Transcript
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We're here for the yard site of Rahul
Misha Ray Winer whose yard site is
Monday night and Tuesday day this year
which is Judas Kislv the 19th day of the
Hebrew month of it's the day that the
first kabad
Reb was freed from imprisonment and it's
celebrated all over the world. The fact
that Dul Basmo's
yard site is on this day means that
there's a very special merit for this
nishama for this soul
happens to also be we're coming from
Shabas Vayish the Torah portion that
Jews all over the world just read this
Shabas and in this Torah portion
amazingly
it speaks about Rahul and more
specifically about the passing
of Rahul
Thomas Rael and Rachel died
and she was buried on the road to Ephra
which is also known as Bethlehem.
And it says that her husband Jacob, our
father, erected a monument to her, which
is very interesting because as you
remember, we were here for the yacht
side of Jerome. And one of his two
names, his name is Yakov Schaw. So his
name is one of his names is Yakov. So we
have the name Yakov
right here. And what's also incredibly
interesting,
Binyammen right here. Beyammen.
Benjamin. We have the name Benjamin
which is
Ray's husband
Benjamin Winer which is incredible. We
have all these three names right here.
Rojo Beyammen
and Yakov all on this one page which was
part of the Torah reading the Jews all
over the world just read on Shabas
bas.
We're here to light a candle for your
yard site. We want to let you know that
your son Michael Rea speaks about you
often and remembers you with love. And
in your honor, we're going to actually
give a class about your name, the name
Raul, and about the special role of
Jewish mothers. And it should be for an
elevation of your soul on your yard
site.
I want to tell you that your son, your
beloved son, has a picture of you he
keeps on his desk with a handwritten
note. That gives him a lot of strength.
Be strong. God made you. God loves you.
When your son reads those words, he
thinks of you and your love. You have a
lot to be proud of. And may your soul
have an aliyah and elevation on your
yard site.
This is Michael's silent brother Ker
Yakov Shaw. And you see here the stone
is freshly cleaned.
Welcome to this special class. As you
saw, this is dedicated to the yard site
of Rahobas Misha, whose yard site is
Yudis, the 19th day of the Hebrew month
of Kisv, which of course is known all
around the world as an incredibly
special day. It is the day called,
the new year, theidic new year, because
it's the day that the alterba, the
firstb was freed from imprisonment.
So we're going to learn this class in
memory and in honor of Rahul Bas
and in honor of all Jewish mothers
everywhere and especially all ra. So if
you are a ra or you know a ra or you are
a Jewish mother or you know a Jewish
mother please enjoy this class.
Okay. Rahul is one of the four
matriarchs. We have four matriarchs.
We'll enumerate them. Uh Sara who was
the first Jewish mother. She was the
wife of Abraham. Sarah the wife of
Abraham. Then we have Rifka or Rebecca
the wife of Yitzk or Isaac. And then we
have Rahul and Leia who were sisters and
they were the wives of Yankino our
forefather Jacob. Now, why was Jacob
married to sisters?
Long story short, because their father,
Lavven, was a tricky guy. Yaniv wanted
to marry Raul. He immediately was taken
with her. He was spiritually drawn to
her. He knew that his lot was with her,
and we'll talk a little bit more about
that. And he worked seven years to marry
her. He worked [snorts] as a shepherd
for his father-in-law.
Um, and then love and pulled a fast one.
He was a shifty guy. And he
married Leia first to Yonke, saying,
"Well, Leia's the older sister, and we
don't marry the younger sisters before
the older sisters, so sorry. If you want
to marry the younger sister, you could
do that, too. But you're going to have
to work for me another seven years."
Okay? Which which Yankee did. And
because of his great love for Raul, it
says that those uh years of work were
just like days in his eyes.
Now let's talk about the first
appearance of Rahul. We'll sort of go
through chronologically. Rahul first
appears when Yankeev arrives in the
place called Kurin. Kurin was the town
where Lavven, the aforementioned Loven,
who was not a good guy. He was sort of
like the local, you might call him uh
the the burger meister. He was in charge
of the town. He was sort of like the
local uh landowner and uh basically a
gangster. He was he he was sort of a
gangster. And uh when Yankeev arrives,
he's fleeing from his murderous brother
Asov or Esau.
And he he comes there because his his
mother Rifka Rebecca told him, "Go back
to where I come from. Go back to Kuran
um and look for some uh for some
kinsmen, look for some family." Now,
unfortunately, his family there were was
was the aforementioned love and who was
was not a good guy and and Yakov did get
tricked. But Yakov appears in in Kurin
and basically uh there are a bunch of
shepherds hanging around in the middle
of the of the day and Yakov says, "What
are you guys doing? It's a very uh like
long lunch break you're taking over
here." So he they say, "Well, actually,
we're waiting for all the shepherds to
assemble because there's a uh giant
boulder on top of the well. They would
keep the boulder on top of the well for
security so people wouldn't steal the
water. Um, and but it's so heavy we
can't remove it until all of us
congregate. So we're waiting for
everyone to congregate. Then we'll all
push the the boulder off and we'll draw
water and then we'll leave. And so
Yankov says to them, "Do you know
Loveven?" They said, "Of course we know
Loving. He's famous gangster over
[laughter] here. Uh do you know uh do
you know uh you know is is is he well
how is he? Yeah. You know he's doing
he's doing pretty well indeed. He was a
he exploited everyone in there in the
town. Uh and then all of a sudden they
said oh and here is his daughter Raul
coming with the sheep.
Rahul um did not have a mother. She was
raised by her father. And because she
didn't have a father, I mean, she didn't
have a mother, um, she was forced to
sort of rely on uh, her father for
things that usually you would say girls
might rely on their mother. Um, but also
she didn't have brothers, at least at
this point, she didn't have brothers.
And Lavven who was again not a good guy.
He would make Rahul work as his
shepherdess which I you may not
understand this but shepherds
at least in biblical times and and I
think for many generations afterwards as
well uh were not considered very
scrupulous individuals. There's many
reasons why shepherd culture is sort of
like a low-life culture. That's just the
way that it's described. And the point
is that it was a sign of neglect, like
outright parental neglect that Loven
would even send his daughter Raul among
the shepherds.
At any rate, Raul uh arrives and Yakov
immediately is taken with her. He knows
that his soul is bound up with her. Um
he removes the boulder single-handedly.
The boulder that they're waiting for the
whole uh community of shepherds to come
push off the the Well, he removes it
single-handedly. He's a starker. He's a
strong guy. And and then he goes over to
Raul and it says that he kissed her and
he cried.
Now why was he crying?
So one interpretation, one explanation
is that of Rashi who says that he
foresaw that she will not be buried with
him. He knew immediately that his lot is
with her. And he also knew that for
whatever reason they would not be buried
as a couple. They would not be buried
together. And we're going to speak much
more about that because that's a very
important aspect of the life of Raul.
The fact that she was not buried with
Yankee. Where was Yankeev buried? In the
famed Maras Maka cave of Mahella inv
where there's four famous couples
buried. Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah,
Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob. But Jacob
with Leia, not Raul. Where's Raul
buried?
[gasps] By the side of the road, and
we're going to talk about that why she
was buried by the side of the road. At
any rate, let's continue. Um, I told you
before that Loveven pulled a fast one.
So, here's the deal.
Yankeev knew that Rahul I mean Yakov
knew that Loveven was going to pull a
fast one. So Yankeev actually discussed
this with with Raul and they made a
plan. They made a plan in order to um
sort of
preempt any uh any shenanigans. And the
plan was this. They had a code. They had
set up a code. So because Yanke knew
that Love was going to try to trick him.
And he even knew he might try to trick
him by swapping the brides. So Yankee
and Rahul came up with codes with a
secret code that if you give me these
codes at the wedding, I'll know it's you
because only you will know these codes.
So they had these special code set up.
So how did he still get tricked?
Ro saw what was going down. She saw that
her father was bent on swapping her for
her sister Leia.
She wasn't going to be able to stop
that.
She understood that
she's not going to be able to stop it.
But what will happen is that Leia will
be humiliated because Yian will will
catch her because she won't know the
codes and right there in front of
everyone, she'll be rejected.
And as difficult as this was for Rahul,
she gave her [snorts] sister the codes
because she didn't want her sister to be
humiliated. You could say that was very
nice to her sister. wasn't so nice to
her future husband. Okay, I I I hear
that. But you you sense from this the
sensitivity, the compassion, and and
more so the self-sacrifice of Rahul. She
gave up her own happiness in order to
protect her sister's feelings,
which was one of the great uh attributes
of Rahul. And we're going to speak about
this later u because it comes back this
theme comes back her self-sacrifice
specifically in this way to protect her
sister's feelings. Okay. Now Rahul uh
does eventually marry uh Yankeev. And
here's the thing she is infertile. Now
many of the matriarchs in fact all of
the matriarchs were were infertile or
experienced a long period of infertility
until their prayers were finally
answered. Leia was very fertile. Uh Leia
was uh giving birth right away and um
Rahul [clears throat] was very uh hurt
by this that Leia was having so many
children. Now this is not a this is not
a class about Leia, but as an aside, I
just want to mention that according to
some commentaries, the reason that Leia
was blessed with fertility was because
she knew that she was the second best.
because she knew her husband favored her
sister and she felt rejected in that
sense. So, Hashem sort of placed her uh
for her hurt feelings by making her uh
fertile and giving her many many
children.
But let's return to Rahul. So, Rahul's
not having children and she's desperate
to have children. And finally her
prayers are answered and she has one
child. His name is Ysef or Joseph.
And what's so interesting is that
the matriarchs knew they were all
prophetesses. They had prophecy. They
knew that there were going to be tribe
12 tribes of Israel. Meaning meaning the
12 tribes. Where does that come from? 12
tribes uh tribes of Israel. It comes
from the 12 sons of Jacob. Jacob has 12
sons. each one had of a tribe. Okay, so
they knew that there was only going to
be 12 tribes.
Joseph is the 11th son.
As soon as Joseph is born, Rachel Rahul
says Ysef Lee Bain Aer. She says a
prayer. She gives birth to she's been
infertile all these years. She gives
birth now to a son, Ysef or Joseph. And
immediately she says, she called him
Ysef. Ysef means add to me. She says to
Hashem
add to me bane a another son
which is an you can call it we might
call it kadusha holy insolence but after
all those years of waiting to have a
child and finally she has a son and
what's her prayer immediately when her
son is born give me another son but this
is actually held up as a very virtuous
attribute of raul that when it comes to
accomplishing things, holy things, which
bringing the the uh 12 tribes into the
world is obviously extremely holy. We
should never be satisfied. We should
always strive for more. And every
accomplishment should spur us on to want
the next accomplishment. And that's the
lesson here. Ysef Lee bain a give me
another son as soon as the first one is
born. And she did. She had one more son.
There were remember there was only 12
tribes. Joseph was the 11th. There was
only possible to be one more and she
gave birth to Binyammen or Benjamin
and that is a very sad story because
Rahul passed away in childbirth when she
was giving birth to Binyammen.
And
it's interesting we mentioned that this
class is in honor of Rahul Basak
whose yard site is Utes Kisliff. What's
interesting is that
the shabas before
we read Jews all over the world shs all
over the world read paras
and there in paras
it's very uncanny uh we read just
getting to the page
Um,
it's Genesis 35 verse 16.
So, here it is. Um,
actually it's verse 17. I'm sorry.
Chapter 35:1 17. It was when she had
difficulty in in giving birth. She was
having difficult in giving she had a
difficult birth. And then the ver next
verse verse 18
her soul left her
because she died.
She called him Ben which actually means
son of my affliction or pain. The pain
of uh leaving this world unable to raise
her children.
Vinyomin but
his father that the baby's father
meaning Yankee for Jacob named him Biny
or Benjamin.
Next verse 19
died, passed away
and she was buried on the side of the
road by on the way to Ephat he base lo
that is base leim or Bethlehem.
Now what's interesting is I mentioned
before she was buried on the side of the
road. [snorts]
She was not buried in
the Marasa Marlo, the cave of Melo,
which is a huge uh shrine. I I mentioned
the four prominent couples were buried
there. That it's what it's considered
the second holiest site in all of
Judaism, only second to the Western
Wall, to the location of the uh temple.
But Rahul was not buried there. Where
was she buried? on the side of the road.
Just some random place on the side of
the road. Why? Because that's where she
passed away. That's where she was
buried. And seemingly this is a terrible
insult that one of the matriarchs of our
people, not only she wasn't buried in
the family plot, so to speak, but she's
just buried randomly in some anonymous
place in the middle of nowhere. It's not
even a normal place. Okay.
So now you have to understand the
significance of this because it is very
very deep.
[snorts] But I want to take you to
decades later. Now Rah was 36 when she
passed away. Many people don't realize
how young she was. She was only 36. But
I want to take you to decades later.
Yankeev Jacob himself is about to pass
away and he's living in Egypt. If you
remember that there was that whole
period of separation where Joseph was in
Egypt and they didn't know where he was
and they became reunited and they lived
together in Egypt because Joseph was
viceroy in Egypt. Now I'm talking about
the very end of the book of Genesis.
Okay, towards towards the very end um
Jacob's on his deathbed. He calls Joseph
in and he says to he says to him, "Swear
to me, you will not bury me here in
Egypt. You must bury me in the holy land
and not just anywhere in the holy land.
You must bury me in mara and
meaning to say listen to this. Jacob's
makes Joseph swear you have to bury me
in that family plot in the holiest place
um in that in that holy grave where
where where the matriarchs and the
patriarchs are all buried. Now
immediately Joseph has a question. If
it's so important that you father be
buried in that place and nowhere else,
then I'm very curious. Why wasn't my
mother buried there? Not that God forbid
Joseph had any resentment. These are
holy people. That's that's not the kind
of mentality they had. He was just
confused. He was legitimately confused.
If indeed it is so important that you,
father Jacob, are making me swear that
you must only be buried in that spot
because of its importance, then why was
my mother not buried there?
And then we learn something exceedingly
beautiful.
Jacob reveals to Joseph the reason why
Rahul was buried on the side of the way.
It was again her self-sacrifice.
remember her self-sacrifice when she
gave the codes to her sister.
She gave away the secret codes on what
was supposed to be her wedding night. So
remember her self-sacrifice. Again, we
see the self-sacrifice of the Yiddish
Mame.
[snorts] She allowed herself, not only
allowed herself, she consented to be
buried. She knew, remember from the very
beginning, they all knew this was going
to happen. When Jacob first met her, he
cried because he knew this was her
destiny. Her destiny was to be buried on
that anonymous spot on the side of the
road. Why? Rather than being buried in a
magnificent holy site, she was buried on
the side of the road because that was
the very road that over a millennium
later when when the temple the first
temple was destroyed by the Babylonians
and the Jewish people were led out of
the holy land and led into captivity in
Babylonia. They passed by that way and
Rahul, Mama Rahul saw them and cried for
them and prayed for their return so that
they were returned from their from their
exile and they came back home.
So the fact that she was buried where
she was buried was because she wanted to
be there for her children over a
thousand years later when they needed
her when they were going into exile.
And there's an incredible midrash over
here. It's from um lamentations
uh midrash lamentations rabba which uh
lamentations is the book of a which we
read on tishabove which is the
anniversary of the destruction of the
temple both temples and it conveys the
following story [snorts]
that when the Jewish people were being
led into exile
Abraham our father came before God and
said please return them do it for me I
was ready to sacrifice my
And apparently Abraham's pleas were not
sufficient. And the answer was no. Next,
Isaac, the ne the second of the
patriarchs, he gets up and he says, "Do
it for me. Return my children from exile
for me. Bring them back out of
Babylonia. Bring them back to their
homeland for me because I was ready to
put myself out as a sacrifice." And
apparently the answer was no. Jacob gets
up. He's the third of the patriarchs. He
says, "Do it for me. I worked. I toiled
all those years in the house of loving
my my my my shifty father-in-law and I I
was taken advantage of and do it for me.
And the answer is no. Misha Rabenu our
teacher Moses gets up and he says I took
care of the Jewish people in the desert
and I didn't even get to enter the land.
Remember Misha Rabenu was buried outside
of the land. Do it for me. And the
answer was no. The answer was no.
Rahul gets up and she says to Hashem,
"I understand that the Jewish people are
being punished right now and sent into
exile. The temple was destroyed. They're
being sent into exile. And I understand
that the reason is because of of their
lack of loyalty to you, oh God, because
they brought foreign gods into their
their worship. They worshiped foreign
gods. And that is a betrayal. That is an
absolute act of betrayal that they broke
their bond with you and they worshiped
foreign gods, idols, God forbid, says
Rachel. However, please understand
something. On my wedding night, what was
supposed to be my wedding night, I gave
the secret codes to my sister so she
wouldn't be embarrassed. And I brought
my competition into my household. I
brought a co-wife into my household.
And I had to live with that.
And if I could do that, if I ca, if I
could overlook bringing my own
competition into my household, then God
who is infinite, you can overlook the
fact that your children brought your
competition, so to speak, these false
gods, these idols into your home, into
your house. Do they have to be punished?
Fine. So punish them. They they'll go
into exile, but bring them right back.
Bring them right back to their homeland.
And that's what happened.
And it's a beautiful verse in the book
of Jeremiah, the prophet Jeremiah
who describes this.
It's very poetic. There are songs
that are written through these words.
uh verse uh chapter 31.
Jeremiah chapter 31
vers
15 and 16
we read
actually uh verse start I'm sorry start
from verse 14 chapter 31 verse14
Hashem says,
"A voice is heard on high."
The sound of crying, of gasping.
It is Rahul crying for her children.
She refuses to be consoled for her
children.
She won't be appeased. She won't stop
crying.
And the verse continues in the next
verse, verse 15.
Hashem tells her,
"There is reward for your deed." Meaning
you were successful. You will get your
prayers granted. You mamul the
quintessential loving mother who cries
for her children and says, "Please
forgive them. Please be kind. Please be
gentle with them and please for their
return to their home your prayers will
be answered.
So we see Rahul is the quintessential
loving mother who will do anything for
her children. She sacrificed for her
children. She sacrificed her happiness.
She said even in her in her life and
even after her life she continued to
sacrifice. She put herself on the side.
She put her children first like a real
mother does.
And this is this is the the personality
of Rahul.
And anyone who has that name Rahul is
very fortunate because we know in Jewish
tradition that a name gives power. It
bestows power. That the characteristics
of the person who has that name are
bestowed on the one who carries that
name, the namesake.
>> [snorts]
>> I want to mention just one more thing
and that is that although Rahul was not
buried in Maris and in the holy spot
her grave cave rail Rachel's tomb has
become a holy spot in its own right and
this itself by the way teaches you
something marvelous about women
men have to go to shul and davin just
part of Jewish life
women are not
uh obligated in communal prayers They
can go to synagogue, but they don't have
to. Men have to go. So, a man is
interesting. He has to go to the holy
places. He has to go to shul. If you
don't go to shul, you're going to become
disconnected. God forbid. So, a man has
to go to the holy places. A woman though
can take a regular place like a home and
make that holy and make it even holier
than synagogue. The power of a woman is,
see, a man has to go to a synagogue
because that's the holy place. um a
woman can stay at home and turn the home
from an ordinary place to a holy place
and even holier than a synagogue.
And we see that the survival of the
Jewish people in exile over 2,000 years
was not because of our synagogues, but
because of our homes. Not because of
synagogues run by Jewish men, by rabbis,
but by the Jewish homes run by by by
Jewish mothers, by women. The continuity
of the Jewish people was all always
about the Jewish mother as the mainstay
of the home, the foundation of the home,
giving over a Jewish identity to our
children with love, with compassion,
with gentleness, with with with
nurturing, with care. And so we see the
symbolism is so powerful. Ro was buried
in a plain ordinary place, but now she
turned that plain ordinary anonymous
spot on the side of the road into a
shrine. And over the millennia,
how many thousands and thousands of her
children of Raul's own children have
come to that spot
and prayed and poured out their hearts
in prayer. And we pray
that Hashem grant the prayers of our
mother Rahul who's continuing to cry for
us and begging that Hashem return us to
our homeland and return us to reinstate
us to our days of glory and to rebuild
the temple as in times of old and even
greater than anything that ever existed.
May it be now with the coming of
Messiah.
Thank you for watching this class.
Again, this is dedicated to the memory
of Robas Mosha Hakin.