Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: How to Prepare for War

[Music] anybody [Music] okay hi everybody thank you for coming and I'm gonna hold the stove and tonight's share is dedicated for a refuge Lima foreign dedicated by Ephraim and Naomi Finkelstein again I was personally very much very close to Mrs fingerstein and her husband's Rabbi Finkelstein who was nifter last year they were a major influence in my life growing up in Hartford and their children have followed in their righteous ways and piazra Hashem this year should be in Aliyah for Mrs Finkelstein in two weeks December 20 uh together with Mrs Arena Quint is sponsoring a wonderful Hanukkah party at eight so the it won't be here I'm sorry it won't be here it'll be at the home and you could check with Ibana for the exact address the party will start at seven it will go until 8 30 and then at 8 30 we will have our regular here in uh the Quint home again so check with ibaneir for the details of where to go and how to get there finally Ibanez is conducting its annual end of the year chanukkah end of the second year okay Hanukkah fundraising campaign uh they have many new projects that require funding as well as the ongoing activities uh the new product projects include several Hazard projects with nuo Lim and the elderly and eventually perhaps even setting up the base knessets is in the works as well anyone that is interested in knowing more about these projects should speak to everybody posting directly and there is a link in the description box and on the website to be able to make a contribution again it was already osak in Torah and Camila and they're thinking about the third pillar of avoda as well with a bait knesset so it's a very very worthy cause and please contribute generously this partial parcelach again a very very interesting Parsha a lot of things happen Jaco vavino has been gone for marriage Israel or at least from his parents home for 20 years in loveland's house but another 30 another 14 years in the Yeshiva of Shame Behavior so you're talking about 34 years he's finally coming back and he gets bad news as he's about to enter Eric Israel he hears the news that Ace of his brother has not gotten over his rage has not gotten over his anger and has assembled an army of 400 people presumably with the intention to Vanquish yaakov and perhaps even kill him and the Parsha begins with yaakov avinu being very frightened very distressed uh very worried now the beginning of the party is he sends Ace of a gift he sends Ace of a tribute there's actually a very interesting machlokus among the mafortians was that the right thing to do there is a verse in michly that says lolo that means he who stirs up machlocus is like holding on to the ears of a sleeping dog right imagine you have a dog the dog is asleep not bothering anybody and I picked the dog up by the ears well the dog is going to be pretty upset I think there's a famous picture of Lyndon Johnson doing that in the 1960s I remember as a child he picked up a beagle by the ears but beagles are so laid back that they didn't mind but generally speaking you pick up a dog by his ears he's going to attack you so basically remember that ASA didn't send his army till after yaakov kind of showed off how much wealth he has that if yaakov would have returned to Eric Israel and simply would not have even contacted ASA ASA would have left things alone so there are actually hazals that criticize yaakov for being proactive in trying to re-establish contact with asaph that's one approach in his albums but we have another approach perhaps a more famous approach that yaakov was employing a three-fold strategy in dealing with his enemy Jacob ravino did three things in anticipation of his meeting with asaph the first was he sent gifts negotiation uh obsequiousness you kind of subordinate yourself but then he had a plan B if that's not going to work Jacob was ready to have no Hama meaning you try to make peace you try to negotiate you try to be submissive even to some degree but you have to back it up with fighting if necessary and the third which is the most important is prayer to Hashem uh because none of your strategies are going to be successful with the outside Ishmael seen in this way jakovino is sending gifts to ASAP was not a mistake but rather it was one of the Alternatives of how you negotiate with an enemy you try to make peace you try to submit try to make him feel good if that doesn't work you're ready to fight and you ask Hashem for the ability to be successful in either of those Avenues the Gomorrah tells us uh that whenever I view the hanasi who was not only the head of the Sanhedrin but he was kind of the go-between between the Jews and the Roman government whenever he would have to negotiate with the Roman officials about the welfare of the Jewish people he would always learn the day before in order to get the lessons of how to deal with Ace of the Romans in particular are descended from ASA but Islam Ace of it's anyone that is a ruling power that might be hostile to the Jews so but Derek thrush I would like to suggest that these three steps that jakov avinu took the step of gift giving and Fila actually apply in a much more General way to how we relate to a secular culture now Berk Hashem in most of the world although unfortunately this may be changing we don't really face the physical threats I mean although it's true that anti-Semitism is rising but by and large if you consider the United States by by and large and I and I know that things can change very quickly the issue that the Jewish Community faces is not so much physical safety but rather we Face assimilation we Face intermarriage we Face a culture that is perhaps uh anti-religion Judaism anti-morality Etc uh and how were mithyaches to that culture there are three different ways you can do it number one is gift giving and that means accommodationist that's the idea that if I'm confronted with a culture that is different than the Torah I simply Embrace that culture whatever they're doing is fine I'm okay you're okay I opened my home I opened my house I expose my family to everything that's out there but the problem there is that on one hand there may be good elements on the other hand they may be destructive elements so what Jacob is doing is yaakov is engaging in what you might call a dialectical response in which giving gifts signifies that there are certain aspects of the culture I will accept Waging War says there are certain aspects of the culture I will wage a spiritual war against and I will not accept meaning you often see people in their own personal lives that they gravitate to one extreme or the other either whatever is out there is good or the other way around whatever is out there is Trace you see from yaakovino that this should not be a binary choice of either I'm open to everything or I reject everything but rather you have to have both at the same time you have to know what to accept after all because they'll tell us if someone tells you there is wisdom among the nations of the world you believe that you accept that there is what to learn from General culture not only in terms of science but even in terms of philosophical understandings in terms of a certain degree of value systems one has to be open to that which is good and ennobling elevating worthwhile that's the Matana idea I kind of submit myself to the good that is out there but at the same time you have to be vigilant in Waging War meaning rejecting that which is degrading and corrosive and ultimately how does one know what is good and what is bad only through tefila it is Fila that can give me the Judgment the insight to be able to make discriminations because you see when one is living in an All or Nothing World decision making becomes much more simple either everything out there is good or everything out there is bad that's a black and white World in which black white I don't have to make any discriminations but in the world that yaakovino is describing a world in which you combine matrana and at the same time that makes life much more difficult because at that point I have to discriminate now that's why I can respect someone who tries to take the position that anything outside of the Four Walls of the base of midrash I don't want my children to be exposed to I can understand that because it's simply too hard to constantly make these distinctions but I would just say that although I certainly can respect it and if you had to make a choice better to have milk rather than instead of embracing everything it's better to reject everything if you had to make a choice but one has to know that if that's the choice you're making it is the lesser of two evils it is not the optimal Goods the optimal good is to be able to discriminate and take that which is positive so if one adopts a Muhammad stance it is the lesser of the two evils of total acceptance or total rejection first of all total rejection is the cloud not even possible I mean people if you use forget about using a smartphone if you use a regular telephone you're already using uh the culture of the Guardian right so it's impossible I mean is only uh what a quarter mile from Ben Yehuda street right I mean you know it's not uh you really don't have the the the ghettos so to speak that you might have once had but even if one tries to create that kind of unofficially uh demarcated environments that hermetically sealed community that is not necessarily the highest good the highest good is a holistic one of embracing all that is good and Noble and for that you need a lot of Ishmael the gemara in fact tells us that Moze Shabbos when we make the Brach in in the Shimon essary so in what bracha of the amida is the it is the fourth brother which asks sashem for wisdom and understanding and the gemara says because why what is why is because it means us without discernment how do I know how to separate between the holy and the profane how do I know what to accept and what to reject how do I know what is good and what is bad if you're working with black and white you don't need us you're just automatic pirate but true does makes discriminations makes distinctions understands that things are not all one all black or all white there are many different shades of gray and that requires hamzullah that requires and that requires Fila seat Ishmael so the point is that yaakov avinu's three strategies are not simply how you deal with an ASAP but how you deal with a secular culture overall that has many values that are antagonistic to Torah but at the same time there are positive things that we can take from that culture as well I mean this was essentially of Representative the idea of Torah in Derek Harris uh later reincarnated Toro Mata I know I don't want to hear from why you people who have a lot of distinctions between torahamada I understand they're not exactly the same but the common denominator is it's a sense of drawing even on the secular culture for insights and ideas that can help you grow in your avodas Hashem now with respect to refers torium Derek Harris there is a very very interesting revisionist reading of reverse that was very popular already going back to the pre-World War II Yeshiva World in Lithuania and Poland in which they basically said they basically took the position that the first didn't really believe that this was a good thing but he couldn't do now the German the German jewelry was so assimilated and so ignorant and so prone to reform uh this is the only way you get them to Judaism At All by allowing them to go to university and go to college and draw on secular studies but certainly refursion is heart of hearts knew that that was a very second-rate Endeavor and the Torah only approach was the only valid understanding and reverse was operating under what is called emergency conditions due to the ignorance and assimilation of German jewelry so I call that the revisionist reading reverse because that basically says that everything that reverse talked about he didn't really mean but he was just pitching it to a more ignorant audience it does seem very clear that reverse was a strong proponent of integrating the secular General culture into one's Delta shunt to use a German word and world view and to use that as a springboard in a voter session yeah this is a controversial issue it goes back to secular studies in the karate school system Etc I don't want to address all the political ramifications but these are things that we think about as we live in a world now once again I I can respect very much those who say that the attempt at integration is too dangerous and that may vary well be true because it exposes you to elements that are not good okay I understand but once again my response to that would be that just because something is a necessary evil is not the same as characterizing it as an optimal good necessary evil sometimes you got to make peace with your situation but don't Proclaim it as the only way of living as a Jew okay but let's go further uh the gamarin brochos actually raises the very interesting question why is yaakov afraid at all we read that when he had left Eric Israel many years before he had the Glorious Vision we talked about it last week the Glorious vision of the Angels going up and down the ladder and God promised him I will bring you back to Heritage as well in peace I will take care of you I will guard you I will protect you and now yaakov is afraid what is he afraid of does he not trust in the Divine promise and the government Bracco says a bit of a scary thing Warren breckler says of course God promised him but yaakov in his modesty thinks that the promise may be conditional on yaakov being a certain level and yaakov in his humility thought that perhaps he sinned perhaps he fell below the level he should have been Shema perhaps the sin will cause him to Forfeit the Divine promise and that is why yaakov is afraid but you'll notice when the Torah says yaakov is afraid it uses two terms yaakov is very frightened viates are low and yaakov is distressed what is the significance of the repetition so Rashi brings a fascinating medrish that yaakov is afraid of two things yaakov is afraid Shema yeh haryk Jacob was afraid that he might be killed or his family might be killed okay that's fine that that is the perfect child of the project he is afraid for his life but then he's afraid of something else he's afraid that perhaps he'll have to kill people in self-defense and that's also part of his fear this is by definition a uniquely Jewish concern and although yaakov is the one that's expressing it in which for us not only is it tragic when God forbid we lose our people but it's also tragic when we have to take the lives of others now Judaism is not pacifist we certainly believe someone who is coming to kill you or kill your people you kill them first that's the law of Roday we do not turn the other cheek if we must take life if we must then we do so we do so absolutely but we do so with sadness we do so with a wish that it didn't have to be done we do so with the understanding that all life at least in potential could have been sacred and could have been Noble and could have been good and if a life has to be taken because of the evil that is being permitted be being committed it has to be done but it is a tragedy and for yaakov is saying for me to have to kill somebody even if it's necessary something I'm sad about and of course we see this later of course by the splitting of the Red Sea right we see this exactly when the Egyptians are drowning and the Malachi want to say Shira they want to sing a song of praise to God says now is not the time to sing my creatures meaning the Egyptians are drowning in the sea now remember God did not say oh they're my creatures I'm not going to drown them he didn't say that they're going to be drowned they're going to be killed but God says we don't have to be happy over it we don't celebrate it now I remember seeing years ago uh a terrorist name is a front page in New York Times a terrorist dipped his hands in the blood of his Jewish victims and he was dancing around like a chicken without a head just dancing around with blood dripping from his fingers celebration a simcha the joy of killing all I can say is that obviously we killed Terror we kill terrorists who are coming to kill kill us and we're here to do that but the idea of dancing upon the death of somebody is almost unfathomable unless somebody was seriously mentally ill that's not what we do we don't celebrate when your enemy Falls don't rejoice don't Rejoice I mean do what you have to do but don't rejoice and I think we see this already from Jacob ravino where yaakovino is not only afraid he's not only distressed that he might be killed he is distressed that he might have to kill that hurts the Jewish and shama as well now another interesting point this is more more of an introduction this is not I didn't get to my main thing yet I hope I'll get to it in a minute uh is that when Jaco uh prays yaakov says Nina save me save me from my brother save me from ASAP so the question that before she asked is a very obvious question yaakov only has one brother so why does he say save me from my brother save me from Asif he uses the word miyad twice as if he's talking about two people save me from the hand of my brother save me from the hand of asaph what's the double so the base of lady says that this represents yet another double fear that yaakov has the Ace of is the Hostile force that tries to destroy us physically but yaakov is afraid of something else the Aether who comes in Friendship meaning to say the um can come to us in two different ways and both of them have their dangers there is the non-jew that wants to destroy me physically but then there's the non-jewish society that welcomes me as a friend as a brother as an equal just as yaakov experienced in Love on his house initially Loveland says hey you're my brother we're both cheaters whatever it is we can get along we can have a wonderful relationship so yaakov is afraid not only of the asaph who's coming to kill him but the Ace of who comes in the guise of Brotherhood and friendship because one is a danger of the body and the other is the danger of the soul but used to have a saying he said it was easier to be a religious Jew in Siberia than Suburbia uh and he meant to say that in Siberia you know the threats were coercion Etc and Jews managed to stand up to all of that coercion but when it comes to assimilation you can do what you want you're in a free country we do worse I mean we ask Hashem for Freedom you know we don't ask for oppression but this is one of the strange phenomena of Jewish history is that Jewish religious life tends to flourish in the deepest most intense Level under conditions of persecution than conditions of Freedom that's why there was a big Big Mac Locus in the early 19th century when Napoleon was going through and conquering Europe so a Napoleon granted civil rights to the Jews the ghettos were torn down Etc so at the time of Napoleon's invasion of Russia or attempt to attack Russia the conditions of the Jews under desires were absolutely awful oppressive oppressive in every possible sense so there was a machlokus among the godolm of the time should we pray for Napoleon's Victory will make the living conditions of the Jews so much better or should we pray that the Tsar wins so most of the godell limbs that we should pray for Napoleon I mean life under desire is so difficult let's pray for Liberation let's pray pray for freedom but the one goddal who had a different position was the author of the balotanya The balatanya not only prayed for the desire to be victorious he actually collected money to Aid the Russian military effort because he said life under desire is miserable but desire is afflicting our goof Napoleon will destroy our nishamas and therefore he actually wanted the Czar to be victorious a hundred years later at the time of the Russian Revolution you know the Communist party is like an elephant they never forget so part of why the rebbies were always thrown into jail was they were treated as counter-revolutionaries because they supported the Tsar in 1819 that therefore they were considered to be disloyal to the communist government that actually was a charge against the free the riyatz ETC that he was a counter-revolutionary because he was a monarchist who who supported the the czara and the like now the truth of the matter is the Alta rebbe turned out to be historically correct because if you actually look at what came in the aftermath of the French Revolution and then Napoleon which created a lot a large-scale emancipation of European jewelry you had the reform movement kind of started in the aftermath of that as well as the of the so-called Jewish Enlightenment so the truth of the matter is a lot of the movements of the 19th century that took Jews away from Torah observance were as a result of emancipation again I'm not calling for enslavement I'm not calling for persecution but I'm just noting that indeed a lot of those movements were the after effects of giving the Jews political and social freedom and this is maruma says the basalavi in hatsilenina Saved Me Not only from the asaph who comes as my enemy but save me from the Asaf who comes as my brother he could even be more dangerous in a way this actually connects to Hanukkah because you know we we think of Antiochus as this Tyrant that wanted to kill Jews in reality that was not the case totally because antiochos in a perverted way you can even look at as an enlightened civil libertarian in the sense that he was prepared to give Jews full political and economic rights he was not in anti-semite let's say like Harman or like Hitler Jews could do whatever they want in general society as long as they abandoned the things that make them different they're mitzvos and their Torah if you went along with the agenda there was no persecution so Antiochus was not attacking our bodies he attacked our bodies only because the kashmahon refused to go along so he turned into coercion but the Sakana of chanukkah was not a Sakana to the body to the soul unlike Purim where Hammond like Hitler did not care if you were religious or non-religious if you're Jewish you wanted to kill you Hitler didn't care I mean I understand in a very deep spiritual way Hitler actually was attacking the Torah but at least in terms of the operational execution of the final solution even if you converted to Christianity you couldn't save your life I mean there were Jews who were catholic converts who died in concentration camps because Hitler didn't care about your level of religion or the like in fact the LA bush has a very famous observation that on tour him we celebrate by eating a festive meal we celebrate in a physical way because he says since Purim is a danger to the body we celebrate by indulging the body by having a Suda chanukkah although people do have Harmony people do have latkes and the like but there's no there's no obligation to have a meal on Hanukkah because since the Sakana from which we were redeemed was a spiritual danger we commemorate our Redemption by a spiritual way of lighting lights that symbolize Torah and symbolize the light of the Shekinah meaning uh spiritual dangers are commemorated in spiritual ways Redemption from physical dangers are commemorated in physical ways right that's what the Le voice says why there's but now I want to get further the night before sayakov prays and yaakov prepares for war but the night before he encounters Ace of in the flesh he has an encounter with a mysterious man that's what the Torah says it turns out according to Ghazal this mysterious man is none other than the guardian angel evasive so before yaakov encounters Ace of in the flesh he Encounters asav in the spirit and yaakov wrestles all night with this mysterious man angel and sometimes yaakov is Victorious he's on top and other times this Angelic figure is on top they're struggling they're wrestling they're fighting throughout the night and finally the dawn comes and the angel wants to leave and yaakov is now Victorious and Jacob says I will not uh let you go unless you bless me and the angel informs yaakov that he doesn't change his name Hashem will do that later officially but he informs yaakov that as a result of this struggle your name will no longer just be yaakov which is the heel your name will be Israel because you have struggled and fought valiantly with god with an angel of God and you have been Victorious and yaakov emerges limping and because the angel managed to hit his thigh and dislocate his thigh and the area of the sciatic nerve and that is why Jews do not eat to get on our Shack to remember this struggle so every time you don't have a sirloin steak which has the from the hindquarters of the girana you remember the struggle of yaakov with the angel that gave him the name Israel this is obviously a very very mysterious scene the safer Aquino gives us a basic explanation that's very beautiful he says this is a remise to the Jewish people that there will be long dark exiles that's the night the night is symbolic of Galos and in those Exiles sometimes it looks like we're doing okay and other times we're defeated and we lose hope and we're afraid that we feel alone and we feel adrift but God is showing you that yes this will be a long long difficult night but at the end of the night will come a dawn will come a morning and when that morning comes even the enemy that tried to destroy you will acknowledge your greatness and we'll give you a bracha and therefore the scene of yaakov avino struggling with Asa is a prophecy a prophetic dream experience of the darkness coupled with the eventual mourning of redemption that gives us and that gives us strength in the long long years of Godless and persecution that the Jewish people will go through but let me share with you a few observations about this whole story first out that why is it only yaakov that has this mysterious encounter with an angel that wants to destroy him why didn't avra magnitude they had their own museums but why didn't they have this particular Messiah tells us oh mate the world stands on three pillars Torah the study of Torah a Voda Divine service by sacrifices and prayer and gamillah loving kindness we know that each of the of us exemplified in their own life kind of I mean they did everything but they exemplified a specialization in particular areas so avram is said to be the Ahmad the pillar of loving kindness who literally was a sacrifice on the misbeha is a Voda and yaakov who spent 14 years in the Yeshiva of Shame behavior is Torah now Pierce says the world stands on three pillars you need three pillars all three are essential says although it's true that all three pillars are essential Torah is the most important of the three because Torah will bring you to the others if I learn Torah so I understand the importance of davening the importance of Crescent so Torah can bring me to our Voda and cassette but the on the other end the other pillars are not going to bring me to tell her I do has said my diamond but that doesn't push me in the direction of limited so therefore here's the following the angel evasive on some symbolic level represents the power of evil in the world the Cocos of RAM all of those factors and forces in the world that take me away from God now the age of harah is a very strategic thinker the eight Sahara will let you do mitzvah if the Yates is confident there'll be no continuity and eventually it's going to drop away so the yatesa Hara is perfectly willing to let avram du Hassett because hasid without Torah is eventually going to collapse right now you're doing a Mitzvah but I'll get you in a few years your children your grandchildren they're going to drop out of Judaism and yet build your magnificent synagogues and your very uh fancy services it's not gonna last so the kayak of RA does not attack has said are great great mitzvahs but there's not going to be intergenerational continuity so let them do them do their Mitzvahs their grandchildren are going to drop out but yaakovino who represents the co-op of Torah once there's Torah there's continuity at that point the angel of asaph has to try to destroy that has to try to defeat that now the truth of the matter is I don't know the history of Judaism in so many other countries but if you think about the United States these words are actually very very prophetically accurate that is uh there were different waves of immigration to the U.S starting of Jewish immigration I mean there were Jews all the way back from the Revolutionary War but the big numbers of Jews began to arrive at the end of the 19th century and then after World War after the pilgrims in Russia and then after World War one and then after World War II those were the big big waves of immigration the first thing that Jewish people did when they came to America are going back to the 1890s is they primarily created social welfare institutions these were the assimilated German Jews who really were not into so much religion at all but they created Jewish hospitals they created country clubs Jewish country clubs they created various lending organizations they were oh sake in what happened basically was that their children their grandchildren many of them not only were not religious many of them converted or they're gone I mean they're basically not identifiably Jewish anymore at all the Next Generation more Polish Russian many of them were not jewishly educated but they were from they were showmary Mitzvahs so they made a lot of Shoals remember the shows that used to be in the United States they don't build shows like that anymore I remember them you know growing up beautiful old stained glass edifices uh very very great besides shiblock and everything else but they had beautiful magnificent synagogue most of those shows today most if you go through any major city in the United States you will see them as churches with the Hebrew Ten Commandments still engraved in the masonry a beautiful beautiful Old Shoals which line our churches what type of hedger do you have at all to turn a show into a church whatever it is sometimes questions were not asked other times they devise some heterum like middlemen so to speak that would buy it and then transfer it whatever it is but that's the fact and once again a lot of the children of even very religious Jews left left Yiddish guy they left Yiddish now when you talk about the growth of Torah education in the United States it primarily is a primarily is a post-world War II phenomenon where people who came from the Holocaust they were committed to Torah so they built day schools for elementary education and then Yeshiva high schools Advanced yeshivas Colo Lim and it is only the Advent of that Torah education on many many levels that made Orthodoxy vibrant and gave it intergenerational continuity it is a fact of life that without intensive Jewish Education Yiddish kite does not last for more than a few Generations may continue for a while that Phila may continue for a while The Nostalgia may have a certain momentum gastronomic Judaism may have a little bit of an attraction you know like people say I got to go back to the Lower East Side you know because I got to get the bagels that we used to have you know uh with Bobby and zadie growing up but that ultimately is not going to last very long after a while that gets weaker and weaker and weaker with time so the coffee times point is very telling that is why the angel of asaph attacks only yaakov who represents Torah because the angel of Aesop is happy to let people do Mitzvahs as long as it's going to be the short term and in the long term they're going to get you Torah already has the potential for a long-term survival of the Jewish people but then the kavithai made a second observation the angel of ASAP was ultimately not Victorious the angel of ASAP could not destroy yaakov the angel evasive could not destroy Torah because there will always be Jews who will learn Torah no matter what points out the angel of Asa did have a partial victory yaakov is limping yaakov style is dislocated what does the thigh represent so the Zohar says just as the thigh supports the body so the thigh represents those who support Torah those who support Torah both psychologically and emotionally and those who offer financial support so this was the partial victory of the angel of asaph he couldn't destroy Torah from existing equality Israel but his curse was the financial support of Torah will always be limping that ASA put into the world or the angel of asaph put into the world this curse that any most out of Torah will always have financial difficulties said to have remarked any Yeshiva that does not have financial problems one must question whether it is authentically a Torah institution because if it does not have financial problems there must be something wrong with it because the angel evasive achieved a victory a partial victory over yaakov that the support of Torah is going to be living and it is very true because if you think about this I mean think about you know the amount of resources in the world that's devoted to entertainments that's devoted to movies that's devoted to various things if a fraction of that if one percent of that would go to Jewish Education every Yeshiva in the world will be flourishing right at one percent and yes somehow there's enough money for all sorts of things but not for Jewish Education I mean I'm talking about among Jews not for Jewish Education but everything else somehow gets done okay so that's second observation that uh now you may ask a question so if I'm asked to support a Yeshiva or Ibana or a worthy institution so maybe my response should be Oh no you're supposed to struggle you're supposed to be poor you're supposed to not be able to make it how can you ask me to give well let me give you an example um there is a difference between a curse and a mitzvah you know the Torah says when Java was cursed she was said she was told that the SF tell the bunny in pain you shall give birth to a child now when anesthesia was introduced in the 19th century for childbirth there were Christian theologians men who said women are not allowed to take anesthesia because that is contravening God's decree that a woman must suffer in childbirth what is the Jewish response to that the Jewish response is this is not a Mitzvah God did not command women you are commanded to suffer God is saying this is the natural order of things the natural order is childbirth will be painful but the natural order can be ameliorated by what we can do to make it easier in other words a curse is kind of what is the nature of things but it does not preclude alleviation of that something same thing here God did not command that most of us of Torah be poor God is just saying that through ACE of they're going to have a struggle when it's our responsibility to try to help them in that struggle so we can't use ASAP so to speak as an excuse not to support Torah but then there's uh another Point here that that's a worthwhile to pay attention to and that is when Ace of is holding I'm sorry when yaakov is holding on to the angel at the crack of dawn and yaakov says I'm not going to send you off until you bless me when the angel does bless him your name shall be Israel the name of Triumph the name of struggle and Triumph yaakov then asks one more question tell me your name and the angel says me why are you asking me my name don't ask me that question and that's kind of the end of the conversation Rashi explains a few shot that an angel's name depends on the job that he's doing that particular time and the angel says I have different jobs right I'm a floater I have different jobs never I have different names I don't have a definite name sometimes I'm this sometimes I'm that which means he's actually telling yaakov I don't have a fixed name and that's the push-up shot of the project why are you asking my name I don't have a fixed name but they say be shame less a great great Val Musser who was uh that the angel actually is answering the question yaakov says tell me your name the angel says my name is why do you ask my name that's my name why do you ask my name that's my name some of the uh older people might remember Abbott and Costello Who's on First this is exactly the same thing who's the guy's name is who but who's that and who's on first Etc who is it who you know whatever so it's the same thing my name is don't ask me my name so what type of name is don't ask me my name so Revelation says again very very interesting muscle he says that spiritually a name represents the source of your spiritual power in the world but the arizal says that the name that parents give their son at a breast and even a girl at the allele Torah is really a prophecy from God the parents don't know I mean they say I'm naming you after Aunt Sarah or whatever it is or uncle avram or zadie so-and-so that's the conscious reason but the subconscious reason is that somehow there's a prophetic understanding that this is the spiritual power of this nishama now we don't really know the difference we don't know exactly what is the difference in this instrument but essentially your name is a definition of the spiritual power of yarnashama so when yaakov asks the angel of Asa what's your name he's really asking him what's your power again assuming that the angel evasive represents evil represents Yates Jacob is saying how do you trick people to do a virus because after all just from a purely pragmatic perspective whatever gain I get from my veros is far outweighed by the negative consequences so how do you get people what is your power over people see where my Craftsman gave a muscle interesting story there was a Polish peasant who was illiterate he was going to the big city for the first time to buy stuff he bought a flashlight and he is told that if you buy a ticket and you go into that room this was a movie theater you will see people and animals coming out of the wall he couldn't believe it he buys a ticket he sits in a totally dark room and all of a sudden right the projectors on oh this is the old-fashioned movies all of a sudden he sees people and animals and he thinks they're coming out of the wall he had seen a solid wall there a minute ago where are they coming from he couldn't believe it so he takes his big flashlight and he shines it on the wall to see if there's some door in the wall that the people in the animal entered now at least in the old movies if you would shine a light on a motion picture that obscures the picture you don't see the picture anymore so people were yelling at him and they were saying shut off your light we can only see if it's dark the black Craftsman said this is a muscle for Allah when you sit in darkness two things happen you see things that look real that are not like a movie screen and the other thing is you don't see things that are real you can have you know a bag of diamonds next to you and if it's dark you're not going to notice it Darkness obscures true reality and it creates illusions of reality that are not true the movie can be seen only when it's dark so much of the eight Sahara is an illusion the HR tells us making money having power hedonistic pleasures will give you happiness will give you fulfillment we'll give you purpose and Direction and excitement that's an illusion but that illusion will appear real to you only when you're living in darkness and you don't turn on the lights Once you turn on the lights you think about life then what happens is the things that are not real disappear and the things that are real you'll be able to see so applying it to yaakov yaakov is asking the angel what is your power over people tell me your name how do you trick people how do you entice and the Angel's answer is because nobody bothers to turn on the lights nobody bothers to think about what I am in other words people don't ask questions people just go on automatic Pilots people are just blinded so when it's dark you think all sorts of things are important that are really not important and that's how I trick you if you think about what I represent you think about what I am you're not going to follow me if you don't think about what I am says the angel evasive then you get trapped mama said to challenge me so that's his name my power is that nobody bothers to ask my name nobody bothers to understand so that I represent the pathway pathway of Destruction this is but a final Point uh I I want to note is this says that yaakov is fighting this pertiness Angel person what does this Angel person look like there's actually a visual description uh one opinion says that yaakov saw him as an Ax Murderer kind of a list of Missourian this person with an ax who wants to murder him the other says oh he looked like a Thomas with a Long White Beard right listen resilient Thomas how do you understand this so in a deep psychological way one might suggest that the angel that yaakov is grappling with is none other than the inner demons of his own personality meaning yaakov is very conflicted on one hand yaakov was as a relationship with God was given Promises by God on the other hand Jacob was a man of Truth is constantly tortured Jacob is a man of conscience you have to understand it's not just Oasis was this bad guy and I just have to get over him yaakov is concerned that he may have cheated ASAP he may have been corrupted and yaakov is grappling in the loneliness of the night and the Torah emphasizes that Jacob is alone his family had moved on Jacob went back to retrieve something because these are the struggles you know sometimes you know you're struggling you're agonizing you're introspecting and people might tell you your good friends might tell you oh you're fine you're fine what are you so obsessive about but in the loneliness of the night the righteousness of yaakov struggles am I worthy of God's blessing do the ends justify the means did I hurt my brother was I right in doing that so when the gemara says Armed robber and Sadiq it's not either or yaakov is looking into himself and yaakov sees a duality in his own character yeah I'm the student of Torah I'm the servant of God but maybe I'm also Asif we're twins after all maybe some evasive is in me I heard him and he struggles through the loneliness of the night through that struggle he merits the distinction and that explains an interesting point two of our three of us had name cages did not have a name change but avram was changed from avram to avraham and yaakov was changed to Israel but there is a difference between avraham's name change and yaakov's name change Abram's name changed totally superseded the first thing we no longer call avraham avino by avran sometimes we use we pronounce it that way but it's avraham you're not allowed to refer to him by his earlier name with yaakov even though yaakov was given the new name Israel the name yaakov is used in fact I don't have the numbers in front of me but I would get I would I would guess that the name yaakov appears in Tanakh almost as often as Israel and maybe even more I don't know but yaakov certainly appears very very often internach so why is there that difference why with avraham is the new name totally superseding the old name but with yaakov both names coexist at the same time and one answer might be because with avram right originally avram is a shorthand he was a father he was a patriarch in Syria Iran but now he's hamon he's a patriarch to all of the world so there's no reason to refer to the limited mission now that he has a mission to the whole world but with yaakov yaakov is the name of struggle because Jacob is the heel the heel is in the dirt yaakov is when you grapple with your imperfections you're honest you're introspective you don't cover up you admit the possibility that there are things that you have to fix and that will give you the spiritual Triumph meaning the reason why the name of yaakov is not replaced is because it's only through the name of yaakov that he gets the name Israel his struggle and his Triumph is because he confronted what might have been his flaws and inadequacies the honesty of looking at yourself in the darkness of the night is what gives you the possibility of redemption in the morning and therefore yaakov is the foundation of the name Israel and therefore both names like this and that's an important lesson that we have to be honest on this to ourselves honest to others of course but the katsurabi used to say when the Torah says distance yourself from a lie he says you have to be sure not to lie to yourself because lying to ourselves is the thing we might be most prone to do and yato ravino says you've got to acknowledge to yourself what you might need to to correct I might be well have a good week and thank you for coming [Music]