ALL PARSHA - The Malbim on Parshas Bereishis

Brook and welcome everyone to the launch of a brand new series for Topshin Pes all para paras the malbara sporacious rabb mayor le ben the malb the malb was a contemporary of rabies salant he lived from 1809 to 1879 the malbum after the great [clears throat] rishim is considered from the greatest if not the most important perish on tyrant of Imu the Malbam's parish is so unique because he combined extensive knowledge of shas his knowledge of all the midrashima saf and saf his mastery and his command of Hebrew grammar and he uses all of this as a springboard for perhaps the most unique commentary on all of to have a little flavor of the greatness of the malam from a accolade that was given to the malbum from none other than the mesh himself. The meshma applied to the malbum the hespid that thearan records for the one who codified shas the hespid that was given to rava says a certain eulogizer began as follows. The eulogizer saidim we need to devote night and day to eulogize Rava because he studied night and day. That's the simple meaning of what this eulogizer was saying. But Rome Simka uncoded the deeper eulogy, the deeper elegy here. You see there are two distinct realms of Tyra or at least there were two distinct realms of Tyra. The med says, "How did know when he went up to learn from when it was day, when it was night?" The med says, "When he hashem taught him, he knew it was day. When Hashem taught him, he knew it was night." Is designated for the daytime for the night. even writes in the if one can ideally one should devote the day hours for and the night hours for you could reverse it that's all things being equal if the your schedule is in your hands it should be designated in the day comes ra and ravina created babius and kaducian says babi was balak it mixed the tab the sukim, the Mishna, the garra, and it showed one unified entity. Therefore, we need to mourn day and night because he turned the realm of the day, the into vice versa. The says this could equally be applied to the malb. The malbum showed the inseparable bond between and that without the oral law the is a we cannot understand it we're going to share two offerings of the mab on paras let's begin in the beginning the garra says inash god created the world with 10 statements The garra asks, "But you'll only find nine vay and bacas." Answers the garracious nami mamu. Boracious is also a statement. So the obvious question is I understand the creation of heaven and earth required a statement. But why doesn't the Torah say why is there no statement here? The malam explains you have to understand the connotation of the word vy implies speaking to something. The only thing is the first statement of creation was there was nothing to speak to. You see from the first statement of creation and on so the matter existed. So God could say to the original matter be the raya be the light be the earth. But the original statement of creation was and the word is inappropriate. Therefore, it just says boracious. That is the amazing approach of the mamm. The malam also uncovers the significance of the four rivers of Ganeden. And actually the mal has such an an astounding approach to the four rivers that emanated from Ganeden. He opens this up in a very amazing way. Theukim tell us that Hashem placed Adamish in he there and the Pik says that one river separated into four heads. One's name was Pishine. It encircled the land of Kavila. There was gold there. The gold was good and they had diamonds there and precious stones. The name of the second river was Ghine. It surrounded and encircled the land of Kush. The third river was it went east of Ashure. And the fourth river and it doesn't say the name of the fourth river was Paras. The Malam reveals actually the original river that emanated from Ganed then watered Ganedan was also the Euphrates river. What is the significance of these rivers? Why do we need to know they were in Ganedan? The Malam explains the same way Hashem gave Adam the opportunity to sin and be banished from Ganedan to violate the command of Hashem. Hashem also placed in the first river in the original river, the Euphrates River. You see, Admar was placed in Ghana. Bam explains for the primary purpose of creation to study Hashem in the world and come to a recognition and a conviction of Hashem's reality. But you could take other paths in life and there are paths that will lead you astray. There are three primary paths that lead a person astray in this world. Those who run after money to fill up their homes with silver and gold and they think this will bring happiness. A second group who runs after pleasure, pleasure of bodily pleasure, pleasure of arayos. And the third path that leads a person astray is those who run after power and that leads to warfare. Now the dangers of these three paths, the danger of running after money is that it breeds jealousy when you see others that have more money. The danger of running after pleasure is one becomes immersed in tya. And the danger of running after power is that it embeds a person and immerses a person in the pursuit of kavite. These three p three paths that lead a person astray. These three rivers that lead a person astray from the main river from the Euphrates river from the harp which engenders prophecy and divine wisdom. These three paths are known none other than ka tya and kav. The first river Pishine, it encircles the land of the kava. This is the land of seeking ownership, possessions, money. There's gold there. Now, gold has no inherent value. If there was gold everywhere in the world, gold would be valueless. It only has value because the gold is only there. And what are you going to do with gold? What can you do with it? You can't eat it. You going to rub it on your face? No. You could buy things. What could you buy? You could buy diamonds. What are you going to do with a diamond? If there were diamonds everywhere, diamonds would have no value. No, there was only diamonds there. There the gold. There was gold there. And the gold was good cuz there were only precious stones there. This was the river that leads you astray. The river of money. The river of jealousy. That's the first river that leads out of the garden of Eden. The second river is Ghine, the Guehine River. It's a hot land. It's the land of Kush and where the sun is strong and everyone is basking in the sun. It's a land steeped in haros. And even today in the areas where people go to take in the sun, the hidden motive is to immerse oneself in the pleasure of physical pleasure seeking in the pleasure of aray. That's the river of Ghan. The third river is the river kazal say it made a racket. It was very loud. It's by ashore. Asher was the nation of warfare. This is the area, the river that leads to the pursuit of power seeking and battle and war. The fourth river has no name because there are very few people who seek it out. It doesn't say shame paras have a big name but it is paras. That is the river through which one could attain the main purpose in life because paras is a lush of pay. That's where you could really achieve something of lasting value. These three rivers, four rivers, the three that have a name that everyone's after and the fourth which produces real achievement are the paths that could lead a person out of the garden of Eden. But the river that waters the garden itself is the Euphrates. And for all time, a person always has these directions to take that can lead a person away from true paradise. Most people are not that interested in true paradise. There are only very few people there. But that's okay. It doesn't need to be sought by everyone. Those who pursue it understand and recognize its pleasure, its beauty and its eternal value.