Parshat Toldot: Seeing in the Dark - Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair

here in Israel finding a place to take the kids on collar mode the intermediate days of the festivals of Pesach and Sukkot is always a challenge I find it difficult to get excited about the prospect of picnicking in a park in Tel Aviv on a small patch of faded grass together with a couple of thousand other families I'm just funny that way I guess and so it was a great pleasure to discover the blind Museum in Halong which has a special exhibition dialogue in the dark in this museum you led through several large rooms in total complete darkness the only way you can sense where you are is by using your other senses touch smell hearing the place is a fascinating approximation of what it must be like to be blind Samira him when I woke up the following morning and I said the blessing to uh Shem who give sight to the blind I said that blessing as though I'd never said it before in my life blindness plays a central role in this week's Torah portion toldot Yitzhak Isaac cannot see that it's really Yaakov Jacob to whom he's giving the blessings and yet on a deeper level he sees that the correct recipient of those blessings is indeed Yaakov is Jacob because through the bad smell of the washed goatskins that cover yakko's arms yet son Isaac can detect the aroma of GaN Eden of the Garden of Eden that enters the room together with Yaakov the guides in the hollow Museum are all sightless themselves and yet they've developed their other senses to an amazing degree they're able to navigate the site as though they had eyes as they were walking around in broad daylight in many ways this world is like that Museum but blind Museum in this world we think we see but there's so much more that's hidden from our eyes than that which is revealed from just looking at the world would you know that on sunset on Friday afternoon you enter a different existence and out of time experience called Shabbat I remember the first time I kept Shabbat properly I woke up the following morning and I thought it was Monday can you see that with your eyes there are those amongst us who while they cannot see those realities completely they've developed their spiritual eyes so that they can make out the spiritual world far more clearly than the rest of us they are the great Torah scholars of every generation who guide us around this blind museum that we call the world [Music] [Applause]