Parsha Perspectives for Today (Lech Lecha)

good morning invoker tov and welcome back to the parsha perspectives for today our weekly examination of the weekly torah portion the weekly parsha and its messages in a very contemporary fashion for our daily lives i want to thank our generous sponsors of the parshas series dear friends becky navi katz in memory of david grossman becky's father nishmas david thank you so much for your sponsorship and if anyone would like to sponsor a future share in addition to the series sponsor you can email lee at brsonline.org lee brsonline.org thank you so much for all of our sponsors over the years in advance okay let's get started page 54 in the art scroll stone hamish and of course as always so much to say on this incredible incredible parasha and the story of our birth as a people we're introduced to avram on the scene avrim is 75 years old and the torah speaks to us as if we already are familiar with him as if we already know so much about him even though we're really meeting him for the first time he doesn't give a destination he doesn't say where he's going he doesn't give coordinates he says go to you go discover who you are and what your life is about how does one discover who they are we've spoken about this a lot in the past i'm not going to revisit it at length now but how does one discover who they are the answer is that you have to transcend your background your dna your surroundings you have to transcend so much about you in order to discover who's the real you you have to peel back all of those layers you have to peel back the layers of your land the culture and its impact on you of your relatives the genetics the dna of your father's household what did you hear around the shabbos table that doesn't mean that we reject where we come from the opposite we embrace it and we accept it and we celebrate it however it means that while we accept it and when we allow it to us and form and inspire us simultaneously we're on a journey of to discover who we are why doesn't hashem give them the coordinates allah arts we've spoken about this too in the past because hashem wants us to cultivate within ourselves that sense of searching of yearning of being seekers of looking of being a doresh so hashem doesn't give the answer he doesn't spoon feed spoon feed he says into it follow your spiritual intuition extend your spiritual antenna we spoke about this a lot in the context of hashem not giving us the coordinates of the vasa mitas the best plays such a central role in the jewish people and yet hashem doesn't say where it is where is this holy place he simply says it is the place that you'll be doris that you seek and that you search and we see that from the very inception of our people that avraham avinu is not told the coordinates of where he's told go on a journey where discover who you are to the land that i send you okay ravdruk that was quick we got right into our joker druck has such magnificent insights i'm so grateful for the safer ish tamid and this year we've been focusing on sharing different years we share different uh sources but insights from drugstore drugs says the following sort of beer lays that sora vino if this is the introduction to abraham avinu tell us where he grew up what his childhood was like what we take for granted in the midship about his knocking down and breaking the idols of his father tell us how he discovered hashem ethical monotheism in a world of idolatry and paganism tell us so much more about avraham the why the detailed itinerary of his journey um is a very very important lesson every one of us are on a journey and each one of us is tested like avraham avinu that we too have to go on this path to discover who we are and what our lives are about and there's a very critical lesson here shift had to go step by step just like avraham avinu could not skip could not accelerate could not expedite but he had to go step by step he had to go in an incremental meaningful way he had to first leave and transcend and rise above artsakha and then malatra and then basavika what if he wanted to do it out of order what if he first wanted to transcend or redefine himself beyond mulatto or beyond or beyond uh what if he did it out of order so cesaro druk that's what the torah is coming to tell us it takes its critical real estate to give us the order and the detailed itinerary of his journey to remind us that when we are on journey you cannot skip steps don't change your outer guard but before you're internally ready don't change or skip to certain homeless stringencies before you're keeping the core responsibilities there has to be a step by step and there's a danger when a person skips steps when they try to expedite or they try to accelerate their spiritual growth beyond the meaningful way it can result in disaster abram goes incrementally he understood this this journey has to be done methodically and strategically and thoughtfully so the first thing he does is the first thing he transcends is the culture to take the best from the culture but to do so with a filter and i don't mean a filter on our technology though that is important but i mean the culture around us the culture we live in today is so rich and has so much to offer us there is such wisdom but there's an enormous difference between culture and pop culture culture is rich and jews have always contributed to and drawn from sophisticated culture but pop culture is shallow and superficial and narushki at best and often is morally corrupt and worse and so a jew has to know how to transcend and how to filter and how to rise above arts what culture versus pop culture do we allow into our homes and into our minds and into our hearts how do we draw from and filter the best that will enrich us without exposing ourselves and our families to the worst to that which will corrupt us and then a person has to know within their own family within their own home again we have parents we have family we have ancestry and we should be proud and we should embrace and we should absorb their lessons their values their ideals their narrative but it means we don't have to do so hook line and sinker sometimes we don't have to pay forward what are the idiosyncrasies at best and some of the the hang ups and worse at worst just because our parents or grandparents or our ancestors had certain neuroses just like as they had certain fears if god forbid they were abusive or had rage problems or had other practices we don't have to pay that forward we have the ability to filter again the best of what our dna and our genes and the nature and nurture of our homes offers but to filter it out from the worst questions and if the order had been reversed if abram had first been told and if ahram at first attempted to transcend and filter and rise above his genetics and his family it would have flopped he would have failed it had to first be an evaluation of culture versus pop culture it then was an evaluation within his own family it had to go step by step this was the itinerary this was the journey of personal growth of avram and this is the journal of personal growth in our own lives as well and therefore the continues yesterday sometimes jews they want to swallow all of kedusha at once they don't want to take bite size they don't want to chew they don't want to swallow they want to stuff it all in their mouth and swallow it all at once and you know what happens if you put too much in your mouth if you have a little newborn if you have an adolescent child and you're teaching them to eat and they put too much in their mouth at once and they don't chew and they're not careful they don't swallow them god forbid they can choke says if you try to chew too much spirituality if you stuff too much spirituality in your mouth at once you don't take bite size you don't chew you don't swallow you don't digest you could choke and spiritually die because that entire acquisition of that holiness wasn't genuine it wasn't authentic it wasn't slowly it didn't take root it was fake it was false it was fraudulent i've seen it you've seen it i remember back to my year or years in israel post high school and i've seen it since then with post high school students those who take steps that are too big those who took take bites that are too big religiously and spiritually before they're ready not slowly not incrementally not with authenticity it ends up being an enormous fail vamasu spiritually they die so that the months they come back from israel they're so to say on fire but they're on fire externally they haven't grown and built it up internally and if you fast forward the clock and look a year or two later it's not that they've lost the fire sometimes they've lost everything they've gained and they've set themselves back and regressed to even earlier than they were before their year in israel i'll never forget i met somebody my brother-in-law's fabulous just been back from my year in israel and he had a friend of zufraf and that friend spent the entire shabbos with me sharing divrei torah exchanging divrei torah on the parsha and and i was wowed i was inspired i was blown away by this friend and it came to my attention that this friend actually was no longer shomer shabbas and i couldn't reconcile in my mind particularly a young mind i just came back from my gap year what do you mean he's been exchanging divrei torah and he seems to be so religiously on fire what do you mean how could you describe that he's not show me shabbos how does that make sense i couldn't reconcile it and it was explained to me that in israel he grew too fast and he was encouraged to grow too fast and he took on too many stringencies and too many external manifestations of that growth and it didn't come slowly and incrementally and authentic authentically and it wasn't able to take root so that it could blossom and sprout and grow and when it came back he did too much and by doing too much too fast he ended up losing it all he ended up losing it all that is a danger huma should diction he says maybe that's where another video aaron's two sons went wrong as well they too they tried to grow too fast they took bites that were too big they couldn't shoot they didn't swallow it wasn't real it wasn't slow and so this itinerary of avraham avinu were introduced to avraham avinu here's his itinerary here's our agenda and what do i need the details just tell me that avraham said on a journey towards this role what do i need um because this is the formula of personal growth and not only is it a formula that these are the three steps these are the three steps specifically in this order we have to go in this order don't change the order if you change the order and you don't go from little to big if you're not adding if you try to go too fast you will flop and you will fail first thanksgiving night this year on thanksgiving night after you fill your belly with turkey you can fill your nasham with torah thanksgiving night after the sudah we're going to have a special uh evening of learning we have rafters dr is going to do a presentation all about us we'll see the history the science the chemistry of hailas we'll talk about his view trailers will contrast the different views of trellis so the gemaran sota says why was hailes this turquoise this blueish color bluish greenish color why was it chosen so it says the gemara mayor teaches because this magnificent color is similar to the sea and the sea reminds us of the heavens and the heavens reminds us of the throne of glory who find this kashirabham and many is similar to the sea and the sea is similar to the heavens and the heavens why don't we just skip the middle steps why don't we just say that was chosen why to remind you of the kisa cover just skip the middle steps you cannot go straight from the trailers to the kisaiah covered you have to go to slayam yamlarakia rekila kisakawa there's an order there's a formula there are steps to take how do you get to the destination you put one foot in front of another and if you try to jump if you try to skip if you take steps that are too big you will fall and you will fail you have to take steps one foot in front of the other and you will get to where you are meant to go that is the first insight of druk on let's stick with let's stick with it we mentioned last year i'm not reviewing last year but we mentioned last year many interpretations that i'm about this foreign what are these words he just said he's about to say he just said so we saw many interpretations what it means but my favorite visual is refersh and reverse says what does it mean it doesn't say be blessed it says our mission in life is to be abraham be a blessing for others wake up every day and look at your family friends your co-workers your community members your neighbors and say bracha how can i be a blessing to them today that is our mission that is our job and then of course the pasak 412 all non-jews 12 4 rather all non-jews know this i shouldn't say online jews evangelicals know this those who bless you will be blessed and those who curse you will be cursed and we wish we only wish the jews believed in this passage as much as evangelical christians do that that others can earn their destiny through their relationship and interaction with the jewish people now notice it is not descriptive but it is prescriptive it says what does it say that um people will be blessed through us if we earn it it's not an entitlement it's a responsibility to live a life in which we'll earn that bracha rav druka wonders here he quotes the rambam in mishna empire and he quotes who both say this is the first test that government endured why is the rambam commenting in your picture of us because in ethics of our fathers it says that avraham endured ten tests both and thereby say of the ten tests that avraham our forefather are patriarch abraham endured this was the first of the ten the kirsh barclay almighty told him get up rise up don't just be the composite result of everything around you but journey to you discover who you are and that is the first test however in pirkei de rabi eliezer and the magistrate says this was not the first but it was the third test was tested ten times and he surpassed he persevered with them all and this is the third test that at the moment that he was challenged to get up and rise up and don't just be the composite result of what he heard at his table and what he heard in school and what he sees on his on his smartphone and this is the hardest of all the tests the hardest of all the tests avram didn't delay and avraham didn't hesitate and avraham didn't demure he got up courageously and tenaciously and he stepped one foot in front of the other leg he began this journey and wonders rob druk the question that i hope is bothering you yes what exactly is the test here not only do these others characterize this as the third test not the first but they say of all the ten tests this is the hardest this is the hardest what's the test god didn't say to him i want you to leave all your material possessions behind and i want you to go live in a cave and i want you to live a life of poverty what does god say to him he says to him estrada i'm going to make you a great nation and i'm going to bless you and i'm going to make your name great you're going to win the lottery you're going to make millions and billions of dollars you're going to have more followers and friends your reputation will be big and everybody's going to want to be like you what exactly is the test i want you to get up and leave your father's home and buy a lottery ticket that you're going to win you will make millions and billions and the world will admire you and want to follow you and be like you what exactly is the test from had no children at this time and of course avraham wanted nothing more than offspring he wanted nothing more than progeny and god says to him so not only does he is he promised material wealth he's promised offspring a legacy which what he so desperately wants he's 75 years old of course he'll do everything people have done much more fertility treatments they've gone far above and beyond to try to have children and what's avraham's big test to have children get up rise up set on a journey i'll tell you where you're going but here's the promise you'll be rich and you'll have children when you get there what does it mean uh if somebody went to an expert doctor who told them you need to travel to another destination and there you'll have children of course they're going to go so what's the big deal here how is this not only a test at all how is it considered by some to be the biggest test god tells you to do something how could you hesitate how could you pause of course hashem is in charge and he tells what you do and do is do the best so where is even the test so listen to what he says a very very important lesson again not just to understand the parasha but an important lesson for each and every one of us to get the greatest fascinating the assumption in the question was wrong and that's why there's no question to begin with where is the assumption of the question wrong we said avraham has promised all of these great things where's the test if you have all these promises and the answer is the reason that there are all these promises is to distract from the test why would avraham be going on the journey what was driving avraham what was avraham trying to fulfill was he going because he was promised wealth was he going because he was promised reputation was he going because he was promised progeny or was he going because god said get up and go and when god says jump we say how high. shalom that was part of the test giving him the promise of wealth giving the promise of of a reputation that was all designed to be part of the test part of the test you see when we go on our own personal journey towards god when we are on our own journey towards spirituality the question is why are we doing it is it because we think that torah or observant judaism brings greater wealth brings greater reputation is it it positions us for happiness and life or are we doing it because there is a master of the universe there is a creator to whom we are accountable and to whom we have to report i'll never forget i must met with a woman who was a balastruva and she told me i don't understand i'm struggling financially and i'm struggling in my marriage and my children with my nakas but you know the rabbi was makari of me the rabbi who drew me close to a total way of life told me that torah will enrich my life and if i just keep torah my life will be filled with blessing and everything will go well and smooth and be perfect and i told her i said that rabbi should lose his malpractice what that rabbi told you is horrifically wrong we don't observe torah and mitzvos we don't embrace this lifestyle because it's filled with some guarantee there are people who observe torah who have health crises and who have financial crises and who have relationship crises and who struggle with infertility in every other area of challenge and nevertheless we do it anyway because it's the right thing to do it's the correct thing to do it's what we're asked to do and of course it's what also has to come to our wednesday morning in munich here when we do it it also gives us the tools it gives us the strength it gives us the courage and the faith to be able to endure and persevere through whatever challenge crisis that we are being tested with but ultimately there's no guarantee that comes with it we don't do it because it's supposed to come with an easy life i've told you before my own personal suggestion that maybe that's what yaakov's telling paulo fast forward many parties when yaakov comes down to egypt and yosef has the chance to introduce his father yaakov the leader of the spiritual world to his mentor paro the leader of the physical world and they talk and they have a bizarre conversation para says to yak of how old are you and yaakov told him i'm an old man but my life hasn't been easy why would yaakov tell him that that's the message he comes across so fabulousness so miserable that's the message you tell you're meeting the emperor of the world and that's what you say and we've suggested previously and it fits here exactly with this understanding of this test of is that when we go on this journey to discover god and the implications and the consequences of discovering god we don't do it because it promises us some guarantee of a life of happiness or a life of comfort a life of convenience or a life of ease we do it because it's right and we do it because it's righteous and we do it because it's virtuous and that's what yaakov was telling paro he says you know you're impressed that i am such a spiritual being you're impressed that i'm the god of adore so to say know that my life hasn't been easy i live a spiritual life because it's righteous not because it promises ease comfort or convenience god says set on on this journey and set out on this journey because it's right and it's righteous not because it's easy and therefore the promise the promises of esther gadola made you a great nation and the promise of i'm going to bless you you're going to be rich in the promise of you're going to have a huge platform more followers and friends than anyone else a big podcast and a big talk show all those promises were not the test they were the distraction from the test the test was would avram go because of those or without them go because god said so and very similarly that is the test that we have in our own lives when the rubber meets the road when we hit the wall when our judaism seems incompatible with parts of our life are we still on the journey of do we walk away and do we abandon do we only stick with it when it all makes sense do we only stick with it when it comes comfortably and conveniently or do we stick with it because it's true and it's right and it's righteous even when it's hard and even when it's difficult and even when those promises don't come so god gave those promises not because he wasn't going to follow through of course he was going to follow through it's why he made those promises but he gave those promises to see what would drive avraham was he really going for the right reason or not you know in marriage you see that someone can fall in love and the girl or boy want to know do you love me for who i am or do you love me because my family has wealth or my family has prominence or do you love me for some external reason true if you marry me you'll have access to that comfortable life true if you marry me you'll have access to that which may open doors for you but that shouldn't be why you're marrying me marry me because you love me and god says you'll have access to all those things but now i want to know why are you on this journey towards a romantic marriage and love with me is it for the right reasons or is it for the wrong reasons okay moving right along so avraham of course we know steps up and he passes the test he gets up and he heads out kashmiri love hashem he takes all of his wealth all of his material possessions and things this and they arrive in canaan which is bizarre why do we have to repeat they head out to kanaan and they arrive at canaan listen to a previous partial shear because we've spoken about it that is contrasting avraham's journey from tarakh his father terah set out on the same journey only he failed he got distracted by the nightlife of the metropolis that he ran into but avram kept on going from kharan and made it all the way to kanan whereas his father stopped in and never kept going from there but i draw your attention to the words the souls that literally translates to the souls of that they made they made souls and i hate that language you ever hear a rabbi say or a rabbit sent for that matter or anyone i made bale chuva you know how many bale chuva i've made you didn't make anything hashem is the only one who made people and you made people with free will and maybe you inspired them and that's your job and the responsibility but you didn't make anyone that's one of those expressions that really i have a pet peeve i really have a little tolerance when people say i made that person into a balchuva i made many bale chuva i made countless balaychuva you didn't make anything hashem is what makes people they have free will you offered them the inspiration that they took advantage of and that is their job so interestingly in the arts in the arab hamas the o you rabbi salavait it translates a little differently differently translates the souls that they had acquired in kharan what's the difference between souls they made and souls they acquired souls they made in souls they acquired souls they acquired means that there were other individuals and souls who were exposed to the teachings of avraham and sarah and they were so inspired they were so turned on by the teachings that they joined the mission they joined the journey they joined avraham and sarah on this journey going going forward so listen to it by salvation rights here that provides the following narrative regarding avraham's early life from the time this mighty person was weaned as a child day and night he started to wonder how is it possible that this earth continually functions without a master and who controls it it's impossible for it to control itself the earth has so many details the minutia the science the physics the metaphysics how is it possible where did it come to be every building is an architect every book has an author every sculpture has a sculptor so how could this magnificent earth which is no less complex or sophisticated how could it just come to be who is its designer who is its builder these are the questions that avraham at a very young age was asking that's what set him out on his journey that's what he was thinking about by the way how was he able to think about that why was he able to think about that what did he have that we lack tragically and all too sadly avram was able to think about that because he didn't have a smartphone he wasn't on social media he didn't have something buzzing and beeping he wasn't looking down and scrolling he wasn't watching netflix or keeping up on with fomo on instagram our great matriarch's patriarchs they were shepherds they were wandering in the field they were thinking even that young child take the smartphone or the device out of the young child's hands and they just might start asking those questions they just might start thinking in that way so i'm from a young age is asking those questions he had no teacher he had no one to explain he was rather admired in the environment of the among the idolaters including his parents and avramor shipped along with them but his heart was restless until he eventually grasped the truth and understood the righteous path through correct intellectual reasoning and he understood there was one god everything i just read to you is from the rambam in the first paragraph avraham this is the rav now ava reached his conclusions regarding the existence of god while combining the influence of his pagan environment and his own parents god did not reveal himself and provided no help to avalon his quest alvaro made his discovery entirely on his own the ramen continues avon was 40 years of age when he recognized his creator and once he understood he started to raise questions to the population of ur and to arrange debates with them and say their path was not correct avram's belief in god's existence solidified when he was 40 years of age yet hashem did not reveal himself to adam until he ordered oven to enter the land at the age of 75. during that long interim period that means that avraham had a career of 35 years 35 years in the rabbinate that he attempted to defend his newly found faith he right hashem never revealed himself means between avram's discovery that there's a god avram's own intellectual conclusion that if there's creation there must be a creator and god actually appearing to him there's a 30 year gap between those two 35 year gap between 40 and 75 years old in those 35 years avraham didn't sit back passively and wait for god what did he do he got up and he went out and he preached he got up and he went out and he advocated and he taught and he inspired and he defended his peers truly scoffed at him derisively inquiring avram tell us you say there's a supreme being have you ever seen him have you ever spoken him abram searched for god without his help providing god's existence through nature alvin could neither point out nor display miracles to prove god's existence yet despite the obstacles he built a loyal following who shared his religious vision and these are the nephesh avraham went on facebook and instagram and twitter avram went on youtube avraham got in a soapbox in the corner of every park and avram got up and said i want to talk about my discovery called god i want to talk about his vision for a world of ethical monotheism of selflessness not selfishness i want to talk about why he created this world and how we can better serve him and we can live in his image he didn't keep it to himself and the rambam here answer is a fundamental question that often people don't realize we talk about abram as the founder as the one who discovered or initiated or introduced monotheism but it's just not true it's inaccurate historically avram didn't discover it and avraham didn't initiate it and avram didn't introduce it avram was the first to preach it and share it in fact the torah itself is filled with adam talks to god and noah talks to god noah's offspring talked to god and no sun shame as the yeshiva shame the evil so we know that there were those who preceded avraham who knew god so how could you accurately talk about avraham as the father of monotheism of course and clearly he's not so what's his greatness how is the avraham hamon how is he a patriarch and what is his position of distinction if it's not as the one who introduces monotheism that's what the rambam is telling us for 35 years avram didn't keep that secret to himself all those who came before him knew god and they kept it to themselves it surely it inspired and enriched and it elevated their lives but they kept the secret to themselves avram is the first who doesn't keep it to himself he gets up and he goes out and he shares it and listen to the rove to know god means to have a desire to share one's knowledge with others to bring the message to the ignorant and insensitive to those unfortunate ones who have not had the opportunity to learn and to study a real scholar cannot contain what he knows within himself he or she explodes knowledge entails a dynamic element the knower becomes restless the truth cries out from the inner recesses of his personality and he must tell others where salvation is so beautifully describing that if you know god you can't keep it to yourself if you keep it to yourself perhaps you don't really know god you're not really in love with god to know and to love god is to be unable to keep that secret to ourselves rash describes these converts as being brought under the wings of the shrine an expression has used many times to express conversion a person without god a person who denies god or negates him who drifts from errors alienated from him such a person is homeless and uprooted he can never rest or enjoy peace of mind he never has a feeling of security no matter how powerful or wealthy he may be complete security and peace harmony and serenity can be found only in god that is why srina is like two large wings that cash shade and in that shade a person finds a cool place in protection against the heat fatigue desolation and loneliness modern man has been alienated from god for so long he's like a leaf carried by the wind under the wings of the shrine has the notion of restfulness a peace of serenity of rootedness and of being anchored i love this insight of rabbi salaveczak it too is a message but more than that it too is a mandate for all of us that if we claim to really know and to love god it means that we have to share and spread that knowledge to not keep it to ourselves the moment we keep it to ourselves it's a question and an indictment about how well we really know him and how much we really love him avraham and sarah because hiroshi by the way quotes that avraham again with surah says they were both powerhouses avant sarah were a power couple she wasn't some meek rabbits and hiding inside but rather sarah was avram's equal both preaching teaching advocating both inspiring both transforming the world around them transforming the world around them a secret they were unwilling to keep to themselves the greatest evidence of a love of hashem was the fact that they put it out there that they taught it when you meet other human beings other jews non-religious observant jews you gotta teach and preach god at the supermarket in the gym at work you gotta say please god and thank god and with god's help invoke god's name and talk god and share why you find your life is inspired by having god that's what it means to be the progeny of avram that's what it means to walk in his way that's what it means to be his children there were those who came before alvin who knew god but they didn't share it afram is the first to share and we have to follow in his footsteps to be able to share as well parakeet based pasta gimmel moving right along test sorry rather it's says sets out and he journeys and he travels steadily where the nasa he's going towards the south god says get up and go he goes and he goes to canaan he's journeying throughout canaan it's within its breath he starts to head south and all of a sudden by hera of ba'aretz he encounters a famine by here at abraham it's an abram descends to egypt to live there of the famine it's heavy and here the imrechain the great imrechain says the last year we quoted some beautiful image in the parsha attempted to repeat them but i'm not going to you can go back to the recording from last year you know we have a recording we've done it so many years for every day of the week you could listen to another parshish here and uh and still have a few left over so then says the following is tested in two ways he's tested with the test of poverty and he's tested with the test of wealth both of those are tests now poverty we know is a test to live with faith and to live with courage and to live with values and virtue even when you're poor and struggling that's a test none of us want that test the test of wealth some of you might say god bring it on test me i'm willing to take it on the test of wealth though make no mistake is also a test but um and he observed he surpassed both negba the south romaine latorah wrote him says who wants wisdom yadrum turn towards the south the name of our shules the brs torah journal is yadrim it's named yadrim for this gemara because the kamara says you want wisdom head south go to boca raton florida that's where the wisdom is i'm only half joking in eretz israel the tamida khamen were known to live in the south and that's why they describe it you went south to gain wisdom we today tahalakha we think that we face east but you know you're supposed to face sort of southeast you face towards the south that's where wisdom is that's why avraham was going ba towards the south but he was is south he was growing in he was growing in spirituality by hera of bharat he was going hanegba he was pursuing and learning and growing in torah even when he bought even during a time of a famine even during a recession and a depression even when the market was plummeting even when he was struggling with his own resources even when he lacked resources and even when he was struggling financially he was not struggling spiritually he surpassed the test the avram kawaii mode later we read that avraham was kaved he was very weighty he had a lot he had a huge portfolio he had amassed and accumulated an enormous amount of things of wealth nevertheless he's still going south so both when he was wealthy and when he was poor he was always going south what does it mean he was always going south we use the term south in a pejorative sense things are going south from me everything's going south for a jew going south is a good sign going south means it's going spiritually south is synonymous with going spiritually so the torah not coincidentally says the vision of service says the torah says avram was going south he was going south when he was what rich and he was going south when he was poor he was always going south it means he was always trying to grow spiritually so we have to understand that part of the way that avram is a mentor and a teacher for all of us is that avraham no matter what in his life was going south and meant both when he was wealthy and when he was poor he was always going south which is the harder test which is the harder test for avraham being wealthy or being poor so i saw an interesting shot fast forward to paragraph based when avram returns from this famine in egypt when he when he's uh successful he returns very wealthy kaved ma now what word would i have expected the text to use what word would have expected the torah to employ i would have thought it would say ashir the avraham avram was extraordinarily wealthy exceedingly wealthy but it doesn't say that it says avram is kaved what does the word kaved mean kavaid is the same word as kavod honor kaved means heavy love so i saw this shot i don't i don't know it doesn't say from whom but it's quoted in the safe word there's two volumes this is the second volume of ah so this but i don't know from whom i don't know which question said this has that why doesn't it say usher why doesn't it say that avraham returns wealthy it says he's conveyed by maknab because what the text what the torah means to tell us is that he's weighed down by his wealth avram is very worried about it the test and the challenge of wealth was even greater than the test on the challenge of poverty he was worried he was worried that the wealth would corrupt him he was walt that worried that the wealth would distract him he was worried that the wealth would inflate his ego or his honor where it would give him a bigger appetite for more things or make him lose his sense of spirituality conveyed it weighed on him it was kaved ma'od it was very weighty and it weighed on him a lot it's interesting that word kaved is used both the ra'ab and he was that word kaved is used in both contexts both with the poverty and with the wealth because kaved means weighty covered honor is weighty what do we should cover to what do we give weight to what do we treat as being weighty that's why it comes from the exact same word we said about here of bars there was this famine in the land but salvation has their comments here that i want to share with you by hero why did god cause a famine to develop in the land he just told our get up and go to canaan to the land of israel that's where you belong that's the land i gave you that's the land i'm giving your children so if you just got out from get up and you just hadn't passed the test where he went to the land why now are you reversing course why are you sending him back to egypt rashid says the reason was lena soso to test avraham how would he react to egyptian culture and civilization would he be overwhelmed succumb to egyptian society to its ideals its philosophy its views would have him resist an emerged triumphant keeping his faith abram to go to egypt to see what egypt was it was fascinating at that time and very attractive god later repeated the test twice more yaakov went to kharan and yosef went to egypt to show that a jew can live in exile and still retain a spiritual identity either in poverty as a day laborer or shepherd or in riches in luxury as the prime minister of a foreign country torah describes how god tested the patriarchs because these tests were characteristic and indicative of the destiny of the descendants myself and the bottom avraham came out of egypt not only retaining his identity but even more powerful spiritually what a fantastic insight throughout safe approaches throughout the book of genesis our patriarchs and matriarchs go live in foreign lands avram goes on this detour to egypt yaakov goes on a detroit yosef goes on more than a detour back to egypt why to tell us that a jew and judaism that a life of monotheism a life of torah a life of god is not only reserved for in the land of israel the land of our destiny but wherever a jew finds himself or herself wherever we are and wherever we wind up we can live richly and must live richly jewish lives it's not reserved for canaan israel it's israel for the land of israel and not only can the jew live in exile not not only must the jew succeed and thrive in exile it means even no matter what our state in exile sometimes in exile we're in a place of wealth and prominence sometimes in exile we're in a place of poverty and of persecution we have examples of both among our patriarchs and matriarchs they lived in both conditions both in exile as a model for us as a source of strength for us as a precedent for us to tap into and to draw strength from and to realize that we too can live in that in that way okay skip ahead perique dalit pasuk you're dalid we're skipping right now avraham and sarah avraham tell sarah i want you to tell them you're my sister you're so beautiful i didn't even notice it until now why didn't he notice it until now and why does he first notice it now what does it say about their marriage not for now how could he tell her to lie isn't that against everything we believe why is that ethical moreover i saw a question momentarily avram endures a fight of the kings he rises up in order to liberate his nephew lot why was he willing to fight for lope but he didn't fight for his wife when it came to his wife he says pretend you're my sister i'm afraid i don't want them to kill me he wasn't willing to fight for his wife's dignity he wasn't willing to rise and fight to defend the honor of their marriage pretend you're my sister and with load he was willing to fight why the difference between the two these are all great questions and they're your homework i have to give you something to think about but we're not going to cover them right now he returns to israel avraham and load part ways and why do they part ways because his nephew lot is not really embracing embracing his life his nephew lot they both have livestock and there's enough room avram is not competing financially he's very happy for his nephew to succeed but his nephew his livestock is eating that which doesn't belong to him and that's stealing he's a thief an avrom cannot be identified or associated with such a hashem with such behavior so avram tells his nephew lope we've got to go two different directions it's time to break up we got to take two different paths which way you want to go i'll go the opposite way why low chooses the way he chooses and why he's drawn where he's drawn and the contrast to avraham we've discussed in previous years and i encourage you to check it out it brings us to chapter 14 which is the war of the the war of the kings the war of the kings in the days of i'm rafael so go to parikh on the bottom of page 62. the bottom of page 62 and the articles heard that his kinsman was taken captive his brother he armed his disciples who had been born in his house gets ready he secures his army he's going to liberate he's going to free he's going to redeem his nephew he's going to enter the fray of this fight of the kings what is going on over here let's spend a few minutes on this i want to share with you a few insights first from rebecca the rev says the following when avraham heard that lot was taken captive a normal reaction to his part would have been to say what would you say your nephew lot who you were only good to and you raised and you paid his tuition you gave him his first job you took care of him he took him on all your vacations and you took him away on the pesach program you did everything in the world for this nephew lot and despite everything you did he rebelled against you and he became a thief and he became a robber and he lived morally corrupt and then he went to live in a morally corrupt place and in that morally corrupt place he met his match he was taken captive what would someone else have said a lesser person that say it serves him right i warned him not to cast his light with sodom i told him don't go to saddam you're going to assimilate and you're going to into marry you're going to be in grave spiritual and physical danger don't go to stone and what happens in stone what happens in stone so if you were a less than person that offered what would you say serves your right told you not to go lote rejected abram is demanding god preferring a pleasure seeking society yet alpha did not react this way lot is referred to here as what does the passage describe he's referred to as avram's brother i've heard that his brother is lord his brother no lord's not his brother lode is his nephew and yet lord is referred to not as his nephew but as his brother to tell us that a jew must feel a duty to save his brother even if his brother has departed from the righteous path no matter where your brother is no matter what they're doing you have to save a brother it's a beautiful project of rabbi lipscore from el harbor called the aleph institute a chabad project that takes care of jews in prison i've worked closely with them on many cases and uh and you know sometimes you hesitate you say jews in prison what hashem what did they do wrong to deserve being in prison maybe once a jew has has engaged in such behavior that they end up in prison they should lose the right to the support of the jewish community why are we helping them but i've never come to that conclusion and i admire the aleph institute for the hard work it's done the alf institute never tries to excuse or never tries to uh rationalize the behavior of the people they're helping what they're saying is that even when your brother has done something wrong even when they're choosing a different path their own path you never abandon them you have to help them avon rescued not only because of love for a nephew because of a prophetic insight into the destiny of abram's progeny would be intertwined with lots that mashiach would emerge from loads daughters he went to go rescue low but the message for us says salvation is that we too a jew is a jew and a jew is a brother and a jew who needs help don't defend their behavior and hopefully you support them in rehabilitating themselves from that behavior but when a jew needs help you step up and you support that fellow jew who is a brother as you would your own brother even if you don't identify with all their choices but nevertheless you step up for a brother and we too step up for each and every brother now the prosecutor said says that when avraham goes to fight how is it described as he arms whom does he arm he arms his disciples what does it mean that he arms his disciples he arms his disciples that's a very funny word he arms his disciples so look at rashi who is this he's arming who is his posse who is his gang who is his army who is he who is he uh charging to be able to go and take this on so rashi says his loyal servant eliezer bulashon you ready listen very very carefully that's what rashi says he describes the root of the word is which means to initiate a person or tool into the craft in which it is destined to remain here is defining for us the whole term we use the term kanek to describe education what is a role and what is the mission of parents and teachers in educating our children what is rashi here so succinctly and so beautifully defines for us what the term what the word means is initiating our person or tool into the craft in which it is destined to remain identifying the mission of why that person or thing is here and then to be mechanic it means to inaugurate it a person builds or buys a new home and they invite the normal times people over to celebrate they host what we call a chanukah they are trying to utilize and channel that home for the purpose for which they have purchased it or built it similarly with children is trying to draw out from within the child the very goal the very potential for which that child is created revolver comments on this rashi and he says this is the mission of jewish education and he points out the following very interesting insight you know it says rashford when a child learns how to speak the parent must teach them and from here we derive that that's the that a father the first words when a child learns to speak should be should be hebrew and the first words the child speaks should be torah torah sivanu moshe that god commanded the torah to moshe and if you didn't do that say hazal it's like you buried the child that's pretty harsh if you ask me if you didn't do that if the first words you taught i've been trying to teach my grandson zeda unsuccessfully so far i think more successfully than others who listen i think he's saying say that but the first word you're trying to teach your your child your grandchild has to be torah siva no moshe hebrew and if you don't succeed in doing that it's as if you buried a child as if you buried a child it's very harsh so this is what rava says he says the first moments of speech are the time to plant a muna in a child agriculturally there are specific times for planting if your person waits until after the rain to plant nothing's going to grow and the opposite is also true if you plant prematurely the seeds will not sprout because the ground is not properly prepared parents have to grab each opportune moment during the course of the child's education and make the most of them and if you wait too long they may very well have missed their chance and if they try too early their child most likely not be ready to absorb the lesson you have to catch the exact moment and the same is true in china with our children there are moments where our children are more open or more available or more predisposed to listen and as parents who are being we have to catch those moments we have to plant and we have to water and we have to harvest all in the right time and all the right moments when the child first learns to speak that's when you plant the notion of torah sival and moshe that's when you put it inside them and don't miss that opportunity because if not you're accountable for missing the opportunity the one who takes this rashi and really does the most with it in my opinion that really has inspired me that i've seen is the great piazzettes nareba who's your outside we just observed the helix kodesh the economist common shapiro of piazzettes murdered by the nazis the great piazzetta in his monumental work called which is a guide to students a student's duty a student's obligation the introduction is not the students the introduction is titled the discussion with teachers and parents and here he defines the mission and the goal of what is our job what is our responsibility what is it that we're trying to achieve in teaching children as parents and as educators and he invokes this rashi it's well worth studying i can't encourage you strongly enough i'm going to read it we have very little time left i'm going to read it to you not in the original hebrew i'll read it to you it's been translated you can buy it i think it was published by jason aaronson alaba shalom it doesn't exist at publishing house i think it's been reprinted it's called a student's obligation or a student's duty and it includes this introduction i'm going to read it to you from inside he says the following i'm not reading the whole thing i'm just taking excerpts the most essential task of education is to teach in such a way that the child will not stray from the path we have set for him even when he grows older and is no longer under the parent supervision to truly educate it's not just a matter of getting a child to follow your commands or even accustoming a child to do good deeds true education is much greater and more galvanizing process commanding and habituating children to a certain way of life are merely tools that may be used but you have to do much more he writes impartial gives a deep insight into the word and commenting on the word this word means according to rashi he educated him towards the fulfillment of commandments the implies the initial entry of a person or an object into a trade or a path that is his destiny the first we find the root referring to the education of a child the consecration of the altar in the holy temple there are strict parameters for the use of the word one would not use it to refer to a crass but it was beginning to work on a specific job but was already an expert in his trade or for a house that was just starting to be built the proper usage of the work is for a person just beginning to teach himself a skill or for a building that has already been built and is just beginning to be used rash is precise when he writes the word is a special word that implies the realization of the already inherent capacity of a person or object the actualization of a potential this potential will remain hidden unless we bring it out our task is to cause the potential to emerge to accomplish that will transform the person into a skilled artisan will cause the house or vessels to fulfill their functions each room according to what is best suited for every vessel instrument according to the task for which it was designed and prepared when referring to the education of children means stimulating the growth and development of what the child is suited by his very nature someone is trying to educate through command and habituation need not pay attention to his child or student to his nature the way he thinks and that's the wrong way to educate we're not just trying to um condition a child we're not just trying to cross habits with the child we're trying to inspire the child so the child embraces and how do you do that only when you know the child and that's what he describes an educator however who wishes to uncover the soul of the child that lies hidden and concealed within him who wants to help it grow and to ignite it so it will burn with heavenly fire upwards towards the holy so the student's entire being including his physical body will increase in holiness and will long for god's torah such an educator must adapt himself attentively to the student must penetrate into the mind of his limited consciousness and small-mindedness until he reaches the hidden soul the hidden spark i can't encourage you strongly enough to learn this and to read this it is magnificent and the great piece that he he says too many of our educators they're just teaching a curriculum they're unloading information they're teaching cookie cutter they don't know their students they don't know what makes them tick they don't know who their students are they don't know their students background they don't know their students baggage they don't know what inspires their students they're just looking at what they see as one blur of all the students as if they are as one and he says a parent and a child and a teacher need to know the child if you're going to draw out the potential and bring it to reality to initiate the exact route based on rashi and our partial then you need to know the child in order to be able to achieve that michelangelo put it well michelangelo said when he sees a block of marble he sees already the statue he sees the child in the statue and his job is to chip away at the marble until it's revealed to the rest of the world so it's not that he chips the marble until he creates the statue he sees the statue in the marble and he chips away until the statue is revealed so the rest of the world can see it a parent and a teacher have to chip away so the child himself can see it and the rest of the world can see it as well there was much more to talk about oh so much more in this parasha but we'll have to save it for another time until uh next time tomorrow morning living with uh we have uh sharmini 15 living with the moon at 8 45 and behind the bema on location from boca's new restaurant roadhouse tomorrow night at nine o'clock stay happy stay healthy stay holy special thank you to our sponsors again if you want to sponsor then you can email lee at brs online leahbeersonline.org thank you so much have a great day