Rabbi Minkowicz Weekly Torah Lesson Parsha Va’etchanan 5781

welcome to this week's torah lesson this week's torah portion is pasha's verse the question of the week is when should one give up and not even pray so the torah begins where moisha abano praised hashem and pleads with hashem to allow him to go into the land of israel so the question is why did moisture uh pray god decreed to moshe that he will not go into the land of israel and once god decrees that so isn't our being whose prayer a prayer in vain and we know you don't want to make a prayer in vain rashfi actually says that moisture bainu was asking for hashem foreign a free gift but isn't every prayer a free gift so the rebel explains us based on the dispute between the babylonian and the jerusalem talmud the issue is with a woman that becomes pregnant and you want to pray to change the sex of the baby from either male to female or female to male are you allowed to do that or is that considered a prayer in vain so the babylonian talmud says up until the first 40 days you can pray for what you want male or female after 40 days it would be considered a prayer in vain and it would be inappropriate to make that prayer unless you're someone that had power to do miracles and therefore after 40 days if you don't have the power you should not pray the jerusalem talmud on the other hand says that one can pray to change from male to female female to male up until the seventh month and according to one opinion in the jerusalem talmud you can even pray until labor starts beginning now what's the difference between the babylonian talmud and the jerusalem entitlement so there are be explained as follows the babylonian talmud was written in the darkness and the struggles of exile which represents human effort so therefore one can only pray with something which is possible on the other hand the jerusalem talmud was a gift from god and from the gift perspective anything and everything is possible so therefore rashi says the reason why moshe obama was able to pray even though there was a decree because he was asking for a madness he was asking for a free gift so to answer the question when should one give up and not even pray as long as you're asking for a mata screenum a free gift you can always pray thanks so much for joining us for our weekly torah lesson this week's torah lesson is dedicated to the memory of bharach benari labe shlom van yosef and rojo baslipo may their souls be elevated by the torah we're studying in their memory thanks again for joining us for our weekly torah lesson for more information please see our website khabadaswf.org have a great and blessed week