Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: How Real is Your Faith in Gods Promises?

my baby [Music] thank you for uh for coming appreciate it even in the rain Which business Hashem is always in Heritage Railway a sermon of Baraka we're always very happy when it rains even if it inconveniences us a little bit uh tonight's share is uh dedicated for a refuge Lima for Shimon van Adel Mendel Ila benfrida Miriam nechama mindel bashifra Khana Elisha varifica batsara and all of these are sponsored by Jacob and devorah Shore again we appreciate the Torah and may all of these people have a refurbished Lima be talking Israel in addition a refuge Lima for Brea batrava Israel and finally uh for the Aliyah shaman sponsored by Gene Levy in memory of her daughter Hannah Laurie Alisa Jean again through the DeVry Torah and the mitzvos that they're being done and finally sponsored by Hani jeravel in memory of her mother devourabas Moshe Arya again I have to add a little bit of a personal note davoria batsmosa Arya Debbie Finkelstein was from West Hartford where I grew up before they moved to Muncie I think I spoke about her husband last year who was nifter a little more than than a year ago and how much of an influence both of the finkelsteins were on my growing up and on many many many many people from non-religious homes who became balichuva because of them I have to admit I'm a little taken aback because I was not aware that Mrs Finkelstein was niftarus until this very moment as I'm reading this but she and her husband were indeed following the media of avram avinu and sorry imano even before kirib was popular before there was North America before there was an Asia Torah they were bringing many many Jews back to Toran Mitzvah so he zikrabarak and again I I certainly feel the loss on a personal on a personal level so we are of course in the middle of uh braces the middle of the of us already and in order to understand what is going on in parshas vayera we got to remember the continuation of last week's parship because that's going to raise some interesting questions when avrah mavina was 99 this is the end of God Appears to him and God gives him the Commandment of circumcision and God also says your name shall be avraham and sarai's name should be Saran I'm not going to repeat last week's here last week we spoke about the significance of the change of the name and some of the meanings of britmila but let's take it further avram already had a son Ishmael from Hagar and Ishmael is in fact 13 because Ishmael was born when avram was 86 years old and avram is now 99. Ishmael is 13 years old so when avraham is commanded to circumcise he's commanded to circumcise himself Ishmael all of his slaves because a slave that is owned by a Jew is also supposed to be circumcised and alike but in addition Hashem tells avram there at the time of the Commandment of circumcision that you will have a child from Sarah your wife you will have a child from Sarah and avraham fell on his face and he laughed that's kind of the end of the party then it goes through the actual circumcision so now Persia is three days after the circumcision and I'm gonna interpret this for the way khazal interpreted and three days after the circumcision you're kind of weak the baby is weak and was 99 years old he's pretty weak but avraham had a tent that was open in all four directions to be Magnus both in terms of physical food and spiritual but God didn't want to be much riach he didn't want to impose an Abram so Hashem made it hot so there would be no guests nobody nobody wandering the uh the roads when it's so hot figuring that would give avram a well-deserved rest but what happened was Abram was still sitting in the heat that made it even worse he's sitting in the heat waiting for people so nebuch that is no choice because nobody is traveling on the roads the roads are you know empty so he sends Three Angels in the image of people so that avram can go through the gestures of hospitality and according to hazal these are the three primary angels in God's Heavenly Court Mikhail Gabrielle Rafael and they come with mus Adam in the image of man so avram does not know that they're angels and avram engages in hospitality and in the course of their conversations these Three Angels tell him Sara your wife is going to have a child now remember this is not the first time he heard this he already heard it from Hashem okay he's not getting the information for the first time they're telling it to him now but he had already heard it at the time of the brzmila uh and we are told that Sora was listening to the conversation from behind the tent and sorrow laughed and she said balosi after I have become worn down he was an old woman sorry was was uh 90 well she was 89 at that point she'll be 90 when she gives birth she's no longer menstruating he says she no longer has the way of women I'm worn down I'm too old I'm not able to have a child and she said after I have been worn down and I no longer have the way of woman women can I have a child then she says and my husband is old and the angels say to avram why is Sarah laughing saying she's too old to have a child and of course Rashi points out that although Sarah did refer to her physical condition she did not specifically say the words she's too old to have a child she said he's too old to have a child so why do the Angels switch it I'm too old to have a child the answer is from here we learn out you're allowed to lie for Shalom bias that there would be a thing that if Sarah would have said avram's too old that would have hurt him a little bit so they changed the story but be this it may they seem to be giving her Musser or at least rebuking why is Sarah laughing is anything beyond the power of God cannot give her a child and Sarah overhears the rebuke and Sarah says I didn't laugh because she was afraid she was afraid to admit so there's a lot of problems here problem number one is when Hashem spoke to avraham and said your wife's server is going to have a child Abram's reaction was the same thing avram left when Sarah hears from The Three Angels that she's going to have a child she laughs identically it's the same Hebrew word except for masculine and feminine avram is Rael and Sarah iska so why is it that when Sarah laughs she gets Toka she gets chastisement she gets Musser why are you laughing don't you believe in the power of God when Abram laughs no problem God just blesses him right why is there this double standard in which avram's laughter is fine and Sarah's laughter is criticized now we could even ask a bigger Kasha if anything why shouldn't sorrow laugh because remember well that's going to be the big question in other words one very important interpretive question is was Sarah privy to the earlier conversation that Hashem had with Abraham Hashem already told avram that Sarah was going to have a child did he tell his wife did he not tell his wife is she hearing this for the first time from the angels not knowing that they're angels there are we shine them that actually say avram never got around to telling because of the circumcision everything else he never told Sarah about this conversation she's sharing it for the first time now if that's the case maybe she's Justified to be skeptical because after all who is she hearing it from she's not hearing it from Hashem she's hearing it from three entities that look like Arabs who are wandering off the street they don't look like angels so she's hearing it from Three Guys random guys off the street that say he's gonna have a kid why should she why should she accept it as true meaning not only do we have a problem of a double standard avram laughs and doesn't get criticized Sarah laughs and is criticized but in many ways sora's laughter was understandable and justifiable because she has no reason to give credence to the unknown they are malachim but they come with the Muslim Hashem they come in the image of people why should Sarah believe them so on that point on that second point the ramban does say a very important he sowed and that is when someone gives you a bracha that something good should happen you should never disparage it as unlikely as it is and as unlikely as the shaluchem The Messengers seem to be you never know the conduit through which Hashem sends you abraha she should have said amen she shouldn't have laughed she shouldn't have dismissed it she should say a mate they tell the famous story some people say the story is not true so I'm not vouching for the story but they say the story about a man in Bene Barack whose daughter was getting older and she could not find the Hassan 25 30 whatever the age was it was beyond the normal age by which most women would be married at least in Hare Society so the father goes to the stapler of Heim knewsky's father the sniper of actuallyevsky was a great great God in Sadiq it's interesting when I was growing up with known as the stipler's son now we have to say the stipler is known as father of he became so famous as a Guadalajara but the stipler was also one one of the Great godole hador let me digress for a moment because it is interesting I was zoha to visit the stipler uh you know in the 70s maybe early 70s and the stapler was um not completely deaf but he was almost uh like 95 deaf and as a result it was very scary to talk to him because he was always yelling you know a deaf person doesn't hear his own voice so he talks very very loud so you always had the feeling he was screaming at you he was angry at you so when you had to communicate to him forever or whatever it is you would actually write it on a pet Tech on a piece of paper and he would read the piece of paper and give you a bracha or whatever even a you had a child that ask him you'd write it down and he would answer so I came in to see him to visit him you know to be Mikado him uh like around midnight so I come in you know there's a line of people so I come into the room and he's sitting at his desk and the desk is piled with swarim and it's also piled with pieces of paper all the way up and he was this was relatively towards the end of his life he was falling asleep he was like drowsing so I wasn't going to wake him up so I just stood there waiting to see if he would wake up you know his eyes opened up and he started screaming at me I was scared I was really scared to death he starts screaming at me and what he said was he's looking at the papers he says why do people you know really loud imagine why do people come to me for a bracha he says I'm an old man I'm going to die soon I just want to spend a little bit of learning before I go to alamaba they should pray to Hashem they should pray to Hashem Hashem answers everything why do they come to me as I'm holding my paper to give to him so he said well I don't know but here here's my here's my thing actually he broke a Chevy he gave a bracket but I mean it was very scary he wasn't angry he really wasn't yelling in anger but he was yelling and he was saying this at the same time it was very very frightening it just I really I didn't I didn't know what to do but okay but be this at night uh they tell the story that this person came to the stapler for a bracha that my daughter hasn't found the shiruch even though she's 25 30 I don't know the exact age so the stapler said tell me did you make a Kiddush when your daughter was born yeah Brock it's not so customary to make a kidish regard there's no reason not to but you know people don't always do it so he said no I didn't he says Ah that's your problem he says well what does a Kiddush have to do with with this he says you know and a kidish for a newborn daughter everybody goes over to you and they say may you bring your daughter to the khopah and you know people may you may you may have a hundred people telling you this and it gets boring right again again again again again again you never know whom Hashem chose to be the conduit of you never know it might be like the 98th guy might be the hundredth guy it might be someone who's not Kosher so to speak doesn't have a lot of prestige it may not be the great Rabbi it might be the simplest you that Hashem designated as a Senor Senora is like a pipeline for a Baraka and when you didn't make a kiddish you deprived yourself and your daughter of all of those potential Pipelines that could bring this broccoli in the world so the man said so what do I do it says make a kiddish now in honor of your daughter's birthday which is a little odd I mean she's 30 years old I'm making a kiddish celebrating the birth of my daughter into the world and the story goes again I I I'm not vouching that is true but but it represents a certain point of view that he made a kid age for his daughter and everybody went over to him and said and now she's much older said may you be Soca to bring your daughter to the khupa and The Story Goes within two weeks she met the man that she eventually married because indeed there is much to say about the Senor of the khaza really say this Buffet Rich they say it explicitly altahi beer Casio the blessing of a simple person should not be treated lightly Hashem has allowed many many people to be conduits for bracha don't despise the bracha of a simple person this reminds me of the story about the rugged rubber Dome the rugged shove are gone was the Hasidic Rabbi of devinsk where the or samanth where mayor simply was the Miss nage Rabbi of devinsk Mama's Little City devensky in Latvia alum there was not even Yeshiva in defense but the Hasidic Rabbi and the Miss naged Rabbi the Ursa mayak the snagaj rabbi and the rugged shabber that's the place of his birth rugachev reviews I don't think they have proof for it that the last of Robert actually got his ordination from the rugged rubber which is pretty tough the rugged shover and mayor simpra they were very good friends they were both great great phenomenal Godzilla but they had very different personalities there was mayor simra was quiet was humble uh was very calm the record Shopper was tempestuous he was turbulence uh he never got a haircut they say his hair is wild because he didn't want to be Movado Torah uh he remem you know but mayor simply said about the rugged shovel people say that the record Trevor Has a good memory he doesn't have a good memory he just finishes called the terracula the Babylonian Tomlin the Jerusalem Thomas every month so any reference he saw within a month so what what type of memory is that actually even that would impress me remember things for a month okay but but somebody said remembering something that you saw a month ago at a maximum that's not a big achievement so the rugged rubber was really talk about being scared to talk to people were scared to talk to him because he would cut you up if you came into Thomas he was nice to simple people but if you came as a Thomas and you tried to do something say some Torah he would overwhelm you with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of references uh to show that you know you didn't make sense uh in fact uh he didn't accept any acronym I mean his last rebbe was the rambam anyone have anyone after the rambam including the he didn't pay attention to he was unique among recently in that he didn't even respect that Corona in the building like nobody no just the rambam and the Gomorrah and that was kind of kind of it they tell the story again excuse me for digressing but I think it's it's interesting that dravarian Cutler as a young man was already a great roshishiva in Europe in his 20s he was a great roshishiva and very very sharp in his mind and he wanted to speak in learning with the rugged children but he was afraid to come as a roshishiva because the rubber shovel would cut him up so instead he came as a businessman and he told the ruggage ever you know I am a businessman and I learn a little bit on the side I wonder if I could share a Torah thought that I I did as a part-time person said of course that's very nice so reviron gave him one of his very very complicated and deep pilipulum very intricate and the ruggage ever paid him the Supreme compliment he just said to him you know for a businessman who only learns a little bit not this is not too bad referral used to boast about that temperament he said yeah the writers over there it's not not too not too bad so the record Shopper was very very fearsome you know you wouldn't want to you wouldn't want to fight with him I mean in fact you wouldn't want to argue with him in learning you you would just be overwhelmed if mayor Simka was a tremendous guadal of course as well but you're very simply had a very different approach so the reason why I'm mentioning the record Shopper is the following I just talked I just mentioned to you the rambanz idea that Sarah should have answered amen because even if she thought these are just Arabs menashook and she thought they were nobodies you accept the bracha from where it comes you don't disparage your brother and this is based on the statement of Ghazal or it's similar to the statement of Ghazal that the blessing of a head yot the blessing of even the simplest person should never be taken with disrespect you should accept it and say amen and pray that it should be fulfilled so The Story Goes that somebody once came to the rugged Trevor and asked him for a breaka could you give me a break so the rugged Shepherd said I'm a Rob of a city I'm not a rabbi indeed it was technically he said I don't give breakfast he says I write I don't give breakfast so the person said well uh because I'll say even the bracha of a simple person is Good from you agato so the ruggage ever said the rock of a symbol person why should I give you a bracha that only works from give yourself a bracha that works directly meaning because I'll say the bracha of a simpleton should be respected you're a simpleton so you can give yourself a direct bracha if I give you a bracha it only works through a one step more called The Homer right so he says you give a breath without a cup of coffee all right so again now people ask questions which I I can't really fully get into because I can't say I fully understand it that sometimes the Archer ever seems to be insulting he seems to be embarrassing people how could that how could that be these are somewhat of good questions but people understood that the rugged Trevor was such uh an unusual genius that in some ways you know he wasn't completely like the normal behaviors of people and people that people understood that this was a different type of situation unlike Ramirez unlike let's say um Feinstein who were known for their normality they'll often talk about rimosa how normal rib Moshe was all right the rocky Trevor was was a different type the record shower had uh eccentricities but it was understood that these eccentricities were kind of the side effects of a very very very unusual and profound greatness so you know we're not really in a position to to criticize that particular thing okay but be it as it may the ramban is explaining why Sora shouldn't have left but we're still back to the first question and that is why does avraham get a pass for his laughter and Sora gets criticized for her laughter right same problem so there are a lot of different answers and according to the medrish rabba the message actually says that Hashem is indirectly criticizing Abram by criticizing his wife meaning to say Hashem didn't want to directly criticize abramovina of course that does raise the question why should the wife be the punching bag for her husband that is a good question actually but Demetrius says by criticizing service laughter avraham will infer that there's a musar directed to him as well so according to the Madrid both avram and Sarah were wrong but Hashem criticizes Sarah and avram is supposed to get get the hit that is what gazelle said but a second answer emerges from a bit of a surprising place and that's the targum uncleus now uncle is actually a very interesting person uh uncleis was a Roman he was a nephew of one of the Roman emperors during the second base on mikdash and uncleis converted to Judaism at Great risk to his life he he could he could have been killed his life was in danger became a talmud of ravioli Ezra and Ravi Joshua he actually was a cover of Rabbi akib he was the same time as Rabbi Akiva and one of the great things that Uncle is did was Uncle this is a Greek or Roman name uncle is translated the Torah into Aramaic and the reason why this was useful is because Aramaic was the common commonly spoken language of the Jewish people during the second temple period even in the land of Israel itself it's as strange as it was many people were not particularly literate in Hebrew inherit Israel uh in fact when people ask the question uh what language did Jesus speak it was probably Aramaic it was not Hebrew Aramaic was the commonly spoken language that is why the tamagu xiaomi is an Aramaic although it's a product of Eric Israel right the Babylonian tablet is the product of Babylon but even the time the mid rashem which were written in Eric Israel are in Aramaic now there are two different versions of Aramaic there's called Palestinian Aramaic uh and Babylonian Aramaic these are two different dialects but it's Aramaic so uncle is translated the Torah into Aramaic so that people would understand the Torah now today it's kind of the opposite you know there is a din in the children which should be followed many people unfortunately do not follow it that for every Parsha every week we should read the biblical verses twice and read the Aramaic so we understand problem is of course that most of us are not fluent in Aramaic and if anything we understand the Hebrew more than the Aramaic so instead of using uncleis to understand the possuk we use the pasak to understand dunkles in other words oh I don't know what the Aramaic word means oh I see the Hebrew so now I know what it means so that's why some say that bismar you know ask your local Rabbi you fulfill the idea of targum by uh if if English is your is your language by an English translation that's authoritative and it's left because if Aramaic is not my language I don't really get it okay but be this it may this is called targum uncleus and in virtually every hummus with with any commentary at all right the basic you know the the basic klemish two commentary clinics will be Rashi and uncles that's kind of your bare bones commission then you have other commentaries commentaries that are that are added uh so uncles is not the only Aramaic translation we have of the Hamish we also have uh a targum that is attributed to yonasan Ben uziel which is even earlier than uncle is but there's a very big difference between Target miona-san and Targa monklas targomioneson brings many mid-russia men it's really more of a paraphrase Uncle this is an extraordinarily literal tarkum Uncle this is a word for word for word targum with very little very rarely incorporating any type of medish so English as a point of being very literal now part of Uncle this is greatness which you wouldn't notice unless you studied uncle is is that he tries to be consistent in his translations if the Torah uses a word informist gracious and it uses the same word in davarium usually Uncle this's translations are going to be the same he doesn't kind of change it to make it more interesting he doesn't have stylistic variation uh like that's considered to be a cheap way to make your writing more interesting you just change the change you use a different word when you mean the same thing Oculus is consistent which is very good and that is why whenever he's not consistent that is a matter of study meaning if the same word is translated in different ways you have to ask yourself why what interpretive issue his uncle is trying to address fascinatingly one of the comparatively rare situations where uncleist translates the same word in a different way is the laughter of avraham and the laughter of Sarah remember the same word except for masculine and feminine is in both contexts with avram it says he left with Sarah it says she left same Hebrew word but with respect to avram's laughter the targum says [Music] means he rejoiced Sarah's laughter she scuffed which means the target is basically saying there is laughter and there is laughter there is laughter out of joy and there is laughter out of cynicism and dismissal and the target is suggesting that the reason sorrow gets criticized for her laughter is her laughter was scoffing and Abram's laughter was joyous question becomes where did the target get that from the Hamish uses the same words like how could the target give a different meaning the answer is the targum is answering this question if their laughter was identical why is avram not criticized and Sarah criticized Ella Mai the laughter was not identical Abram's laughter was Joyce and Sarah's laughter was cynical in other words the targum is changing the translation because of this textual difficulty the textual difficulty is compelling a an understanding of a different understanding of the words now the truth is it's still a sorry uh it's still something that's difficult to understand because if it is the case that avram's laughter is different than Sarah's laughter why does the Torah use the same word the Torah itself should have varied the word to communicate it shouldn't be uncleus that has to vary the translations the Torah itself should have used a different word I did hear someone to suggest that perhaps you can build it into the verse itself that Sarah's laughter was cynical because it emphasizes Sara was laughing to herself meaning when you laugh out of joy you can't contain yourself so avram's laughter was laughing out loud Sarah's laughter was internal and that's the laughter of the cynic right the laughter of the cynic is not uncontrollable after it tends to be you know kind of a dry laugh and therefore someone to say that a textual support for the targum might be the bakirba of Sarah that you don't have without them okay so so far I've given you tube shot him shot of the medrish rabba is they were both wrong and hashem's Musser to Sarah was a mustard to avram too shot number two is avram was fine because his laughter was joyous laughter and sorry is criticized because her laughter was cynical laughter and supplemented by the ramban that even though she didn't know this was from God but she should have accepted the Braha even from these three people that you thought were just people because the bracha of even the head jokes the bracha of even a simple person should be hush of In Your Eyes okay so now let me mention a third explanation of the message who actually says avram's laughter was also skeptical uh so Sarah was skeptical and avram was skeptical but avram had the right to be skeptical in a way that Sarah was not and now let me explain why this goes back to a very very important discussion in the rambam his introduction to the mishnah you know the rambam lays down a principle that Hashem has given us prophets not today we don't have them but Hashem has a navua that he gives to people and if a person comes to you and says I have a prophecy from God we are not obligated to accept him until we put him through a test one of the jobs of the Sanhedrin was to credential prophets to give people their Navi license and the way they give you enoughy license is they ask you to make a bunch of predictions and if the predictions come true at a hundred percent rate of accuracy they then say you you are now a navi and any message you give us from God is going to be okay so the testing could be innocuous things like um uh is it going to rain tomorrow you know who's going to win the World Series Etc and the Sanhedrin would decide how many times they have to test you over and over and over again but at some point they say you've established your credentials you have a nothing license and from now on any message you give us in the name of God we will accept so the rambam then lays down a rule and he says the rule that if a Navy's prophecy doesn't hold true that means he's not an oven is only if he says something good is going to happen if a navi says something as good as good is going to happen no you know Chloe Israel is going to win a war and God forbid we lose a war definitionally he is a false prophet because if God said something good is going to happen then it's going to happen a hundred percent but if a navi says something bad is going to happen the navi says there's going to be a calamity that if you don't do chuba there's going to be a qurban and let's say people didn't do Cuba and nothing bad happened the rambam says that does not discredit now it doesn't prove he is another but it does not discredit him as a nothing because since Hashem is full of Rahman negative destructive prophecies can always be a note so the annulment of a negative prophecy does not discredit a navi it is only the non-fulfillment of a positive prophecy that discredits a Nummy the rambam proves this yusote from a story in the book of year miyahu involving a false prophet called hananya Ben Azor and this is afternoon had conquered Jerusalem and there was some thought should we rebel against said don't do it don't do it don't do it because he will defeat you he will destroy the base of mikdash but a lot of the false prophets were saying God loves you you have the base of miktas of course you should fight against the evil doers but they weren't righteous enough but that's what that was the false prophet so let us Rise Against the Babylonians we shall surely defeat them because God loves us and God will never allow the base of mikdush to be destroyed so your Mio says I hope and I pray that you're right that God will give us victory but I want you to know the following if God gives us victory that does not discredit me as a prophet because even though I said we would lose Hashem has Rahman and I hope Hashem is but if you prophesize Victory and the Victory doesn't happen that is a sign you are a false prophet so it's much the rambams you sowed from the story of hananya benazar a very important realm and that's why the rambam says we can only test Prophets by either innocuous things or by good predictions because then if they don't happen I know he's a false prophet but I can't test them by bad predictions because if bad predictions don't happen that doesn't prove anything because Hashem has Hashem is okay so then after the rambam lays down this fundamental rule the rambam then asks on himself we are told we're going to read this in a few weeks that when yaakov was running away from Ace of his brother so jaka was very afraid and yaakov had a dream the famous dream of the angels of the latter going up and down the ladder and Hashem told yaakov I will protect you I will guard you I will bring you back to Eric Israel in shalom I will take care of you yaakov was given a Divine promise of protection even before he left Eric Israel now when he comes back many years later 22 years later actually if he had the years of Shame Behavior 36 years later and he hears that ASAP is coming after him with 400 soldiers so what does the Torah say yaakov is frightened yaakov is scared yaakov prays he sends gifts to ASAP he prepares an army but he's fearful and he's scared so the gamaran breakfast that's the Kasha why is yaakov afraid did not God promise him that he would protect him why is yaakov afraid to the gemara's answer is foreign Yakov in his humility is afraid that even though God made him a promise maybe he forfeited the promise because of sin miyakov didn't say but Jacob thought maybe mayaveros caused me to Forfeit a Divine promise so you see from the Gomorrah that if God promises you blessings you can forfeit those blessings theoretically by sin like everything is conditional so the rambam then asks on himself how could I lay down the rule that if there's a positive prophecy you will win the war you will be blessed that has to happen and if it doesn't happen the navi is a false prophet maybe we lost the benefit of the prophecy because of our sins so the navi can say I'm not discredited you guys have sinned so so the good thing didn't happen now there's the rambam is asking that the rule that a positive prophecy has to happen is contradicted by the gamarin bracos that Jaco feels he might lose the Divine promise because of heights thus the sin cause me to lose it how do you reconcile with him so the rambam gives his own answer the rambam answers this he asks the question and the answer is the question and the rambam says the following there is a difference between a promise and a prophecy A promise is what God tells you about you a prophecy is what God commands you to communicate to others when God tells yaakov I'm going to protect you I'm going to take care of you that is not a prophecy Jacob was not told to tell anybody this was God's promise to yaakov on a promise that can be conditional on you being deserving and therefore yaakov is afraid he may lose the promise as a result of sin but when you're a prophet and you're given a mission to communicate remember that's what a prophet is you are given a mission to communicate to the Jewish people or any Nation like Yona at that point once it becomes the realm of Prophecy there has to be some way to test a profit I mean I mean think about it this way if you're going to tell me if the prophet tells you a bad thing that's going to happen and it doesn't happen Hashem has mercy and then you're going to tell me if the prophet tells you a good thing that happens and it doesn't happen you lost it because of sin there'll be nowhere to validate a profit because no matter what happens he'll never be discredited so Hashem made it that once it's the realm of Prophecy good prophecies will have to happen so the rambam school look is the random's differentiation is between prophecy and premise okay all of this is the rambam okay all of this is the rambam you can find this in the introduction to his commentary in the mishnah which is printed at the end of Massachusetts in the standard chess so now here is what the Metro says remember the question the question was why is avraham's laughter tolerated and so is left or not so the message said when avram laughed he was also skeptical he wasn't sure he believed that would happen but he had the right to be skeptical because when God made the promise to him it was only a promise as a promise avram could believe granted with some regret that maybe his sins would cost him to Forfeit that promise so this is not a joyous according to this this is not a joyous laughter this is like a Hawaii lavender meaning if only I could be sure but I'm not sure because my sins might disqualify me but the message understands a little different than other commentaries that avraham retold that conversation to Sarah he told Sarah what God had told him that's not clear in the text once avram tells Sarah it leaves the realm of promise and it now becomes prophecy once it is prophecy it's irrevocable and for sure it's going to happen and therefore Sarah does not have the right to laugh in other words avram is doubting and sorry is doubting but avram had the right to doubt it at that juncture sorry didn't now this is presupposing though an interpretive issue that Sarah is not only hearing it from the Angels she heard it from avram who was a navi okay so that's the message so so far uh We've mentioned uh three explanations about the difference in avram and Sarah the Metro says they were both wrong and the mustard to Sarah is a mustard to avram Uncle this says avram's laughter is joy Sarah's laughter is skepticism says they were both skeptical but avram is receiving a promise so he could be afraid it's not going to be fulfilled Sarah got it as a prophecy from avram telling her and therefore a navua for good is irrevocable so now let me mention a fourth explanation from the orange which is a really really an amazing explanation and he he starts off with a very interesting question that the whole narrative doesn't make a lot of sense if you incorporate some if you remember Sarah is preparing the bread and the food Etc and she actually began to menstruate her her period returned to her she became youthful again so the question of her laughter now becomes uh doesn't make sense meaning to say how could she be skeptical that after I've lost the way of women I can't have a child if she sees in her own body I mean how do you interpret being skeptical if you see a miracle that's happened to you right now so here's what the origam says it's obvious that sorrow was not laughing out of skepticism and doubt Sarah was laughing out of joy the joy of discovering that somehow God took an 89 year old woman and made her youthful again when avram gets the news he laughs out of joy when Surah gets the news she laughs out of joy joy joy same thing so why is Sarah criticized why do the Angels say why is Sarah laughing so is the answer is I'm laughing because of this miracle that happens right so what's the criticism here's what the archive says avraham lapse as soon as he gets the promise from God Sarah doesn't laugh until she sees the physical reality when the Angels say why is sorrow laughing they're not criticizing the laughter they're criticizing why is she laughing now why didn't she laugh when avram told her the message again he's going that everyone told you the message in other words like this how real is your emuna oh real now whenever I'm told Sarah and the archimes also assuming he told Sarah did Sarah believe that she would have a child she did believe she would have a child of course she believed it but how real is your belief is your belief as real as the physical reality you see with your eyes with avram the Divine promise was the reality he didn't have to see any physical confirmation of it the beliefs but the belief was not as strong as what she experienced in her body and the engine now that's a very subtle level because most of us would obviously feel a stronger Joy when we see the physical aspect of things and not just the premise and yet to the moment to the person of emuna God's promise is asriel and more real than the reality we perceive with our eyes and therefore is foreign why is she laughing now was it because she entertained some doubt that God's promised was not as real to her as the physical changes of the body right that's what emuna is and Muna on its deepest level is God's words are more real to me than what I see with my senses and the experience in my physical body and that was the China that was the Musser of Sorrow now there are contradictions here because there are ghazals that say sorry zamuna was greater than Abrams and yet in this particular instance we do have according to the arachayam we do have an opposite idea now this is very reminiscent of a gemara in maserasra the gemara says based on interpretations of the Nivea that Leo Sid Lavoe after mashiach comes the the walls of Jerusalem will be composed of slabs of jewels Imagine The Old City in which the walls were much taller than they are now and there would be diamonds and rubies and emeralds and sapphires precious jewels and Republican and said that's what the walls will be like and they certain talmud was sitting there and the talmud was thinking to himself ah this is a baba mice this can't be true Etc and one time the talmud was on a sea voyage and there was a storm and the ship got lost in the ocean for a while and he sees floating on top of the water big slams of jewels and angels are cutting them to size preparing for the walls of yushel and when mashiach comes and the talmud is very excited my Webby was right my Ruby was right he saw it and when he got rescued he got out of the storm he ran back to rabyakhanan and said Rabbi you were right you were right that's exactly what the walls are going to look like would be very happy to hear this confirmation but your jokerland was not pleased and said until you saw it with your eyes you didn't believe it you had to see it to believe it if I tell you this is what the prophets are telling us that's not enough for you God's words in the in his in his books so it says that if yokanan looked at the talmud and atonement burnt up by the gazer of yoga now whether that's literal kind of you know x-ray heat vision like Superman or whatever it was but it mentions that revokana was very displeased because saying a myman doesn't need empirical proof this comes up a lot of people say well we don't have such solid archaeological evidence for Noah's floods we don't have archaeological evidence for the Exodus you'd see us with Ryan so people try to uncover different types of evidence actually Christians are into it more than Jews but you know there are fundamentalist Christians who have located a lot of interesting archaeological evidence if you're into that that there are some books but the truth is a moment says what do I need evidence the Torah says it that's what God Said I believe it the fact that there's no evidence well so what what do they say lack of evidence is not evidence of lack as they say lack of evidence is not proof against it means you don't right so whatever the reason so the mimen on the deepest level doesn't really need confirmation of the Torah like you know all of us are that way when we see something in science or medicine or archeology that confirms the Torah we get excited right I mean I can accept oh Hashem you know we've we can show that the Torah is right and that's normal that is normal and again I plead guilty like like most people plead guilty but the gamar is suggesting that that's not the highest level of amuna the highest level of amuna is my proof that this is right is because it's in the Torah I don't need any other proof and therefore I see no need that I have to get confirmation from some type of external source and the arachim says that that was the subtlety of the aveira of Sarah imaina the subtlety that she had to experience the physical changes in her body and that was revokonen's complaint against the talmud who didn't believe the interpretation until he actually saw now this reminds me of something else I remember hearing in Yeshiva many many many years ago from the uh our greatness of David Chrome glass uh was already manifter for many many years almost 50 years an old atonement of the Mary Yeshiva and uh David points out that the gemarian masakis kitten discusses certain laws that pertain to Babylonia there are certain laws of gets that are different in bubble than in Eric Israel and at some point the gemara says and babal is north of Eric Israel you know Iraq Northeast and how do I know bubble is north of Eric Israel because in the book of yermio Hashem says the evil shall come from the north now it's a strange camera like how do I know barbell is North America so well how do I know Canada is north of the United States right if I would ask you how do I know that Iraq is Northeast of the land of Israel well how do you know because look at any map and you know Babel was a known country the gemara has to have a possuk to show that Bothell is north of Erich Israel so rev David said this shows you the difference between the way we perceive the world and the way khazal perceived the world our attitude is I don't need a pasok if I have a map because our attitude is I don't need a map if I have a a pasok is a better proof it's a better proof than a man now this does raise questions I mean this is actually a very interesting issue because particularly in geography which is not our subject there are geographical assertions in rabbinic literature that do seem to contradict Maps and the question is what do you do with it I mean are you supposed to Simply say the maps are wrong or do you try to reconcile them in some way you know so it's it's not so much that our attitude simply is the map is wrong the science is wrong the archeology is wrong generally we do we do try to effect some type of reconciliation but once again that's when you have contradiction if you simply have lack of evidence a myman says lack of evidence does not bother me because the Torah is my evidence and therefore you know lack of evidence is not as they say it's not evidence of lack Etc okay so that's a kind of the different perspectives on the difference between uh the laughter of Abram and the laughter of Sorrow now let me share with you another voice which is it is not touched at all it's kind of very homiletical but it is really such an interesting idea from the Hassan sofa that I do want to share with share it with you we know that there are two words for flower that the Torah itself uses there's Kemah which is coarse meal that has not been ground finely and they may even have some bran in it Etc now today people prefer you know the high brand but again the time of the Torah the best bread was refined flour and then there is what is called solet solet is fine finely ground flour that has been sifted multiple times now you'll recall that when avram says he's going to bring them bread he uses both words and so that so the question was well which was it these are two different things was it kemach was it so the Gomorrah says avram wanted them to have so let's bread that was made from the finest flower that was sifted Cyrus said let him have chemach and I'm not going to go through sifting the flower a million times and the gemara says me Khan from here we learn that a woman is less generous with guests than a man the man says give him so less the woman says camera now the simple meaning of the gemara is actually very simple it's not that you know women are stingy ears women do the work so obviously you know it's easy for the man to say let's have Solas and Sarah says listen I can't do everything can't match is enough but the Kasam silver gives an amazing homiletical idea and in particular the term that it uses is not such a complementary term especially for sale her eyes are less generous right that's would you say that about sorry he made him so the same sofa says and this is homiletto on a spiritual symbolic level the bread represents Torah Torah is the ultimate bread of the nashama right the nourishment of my national is Torah learning but there are two types of Torah learning there is a Torah learning that's called Solas fine flower and there's a Torah learning that's called Kemah coarse flower that has to be masticated has to be chewed a lot because it's very coarse and the difference in them is the following Solas is when you are given definite conclusions you know exactly what you have to do A B C D final final is the difficult process of working to try to figure it out so the Sam server wants to say I'm a spiritual level the Mac Locus Sora and aphram is what type of Torah is better for the world for the human spirit for the eventual Jewish people avram is arguing let there be a Torah of clarity let there be a Torah where everything all the impurities have been removed in which there's no ambiguity there's no Mach Locus everything is going to be clear let God give us a Torah in which no question is left unanswered Sarah is arguing that the spiritual power of Torah comes precisely in the work and in the effort we have to go through to understand it and to apply it we don't want God to give us everything on a silver platter we want God to give us the rough course meal and then we chew it we work again if you think about think about how Gamora works you know gemara is filled with uncertainty questions answers suppositions blind alleys God didn't have to give us a Torah that way God could have given us a Torah in which every single question is answered why did he give us a Torah where we kind of have the general principles but we have to work out all the implications and that's why there's uncertainty that's why there's ambiguity that's why there's arguments that's why there are different ways of looking at things couldn't God just give us the answer the answer is he surely could have given us the answer but we grow in that process of working it through so he says this is the sunsofer says this was the makalokus I've read and Sarah avram is arguing for a Torah of clarity of certainty so we wouldn't need things like Laura we wouldn't need the process there would be no Mach Locus at all and Sarah says no so when it says the woman is selfish it means that on one level it looks like sorry is being selfish because she's basically saying to God don't give everybody the answers she's withholding clarity But ultimately that results in a higher level of spirituality now again this is a very very far from the purchase of the sukim but that's a fascinating metaphysical idea that avram and Sarah are ultimately arguing over the nature of spiritual Revelation and it turns out sorry was right because the Torah that God gave us is in fact the Torah of Sorrow that is and that's the meaning of the phrase now the simple meaning is if you don't have paranasa there's no Torah but he's interpreting it this way if you don't work on your learning you just want pre-digested information you don't really have Torah it's only the work and the Torah now an example I often give is the following idea let's say you want to make a cake for your child so the easiest way of doing it for their birthday is when they're asleep you make a cake or even better you go to a bakery and you buy a cake that'll be a great cake delicious cake very simple and it's fine but a deeper way of showing your love for your child is you make the cake with the child now making a cake with a four-year-old is going to be a messy preposition there'll be sugar on the floor and chocolate on the counter and the pieces of eggshell in the batter and it may be uneven and part of it may be over baked and part of it may be under baked so if you're only concerned with the quality of the product you would cut the kid out I don't want to do it with the kid I mean I can make a better cake but if the point is to have a relationship with your child the relationship is we do it together Torah to we become his partners he did not give us the answer to every question he gave us rules he gave us a presses then we gotta figure it out now the downside is confusion ambiguity blind alleys I think more like proposes something and it turns out not to be right but the beauty is we become God's partners and not just passive recipients so this was the muklocus avraham and Sarah avram argued the Torah should be so let's let God give us the rules with clarity definitiveness lack of ambiguity and we will know exactly what to do in life Sarah's argument is spiritual greatness is in the taking the unground flower and chewing it over and working it out and that way you become a partner in Maine as I say sorry turned out to be the correct person in this particular so again this is a but it's a very very fascinating drush in terms of the kemach and the so let's thank you stop here anybody [Music]