Parshas Vayeira: Believe It or Not

this Torah class is brought to you by Torah anytime.com um we're good mhm okay so I'm very excited to be able to present to you two um aspects of the paraa two of the um primary aspects of the paraa that we're going to focus on they seem not to be related to each other but then we're going to find uh we're going to find a connection sheets okay the first one is at the end of last week's par Hashem comes to Abraham ainu and he tells him I have two important pieces of information to tell you the first one he says you know your wife Sarai that nice lady you're married to that's not her name anymore she's getting a new name she's no longer called Sarai we're taking out the yud she's now called Sarah and by the way she hasn't had should for the last 90 years but guess what she's going to have a child soem tells s Abraham two pieces of information first of all you have a new wife your wife's name is uh has been changed and number two number two you're going to have a child you're going to have a child so what was Abraham's reaction if you look at number one Abraham fell on his face and he laughed he said in his heart you think I can have a child at the age of a 100 could SAR have a child she's 90 it's impossible so again what was Abraham's reaction to the news he laughed he laughed it seemed he was incredulous then we have again in this week's para where the malim come to Abraham Abraham serves them a festive meal an elaborate meal and what do the malim say to Abraham by the way in exactly one year Sarah is going to have a child and again Sarah overhears this Sarah overhears this now we're assuming right now that Sarah had heard this before because at the time that Hashem told Abraham that they're going to have a child presumably Abraham told Sarah so now Sarah is here theim tell Abraham the news that in a year they're going to have a child s s laughed in herself and she said after I become withered out my skin is going to come smooth again plus my husband he's an old he's an old guy we're not having a child so Abraham left what does this PK say this says s okay so SAR has the same same attitude as Abraham says to why did Sor laugh to say can I give birth while when I'm so old is anything hidden from at the appointed time see return to this time lives in other words comes to Abraham with criticism with criticism what is hashem's criticism why did SAR laugh something's not fear over here why did Sarah laugh Abraham also left why is Hashem only criticizing Sarah when in Abraham had the exact same reaction if you look at number one he left so Abraham laughed SAR laugh why is Sarah getting the raw end of the deal you know you know a few people do something wrong and one guy gets picked on so he says what are you picking on me right every time you you uh somebody gets in trouble why are you picking on me so here you have ab and S they commit the same crime they both laugh and Hashem only criticizes Sarah why is that so we're going to present a number of different explanations why only Sarah is criticized and that Abraham the first explanation is the explanation of the tarum the if you look on the side of the there's something called tarum unas unas was actually a convert who translated the Torah but it was not his own translation the translation of tarum dates back to the giving of the Torah on har the tarum says just because the same word that by Abraham by and by S that it means two different things because the tarum if you look at number three when when it talks about that Abraham look what the tarum translates it as fell on his face doesn't mean he laughed means he was happy right anybody means happy Means happy but by the tarum translates it as look at number four laughed in other words you know why Hashem didn't criticize Abraham Abraham never laugh the fact that the ptic says by it doesn't mean he laughed it means he was happy Hashem gave him the report he was overjoyed he was happy he wasn't in disbelief he was rejoicing s when it says that means she laughed okay look at Rashi number five and Rashi says this answers our question why was s criticize and not Abraham because Abraham didn't laugh Abraham was happy Sarah laughed look in rashi rashi says in number five AB by Abraham unus translates it a language of Happiness he rejoiced shall s but by a language of laughing we learn from here Abraham believed and he was happy s did not believe and she scoffed that's whym got angry at s so in other words what we're saying is why didm get angry at Abraham and not at s not Abraham because abah didn't do anything wrong Abraham was happy he was overjoyed you hear good news you hear you know somebody uh something good happened to somebody so you smile you almost laugh not incredulously but out of Happiness SAR laughed she couldn't believe it she didn't believe it okay that's the first approach now we're going to learn the approach of the mes the was written by Sim ofin was such a small little city that you know when you were riding on the horse and buggy if you would start Ash by the time you got to you're out of the city already that's how small the city was my father came from the VIN yeah yeah okay so the m is one of the great personages of dinin so listen to what he says he says if let's let say Mr Freedman a Novi comes to you and says tomorrow you're going to go to the to the convenience store you're going to buy you know a Lucky Seven scratch off card you're going to scratch it off and you're going to win a million dollars does it have to come true a remember a prophet tells you a navi a valid Navi I guess so it doesn't have to come true why because if a noi tell I'm sorry scratch that no pun attendent but if Hashem comes and tells you okay so scratch Hashem comes tomorrow you're going to go to the conven store and you're going to scratch a l ticket and you're going to win does it have to come true no why maybe you'll sin in the interim and now you will not be deserving of what Hashem told you for example Hashem told don't worry don't be afraid of asov and then it says and yob was afraid and K tell us you know why he is afraid he's afraid maybe he sinned and now he doesn't deserve hashem's protection so if Hashem comes and tells you something himself and a good thing is going to happen if you're undeserving of it it may not happen however if a prophet comes to you and says Hashem told me that a good thing is going to happen to you it has to happen no ifs ANS or butts it has to happen if Hashem comes to you maybe you'll sin and you won't deserve it if a prophet comes to you it has to happen says and this is one of the K one of the powers of the where he says he takes a general rule and he applies it to the and here's the rule and here's the application Hashem comes to Abraham and he says Abraham you're going to have a child Abraham laughs why because it might not come true why cuz maybe he'll sin and he won't be deserving of it now really bigad they always think they're unworthy aad you know what a sign of a sadic is if they think they're not a sadic maybe then maybe then they're sadic someone who thinks they're aad then you know they're not a sadic if they don't think they're a sadic now it's now you have they have a chance right the gar says that if everyone tells you you're a sadic in your own eyes you should think that you're a Russia but any event like this Hashem comes to Abraham and he says you're going to have a child Abraham laughs because just because Hashem told him maybe he'll sin and he'll be undeserving of hashem's Promise because again the rule is if Hashem comes and tells you something good is going to happen it may not happen if you're undeserving but SAR who told Sarah she's going to have a child Abraham Abraham how do we know Abraham told Sarah she's GNA have a child because how did Sarah know her name was now Sarah Hashem never told her about the name change it must be Abraham told her by the way hasm changed your name from SAR to Sarah now along with that Prophecy of the name change was that she was going to have a child so if Sarah knew about her name change it must be Abraham told her that she's going to have a child so Sarah has no right to laugh because if a Propet tells you something good is going to happen even if you're undeserving it's still going to happen so Abraham what know the rules these people they knew whatever we knew they certainly knew they knew all the all the principles of the Torah through Divine divine inspiration they had to know this so Abraham he's allowed to laugh because just because the rule is if Hashem tells you something good is going to happen maybe you'll be undeserving of it but when the nvi tells you when the prophet tells you that something good is going to happen it has to happen no matter what so Abraham wasn't criticized cuz Hashem was the one who told Abraham but Sarah is being criticized because Hashem didn't tell Sarah Abraham told sah and if a prophet tells you something there's no ifs ANS or butts okay listen to this one another explanation why only SAR was criticized and not Abraham okay look in number seven this comes from thei thei is one of Theon look at number seven four short why did not get angry at Abraham like he got angry at saham Abraham also left like it says in the final so listen to what says you know let's say let's say you know you're in a sh and somebody's doing something wrong you know some somebody's misbehaving during the ding so you don't go over and tell them you're misbehaving they'll be embarrassed so what do you do you tell them you know maybe do you know why that other person is misbehaving I can't understand it and in their own mind in their own mind they don't think you're necessarily criticizing them but the fact that you bring up the issue they realize that it's applicable to them and other words if you want to correct someone it's not so good to take them head on it's embarrassing in it's insulting right so you don't tell them about what what they're doing wrong you tell them about what somebody else is doing wrong maybe even without mentioning a name and thereby they get the picture you know what I also do that wrong and uh I really should correct that myself so in other words Hashem comes to Abraham he says Abraham why did SAR laugh and Abraham says you know what I also laughed and then AB gets to the point you know what hashem's criticizing me also Hashem according toi was criticizing Abraham Hashem was criticizing Abraham just as much as SAR but Hashem didn't want to insult Abraham and embarrass him so he did it more in a Rand way for example you know uh sometimes you know in in where I live in Flatbush right so everyone goes to their in-laws for PES so the mother has the daughter and her family and the daughter-in-law and her family and the daughter-in-law you know and and her son and daughter-in-law's kids they're tearing part the house you know they're coloring all over the walls and they're they're ruining the nice rug but how could the mother tell her mother-in-law why don't you try taking care of your kids so what does the mother do she says to her daughter you know why don't tell your kids to behave the daughter-in-law hears then she realizes you know she better uh you know she better correct her own kids so by the way there's a yish expression you know you say you talk to the daughter but you mean the daughter-in-law so Ella so the he says this is a parable to a wise woman she really means to reprimand her daughter-in-law instead she reprimands her daughter the- realizes would have reprimanded abrah he would have been ashamed sort of reprimanded him in in a roundabout way so while Rashi says that sorrow was criticized and not Abraham because Abraham didn't do anything wrong again Rashi says Abraham didn't laugh Abraham was happyun says no they both were at fault but Hashem criticized Abraham in more of a roundabout way okay so that is the the third explanation and we said of course the M says that and Abraham was criticized Abraham was not criticized because he heard it from Hashem so maybe it won't come true so he could laugh but SAR heard it from the prophet so she has no right to laugh I'm going to tell you now a fourth explanation that comes not from Aon not from an Akon not from a rashash not even from a man from a reiton the reiton of the sadic of Y there was individual by the name of was the father-in-law of sh is considered the the greatest authority of this time um for ashm um his father-in-law wasin a very big sadic who was known to visit people in um prisons he spent his time visiting people in prisons visiting very sick people people people with uh who had leprosy who even doctors were afraid to go into he risked his life all the time to visit people with very contagious diseases and any his Ritson offered the following explanation for why Abraham was not criticized and Sarah was criticized what's the explanation goes like this if you remember there was once a Woman by the name of the isais and this isais was Barren she didn't have children for many years and she tells her husband you know we have a nice house and whenever Alisha the prophet passes through the city he always stops off in our house to stay so why don't we make him a nice nice quarters for him to a nice room for him to stay in whenever he comes this way he'll be comfortable so they built him a special attic and he stayed in their house and he was so overwhelmed by the fact that they they built these special quarters just for him that you know what he said to the lady whatever you need I'll bless you with so l said no no no I don't need anything I don't need anything but Alicia on his own saw that she she was childless and he promised her this time next year you'll be blessed with a child sure enough this woman was blessed with a child fine a little while later the child grows up and look at number eight one day the child is in the field the child says to the father roii my head my head he has a very contracted very bad headache so the father tells the lad quickly take this kid to his mother he's sick he needs help again this is the child who was miraculously B born to the is They Carried him they brought him to his mother he sits on her lap until the afternoon he dies the mother goes up she doesn't know what to do so she lays the dead child down on the bed of the Prophet remember she built Him special quarters She lays him down on his bed She lays him down on the bed of this of this godly man she closes the door behind him and she leaves she has to run to the Nai Alisha and she needs a miracle she needs Alisha to bring him back to life she calls out to her husband she says quickly get me an attendant quickly get me a donkey I need to run to the prophet so her husband's wondering why do you have to run to the prophet what's wrong what happened is everything okay he says why are you going to the prophet today it's not today's notes by the way we learned from here that in the olden days in the times of the prophets they would visit the god every it's not sh why you have to go to the today she said don't worry don't ask so many questions Shalom everything is peaceful peaceful her only child is dead how could she say everything is peaceful she she tells the attendant lead the donkey and go I'll don't hold me back unless I tell you go she goes to the mountain of where the where the lived when the man of God saw her tells his attendant oh this woman who used to host us she's coming go run to her find out how she do how she's doing say to her is everything okay is everything okay with your husband is everything okay with the child sh everything is wonderful here she is she's running to the prophet why is she running to the prophet because she knows her only hope is that this Prophet could bring her child back to life and the prophet says tells sends a message how are you how's your husband how's the child and what's the response everything is shalom shalom shom shalom shalom it's not correct Hebrew no it's to it's masculine it's not feminine if she answers it it should be um who says in in in Biblical Hebrew you see means she will say in the future there's something called a that changes the tense it makes it from future to past so changes it to and she said and she said for example y means he will say means and he said in the past okay so again and the problem is here she's going she's devastated her only child is dead the guy the Novi sends word how you doing how's your husband how's it everything's wonderful everything's wonderful her kid is dead she's coming for a miracle she's coming to have the Novi revive her child how could you say everything's okay says the reiton of RAR we'll read it in the English look at number nine okay I have something in English this week okay this is from the biography ofin it's worthwhile for everyone to read can go to your local bookstore it's called a sadic in our time it's a fantastic book about a godal whose life is quite different than maybe typical G he spent his life visiting very sick people prisoners criminals and he was able to sort of cross the barriers between and okay take a look at what he says this is something the good Rabbi once told me in the name of his beloved wife okay there's a well-known account in the Bible of the child born miraculously to the woman of sh name in her older years by the great spiritual influence of Alisha the prophet when the little boy died she set out to fetch the prophet swiftly and he revived the child before she left however her husband asked her why are you going him to him today it's not rodes it's not shabas and she said Shalom meaning everything is a okay why wouldn't she tell her husband the truth that the child had died and why wouldn't she tell the Nai the truth that her child had died the answer is look at this had she said this the prophet would never have been able to revive the child afterward once she said it in words once she said the words my child is dead that would have been the real it that would have been the final reality and you can't change it she would have acknowledged the death as an irrevocable fact and the spirit would have possessed her in other words bringing down a miracle from the upper worlds from Shay to this world a miracle is such a tenuous nebulous thing that as soon as the real the reality is vocalized and articulated the child is dead there is no way to make a miracle as long as it might the child may be dead but as long as nobody says it and finalizes it and articulates it there is still hope because once you articulate the reality it's like you've given up hope once you give up hope you can't have a miracle so she didn't want to say my child is dead she said everything's okay everything's okay because at least that way she could maintain some semblance of Hope and then a miracle could kick in now this is what we call Torah the written part of the explanation now I'm going to tell you the T the oral part of the explanation what does this have to do with Abraham and Sarah beautiful again we want to know why did Hashem criticize Sarah and not Abraham listen to this in number one Abraham fell on his face and he left so what he laughed no problem he only said it in his heart heart he never vocalized it he never articulated it that it's impossible to have a child if you don't articulate it you don't vocalize it a miracle could come but SAR didn't just think it SAR said it look at number two she laughed at herself saying ah she said the words how could I have a child you say the words how could I have a child you can't have a child that's why says the reiton ofari s's criticize that Abraham is not because even though Abraham laughed he left open the possibility for a miracle because he never said it but after Sarah articulated it vocalized it you can't have a miracle so you say Rabbi gladstein if once you vocalize it you can't have a miracle so how did SAR have the miracle I thought she vocalized it that's why Hashem comes through in the next PK nothing's hidden from hasem you're right you've destroyed and you've smashed the miracle to smin now I God have to come to you and make a new decree and make a new miracle in other words the first decree of the Prophet is gone why because you vocalized it you articulated it you destroyed the miracle now I have to go through the trouble is anything is anything hidden from Hashem I'm making a new decree and now a new Miracle will happen meaning if she would laughed if she wouldn't laughed at she wouldn't vocalize her doubts she wouldn't verbalize her doubts then the would be born he wouldn't have to go through the aada he would be much more perfect and would be what we wouldn't have needed Hashem himself to come and promis a child the first promise that hasem promised Abraham would have been sufficient now why does Hashem have to come and say I'm going to come to you in a year we already know that he already told Abraham the answer is that was destroyed that was destroyed now we need a new promise we need a new we need a new decree okay speaking about the AKA speaking at the AA um going tell you a few incredible things about the look at number 11 it was after these things n Abraham God Abraham what does the word Nissa mean what does the word Nissa mean means N means a miracle what does Nissa mean the simple explanation of Nissa is God tested Abraham okay even though we know Hashem tested Abraham how many times 10 times this is the only time where the Torah uses the word however it's very difficult to say that the word N means a test because what's a test a test is you want to find out why do you test something because you want to find out what the outcome will be in other words you don't know what the outcome will be and you're trying to decipher and determine what the outcome will be does God need to determine what the outcome will be everything is known Hashem knows the future so how could you say Hashem was testing Abraham Hashem knows whether Abraham is going to pass or not so what what's not a test a test is you're trying to determine the outcome Hashem doesn't need to determine the outcome he knows what the outcome will be so how could we say the word N means Hashem is testing Abraham says the I maintain that it does mean Hashem is testing Abraham but it's not a test on the part of the test Giver it's a test on the part of the one taking the test because since whoever is taking the test he has absolute free choice he could choose to do whatever he wants every human being is given free choice to do go on the right path or go on the wrong path no let nobody make a mistake and think any aspect of his life is forced upon him or any decision is forced upon him everything is complete free choice and therefore for Hashem on the part of what the ran says the the one giving the test it's not a test but on the part of the one taking the test it's a test but the question is but we're saying so why but why would Hashem make him go through it if he if Hashem knows the result the answer is just because Hashem knows the result that means Hashem knows that Abraham's heart has the ability to choose the right path but at the present moment God cannot reward Abraham for Action cuz he has yet to perform the action as of yet Hashem can only reward Abraham for his good intentions and good heart and his wanting and ability to do it if asked but Hashem tested him to do it so that he could actually do it and then be rewarded for his ACT in other words it's not a test it's just an opportunity for Hashem to give Abraham more reward until he actually does it Hashem can only reward Abraham for his thoughts now that he does it Hashem could reward him for his actions okay that is the opinion of the ran the r says We're translating the word incorrectly when the says God wasam it doesn't mean a test we say blow the great chopar to free us and raise the banner to gather in our Exiles in other words Hashem is going to gather all the Jews from all corners of the world how are they going to know to come to Earth Israel Hashem is going to have someone raise a big banner as the crying call come come come the word n can mean a flag or a banner so what the Raam says is you know what it means well like Abraham doesn't mean he tested him it means he raised him up as a banner how Hashem raised up Abraham and he says to the world look at what a human being could accomplish look up and learn from Abraham it's not a test it doesn't mean God tested him there's no such thing as God needing to test someone it means god raised him up like a banner look what a human being could accomplish what what does that mean look at number 14 look at number 14 and the second paragraph This is from the the ra besides wrting his compendium he wrote a Means guide for the perplexed actually the ra wrote it in Arabic because that was the language most people understood at the time and the rambam writes the great the most love that anybody ever had for anything in the history of mankind was Abraham's love for his son okay people love money people love their life but here you have a man he was 100 years old he was wealthy he was intelligent he was spiritually strong he was the perfect candidate to start a nation and there's nothing more he wanted than to be able to have a child to perpetuate his legacy he was the only the only person in the world who stood up to polytheism and believed in one God and there's nothing more he wanted them to pass it on to his children and the greatest love anyone ever had for anything was Abraham to y especially he waited his whole life to have him and then Hashem says Slaughter him so now he's demonstrating that even though the greatest love anybody ever had for anything is his love for y but there is one love that supersedes that the love a person for Hashem even though no one ever loved anything more than ABR loved Abram was showing that love abas hasem could surpass even that and that was the banner AB hasem holds up Abraham to the world look at what love of Hashem means look what how great how powerful how much a person's heart could feel love of Hashem that it could surpass even the greatest love imaginable okay so that's what it means Abraham and the radak as though God is raising up Abraham to who who's going to learn the lesson you know when when Abraham took to slaughter him who was there so he takes with him elazar and isma but then at a certain point he says you stay here I'm going with so at the time that he was about to slau who was there no one so who doesn't have to test nobody he was testing no so saying it wasn't a test it was God was holding him up as a banner look what a human being could accomplish wasn't a test God knew he would do it but we didn't know that a human being could do it me and you didn't so the question is but how is he holding him up as a banner if no one's there and what Abraham is going to come back to the rest of the world and say guess what Hashem came to me and told me I should Slaughter y so I went up to the mountain and I was going to do it but at the last second hasem came to me and he told me not to do it so I didn't do it anyone going to believe him of course not no one's going to believe him nice no one's going to believe him the radak says Hashem was not holding him up as a banner to the people of his generation Hashem is holding up as a banner for all those who believe in the authenticity of the tah that he's hashem's holding up Abraham to me to you to all those who are who believe in the authenticity of the Torah and theak even points out that as polytheism disappeared from the world the majority of the world believes in the stories of whether it's the Christians the Muslims the Jews they will accept that this is a factual story so in essence Hashem is holding Abraham up as a banner to the entire world as a sign of look what it means to love Hashem say yeah that's still it's it's the same point right yeah okay let have two more points what is the connection between SAR not believing the report that she's going to have a child and the AA tell us and this is next week's para that SAR ultimately passed away from this world why because the Mal came to her and the Mal gave her an image that Abraham was slaughtering Y and that he did Slaughter her and she believed it and She fainted and she died so how did Sarah die when she received the report that Abraham was about to SL y she thought he did it fell a f right she she wasn't She fainted her heart went out okay her heart went out the question is why did hasem punish SAR in this way that she should die accepting the false report of an Angel listen to this this is this is incredible there is a Reon by the name of panaka panaka means the one who uncovered the secrets what it's a it's a safer that's not easy to obtain and he says an incredible idea he wants to know look at number 17 you can ask why did Hashem have SAR die through the trickery of the Satan where the Satan the angel of punishment comes to Sarah and shows her an image that Abraham had killed y why it was a false report why didem allow this to happen says the the Tates of the father answers God God dealt with her measure for measure is exacting with the righteous like a he's breath because Sarah didn't accept a true report of the angel that she was going to have a child here the angel comes to her and says you're going to have a child and it was true and Sarah denied it Hashem says you don't accept the truth you'll have to accept the lie so the angel comes to her and says you know that son that you were going to have Abraham killed her and now she had to accept it when you don't accept the truth the punishment is you're going to accept the live wow says look at number 18 He quotes the words of the word for word basically and in the very last line look the look what the writes you have to realize lived end of the 1700s beginning of the 1800s and at the Advent of Reform look what he says this saer says he's a prophet and he's saying something very great so here you have Anon in the 1800s saying that something that was written 500 700 years earlier was prophecy what does mean that these words are prophecy what he means is like this was living in the age of the Advent of Reform and he sees Jews who are being duped into what is fake Judaism where their pastors tell them shabas is not traditional chabas shabas you drive to sh or you speak on the microphone the the pastors convince them of some type of fake Judaism why do these Jews believe it why do they fall for it that's not chabas chabas is not driving chabas is not using the organ chabas is not speaking speaking on the microphone why do they accept it why do they believe it their pastors tell them no K it's just for health reasons so just make sure you cook the food well why do they accept it's not the the whatever they're telling them it's not for health reasons it's not for Spiritual reasons and they accept a false version of Judaism why do they fall for it says because God is punishing them measure for measure because when you don't accept the truth when you don't accept authentic Judaism you're going to fool for unauthentic Judaism you're going to fall for she because if you don't accept the MS then the punishment is God will make you accept that which is completely fabricated and therefore the say that because SAR did not accept the report that she was going to have a child which was a true report her punishment was now she's going to accept something which is not true and that's how s timately passed away and that's what the means he's calling the words of the prophecy because they were able to understand that hundreds of years later a time will come when people will come to Jews with complete complete fabrication and Jews will have to accept it out of a punishment because if you don't accept the truth you're going to accept something which is not true you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by tor anytime.com