Parshat Lech Lecha: Avraham's Coronation by Rabbi Ari Kahn

so we're going to learn hopefully it's a it's a rich par show with lots of episodes and I have one really specific point that I want to get to but uh in order to do that let's start in the [Music] beginning so God speaks to so he he encourages a to go and and I just want to note something the promise that he gives this is the first time at least in the Torah assuming the Chron all the chronology is correct this is the first time we find God speaking and his opening line that he says is go pick up and go to this land you know leave your birthplace leave your land and go to land I'm going to tell you and I'm going to make you into great nation so just we'll pause there for a second so here is the childless aaham who's being promised that he is going to become a great nation so that itself is significant but I don't want to lose this I don't want to lose sight of this and I don't want to Simply turn this into this personal message oh a you're going to have kids it's not what he says and and maybe theoretically we can even discuss you know could you become a great nation without having kids could you have kids without becoming a great nation so even though I think that this is really connected to his having children and again telling this this this childless man that you will become a great nation but let's just note that that's what it says I also want to note what it doesn't say but first a little more what it does say and I'm going to bless you and your name will become renowned it's going to become great and you will be a blessing more than that you who blesses you will be blessed and those who curse you will be cursed and uh we can remind God about this as well not that God means reminding but there's certain people that uh perhaps God wants to uh this point in history to activate this particular verse you're going become a source of blessing for all the people so now what didn't it say it never says that this land that you're going to go to the land I'm going to show you he never said I'm giving you that land which means the thing that we con L here when it comes to a specifically theot generally is this you're going to have many children become a great nation and you you're going to receive the land of Israel he doesn't say you're going to receive the land of Israel so that's not there yet he goes as God commanded he's 75 years old when he leaves and yes I know we've discussed before the tension between PK do and PK where it sounds like aam went there's two different descriptions of leaving there even those who claim that he left twice but that's not for today and it says that he goes with all his possessions which some claim are the people that he taught or inspired could be more literally that a is a wealthy man and he has all kinds of possessions it could also be that because a is a wealthy man who doesn't have children that could be the reason why load is going with him Lo's following him around essentially when there's a will there's a relative so here you have uh a situation that you have a wealthy man like Abraham and and no apparent air and which a will articulate down the line but maybe that's what load is is following but there's a lot of so it says they leave to travel to and they arrive in arrives and that's really important because it sounds like a side point the canani are the ones right now who are in control of this land so the canites are here we will come back to our Canaanites and now God Appears to aam which we can compare the first time God speaks to now God Appears to abam he says laar so here you that's Zara Zarah means children it means your Offspring so this bless say is actually you know this is the one that we were looking for before and this is the one that is more usual but over here God says that you're going to get this land not only will you get this land your Offspring will get this land so therefore there are two important blessings there that you will have Offspring and they're going to get the land of Israel now of course we can ask what did Aram do to deserve the land of Israel so there's I guess one of two possibilities one possibility is is that he obeyed that God said to do something and he did something so the reward for obeying is receiving the land or the other you can say is that that God told him to do this for particular purpose and once AB walks in the land that itself will create what we can call the Kenyon the acquisition of the land so you know I guess it depends on how formal you want to be or how much you want to move this over to the laws ofb what did aam do to make this acquisition of the land so God promised it to him maybe that's enough or maybe walking there there is this current within kazal which see not only aam's footsteps making this acquisition but it actually sees that A's footsteps creating a dynamic which will impact us in the future which means why do we have the land of Israel we as descendant because abam listened to God and walked in that land and therefore this Dynamic is created I don't know now to say created by God created by a but it's aam acquiescing to the word of God he then continues and it says now if you know the map of Israel you'll note what he's been doing is he's continuing going further south going from to beel and not not even assuming that beel here is where you know is where it is today on our map but he's traveling south and in the second place we're not told that God speaks to him or God Appears to him there's no there's no but you have the other thing that takes place AB nonetheless builds a MB so that's tells us something else interesting about AB is that AR is a man with spiritual sensitivity and when God promised him back in PK Z he then builds this mbak and he who appear for the God who appeared to him and now in the next place where God doesn't appear to him he still builds a Hashem and he calls out of the name of God and we could debate or discuss what that means to call out of the name of God but what you do note over here is this interesting gesture is that Abraham call God calls to Abraham and then Abraham reaches back towards God and there is this really interesting relationship with which is taking place and Abraham again if you want you can use the the terms that were made famous by hesel God In Search of man man in search of God that you have on the one hand God telling abam and calling abam appearing to abam and on the other hand you have abam searching for God as well which of course leads us back to what was the preamble to all this what was the history be before all this but we only have limited knowledge of that so aam continues now and again the the the gesture is to continue Southward so we're told continues to travel further south and there is a famine in the land and then travels further south and he goes to Egypt to live there because the the famine is great now the ramban very famously attacks aam for this one could argue with the ramban and one would have to with great caution but the does aam know what exactly are the boundaries at this point does aam know how far south he's allowed to go I mean to say that it was a ter that was a lack of faith even that he leaves the land how is he supp to know which the land is I mean God never told him the land the land I'm going to show you and as he's been traveling he's been shown the land so I mean I don't know exactly you know what it was he was supposed to do and furthermore in a much more basic level there's a famine and if and if there was food someplace else so what do you do you know it's like like the you know like the old joke you know there there's the robo right God is trying to save him you know there's another place to go so you go there so one wonders about the ramban again this is our favorite Zionist ramban who how can you leave the land of Israel so this resonates we like it but but nonetheless we're not 100% convinced and so as he continues along the way on the way near egpt he says to he says oh now I know that you're a beautiful woman and yes I tried this on my wife today as well I called from the room I say I actually got a smile out of her so all the men are are certainly invited to try this you can try this one at home so uh I mean I don't think they'll get mad at you they yes so now you woke up you know now you found figured this out you don't know beforehand which is a really good question so maybe don't try this at home so let me uh let me continue and and he has a fear and his fear we're going to find out very soon is well founded he says that I I realize you you are a beautiful woman and he was afraid so maybe this really then is more disturbing and by the way the ramban attacks him for this as well I once he's attacking Go full out he goes how can he put his wife he actually calls her how can he put this righteous woman in this precarious situation he goes go and say that you're my sister your sister that she's not married so they they're not going to kill him but they may not be all that nice to her which is exactly I want to get back to i' say you're my sister so things will be okay for me and of course you know you can have then the various commentaries who say that he knew that she was a Sade and he knew that she was so great he knew that nothing would happen to he knew that God would protect her and in fact God protects her when he gets to egpt they see that she is very beautiful now do you recognize that verse does that sound familiar to you of course when I say familiar do sound familiar to you from another source so hold on for a second so they see her they see she's beautiful and they take her so does that remind you of anything well it should it should remind you something we learned last week in ver number two it's the exact same situation they see the powerful men see a beautiful woman and they take her so over here that the powerful men see Sarah and and and she's taken so therefore what should come next this is not a trick question what should come next but it's not going to come next what's the answer answer what should come next answer is a flood should come next a flood should come and they should destroy all of them that's what should happen which means that if I'm going to try to understand the Torah based upon the previous episode so that should be the next thing to happen you come you take this woman and God says I don't like this kind of behavior and a massive flood should come it should fill all the tunnels it should absolutely destroy all of them so that that's what should come next that I'm just saying that this should be patently obvious to everybody except maybe it wasn't well there's a good reason it wasn't but let's just read on a little bit more we are then told that instead something else happens they take her and so on and makes a lot of money off of his wife's predicament but then p z God pops back into the picture and says you know let me give you a hand so by the way that religious sensibility that SAR is a great man and God is not going to let anything happen to her so God struck them with great plagues so by the way you can take your choice now I'm sorry that if uh if the current events are going to be in the background of everything I talk about today I apologize and I don't apologize so therefore a great flood would be one solution the other solution would be Nim and great plagues should come and uh we have many plagues of biblical proportions that should uh strike all kinds of people who are well-deserving they've earned it and they should be getting all of these plagues and any of you can say amain now the part of what's Happening is again I'm going to go back to that ramban but it really goes back to the Medan and it speaks about something which we know of as where history creates it's not just that it that it that it repeats itself it's much more than that it's it's the actions that a goes through creates the spiritual energy for things to happen in the future and for that matter we can then add SAR as well and perhaps we can add the aot the other IM aot right now you realize plural should be both male and female and and the various it creates a sign for the children which means that in the future the Jews are going to go down to Egypt and they're going to try to kill the men and take the women and God is going to strike them down with great plagues and they're going to leave so all of that I want to go back a second the same way that Abraham's footsteps creates this Kenyan in ER Israel this acquisitional land of Israel the same way that aam's behavior creates spiritual realities so now going down to Egypt now again we could debate whether it was a good idea or not a good idea by the way the ran he actually goes down this path he says a bad idea to go but on the other hand look what was gained from going so uh it's it's a little interesting that he does that but nonetheless I I want to go back because we need to pay attention to to this concept of uh creating the spiritual energy which will be needed as we as we proceed now why was there not a flood so that goes down to Source number three this is peric tetan barid also from last week after the whole uh flood took place then God makes a covenant I'm going to make a covenant with you and in the future and along the way what are we gonna find out we're gonna find out that God is knock I'm not going to do another Mable so I'm not going to do another Babble so therefore God self-limited from his bag of tricks an act of tum if you will and says I'm not going to bring the this Maul this flood so instead he has to use different tricks and therefore he uses the the plagues in Egypt it's also interesting that when they finally do die in the by the splitting of the sea they they they went into the water it wasn't that God you know I we can debate this exactly how it happens but uh there's an interesting midash in Source I mean Source number four describes that when the sea is split it all becomes dry land and then the Egyptians run into the dry land and suddenly the water returns meaning it returns to its natural state it's not that God does a supernatural flood it's just he returns the ocean to where it's supposed to be and unfortunately for for the Egyptians they happen to be there at the time which is one of these cases of wrong place wrong time and uh and that takes care of the Egyptians but in c number five it actually the midash claims that this was passed on from generation I mean Noah said it to his kids we'll get more we'll discuss his kids a little bit more God said God said it to Noah bav he makes this Covenant with Noah and bav and over here it says Source five and and essentially saying is that they had a tradition that there was not going to be that they will not be punished with the flood and therefore they felt this ability of killing the male children and throwing them into the river because the river on our side because God tied his proverbial anthropomorph and hands and therefore God is not going to do anything to them and they can get away with this and it continues and it says nonetheless I can judge you like this as God there's language from that God he shook him up in the in the water there's all kinds of wonderful interpretations of what it means that he shook him up he was uh to borrow from James Bond he was shaken and not stirred but uh in the in the river in the in the in was not necessarily a pleasurable experience [Music] now going back to that same chapter with Noah I told you we wanted to get back to his kids as well so we know that Noah had three kids sham and over here we learn about an unfortunate situation and it's one where you know God gives blessings but over here God actually gives a curse and well or at least he gives the ability of Noah to curse and whatever it is that happened Noah wakes up Noah gets drunk and he wakes up up and he says he knows what his ban did debate exactly who that may be gets cursed now the one who did something to him was actually andan is one of the sons of and on the other hand so Canan is going to be this slave and shame is gets blessed and ye may also get a blessing you have to look in the if we get closer to we have to probably talk more about Yeet but for the most part we have over here we have shame and we have Yeet salv claimed that shame and Yeet acted for different reasons shame did this out of Mitzvah and therefore he received his descendants get a Mitzvah with clothing with it which is and Yeet whose Beauty he does this for aesthetic purposes it's not nice that his father's uncovered but not for the Mitzvah because it's for Aesthetics and therefore he gets this appreciation of Aesthetics and uh you know each one gets what they relate to okay so now let's get back to in Source number seven which is the next chapter and I know that most of us don't like the these chapters we don't like the chapters with the the begats that's what we call them and he begat and he begat and he begat and he begat so we call them the bat chapter if you like biblical criticism this is a this is a p chapter someone decided that P is very boring and P has no imagination and everything is quite boring there but nonetheless in the Beats what I find is a great deal of information and instead of just ignoring it or skipping it or reading it quickly we will pay a a little bit more attention and over here what we find is in Source number seven by the way when he says he knew what his younger son did so maybe that's Canan as the younger son and some and that's why Kanan gets cursed maybe Canan had done something there as well and maybe as I said he is the younger one so you have who Canan is cursed but this whole family is or this whole part of the family these are the relatives we stay away from or we try to stay away from it's and his kids and they're the ones who are going to make all kinds of trouble throughout sa bra we got a bunch of names over here which we will be guilty now as well as uh as skipping some of them unless you really want to read [Music] this at nimro ah so now we're back to nimro so so what we have Isam Kush and now Kush is the father of Nimrod so even though we may not like Kanan I don't know if we'd love Nimrod either but listen to what it says about him who gior and he's the one who begins to use strength so therefore it doesn't say it but violence is coming from this direction and he and the is very interesting but I'm not going to get into that now and he becomes this incredible Hunter and this strong Hunter alcano and that I want you to pay attention to as well because now we're told that he's strong we told that he's a hunter and now we're told that he creates a Mal this is the first time we find a kingdom being mentioned and now we realize that there is a king and that King is Nimrod and if you're a king it means by definition you're ruling over others so this person Nimrod is using his power to control others we're told a little bit more about this that his kingdom is in a place called bavel shinar and the place is called shinar so I guess then the king of shinar is then going to be a man named Nimrod the name itself Nimrod indicates some type of a rebellion perhaps Rebellion against God as we go along here and it continues tell the names of these cities that's the and then we're told another son so all of this is coming from the line continues over here and we have a is really interesting what do very strange turn of phrase Rashi has something something not nice to say about them which I'll tell you in a second so you know some of these names we're familiar with espe will continue and so on what we have over here so Canan is the one who's cursed and you recognize a lot of those names so all those names are the children of Canan and therefore each of them become their own local um Clans and this is the family of the so you knew I was going to get to AA at some point Aza has a good um companion and that stone and we're not told black and white if AA or stone or MOA are descendants of Canan and therefore or it's just the way of defining the borders which means in in the previous verses it says and this was a sign this was son so but it says these are the lands so if these are the lands or this was the the boundaries so then are they in the boundaries out of the boundaries is Anza part of Kanan not part of Kanan is St are a part not part and you know my feeling you can easily debate this is that essentially this whole section just put all the bad guys together and and that's a nice thing to do just put them all together so if it wasn't good enough to have who does something annoying to his father wasn't good enough Canan was going to be cursed so let's throw in now all the other bad people let's throw in all the Canaanites and apparently we're throwing in then sto and Amora and Aza into all of this and what a you know lovely group we have I told you the Rashi is going to pick on this end of where it says instead of saying that he fathered him so Rashi writes so essentially Rashi just now had to pick on the and say something which is portive about them and said theim were the results of wife swapping which goes all the way back to that point so who's the father what's the answer who knows that's the answer so therefore essentially from this nice group is where so isn't it great to be able to call at least some of your enemies a Ms there and say uh okay he's a momser what can you do but that's what Rashi just now said so as I you know I hope that you Harriet's enjoying all of this a little bit too much but okay it's uh we may as well have at least some joy and happiness these days so let's let's continue cuz all of this was really a preamble to something else which is going to be revealed sooner rather than later but first I just want to focus on one more thing and that's Source number nine because we're going to get on we're going to pick on a little bit also and she has a servant who is MIT now MIT is not one of the good people MIT that's coming from that's coming from from those line which is not the good line it's not shame and it's not and and it's not Yeet but so the suggestion that Aram should marry or live together or for the young people hook up with with with Hagar would indicate that there is a merger now taking place between the Sham line and between theam line which is s interesting and of course that is where yesma is going to come from so one of the things then you're going have to worry about Ismael is that yes he has the Abraham Gene but he also has and he also by the way marries somebody from Egypt and his mother's from Egypt so which line does he more ident identify with is he more you know with aam or more with one of Adam's adversaries because let's remember Egypt was not that nice to avam and the behavior was not that nice and they were one of these people you know that behave in the same way that that generation behaves Before the Flood and I said from the beginning or deserving of a flood either little or big you can decide how much you want but that's the same kind of behavior which is problematic so therefore the suggestion that aan marries somebody from this line should be at least a little bit disturbing so then where are we up to yeah with the the end of 11 when we find that already before AA makes his trip that already Terra is leaving his hometown and he goes and is traveling to Canan is also interesting but by the way at least on a madic level when Abraham became that iconoclast which you knew I had to use at least one time today when he broke all of the idols Terra then resp resps by giving him over to Nimrod which means it sounds like there there was some kind of an understanding A Confederacy an agreement uh between Terra from the Sham line and Nimrod who but but you also understand why that may be that nimrod's in charge Nimrod is the king as the king he has taken uh he has taken charge and we don't know how uh strict he rules but but nonetheless Terra turns on his son and instead said he goes over and he brings his son to Nimrod and that itself is interesting and again again all this is really much more on the madic level and then we eventually throw him into the furnace and then he gets saved miraculously from the furnace but nonetheless it's his father who did this to him and as as I've pointed out many times that this can ruin the AA for us because if AR was saved when his father tried to kill him so then AR may have full confidence that his son Yak will be saved when his father tries to kill him which means Yak is deserving to be saved he's going to be saved there's no question he be saved and there you go I just completely ruined the AAA and I apologize but there was a total lack of sincerity on my part so I apologize for apologizing with no sincerity so let's continue so this leads us all up to where we had to get to and that is the first world war and that's Source number 12 so m sh that's interesting because if we're going to use our favorite and that is the theory of conservation of kings of shinar so then the last king we were told who ruled in shinar was of course Nimrod so therefore amrel seems to be either Nimrod by another name or he could be somebody who has inherited from nimro he can be his son his grandson his great-grandson but it's interesting that you know we know where this is coming from at least geographically somebody is coming from way up North so we're going have to figure out who that is and maybe figure out who that is is a little too generic it's a little too hard so we know where that is we know exactly where that is that's a little heart of so we have our Four Kings against our five Kings those that were able to easily identify and again let's just think about this verse second our Four Kings would seem to have their place of origin back further up north where aam started out from and the Kings on the list of five those that we could easily identify seem to all be from local population over here in this General Canan area which seems to be that the king of the the the the Four Kings have traveled the same route that aam has traveled and one has to wonder especially if this is nimr is he following I is there some kind is he on the trail of aaham which means Aram may have gotten away from him and and if you if you are I don't know how many words to add right now certainly if you're a paranoid King and many kings end up being paranoid and somebody has somehow defeated you or humiliated you or embarrassed you then of course you need to have a show of strength to show how strong you are and maybe you need to teach this guy a lesson as well because you need to display this you need to display this on the one hand hand for your followers on the other hand you need for yourself of course depending on how uh on how fragile your ego is and generally people that are tough like Nimrod have very fragile egos so but but I'm not saying anything more psychologically I don't want to get sued I uh I'm actually allowed to do this I think a real psychologist psychiatrist are not allowed to analyze somebody they've never met they can lose their license I don't have a license so I can say anything I want the only problem of be doing is is I'm going to analyze them without being paid and that a problem so therefore we're going to stop right there because that's completely unprofessional over here all that again I read into it a little bit but you at least have to appreciate what I said in terms of the the geography in this you have the people star and so and they're local and then you have the people coming from up North who are coming down and again have made the same trip that afam has made and they're coming over here in order to wage this uh this war good very good as we continue men we're told uh we again there's a couple of interesting things over here we have you know they're Victorious they're Victorious we're not going to get into all of that so they very unclear what this means I'm going to come back and see how the bosan understood it and you will be quite surprised they they took everything from Stone but by the way also appreciate the irony Now by this point Lo we're about to read the next so these same kind of powerful people like Nimrod coming from the powerful people and at this point they didn't take a woman at this point they took a man well they took a man from Stone so you know went in stone what can I say and oh Harriet even I can still shock you this is so good that when um that they they took him but but again recognize the irony over here and that is that the reason that Lo left was because of all the possessions again if I'm going to ascribe to load really bad intentions from the beginning he's got an elderly Uncle who's got lots of possessions and doesn't have anyone to inherit them so what do you do you follow him why because follow the money right maybe you'll get in the will when there's a will there's a relative here's the relative it's loow so therefore you know you you you follow and at some point he makes a lot more money himself and therefore he makes so much money that he doesn't need aam anymore and that's when he separates and he moves over to Stone so therefore he's always been concerned about his possessions and his possessions can't get along with aam's possessions on a spiritual level uh not all of us always think spiritually on a spiritual level loot is insane because if you have an uncle who is the greatest religious leader of the time and to the history of the world to this moment this is is the greatest man who's ever lived and you can live in his house and hang with him and chill with him and learn with him and talk to him you could do anything with ainu right and instead you say no I'd rather go and hang out with the sodomites so you realize that there's something which is terribly wrong with Lo's way of thinking that he makes that choice and now Lo ends up being taken and he ends up all of his possessions are taken and load ends up now with with absolutely nothing now what's interesting is that Abraham who has this very refined sense of responsibility so no even if you have a loser nephew like Lo who is kidnapped you don't leave him behind you go so let let let's let's [Music] continue in Source 13 I'm just repeating a little bit here that the way the building the tower was recognized is they all gathered together be erit shinar so in case you say oh I've seen shinar before yeah so he was King by shinar that means that he's really behind the building of the Tower and nimr is this bad guy and nimr maybe the name nimr is because he Rebels Rashi who loves our theory of conservation of characters writes in Source 14 he's the one who threw aam in which again we have to wonder if you know aam is just a side point to the story or maybe a little bit more and the gamor in Source 15 is going to have a debate between R and schm whether his real name is Nimrod his real name is Amel and you know is Nimrod his name and Amel is his title or is Amel the name Zim and and keep something in mind that sometimes when people become Kings you know we just had a coronation in uh England right not that long ago they were I was there the next week they were very excited they they uh they loved their King and they love their coronation they love all of this I I actually asked I'm not I wasn't allowed to ask that but I but I asked if they if they were as excited if they'll be as excited rashash when we coronate God as they were by the coronation of the of the king over there and then people looked at me like I was crazy like no comparison rashan is not as good I mean the coronation was so much more uh so much more exciting none nonetheless but when someone is coronated they get a new name so it could be that nimr gets the name I'm Rafel when he becomes king or maybe his name wasam Rael becomes nimr I don't know maybe it's not the same guy as we're about to see the is pointed out by the the mara he uh in Surah 16 he questions whether in fact it's the it's the same name in s 17 he actually gets three different names he thinks Kus all the same person I don't know how he says that because it says that kush is not the same person is he's the father I don't know how he says this but nonetheless in Source 18 19 20 and 21 all of them are going to say the same thing that all of those names of the of the other side those other kings when one is bir right and the other is BHA and the other is sh other they said that all these are not their real names all of these are names that are ascribed to them because of the kind of people they are and therefore this is what the Torah does sometimes it assigns names to People based upon their their behavior so as I said the as I said you could look at all those sources in Source writes why should they fight that's so interesting I mean the people need reasons to fight there such an interesting thing he says oh this is actually a fight between the descendants of Shame and the descendants of because descends ofam are supposed to be slaves and therefore they fought with one another because there's this old thing now it's such a brilliant interpretation there's only one problem with it anybody know what the problem is it's not true it's just wrong I I don't even know what to meaning this are reown I I don't like arguing with shown him but it's just so obviously not the case and I'm sorry if I'm saying that but but let's just look inside and and then maybe you'll agree with me who if we look at the Confederacy right on the first sign you have am Rafel right one of them will be melar elar forget it's too generic aam and elar so we have to remember those so we'll go down a little bit over here and he just said now all of those are going to be from the side of H and that's why they're fighting so if you look at source number 23 right B shame Alam aam is the son of Shame you can't tell me he's that he comes from the other side he doesn't so I I I'm going to say it again I don't know what he's talking about and how he possibly said that but this is not the sons of Shame versus the sons ofam and therefore this uh this mix is a little bit more interesting as far as what they're doing and what and why they're fighting they end up having this battle by this place which apparently has some sink holes and that's part of what source 24 25 and 26 are going to be dealing with is these uh and 27 me Rashi is going to tell us that there there is the and he says because they did a lot of digging because they did a lot of digging because they were make right we wrot they were using the raw materials in order to build buildings and therefore there ended up being sinkholes because they had taken out a lot of the the the materials Source 28 and 29 mean that's special for this year they dug tunnels and they hid in the tunnels to escape during the battle and uh if you want in 209 he againi said that he from the school of to 29 to he quotes the they went and they H hid in the caves and they hid in the tunnels in the caves and they did this in order to uh in order to hide from the whole battle so therefore I hope that you find uh that somewhat interesting Source 30 is going to be quoted by a lot of people and it's something which I hinted at before and it's trying to understand this battle of the Four Kings against the five Kings and it's going to tell us that in the future what is it right of here why all this happen call aot the last two lines this is another all this happened so that Abraham could be victorious in order to create that spiritual power for ab to be able to counter these uh these nations they are going to be connected the ramban and the next and R are going to tell us that these are the four different kingdoms who have picked on us over the years and eventually end up disappearing and just like let's be much clearer now just like par is going to take sah and then get struck with plagues and going to leave there that creates the spiritual energy the same spiritual energy is going to be created now that these nations are going to be involved in this battle and aam is going to be victorious which will allow us to eventually be victorious but I I wanted to get to another point in Source 34 rers who's you know always interesting and he makes a much broader point over here and he starts talking about kingship and he starts talking about how kings and why you fight and he he over here says something really simple and he says follow the money there must have been money involved in this cuz because why even be a king of a poor country which is itself funny but but he starts talking about kingship and he said talking about what the battle is and what the background is and they're chasing them down and it's about the r it's about the money and he says there's something to be learned about this as well he try to be like a [Music] king he went and he took all kinds of people's personal possessions because of his own honor and National Honor and so on and I'll say it again if you're interested there's really a lot of things over here that he talks about in terms of battles and kings and Nations and War and uh how these things and he writes even here a little further four lines from the bottom and there's what to learn here is well in terms of the the Jewish idea of kingship and now you see he keeps going on and on and on and on which is why we're not now by mentioning the Jewish aspect of kingship we can ask ourselves isn't this being a little bit premature where do we first find even the concept of kingship when it's talking about us when it's talking about Jews when it's talking about and you could choose any point along the way here that you want a mitov and right mosha Aon right you could decide where where David show where kingship appears for the first time and I think that you'll be a little bit surprised cuz we're going to see it and then we're going to see it again and then you're going to realize that it wasn't an accident okay and that's really where I want you to get to so let's take a look we have this section peric Z we still we towards the end of now Source name so he's still that's going to be very important because this is the first time we're going to see that name appearing and you're gonna have lots of children which again we keep hearing that again okay so you are no longer going to be called you be called Dam now the simple explanation right now would be why is he about to get a new name and the answer is he's going to have a bris when do you give people a name when you give them a bris you give them a name aam gets a bris he gets a good name did they serve bagels and locks I don't know but he gets a PR so that that's all very simple but then it's the next PK which I think is really interesting so again lots of children and the name Shak is always connected to fertility and Kings will descend from you so come on can you be honest with me did all of you remember that this was the first time that it talks about kingship it's right there staring at us and then God continues to say I'm going to make it and by the way AB then asks you know what's going to be with Y and he says that will come from him and he doesn't use the word Mel and then at the very end and then God lifts up from now this passage had a couple of elements one he gets a new name the name shakai is used the idea of kingship is mentioned and then God lifts up and leaves so I noticed that there is another episode that has the exact same formula I kind of suspect that you didn't necessarily ever think about comparing these two but once I show it to you you're not going to be able to avoid comparing these two because it's just too much too overwhelming and of course the question is going to be ultimately the significance and that's what we'll need to get to the next source is pericam pericam theim Yakov by the way you'll no over here hasem El Abraham so and you could point out this is Hashem and this elim and God Appears to and it says over here we had right and and so on So You Realize right away that these two sections are pretty similar but let's continue again I want to pause there for a second and now you realize that the same name of God is being used there that was used in the previous one which again I don't know how many of these we need before you get convinced and then how does it continue in back [Music] in and Kings will come out of you which means the idea of kingship is in both of these sections as well and then again the land but the land you'll get as well and then how does it end then God lifts up from him which is the same conclusion the other one by the way notice there it's also elim once it gets to the Brit elim yeah anybody convinced yet by this that these two sections have at least this passing uh similarity to them that at least now we need to consider see van is convinced I see so kingship is here in both of these now it's interesting that aam has this confrontation with the Four Kings and the five Kings and gets involved in all of this and again for a moral reason maybe I do want to read that moral reason which I skipped it's the mishiva neish in Source 33 just we're going to read towards the end of it he writes um he he talks about the the money he talks about that he got wealthy because of that's why he became wealthy but at the end did not ignore the need of his relative and he would put his life in danger even though that they were smaller number and we should learn from this we should never ignore relatives in need and this is an incredibly big Mitzvah and this is proper behavior and he and he quotes over here in terms of helping various relatives and so on and so forth and again he ends with the same thing that fake mitah there's no question and he's talking financially maybe lending money to relatives that need and so on which he says that this is something that we need to take responsibility because look how aam was literally put his life in danger because of his relative but I want to go back now aam gets involved with these Kings and What emerges from all of this well part of what should emerge is well if aam defeats Kings so then maybe Ergo Aram also should be considered some kind of King but I know that we don't want to go there CU AB doesn't really first of all the land issue he doesn't have land yet and the second thing he doesn't have the real followers yet maybe Anish maybe there's more people but it's funny to talk about AB as a king but then it's also really interesting that God talks to him about no no no you will be a king Kings will come out of you but then the same thing is told to Yakov but I just want to go back to Yakov when was it said to Yakov so the answer is Source 36 was in peric lamid hey so where is peric lamid hey what's the answer right after peric lamid VV what happened in peric lamid VV a parallel situation Source 37 exact same terminology he sees her the same way that we see the the strong men the powerful men Bim see and they see that somebody's attractive and then what does it say and he takes them which means this is the same behavior we had before the flood it's the same behavior that we had have of parro which means Choose Your Weapon now what should happen it should it be a flood should come and wipe him out of course it should should it be that that plagues come yes of course there should be a plague on his house but what do Shimon and Ley do Shimon and Ley they go to war and why do they go go to war because they have this sense of of nationhood they have this sense that that there will be a king over here and I know that we all know the the debate and the dialogue that goes on and he convinces them to have Brit la which is really quite ironic because it was the Brit La where aam was commanded which is when the Mal emerges out of Abraham so if you don't notice now there may be a subtext to the Brit mea because the Brit La is when abah becomes Abraham and that's when the Mal gets appears within the text and that's is what's going to create this new nation where Abraham will have Kings emerging from him and therefore Shimon and Le saying okay you know you you should do the BR as well which again I don't want to go much further in that but it could also be that if you accept our rules it means that you're also going to be subservient to us and you will then join our Mal and we will be the king over you he of course is not just like we saw before ish not called Mel he's he's called a which seems to be a little bit less so they go in and they wipe out the whole city why do they wipe out the whole city well let's speak about the simplest level of this what did Aram do when his nephew was taken he goes to war and gets him out so what do Shimon and Ley do when their sister is taken they go to war and they get them out so it may be that you'll be a little upset because there was a lot of collateral damage over here but on the other hand is it on any level a defensive uh position to say that what they were doing is that there's a sense of kingship which actually seems to be what emerges for two reasons one I'll I'll show you a source that I think says it you can argue with me and that is Source 38 or 39 it is the the tarum yonan and we'll read 39 it's the Hebrew translation says what did you do I'm so small a number I want you to see the aric here in your it's not right that when in your they're going to be reading this par in the future that these people defied defiled this daughter of yob and they went and they did this toov they went and they violated her that we need a lesson to be taught for the future she's not going to be treated like a woman where nobody is concerned about her and then she's just completely uh uh somebody who uh that this kind of behavior is the norm which would be the result they're speaking about the future they're speaking about what's going to happen you read about this in sh what's going to be about National pride in the future what kind of lessons are going to be learned from this people can't treat our sisters and our daughters like this because this is something inappropriate and I'm going to say it again if you read this the description was so similar to what happened to loot and then now go back to what I didn't say yet but I I I hope you realize this I asked you before chapter 35 when Yakov is told that Kings will come from you and that's the future that there will be kingship over here and this land is going to be your and you have many kids and the kingship will come from you now you realize that Shimon and Ley are acting according to this concept of kingship and of course one has to protect the the the people who live there and of course one has to protect the the daughter of yakob and of course this has to be the behavior but what's interesting now is that it all you can argue with me I I'm okay with that you can have different conclusions I'm okay with that but it sounds very much at least at this point that God is agreeing with Shimon and Ley and that he's saying is that yes that National perspective the perspective That We're a nation is the correct idea and Yakov wake up you are nations will come from you and that's why that taraman is so interesting because then look at the future there's going to be Nations we're going to be reading about this in sh and God says yeah in the future you're going to be a nation over here you're going to be a king which means this idea of kingship and ultimately what is a king a king is a government which takes care of all of its citizens and if something happens to its citizens then they have to go and protect the citizens and over here what shim and Ley do again on the one hand you could say they're doing exactly what Abraham did in order somebody was kidnapped and afam it's it's Lo and they go and he goes to war to get them out so yeah they went to war in order toh get them out and I know and I understand that uh one could argue that it's not politically correct but politically correct is a function of time and place and there's a time and a place for different types of P perspectives and this read of bad is my read of bid in this particular time and in this particular place and as I said uh you could uh you could agree you could disagree I'm fine with it I can also read this in six different ways but that's the way that we read this uh this year and that's the that we understand this now in terms of what's taking place in uh in a in this larger uh situation that we're in we have people that are captured we have people that were taken there were people that were violated and kind of atro ities took place of the kinds that none of us believed would take place in our lifetimes we believe that it was history books that somehow we need to teach our our children and our students and our grandchildren that there were such things that happened in the past and this is just you know these things that we need to impress on them because we all knew it would never take place in the future and and and it's great because there are people over the world who don't believe that it happened even though even though the people the perpetrators they they filmed it live and they and and they spread it about but nonetheless this uh capacity for people to be able to misunderstand and to misinterpret or maybe the capacity for people to not value Jewish pain or not value Jewish experiences and not to Value Jews is something which is uh Beyond profound but as I said there's a there's a time in a place for everything and uh and that's the way that we read bit this year and that's the way we read these episodes this year because right there God says to Abraham yeah after all of this you will become a king and maybe that's why aam gets a new name because Kings get new names maybe that's why yakob in this context gets a new name because Kings get new names so once the idea of Mal is introduced so therefore it's no longer a now it becomes a the first and it's no longer Yakov now it's Israel the first of course his real name is Yakov but now it's Israel which means something else has happened in this context not just the Britney law which would explain a it wouldn't explain Yakov but there are too many elements over there which are similar so hopefully God will take care of all the people and protect all the people of Israel and hopefully the people that are captured will miraculously be freed and the and we we we have no desire for life on either side to be sacrificed we would love there to be a a peaceful resolution and uh we just don't always understand how that could happen as I said if God wants to pull out for them uh you know get rid of all the tunnels it would be wonderful for sea water to come in because it's very corrosive it will get rid of all of their uh Communications very very quickly seawater would do good we we experimented with this with Hurricane Sandy we learned that all Southern Manhattan lost of its Communications because of this and okay as I said God has many many tricks up his sleeve and bem the people that are captured will be safe the people in the South will be safe am will be safe and uh and unfortunately we have examples from our life times now that we can pass on and hopefully there won't be any more any more Bloodshed but batem we need a very good resolution of all of this so everyone have a shabbat shalom if you have questions comments or you want to argue with me that's perfectly fine but uh deti