The Power of Laughter: Chizuk for Iron Sword by Rabbi Jeffrey Bienenfeld

good afternoon um everyone thanks for joining again we want to dedicate uh whatever Toto we're learning for the for the safety of our soldiers who were engaged in a Mitzvah uh with God's help we will do what we want what we need to do to eradicate Hamas our prayer is also that all the hostages should be returned and and not suffer and and rejoin their families and Forma for all for all those who are who are ill who were and who were wounded and theama for those families who are mourning loved ones who have died uh in this uh in this terrible War so I I'd like to present something uh that I heard from Rabbi it btz who I'm sure some of you may know uh um you know incredible and a wonderful speaker very insightful and and uh sort of gave me an idea that I I wanted to share with you uh and uh expand upon uh to give us uh as we all need some some framework in which we can deal uh and cope with uh with with the current mats with the current situation and uh so I'd like to dip back into the parisha of last week and to try to understand uh the difference between two people who laugh um the Torah tells us at the end of that uh that hasem Hashem turns to and he says he says your wife changes her name from SAR to sah and then he promises that uh I will bless her and she will have a child and when AB hears this news and he's thrilled he laughs uh a little later on the beginning of pares when the three malim come to visit Three Men or malim come to visit ab and uh one of theim says to AB uh in a year's time I'm gonna come back and Sarah will have a Sarah will have a child and the Torah says Sor was e dropping she heard and the Torah says and she left and she said how is it possible ask rashi rashi interprets what she said it's she said it in a questioning fashion he said how is it possible I'm an old woman how is it possible that I can conceive it's impossible and on top of that my husband is also old we're just too old to have children when SAR laughs hasem responds he's upset he is uh not pleased at all with Sarah's laughter and why why did sah laugh like this is anything beyond my power of course whether you're old it doesn't matter if I bless you with a child you got to have a child why was Sarah laughing so we find that when abam hears the news he laugh laughs Hashem doesn't say anything when Sarah hears the news she laughs and Hashem is obset with her so Rashi explains the obvious Rashi says even though the word v right ortis in the feminine is the same exact word Rashi basing basing his interpretation on the tarum tumus translates each word differently in each case so Rashi says when Abraham laughed it was a laughter of sim he was overjoyed and the laughter was an expression of how happy he was upon hearing the wonderful news that his wife was GNA that his wife was gonna have a child was going to be a boy wonderful he was laugh but when Sara laughs her laughter Rashi says it was Lia it was almost like mocking laughter skeptical filled with doubt you know how is it possible it's impossible I can't have a job and therefore her laughter was not a laughter of joy of sim but it was a laughter of log of skepticism of doubt and Hashem was upset Hashem expected more from Sarah ramban on this uh on this very subject because everyone tries to understand why Hashem was displeased with sarup San tries to offer perhaps a uh an answer to try to help why did Sarah respond that way and ramban says that um Sarah when SAR overheard she didn't know that these three men were really Angel she thought they were Wayfarers there were better ons coming AB was always hospitable to everyone so when she heard from one of these people that she was going to have a child she was incredulous she said is impossible this simple person is coming from the desert he's giving me a br that I'm gonna have a child she dismissed it so raaban says that was her mistake her mistake was and ra doesn't quote this but but there's a g in many places that says Al never dismiss the blessing of a simple person because we don't know how God channels his blessing to us we think you know we go to theor we go to the top rinic luminaries in a generation we ask for Braha which is fine but sometimes the Braha a simple person a stranger maybe a beggar who gives you a br how do you know Hashem may be channeling the broa to you through the medium of a hot of a simple ordinary almost Anonymous person never take lightly the blessing of simple people so that was Sarah's mistake okay it was an honest mistake but Hashem was still upset she should have been appreciative even though she didn't know that he was an angel but God May Cho God may have chosen to operate and channel and send his broa through this simple person she dismissed that that was her mistake comes along the one of the great commentaries on and he has a completely different interpretation he says when it says vtis s she was laughing out of Joy so why was has upset to understand the we read it inside gim is basing his interpretation that Sarah laughter was like a it was laughter of Joy two things number one when God tells at the end of that Sarah was gonna have a child says it's obvious that a told Sarah why wouldn't they have told Sarah Sarah came to me says you're gonna have a baby boy wonderful wonderful that's number one the second thing is when Remember When she overhears what the angel said that she was going to have a child she said I'm an old I'm an old lady it's impossible according to she was making a statement the gar comments in B that at that moment her body rejuvenated she became like a young woman and she saw physical signs that she was no longer old so when she said that statement when she comments it's not a question it doesn't Express that she was saying oh my goodness my body can conceive I'm a young woman again everything my skin is Young everything about me is Young so says so why was Hashem upset with her hasem was a for this reason when she first heard from AR that she was GNA have a child that's when she should have laughed when did she laugh she only laughed when there was corroborating evidence that she could indeed conceived her faith her faith her amuna was lacking aam all he needed was Hashem Hashem told him he was going to be a child that was all AB he didn't need any cooperating of it he didn't see he didn't he didn't need to see anything to convince him that hashem's promise would indeed come true s on the other hand her laughter is a laughter her laughter is one of Joy but only when she sees evidence of it in the Rejuvenation of her own body she's a young woman now she believes and she's very joyful Hashem says there's something about your faith which is lacking it should have been enough when aam told you that you can have a baby for me and you believed it that's when you should have left so it's powerful message here because what it's saying is real faith is believing in whatever promise and pledge that Hashem makes even though we don't see any evidence of it was someone else who laughed someone else who laughed the laugh of aan and that was rabi AKA now you remember I'm sure you probably remember the end of makos the end of M makos is a beautiful story about how RAB aiv and his contemporaries the great Tano were walking among the ruins of thean bayen the second temple has been destroyed raised to the ground you know a catastrophe brought upon them the Romans came destroyed the basan mikdash slaughter it was a terrible dark moment in Jewish history and so the sages then were walking among the ruins and they saw that rabie AKA was was laughing they s was laughing and they said rabi AKA why are you laughing and he said to them why are you crying so they said why are we crying Once Upon a Time this was a place where there was Holiness there were konos there was singing Le the Bish was here we felt the presence of Hashem and now there's nothing there's desolation destruction hban so RAB AKA said that's that's that's exactly why I'm laughing and this is how conceptually what RAB AKA was telling his friends there were many many prophecies many prophecies that the Nim spoke about they spoke about Prophecies of hban if the Jewish people would sin there would be Exile there would be destruction there would be there would be Onish it would be but they also spoke about Prophecies of redemption Gula Yeshua salvation so Raba said I didn't know these Nas whether they were really figurative metaphorical allegorical maybe they weren't meant to be taken literally it's possible now that I see that the prophecies ofb exact exactly happen tangible real concrete it's not a metaphor it's not a mush it's not some figurative allegory but it's real so if the noos of hban are real and literal so too all the Navas of the Gula the ultimate Redemption all the naos of you know of of of Yeshua of Salvation will also be literal when will it happen I don't know when RAB AA said that there was no evidence of redemption there was just utter desolation kurban but yet RAB AKA laughed the laugh of a Hashem made a promise the promise will happen the pledge will happen there will be G there will be Yeshua there will be Redemption when I don't know I don't know hope maybe tomorrow I don't know but it was enough it was enough his faith it was enough that the Nim said it Hashem said it and even without any corroborating evidence he was able to laugh because he knew that going into gas was not the end of the story it was the beginning of the story because the Jews would come back I think like I mentioned last week when Hashem says to uh to ra who's crying right everyone's G to come back the reason why I think this is such a powerful idea is because you know we again as I forget who said this everyone is really a part of this a part of this war whether we living in Israel where the people soldiers on the front line everyone has a role to play even people who are in gas people who are in the in the diaspora they also have a role to play okay maybe not a fighting role but saying to heal him learning uh giving Saka uh visiting people if you can the point is what what drives that belief what drives that belief is even though it's a very going through a very painful period and it's not over yet what drives that belief is the is the laughter of ab the laughter of RAB AA that says we will win and we will overcome this and we will be better and maybe maybe maybe who knows maybe it'll be the beginning of the guru We Believe there it's not the end it's the beginning it's tough it's painful but we can laugh the laugh of ab the laugh of Raba it's interesting when you think of the name and I'm sure you've heard this y it's a noun it's a name but if you look at it as a verb means he will laugh it's in the future tense he will laugh the reality of Y you know people think y you know not much we don't know much about y plenty yob Y is sort of an anonymous almost a mysterious personality and maybe you know why because means there will be laughter in the end in the end when we see how everything fits in at a time of redemption everything will make sense y in the future we will be able to laugh the laugh of AR the laugh of RAB akba and maybe even now when we bring the reality of the future into the present allow the future to inspire the present it's that very inspiration when I know the future is real is real I believe that it's real that motivates me motivates everyone to push through this to do whatever we can because we know that at the end of this period of Darkness of course there will be a great deal of light what do we say uh in the you know we say in the in the shiral you know that we we say usually that paragraph we say before we bench on chabas right what does it say at the end at the end everyone will be able to laugh everyone will be able to smile it's a beautiful Capital to Hill we'll all be able to laugh or be able to smile we believe that and to the extent that we believe that and allow that laughter to motivate us and to drive us to do whatever we can then we can all say that we've adopted the laughter of ab RAB AA a laughter of sim it will end it will end on a good note for all of us we just hope that will happen soon and the that hasem make it happen soon