to pay him off avram so he he says no I don't want anything I don't want anything from you at all and then Hashem comes to him well I'll read you it says after these matters transpired Hashem came to avram in a vision like a prophetic vision and said to him don't be afraid avram I will protect you foreign your reward is very great the rambam just held up avrohem as the model of total selfless altruism he doesn't care how he's affected and now we find I'm reading my Bible over here and we're told that before he left on his last journey he's told don't worry I'm going to offset the three things that are normally diminished after the war with the Kings he's told oh don't worry by the way in case you thought that you cashed in your reward by being protected and by being Victor miraculously victorious in this world don't worry you still you're still going to get a lot of reward what is that from care about reward we know he doesn't care about reward so I'll tell you another question that will help me to come back and answer this question and that is a question that the Sam Cipher asks which is we're told that when avram went down to Egypt remember when he first arrives in the land there's a famine and he goes down to Egypt because there's food there and the whole thing happens Soda gets kidnapped by by para by the Pharaoh but then uh he gets her out of there and then they pay him off and they they leave Rich okay so we're told that on his way back up out of Egypt he stayed at the same hotels the same lodging that he stayed at on his way down there and we're told Rashi says he did he did it to pay off the debt the debt because he left because there was a famine so he's impoverished he didn't have any money so when he stayed there he stayed on credit when he came back from Egypt he was wealthy at that point so he made sure to go back to the same hotels and pay up the bill from the previous time he stayed there okay so the Sam's favor asks a question and says you really think anybody was letting him stay there on credit you really think they were letting him stay for free especially a stranger he just came into town a new guy is not like he lived there he just shows up into that place like oh can you get can you give me credit so Tom Cipher says no he wasn't going there to pay them a monetary debt whatever he had maybe he didn't have much but he was able to pay enough for the for the hotels he came back to the same hotels on the return Journey in order to pay a different kind of a debt avram couldn't stop talking about God he was obsessed with God and he was always talking about him problem was that at that point in his life I'm talking about what point when he first arrived in the land of Canaan the land the god that God told him you go I'll tell you when you get there okay stop this is the place and he arrived there he was a good boy he did what he was told he was told go to Canaan he went to Canaan and immediately what happens there's a famine oh we gotta leave okay so he went down to mitzvahim we went to Egypt to go find some food when he's going down to Egypt he's stopping hotels and he's talking about God and the people are asking him so why are you here he's like oh because I listened to God and then I went where God told me to go and then there was a famine and now I got to leave this place in order to find food so my family doesn't starve to death do you understand that's really bad PR it's bad public relations because you're talking about oh God and I listened to God and I obeyed God and God told me to go and then how did it work out for you well I'm starving and I'm hoping that we find some food so like it's really it really doesn't sell the point now I want you to understand something from avram's point of view I promise you that did not bother him at all it did not disturb his faith on any level but he knew that normal people would be very disturbed by it so the Sam safer says he went back to repay his debts he felt he owed it to these people to tell them like Paul Harvey used to say the rest of the story because if he's going to leave them thinking that he suffered from obeying God they're going to get a really bad impression now the truth is from avraham's point of view you serve God even if you'll suffer for doing so you'll keep Shabbos even if you're going to get sued and you're going to go into bankruptcy and you're going to lose your shirt you say you believe in God even if they'll throw you into the furnace but other people are going to watch that it doesn't look good there's a concept called the kidish Hashem sanctifying God's name making it look attractive to live a life of faith so avraham went back and he told all those people by the way look at me I'm rich now why for one reason it was good PR that the people should see oh it did work out for you ah so it is good to serve God and listen to what he says and that's why God tells avram in both of these cases when he's going to do his he tells him God tells avram don't worry it won't diminish your family your wealth or your reputation and also after the war with the Kings Hashem tells avram don't worry you still have a lot of reward you're going to get because in both cases what's avram thinking he's thinking uh oh this could be a Hillel Hashem this could be a desecration of God's name where somebody who does everything right ends up having a hard life because of it now personally I'm ready for that and we know that avram's ready for that because he jumped in the fiery furnace but it wouldn't be good for the people watching and that would really hurt me because then those people would not be impressed with the glory of Hashem and so that's why Hashem told don't worry we're going to make a kidish Hashem okay it's all going to be good in the end so that even the people that have weak faith will be impressed with this whole Faith business now I'm going to ask you another question I'm not going to answer it because I feel like there's too much closure going on here and I feel like it's very Jewish to savor questions I think it's a very Western thing it's a Hollywood thing to answer all of our questions it's very Jewish thing to ask lots of questions and only to answer some of them so I'm going to ask a big question this is really actually called thwarting expectations and it leaves people frustrated and it's actually the worst way to uh to leave people um and it makes people upset I'm going to ask you a question I'm not going to answer it and it's almost like saying knock knock who's there see how frustrating that is yeah just leave a knock knock joke hanging with no no gratification like that that's just okay um so here's another question for you and I'm not going to answer it and I hope it does disturb you on some level not like I don't want you to like be emotionally disturbed but I I would like it to to cause you to think and to be like hey that's a really good question why didn't I ever think of that next week next week is parsha's valled and no this is not going to be the subject of my class next week because I don't want to just answer it for you when God tells Abraham to go sacrifice his son the biggest monotheist in the world the biggest champion of good PR for the god of the heavens and the Earth and now forget about his personal loss I assume that on his level he was ready to accept the personal loss of his child but to completely wipe out everything he had built over a lifetime by performing a human sacrifice such a repugnant act that would surely turn everybody off and lose all of his adherence just wipe out all of his all the good will that he had gained you gotta Wonder how in that case avraham was ready to go along with that okay I'm not going to answer it okay so just so you don't leave totally on a Melancholy note I will tell you a knock knock joke but I need someone to actually do it you're in the front row so you'll do okay no I'm sorry oh you wanted to okay go ahead oh I start okay now you threw me off knock knock who's there interrupting cow okay all right thank you