Elusive Perfection: Chizuk for Iron Sword by Rabbi David Walk

hi good morning everyone and uh this morning I I want to talk about our situation but I of course want to relate it to this week's paraa we we're deep into the stories already of of mosha rain excuse me I'm just talking minute ago about Mar we're deep into the stories of Yakov vinu and the stories of Yakov vinu really speak to me much more than almost any uh of the stories in uh in in kumash I I have trouble relating to so many of the uh of the characters in Tanakh because they seem so so much bigger than life but yakov's problems whether it's domestic or or interpersonal they seem so much like the issues that we have to deal with ourselves so uh so I I really love delving into these stories and hopefully we can find something in this particular story that's going to speak to us in these uh in these difficult days a and so there's a very optimistic p in this week's para sh and yakob Ru comes to the city of sh what the the other guys call nablas comes to the city of sh and he is shalain he is complete uh and it's very important to try to understand what it means for him to be complete we're going to do that in a minute however thei I think he was the ear EST of the traditional afor to say this and and many modern commentaries say that really shalim is a place and just like yusim had original name shal uh when Yak excuse me when Abraham visited it however there's a pair a number of places around ER isra they had that name shalim so if it's just a place name then there's no jha there's not that much to learn from it even today people like the name charim Salem to be uh a place name you know Salem Oregon Salem Massachusetts actually my wife was born in Salem Massachusetts uh but we're going to ignore theot because there are so many Rich commentaries on the DHA and the DHA is from the Garian chabis but rashi rashi quotes it he comes shal what's that mean so my English translation unimpaired in body because he was cured of his lameness so the first shalam is he's now healthy whole as regards to his possessions because even though he gave a very generous gift to his older brother he didn't lack for anything and the third is in his Torah that even though he had spent all those years in the house of love one uh and you might have thought that he would forget or God forbid corrupt of the Torah he had learned when he was younger and ish Yos ohal a an innocent man living intense and learning Torah and then later learning in the ISA Shane according to the mid all of the Torah was back so there three ways he is shal um harowitz um writing in the beginning of the 16th century said that the the three things that we have that make us safe are called main the shal is because he has main what is main so main means Mone me Mone giml goof and three Nish so he was complete in his finances he was complete in his physical body and in his soul the the PRI sadic um famous kic rebi from the end of the 1800s said that the three items that make up the schut from the gamar quoted by Raji and interpreted by that those three things line up with the three items of the beginning of you should love God is your m is your and your heart is your your your physical your physical well-being your entire self and those are the three kinds of mitzvot that we're supposed to uh supposed to work on which is between others and ourselves between hasem and between us and Hashem and the third one is according to many modern commentaries is between yourself and yourself that we have to be truly whole in our relationships with others with God but also honest and comfortable with ourselves developing spiritually and able to be psychologically health healthy and ready to go on what's and that's very beautiful and we're very happy that Yakov asked after all of these difficulties is finally shalain and based on that the uh the orim says that what's going on here is it says he came to ER Israel after the encounters with Lon after the angel after meeting asov and now he's shalim and that's important because when he had the dream in last week's paraa and then a kades who talks to him after afterwards uh his response to this vision of the latter and these promises from Hashem is andov made a he made an oath if God will be with me and guard me on my way I will give him uh I I will give to go are all of these wonderful things if B Shalom if I return in peace from my Soldier outside of er Israel so now this PUK is telling us oh he arrived back in Isel Shalom so shal soes who had done his part of the issue and in the next pasuk Yakov buys a place in sh Builds an altar and fulfills his neder from last week's para so it comes full circle he left went into galute goes into the Exile comes back and then fulfills his oath to Hashem and everything seems wonderful it would be marvelous if the story ended there but just tkim later Dena is taken by the people of Shem and and Terrible Things transpire and that's the story of the Jewish people we do get to a place where we are in safety and health and prosperity but sadly it doesn't last The Circle theala of Life comes around and troubles arise again after hak Medina in 48 and 49 we thought ah now we have a country everything's good after The Six Day War we thought everything is wonderful we've beaten back the Arab threat then there's the 73 war and then in 82 we go into Lebanon and it just doesn't end just if you went back just two months ago the status here in erus ra looked very shalain we were making peace even with Saudi Arabia and everything economically looked good in the country I I know we had political issues you know fighting amongst the parties but we look like the country was in a good place and it just doesn't last and we have to understand that uh Jewish history Jewish Destiny is aala it is a circle that goes round and round and right now we're in one of those times where our strength and our power and our uh our connection to Torah to Hashem and to the land are being tested again but we have to believe that the circle comes around and a Kadesh bar will eventually bring us back to a place where we feel shalam again uh and if you want to say well if it's so ephemeral if it's so shortlived why should we bother why put in the effort so R cook wrote about this idea on this P at the beginning of the 20th century and he asked why should we even bother to reach through to schut we are certain to fail if not in the short term then definitely in the long term so why strive why put in the effort but he barash beautifully answers true we do fail the definition of wholeness is not to reach Perfection but to constantly reach for perfection even though we don't grasp it and that's what we have to hold with us all the time yes we are not going to have a perfect situation until Masia until but in the interim we have to continually grab for Perfection grab for all of the possibilities that our life and our time here in ER provides us with to make it a wonderful country to try to have schut not just with ourselves but yes even with those neighbors and understanding when it doesn't happen we just have to look at it as the circle coming round and beem very soon will'll be out of this present crisis and moving forward to rebuild and to again achieve aut and we have to hope and pray that this attempt this effort at that schut will culminate in the so we can never give up hope hope during these times because we have to see like we saw with Yakov ainu that life is the cycle of ups and downs and even though sadly we're in one of the down periods we're going to come back and we'll come back stronger and even more shalam than we were before this effort began the nicest thing about what's going on in these terrible times is the and in the nation and that's what we want to hold on to when this is a nightmare we wake from and put behind us we have to hold on to that akut and it's that akut that communal cohesiveness that we have right now that we really hope will bring the total schlut that we uh we strive for we hope for we pray for so uh thank you this morning and we're going to continue to strive for both personal and National and thank you for joining this morning