Teach your child to GO WILD | (Parshas B'reishis)

all right so welcome to a new year of weekly Torah portion classes we are starting now with veracious yesterday was some Costera and in shoals all over the world Jewish people finished reading the end of the five books of Moses the end of commish and started over again with the first tour reading with with parishes so here we are gracious okay so let me see if I say this right they say there are three kinds of people in this world those who know how to count and those who don't so I want to talk about two kinds of people two personality types that we find within ourselves and which are described in this week's Torah portion when we read the genealogies of the very first generations of humankind specifically I want to talk about the genealogies of two of the sons of Adam and Eve let's just review a little bit the general genealogy you have Adam and cava Adam and Eve they at first have two sons kind and havel Cain and Abel kind kills Havel so Havel has no progeny he has no descendants and kind then is banished he sent to wander and much later not right away all of them and have a have a son chase and he has a lineage that's descended from him now what we find is that in the lineage of both kine and chase they both have descendants named Manoah kind has a son named honey and chase has a great great great grandson three greats named tonight right because it's chase and then Ennis canaan Mahalalel Jared and Canoga so that's great great great three greats grandson now a name especially a Hebrew name we know is significant a name describes the essence of the person who carries that name and what's interesting is that kind and chase yes by the way that is my name my name is chase this that is the same name yeah in case you're wondering is he talking about that is that yes that's my lookin kine and chase are opposites absolute opposites kyon is instability and chase is stability how is kind instability yet chase chin Soph kaien is a destroyer he's the world's first murderer so he is instability then as a punishment he was set to go wander so he causes instability his life isn't is unstable that's kind chases the exact opposite chase first of all etymologically that name is also related to the phrase me Meno who does ha-olam from him the world was established because after the murder of Havel at the hands of kind humankind was repopulated through the lineage of Chase everyone is descended from Chase so we men know from him who does Harlem the world was established was reestablished in fact it's related to another word you might know Evan Hutcheson the foundation stone there's a foundation stone that's in the maka mamak Dutch in the site of the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem which is the sort of the foundation of the entire world the world was built or unfolded as it were from that foundation stone set has that same root there which means foundation so the name chase means foundation he is a foundation a foundation of stability from him the world was reestablished humankind was was was was restabilized so you have kind whose instability is Shea's stability and they both have a descendent name Carnac they both have a descendant with the same name now to make it even more confusing not only do these two opposites both have descendants with the identical name but they have the opposite tonight than what you would think they would have because Chase's connect you would think would be kinds and kinds connect you would think would be chases or I mean if you look at who was Kani the descendant of kind what does it tell us says gracious panic dalla chapter 4 plus a good Zion verse 17 we a the kindness ish Tai Chi knew his wife Fattah however tailored she conceived and she gave birth as Hanoi to Ha Noi lie he Blaine that year and he built the city kind built a city we could shave my ear a shame benign Hanoi can he named the city after a sunken a kind the destabilizer the destroyer is all of a sudden a city builder a civilizer and he names his son after the city that he's building so kind represents instability but his son hanoi represents stability now go look Shea's who represents stability he has a descendent ko knife who what do you think he's gonna represent instability how so so you go look a little bit later pedak a chapter 5 paul silk huftalin verse 24 and it tells us via solid canada soil hakeem hanoi walked with god he was a holy man the nno and he was no more he local I say Allah came because God took him away what's this story what happened here first we should know he was a very young man when this happened it was only 365 years old which at that time was considered young I was a young whippersnapper what happened Rashi tells us this huh Knight descendant of Chase he was a holy guy but he was a he was wishy washy and then and you know what people were like prior to the flood so as holy as he was he was impressionable and he would have gone rotten like everybody else so God just plucked him out of the world he just took him away in fact he entered GaN Eden the meddler says is one of the few who entered gang 8 and again Eden entered paradise while still alive with his body the point is you can't get more unstable than that he just disappeared from the world he flies off to heaven talk about being flighty he just left the world he went up to paradise so you have kind who represents instability and he has a son tonight your face represents stability he has a son connect and not only are they opposites chase and hunt and kind opposites and they both have descendants incarnate but they have the opposite connects from what you would think they'll have because kinds connect represents stability city building and chases connect represents and can't even tolerate the world he disappears from the world he takes flight ok so to understand all of this I want to tell you a story about a ten year old boy on Simchat Torah we just had some custody yesterday not here in America and not in this era not in this time but in Moscow in the 1930s it's about a ten year old boy on some COS theta in Moscow in the 1930s but before I can tell you that story you have to give you a little background the background is like this there was a closet a Habad hosted in Russia named Elena Kagan which was rusev ID from claim he was a claim but they called him jayna Poltava because he was from the Ukranian town Poltava who was this a nebula so I'm just gonna paint the little picture of him 1930s Russia okay we're talking about Stalin's Russia we're talking about state-sponsored terrorism against Judaism and in the big city of Moscow they allowed there to be a couple of rules to run you know for appearances sake because officially the Communists weren't anti religion right so this rabbuna he used to walk all the way across Moscow a couple of hours every Shabbos to go to the short where there was the mikveh and he would tell you to immerse in the mikvah then he would walk all the way back across the city of Moscow a couple of hours and diving at the shore where he would Davin and out of respect for him they would always wait to not start Korea so Toyota they wouldn't start the tour reading until he would come in they have to understand first of all just talking about somebody walking a couple hours to a mikvah at the toilet so he can walk a couple hours back to assure that itself you would say is you know that's a it's a little bit of a wild guy now do that in 1930s massacre without papers because it's Chaves and he can't carry he has no documentation there's no ID and he's walking visibly Jewish a beer to pay us yarmulke consensus and all all that have to happen is you'd have to be stopped one time you wouldn't even have he wouldn't have identification and it's been he and in those days you know when when when a Jew was stopped by the authorities it wasn't a slap on the wrist they could be disappeared they could you know the Indian to never never show they would just never appear again he would just take him away never know what happened but this this was his this was Yana he was above all of this he was a baller you you would not think that he was living in Stalin's Moscow well then he would come to show and he would dive in a long long long time he was across it he would davon meditatively he'd spent hours on his prayers and then took his own after he finished davon he spend all day diving toward the end of shops he'd finally make kiddush and he would find afar Brennan he would say look I I mean he was preparing in a very inspiring way in a very fiery way he would get everybody uplifted and people would just forget that they were living under the conditions that they were living so this this Arab llena he was a spiritualist it was mystic he was a little bit of a a wild guy I mean just to be that oblivious to the conditions under which he was living and to be that openly Jewish and that dedicated devoted he was not what you would consider you know your conventional button-down type of guy at the same time at the same time you should know that this Arab Janna was a master organizer a master organizer first of all he was in charge of underground hadarom underground schools and the amount of logistics that were involved and of course remember there couldn't be a paper trail so everything was memorized if you're talking about somebody who had to run I mean imagine running a school being an administrator of a school and you forget about you don't have a computer you don't have paperwork and you don't have you because you can't create a paper trail and everything is memorized and you have to know who to trust and everything is in code and then beyond that not only he was running the underground schools he started to run an underground emigration system after World War two what happened is because the war front pushed for eastward a lot of Polish citizens ended up in Russia so after World War two the Russian said that the Polish citizens have to leave Russia have to go back to Poland so it was easier to escape from Poland than from Russia so what a lot of Jews did is they got the idea that if you could get a Polish passport you know that was basically an under found forged there's a system of forging polish passports if you get a Polish passport then you could get out of Russia they would you know deport you to Poland and the from Poland it was easier you could get to Western Europe and then to Israel or to America or wherever so this rep yenna was one of the three Siddim who ran this system of creating the documentation and of running the the Jews on these trains at the town was called Lamberg lumbergh's a border town so to get the Jews out of Russia into Poland and it was an incredibly involved amount of again of logistics and planning and this was you know was overseeing this whole thing so on the one hand he's this spiritualist this mystic who's walking through Moscow like he doesn't even know what's going on around him he's dialing all day saying look I am he's for bringing the rest of the day it's like you know not not a not a practical guy very spiritual guy very would you call it you know otherworldly guy on the other hand he's this master plan or coordinator so which llena was the real Jana and the answer is they were both the real Jana he was he was a paradox he was a study in contradiction I'll tell you remember foot to face who was one of the other Sydenham who was involved in that that falsifying the passports to get Jews out of Russia he told the Vienna that you gotta go because the Communists know that you're involved in this and this is very serious you got to get out of here and in fact that Mendel gave him a ticket he says you are going on the next train and he says you know what I was put in charge of taking care of the Atomium that means the students of the lab avicii Sheva in Russia and when the last one of the t'me men leaves that I leave you know like the captain goes down with the ship so remember gave gave it up yeah a ticket says you're going on the next races no no when everyone else is out then I'll go out I want you to know he never left and he died childless he never had children there are many Labov ature families who have youngers they're all named after this llena but he himself he didn't have children they executed him one time when he was in Lemberg he was staying with a family and he comes to the house where he was staying and they told him the KGB has been here for you they know you're here and they they want to speak to you so it's imminent so he said oh I guess I got to get out of here it was in the morning he so he says so I'll eat breakfast and then I'll davin and then I'll leave think of the presence of mind do you know that you're doing something that you'll either be executed or sent to Siberia for the rest of your life for doing you know the KGB has been to the place where you just walk through the door the people tell you hey they were here for you they're coming back and to be able to say okay so I guess I better leave but first I'll eat breakfast then I'll davon then I'll get out of here then I'll leave you met if it were you or me I don't know about you but I know about me I don't know what's more impressive that he was able to dive in or that he was able to eat either but he ate he darvon and then he left and they didn't get him that time we got him the next time so this an Abhyanga if I would ask you was he a wild guy or was he a very settled focused very orderly person and the answer be yes he was both he was both so now if you know who Yana is and you understand that paradox between that reckless abandon that spirituality and one hand and that absolute comb focus steadiness and how they were one package in a nebula and now I'll tell you the story about the ten-year-old boy okay so like I said it was masks out of the 1930s it was simcha citator and the joy of the Jewish people and some cos theta reaches its climax after all of the High Holidays and the joyful days of Circus finally you have Shmi neon saris and some Costera where we take out the Torah from the from the ark and we and we dance with it and what did they do the wild thing crazy thing 1930s Russia they went out of the shul into the street and they were dancing in the street I mean just think about the either the bravery or the foolishness however you want to look at it an Abhyanga then grabbed a stranger and he didn't even know if he was Jewish or not and started dancing with the stranger this was this was a nun and some cos theta now there was a little ten-year-old boy told you named Shalom lever tov I heard this story from his son yah see who is Ashley in Scottsdale Arizona so little Shalom is 10 years old and his mother bought him free yontiff a new suit now a new suit even today in New York a ten-year-old boy has a new suit he feels good he feels like you men she's got a new suit now imagine 1930s Russia the kind of poverty the kind of scarcity that there was to be able to get a new suit that was a really big deal that was a really big deal and he loved this suit and had gold buttons on it and it was it was a beautiful suit and he was very proud of the suit he felt good he felt like a mint walking in the suit and Vienna was outside simcha Stata and he was dancing and then he started getting everybody crazy with him he started saying to the city one after the maja Coulomb AHA somersault they could make a summer I hope cool and make a somersault and then he saw the little boy little 10 year old boy being very careful to keep a suit clean there's something called a teachable moment where you can't construct the situation but if you're a master teacher you can seize the opportunity when it arises this moment was a teachable moment where a biana understood the hey know the education that this ten-year-old Sholem was going to need in order to remain a proud Jew in the circumstances under which he was going to be going to be living he understood that for this boy it was incredibly important excuse me did he make that somersault and if you understand there were no dry cleaners in 1930s Moscow to make that somersault and that suit would never be the same again the suit would never be the same again and Amina turns to the little 10 year old Charlotte Maha Cola and all the city much in America what can you do he had no choice and he made the somersault and that suit was never the same again and neither was little Sholem he was never the same again he had a teachable moment at that moment what a drab getting to teach the ten-year-old boy that sometimes Yiddish kite requires that we do something crazy sometimes the most responsible thing is to be irresponsible there's a saying situm have about the omission and perky Elvis says in the in chapter 5 appear key obvious it says you hood have been tamer we're not one of the tannoy one of the sages of the Mishnah said that oz Poornima Jahannam of a ship on him Lagaan Eden as opponent means a brazen face meaning audacity hoods book someone with gutsman so the eyes upon him the people with person with hutzpah with audacity they go to Jahannam they go to purgatory and the boys respond him the shame face it the humble the meek they go to GaN Eden so you can understand what the simple reading is but I sitting them say like this you twisted a little bit and said like this to be a proud Jew in Agra hanim like 1930s Moscow Oz pawn them looking at them only a nice problem only someone with hoods book can be a proud Jew when you're living in a in a hellish situation but if you're only a bassist punim if you're meek if you're timid if you're you know goody two-shoes then the only way you can keep your Judaism is if you're in a gun Aidan if you're in a veritable paradise if you're in a you know easy place like five towns in 2019 then when we think of education you know we generally the default idea is discipline you got to take the kid kids wild you got to rein them in you got to teach them how to be disciplined that's part of you know one part of Hinnom is teaching children to channel their energy and be more focused and that that's that's part of canola but just as much as that is part of him if you know what else what else is part of you know and and and it needs more needs to be mentioned more often because it's so overlooked the opposite the opposite teaching teaching children how to get out of their box teaching children how to how to break away and do something fearless even reckless that's also part of kennel to teach the child who's a little bit of the Wallflower come out of your shell and and explode onto the scene and be extroverted not that not in a self-consumed way but in the holy way in a way that serves God and the way the Jews have done throughout the ages when we had to overcome all types of challenges in order to be Jews so just as much as it's part of the child's education they're teaching them how to rein it in and be more organized and more orderly and more focused executive functioning all itself yeah yeah but also a vital part of you know vital part of education of the Jewish child because it's a vital part of the personality of the Jew is to have that other that opposite part of the personality which is wild and outgoing and risk-taking and adventurous and flighty and and unstable in a good way so now let's answer our question about the to harness in Kabbalah we have two kinds of Swift Oh yoohoo and tikkun plural means chaos Tikhon means rectification in Kabbalah they refer to two different models for creation togu is where the energy in creation is ample but the containers are minimal so there's a lot of energy and it's it can't be contained and that model for creation actually was unsustainable and there was a shattering of the vessels and Kabbalah explains it as as a part of the sort of the building process of world building how it chamb made worlds but the idea is that you have this this very high level very lofty level where there's extremely powerful boy your eyes light and and thin or flimsy calum vessels powerful light flimsy vessels ticklin is the opposite tikkun is sturdy Calum nice robust vessels containers and more dim boys the lights are a more dim more settled so which one are we supposed to emulate which one is supposed to be our focus and you know if we're asking a Jewish question if we say is it a or is it B the answer is both or C or whatever it all depends where you're coming from toi who needs to be tempered by Tico and Tico needs to be tempered by tell you just alike wildness needs to be contained sometimes the settled orderly personality needs to be set free and so you have to take each child tonight Lynott alpi vodka King Solomon the wisest of all men he said you Kate the child differentiate where the child is coming from so there are children who need to learn more how to add more tikkun to their toy who to give more order to their wild energy so that they can focus better but then they're also children that need to be given more toyo to their Tekin they need to be given energy and excitement and and even a little bit of red Glynnis and then there are how both of those personalities are present in all of us so in other words you have those who are a little bit more Cayenne like the wild one who needs to be settled down you have those who are a little bit more chase like the saddled one who needs to be made more wild and then you have in all of us a little bit of kind in a little bit of chase so this is the lesson that the theta tells us tonight the word knife means hinoa I know it has he know his education so how is it that kinds car knife is the opposite of him kind is the crazy one his son karna is the city builder in the settled one chases the saddled one the of inertia Co the foundation stone and his co knight is the flighty one who disappears from the world is that's precisely the point if you're coming from one extreme then you're Hanoi your Hin or your education is to go to the other and if you're at this extreme then the reverse and that's what we have to do for ourselves and for our children to identify how the teak one needs to who and the toy who needs the teak on and if you'll be a master educator like Arab Jaina who in himself contained that paradox who had the wildness and the orderly focus at the same time then you're able to bring it out in others okay so see you next week God willing