Vayetzei - Spiritual Confidence

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast with hari goldwag recorded with hashem's never-ending assistance in rama bishop israel 5782 2021 this week's practice is purchased by eight say and the torah describes the flight of yaakov of jacob from his homeland from his family in the land of israel running away to the land of kharan in order to find his wives who would be the foundation of the jewish people i'd like to read to you the madrish the beginning of our parsha which has a very powerful message to two pieces of verse tells us that he left from bear sheva from from the place where he lived and he went towards kharan which was where he would find his wives said in the name of ravuna he opened up this matter the idea what is the concept of yaakov leaving leaving beersheva and how did he go in how did he go into that journey what was his sense what was his feeling at the time so he brings a verse in mishlai in proverbs chapter chapter 3 verses 23 and 24 the verse says then you shall go with with confidence on your way the uh the guymer if you shall sleep you will not be afraid who is going with confidence on his way it's a reference to jacob as the verse says when you will sleep you will not be afraid you won't be afraid of asa you won't be afraid of love and you shall sleep and you will have a sweet sleep as the verse says he slept in that place now there's different gears here which we'll get to in a moment but just in the push-up shot here there's a sense of satisfaction there's a sense of of [Music] confidence as we said that allows a person to sleep well at night yaakov avino is running yaakov aveeno is in flight running away from asov as uh as the verse tells us as the medrush tells us and despite the fact that he's afraid for his life despite the fact that as our ghazal tell us as we'll see soon he was robbed of everything that he had at that time he came empty-handed to horun nevertheless he slept well at night he he didn't he wasn't afraid he didn't feel a sense of fear what gave him that sense why was he able to feel so confident so the radal says and we're going to see that there's other reasons why but the radar says like this jacob why did he go on this flight why did he run away from home so to speak because his parents had sent him he listened to his parents and he went in order to find a wife [Music] in other words what was the reason that he had confidence it was because he was listening to his parents because he was following their directive that allowed him to have confidence says the radar the idea is us since he listened to his parents he listened to his mother and father what they had instructed him as a result of that he didn't have to be afraid there was nothing to be afraid of he was protected because he was fulfilling the command of his parents he was fulfilling the mitzvah of keeper of aim of respecting one's parents so in the first section of the major the reason that he could have confidence the reason he had to be talking the reason that he could sleep well at night was because of the fact that he had nothing to be afraid of why because he knew he was doing what was right this is a very important thing we'll see more about what it means to be what it means to have confidence and trust in hashem that things will work out well that all that person needs will be provided for what enables a person to have that so at one level and this is actually a lower level when a person is doing what's right they can be assured that they are going to have success why because when you attach yourself to hashem when a person does what's right so intrinsically they are protected but then there's another aspect of it and this has to do not with so much what a person is doing in terms of doing what's right because as is brought down that uh pasik says that a person who trusts in god even a russia even a person who is wicked but he trusts in god he's surrounded by kindness so trusting god and receiving god's grace is not dependent on action so on one hand here we see that he did something right and therefore he was protected on the other hand we're going to see that it's not just that this is the next piece in the majestic open up this matter and he brought the famous verses in psalm chapter 121 israel the verse says a song of accents a song of looking up above as saying alaharim i will look up to the mountains from where is my from where does my help come from it says the measure should russia and the darshans that since the possib later in the the verse is there in that piece in in uh tohilum it says show me israel it references the fact that god is the protector of israel who's israel israel is the name of jacob of jacob so this entire section of the of the of tehillim is referring to yaakov avinu says the majest says the madrid instead of reading yes i want to look back at the mountains he says let me look back at my parents how did my parents indeed how are they able to find a spouse and get married i need to look at what i was taught to those who taught me to those who shaped me into the man i am today and to the person that's able to serve god [Music] he looked back and he saw what had happened when it came to his father israel getting married eliezer was sent the slave or the servant excuse me of avraham avina was sent to find a wife for yitzhak and he arrived there with a tremendous amount of wealth with camels with gold silver jewelry etcetera eliezer bish he says to himself where where am i going to find my azer esri means my help but as the fortunes say as we can also refer to the azer connecto when she was created eve on behalf of admiration for adam so hashem says sla is there connect though i will make a help mate corresponding to him so the word ezrim of ezra where will my help come from can also mean where will my wife come from [Music] the verse tells us that when eliezer went to bring back a wife for yet to find rifka he brought with him 10 camels the gomer et cetera all the things that he brought vanilla i don't have anything i don't have any any rings i don't have any bracelets i don't anything to give i don't have anything to to show the grandeur of my home so what what what can i do and of course the obvious question which the message addresses immediately is why didn't he have anything his parents sent him off why wouldn't they send him off with as much as possible in order to present himself as somebody who was you know eligible for marriage says that the reason that he had nothing interestingly not the typical answer that you would think the reason that he had nothing is because he was sent with nothing and as the maforshim explained they didn't want his parents knew that asev was a money-hungry person and that if they gave any kind of wealth to yaakov to take with him asap would run after yaakov and remove that wealth from him and steal the wealth from him so as a result of that they gave him nothing that's one shot not the typical shot that we hear the other shot sounds more familiar ben levy um levy says that indeed his parents gave yaakov much wealth in order to bring with him in order to represent himself properly however asap came and took it from him we all perhaps know the famous majors that alifa's the son of asav he was the one who came and he was the one who took it from him but in any event he had nothing with him he had nothing with him he had no wealth you know he didn't have anything to per to present to his prospective brides pride or brides jose he said to himself he first was thinking the thoughts says he's thinking about me i know he's how am i going to get married he thought about his parents and how his parents got married and and he had khali he was worried how am i going to do this how am i going to pull this off but then he said to himself what do i not have any faith in my creator i cannot give up my faith in god my faith my help is going to come from hashem the one who is meant for me is going to come it doesn't matter if i have the proper the regular way of getting a wife as the verse is continuing it says you do not need to worry you don't need to to worry that you might stumble because the one who protects you does not sleep in a lawyer israel the one who protects you israel the one who protects you jacob yaakov is hashem the protector of israel versus hashem will protect you from all evil may serve me love and hashem is going to protect you from those wicked people who would like to cause some negative impact on you hashem says you are going to be protected from the angel of death you don't have to worry usually when you go on the path when you go on a long journey it could be very dangerous especially in those times you know they were they had to travel in an unprotected way they traveled along on a path it could take weeks or months to get to wherever they needed to get to and they were shady them there were thieves and robbers and people who would come and pillage and murder etc don't worry it says god you don't have to worry about the malacha the angel of death and interesting as i'm unfortunately explained you don't have to worry about the angel of death not now and not ever because as jesus says in the future you're not going to die by the hamas by the angel of death but rather you're going to die by mises a special kind of death where hashem takes your soul personally as it were the verse tells us that hashem will protect you on your way out and on your way in you need not worry need not worry at all you know i was thinking about this and the question that well before that question hold on we'll get to that question shortly but what do you see in this medrush what do you see in this mattress is that in the first piece of the major so we saw that why was he protected and that's the first level of be taken of trusting in god a person can have faith not because they have faith per se but because they're doing what's right when a person does what's right they have protection they have automatic protection he was following the will of his parents he was listening to gibberish he automatically has protection but then there's another level which is a deeper level which is applicable to anybody even those who are wicked even those who don't have proper uh proper deeds and that is just turning to hashem and putting one's faith completely in god recognizing that i don't have to worry what do you mean how am i going to find my wife i don't have the money i don't have the way to present myself properly you don't have to worry you don't have to worry and so he says to himself what am i doing i'm thinking how am i going to accomplish this this is how my parents did it i don't have the same means no i don't have to worry about it even that you see in the story of yitzhak and rifko you see the incredible protest incredible divine providence intervention on behalf of israel to find this woman rifko i don't have to worry hashem is going to take care of me now because he goes into the journey with that realization with that recognition with that consciousness so the result is a similar result we said he he could sleep easy right he could sleep easy knowing he was doing what's right but here he can sleep easy because hashem doesn't sleep ash hashem doesn't sleep hashem is taking care of him constantly even when he sleeps and what is this what is the merit that allows him to be able indeed to have that confidence it's because he trusts hashem it's because he recognizes that there's a god and he has taken care of me until now he's protected me until now and i have the blessings i have the blessings of yitzhak and the blessings of avraham i'm going to be the beginning of the jewish people yaakov knew that and as a result of that awareness that consciousness so he comes in and he has protection when a person has be taken when you trust in god you are automatically protected this is what we see here okay so one level is just doing what's right the other level is just having faith in god putting one's faith completely on god and not thinking that i need to do everything check out my be talking podcast just put out a new one haven't no no no while be talking podcast number 33 but that's the concept of me talking of true deep pitakan and he's protected from the people that he can't protect himself against can't protect himself from aesop who wants to kill him he can't protect himself from loving wants to destroy him and and squeeze him for all that he's worth and of course though the main one that we can't protect ourselves from is the malach from the angel of death and here's where we come to that question that i wanted to ask and that is you know i i'm sorry yitzhak i'm sorry yaakov yakov avinu did not escape death okay he had a mrs nashika and a special kind of death but he died it's not like he didn't die i was thinking that there's a deeper idea here when we say that yaakov avinu didn't die and there's a concept of yaakov there's a concept yaakov that he represents the jewish people the children of yaakov bene yaakov israel we refer to ourselves as the children of israel the children of israel come from yaakov whose name was israel israel when we say that yaakov never died we say that yaakov it wasn't the the malacha moves couldn't have power over him it's not just about yaakov might obviously whatever happened in their lives is indicative of what happens in the lives of our nation of the nation called israel the nation called yaakov of jacob so this we could say perhaps that when the measure speaks about the fact that yaakov didn't have to worry about his oppressors ace of 11. yaku didn't have to worry about the malacha maves was protected in every way wherever he went he was blessed because that was who he was because of his trust in god this applies not just to yaakov it applies to us it applies to the children and grandchildren great-grandchildren great-great-grandchildren and all of the generations of yaakov of the people of israel we are also protected from from our enemies we are also protected from the hamas the jewish people can never die the eternity of israel will never be falsified it will never it will always be there will always be a jewish people the children of israel the children of yaakov we have this blessing but where does it come from and this is the main point where does it come from why are we promised that we will last forever it comes from the fact that yaakov avinu first of all did what's right second of all he trusted completely in hashem he placed his faith completely in god he didn't think how can i do things how can i get this wife that i'm destined to get what do i need to do to move things along he stepped back and he said hashem can do everything he doesn't need my help the jewish people today have this promise as well we have this promise when we do what's right we have protection when we have faith in god we have protection we can know we can know because yaakov avinu had this we can know that yaakov he had blessings throughout his life he had special protection from god why because of his be taken because of his good deeds we too to the extent that we dedicate ourselves and are committed and are acting upon that commitment to do what's right to do god's will to learn the torah to fulfill its commandments we can be assured that all good will come to us and when we put our faith completely in hashem we have full be talking in god sometimes we don't know how it's going to be how are we going to how is it going to work out how we have the livelihood we need how we find that how will how will it work out that's going to work out in the end look at what my parents did they had a better job than me look at what this is how they found this i can't do that it doesn't matter all a person needs to do is have full faith in hashem so i want to bless you and i ask you to bless me hashem should help us that we should be able to indeed fulfill his commandments and we should indeed be able to have full be taken in him and in this way hashem should help us to fulfill our destinies calm inshallah fulfill all of our desires for good thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabbos this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.ariegoldwag.com or search on itunes ari goldwag [Music]