Parasht Toldot - The positive outcome of digging... - Rabbi Alon Anava

So, it seems we're living in a very dark and confused generation when values seem to have no values. Uh anywhere you're going to look, you'll see that most people are not focused on what they need to do. If you're looking at youth, youth is completely all over the place looking for excitement. I'm talking about in regards to Judaism. Uh adults either they already gave up on their youth or themselves are still lost. Behavior that is weird that we haven't seen for many, many decades, if not years. I mean, that behavior was maybe at the time of Sodom, in the time of the flood. But just yesterday somebody sends me a picture, a mazel tov picture, of two chareidi men under a chuppah getting married. Mazel tov to whatever, and I'm like, "What?" And the rabbi and the whole the whole setup. A chuppah, a rabbi with a beard and tallit and and two men smiling to each other and they're sending me like mazel tov to so and so and so and so. Behavior that we didn't see for, you know, I I didn't grow up like that. I didn't see things like this growing up, even as a secular individual. And also the types of behaviors and weird things that you kind of ask yourself, "What's going to be?" My mom, may she live a very long life, but she tells me, "What's going to be in 10 years, 20 years?" She tells me, I I probably won't be here to see the chaos. But what's going to be? How is the world going to look in 20 years, assuming chas v'shalom they're not going to nuke us or kill us in some type of way, or Messiah is going to come on the positive side. How is the world going to look? I mean, you're looking around the world. First of all, I'm looking at the youth. It seems like what future are we going to have as a nation with what's going on with the youth? To keep a child on the right path of Torah, it's like almost impossible. You look at the schools, you look at the Yeshiva. Even the Yeshiva. We send my kid to one of the Yeshiva, he came out worse than what he came in. Like really with came back with habits, smoking, drinking, like Needless to say, we took him out of the Yeshiva, but you're looking at the youth, you're like, we have no future. The elder generation that has values and morals will die eventually, if Messiah is not coming anytime soon. And then what's going to happen? What are we leaving behind? And if that's not a problem, what with most people I look at them, I talk to people the the nonsense people believe, think, that I mean, starting distorting the Torah, this is another big thing that's that I see now all the time. Such distortion of the Torah online, and mainly online, cuz that's how people get their information. People who look like rabbis teach heresy to a point that you you your jaw drops. And the ideas people have, I mean, it seems to unless Hashem is going to freak out and destroy us like he did with the flood, with Noah or the Sodom and Gomorrah, Sodom and Gomorrah, what's going to happen? Now I'll tell you what's the bigger question. We can look and observe and agree with everything that I just say, but most people, push comes to shove, let's say us, we also have these thoughts and difficulties and uh challenges. I'm talking now only with my connection to Hashem. Not talking about now my livelihood, my parnassah, not in finding my other half. Talking about my relationship with Hashem. It's almost you getting to a point that even that if you are focused on Hashem, very hard to be focused on Hashem. It almost brings you to a point that what's going to be? I mean, even if still Mashiach comes, what what's going to have How far can it more deteriorate? I mean, it's becoming worse and worse and worse, which again, like I said many times, on the surface is good. It's one more step closer to Mashiach. But before Mashiach comes, and what if he comes in 5 years? What what what's what's going to happen till then? Especially with us when I'm looking to my own challenges with my Avodat Hashem. So, Baruch Hashem, in this week's parashah, we have a very deep answer to all this mess. All the Torah is not talking a lot about Yitzchak. We have a lot of information about Avraham Avinu. We have a lot of information of Yaakov. On Yitzchak, we have one parashah and only one story that tells us about about Isaac, and that's the digging of the wells. And interestingly, all the Torah is focusing on in regards to Isaac is that. We don't know much about Isaac. We don't know anything. And what is he telling us that Isaac was locked on the target about the wells, keeping the wells open, digging the wells. So what's so significant about digging wells? I'm talking about the wells that Isaac digged to bring water, of course. Now when you're looking at the three fathers that we have, Isaac lived the longest life. So technically should have much more information about him in the Torah. Right? Abraham Avinu lived 175 years. Three parashot in the Torah are focusing on Abraham Avinu. Skip now one generation, Jacob. Jacob lived 147 years. Jacob has half a book of Bereshit. Six parashot is just Jacob. And Isaac who lived 180 years, there's one parasha. And a lot of the parasha is not even focusing on him. And from all stories, the Torah chooses to focus on the greatness of Isaac that he digs wells. So obviously there's some type of a meaning behind it as deep as digging a well. Why why why is Isaac the sandwich father in between? Is the greatness of him is wells. Okay, Abraham spread faith around the world, converted the whole generation, fought with Nimrod, fought with the entire world. I mean, we have many significant things about Abraham. Jacob built a nation, went down to Haran, came out with all the mothers and all the kids. And Isaac, we don't know much about him, and the Torah chooses to tell me, "Yeah, he he he used to have a construction construction company digging wells. Obviously, the digging of the wells has a very deep meaning behind it. The Torah chooses to signify Yakov Yisrael just with wells, and that will give us an unbelievable overlook and a message for the questions that we just asked before. Now, going back to the story of all three fathers, like I said, Avraham Avinu, he was advertised for uh or his greatness was that he was advertising God. Everywhere that he went, he then he advertised God. And he fought with the entire world. It says Avraham Haivri, Ivri can be translated as the Hebrew, but Ivri also Rashi says that he stood me ever la nahar, he was in front of the entire world. Can you imagine now one man going against the entire world and then defeating somebody like Nimrod and so Avraham Avinu has a very strong legacy and a lot of credit behind him. On the other hand, we're looking at Yakov, like I told you, he built the entire nation. Did worked with Lavan, birur hanitzotzot, went down to Charan to sift all the godly sparks, brought out the four mothers, brought out the tribes. And Yitzchak just digs a well. 180 years and that's what you have to tell me about the man, that he dig dug a well? That's what I need to learn from Yitzchak? Our sages say ma'aseh avot siman lebanim, the action of our fathers is for us to learn how to live our life, how to conduct our life. So, what's interesting is that Avraham also dug wells, but they got covered by the Plishtim. And Yitzchak was successful in digging the wells. So, we see here already one quality of Yitzchak that he was more successful than Abraham Avinu in digging of the wells. If the Torah chooses to minimize the information about Isaac and that's what we know, there's a very deep and important message in this whole thing. But first we have to explain the concept. It starts that uh uh Isaac lives in Eretz Israel and he lives in the area of Hebron. But unfortunately, like today, there's a group of people that they call themselves a nation that they infiltrated into the land of Israel and they said, "We live here." And they're known as the Philistines. Very ironic that it sounds very close to the Palestinians. But nevertheless, they also had an issue then with Palestinians. They were Philistines. And they're troublemakers. They came and settled in a place called Gerar, which is exactly where Gaza is today, by the way. And they just came in, settled there, and says, "That's our land." And needless to say, started causing problems. Now, there's two definitions to the word Philistines. First of all, that they came from Mizraim. They It's a nation or group of people that came from Egypt. The commentary says Philistines comes from the word Polshim, invaders. And they invaded from where they came from Egypt to Canaan. And they invaded, they settled, says, "This is ours." Sounds very familiar. Where do they settle? In Gaza, where exactly where Gaza is right now, where the Palestinians are right now. Now, at the time of the judges, they spread out. They they like a cancer, they start spreading out to all directions and they reach to to in our understanding to where Ashdod is. That's how far up they go. And eventually, at the time, like I told you, time of the judges, they spread more and more and more. They come even more north and more west and more east into the land of Israel. Interestingly, again, like I said, that the commentary says that Plishtim comes from the word Polshim, which means invaders. Then, the Plishtim, they invade to a place that doesn't belong to them, and they declare "It's our land." How ironic that 2,000-plus years later, a group of people come and invade a place that doesn't belong to them, and they say "It's our land. It's been our land for always." Okay. At the time of the Plishtim, Avraham is still alive. Avraham lives in Hebron. Now, why does Avraham choose to live in Hebron from all places? Because Avraham had a uh uh uh how do you call it? A hotel business. He was in the hotel business. I mean, I know a lot of people imagine Avraham Avinu sitting and learning Torah all day long. No, he was a businessman. He had the what? Hilton or whatever the Rich Carlton. He had uh hotels in different locations, but he chooses Hebron. He says "That's the That's the best That's where all all the merchants pass. This is like the the the center that connects the In our language, Asia, Africa, Europe. So, well, nothing different. So, he sits in the middle of the pathway in Hebron because that's where the traffic is. And he has a big hotel, and people come and rent rooms. At some point, there was a depression, and business went bad. Nobody was coming and going. Maybe it was like now. Maybe it was Corona, no traveling. Maybe it was the war, no tourists, but business goes down. So, Avram says, "Okay, no business. Then I need to figure out how I'm going to make money." So, Avram says, "Okay. Hotels, there's no business cuz there's no uh travelers and there's no tourism. Water, everybody needs." So, Avraham Avinu goes into the digging business and he starts digging for wells. Why? Because water, everybody needs water. Especially in a place like a desert. So, this is like a gold mine. So, he starts digging wells. Okay. So, he digs three wells and right away starts confrontation. Starts arguments. And what is the argument? On territory. Who comes and argues with him? The workers, the the reps of Avimelech. They come and they tell Avraham Avinu, "You're on our territory. What are you doing?" Avraham Avinu says, "That's your territory. I don't remember that this is your territory. Do you have any title? Do you have any document showing that this is your territory?" So, the workers of Avimelech, call them however you want to call them, they tell him, "No. No, no, no, you're on our territory. This is mafia style. You're in my territory." They take down the wells. Anyways, starts arguments and a confrontation. And on what? On territory. Kind of similar to what we have now. We have a bunch of Philistines sitting in Gaza telling us it's our territory. It's not your territory. You are invaders. I'm talking about the Palestinians right now. That's that's an invented nation even. They're not Jordanians, they're not Iraqians, they're not Persians, Libyans. It's an invented nation. There wasn't Palestinians 150 years ago. But nevertheless, they come, settle on a land, and they say it's our land. And then they go to the entire world and says we are the occupiers. But nevertheless, same thing. 3,000 plus years ago, this is already almost 4,000 years ago. Okay, Abraham Avinu wasn't so prior. So he goes to Avimelech and that's was after was a few confrontations between Abraham and Avimelech. Avimelech didn't want to mess up with mess with Abraham. So Abraham tells Avimelech, "Well, why are you sending me all these bullies to take over my wells and tell me this is their territory?" Abraham Avinu doesn't take any nonsense or bullying from these people. Avimelech doesn't want to go into any confrontation with Abraham Avinu. He says, "Come on, let's We don't need to fight. You're a man of peace. I'm a man of peace. Let's make peace." Okay. So they make peace and they decide to call the place where the wells are Beersheba. Not Beersheba what we know now. It's the same place, but they call it Beersheba. Not Sheba. Sheba means seven. Sheba means there was an oath. They both took an oath that there's not going to be a confrontation. They made a peace treaty. Like now Israel made peace with the Egyptians and Jordanians, some type of peace, but whatever. So maybe there was Americans at the time. Maybe there was a Trump 4,000 years ago and a Biden and they made peace and Abraham Avinu makes peace with Avimelech. You have to understand this is not like two old geezers, Abraham and Avimelech. Avimelech will probably be something in the level of a of a Putin and Abraham was something in that level, too. So I'm sure there was some type of a coalition, United Nations, whatever other type of terror organizations existed at the time and Abraham and and Avimelech make peace. And later on they get a Nobel Prize for peace. That's my addition, of course. Okay. 26 years pass. Abraham lives in Gerar, too. Thank you. At this time, Isaac is born. And of course, a great celebration. And at some point, Abraham moves back to Hebron. We're talking about a lot of years pass. 20 years in Gerar, and then on the way back to Hebron is the story that we read last week with the Akedah, with the sacrifice. That's 37 years. You're looking here at 50 plus years that this whole situation going on. But at some point, Abraham turns back and he goes to Hebron. On the way back to Hebron, he does the story with the Akedah, the sacrificing of Isaac, the the the death of Sarah, and then of course, like we read last week, the burial of Sarah in Hebron. Abraham moves back to Hebron. Once Abraham leaves Hebron, these Palestinians, the Philistines, they come and they cover all the wells. Which just goes to show you the attitude of this type of people. Instead of taking over the wells and using them, then they go and cover them. If I'm not going to benefit from it, you're not going to benefit. If you know I nobody benefits. This is a very distorted type of a If I was a criminal, I would take over the the wells of Abraham and say, "Now it's my wells. I'll make money." These Palestinians, these Philistines, they go and cover the wells. Like we also not going to enjoy it. Like that's really the mindset like exactly like the Philistine and the Palestinian. Sorry that I'm trashing them, but that's the reality. It's the type of the the reality is I'm going to suffer to make you suffer. Okay? Okay. So, the Palestinians, the the the Philistines, sorry, I'll stop saying that. They cover all the wells of Abraham Avinu, and they completely delete and erase the legacy that Abraham Avinu left in Gerar. Kind of like let's go back now. I don't remember exactly in years for the for the Gush. I think it was let's say 15 years ago, right? When they took all the comma? 19 19 already? Wow. No, it's not far back. It's 2006. Wow. Okay, so 19 years ago they took over they they they How do you say they emptied Gush Katif? Kicked out thousands and thousands of Israeli families of a flourishing land. They gave it to the Palestinians and within 3 and 1/2 minutes they desolated the place, destroyed everything. All the agriculture was destroyed. They from an oasis they made it a garbage dump. Instead of taking that land, instead of nourishing the land, they went and destroyed it completely. So the same way, the same exact thing. Abraham Avinu went to Gerar, built an oasis. And they once he moved out, it doesn't matter right now if he moved out willingly, he didn't want to fight, whatever whatever the story was. Abraham moved out of Gerar. Instead of taking what Abraham Avinu did and and you know, taking it to the next level, they destroy it. Exactly what they did in Gush Katif 19 years ago. Instead of you you got a land, flourished land, full of agriculture and and and and whatever you want, beautiful. You know how beautiful Gush Katif was? Now it looks like a a dump yard, a junk yard. Okay. So the Palestinians, the the Philistines, they cover the wells of Abraham Avinu, destroy any type of legacy and memory that Abraham Avinu did there. Okay. Now after that, this is the first round. After that Avraham Avinu again digs wells because he's looking to make a business and the Palestinian, this is where we read that two paragraphs ago, and the Plishtim go and they cover these wells again. Now comes the third round. And the third round of time cuz Avraham Avinu dug wells three times. The third round, that's already where we come in and that's where we need to focus. Abraham dies, Sarah dies, and they go and they get buried in Ma'arat Hamachpelah. And then Isaac and Rivka take over and they're the next leaders of the generation. And then starts a famine in Israel. Okay, what does Isaac do? He takes Rivka and they go back to Gerar, like where Avraham Avinu lived. In the beginning, Isaac settles there. He's a farmer and he plants fields and you know, Bashanah Ee, in that year, a hundred times he becomes what he puts one seed, he gets acres and acres of lands of agriculture. Something in his hands, his hands are blessed. Whatever he plants, he does a hundred times more than what it would normally would give. And Isaac becomes very, very wealthy. He owns a lot of land. He deals with agriculture and he, needless to say, sells the the the the crops and fruit or vegetables, whatever it is. But nevertheless, he becomes very, very successful. Then he says, "Okay, I will also go into the father business and dig wells." And he starts digging wells, too. He says, "Whatever my father wasn't successful, I will continue. I will make it successful." Okay, so once Isaac comes and shows his face and he starts digging wells, again starts the balagan. Again starts the mess. Fighting on the territory, what are you doing? It's our territory. Why are you coming here? This time Isaac goes to the king of Gerar and he kill tells him the king, "Please please leave. You know, we had peace with your father. We're not looking for any confrontation. We don't want any mess. Please leave. We don't want you here." Isaac agrees and he says, "Before I leave the area of Gerar, and if you need to imagine it geographically, it's the where Azah is right now. He does something weird. What does he do? He opens up the wells that Abraham Avinu dug. But you're leaving. You you came to the understanding it's only going to be not worthwhile to stay there. Sometimes in life, you need to weigh your options. I don't know how you say it in English. Uh I'm sure there's a term to that that you weigh uh uh how would you say it? Not weigh it out, but you you you take to consideration uh your losses and your gains. Maybe, but in Hebrew it's called Alut Mul To'elet. How much is going to cost me and what's going to be the benefit? And sometimes there's no benefit. You know, sometimes somebody does something bad to you and you're saying, "I'm going to sue them." No no no, it's not return on investment. It's rather if you translate Alut Mul To'elet, listen to my example in the 70s. Somebody did something bad to you and you go to a lawyer, "I'm going to sue them." And the lawyer, of course, wants your money. Yeah, let's sue them. And you start making a calculation. If you're going blindly, then who says you're going to win in the lawsuit? And what's going to happen if you don't win in the lawsuit? Then you spend tens of thousands of dollars on legal fees and you didn't get it back. Now, not only that, once you drag somebody into court, then, you know, the Balatanya says a a brilliant statement. I beg you menubal mitnabel. If you wrestle somebody dirty, you'll get dirty. So, when you drag somebody into court, you'll get dirty and sleepless nights and headaches and at some point, the cost and the benefit, it's not worth it. It's going to cost you so much, and what you're going to get out of it is nothing. That's a loot more to edit. The the the cost of something and what is going to be the benefit. Same thing with Isaac. He says, "Here I have a flourishing business in agriculture, but they're going to bother me all the time. They're going to destroy my crops. I'm going to bring need to bring security. I'm going to need to fight them all the time. There's going to be financial loss. There's going to be a threat. There's going to be head Who needs this headache? So, I'll make less money, but I don't have a headache." Right? He made a loot more to edit. So, he decides to leave. Not too long ago, somebody came to me and he he's a very wealthy man, and there was some in big real estate investment here in Israel. And he came to me, he says, "You know a lot of people. You know wealthy people. Show this deal, you know, and if you're involved in the deal, of course, you make a cut." So, it was it seemed like a very good real estate deal, and I went to a friend of mine who's very wealthy. And I told him as would such a deal interest you? And I thought, if he will jump on the opportunity, I take my finder's fee, whatever 1% half percent. That's it. That's a lot of money. This deal was like $400 million. That's like a big deal. So, I went to a very wealthy investor, and I told him, "Does this deal will interest you?" He tells me, "I'm already in my 60s. I'm not looking for headaches." He says, "If I you know, to be a billionaire, he's he's like I'm a millionaire. I you know, I don't need the headaches of a billionaire. I I I'm I'm fine. I'm doing well. Now to get into such an investment, yeah, it seems very big. You'll make a lot of money. He's like, I don't need headaches. That's the answer of a very smart man. A a greedy person will be Give me the deal. Yeah, you'll make a few millions, but with that a lot of gray hair, a lot of enemies, a lot of lawsuits, and you'll come out of this deal with your tongue out. That would be the the attitude of a greedy person. This individual I went to says he said it in a nice in in Hebrew it sounded much much nicer. But he said something along the line like I have enough headaches as a millionaire. I don't need headaches of a billionaire. But nevertheless, why am I saying that? You weigh the cost and the benefit. Itzhak in this case says There's there's no I I don't need the headache. I don't need them bullying me all day long. I don't need them coming at me. Who needs this headache? I have enough. I'll relocate my business somewhere else. So Itzhak decides to leave. But like I said, he does a weird thing. He says before I'm leaving, I'm going to leave you a memory here. And he goes and he digs up the wells that Avraham Avinu dug and they covered. Why would you do that? Okay. Then he goes and digs another four wells. Right? He digs another three and eventually he digs the fourth. All together seven wells. And that's the story of Itzhak. That's it. That's what we know about Itzhak. 180 years and that's what the Torah gives us. That he went to Gerar, uh went into a confrontation, decided to back out, dug un- he unveiled, he opened the three wells of Avraham Avinu, and then went and dug another four. That's where it is. So, that's where our forefather, the leader of the nation, that's what what we know about him. He dug wells. That's the legacy he left us. What am I taking from that? You read it in the text. Okay, so So, Yitzchak was rich and he dug wells and then he decided not to confront have a confrontation with the Plishtim. The Ramban says this story doesn't make him look good. It doesn't give him any honor or any respect. You know, Avraham Avinu has honorable stories. Yaakov, Yosef, Moshe, Noach, everybody has stories that make them seem very respectful and honorable. He says this story, the Ramban says, that does this story doesn't give respect to to Yaakov. Yitzchak. No, to Yitzchak, sorry. Now, I want to just point out something. If you remember a few weeks ago was Sukkot. Believe it or not, we're already almost in Hanukkah. Uh Sukkot was actually like a month ago. Wow. Even a little bit more. Time goes fast. But nevertheless, in Sukkot, we do the prayer of the rain. Right? And if you remember the the nosach, and of course each congregation has a little bit of a different way how they pray it. But nevertheless, I'm not too sure about all the nosachim, but the nosach that I pray, it's there's a piyut, there's a certain psalm that we read, and it says that the merit of every individual in our past, what gave us rain. Okay? So, it says in the merit of Avraham Avinu taking Yitzchak for the Akedah, then we should get rain. Right? It It kind of states certain individuals in the past for some great thing that they did, and in that merit we should get rain, because rain is blessing and so forth. So, the merit of Abraham, the merit that we have because of Abraham to get rain was the Akedah, the sacrificing of Isaac. When you go through the list, it says that the merit the merit of Isaac was digging the wells. So, again, what's so special about digging a well? If you're looking at Abraham, you know, taking your son after you waited for him for 100 years, and then sacrificing your own son, that's like a big act, and of course, that's the merit of Abraham, you know. So, in the period, it's saying that the merit that we got from Isaac was digging the wells. Well, what kind of a merit is that? It's very It seems on the surface like, what's the big deal? But nevertheless, obviously, there's something hidden there. Now, I'll ask you even more interesting question. Because the first interesting question is, what's so special about digging wells? Another interesting question that most people wouldn't even think to ask, how come Isaac was more successful than Abraham? Abraham wasn't successful with digging wells. Right? Everything that Abraham did, he was successful. The digging of the wells, he failed. So, why Isaac is more successful than Abraham in digging wells? Okay. So, the Zohar comes and tells us, the digging of the wells is a symbol for the faith. To means to quarry, right? To like go into the mountain and to to cut in. That's how you say it? Maybe I'm saying pronouncing it wrong. Q U A R R Y, quarry? Quarry. So, the Zohar says that the digging of the wells is quarry of the emunah. So Avraham Avinu by digging the well, he was able to bring forth the the the emunah, the belief in in each and every one of our souls. The same way that it's hard to dig through a a mountain, but when you dig through a mountain, you'll get gold, you'll get silver, you'll get whatever metal that you want or whatever minerals. So the Zohar says, "No, no, no, no. If you want to look at the more esoteric part of behind the digging of the wells, hatzivat emunah is building the emunah." Okay. So if this is the case, then nothing really remained from the revolution that Avraham Avinu did. And I'm quoting the Zohar. It's not me making an observation. The Zohar says, "Avraham The digging of Avraham's well is digging the emunah." But as you see, nothing happened from the revolution of Avraham Avinu. The Zohar says that after Avraham Avinu died, most of the people that he converted went back to idolatry. That the movement of Avraham Avinu died with him. It didn't stay more generation more generations. That's what the Zohar says. But on the other hand, whatever Isaac dug, that stayed. So we're already seeing a hint from the Zohar that the digging of the wells is connected to emunah. Avraham Avinu failed and Isaac didn't. Isaac was able to sustain this level of emunah. Now, let's ask a question. What's the connection between digging a well to emunah? And emunah is my belief. And belief in God, not belief in the government. My belief in God because really everything boils down to every individual, Jew or non-Jew, is how much emunah they have in in the creator of the world. If you have a lot of belief in the creator of the world, then it doesn't matter your faith right now. You connected to the master of the universe, and I'm talking about the one God, not all sorts of other deities and gods people invent. Because there are many many gentiles who believe in the one God calling the God of Israel, God of Abraham, call him however you want. Yud Ke Vav Ke, but they don't believe in all sorts of fake uh prophets and fake uh gods and so forth. There are millions of gentiles that they believe in let's say Hashem. I'm saying now Hashem because we relate to Hashem as Hashem, as God. But nevertheless, if a person has belief in the creator of the world, then the person is anchored onto God and doesn't matter whatever storm will come in his world, in his life, he's focused on Hashem. That's really what you want to get to. A A person that their life is chaotic and life is not working out and trouble and situations and problems and then your your emunah is not strong emunah. The fact that we have turbulence in our life, that's one thing, but our main goal in this world is to build my emunah, my belief in Hashem, and that's what sustains me. So now I want to ask a big question. What's the connection between digging wells and emunah and belief? Okay. No, no. Okay. Depth, yeah. You you In one way you're right. But the the deeper you dig, I mean, how how does it work with digging well? You you Look at Itzhak. Itzhak comes to a desolated land. I don't know, maybe he puts his ear on the ground. How do you know where to dig? Really, how do you know where to dig? In our generation, okay, maybe there's some machinery, infrared, you go through you look at How did Itzhak know where to dig? Okay, I'm telling you he had Ruach Hakodesh, but hypothetically, he goes and he touches the land. I don't know what he did. Maybe he touched it and said, "Okay." Now, could very much be that you dig dig dig dig dig, nothing happens. You go here, dig dig dig dig dig, nothing happens. I don't know how it worked. It doesn't specify with Yitzchak. If he dug, it didn't work, dug here, dug here. But the fact is, yeah, you can say, yeah, the digging and eventually finding something is like emunah. Imagine a person wakes up in the middle of their life, and they start searching for Hashem. And they dig dig dig. They go to YouTube, they go to here, they go to here, listen to this rabbi, that rabbi, then eventually they find the truth, and then they they they go and look for their emunah. But nevertheless, there's a very interesting book. This book, I mentioned this book a few times. It's called It's called Haketav VehaKabbalah, the text and the Kabbalah. Was written about close to 200 years ago, this book. And he says over there that the digging of the wells was the tactic of Avraham Avinu to be exposing his outreach to the public. Why? Because it wasn't like today that you have water in your faucet. And in the desert, you don't have water. So, you go to whoever has water. So, Avraham Avinu make like a big center. You come and you buy the water, but all he then put all his bill billboards and giving out flyers, and come in and listen to a lecture, and here's a CD, take and listen to it. He says the Ketav and the Kabbalah that that was Avraham Avinu's tactic to bring people to him. I want to now advertise the name of Hashem. What do I do? I go to YouTube. That's where people are. Then, I mean, let's let's take my example. Uh 20 years ago, I said, "I need to reach people." Well, how am I going to reach people? Cuz really, when I became observant and I started giving lectures, I would go to to synagogues, to yeshiva, to a school, to a house. How much people can I reach? 10 ti- 10 people at a time, 50 people at a time. So, I was thinking, how can I advertise Hashem? Okay, then YouTube came up. Don't forget YouTube is a pretty new thing. I gave started giving lectures before YouTube existed. And then YouTube came. And then we came with a bold idea. We can make a movie a video, put it on YouTube. Right? And a few years later came Facebook. So, we start putting stuff on there. A few years later came Twitter and LinkedIn and Schminktin and all the rest of the platforms. Recent- only recently Instagram came up. But the advice of I feel I think I even shared it with you a few years ago back. I went to my rabbin I told him, "I don't want to be in social media anymore. I don't like my name there. It causes a lot of lashon hara. It causes a lot of problems. I put my video on a platform like YouTube, a person comes and watches the videos and then all the recommended on the side is junk. And the ads that they put there are not modest and I don't want to be in such a place." And the answer of my rabbin who doesn't even know how a smartphone looks, he was like, "No, no, no. That's where the people are. That's where you put your Torah. That's where you shove the Torah in people's faces. You go where the people are. You know, Instagram pops up, start an Instagram page. Th- This pops up, start a page there." So, Avraham Avinu did the exact same thing. Where do you have the people? There wasn't Google, YouTube, and all these places 4,000 years ago. So, Avraham Avinu says, "I will create like a Dubai, I'll create some oasis place where you come and get your water. And on the way, we'll put there all all of our literature. I'll put big bill- billboards, you know, like now in our day they put a picture of rabbis everywhere you go in Israel especially they have stickers of the Lubavitch Rebbe Mashiach is coming then you have the graffiti Nach Nach Nachman Me Uman I mean everybody wants to put their literature somewhere. You don't see it outside of Israel. In Israel everywhere you go you have stickers of the Lubavitch Rebbe everywhere and the graffiti of uh of Nachman Me Uman which I'm pretty sure that if you would ask both the Lubavitch Rebbe and Rabbi Nachman they would disagree to the to this vandalism. But nevertheless everybody wants to say what they have to say so they put and now what they doing in the world? The exact same thing. Free Palestine. Everywhere you go free Palestine. You go to I don't know where Sweden they don't even know where Palestine is. But they know how to chant free Palestine. So it's it's the same tactic. I go sometimes on the social networks to see things my stuff and then and all I see is these propaganda videos you see like a dirty girl "Hello, my name is Fatima. I'm from Gaza. Please help us." And and and you see that this is staged this is done in in in a studio. You know what I mean? But they're showing the world help us the Israelis are killing us. "We need water. We need water." You know? And all these millions of dollars that they're fundraising is going directly to the Hamas to buy more more weapons. So you think they them or us invented anything? Abraham Avinu 4,000 years ago did the same thing. He had propaganda. He had you know his outreach. So the top of the Kabbalah says 200 years ago that was Abraham Avinu's tactic. How do you get to the masses? No no build amusement park. People will come and I'll shove in their face what I want to tell them. That's it. And Avraham Avinu would give out his flyers, billboards everywhere, Achad U'Shmo Echad, Ein Od Milvado, and he would come come to a lecture. That was his tactic, and then of course he would feed them. Come and eat, steaks on the house, wine, whatever you want. Just say Birkat Hamazon. Avraham would dig a well, everybody would come for the water, and Avraham would spread words of emunah. That's the connection between digging a well and emunah. That's how the Kitab and the Kabbalah explains it. Okay. What do we take from that? That Avraham's project was a failure. The second that Avraham backed out, then it didn't sustain. The Zohar says, and other sources, the second Avraham died, most of the converts went back to idolatry, and most of what he did didn't didn't remain. So we're seeing here that Avraham Avinu's tactic A was a failure, and more than that, Yitzchak somehow made it happen. Like I said, the Zohar says that the second that the wells that were covered what Avraham dug, then all the work went back to stage one. The Zohar says, everybody went back to idolatry, v'haolam shamem, and the world was desolated from any belief of God. Okay, so we're back now to the question, so what's the story with the wells? We're trying to figure out now. Okay, it's connected to emunah. Avraham Avinu failed. Now what? Now, the Ramban takes it to a completely different place. He says, "No, no, no, no, don't don't try to to figure out too much. The digging of the wells is a symbol for the three Beit Migdash, the holy temples that we're going to have. Right? Abraham Avinu dug three wells and then they were covered, again corresponding to the three Beta Migdash. Now, Isaac goes and digs three wells and that's the hint that we're going to have three Beta Migdash. And he gives an explanation. The first well that Isaac digs, he names it. He names the well Esek, right? No translation to the word, but cuz that's how he named the well. Why? Uh asher it'askoo sham ayito, because there was fighting there. So, the Ramban explains very nice. The first well Abra- Isaac dug, the Plishtim came, fought with him and it it didn't work out. The well didn't work out. They had to destroy it. They fought with him. This corresponds to the first Beta Migdash that we tried to have a Beta Migdash. There was problems and it was destroyed. The second well that Isaac digs, he calls it Sitnah, right? And of course, again the Plishtim come, they fight with him and the digging of the well does is not successful. And in the third well that Isaac digs, that stays. So, the Ramban says very simple. It's a hint for the Beta Migdash. The first two won't sustain and the third will stay forever. That's it. Interesting commentary by the Ramban. The Clear Cow another commentary comes on that commentary of the Ramban and says, "I will explain to you something even nicer because Isaac names the wells. The first one that he names it is Esek. Why? Cuz it'askoo ito sham, there was a confrontation." So, the Clear Cow says, "What was the argument of the first well? Controlling of the land because Isaac built it on territory that didn't belong to him according to the Plishtim, and that's why they fought. So, there was an argument on territory. What was the destruction the cause of the destruction of the first temple? An argument on territory. There was Malchut Yehuda and Malchut Yisrael. Two kingdoms to our nation that fought who is going to rule the Bet Hamikdash? An argument on territory. Then the second well that Yitzhak dug, he calls it Sitnah. Sitnah is simple hate. There's no There's no There's no cause for for the for this hate. Second temple, what was destroyed? Sinat Chinam. No no cause for any for for for this hate. So, the Kli Yakar says, "Look how interesting, yeah, the the the the digging of the three wells, it's hinting, don't look for something too far," says the Ramban. "It's a hint for Bet Hamikdash." Another interesting commentary. I'm just trying to find all the commentaries about this well so we can figure out why is it so special. So, the beautiful commentary by Rav Levi Yitzhak, he says in total Yitzhak dug four wells. First he dug three and after that he dug the fourth. The four wells that Yitzhak dug correspond to the four judgment days that we have in the Jewish calendar. What's the four days of judgment day? Two days is Rosh Hashanah. Right? One day is Yom Kippur and one day is Hoshana Rabbah. Four days that are considered on our calendar to be a judgment day. Now, Yitzhak, we know that Yitzhak is Din, Gevurah, severity. Avraham was from the right side, Chesed, kindness, love. And Yitzhak is the left. Yaakov was in the middle, Tiferet, but Yitzhak is the left, Din, Gevurah. So, Yitzhak represents these judgments days. Two days you have to understand that two days of Rosh Hashanah that are judgment days, there's a fight between me and the prosecutor. That's what happens on Rosh Hashanah. That's the two wells of of of Yitzchak having a problem with the Plishtim. The first one Esek and the second one Sitnah. So, he compares it the first two wells, there was an argument. It's the first two days of judgment, Rosh Hashanah. Who am I arguing on Rosh Hashanah? Me against the prosecutor. Who's the prosecutor? The Satan. The Satan comes and says, "You sinned, you slandered, you cheated, you this." And I'm coming and saying, "Hashem, forgive me, okay? I did mitzvot, I gave charity, I learned Torah, I eat kosher." And And there's an argument between me and my mitzvot and my defense and the prosecutor. So, there's an argument. Two days of judgment day with the prosecutor, two wells of Yitzchak that he had a confrontation with the Plishtim. Yom Kippur, there's no problem. On Yom Kippur, it's me and Hashem. There's no Satan on Yom Kippur. How do we know that there's no Satan? Satan, the translation of Satan is the devil or Satan. But we call him Satan ki hu mastin, he's a prosecutor. The Satan goes up to Hashem and he says, "Look at him, he just stole." Why why why why you Why why you ignoring that? He just slandered, he just did this and that. That's our prosecutor. So, the Satan is there prosecuting us on Yom on Rosh Hashanah, but on Yom Kippur there's no Satan. How do we know that on Yom Kippur the Satan is unemployed? Because the numerical value of the word Hasatan, the prosecutor, is 364. How many days we have over a year? 365. One day that the Satan doesn't work. Now we have Hoshana Rabbah, the fourth one. Hoshana Rabbah corresponds to the last well that Yitzchak dug Be'er Sheva. And Hoshana Rabbah is 7 days after Sukkot. And Hoshana Rabbah is when we leave this period victorious. And that's the last well that Yitzchak dug and it remained for eternity. Beautiful uh commentary from the Zohar, from the Kli Yakar, from the Rambam, from Reb Yitzchak. Beautiful commentary. If you are bored and you're reading the Torah and you're looking for some answers. So on the surface, we got good answers from commentaries. But it doesn't explain to me the situation. It still doesn't explain to me the situation. What is so great about Yitzchak that the Torah chooses to tell me about the digging of the well? What What did he do What did he do anything else for 180 years? 180 years he didn't do nothing else significant that the Torah is telling me to focus on wells. So in order to explain it, let me paint to you a situation. In our generation one thing that will worry a young couple is how do they buy a house? Just the other day we had a conversation with a few young people. Uh one couple who just got married, one couple who just got engaged, and another couple they're like it seems that they're going in towards marriage. And somehow we talked about money and I asked the one who got married like I mean they're real young in their early 20s, what do you do for a living? What What's your plan? In the conversation very quickly came up the situation that how does a young couple today buy a house? 30 40 years ago it was very easy. You just need a little bit of money, a little bit of savings and you buy. Now, how you going to buy a house now a property? And that doesn't matter where. I'm not talking only Israel, anywhere in the world. How you going to buy a property? You have half a million shekels or $200,000 to put down as a down payment? And now the bank till they give you a approve to you a mortgage. 30 years ago the bank will will beg you to take the mortgage. Now you have to go through hell to get a mortgage. And then let's talk about the the cost of it. So the cost of buying an apartment in our generation is what causes most young people to say this is I'm never going to buy an apartment unless I have a father helping me. No chance. So in Israel we have the situation to very difficult to buy a property in Israel if you don't have some money set aside. If you remember, I don't know if you remember, a few years ago they made like a big mecha, a big protest in Israel about the cost of living. Everybody went out to the streets. Hundreds of thousands of people went out to the streets and they for a few months everything was changed. The prices of things went down. But the second that this revolution stopped, everything went back to how it was. Because the ones who went to the streets to protest at some point had to go back to work. I mean, how long can you protest? A week or two? And then you get fired if you don't go to work. So at some point the protest wore off, life went back to how it was before, prices are high. So the answer to that, to start a revolution is very easy. Get somebody up and excited, everybody will run out to the street to scream. But to to sustain that revolution is extremely difficult. Almost impossible. That's the difference between Abraham Avinu and Isaac. First of all, first message is that the difference between Isaac to Abraham, Isaac was persistent. Abraham Avinu dug, did his campaign, and left. And eventually, it went back to how it was. Isaac, on the other hand, what was he doing for 180 years? The same thing over and over and over and over. This called persistence. It's not leaving. The power of Isaac was hatmado, persistence. Any successful individual, it doesn't matter in which territory, money, business, uh uh relationships, what's the success? You got to be persistent. You cannot let go. You want to be successful in your Avodat Hashem, you're looking at great scholars, great great rabbis, take for example Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, who was the godol the the giant of the generation. He was called Sar HaTorah, the minister of Torah, a genius in the Torah. When he passed away a few years ago, a lot of people came from the past and says, you know, as a kid, he wasn't such a bright kid. And in Yeshiva, he wasn't the the star of Yeshiva. So, how did he became the minister of Torah? Because he would sit for hours and hours and not let go. When it was time to go home and rest, he would still sit and learn. So, you see success in business, success in the Torah, success in uh relationships is only if you're persistent with what you need to do. If you start lacking that, you will never be successful in what you're doing. So, the Torah is telling it telling us about Isaac, everything we know about Isaac is summarized in the Torah in one sentence. Uh uh uh and and and that's the whole story with the with the wells. We don't need much information. The Torah summarizes the entire legacy of Yitzchak in one sentence about him digging wells. And the the the power that that successful people have, they have that midah that Yitzchak has. That's being persistent. Go now now to any successful individual, ask him, "What do you attribute your success to?" Of course, the smart ones will say to God, and another few smart ones will say for this and that, but all have the same common denominator. You have to be locked on your target and not let go. Look now even in the in in a in a place that has nothing to do with us. Look now in show business. The successful singers, actors, they don't they don't give up. They go to audition after audition after audition after another part, another part. This that that person tells them, "No, another But eventually, you know, like the story with the Rabbi Akiva, that he saw the water hitting the the drops hitting the stone, a perfect example of success with Rabbi Akiva, being persistent. Now, what is the sentence that Torah summarizes the entire legacy of Yitzchak? K'shemot shekar'a lahem aviv. That's what the Torah says, and that's how we so to say conclude the whole story of Yitzchak. This can be found in our parashah, Bereishit 26:18. Translation, like the names that his father had given them. That's what the Torah tells us about Yitzchak. That's how the Torah summarizes the legacy of Yitzchak. One sentence. K'shemot shekar'a lahem aviv. The names like the names that his father had given them. That's the whole idea behind Isaac. To continue what his father didn't do. That's what the Torah is telling us. Which is nothing hard There's nothing more harder than that. The father started, failed, now Isaac comes into his shoes and he continues it and makes it successful. Okay. The Isaac has the power that we dying to figure out how to do. He had the power to continue the how to continue the excitement. Most people get excited from something, it takes a week or two, a month or two, the excitement goes off and that's it and everything goes to square one. That can be in relationships in the first half a year, first year, a lot of excitement. After 30 years, ah. How do you keep the excitement in a relationship? How do you keep the excitement in You know, look at us, all of us here and the probably the majority of the listeners and the viewers about chuvahs. In the beginning when you find the Torah, you very excited. You jump on the mitzvot like a hungry lion. 20 years into your chuvah, ah. Yeah, excitement already, you not so excited to go to the class. You not so excited about Shabbat. You not so excited. That's the fact. How do you keep the excitement in your Torah? Like how you were the first day you figured it out or the first 2 years. So, Isaac has a certain power how to to maintain the excitement in everything that you do. Ba- basically saying in other words, Isaac took uh the ideology of his father and he transformed it to a form of behavior. Abraham had this excitement, "Ah, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that." I can relate with Abraham. Coming with all these bold ideas and going and doing it. But, he didn't have the power to maintain it. Isaac on the other hand, saw the ideology of Abraham and says, "I'll make it a form of behavior." This is the first principle and the first habit. This is the the the the principle and the habit that it took a minute was able to do. That's really where the Torah is starting to hint to us about the greatness of Isaac. So, taking now that practically to what I want to take from this message, then there's a few different ways to educate an individual. You can be a father or a mother, you want to educate your child. You can be a teacher, you can be a speaker, you can be whatever you want, but there's only a few ways. I would even narrow it to two ways that you can educate an individual. I want to educate my kids to learn to love Hashem, to love the Torah. I want to educate my students. There's only two ways of doing it. I've been giving lectures for the last 20 years. Exactly 20 years. Now, maybe the first 5 years were like I told you was not in such a big scale. This big scale started 15 years ago. So, Baruch Hashem, I would say I'm giving lectures for 20 years. I can tell you already that from all of my lectures, not one person has changed. Yeah, I knew you're going to make a face. I can come and talk as much as I want. You know that a few years ago I went and saw a few individuals that we wanted to fundraise, we wanted to, if you remember, get the building and do a big center. So, I went to a very rich individual and he says, "Okay, what are you fundraising for?" I said, "I'm I'm a public speaker, I do outreach, I do kiruv." And and I focused on bringing uh people back to the Torah, Jews and non-Jews. So, he tells me a very annoying question, "How many baal teshuvahs have you made?" So, I told him one. He says, "One? You're coming to me with with one success story? I thought you'll tell me half a million or 100,000. One baal teshuvah you made?" I said, "Yes, and he's also not doing that great." "What? And for that you want millions of dollars to build a center? Who's this baal teshuvah?" I said, "Me." "What about the other rest of the thousands?" They're not mine. So, now I can tell you I can tell you from all the lectures that I've ever given, not one person has changed. That's the fact. You know when a person change? When that person decides to do something by themselves. So, I can't take any credit for any change of any individual who did from any word that ever came out of my mouth. A few years ago I was invited also to a shabbaton somewhere in North America. It was a big prayer. It was a big shul. Uh the shul looked like some big hotel in in in Dubai. Chandeliers everywhere. $20 million shul. Brilliant era. Comfortable seats, everything fancy schmancy, beautiful congregation. We went down after the services to a beautiful room. I think they had there like 400 people. And a very tasteful place. Food, k'vod hamelach, like uh uh uh unlimited food, beautiful. Everything was set up, beautiful shabbaton. And I was one of the speakers. I wasn't like the main speaker. Uh sorry, I was the main speaker, but there was other speakers. So, they made a table in the front of all the rabbis. So, sat there the rabbi of the shul, a few other rabbis that they invited, and one of the speakers that came and spoke in the shabbaton, and he sits next to me. And he points to me. He says, "You see this guy there? Because of me, he keeps Shabbat." Wow. He says, "You see that guy over there? Because of me, he puts filling every day." Wow. He says, "You see this couple there? You see she covers her hair? They practice family purity because of me." So, after a few of the examples, besides of being uh uh disgusted by uh I wanted to tell him, "You really You have some chutzpah to take credit that that person observes Shabbat because of you? That person is putting filling because of you? You happen to maybe educate the person. You were there to support, to guide, to excite. That person puts filling every day because he wants to put filling, not because you come to his home and knock on his door, "Put filling on." What I'm saying is that for 20 years I give classes, not one person has changed from any word that I gave gave but myself. Why? Because a person will only change when he himself decides to do a change. You can come and sit in a lecture and get inspired from here till tomorrow. You walk out of the lecture, that's my experience of 20 years, 90% of the excitement stays in the room. You get in the lecture, you get hyped up, and you get excited, and you get motivated, and you get all the the the the excitement. But, the second you leave the door, the yetzer hara calms you down. Until you now start the engine again like a 1979 Ford A person only changes when he starts doing something. Yes, he got inspired by somebody else. That's very nice for the ones who inspired. But the change is only from within. The person, let's call it now the rabbi, needs to inspire the person to be able to search for himself what he needs to do. That's when you have a good rabbi who inspires that he doesn't force you to do something. He ignites in you the the the desire to say to yourself, I want to change. And then you start your own journey by yourself. That's the success. Somebody came to me also, that's going back a lot of years ago. And he told me after one of my lecture, it was a big lecture, hundreds of people in the crowd. And he told me, "You know, you did a great job. I see everybody's inspired, but don't you get discouraged discouraged that when people leave leave the lecture, they they don't become observant the next day." And then he started naming other names of rabbis. "You know, rabbi so-and-so, he brings them to the stage and he puts a tzitzit on them." "And this rabbi does this and this rabbi cuts their ponytail. This rabbi puts the head covering." I said, "All this show, it's a show. The fact that somebody put a tzitzit on him in the stage, he walks out 2 minutes later, he will take the tzitzit out. I'm not looking to make an instant change in the person. David Hamelach says, "Zore'a tzedakot matzmi'ach yeshu'ot." You plant seeds of charity, it will grow salvation. I told him my method is a completely different method when I come to a lecture. I inject in you a little I don't want to say venom cuz venom is negative, a little bit of spirit of excitement and that's it and then it develops by itself. I don't follow up after the lecture, "No, did you like the lecture? Did you start putting feeling or tzitzit?" I project what I need to project. I will inject into the crowd whatever bug I want them, but the bug will cause the person by himself to wake up. That's the point. That's the difference of the attitude between Yitzchak and Yaakov. Sorry, between Avraham and Yitzchak. Avraham wanted instant change. Convert now. But say Birkat Hamazon. Okay. Okay. There are rabbis that will come to a lecture and will tell you, "I I've been to lectures like that. Not too long ago. My kid was in a lecture. He told me, oh, my kid my one of my sons he likes going to this one place here in the in the dorm where they bring speakers uh uh So they brought a certain speaker and he told my son, "Oh, you know Rabbi so-and-so?" I said, "Yeah, I know him." So what did the rabbi did there? He spoke about it's all only boys there. He spoke about shmirat einayim, the guarding of the eyes. And what did the rabbi do? At the end of the uh of the event, whoever smashes their cell phone right here, I give him like a thousand shekels, something like that. Uh whatever cuz he wanted like to inspire them not to watch, you know, non-appropriate things on their phone. So some idiots came up to the stage, took a 4,000 shekel iPhone and started smashing it and Okay, so how long would it last? Two days later you're like, "What did I do? At least I would sell the phone." Why smash it? But I'm sure you saw online or maybe you've participated in such events that the rabbi makes the crowd do something. You know what I mean? I saw a lecture not too long ago. A rabbi was very forcefully against the wigs. He took wigs off the women's heads during the lecture and they were all burning the wigs and they made like a whole thing. How do you you know what I'm talking about? Hmm? No, no, no, no. He He inspired the women to take their wigs off and he right away gave them a No, no, no. Legit rabbi. Covered there and he didn't touch them. But and then they burned all the the wigs and Is that you know, could be that it affected two or three of the women, but it doesn't mean that that for a long the long run stayed. It doesn't mean that if I call you up now to the stage and I cut your ponytail or take your earring out or take your whatever and and put a tichel on you, maybe for some rabbis that's their tactic. That was a Va'ama Vayaven tactic. Now, do the change right now. Which okay, I understand. As a speaker, I can relate. You want to hit and strike while the iron is hot, while the people is excited. But En Chacham K'Ba'al Hanisayon. Hamelech says experience is the great wisdom. I see from 20 years what changes people. Not me being forceful onto a person telling you got to change right now. Rather injecting the information in a subliminal How do you say subliminal way? Sublime? Not too long ago I met somebody who told me, "Oh, I listened to you for 10 years. I listened to all your lectures. I love you. I love you. I love you. But I also have Rabbi So-and-so." Okay, fine. There's no competition between me and Rabbi so-and-so. He says, "You know what's the difference between you and Rabbi the the other Rabbi?" He says, "The other Rabbi is a butcher. He Now, he cuts you on your face. You're going to get an offer whatever. He says, "You're a surgeon. You quietly open, you do whatever you need to do, you quietly close it. No pain, but you the message gets across." The point to say here that Yitzchak had a whole different attitude with Avraham when it came to his outreach. Avraham Avinu wanted right now changes and the fact was that it didn't sustain. Yitzchak says, "No. I'm going for the long run. I want the change to stay, not to be quick and then we're off." As a speaker, I can tell you that my desire is not to inspire you on the spot and then to jump on you and to tell you to do something. Now, you go. I gave you the the ignition. Now, you need to find within you the desire to change. That's a much more difficult situation to definitely for the speaker. Of course, I want to see instant gratification. Of course, I want to see people inspired. What do you think I'm teaching for you for money or fame? Some Rabbis, that's what they do. I have a goal. My goal is that you will be inspired by yourself to change yourself. Don't come and tell me after 20 years, "Oh, I owe you a You know, I'll show you a thousands of emails of people emailing me, "Oh, you changed my life." I didn't change anything. I showed you the information, gave you some boost, showed example, some inspiration, and the fact that you did something it's cuz you decided to do it. I'm not coming to you in the morning every morning and telling you, "Come to Shaharit." You wake up on your own desire. You need to put the dots together. And again, that was the difference between the attitude of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham screamed Hashem's name. How long did it last? Till the lecture ended. That's it. Imagine now, hypothetically, they shut down all the social media. You can't find my lectures anymore ever. Imagine now I flip and I remove all my lectures from all the internet, everything. You can't ever find any of my lectures. So, that's it. That's when the inspiration is over? When the lecture is removed? Oy va voy, if that's would be the case. Then I didn't do nothing. If the lecture is removed, and I had a lot of lectures being removed, but nevertheless, the message remained. Abraham Avinu screamed. Of course, good to advertise Hashem's name. How long did it last? Till the lecture was over. He left. That's it. Isaac, on the other hand, he didn't talk. He listened. He listened to the ones he wanted to affect. What is the Torah teaching us about Esau? The baal teshuvah that that Isaac did is Esau. Okay, both Abraham and Isaac shared the common denominator of a son that was a troublemaker. The big difference between Isaac and Abraham is that the son of Abraham was a He was the son of Hagar. He wasn't Jewish. Jacob on the Isaac on the other hand, Esau was the son of Rebecca. He was He was a Jew. Yeah, he went off the derech. But at the end of the way at the end of the day did teshuvah. The result of of doing teshuvah is by Isaac listening. He didn't reprimand him. He didn't attack him. He didn't tell him he's going to get in on. He just listened to him. He listened to all his questions. Now you have to pay attention here for what I'm about to say. There's no conversation or any type of dialogue in the Torah between a father and son. The only time that you hear a short dialogue is between Abraham and Isaac at the time of the Akedah, right? Right? A small dialogue between Isaac and Abraham. That's the only one. But really the only time that there's a conversation and some type of a relationship between a father and son in the entire Torah is Isaac and Esau. Mhm? No, no, I'm talking about the a dialogue, a conversation. It's Isaac and Esau. You're not going to find other dialogues between a father and a son talking. But Isaac and Esau. So now you have to pay attention because the story about Isaac is very short. One parashah where we are familiar with the fact that he digs wells and now we have the concept that he talks with Esau. On a more uh funny way to say that's the difference between hotel business and well business. The hotel business, the I don't know how you say the owner of the hotel. In Hebrew you call it melona'i. Abraham Avinu, he did everything. He He hosted to the guest. He made the rooms. He cooked the food. He He was involved in the business. In the digging business, in the well business, Isaac would listen to the land. He would listen, probably put his ear down, where is the treasure? Well, you just come and dig. He obviously had some type of method how to listen to the ground and know where to dig. If not, you waste your time. It's expensive to drill. So, going back to the hotel business, Avraham Avinu, he was dishing, serving, cleaning, hosting. He was doing the whole the whole show. Isaac, on the other hand, didn't do anything, just listen. Where is the treasure? Here? No. Here? No. That's the difference between Avraham and Isaac with how the Torah is painting it. Isaac was able to influence Esau and change him, which again, this is the lesson we take because each and every one of us has a an Esau in him. Right? We have in us the Esau and the Jacob. The Jacob in me is the one who wants to go after good and do kind and learn Torah and go in the path of Hashem. That's the yetzer hatov, the good part in me. But, I also have an Esau in me. He wants to enjoy life and enjoy all the lusts that I have and all the the the desires I have. There's an Esau in each and every one of us. So, Isaac was able to influence Esau, and you have to pay attention to between the lines. First of all, it says, I have to emphasize, the Gemara says, Rabban Shimon Gamliel says, that there was no person in history ever that had such kibud honoring the parents like Esau. To what To what extent? Esau, who was such a wicked individual, nevertheless had the ultimate honoring of parents. How do we know that? Because of the clothes. What's the story behind the clothes? The main theme of the story that we're reading now about taking the blessing is around the clothes. How? And what's the what what's behind the story? I mean, after all, the Torah's coming and telling me that Jacob and Rivka together conspired against Esau, and that doesn't paint them in a nice eye. What is the Torah telling me that it's okay for me to now go in cahoots with somebody to to excuse my language steal and screw somebody out of their heritage? I mean, what what is the Torah telling me here? So, we're not going to analyze this story right now, but nevertheless, the whole theme around this story is the clothes. That Rivka tells him, "Wear the clothes of Esau and go into your father." And the Midrash tells us that the clothes that Esau was wearing is the clothes that that Hashem gave Adam Rishon after the sin. And these special garments went down in generation to generation to generation, and eventually got to the hands of Nimrod. And Nimrod used to wear the clothes, these special garments, and he would go hunting. And these clothes were so holy and so unique that all the animals were afraid of him, and they would like bow down to Nimrod, and that's how he would hunt them. And needless to say, the Midrash elaborates and says how powerful the clothes are. I gave a class a whole long class about it a few years ago uh quoting Rabbeinu Behayei, if you want to learn more about it. But nevertheless, these clothes were very specific, very holy, and very unique. Esau wanted these clothes, so he goes and kills Nimrod. He does a uh favor to humanity, shoots an arrow, and he kills Nimrod, and he takes the clothes. The only difference is that he didn't want the clothes to dress himself and go honor himself and be a great hunter and a great leader. He's He He took the clothes He wanted the clothes only for one thing, to be dressed honorable when he comes to see his father. That's why he did that. He mean he did a horrible crime. He murders an individual. Doesn't matter that he murdered a wicked individual, but the entire reason why he wanted the clothes is only to lechabet aba, to honor my father. So, Rivka tells Jacob "Go Go and wear these clothes. Jacob can't see. He's Isaac can't see. He's blind. And that's how Isaac will think that you are a sovereign and will give you the blessing." As much as Esau was evil, he had one little dot in his heart of sensitivity, of kindness, of love. That I can relate with. That I'll tell you on a personal level. That I can relate with. 25 years ago I was an Esau. No question. Everything Esau did, I did. But there was a one little little little dot deep deep deep down in my heart that I still came from a normal family, a good family, good values. As horrible as I was, and I was a shame a shame Nobody even knows to what extent how bad I was. Doesn't matter how much I'm exposing lately in my lectures. I was Esau. But I always had a very deep place in my heart that had some type of manute. Like a pity and and softness. How do you say it's not pity? It's a have a a no How do you say not sympathy? a compassion I As evil and as not nice and crazy how I was doesn't matter right now every little detail. I had that's probably that little dot where I was able to start coming back to to Hashem. Somebody asked me the other day, how do I know I'm not Amalek? How do I know I'm not Amalek? I mean I have all sorts of bad thoughts, I have desires, I have this and I I have bad thoughts, I mean evil thoughts and So I said uh if you find somewhere in the depth of your heart some kind of kindness or some pity and compassion to some creature or whatever, you know you're not Amalek. Amalek is 100% achzar. Uh how do you say achzar? Like ruthless and destructive and mean, evil, 100%. You can be 99%. You have 1% of kindness or pity, compassion, patience, you're not Amalek. You're bad, but you're not Amalek. As bad as Esau was and we know he was a murderer and he was a rapist and he was a fraud and but he had a little dot, he was still Isaac and Rebecca's son. Now if you're looking at the story of the stealing of the blessing, it says that the second that he heard that the blessings were stole, he screams. The Torah says he screams. He screamed. Why you scream? Esau. He got upset that the last little dot, this last percentage he had from his father, this little holy dot was taken away from him. That's why he screamed. Like a Jew that can be as far away from the Torah, but you take away from him his connections to Hashem, that's when he will flip out. And that's why Esau screamed when he heard the were taken cuz that was his last connection to his father, the last holy thing that he had a connection to his father. And he screams. But look how much respect he has to his father. He says, "I'm going to kill my brother after my father dies. I will not bring sorrow to my father. I will wait till my father Isaac dies and then I'm going to go and revenge and I kill Jacob." He's still evil, but he has so much respect to his father, so much honoring for his father that he says, "I'm not going to bring sorrow to my father." At the end of the day, of course, we know that Esau did teshuvah. But not only that, we have to also remember that from Esau came a few pillars of our genera- of our faith. Shemaya and Avtalyon, our lineage from Esau. Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Meir. They're all lineage from Esau that they converted. I mean, Rabbi Meir is not a convert, but he's a tze'etza. He's the offspring of Neron. And Rabbi Akiva is a child of converts. So, from Esau came a few great giants for in our in our faith. So, we know that at the end of the day, Esau did teshuvah. How do we know that? There's a story that when they came to bury Jacob, I shared that story along a lot a few times. I'll share it share it in not in length now. They come to bury Jacob after he dies. As they come to Ma'arat Machpelah, Esau stands there with a lot of men armed and they saying, "What are you doing?" And telling him we're coming to bury our father, Yaakov. Adam and Chava here, Avram and Sara, Itzhak and Rivka, now Leah and Yaakov are going to be buried here. Esau says, "No. It's my my burial spot, not his. Who says it's his?" So, they tell him, "When you sold to eat to Yaakov the firstborn, with that came the the the lot, the burial lot." He says, "Oh, really? Do you have any document that proves that?" They tell him, "As a matter of fact, we do. But it's in the safe back in Mitzrayim." So, he says, "Okay, well, if you want to bury your father here, go get the document." Okay, so they send a messenger to get the document. In the meantime, Yaakov's body is on the floor. Now, imagine now all the sons all the shvatim, the tribes are there. Yosef, the king of the second to the king in Mitzrayim. Esau, I mean, just imagine the scene. And the body of Yaakov is on the floor. So, a certain individual, Chushim ben Dan, the son of Dan, who was deaf, he doesn't know who Esau is. He's born in Egypt. He doesn't know that Esau is the brother of Yaakov. He sees a man with a sword and men and all armed and he's giving them an issue. He understands that he's causing problem. So, he takes out a some say it was a sword, some say it was a bat. He hits Esau in his head, detaches his head, and the head starts rolling and going into into the grave and stops next to the grave. And the body stays outside. So, from that we know that Esau at the end of his life he did teshuvah, that the head was buried in Marat Hamachpelah. The body was outside. The head, the intellect, the level of chuva, that was in in the cave. The body, that was outside. Esau, like I told you, we all have an Esau in us. Our lusts, our desires, our passions, all these Esau things in us. How fast you're going to get rid of it? Probably never. David Hamelich was able to kill his yetzer hara. We we're probably going to have to live with it for the rest of our life. But that's the Esau in me. But the trick here is to get the body, the Esau to be outside. My desires, my lusts, external. The head needs to be clean. The head needs to to be in the right place. So we conclude by saying that Esau at the end of the day did chuva. So what does it teach us about Isaac? That Isaac's message was not to do a lot of hype like Abraham Avinu. Isaac was like, I need to leave some type of legacy. The Torah summarizes that the entire legacy of Isaac of 180 years was to dig the wells. Is to bring this point of emunah to his son. The Torah chooses to give us an example of a child of Rivka and Isaac, two righteous individuals that goes completely off the path. Isaac doesn't throw him out of the house like Sarah threw Ishmael out of the house. Sarah came to Abraham and says, "You see this troublemaker? Out. He's not going to live in my house." She kicks him out. "I don't care if he dies. He's a problem maker. He's going to now take my son to the wrong place." Jacob doesn't throw Esau Isaac doesn't throw Esau out of the house. On the contrary, he calls him every day. He sits with him. He listens to him. Isaac permeated the power that doesn't matter how far away you are from the Torah, how far away you are from Hashem, there's always going to be a connection place where you can come back, where you can make a U-turn. Yitzchak permeated the power that a person can be inspired million times, but don't do anything. But, a person can reach to a place in their own soul, in their heart, to inspire themselves. And that's the message we need to take from from Yitzchak. Is that each and every one of us, as much as I might seem far away from Hashem, or like I started the class by telling you, you see the children are off to completely different path, you see your loved ones, your family, you see the entire world is going like What the answer is? Is you have to do like Yitzchak. First of all, the persistence. Every day, the same thing. When it becomes like I don't want to say a habit, but it's part of your life. But when I want to take from him some What I want to take from this message something private and personal to me, I also have my constant battles. One day I do believe in Hashem, the other day it's not so easy to believe in Hashem. The next day I have challenges today. I want to run to pray, tomorrow I have I'm How do you say? Lazy? Everybody has their challenges in Avodat Hashem. And you look for answers, you look for guidance, you look for inspiration. So, what do you need to do? What's the the advice that Hashem gives us through the Torah? What do you need to do? You need to remove the physicality, the homriut, the materialism that covers the emunah. And the emunah, the belief, will just grow by itself. I have all sorts of lusts and desires, materialisms and physicality that are covering my emunah. I need to remove that. Nobody will do it for me. You won't go to any lecture and the rabbi will remove from you your desires and your lusts. He might inspire you for an hour. But then you go home you go you back to the same battle you have with your lusts with your desires with your passions which I'm talking about the ones who go against the shame not your passion for Torah or your desire to to give to the come talking about things that take you away from a shame what do you need to do you have to remove the materialism the the the home real the physicality but what's the message that we need to take from that what's the message we need to take from 180 years of the life of Isaac a person only starts changing when he does it himself