Parsha Perspectives for Today (Vayeira)

good morning boogertov to everyone welcome back for partial perspectives for today continues to be amazing to be in person giving applause to the people listening online know there are people here there you go we're still trying to prove to the people who watch and listen online that i am not sitting here all alone faking that we are back i want to thank our generous serious sponsors for the year my dear friends becky and i'll be cats and family loving memory of becky's father david grossman this morning is also sponsored by robin and eric frohman in honor of the earthside of harold dubow the 15th of jeshvan thank you so much for your generosity if you'd like to sponsor a future share of partial perspective sitter snippets living with ammuna or any of the other many many classes we have during the week simply go online brsonline.org sponsor and you can sponsor easily all in one place we have the privilege this week of learning parshas vair it appears in the earthquake on page and we begin perique chapter 18 picking up where we left off last week at the end of last week avraham avinu 99 years old performs a circumcision on himself what an extraordinary feat what a tremendous statement of dedication and devotion to undergo such a surgery to perform it on himself at such an advanced age without the benefit of anesthesia and as you can imagine he is recovering in our parsha he is bouncing back god appears to abram as even though he is busy recovering even though he is coming back he is healing he nevertheless positions himself outside of his tent because avraham avinu is always eager to be hospitable to host others to do for avraham to be denied or deprived the ability to play host would be more painful than to be in bed recovering from his circumcision for abram if he's not actively engaged in helping others that is a source of greater pain for him than circumcision without anesthesia so much to ref to recognize and appreciate about avraham and so much to feel responsible for as the offspring and progeny of abraham avinu to follow in his footsteps he raises his eyes and he sees vine there are three men hovering over three men standing over him he gets up and he runs with alacrity with zeal to greet them from the entrance of the tent and bow down and they bow toward the ground so there are a lot of themes in our parsha which are repetitive there are several themes in our parsha which continuously repeat themselves and we'll try to visit some of them some of them have to do with davening some have to do with advocacy have to do with praying for other people we'll come back to that some of it has to do with alacrity we're not going to cover that today but this is the source in the torah foreign the notion that we don't delay and we don't procrastinate we don't wait but when we have an opportunity to do a midsole we jump we do it right away we do it as early as possible that's why though the whole day from sunrise to sunset is kosher for abrasimila nevertheless most of us have been to maybe we've hosted a bris that happens early in the morning because the reason activism is we have another breast tomorrow morning barack hashem so the moon tomorrow is going to be at 9 45 not 8 45 again adjust your calendar and your coffee intake 9 45 not 8 45 because barak hasham we have another brisk yearbook we should have to move every shear because we welcome new babies each and every day with god's help so abris is first thing in the morning pidgeon haben is often first thing in the morning how come weddings are at night if it's a mitzvah to get married why don't we make weddings after the 7 a.m minion why are there some mitzvos that we seem to expedite some mitzvahs that we do early on and quickly and other mitzvahs that we delay and we schedule later in the day without any hesitation because the flowers from the caterer won't be ready hair and makeup would have to begin at 3am 4am why don't we do the wedding oh that's what i miss the laugh at even the bad jokes that i make wow i've missed you the last year and a half it's good to have you back it's good to have you back so why don't we do it early in the morning so we're not going to cover that ravager weiss discusses it in this usher the discussion of when do we apply jesus and when do we not apply it is it a biblical commandment or a rabbinic commandment is it and i'll leave it at this the lumdas this is a quasi the londos is the reason maximum says the idea that you do a mitzvah as early as possible and you do it with alacrity enthusiasm is that part and parcel of the mitzvah or is it a separate secondary corollary to the mitzvah what do i mean when you do a mitzvah first thing early on with energy when we get upstairs after 120 do we get two checks in the same box called bris or one check in the box called bris and another check in another box a separate independent mitzvah called the reason mcdemon do it early on what's an afghan mina what's the practical difference between the two can you fulfill the reason mcdemon even before the time of the mitzvah the earliest that you could do a bris is at sunrise can you lay out the instruments and prepare the baby and have everything ready to go beforehand so that punk'd the moment sunrise hits you do the bris have you fulfilled the reason magdemon early on or no this reason my demon can only be fulfilled from the time of the mitzvah itself if i just lost you come back home we're coming back now we're coming back now there's a lot to say on that topic i'm excited by it but it is not for now so there's several themes that repeat themselves in this here avram is recovering he's recovering from circumcision you know you would imagine it would take a little time a little healing a little rehab and he is running eager zeal and enthusiasm because he has guests and he has to feed them there are three what he thinks about men we really know that they are angels but they appear to him to be men the caduceus levy the helga says the following comment i found fascinating so the zoar says the zohar says who were these three men avram yitzhak and now that's a little problematic why because afro's the one greeting the three men so what does it mean avraham is greeting avraham yetzrikanyakov but he what happens he sees first of all it's also another theme of our parasha we'll come back to vais he has to raise his eyes to see what was he doing why did it take him to raise his eyes why didn't he see them until they were standing over him until they were standing on top of him what is the notion of what we see and what we don't see so the zoar says this great book of jewish mysticism mystically says who are the three men that avram sees none other than avraham yes what in the world does that mean he is avram yitzhak hasn't been born yet yaakov is anako's grandson what does it mean those are the three men we know the three angels they come to perform different missions they take the guys the appearance of men what does that mean thank god we have oblivion to explain it says the helicopters in pain from the circumcision when it comes to a sick person we have tremendous mercy we have compassion for someone who is sick so avraham was sick and had every reason in the world to be expected to be passive avraham legitimately would have every excuse in the world to sit and to receive the kindness of others i'm sure there was a meal train set up for abram and sarah i'm sure there's beaker hollow that was visiting alvin and sarah it was probably the satin beaker holder in the desert outside of his tent they had their own tent pitched in order to deliver incredible meals to avraham normally the sick person who is recovering is in the is receiving what did avram do he dug deep inside himself and despite recuperating despite having every reason to be a spectator he expresses and he exerts characterized by loving kindness yitzhak is defined and characterized by what guru strength yitzhak perseveres and survives the arcade at the end of our parasha the attempt to kill him not an attempt but the test of killing him yitzhak has to re-dig well he is like has to confront the polish yitzhak is ms is the hybrid between hassel and gura combined hasan vura seem to be antithetical to one another loving kindness generosity sensitivity flexibility as opposed to gura which is to be rigid and strong what is the combination of the two is yaakov says what it means is the following and now it goes from being something so cryptic and what in the world does it mean to be something i find so beautiful and and incredibly inspiring a person has to live their life and know that when we have to make decisions when we have to choose our behavior in every moment and for everything we do we are impacting ourselves our children and our grandchildren what does he see before him he sees who he will be who his son will be and who his grandson will be these three men that appear before him are avraham it means he says to himself there are three hungry tired people if i use my excuse that i'm recovering and recuperating then who will i be will i be the avram of khasir if i don't display gura in this moment will i be able to have a son who is characterized by gura and if i can't combine the two and maintain that equilibrium imbalance between hassa and vura will i produce a yaakov whose ms so it goes from being a cryptic comment to a very beautiful insight of olivier zuck that at every moment and every decision we have to ask ourselves not what's the easy way out what's comfortable what's convenient but what will define me what will contribute to defining my children and my grandchildren my legacy and that's what can enable us to find that inner strength sometimes we're tired i'm very tired we're all very tired it's been a very taxing couple of years emotionally physically spiritually and there are moments that are presented to us whether to come to the sheer this morning whether to come in person to the sheer whether the davana with all of our being we're going to talk about the power of tefila and some of the ingredients of tefila today we are challenged in different moments and it's tempting to take that easy way out and we have legitimate excuses just like avraham had when he was busy recuperating but yet avram recognized that what was at stake at that moment was not just that moment what was at stake was who he would be who his children would be and whose grandchildren would be and says it's like that's what it means by that he raises his eyes and he sees these three people these three generations they're standing over him before us in our mind's eye we should always see these generations and ask ourselves who do we need to be and how do we need to conduct ourselves to make that impact on these generations you see this also in another way what happens so he welcomes these angels and he says that he thinks our men wash your feet he's concerned they've been engaged in avodah zarah what do you see about this by the way was avram only hospitable to haimashiyidan only welcome into his tent somebody with a yamaka on their head was avram only willing to display loving kindness to people who were exactly like him whom does avraham invite into his tent people he suspects of avodah zara that's who he's inviting in momentarily he's going to advocate in lobby and dave on behalf of the people of stone he's not davening hashem is that saddak in the hospital you don't know this sadikis you have to spare or give her a foolish and yet i'm intervening on their behalf that's avraham that's our legacy we are the bane avram we are the children of abram we don't only care about or we don't only intervene on behalf of those who are exactly like us or who meet our standards or who live our lifestyle or meet our approval avram welcomes in people he thinks are they they have to wash their feet aaron advocates for people who he knows are rashom so what does he do he prepares for them allah bakka rats avraham adam doesn't stop running running running running he is recovering and recuperating he's on crutches he's got a walker he's in a wheelchair he's got a cane he just has a circumcision he's 99 years old without a circumcision at 99 years old you could use those apparatuses he's 99 and just freshly and newly circumcised and yet again he's running running running running doing doing doing ben versus so he goes notice by the way when you have guests you don't go get the milfix he does not take out an impossible burger he goes and he goes to the steak where else are you going to go if you're going to properly be hospitable and those guests this is part of my life mission to represent the carnivores among us so avram runs and he goes and he takes out a nice piece of fleisch and tender and good delicious and he gives it says rashi why is he giving it to the nar what happened did he run out of steam did he run out of energy this is the same album that jumped at the opportunity when he saw the three people this is the same avraham vallarta is running he wants to choose the rib steak the strips take the hanger stick he wants to choose the the cut of meat and all of a sudden he's handing it over why is he handing it over he's handing it over to the lad says rashi zu ishmael who is this young man that he's handing it over to there's only one young man so far in his life that's ishmael yitzhak has not yet arrived that's why the angels are here and what's the reason he's giving it to ishmael mitzvos in order to educate him to engage him to involve him in the process of mitus so this beautiful city called the sitra elion another new safer i have when you give the parsha shir so many years you got to stay on your toes and constantly get new swarm so this is a fantastic the sitka elion is limu de parshas that are taken from rabbuh saying balahamosa so we have our we have a microscope of hasidus we have our essentially macros godolas of musser personalities phenomenal compendiums people did the hard work for us otherwise i'd have to have bookcases and libraries up here if each one were in a separate safer they took the best of put them into forum and i'm trying to take the best of what they took the best of to share with you so in this beautiful state of the situation it says the following is longing he's waiting avraham doesn't sit by the phone and when he sees it's the shoe calling and maybe someone needs to be hosted he doesn't answer avram keeps calling the shoe and he says no you haven't called me in forever doesn't anyone need a meal doesn't anyone need a a room doesn't anyone need hospitality by the way nobody does that if you'd like to sign up to be like avraham we could use your help um and we see that when he merits that these angels appear he runs references to the alacrity and zeal and the running peshes he saw they were in a rush so he was in a rush and this is the source that we don't do things slowly and we don't do things hesitantly and reluctantly but we reflect the attitude we bring by the zeal that we apply the south coast wrote this is cosima satoru in the middle of all this all of a sudden you see avram goes to the freezer he chooses this the cut of meat and what happened four times he's running himself and all of a sudden he's sending it off what do you see from rashi rashid says avraham's entire motivation of why he gave it over to ishmael was why to include him in the process to educate him which means that did he really need ishmael's help no aaron's got it he's covered until now and he can man a barbecue best like anyone else he doesn't really need ishmael his entire reason why he involved ishmael was to educate romney said that sometimes in our zeal in our alacrity in our enthusiasm sometimes in our excitement for mitzvos or for life we leave the children behind we're running out to the base madrish we're running out to shul we're running out to the fa bringing in the tish we're running out to get together we're running out to do the mitzvah and we leave the children behind we leave them home alone we leave them in our dust that wasn't avraham in the middle of this resource in the middle of running and doing avant realizes that part of the fulfillment of running and doing is involving yeshmo is involved in the next generation our mitzvos can't come at the expense of our children they are the invitation and opportunity to involve and engage our children to bring them with us to the hospital for the visit to bring them with us to drop off that meal to bring them with us to the fabrinian or the tish to bring them with us to the one egg to bring them with us to the basement to not leave them behind but to lead by example your test turn the page we are flying today turn uh two pages we're going to be a great nation this is stone's destruction hashem is about to reveal something to avraham he's about to let him in on intelligence briefing that nobody else in the world has said hashem i have been utterly disappointed by the absolute corruption of the people of stone of these five cities and it's time to wipe them out this is a microcosm of parshas noah just like in noah humanity globally disappointed god he did a hard reboot a hard reset now a microcosm there's a specific region who are disappointing and violent and very reason god created a world and god does a hard reset on them but he says a special relationship with avraham i can't hold this from avraham i got to tell him in advance i got to give him some advanced warning this is a i've gotta i've got to give him a briefing and why why does hashem feel compelled what drives him so hashem doesn't conceal that from us he tells us this pasuk chapter 18 verse 19 because i know lamanna is based avram is devoted to his children and his grandchildren they observe the way of hashem they do stakko um they don't just shuckle hard and have very good haksharam which are very very important and i try to do myself but they also do nishba and saka they're also very consumed by justice and charity interpersonal representing the uh underprivileged now we've spoken about this a lot in the past and i'm not going to repeat it because a good friend of mine who made a brief appearance here at the sheer pointed out that i my favorite devray torah make their way into every part of sheer so you'll have to listen to a previous year if you want to hear more about this puzzle that i love the rambam zahav comes from this possum the rambam don't live in extremes you have to live the golden mean comes from this pasta previously we spoke about where the fact that hashem is telling abram you know why i love you not because of you i love you because you are committed to transmit what you have to your children not at the expense of your children again continuing a similar a similar theme so listen to what the says on this process this is new says the following appears but it's in this forum some of them became many much more well-known than others so safer his name wasn't we saw mayor kagan of radha his mother called me strong mayor she didn't say come to dinner did you do your homework he had a name but certain people became known by the name of this forum you know the behavior they became so well known they became known by the name of their farm so the name was from mayor kagan and he wrote several you can have this a three volume set that for many years collected dust on my shelf because someone got it for me for my bar mitzvah and only when i was an adult that i appreciate that i even owned it and thank god unlike many bar mitzvah kids i did not put it in shameless in the interim sometimes i've gone through shameless and i find the bar mitzvah gifts that i've given out it's always a good always a good feeling anyway but it's good for repurposing that's why hashem created whiteout just joking says the following and he writes the following in the generation of the time of avraham there were other righteous people avon was not the only one he stood out for reasons we spoke about last shabbos and maybe we'll review this morning but there were others because shame the aver who were predecessors of avraham had a yeshiva yeshiva shame the evil the yeshiva had students commission who coined the calion marquis sadiq is a priest a righteous priest she's car shame we know that marquis said that was shame rashi tells us there were other righteous contemporaries of avraham shame and ever they even backed out of yeshiva so why aren't they the fathers of a nation why is avraham avinu why is avraham avram is the father of all great nations avram is the patriarch of the jewish people the chosen people and shame the evil who were righteous hadiya yeshiva lived contemporaneous to avram and they are footnotes to history what is the difference between them so the rest of them says the rest of them kept their relationship to hashem to themselves they kept it to themselves they worshipped hashem personally and privately they involved him in their life in their own private and personal life avraham avinu got up on a soapbox avraham avenue broadcast the message everywhere and to anyone who would listen there's a god there's one god enough with the stress of paganism and idolatry stop worshiping the mighty dollar celebrities pop culture athletes stop worshiping social media there's one hashem and there's meaning in life when we attach ourselves to him avram told the world you're right they were righteous and you're right they also practiced monotheism but they kept it to themselves avon shared it with the world we spoke about shabbos that really the rambam in his introduction to tells the whole history of religion and tells us that from the beginning of time there were monotheists and so on and so forth with distinguished or differentiated avraham and the reason he's the father the patriarch not only of our people but in many ways of all people it's because avram didn't keep it to himself he shared it with the world i know i know revolver points out this we did say last year hashem is trying to express his affection for avraham avraham i love you avraham you're great i feel so close to you i feel so connected with you i could never withhold this from you and what word does he use to express affection you know how you expressed affection when you come to know somebody if you don't ever care enough to know about them you don't really love them you don't love them they're the people that every time you get together with them all they do is talk about themselves and they never ask you one question about you and if you're sharing about you they have no interest in hearing about you and then they claim to be your close friend or close family member or that they love you but if somebody doesn't have the interest of the patients to inquire about you then they don't have a lot of affection for you one of the ways a critical way to express affection is to care enough to get to know people this is a big signal when i talk to young people about dating on that date on that date do they ask you about you or do they only want to talk about themselves that is a big red flag if they never have an interest in asking about you if all they want to do is talk about them then they're not going to be very affectionate there's not going to be a whole lot of love so it says revolver the word that the torah uses to express hashem's affection is hashem says i know you i know you we spend time together i ask about you and i watch you and i observe you and i listen to you and i hear what's going on in your life i know you and that's the expression of affection that is how you know whether someone really loves someone else or not let's keep going parker bad news bad stuff going on down there corruption iniquity there is a moral decadence moral dissent i got to go down and check it out let me see what's going on down there and of course the question begs itself go down to check it out what happened to the omnipotent omniscient god doesn't he know everything from wherever he is why does he have to come down to take a closer look so we mentioned this two parties ago because mig bubble it says the same thing god says let me go down to see what's going on how come when we mess up hashem has to come down he can't give us a patch from up there he has to come down to check it out to see for himself so rashi says the same thing in both places look at rashi here pasakhavalav lam of the dayanam this is a teaching for judges shaleevskodeen and he said the same thing earlier parshasa flaga airdan alisal let me go down and check out and the message is true in both places do not have an opinion until you see for yourself says god i'm omnipotent and omniscient i'm infinite and all-knowing and yet i go check it out for myself i don't listen secondhand i don't take someone else's word i don't rush to judgment i don't make conclusions i go check it out for myself and so should you don't come to conclusions without seeing for yourself without talking to the person without hearing both sides without knowing what's going on heir donna hashem says let me model for you what you need to do you cannot come to conclusions you cannot come to judgment through second hand or third hand information you have to come down you have to see you have to know for yourself we mentioned rav schwab schwab says that from hashem's high perch where he is perfect it's very hard to be tolerant of the imperfections of others and that's what it means hashem says let me come down let me come down to humanity let me come down to this earth let me look at it and think about it through your perspective a world of temptation a world of stress and anxiety a world of challenge and desire and when i can look at it through your eyes when i can look at it through the eyes of someone who struggles air don't know let me come down now i can be more tolerant more forgiving now i can understand it with empathy and sympathy and that's what we need to do sometimes we look at people with such intolerance can't believe they behave that way my family would never do such a thing we have to get out of our ivory tower and come off of our high horse and come down and realize that people are perfect and life isn't easy we have to grow and learn in our tolerance for others that's why our schwab writes that we just concluded the um kippur the umnaram season particularly in kippur nila slichos we repeat the medos we invoke god's 13 attributes of mercy and what do we always say before him we introduce it with hashem come down if you're going to have mercy with on us it's only because you see from our level from our perspective from our perspective okay uh there's a beautiful peace part of joker if rook is going to be here the shabbos amir zasham in boca he's going to speak at charles this week you're invited to hear of israel mayor druk we spent many months learning his ishtamid on parsha we didn't do this piece but in honor of coming to shabbos i'll share a piece from his safer ish here's the problem of jeff points out did god come down in the end or not he tells avraham let me come down he tells the melaka he tells the world let me come down and check it out then what's the very next passage the angels leave avraham and they pivot and go to saddam what happened did he come down or not he says let me come down he models for us you got to go see for yourself let me come down and the next thing we know the torah is reporting that the angels went to stone to carry out their mission of destroying it did he come down or not why doesn't the torah tell us moreover this why did he have to come down at all he's all knowing he's in his admissions he's got number three rashid tells us that on that day lot was appointed the judge over them the so if they the people of stone chose lot as a leader what does that tell you about load that load is aligned with their evil views puts his lot pun intended with the people of stone is the very same day that he saves his children he saves the angels so which is the real note the wicked evil load who aligns with stone or the pure compassionate kind load who offers hospitality and saves lives will the real load please stand up so cesaro took the following nearly asheville you can answer there are two types of time when we make mistakes when we come up short when we have indiscretions there are two reasons or two types sometimes we do an aveira because really we're a good person with good intentions and good ambitions but the temptation of the moment we couldn't we couldn't overcome it such a person is a baal of era why are they called a baal of era here he quotes one of my favorite divre torah we call someone a baal of era but we call them a bar mitzvah what is the word bar mean sun bar is aramaic for ben's son what do we call a girl who turns 12 a bat or a bass mitzvah the daughter of a mitzvah so why is someone a bala vera and yet they're a ben or bass mitzvah bao means a spouse banner boss means a child says because the average you're only married to someone who's married can get divorced but if you're a child that is a relationship that can never be severed that is a relationship that biological relations with parent child i don't mean you know you can hire a lawyer to uh what's it called emancipate yourself emancipate yourself as a legal status but a metaphysical status once you're a child you're always a child so the relationship with torah is that you're a child of torah because that is not a relationship you could ever sever or break but the relationship with what we do you're about taka or you're a baalavera because you're only about stucco as long as you get stuck up but if you get divorced from stucco you stop giving it you're no longer about sucka so you're only a bounce stalker you're not a banner abbas talker so torah is different in that way from these behaviors so on the one hand there's the aveira excuse me there's the baal of era who can separate and divorce themselves from the aveira on the other hand there is such a fate there are people who are so evil so wicked people so defined by their negativity by their behavior that is part and parcel of who they are and of their character how do you know whether the bad behavior is something which is external really you're a good pure person you've just engaged in bad behavior or are you a bad person are you a bad person what is the test kashma is when holiness when you encounter holiness when you encounter a holy time or a holy person if you're a good person who just gives into temptation when you encounter when you are exposed to holiness it will bring out the best in you but if really in your core you're a bad person then even being exposed to or connected to holiness will not impact you or change you whatsoever says joke that's what's going on over here that's what akash baku wanted to come down and see erdogan let me come down and see the people of stone are they are they inherently good people they're just misbehaving or are they bad people so he sent the malachan to stone and the malachi bring with themselves a certain level of kedusa the malachan bring a holiness and a sanctity the malacca are supposed to be this magnet that people will be drawn to attach themselves with spiritual aspiration and what happens this dome is unmoved but lot is moved so we asked three questions number one did he go down or not hashem says let me go down and see the next thing you know the angels are going to stone did he come down or not number two number two was this low is he bad or is he good if he's so bad why was he so helpful to the angels and to his children if he's so good how could he attach himself to stone to sedum so druk is answering that hashem was sending the angels down hashem said let me come down to sea did he come down to sea yes why did the torah tell us he did it did tell us he did when he told us that the angels went to stone that was hashem's coming down to test the people of stone to expose them to holiness and to see whether they were drawn to it elevated by it they weren't so hashem says zaigazun you're out of here we're done lot is elevated by it so hashem says you're the man you are worthy of saving and and if druk applies this we just again it's a little anticlimactic but it's a divine torah for next year and asera the days between hashem young kippur we go on our best behavior even if we rely on pas palter even if we're not strictly passes throughout the whole year those 10 days we only eat pasty seral and there are other behaviors that we are encouraged to be more meticulous about in those days who are we fooling who are we faking what are we doing it says we've joked the same thing these are holy days and holy times and god is testing us are we drawn to and are we elevated by a sense of holiness that is what is going on over here okay moving along what happens so let's go full circle here avram is in the middle of a conversation with god and all of a sudden he sees three men are standing over him the torah means to tell us three angels in the guise of men the zoar said he saw ahmed it's means he saw what was at stake and how he would respond to those men he says god would you mind holding on a minute i have to take care of these people they're hungry they're tired they're thirsty can i put you on hold for a minute and take care of them and what does god say the omnipotent infinite creator of the universe the master of the universe you have an audience with the most powerful the creator i would think you don't interrupt that for anything could you imagine you're in the oval office you're meeting with the president whatever president whatever time whichever president you'd be happy to be meeting with and your phone rings would you have the audacity would you have the chutzpah to say to the president the oval office could just give me one second i gotta take this call by the way today yes many people would but that's absurd it's absurd it's absurd to do that sometimes i'm meeting with people and they say rabbi i just got to take this and they say i can't talk now i'm meeting with the rabbi i said you know you could just ignore you don't have to answer to say i can't talk now because i'm meeting with the rabbi so who would do such a thing yet avraham does that and how does god react through hazal he teaches us through his mouthpiece our rabbis and he tells us what was avram punished was he wrong was it hashem says i love it so much greater the host guest than it would be to even continue talking to me and this too we say every year because it's worth repeating every year god says if you have a choice between being like me or talking to me go be like me if you can go either be imitating me or talk to me go imitate me the analogy is incorrect really the analogy is not you're in the oval office when you take a call the analogy is you're on the phone with one of your children and they say to you mommy abba can i call you back my sister or my brother need my help with something what do you say nothing would make me happy or hang up on me right now you're going to go take care of a sibling you're going to display loyalty and love to a sibling hang up on me so our rabbis understand god god says more important for you to be like me than to continue to talk to me so avram does he goes and he takes care of these three people makes a big barbecue feeds them they come to give their message has the whole conversation that he's going to have a child then what where does he leave off so pasek tells us this is pasta base that we just read together the three angels are well fed their feet have been washed and they pivot and turn to leave to go to stone and what's avram doing the avraham odenu o maid lefnashem avram is still standing before hashem standing in front of hashem now the simple understanding of the puzzle is also very important because what does it tell us that when he was taking care of them it wasn't independent or apart from hashem hashem was still there hashem was in that act of hospitality odenu he was still there but listen to what the kaskareba says such a classic the cutscore was very biting not in a not in a cynical negative way but better better than biting is that the costco was chef who was very sharp he said things in an incredibly sharp way so listen to the khatsuka baavraham of daenerys don't forget i'm also still here i love this katsukar and maybe i just butchered the yiddish but i'm interviewing ruth wise tomorrow night so i got to practice my yiddish tiscor shani gamnenzakan says the koskar remember i'm also here i'm also here god says yes i would rather you leave me to go take care of your sibling yes i'd rather you go be like me than talk to me but don't forget i'm still here why is this kotzker why does it speak to me because sometimes we have that legitimate excuse so let's say we can't make it to minion there are halachically approved and endorsed times don't go to minion if your spouse is sinking because there are crying babies and children and things that need to be done and carpool and in that moment you have a responsibility at home don't go to minion if you have a need to help a widow an orphan someone struggling and that means that you can't go to minion that day don't go to minion that day so what happens sometimes we feel that excuse is so cogent that excuse is so strong that okay we leave god and we go take care of those people hashem says you did the right thing and i'm glad you did it but don't forget i'm still here don't forget i'm still here don't in your turn to live la javero so meaningfully and fully don't forget that i'm still here don't forget that i'm still here he also has another great cutscore it's actually from one of the um spiritual heirs of the qatar variety frimer the kosher glover gone the eretz there's three pastries says that abram advocates and he says maybe there are 50 righteous people still in the city what does he say in the city so the qatar through his talmud the khashoggi lover says he doesn't say maybe there's a base madrish in stone maybe there's still 50 tsarikim in the basement because there's no kunst to be at sadiq in the basement the go to work and be at sadhak go to the supermarket and be at salek go to the gym and be at sadiq go engage and encounter go live and participate go contribute and take from the secular society around us the world around us go be so high ear go take all that yahada's gives us and live it and and embrace it and express it in the world that's the kuns so it says the the kasich lover says it now that's impressive and that is what he is uh challenged that's what he is that's what he is asking okay let's keep going stone is being destroyed the angels come they're coming a load is tested will he step up and stand up for these angels top of page 88 tap on page 88 perek sorry perrick your test keep going um said to them no see your servant has found grace in your eyes your kindness was great that which you did for me to save my life but i can't escape to the mountain because the evil attach itself to me and i will surely die instead of he one of these five cities is close to us if i go run i won't make it but there is a city close to us let's go run there and let's go survive there it's small we can live we'll blend in we'll survive and so on and so forth says back to istanbul we'll do another in honor of his visit one more today in honor of his upcoming visit the shadows and he says the following why was this city of stone it's a region there are five cities five towns and why was sohar spared why was it not destroyed rashid gives us two reasons number one he quotes from the madrid because it was not fully inhabited it was not fully corrupt it was not inhabited until a year after the other cities people did not move in the development was not complete the houses weren't done since they moved in a year later their iniquity was a year less hashem could leave it moreover you're katana it is fewer people so therefore it's not as threatening there are fewer people in it it's not as high risk to leave it be and you could leave it as it is the ramban those are the two reasons russia gives white soar could be spared the ramban gives it is one of the places that was destined to be destroyed couldn't run to the mountains he had to come to sohar since low was going to be spared so our was spared so here's the question so i was spared because lot was going to be living in it how do you understand that who darwin for so are to be spared none other than the most righteous the most beloved the one hashem has the most affection to the one who will be the father of the jewish people the one through whom hashem will repair and correct his world gave it his all and darwin from the every fiber of his being that these five cities including sarah would be spared and hashem said the answer is no i'm sorry the answer is no load says yeah the mountains won't work out to save my life i need to go to sower and god says okay i'll spare it so are does lot compare to ava and righteousness and merit and yet god saved so are for lot but didn't listen to the advocacy of avraham what in the world is going on here asks rojok and he says the following a lot more i want to cover so i'll talk to you outside he says you cannot compare a person who's dominating for themselves with someone who's dominating for someone else when you dial in for someone else no matter how sincere you are no matter how genuine you are it still is not the same voice of desperation as when you dive in for yourself as when you dive in for yourself so what do you see as part of the very definition of davening from here listen carefully my friends this is so important what do you see as part of the core definition of davening that you have to genuinely and authentic you you have to deeply and profoundly feel that without hashem i'm in trouble it's not that i'm going to make parnassa i have a job i have a contract i get a paycheck but i say barakalenu every day because yeah it's a nice idea that god gives me my parnosa i have to say barakalleno every day that if god doesn't will it i could get fired i could lose all my money i'm done tomorrow our davening has to be out of desperation our body our dominant has to be out of a sense of not i'm pretty healthy i just had my physical i got my lab reports i'm healthy i'm well always good i still doubting for good health because yeah god's in charge and who knows what could happen no every moment that i have good health it could disappear in an instant in an instant and therefore the dominant has to be out of a genuine sense a real a true sense of i am nothing and i have nothing without him it has to be genuine it has to be truthful it has to be truthful aim is and all equal out of him truthfully says druck no unlike the other succumb of ashrae we say those are two separate clauses within one sentence and they mean two separate things here there's no valve god wash the second half the passage is defining the first half god is close to all who call out to him do you know what it means to call out to him it has to be true if you're doing it because you're giving him lip service you're just putting a check mark in the sitter you're just trying to say the words if you're doing it even with a little bit of meaning but you don't believe in your core that you desperately need him then that's not real davening that is not real dominating real dominating it is it has to come from the depth from the core of our being he has a long piece here we don't have time for the rest of it you can look at it yourself inside or you can ask the shabbos for but i want to share with you a corollary of it that's not from druk it comes from the maharao the morale of prague the moral of prague makes a very cryptic comment and it's very troublesome and it bothered none other than sulfur sam silva was asked about this comment by the mahara and he says the following prague be safe from the semester let me see about the perky days he says it came to my attention the comment of the marau who says the following so we know that there's a tradition that we omit um the period of it's a beautiful song i think it's alvin freed great interview last week if you haven't heard it yet we don't say it why we don't use intermediaries i don't talk to god through angels we talk to god directly we talk to god directly so he quotes here the morale on in this context says um the mar allen's context says that hashem doesn't answer it fela unless it is coming from us about us the dhawaning we do for others is not a real tfila the dhavani has to be for ourselves so many of the look on your faces right now is the same look on sofa's face what do you mean god is not interested and doesn't listen and it's not the definition of dhabani when we dab in for others do we not have a whole toilet group and the whole talent circle do we not send out names and say so-and-so is the need of davaning do we not make a mishabera can people submit names so we can doubt him for one another what are you talking about that we don't doubt him for other people that's most of the dominating that we do if please god and thank god we're in a position to not need it for ourselves what is he talking about some silver answer is based on a comment of the rambam when the rambam defines the mitzvah of tfilo the rambam writes after reciting after reciting praise the rambam writes listen to this expression you ask for your needs that you need them the rambam was brilliant and was scientific and the rambam did not waste words isn't that a clumsy clause show up you ask for your needs shahootsarakland that you need them do you have needs that you not need them what is the ram i'm writing he says very similar to what joke was just saying davening is only real and hashem listens to davoning when it represents what we need if you're dominant for your friend and your friend's pain is not your need then god's not interested and you are putting a check next to i deserve to be honored at the show dinner i am part of the talent circle god wants when you're saying that to him in the talent circle that you're feeling the pain of someone else as if it's your own hashem i'm sarah i need that person to get better that's one of my needs hashem i need them to have a parnassa that's one of my needs hashem i need peace in israel and around the world that's one of my needs i need this virus to go in it's one of my needs i'm not dominating for someone else i'm davening for myself because the pain of someone else bothers me so much to my core so says the morale now we can understand what the morale was saying using the rambam's beautiful understanding of that the request and the petition is not for someone else it has to be something we feel ourselves in other words tefillah cannot be trilo i'm sorry should be in this sense self-centered self-centeredness here is not a virtue but it represents my needs i have to see what's lacking or i have to see the pain that someone else is going through as something i don't have and that's what i'm dabbling for and that's what i'm dominating for so that was something that lope says ravdruk for lo his life depended on it avraham it didn't in general ardavaning even for other people should be at the level of as if our life depends on it you see this also is turn the page send two pages 92 turn three pages 94. paragraph prosecute tests abraham what happens we have a repeat the sequel here of avrams in gerar sarah is abducted avram never revealed that she was his wife hashem almost took it out of avimella that he be spared and he is spared and he goes on his way. hashem completely restrained every office of abimelech because of sarah and because of avraham so what's the question here it's a very simple question when avram when avi melak the king of the pleasure took sarah hashem told them in hamas you're going to die so answered i didn't know bernie kayon kappa zos i'm innocent i don't know she's a married woman i thought she's single how could you hold me accountable how could you punish me with death i didn't do anything wrong so torah tells us hashem says hashem says i know you're innocent i know you didn't know i know you didn't know and yet the atashi investigation said you should give back the woman and the navy he's going to daven for you what's strange about the story god says i know you're innocent but you're still going to die unless you give her back an avraham daven for you what's strange lou what's french hashem could just say yeah you're off the hook i know you didn't do anything wrong i know you didn't know give her back let everyone go on their way kumbaya shalma israel next story he says yeah i know you're innocent but sorry death sentence unless give it back what is the devin who was the men rohani of panama says the following says you see so goddamn that fella hashem set up the world in such a way that davening is the key that opens a door even if even if the door should be open means hashem has set aside bracha for us there are store houses and there is a flow of blessing waiting for us but do you know how we access it you have to daven i've spoken about this and living with amuna before i could have the winning lottery ticket i don't i won the lottery because i have the most blessed life of all time but i don't have the winning lottery ticket but you could two weeks ago someone in boca on camino real won two lottery tickets a million dollars each and i'm still looking for them but you could win the lottery and the lottery is the last thing in life that you could have a digital version that doesn't help you you need the little slip of paper with the lottery numbers on it so you could call it and say look i won the lottery will they give you the money what do you need to do you need to turn in the ticket you could tell all your friends and family i have the winning numbers i'm a millionaire i'm a billionaire but do you have the money in your account not until when until you turn in the ticket dominance is our turning in the ticket we've won the lottery hashem has all kinds of plans and brokers for us but we have to turn the ticket if we're going to access it if we're going to get it dialing is the way we turn the ticket you see this going all the way back to pasha's braces hashem set up a whole ecological system he set up a whole system of condensation and rain and saturation and fields but it says that while it was all in place it didn't kick into motion yet god didn't press start or go it didn't start until when until man was created rashi says why until there was someone to darwin for the rain hashem so egotistical you need someone to ask in order for you to give it's built into the bria built into creation is that we don't get until we ask even that which is justly set aside you see this also you see hashem made her pregnant as he said we spoke about this last year too we learned from here that the person who dobbins for someone else has answered first because avram davan for avi malach and as a result he had a son so you see this he sowed that even though avon was promised a son what did he need to do first he needed to doffen even that which we've been promised even that which is set aside and designated to come our way we have to ask we have to daven for it first otherwise we don't get it i had 100 more things i wanted to share with you a hundred more oh so much more i want to share oh you get felt what should we do last what should we finish up with uh we'll finish up with anime because he's named the vision behind divisions who says the following thank god we're going to read it again next year what happens the birth of yitzhak hagar and yeshmal sarah says yeah bad influence get him out and hashem says to abram culture what men have been hearing from their wives i don't know what they teach in seminary but every jewish woman knows this passage by heart i don't know they give it out in kala classes or where they get it because every jewish that by heart whatever sarah tells you you have to listen to her someone asked me in precious gracious in new york someone from new york texted me they wanted to know why couldn't adam use that as his defense when java told them to eat from the apple what do you mean you're going to tell avrom you got to always listen to the woman i was just doing the i'm listening to the wife is that what we're supposed to do why wasn't that a good defense then if now avram's being told whatever you do you got to listen to your wife so listen to her listen to her the beautiful insight bite of salavatrik on those words but we don't have time for so avram does listen to her and throws ishmael out of the house and uh what does it say you darling again you see the theme avraham waking up early in the morning alacrity zeal's resources he packed her lunch what a good hobby while he's throwing her out of the house here's the lunch box put this yellow he puts it on her shoulder gives her the boy his boy ishmael sends them off sends them off oh so avraham will close with these words of the in the vision of is a paradox the passion begins with avram welcoming idolaters it begins with avram who cannot stand not expressing hospitality and love and sensitivity and kindness and the same avram who can't help but be hospitable the same avram who intervenes and intercedes and advocates in diamonds for the wicked people of stone but says the same avram who welcomes idolatrous angels the same avram who darwin's for stone the same avram who goes to battle the four things of the five kings because he thinks there's an injustice the same avram who rescues lot even though lots of disappointment the one who can't stand injustice who stands ups and advocates for the underprivileged who helps those who don't have is now going to throw his wife and son to the curb says the in the vision sir when he thinks that his son is spiritually in danger there is no compassion anymore avram while he's the most compassionate person that ever lived when it comes to protecting and securing the spiritual safety of his son he has no compassion um if his son were to be exposed to or attached to if his son were to be tempted by influences which would corrupt him avram has no patience he found the ability to be cruel even with his own wife and even with his own flesh and blood son may allah he gets rid of lot by garcias it's a very powerful idea that we have to find that balance to truly be the progeny of avram we also have to thread this needle on the one hand to stand up and to represent to advocate for those who are less privileged to fight for justice to express sympathy and empathy and sensitivity and caring concern for all on the other hand we have a spiritual legacy that we have to secure that we have to protect fiercely fiercely and we have to engage and involve whatever it takes for ourselves to protect it because there is so much at stake the continuity of our people and our values and ideals and virtue and the ability to transform the world is at stake so yes it's not a contradiction says the immigration that the same avram who did all those things on behalf of others could throw out his own flesh and blood load and yeshmal because when it came to yitzhak's spiritual safety and security he was unwavering and he did whatever it took it's a big lesson for us i already have half my shear for next year prepared hashem i guess for that join us tomorrow morning for living with emunah 9 45 thank god because of abuse tomorrow night 9 p.m professor ruth wise of harvard university we go behind the bma till next time stay happy stay healthy