Parshas Lech Lecha: "Sweet Revenge" - Revolutionizing the War of the 4 Kings and the 5 Kings

this Torah class is brought to you by Torah anytime.com welcome everyone BR to the so now we get into the par that people are take a lot of interest in because he have the The Narrative we're introduced of course to abrah ainu and even though in the storyline it opens up where Hashem tells abam to go to Canan to go to is and he'll be blessed and he gets there and there's famine and he goes to par and Par takes Sarah but Hashem protects Sarah and uh be it as it may we have a beautiful story and then at the end of the paraa we have this the the brisban habar and the mil of but smack in mid of this par there seems to be a random episode about the war of the Four Kings and the five Kings you have the these Four Kings Rael AR alasar and Sid and they made war with barah Bersa shov sh um and and they got together for 12 years the five Kings served the third the Four Kings and in the 13th year they rebelled and they uh they waged War and the Four Kings actually they captured light cuz where was light light was in sad so light is in sad andu comes running after light and he rescues light and saves light from the pit fine a very nice story but why is it here why is it smack the par why do we need to know about it the tar is not a history book it's not a book of politics what is the lmod from this story and why is it so Central to the history of Cl so let's begin in the following way we have these Four Kings now who are these people what do you mean who are they we just said their names are and rash doesn't say a word about any of the names except for Amel says Rashi who's Amel who Nim he's Nim he's the one who said to abam jump Into the Fire Omar PO he said jump his name Isel the question is what's bothering Rashi what Rashi seems to be bothered who is he what do you mean who is he he is who he is he's Amel well what's the big Kasha imagine I say you know my name is gladin but who are you oh who am I I'm fredman no mean who am I I just told you my name the name is I'm Rafel so why does Rashi have to say he's not am Rafel he's somebody else he's not somebody else he's am Rafel what you know R Rashi is here to tell tell me rash's job is not to give so is there so is there a reason not to take the Torah at face value it says so why is it called so explains yeah rash is bothered by a question because how could it beel if he's M we already know from this past week's par the was nid right in so we have a guy named nimro he was the son of he was a mighty warrior therefore people would say like nimro like a mighty warrior before God and his the beginning of his origins of his malus was Babel in the land of shinar so we already know the king of shinar was nimro s aasha i don't you know is a name like any other but how could he be me Shar we just learned that nimro was the king of Shar and therefore Rashi answers ah same guy really it is nroy so why is he called Amel because he told Abraham to jump into the fire let me ask you a question do you think that after the episode of orasm his parents um made an announcement that they're going to be making a KES in and the whole seor came to The KES and the father got alyah and the father said make said what happened your wife is pregnant no you had a baby yeah really when 50 years ago yeah but that why you making me no I'm changing my kid's name then you call him nroy I'm changing his name now I'm changing do you you think that happened they I guarantee you he probably didn't tell the gab about it he didn't make a right so El the t is referring to him as Amel why why in this episode do we need to refer to nimro as I think we all know who nimro is it should sayro why all of a sudden do we need to change his name it's not like by the way that this is a good way to identify him because how much information do we have about the episode of nimro and orasm none we don't even know about it it's not mentioned in the really so it's not like we're giving a reference point we're trying to identify to clarify who this individual is all the PK says is that's the whole story in the word two words orm is Mame is the whole story so it's not like we're clarifying exactly who Nim was there's another problem here and there's another issue that Rashi seems to be addressing and that is if you look in the P so is what what number here three now even though in baseball three is a very number and the truth is maybe when you used to follow it's three but nowadays there's a big number two is even more analytically more but in the T it's the lead off batter is the most important one so who's the leadoff batter in this list is number one is number two is number three the problem is as the story continues is always listed as number one is a leadoff Banner look at number six now we don't even say anyone else's name we're not even listing it's and and the Gang why he's the guy in charge he's the king of the world if you wanted to know who is the it was at the time and and therefore since he's the he entered the fold and he led the battle so really first we say because and that's why he's listed first in other words when we talk about the Four Kings and the five Kings we say and we talk about how came to Squatch the rebellion and rash clearly says was the main character over here if that's the case why does the begin why is leading off the story if he's not he's only a a sub character he's not the main character the main character isad so one of the super commentaries on Rashi the he says that the reason why Rashi is explaining Who Am Rafel is me remember we had a Kasha why does rash have to say Rael means po maybe am Rael is his name right there did when you were born right they named you whatever they name oh did anyone get up and what's in the name no your name is your name we don't have to say j in the name so why is Rashi daring Amel because rash is bothered by a why does the Torah list Amel first it should say first the answer is do you know whoel is this is not a regular guy this is n and then as we're going to see this gives us a deeper understanding of why the story is brought in meaning you have to know whenever the T brings down an episode it's not for narrative it's not for political context the t is the eye of is the interest of who is re I'm interested in the reason the t is telling me the story of the Four Kings and the five Kings is because ofel therefore the to Begins by he be May ra I am Rafel politically was a sub character and the main character was Kad you're right that's what you would think if in the Wall Street Journal New York Times reported the story it would put Kadar first however if you want to know why the t is telling me about the story it's because of it's all about Nim now why do I need to know about Nim so let the story unfold take a look at number eight rash says the reason why Rashi brings this on a name more than any other name in the there many names that have that rash doesn't bring was B why does the Torah count first and make the main dependent on him but he's batting third among the Kings like it says the strongest king among them was Kad and the answer is in other words it should have said Kad first but the answer is no it says I'm Rafel first because this is not just the name am Rafel this is none other than nimro okay so what why is nimro so important why is it critical for the Tyra to interject the story of nimro the of the Four Kings in let's continue so the five the Four Kings when they attacked the five Kings they defeated them to show how powerful they were and they took hostages who do they took as hostage light they took light and his possessions who light the son of the brother of Abraham by the way who is Abraham's brother Haron so L was the son this is one of the most peculiar in the whole it's grammatically wrong listen to the story they took L and L's possessions L had a couch so they took ly and L's couch and who's L's couch L's couch was Ben the son of the brother of Abraham so there's a guy named ly lyd had a couch and who the couch is the couch was the nephew of Abraham it's an interesting nephew to have I know people have nephews but I don't know anyone who has a couch has a nephew the tah writes they took L and his possessions who were the possessions the son of the brother AB the correct grammatical uh structure would be really that's cor yes every single time in the whole T talks like that and if it doesn't it's wrong what happened what what happened to the editing on this obviously wrote it this way why ask the sh which is and in the back he has Memoirs and memories and this is s Kasha but I found that you know who else asked this question none other than the arisal himself and thatal says there's a cabalistic secret in this P what is the cabalistic secret we know that often there are Nish that are extracted from impure sources and one such n was raava raava raava you know raava you probably never met him personally but there's a a set of books that you might be familiar with called tud B that Raa is that the am Raa his soul was in and the daughter of light and the remes that is in light is because the and say now I understand why the Torah wrote this P grammatically backward CU if it would have said then you would not have had the remes to it purposely wrote to to by the way I once saw in a I believe it's that why is it throughout is always the that throughout why is busy with wine there's another that ra used to drink wine of P to wet his appetite the elsewhere what's R busy with wine cuz since he made a mistake by drinking wine and he succumb to living with his daughters to be that throughout whenever there's a is the one who Dash him okay that's just a no extra charge for that but the the AR says there's another says is also therefore says the that's why the Torah writes it backward to okay obviously that's not the the Rabbi says that's not right that's not the the TR you can't say it says yeah the Russ don't have to you know okay but um in either event R Schwab shab has um a nice here why the T writes and sort of the Torah interposes the words of es between and says you know there's something very mysterious about light light used to be a really good guy when ly's father was Haron Haron was there at the the the theological war between Abraham and imid and Haron was there and they asked Haron whose side are you on Haron said let me you know let me see the outcome and when ABR was saved from the fire he said I'm on his team and he was thrown in the fire and he was killed Rashi says from here we see that if somebody's m nees only to be saved they won't be saved but at the end of the day har was to the point where he ever realize all the IM came from from Haron you know Haron Haron was a good guy think about the think about what Haron brought to this world Haron was a milka AA Haron was the father of SAR Haron was the the ancestor of Rifka of Rael and Leia of David H this guy had pretty good writes you know why he was that all good things come from him cuz he died that's why his son is light you think if your sister is Sarah if your sister right say look at the brothers if you want to know who to marry someone look at the brother so when AB married Sarah when AB called The MASH in the Yesa AB said look they said look said we don't talk about ladies but I'll tell you about the brother the brother's said go ahead with the show who do you think AB asked about about L that's why he married her L was was wonderful person in fact later on when it says rash says why only is Hashem speaking to abam now but not not before because as long as L was with abam so Hashem doesn't speak to sikim if they're in the presence of R but the say but earlier it says cuz then L was a ker so think about what happened why by the way when AB went down to MIM L and ab said about SAR that Sarah was was his sister light could have opened up his mouth and he kept quiet why was he saved from sad because he controlled his debor so L started off and all of a sudden he became a rash he sort of was a k and he left to S so what was the turning point we don't really know what the turning point was says RAB the only information we have about light that could have contributed to his becoming otd is what information do we have in this P the answer is there's a very important less than that person has to know and that even if you have a car or a home or money they're not an adjective of you they're something that you happen to own but as soon as you allow your possessions to describe and Define you and become your essence and you become materialistic that's the beginning of the downfall you know what the problem with light was that you know who L became L was no longer Ben first and foremost it was L that's who he was he became L and his car Lloyd and his home Lloyd and his money and then as an afterthought he was Ben he let his money interpose between and being that's how reads the that's a more but be it as it may we're going to explain this uh in another way as well okay let's come a little further one of the very uh difficult things to understand is light was captured so Abraham gets a call Abraham your nephew was captured by the Taliban it's terrible terrible tragedy so you know what do you want abam to do sit I don't know what do you want to do you know Osama Bin Laden has your kid has your nephew you know it's a terrible thing I feel very bad my my brother perished you know I'm not going to there's nothing I could do well what what do you want from me why did yeah send an army call I don't know called the IDF but what do you want from my life why did Abraham risk his life to save his nephew a person that has to risk their life to save another Jew no if it's is a person allowed to put themsel in s to save someone happens to be we you know to risk your life you're not allowed to risk your life to save someone so what's I'm doing became a so look in the the refugee came heard his brother was captured so the first problem friends is that this is wrong he's not his brother brother his brother's kid oh okay good enough you know whatever why does the Torah incorrectly identify who L was why does it say by the way this is not the first time the Torah calls them brothers and he armed his men 318 men rash says it wasn't even 318 it wasz andar is G fine ask to say for why call him a brother when it's not true number two why did Abra risk himself God hates light light is a Russ God hates the don't think God loves everyone don't be one of those people God loves everyone we're not judgmental what you mean God's not judgmental Hashem there's something called r he judges us every single hour says right every day judg anyway comes the ran and the ran says you know why Abraham risked his life to rescue light because the reason nroy captured light oh sorry I slipped the reason they captured light the reason the Four Kings captured light is it wasn't light that they're interested it's AB they were interested in it was against God the reason why Abraham risked his life is because since they went after light because light was so to speak part of the family so they weren't really after this hostage per se but they were after the ideals of the family therefore Abraham was to be and this is something we're going to we're about to elaborate on why do we call ly ab's brother there's another instance that they're called Brothers in the beginning of the para let's not fight me you our Shepherds we're Bros says rash BR we're relatives that's all it means we look alike which is a Pella so what let's not fight because we look alike meaning if I was tall and you were short then we could punch each other out but now that we look alike let's be peaceful you know what is the fact that they looked alike that's a reason to be at peace so the mascul ofid says that the fact that they look alike that demonstrates that they have a soul Bond and they come like from the same well since we have this deep Soul connection as evidenced by the fact that we look alike let's try to get along okay then the Mas brings the that I'm afraid that since we look alike people are going to see me shepherding in other F people are going to see you shepherding in fields that don't belong to you they're going to suspect that I'm stealing and therefore doesn't it's not good for my reputation it's a on my part that you're grazing in other people's fields and people are not going to know it's you they're going to think it's me therefore we can't be together then the be says why did God make people look different why why is it that there no two people that look alike and the med says that if people would look alike it would really blur the lines of ownership of relationship of of possession you know if we look alike then I'm going to say this is mine you're going to say it's yours this is my wife it's your wife it's going to cause a lot of trouble so is going to say we can't fight if we didn't look alike it's one thing if we fought at least we know I own this and you own that but now that we look alike and we don't get along it's going to be messy but what do we see from the words the how do we the way the interpret is that they look similar therefore coming back to par um the story of the Four Kings and the five Kings when Abraham heard that his brother was captured if brother indicates it's because they looked alike that should trigger in our minds that one of the reasons the main reason AB went to rescue light is because L looked like abam okay why would that be a reason for L for abam to rescue L because L looked like Abram so I remember two years ago I spoke in in Memphis Tennessee and the rabbi got up and he set over aot from RAB YF so I went over to him said where where is thisat from has a said no I heard him say it I was in once I heard R say it so uh recently I started checking this far of rabu because now they published not only they published every single every single thing he said they have a rashash and sure enough in the they publish this and it's also in the which is like a stories on R and I believe Friday was his fifth yard site so it um R says an absolutely astounding and that is abam had really no reason to go save light it's not Abraham's fault that light was captured in the first place light's fault why did he go to sad who asked who asked light to go relocate to such a bad area relate was attracted by the gmas by the cruelty of the city abin had no responsibility to C to rescue light but there's one thing there's one reason that Abraham did it you know why he did it cuz he had this war of the century the war of the titans the theological war with nroy and they were fighting over who is the creator of the universe nid said I'm God there's no real God I created the world nid was a nimro was what we say the origins of Christianity there is a gr there would quote that nimr's symbol was the cross and the meaning of the Cross is there's a vertical line which indicates connection between Heaven and Earth and a horizontal line which indicates that connection has been severed we don't care about the heavens it's all down on Earth that was a symbol of nimro nimro was fighting AR V says no there's a creator of the universe and nimro took Abraham and he threw him in the fire and nimro suffered that Abraham was rescued from the fire and the whole world understood was able to bolster his notion of monotheism that there's one God and that nroy is nothing nid is bosam and nroy suffer the the shame of his life his whole life's ambition went down the drain in his battle with Abraham and he yeah he continued on his uh philosophy but nobody bought it anymore so nimro thinks to himself look what am I going to do I'm going to fight abam obviously God's on his side oh nroy had an Nall I'm going to capture aam's lookalike and I'm going to parade him around and say look that was a setup but I'm going to have my last laugh I captured a and I'm going to kill and now everyone's going to be says that was Nim's plan in capturing light to be able to bolster his opinion his philosophy that's why I want to suggest that even though historically politically if you read the story in the papers you would think this is all about a war of the Four Kings and the five Kings led by Kad but that's not why the Torah reports it the Torah reports it by the Torah reports because this is all about nimr nimro capturing why heard his brother was captured the guy who looked exactly like him so says I'm not to him cuz if I was willing to to risk my life to jump into the fire the first time well that's all now going down the tubes that L is light is captured therefore I want to suggest that the reason the toyra changed is the name of nimro over here it could have said but he nimro the reason the T calls Himel is to trigger in your mind realize that the story is being reported because of nimro but not just because of nimro because of what nimro did in the episode of orasm that he told AB to jump in the fire that's why the Torah is changing his name here ah so says the saer sh that we all know am is nimro number 21 one and he's called Amel because he told to jump into the fire and Abraham won the first battle so Nim said that light looks exactly like AB I'm going to capture light and I'm going to parade light and I'm GNA say God has his last laughs so why does it say to indicate that Abraham only went to save light cuz he looked like him and he wanted to avoid the so that people should not think that Abraham was captured so if you look at number 22 and the say these are anecdotes about why was to save the answer is has nothing to do with light AB was nimro threw AB Into the Fire and he made a made a miracle and it was a k but now AB was concerned people are going to think Abraham was killed and in order to stand up for to save light he wasn't saving light he was upholding so listen to this in the saer kilas M he bring AA I don't think this m is from kazal I think it's something that AED once said and it's a very colorful anecdote and story I don't know that it's from Kazan I don't know that it ever happened but it brings out a point and brings out the point that we're making one day Abraham gets a knock on the door is the great who's there today Nim what do you want I want room and board I heard you know you have a good hotel you I heard sah makes a really good tongue you know so uh Abu you know said no no problem come in and Abu served him covered so it comes time to leave and IM said Thank you thank you I need your American Express and uh you could choose what level tip you want to give wait a second I thought you the big next week's par we read you didn't charge them when they came to you what what do you want to charge me I mean to say what do you mean I don't charge humans but you ain't no human you're a God you tell everyone you're a God so if you're a God and the truth is every time I have a guest and I don't charge them you know what the guest said God should pay you back double so here's the bill of double all the guests I ever had you know $50 billion thank you you know God take care of me after all all the guests always say God should pay you back Kim so you know I have a right to M you Kim so nimr said uh well this is usury this is abusive I thought you were a good guy now you're like uh money hungry so what do you want that's what everyone was and God told me you told me the beginning of the par so all the bras people give me know you got to cash in on so Nim said uh yeah good point I am God I left my uh American Express at home come Sam said what do you mean God God always has money on him God says how can you not have money on me listen listen I'll make a deal with you either I take away your Royal Horse and your crown and all your money as a p or just do me a little favor write on a little old settle I am then I'm not good one of the two either you give me your crown and your horse or you ride an i you that you're not God you right so nimro had no choice but to write on a little sentle I am not God and then went parading all around you see there's one God and is a n poop he wrote on a piece of paper that he's not God I mean I I wouldn't have believed him I wouldn't have thought such a thing I couldn't be but when I asked him to pay he this is how he paid you know he couldn't pay so probably nimro his whole life he's trying to get that settle back he figures he can't attack Abraham so at the very best he's going to go after light oh now I understand listen to what the PK says and he captured L and L's nobility and L's possessions what was the greatness of light what was the great possession of light that L was that's why nimro took him took light cuz because had what was the great R of that he was ah so says you have to understand Tyra Tyra has two Dimensions there's a narrative and the Ty will report The Narrative the way it happened accurately that was the main character because he was the main guy if you look at the story he was the main King nid was not as great at him but in terms of how we open up the story we open up why because T is giving you insight into why this story appears here because in the aftermath of orasm and nimri wanted to take revenge against aam therefore he captured him so even though in the New York Times it wouldn't say it this way but in the Tyra says it this way because this is why Hashem puts it in the Tyra and here's the big uh here's the grand finale so who tells abam that light was captured says rash he was rescued from the war like it says meaning in the times when fought the there's only one guy who survived and he survived to be able to tell ab and there's a medish that this is O that was rescued from the mael and he wanted Abraham to be killed and he would marry so wait a second this is O from the Mable the Mable was in like what year like 1656 or something something like that the Mable was uh what 1656 something like that right in the year 1656 and Abraham what year are we in now 2000 we're in the year like a years in between we at least the past least at least 2000 was born 1948 right so and and in the beginning of the parach 75 you know around the year 2000 right so we're talking about 350 years later I mean that guy ate a lot of Brussels sprouts if he lived to the year 2000 sh was what I mean that's how long he lived well he lived so long from the mble and then he lived into the times ofu so the gur AR speaks at length about why o lives so long however the Lush says that if the gorar is saying this from philosophy I have a lot of questions on him if he's saying it as prophecy okay so maybe he's a prophet but I'm going to tell you the reason why Ugg lives so long cuz God knows the future and he knows the Four Kings are Mighty Warriors nobody could survive the Four Kings unless you're a giant like so he needed o to stick around to survive the war to be able to report to AB that L was captured why Hashem says you think Hashem wanted Abram to know that L was captured so that L should be saved no Hashem wanted to give Abraham happiness and when is a person happy when they take revenge listen to this the greatest Sim is m I that's only when somebody insults you personally but when somebody um when somebody assaults the honor of God the greatest happiness is Revenge in fact in tahim it says thead rejoices that it will see Revenge it says right it says wash his feet in the blood of the wicked remember Victor Miller would say in part of the reward of ganeden is that sadim are watching God torture the the Nazis that's part of the reward of ganen that the theim of the of the say really that's s him throughout to H the joy of N and the joy of mish okay what does that mean in other words we're not to take revenge but God administers says God wanted to make AB Rejoice so he gave him the opportunity to find out that light was captured to be able to take revenge against Nim because at the end of even though AB was saved from the fire at the end of the day nimro assaulted him nimro harassed him nimro threw him into the fire and nowu has paraphrasing the to hel him so why now sometimes the the moment had not come yet for the Russia to be punished and today finally it's his payday his payday was in as's listen to this listen to this says it could be it could be even better it could be that after Abraham was saved from the fire the same way you know whenever the a have it good a comes running oh let's make a peace treaty let's make peace they only want to make peace when they're afraid for their life right that's the only way to deal with with the enemies you know you can't negotiate with them they need to see we mean business and then they come on their own and they want to make a peace treaty so a came to make a p treating says L we don't have evidence to this but it's very likely that after the episode sort of oraz them nimro came to AB he said you know what let's be friends let's get along let's make a peace treaty I love you you love me you know world world peace okay and abin sort of had no choice but to make this deal make make this uh treaty with nimri and he can never break it but Hashem wanted Abraham to be able to take revenge against nimro so he put this idea in nro's mind that nid should capture light oh nid what happened to the peace treaty all deals are off you broke the deal so oi comes running to Abraham that Abraham um that light was captured Abraham now says look n now you're going down so therefore the the Lush writes like this Abraham Abraham could not have heard a happier thing that light was captured when Abraham heard it was like the great report that he got now the cause should come that he should kill his enemy and he had in hasem that Hashem would support him and he went out and therefore Hashem kept o alive until now not for his SOS but that he should be available to be able to take revenge against a nimro and said that's why the Story begins it could have said Nim the Torah is saying realize this is a code word that this entire episode is because Nim it's it's the one who told AB to jump in the fire he captured light therefore hasem and Hashem orchestrated this way so that even though at the end of the par it would seem that AB was you know down in the dumps once Hashem tells Abraham in this week's par anyone who starts up with you is going down the drain Hashem says I'm good for my word confirmation number one I'm RAF is going to capture light you're going to knock him off Sweet Revenge and uh that's the beginning of Abraham ain's upward climb to Great Heights in all of his uh in all aspects of his career and we should all be to the Great you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by Torah anytime.com