Not All of Our Sages Were Created Equally

We just mentioned from the period of Rashi and from the and the fire to go tight and actually a lot of this whole and that's how we talk about a period of time. Not find a good friend. Be a good friend. Right, we spoke about this once. You want to see Elio be Elio and then you'll see him when you look in the mirror. But the point is not find the right type. Not find the right type, but be a right type. But that's a beautiful shot that the micro thing I'm a fortune are learning. But that's not the well-known shot. The well-known shot is the shot that we mentioned earlier. The first part of this is it's because of the mysterious methods of his mother. His mother would take him literally in his crib, in his cradle and put him in the mattress and he would hear the cold terror and somehow through osmosis the cold terror it permeated his neshama and waxes to be the great great Rabbi Shua and everyone understood that the mother played such a role in it and therefore when they would see Rabbi Shua they would say he had a mother that put herself out there for him and that's why Rabbi Shua waxes to be the great Rabbi Shua and then it struck me. And that is who is Rabbi Shua about in Shas? Rabbi Shua is about in Shas is Rabbi Rabbi Shua they always come together, right? Rabbi Shua Rabbi Shua could be in the world of Tanaim. This is like the first real practice Rabbi Rabbi Shua first generation post Tanaim and they're arguing throughout Shas. The biggest in Shas between Rabbi and Rabbi Shua and even when you have a Rabbi and the usually Rabbi Shua and Rabbi and the and the over there would be Rabbi and Rabbi Shua and Rabbi and Rabbi Shua Rabbi Shua and Rabbi and they come together so often Yet, yet, when you know the rest of the story, the backgrounds of Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Shimon cannot have possibly been different. Rabbi Shimon is a child prodigy. Rabbi Shimon had a mother that put herself out there for Rabbi Shimon from the moment he was born. Before he could say the words Torah Tzeva La Moshe, where his father has a chiyuv to teach him Torah Mishnah Maseches Sukkah, before that age, already already at that point Rabbi Shimon had found himself in the Kodesh Hakodash and he's hearing Torah from the Tana'im and the Kedusha was permeating himself. But what's the story of Rabbi Eliezer? That story we know in this Chaburah Sho'nei Halachos. That's the story in the beginning of Pirkei D'Rabbi Eliezer perek aleph and perek bet, where Rabbi Eliezer was 28 years old and he didn't know Kriyas Shema. He didn't know nothing. He didn't know how to bench, he didn't know how to daven Shemoneh Esrei. And not just that, even when it came to his work, he was a am ha'aretz. He didn't have a family, he didn't have anything. To the point that Pirkei D'Rabbi Eliezer says that when Rabbi Eliezer was crying and he told his father, "I want to learn Torah." His father said, "You're going to learn Torah? You're 28 years old and you're a baka am ha'aretz. You're a batlan. You don't know anything. Get married, have a family, maybe you'll be zocheh to a child that will learn Torah. But you don't stand a chance. You can't learn Torah." And then when Rabbi Eliezer went to decide because of his gilui Eliyahu that he's going to Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai's yeshiva, he's going to learn Torah. And word came back to his father, he said, "You know what your son is going to learn Torah?" So what did he do? He said, "I'm going to go to Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai's yeshiva. I'm going to kill you tell Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, I guess, who this boy is. And I'm making a neder. I'm a big veer. He's not going to be able to have any hana'ah from my nachas. I'm literally cutting him off. I'm putting him out of the will. He's not in the trust anymore. I am completely removing him. And yet, despite those challenges, despite the late start that he got in life, despite the fact that it doesn't sound like he had loving parents that were cheering him on, and you got this. Eliezer, you'll see something great's going to come of you. He was to be the great Reb Eliezer. You know, to us Reb Eliezer and Reb Yeshua are six of one, half a dozen of another. But the truth is their stories cannot have been more different. The story of Reb Yeshua is a story of Ashrei Yaladeto. A story of loving, doting parents that literally from the second that Reb Yeshua was born, he was a Kodish Me'racham Mamish. Mamish, pun intended. We He was to be of that being Kodish with Reb Yeshua where he was to become the great Reb Yeshua. Whereas Reb Eliezer had a goal and he had a fight the odds. But at the end of the day, Reb Yeshua and Reb Eliezer, they both ended up on the top of the mountain. They both ended up at the very, very top. And I think I think the chizuk is that [snorts] really, really, really, really it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what our upbringing is. If we're to have an Ashrei Yaladeto, then it's Ashrei Yaladeto. It's Ashrei Yaladeto. Not everyone is to have an Ashrei Yaladeto. And he can feel sometimes that I'm behind the eight ball because I'm the proverbial 28-year-old person who doesn't know Shema, who doesn't have a parnassa, who doesn't have a family, and there's nothing going for me and what's ever going to become. And really for that Reb Eliezer has to cuz you can still be Reb Eliezer. I once heard from Reb Shmuel Yankev he said this at a Shabbos Shudah. He said, "My son of a similar bonam." He said, "Look at the others like he said Avraham Avinu had a father Terach. Yitzchak had a father Avraham. Yaakov had a father Yitzchak. They [snorts] were both others. They were all others. One of our others came from a Terach and the other one or two of our others, they came already from others. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. >> [laughter] >> You could become others if you're you come from a Terach and you could become others if you come from Avraham and Yitzchak. It's a machlokes. I heard this me back coaches Rav Shmuel Yankev. It doesn't matter. It and that's the mais of a similar bottom. That's what we have in Klal Yisrael. That both of these ideas are in our DNA. We've had tzaddikim and gedoilim that you could say on them ashrei yeladot They were tzaddikim and gedoilim that they had to beat the odds. They had to fight the fight and they had to do it in the way Rav Elazar ben Hurkanus did it. At the end of the day as it relates to Rav Eliezer and Rav Yehoshua, as then they are eiluve eiluve. Divrei Elokim Chaim. Rav Eliezer ben Hurkanus, Rav Yehoshua ben Chananya, we learned so much of their Torah. There's also so much to learn from who they were, from their life, from the way they went about it. Either way, just a little bit of a limud, a little bit of the rest of the story. We've spoken so much about Rav Eliezer ben Hurkanus, it's almost not fair to not balance the scales a little bit. This is a little bit of the rest of the story as it relates to the great Rav Yehoshua.