Parshas Lech Lecha: Believe It or Not

this tour class is brought to you by torahanytime.com here in Quran Hills New York we're going to be learning now about some of the central episodes in practice the beginning of Agera the end of ayera central episodes in the Torah and we're going to be discussing a very fundamental question and we're going to be analyzing it from four different perspectives from a textual perspective from a halachic perspective from a pedagogical perspective and then from my favorite a mystical perspective and uh also to hopefully come out with a very fundamental understanding of Jewish history as well okay so at the end of this week's Powershell uh avrah mavino is waiting a very long time to have a child and ravino is uh 99 years old sorry Emanuel is also she's up there and Avro Vino is given a prophecy and the prophecy had two parts to it part number one is Hashem says you know your wife Sarai and avram says sure I know her and Hashem says well that's not her name anymore her name is no longer Sarai sarasama her name is now Sara and I'm gonna give you a child from her so Avril mavino got two reports and so to speak one breath that the name of his wife would be changed and number two that she would have a child now presumably the navua about Sarah's name change was not for avraham what is that what when AF Camino does it make to avraham what his wife's name is exactly then after me is for Sarah so presumably he told sorrow that her name changed and therefore it's safe to assume that he would also tell her that by the way you're gonna have a kid I mean after all if a woman is waiting to have a child for like 90 years and Hashem tells you that she's gonna have a child and within the same breath he tells you that her name is going to be changed we it's safe to assume avraham avino didn't just tell Sarah that her name change but he also told her that she's going to have a child it happens to be the ramban says that he didn't get around he didn't have a chance to tell her that she was going to have a child he only told her about the name change but as he told her about both prophecies and what we're going to examine today is the reaction of avraham and contrast that to the reaction of Sarah emmanu so in this week's parasha the end of the parasha avraham alpana and avraham fell on his face and he laughed but I am rebeliba and he said in his heart will I produce a child at 100 years old if Sarah who's 90 years old will she give birth so what was avraham's reaction was it and he left he left it was a joke it was funny it was a collector right well we know that when yitzuk was born he was named they called him simple the word Yitzhak means to laugh let's talk about sorrow's reaction Sarah's reaction the past success in parashasara be care about Lamar Sara laughed in her innards saying after I'm worn out I'll become smooth again plus my husband aimed in a young chap either identical reactions they both laughed is anything beyond the ability of Hashem at the appointed time will return to you as the time lives and Sarah will have a child so it's half of a fella you have two people they both seemingly have the exact same reaction and revenge them is only remonstrating is only criticizing Sarah and avraham gets off the hook what's the shot why is that here you have two people it seems like evolution is picking on Sarah they both had the same reaction avraham if anything couldn't contain so he fell on his face doesn't sound like it is one is Russia in zakar and one is Lush and makeva it's the exact same word value means and he laughed and she laughed there's an afghamina if it's in your heart or in your insides well the targum and this is where we start with the textual explanation we come to Tiger monkeys we know of course uncle's was aguer and uncle has had a messiah of the targum by the way the uncles did not invent targum uncle's had a tradition from tanoim Revelation that dated back to harsinai In fact when it comes to imaver cedra the Myla of unclos over other over Ethan Rashi or other perusian is that onclus was nimsar misina okay so translates the words slightly differently it's and he Rejoice like very good and he rejoiced but when it comes to Sara and Posse and Sarah laughed so that would be a clear answer to our question why is we bunch of criticizing Sarah not Abraham because avraham did not laugh incredulously avraham was overjoyed avraham's smiled avraham was Sarah on the other hand laughed says Rashi look at number five this one Uncle translates as happiness La Matata we learn from here avraham believed this summer and he rejoiced the sorrow did not believe the ligliga and she mocked in other words Rashi is making note of the difference in the targon between Abraham and Sarah Abraham Heaven the samach the Surah Allah Abraham and that is why the reborn was makbit with Sarah and was not mad because avraham rejoiced avram believed he was basimha Sarah on the other hand in other words wow what an unbelievable Miracle can can or typically can a person give birth at 190 respectively answer is typically no and that's why he is his reaction was simcha but the question is positive it must be that the name is the targum's interpretation of of avraham's reaction as opposed to um Sarah's reaction yeah right okay okay good yeah okay Rabbi say the problem here is how does the tagum know who told the targom that the word by avrahamians he rejoiced and the word Batista by Sarah means she left how did the tiger now well you say well tagum knows from the fact that Hashem was makbid with Sarah and I'm not good with avraham but still we are in the context of the sukem do we do we see or do we infer that means he was he rejoiced and about tits by Sarah means she was happy by the way similar to the question of you know when um when the Isha tsunamis comes to Alicia the pastu says that she saw he was an ishalikim so the gumar asks how did she know he was initially Kim because there were no flies that's how she knew but had the Flies know right how the Flies though that he was initially Kim so uh so how did Tiger know the answer is you have to know one of the most important rashes in hamesh Rashi and boracious she says the following seven words my job is not to tell you mid-russian and fantastic shot him my job is to tell you shell voice foreign there is a difference between avraham and sorry you know what the difference is fell on his face then he laughed where is avraham at this point he's talking to God if you're in conversation with him you don't fall on your face and laugh obviously in the context of what's taking place by you Paul Abram alpan of means Sarah is in her in the privacy of her tent in that context it's very possible that vatic means she laughed okay Rabbi say this is the first explanation why avraham avinu is so to speak off the hook and sarimano is criticized and that is because avrah mavino didn't do anything wrong avraham avino was overjoyed he rejoiced Sarah on the other hand was incredulous the second shot is what I call a halachic approach and this is a classic shot of the message lived from 1843 to 1926 Ramirez and regardless of them Israel and he'll apply it to the storyline something which is uh which is a very novel approach in other words and I'll say avraham avino did this this way because of this is the storyline to the narrative okay so let me ask you the following question let's say I have some comes to you tonight and Hashem says tomorrow I want you to buy Lucky Sevens scratch off scratch it off I want you to pick top right middle bottom left and at 1.3 million dollars okay so you go you go to 7-Eleven you buy the scratch-offs does it have to come true or does it not have to come true again this is not a malach coming to you this is God himself he comes to you you go tomorrow you buy the lottery ticket you will win does it have to come true or not thank you no again God God no no not Amala not a rebel rebellious in terms of his piranhas for good lataiva the ramam says it doesn't have to come true yeah what right that's why that's why I'm pointing that out three bun or some tells you you're right we'll see if the revolution himself tells you something good will happen does not have to come true wow says the ram them how do I know that is the rambam in his parishnais and the ramam says you know why here's the proof Hashem told avraham Hashem comes that he will be protected so the rambam we see from here after comes to a person and says X will happen and it's latoiva it does not have to happen why maybe between the night time in the morning you won't deserve to win the lottery anymore that's a cloud in Prophecy [Music] if Hashem tells the navi and the navi says it over to anybody at that point in time if it's Lira if it's for bad it doesn't have to come true because maybe the people will do chuva but if it's latoyva it has to come true why does it have to come true because that's the way the Rebellion gave to determine and and decipher whether or Navi is another Navi Shaka the navi comes he reports that the image from says something good will happen once the novel relates that something good will happen it has to happen it's a very dramatic point that's the cloud of the rambam Ela Hashem comes to avraham avino and Hashem tells Abraham hey Abraham you're gonna have a child Abram says I'm gonna have a child you know what a high level I'll have to be on for the Ubuntu to change nature to make me father a child at age 100 there's no way I would ever deserve to have a child at age 100. you know what avram said I'm something I'm gonna do something wrong tells avraham hey avraham you're going to have a child avraham laughs because he knows he has three bunch of them told him but he will not be deserving of it and therefore his reaction is he laughed the mashma argues on the tagum mean the exact same thing avraham and Sarah had the exact same reaction they both laughed incredulously but avraham was not criticized you know what because the buddhistam tells you something good will happen it doesn't have to happen and the Godless of people like avraham and is that they never believed in their in their greatness in their great humility they figure to themselves and therefore avraham indeed laughed incredulously that he would have a chunk but he was never criticized because why should he be criticized just because ivanishum tells you what's going to happen it doesn't have to happen Sarah you may know was told by avraham that she would have a child avraham is a navi once you heard from a navi that she's going to have a child it has to happen so how could she laugh and therefore sorrow is criticized and avrah mavino is not criticized mamish hassle of a fella an amazing shot that the difference between avraham and Sarah is a halachic difference avraham laughed because he only heard it from ribana it might not come true sorry mainu was not allowed to laugh because she heard it from a higher source the navi same hearing hearing because he's telling her what he heard from her vanish level so he's telling in other words when avraham have you know heard it from God he heard it right he heard it and now now if I were avraham I would quickly say it over to somebody to make sure it happened which is probably what he did but in the interim and maybe he did run to tell Sarita but he didn't trust his own Godless that he would definitely be deserving of this so he's criticized he's not criticized because he was entitled to that at least before he told Sarah but she's criticized because she heard it from the navi once you hear something from the navi it has to come true so very good so la mesa the ramban learns that Sarah never heard it from avraham and Avro Vino never had a chance to tell Sarah actually um let's see I think I have it on the other version ramban in the other version the ramban in the other version um asks how could Sarah laugh how could she not believe in the prophecy of the navi why didn't she believe the Malachi says an amazing thing these malachim appeared like Arabs and uh sorrow I mean who did not think they were malachim ah what about avraham um avraham never told her why because avraham avino says ramban either figured to himself she's such a sadakiss there's no way if Ubuntu told me he didn't tell her maybe no assumed God told her or Rahman says he didn't have time imagine he didn't have a chance she laughed when the malachem said it over but she thought that Malachi more men so she figured it was it was a joke so this is the shadow what I want to bring to your attention is that this is the aside that if Hashem tells Navi something that it doesn't have to happen but once the navi says it over to others it has to happen this is strings through in a number of examples so for example look at number seven that films could go off even if they're turned off before this year it's amazing how they can happen wow it's being a very high madrega to have a phone go off even though it's off before the show okay yeah says that look at number seven says that he's going to have children he's going to have her all what did avrah mavino say how will I know that I'll inherit the land yeah my children will know you know how my children will know because I'm gonna tell them and once I tell them it has to happen means but how will I know because no Navi told me it's only you Hashem and if you tell me it doesn't have to happen that's what abramovino means my children I know how they'll know because How Will I Know another example learns opposite his wife they were sitting in different Corners the rashbam learns for his wife neither of them had children one he done for himself he said he didn't have to Daven for himself because Hashem told Abraham you're gonna call his name Yitzhak and I'm going to establish my breasts with Yitzhak so youth clock already heard from a navi that he would have children but rivka you may know had no such promises so Yitzhak is dominating not for himself he doesn't have to dive in for himself you already heard from Adam levino that he was gonna have a child but he's dafka davening for his wife because from his wife he has no half taka from any Novi that he would have descendants have I said one more amazing example amazing example look at number nine foreign he's a really swelled guy he knocked off Cosby and um and um who's the other one zoomery thank you zimri and Cosby and you know I like that kind of thing I like kanos so I want to award him that what he's gonna get Kahuna right so what does Hashem say Hashem comes to motion he says Emma you go tell him that he's gonna have the burst of shalom why is Hashem telling moisha to do the Dirty Work you go tell him he's gonna have the rest of kona pink house is a navi let Hashem great job you're gonna be a Cayenne forever he tells me it'll come true ah because if Hashem would come to pinch Hospital you're gonna have kuhuna and you have Bruce shawlaim no guarantees maybe he'll do another and he won't be Soaker to it so Hashem wants to guarantee he says Breezy shall end forever so you my shall you tell him once you tell him he could take it to the bank but if he hears it from me there are no guarantees so this is a amazing explanation of the Massachusetts what the difference between um avraham and Sarah was avraham heard it finally we banished someone therefore it might not come true Sarah heard it from the navi and therefore it has to come true [Music] the third explanation third explanation is the explanation of the his Kuni foreign he lived in Provence in about the year 1250. we know virtually nothing about his personal life and he writes that his parish is called from about 20 reshine him but he doesn't tell us who and his shita was he doesn't quote names because he says uh if I'm going to tell you oh this is from Rashi the Rashi is actually the exception the only reason he calls but I'm going to tell you this is from rashbam and this is ramban and this is benezra then you'll just accept it because they say it and if I don't quote a source and people say oh who says that I don't want people to judge the content of what I say by the source because then people accept things that might not be as credible and people reject things that might be actually very meaningful and therefore it says I want you to judge everything I say bye it's inherent value and not by who says it very interesting approach ES a wondrous thing again he's bothered by the question why did Hashem criticize Sarah and not criticize avrah mavino well says it's a martial to a wise woman who reprimands her daughter-in-law she's really reprimanding her daughter what does this mean you know how it is so it's Pace after time and you have a lot of company you have you might have your daughter over and her family might have a daughter-in-law over and her family and of course your daughter she knows how to raise her children obviously because she grew up in your house so she knows how to raise children and her children are all polite and they always clean up after themselves and they don't wreck your house but never your daughter-in-law who grew up by those you know who knows what those and they don't know how to raise children and your daughter doesn't know how to raise her grandchildren and they're wrecking your house and they're destroying everything and they don't say please and they don't say thank you and your wife can't take it she knew she never should have right so she doesn't know what to do so what's she gonna do so she starts yelling at her at her that you don't show them any respect but she's not really talking to her daughter she's really talking to her daughter-in-law but the dorm was not insulted because uh she but she makes sure to say loud enough in the earshot of the daughter-in-law so the daughter-in-law should also hear and say uh oh if gulp if that if if the mother's screaming at her daughter and her daughter is Mrs and Mrs perfect imagine what she might say to me and she takes the lesson to Heart without being embarrassed by the way in Yiddish there's an expression they're right to their talk there our demand the snare right they may they mean the daughter-in-law you speak to your daughter but you mean the daughter-in-law says the huskuni there is no question avraham and Sarah committed the exact same infraction but for Hashem to come to Abraham and say avraham you know this is not how exotic behaves you don't laugh when I tell you good news it would be too embarrassing for Abraham so Hashem comes down I saw a laugh and everyone thinks himself uh-oh I also laugh I also better do chuva but this way at least avram is able to save face and Rabbi said this is always a good practice if you need to give somebody muscle think think of a way to sort of address it to uh somebody else without them realizing you're saying it to them but you know they'll figure out that maybe you know this is something that they need that applies to them as all right exactly glad exactly exactly so you have to know you have to know about how what's the correct way to give Moser and this is what we learned from the revolution didn't want to be my avraham directly and he did it so to speak in a roundabout way so this of course is the third perus the third explanation for why the Revenge some criticized Sarah not Abram and the answer is he didn't but he couched it in a very uh clever way in order to protect the Dignity of abrahimovina Rabbi say the fourth explanation is a little bit mystical so you meant a home he meant that avraham also but he said it in a way not to embarrass Abraham he said why did sorrow laugh and avram thinks herself oh I also laughed I better do two also okay it's not that it's more reliable it's just that Hashem had to set up the system in a way that when a navi says something it has to come true because that's the way that the reason is because wants to be able wants us to be able to test if the navi is another Navi Shaker now with the words of a navi never have to come true then we have no way to test another or not but this way if when a navi says something good is going to happen it has to happen this way if the novel ever says something and it doesn't happen we could actually the Apostle says in Ray we kill the navi so that's the way to determine whether it's a navi MS naviseka I always say the first the fourth explanation is a very mystical explanation but I want to tell you it's not from a rosh hashiva it's not from a rub it's not from a Reva it's not even from a man this is going to be the first vatara that we say over here from a Robinson so which rabbits in this is from rabbits and Arya Levine and Robinson Robbie Arya Levine Wesley you know our time Sadiq in our time he would say this over in the name of his Robinson who's the Mother-in-law of the mother of Robertson really a wondrous explanation now some of it is some of it is tarsh about that in other words some of it is in print and the rest of it I heard on the tape ones from Rabbi Isaac Bernstein but it's really a wondrous explanation look in the second in the haftirah of parashas tayera look in the haftarah of parashas bayera all of it this is talking about the Isha tsunamis the Isha tsunamis was childless and finally she had a child she looks in the field and the kid says to the father my head my head he says to the ladai lift him up to his mother check it go bring him to the man to the mother but you say oh they lift him up they bring him to the mother day he sits on her lap until the afternoon he died fatal she goes up she puts him on the bed of the Prophet but she closes the door of attention Alicia she calls the husband she says please get me an attendant in a donkey and I need to run to the navi right away and he says why are you going to the navi what do you have with the Navy why are you going to him by the way from here we see they used to visit the rav or the Ravi everywhere this is Adam foreign it's a regular day it's a nice day nothing out of the ordinary dishes us a pleasant day it's a good day to go visit the navialis she Saddles a donkey by terminal giddy up I'll totally lurk of do not hold back don't stop unless I let you know so she comes to the got the uh the prophet tahara Carmelo when the prophet sees her from afarium go run to her and say to her so they ask her no yeah is everything okay yeah her husband's good your son is good are you good she says things are everything is fine and dandy yes but they come from out of town they have an expression everything is hunky dory right flat in the world is she talking about her son that she waited so many years to have is dead and the husband asks is there a problem is something wrong and she has this kid locked up in the room on her lap and she said yeah it's all fine and then everything is wonderful and they go to the navi and geikazu says everything okay and she says yeah it's just terrific life is good what in the world is going on over here I mean she came to them for a reason she came to them because she needed a miracle she needed Alicia to revive the kid to resuscitate the kid abramovine who doesn't do Trias doesn't do this is a specialty you need Leo and Alicia so just tell her my kid is dead I need you to help what do you mean Shalom what planet do you come from what is what's the meaning over here so there is and that is the kid died so what does she need she needs a nest she needs a miracle surviving she needs to responsible kid for a miracle to happen it's a very difficult thing the miracle has to come down from the ilamais from the highest worlds through all the various channels through Islam silos and Islam and Olam Asia and it has to trickle down through this world and who knows what could happen in the interim a miracle is a very nebulous tenuous thing it's very hard for it to occur however if she does the following the miracle will never occur if she enunciates my child is dead then a miracle can never occur because once she articulates the physical reality that her child is dead then a miracle cannot change our reality and therefore the husband says it's a wonderful day life is great and then she goes to the navi and the navi says everything good she says Shalom because says the rabbit sin of Harry Levine why wouldn't she tell her husband the truth this comes from the holy book at Sadiq in our time why wouldn't she tell her husband the truth that the child has died the answer is that had she said this the prophet would never have been able to revive the child once she said it in words she would have acknowledged the death as an irrevocable fact and then that's it and therefore she would not articulate and not enunciate this reality that the kid is dead so the question is what does this have to do with avraham and Sarah somebody said this is where the Taurus kicks in says foreign foreign boy that's what this gentleman said I pushed him off in the beginning because otherwise I don't have a share to say right but we got to give him Credit Now there's a difference between avraham and Sarah why yes avraham left and yes avraham thought it's impossible but he didn't say it's impossible and as long as you don't say it's impossible then it's possible you give the man a cigar right he laughed there's nothing wrong with laughing you're allowed to laugh it's good to laugh it's healthy he said in his heart he said to himself he never articulated and enunciated the words that it's impossible for me to have a child he thought it's impossible to have a child you thought Muslim says no problem I could do anything I could do a lot of things that people think can happen Sarah she said it she said she said I'm not going to have a child oh once you say you can't have a child can't have a child it's impossible ah but you're asking you have a Gladstone she had a child so how could you say once you say it's not gonna happen that's why everybody says uh you're right the miracle that I sent you through the malach has been destroyed has been canceled that Miracle cannot happen but nothing is beyond God now I command a second time that a second Miracle should happen you destroyed the first miracle you ruined my plan and that's why I criticize you but how you probably imagine myself I'll do it myself this time I gotta do it myself that's the turtle of the Torah of rabbits and Arya living at La Mesa very interesting you know uh really obam says over all the time that um when the rush came to Spain so the sons of the rush were very poor especially the balaturim right how do we know that because about that we find in the tour that the Torah says he asked his father The Rush right it says better to keep a week than Chavez don't have a fancy meal instead of collecting sadaka and the tour asked his father do I classify as such an Oni that I I shouldn't borrow money and the rush didn't want to answer him why didn't why didn't the rush want to answer him so one of the papers when they say is because the rush didn't want to say the words you're poor because once he would enunciate and articulate that he's poor then he's poor at least now there's room for the emotional to change the situation but there is such a concept now again I don't know necessarily a strong mclar in Ghazal but there's such an idea that's being suggested that until something is articulated then don't articulate don't articulate the the uh difficulty of the matter and that's probably a branch of that opinion of that concept that don't open your mouth don't articulate it it's not a reality it's not concretized until until you say it okay let's end with the following we'll tie it all together this is there's an amazing safer on Hamish and this safer is called panerak Raza was written by Robin now interesting why did he name the safer paneer Raza what's the Gematria of paane a little bit 208 and his name was Robin Williams is 208 so he writes the reason why I named it um paniak Rosa is because the gamachia panea by the way what's the Camacho of Rosa also 208 is the same Gamache as my name Yitzhak but writes in his entry to the safer paneer Cruiser that protest had it that the son-in-law of the marami Prague wrote a commentary on Panera and his name was also Yitzhak so it comes out the mahaber and the magia are both mirumas one in panayak and one in Russia they're both 208. he asks the question of the century after the Arcada Sarah imana was being told about the Arcada and what was Sarah imano's reaction she died her soul Departed Rosa asks that is basically the most terrible way for a person to leave this world think about how sorry Mano died she died being duped and being fooled that her son was killed by her husband and it didn't even happen can you imagine says never in history did anyone die a more gruesome death thinking that their husbands slaughtered their child and what makes the matter worse is it didn't even happen she was duped to believe a fabrication about her husband and her son and it was shekar because of died swallowing following the most bitter pill in history why did she die that way and the paneer Raza says that the reason why she died and it was such excruciating indignity is she was punished how's that because who told her that um that avraham was says came and told her she was going to have a child she didn't believe the truth so neither can I get Meda when the Mala comes and tells her Shecker she swallows the bitter pill of believing Shecker you know why sorry man who died believing that Avril mavino killed the attack says because she laughed there for her she has to suffer the bitter pill to believe falsehood okay very powerful of Art comes Sarah foreign oisa and Sam Cipher says four words that he doesn't say in any of the writings for the four most mind-boggling words in all the writings of the Sam Cipher you don't have anything like this the prophet spoke great words what in the world does Assam say for talking about the prophets spoke great words which prophet is he talking about was a great man but he wasn't a navi he was a reshine what is the same server talking about so what suggested is because I'm sorry for lived in the times of the Advent of the reform movement and you had a period in history where the leaders of this deviant movement were creating pseudo-judaism fake Judaism and they were telling the people no Kosher it's not divinely mandated it's just for hygienic reasons so take your hazard boil it in water and you're good to go take your Lobster boil it to go the icker is you know forget Judaism it's all about social welfare it's all about recycling it's all about save The whales it's all about global warming the icker is liberal be a liberal the icker Judaism is the liberal and people believe it the seeds of the reform movement are the same as as we have today they said the same things so the question is here they want to change they want to change what Shabbos is they want to say Shabbos is just a day off and just pick your day and you have Jews who fall for it they fall for false Judaism and even today you look around the world and you have Jews they believe in their agendas like a religion and they think it's why do they believe so strongly in their positions why do they believe so strongly in their in their credos The Secret of human nature of those people who do not accept the authenticity of the Torah is that if you don't accept the tairas MS you suffer the bitter faith that you take every shekar and you believe it as that is the bitter fate of those will tell you wonder you have Yeadon but they believe in their ideology as if it was Allah why how could they believe in such fabrication how could they believe in such falsehood and the verdict of history is that when you don't believe in the MS you are forced to suffer the most bitter pill and that is you swallow everything that is check out and you believe it as if it's and this is what happened to Sarah you may know of course it's Luffy Madre gasa of course it's it's basically the beginning the end of the beginning of ayera and the end of ayera it all comes full circle because Sarah you may knows that tits and she wasn't the kind of the MS we find at the end of the era that is false report and really this is a lesson for even from Jews super people okay they're working on amida so what are they doing they're reading a self-help book so nothing against self-help books if a person says but there's the Muslim there's an office there are there are genuine Authentics for him why does a person have to go outside of the purview of classic Jewish thought has to be careful because sometimes if a person is not macabell the MS the result is a very bitter a very bitter pill and this is a tremendously mode of passions for coming have a great you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by torahanytime.com