Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: G-d's Promise to Israel

You [music] see your [music] tomorrow [singing] [music] [music and singing] [singing] Okay. Hi everybody. Thank thank you for coming. Um first let me just announce the uh the dedications. As always, we're praying for the lasting unity of ami Israel, which will lead to victory and for all of those whose health has been affected by terror for Mala Miriam and uh the name was added to Mala. So it is something that needs Rakim. it should be granted and this is by her grandparents again good friends of myself and Bonv Randy and Jeffrey Gald uh and Rafu Shimma Aliat Shama we don't have this uh this week but whoever needs an aliyah should have an aliyah and finally while the end of the year fundraising campaign is underway uh we would like to remind everybody about the request from Bal in Tel Aviv regarding regarding a group of soldiers who are finishing their conversion which God willing will take place on Kaneka. They have requested 20 sets of fillin for them. At present we only have enough for seven. So please help us help them not only as converts but asim they have given up so much uh for the Jewish people and we should help them uh become better Jews. Uh more information about how to contribute can be found on the Ibonet website and in the YouTube description box below. Uh paras again in bracious you know when you only have one hour to give a shir it's like what on earth do you choose? I mean there's so many topic after topic after uh one can certainly you know one could devote a just one could easily devote a year to pious. uh we don't have that time although there's always next year uh so I'm just going to obviously pick some very very selective issues and I have to apologize the very first issue I'm going to pick is mainly no gale last week although there's something this week you know we read this week the very very disturbing story of the rape and abduction of Dena right has a daughter Dena and [snorts] Dena is wandering around and she is abducted and raped by Shim Benamore who was a Canaanite, the son of a Canaanite um aristocrat and uh Yakov doesn't do anything. It's interesting there there's absolutely no reaction that is recorded from Yakov or even the other brothers but Shiman and Ley are very very insensed and they figure out an interesting plan and they say listen you want to marry into our family etc. We can interact, we can connect. The only condition is that all of your males have to be circumcised and all of them circumcised because they want to make a treaty with Yakov's family. And then on the third day where you're very very weak after the circumcision, Shiman and Ley come and they wipe out the entire city. Uh they wipe out the city of Shahim in retaliation for Dina. And Yakov does not criticize them as murderers per se, but Jacob simply says, "This is not a good move because we will be regarded as dangerous by the nations surrounding us and we're very, very vulnerable." And their response was, "Should our sister be treated like a prostitute?" So, just as a little aside, we know that Yakavino never forgot the massacre of Shahb. And on his deathbed when he's supposedly giving a blessing to every tribe, Shim and Ley really don't get a blessing. He says, "You are brothers in crime." Uh, and he said, "I curse their anger." So he didn't curse them, but he cursed their anger. They should be divided among Jacob. They should be scattered. And the truth is Shimon and Ley were both scattered. Ley, which eventually became the Kohanim and Levim. They were scattered because they didn't have a single tribal inheritance, although that was for a good reason. Shimon as well, all of Shimon's cities were within the tribe of Yehuda. Shimon also did not have a single uh block of territory simply because it was like a nuclear reactor. It was too dangerous to have too many Shimons together. They might explode in different ways. So on this I just want to just for information sake just want to call to your attention the very important maklo the Rambam and the Ramban regarding the justification if any for Shimon and Ley to kill Shim. Now we do have to differentiate between killing the abductor shimm the person versus massacring the city and basically these are going and they are not governed by the Torah. The Torah wasn't given anyway. They are governed by the seven commandments of Noah. So here's what the Rambam says. The actual abductor, the actual rapist is deserving of death under the Noahide code. Interestingly, not because of rape per se, but because of kidnapping, right? That one of the Noahide laws prohibits stealing and kidnapping is a form of stealing. Forcible abduction is kidnapping. So, Shm himself, Shim as a person is Misa because of Geneva, Gaza, one of the seven Noahide laws. Question is, why is the rest of the city deserving of death? The rest of the city maybe didn't stop anything, but what Noahide violation would justify their death sentence? So, the Rambam says a very bigish. The rabbin points out that you know there is a seventh noahide law that's very open-ended and the seventh noahide law is called laws din right there's don't steal don't kill don't blasphe those are specific don't worship abhodora but then there's something called laws what is the meaning of the category called dinim so this is what the ram says [snorts] there is an obligation under the noite code for non-Jewish societies to create a court system that will adjudicate and punish violations of the other six. Now that's point one. Point two is failure of a community to meet that obligation is a violation of the Noahide code which in itself becomes a capital offense. Meaning since the rule is every violation of the Noahite code carries with it capital punishment and the seventh obligation of the Noahite code is to create a judicial system that will punish enforce and punish other violations of the Noahite code. If a society fails to create such a court system, they can be executed. Now this is an interesting point uh because number one this is essentially vigilante execution meaning normally the concept would be a violation of the noite code would be adjudicated by a noite court that's how it should work a court of non-Jews a non-Jewish court system here however where the whole violation is that there is no court system then essentially shim and ley are permitted to enforce the noite code as vigilantes. Now, this the Rambam's position has some very startling repercussions. I maybe I don't want to be too explicit uh because I can get in trouble uh and there have been rabbis that have gotten in trouble for discussing this point. And that is let's imagine you have terrorists. [snorts] Okay, so a terrorist can certainly be shot in the act of terrorism because he's a rodeave and afterwards is legitimately proper to execute terrorists. I know it's it's it's a controversial proposal now in the Knesset, but according to Halaka, a terrorist can absolutely be executed as a murderer. Now, that's not so controversial. But what's interesting is if the non-Jewish societies are not punishing terrorists at all and they let them go by, then it turns out they're violating the Noahide imperative of a court system. Well, the implications are very staggering. meaning to say are they all considered the city of Shah according to the Rambam and the like. Okay, I don't want to go there because obviously this would not be politically feasible but this is the Rambam's position. Now Ramban Nakmanades takes issue with the Rambam because Nakmanades asserts [snorts] that the only type of Noahide violation that carries a death sentence are sins of commission and not sins of omission. Failure to enforce the Noahide code, even if you assume it's a violation of the Noahide obligation of Dinim, is a sin of omission, not commission. Therefore, it would not carry the death sentence. So the question then becomes, according to Ramban, what would the reason be that the city of Shahim as a whole could be wiped out unless you assume it was sinful behavior? But even Yakov never directly said it was sinful behavior. He said it was not prudent behavior. Uh but he did not call it sinful. So the Ramban kind of learns that this was a war essentially since that the abduction of Dena was not simply a private offense. It was an act of war against the very small nation of Israel. So as a result in a war uh there is a concept that uh even non-participants can sometimes be executed if it is necessary for the war effort. Now again that has some disturbing implications regarding Gaza and regarding the the conflict that we've recently emerged from. Uh I'm not here to resolve those issues. In fact, this is not the main thing I wanted to talk about, but I just wanted to bring out that the Shiman and Ley issue of slaughtering, killing the civilian population of Shahim does raise interesting issues that one would have to consider uh even in modern modern warfare against an enemy enemy nation. Uh the other point I want to make about Dina is a point that was really more relevant last year uh last week and that is you know that burashem uh science uh for producing children has greatly advanced in recent years and people who normally would not have been able to have children in the normal way are able to utilize fertility technologies uh to uh have what's called assisted reproduction. that the acronym that's used is ART, assisted reproduction technologies. And one of the things that are used uh is uh egg donation. Sometimes if a woman is not ovulating or a woman's ovaries have been removed because of cancer, but she does have a uterus, so she's able to carry a baby, but she doesn't ovulate. There's no egg that can be fertilized. So there can be a donated egg and the egg gets fertilized in vitro and it then transplanted into the wife's uterus. That would be egg donation. And then the opposite is surrogacy where uh the wife let's say produces an egg and that egg can be fertilized in vitro but it's transplanted to another woman to carry that egg for nine months with an agreement to turn the child over. Right? So egg donation, let's say, is wife's uterus and donor egg. And surrogacy, we'll say, is wife's egg and donor uterus. By the way, you can have all sorts of other combinations as well. You can have one surrogate and one egg donor. Okay, but let's just go with the the plain vanilla situation of donor egg and wife uterus or wife's egg and donor uterus. Now, the mainik issue here is who is the mother? because the because being the mother is very very important uh simply because whether the child is Jewish or whether the child needs a conversion depends totally on the mother. If the why we say if the mother is Jewish the child is Jewish if the mother is not Jewish the child is not Jewish. Halaka does not recognize a status of half Jew. People say I'm half a Jew. No you're not half a Jew. You're either a whole Jew or you're a no Jew. uh there was nothing in between. So this is called matrinal descent and this is a major major cornerstone of halaka. But the question is who is the mother halically when you have one person is the genetic egg donor and the other person is the gestational mother who carried the baby for 9 months. Let's say the wife is Jewish and the surrogate is non-Jewish. Does the child need conversion like an adopted child? And the same thing is true even the opposite way. Uh the mother carries the baby but from it's a non-Jewish egg. So the genetic contribution of the mother is from a non-Jew. Uh is the child Jewish or not Jewish? This is a huge huge mlo. And interestingly enough, for reasons that are not entirely clear to me, hak consensus, which is still largely undecided, but it seems to have been switching in recent years. Uh meaning for many many years uh the the predominant assumption was that the gestational mother, the one who gave birth was the mother and that was considered to be the normative standard. uh today actually the normous standard seems to be the genetic mother is the mother although both say it is still a undecided makus and therefore a child should have conversion to be absolutely sure that there's no question okay so based on this background some want to bring a fascinating ria proof from the story of Dena Rashi brings a medish Because the Torah by all theatim the Torah always says the mother conceived and gave birth to Ruven to Shimon whoever it is. In the case of Dina it does not say Leia conceived Dina. It just says she gave birth to Dena. So Rashi brings a braas that says a very fascinating point. Originally Leia was carrying a boy and Rael was carrying a girl and this boy would have been the 11th tribe would have been Yoseph. Dena prayed that the boy she was carrying should be turned into a girl. >> Be I'm sorry. Yeah. Um Leia Leia prayed that the boy that she was carrying should be turned into a girl because given the fact that they knew with Ruakodesesh there would only be 12 tribes that would leave only one for Rael and that would make her inferior to the maidervants. Therefore she prayed Leia prayed that the boy should turn into a girl and therefore that would give Rael the ability to have two boys. Yoseph and Vinyammen. That is the version that Rashi brings that Dena herself was originally a boy who turned into a girl miraculously in in Udo. Um again the trans people want to use that for their purposes but again there was a this was a miraculous uh sex change. In fact, some even say they say that this is why Dena, you know, Dena is criticized a little bit, although it's a difficult we we don't want to blame victims of violence. But what is Dena doing walking around Canaanite cities and the like and they say because she had masculine tendencies because she originally was a boy. Now that's how Rashi brings the the Kazal there was a sex change but Targuma son Benu actually interprets the story in a different way. Not that the boy became a girl and the girl became a boy. Rather there was an a miraculous embryo switch. Leia was carrying a boy and Dena was and Ra was carrying a girl and God miraculously switched the embryos. So the girl that that Ra was carrying was implanted in Dena and the boy that uh Leia was carrying was implanted in Ra. Not a sex change but an embryo switch. So it turns out if that's the case according to target and it turns out [snorts and clears throat] that Dena was conceived from Rael's egg and Yoseph was conceived from Leia's egg and each one was the equivalent of a surrogate to the other one. This is not true according to Rashi. This is only true according to and since throughout the Torah Dina is always described as the daughter of Leia and not the daughter of Raa and Yoseph is always described as the son of Rael and not Leia. That might be proof that birth determines maternity rather than genetic origin because Dena's genetic origin according to Tagion is actually from Rael and Yoseph's genetic origin is from Leia and yet we seem to be ignoring genetic origin in favor of gestation the actual birth mother. Now brings this as a little bit of a proof but he indicates that we don't prove things from midrussian because they are stories they are narratives they may have symbolic meanings they can't really be used as concrete proof but it's very very fascinating that uh a modern scientific question can be resolved by looking at this med but again I do want to emphasize this is only true the way Haramiona's son understands the story. The way Rashi understands the story, uh, that's not true because according to Rashi, uh, Dena was genetically Leia's child. It was just a boy that turned into a girl. Yoseph was genetically Ruckl's child. It was just a girl that turned into a boy. You'd have no issue of splitting genetics from gestation. Okay. So, that was again two things about Dina I wanted to go through. One was the Maklo Rambam and Ramban regarding the uh of Misa of the city of Shm uh and the other was the issue of Dina and surrogacy and egg donation uh and uh and the like. But now let's go backwards to the very beginning of the para. Yakov has been gone for 20 years. He finally comes back to Erit Israel and uh he figured after 20 years maybe Asov has gotten over his rage and gotten over his anger. And he gets a message as coming to meet you with 400 soldiers, a very hostile force. And the puss says Yakovu is frightened. Yakov is scared. and he engages in multiple strategies. Giftgiving, making peace, he's prepared for war. He splits and disperses his population. And of course, he prays to hikadesh. All of the different strategies, giftgiving, bribery, flattery, and at the same time being ready for war. And the puss says very beautifully Yakov was very afraid and Yakov was very distressed. What is the repetition? So Rashi says very beautifully Yakov is very afraid that he will be killed. Okay. Yakov is very distressed that he may have to kill. This is remarkable. You see from here that a Jew is not only worried about killing about being killed rather a Jew is worried about killing. We don't glorify killing people. We do it when it's necessary. And as Kazal say, he who comes to kill you, you kill them first. But there's something sad and something tragic about the taking of life. It was a lost opportunity. Every human being is in the image of God. Every human being potentially could have been righteous. And if it turns out that their life has to be taken, we do it, but we do it with sadness. Just as by the Red Sea, uh the the angels wanted to sing a song of praise to God as the Egyptians were drowning. And what did Hashem say? My creations are drowning. It is not a time for song. Now, God didn't say, "Oh, they're my creations. Let's not drown them." No, they had to be drowned. They had to be killed. But we don't celebrate that. And that's why you try to minimize it as much as possible. So that's why Yakov is afraid not only that he might be killed, he's afraid he's going to have to engage in violence. >> [sighs] >> So, that meeting winds up going surprisingly well. I think YaKob was pretty surprised. As of offers to kind of travel with Jacob and Yakob, well, no, we don't really, you know, we don't really need your company. Okay. But the night before that great encounter, the night before he meets Asov of the flesh, he has to encounter the Asov of the spirits. the night before and YaKob is frightened. Yakov is scared. Yakov is anxious. And by the way, the Gomorrah asks Aasha in Braos, why is Yakov scared? 20 years before last week, but it was 20 years before when Yakov had the dream of the ladder of the angels of God up and down the ladder, God promised him, I will bring you back in safety. I will not let anything happen to you until I have fulfilled all of my promises. What is Yakov afraid of if he has this divine promise? And the guaran says Yakov is afraid that in his modesty that perhaps due to his sins [snorts] he is no longer deserving of a divine promise. Now this itself is a huge topic. The implication is that even if God promised you something, the promise is conditional on your being on a certain spiritual level. And theoretically, you could forfeit those promises. Now I I want to point out again as an aside I mean there's so much material in this para the Rambam in his introduction to the commentary of the Mishna raises a question on this passage because the Rambam says that when God gives a prophet a prophecy that something good will happen that prophecy is absolute and if it doesn't happen that proves that the prophet was a liar. Because good prophecies are never cancelled. They're never revocable. This is a clow. And this is how we test a prophet. If a prophet said that something good will happen and it doesn't happen, he is a false prophet. If on the other hand, a prophet said something bad will happen and it didn't happen, that doesn't prove he's a true prophet. That's true. But it doesn't prove that he's a false prophet because God has mercy. You see? So the Rambam asks on himself, if it's true that good prophecies have to happen no matter what, why is Yakov afraid he's going to lose the divine promise because of his sins? Prophecies are not revocable. Divine promises are not revocable. So the Rambam is Mahalik between prophecy and promise. Prophecy is when Hashem gives you a message to convey to other people like Hashem speaks to Isaiah to talk to Ben Israel. So when the Na'vi conveys prophecies to a nation, those prophecies are irrevocable even if we sin. But when Hashem promises YaKob in the dream of last week, that was not a prophecy. Yakov was not told to tell other people. That was a private communication. That's called and the Rambam is Malik. The Rambam differentiates between Nva and Taft. A nav is unchangeable. [snorts] A ha you could theoretically lose because of sin. She so Yakob is afraid and the night before the encounter he is so afraid but it mentions a strange scene he goes back right he moved all of his family and his servants to a certain location but then he recrosses the river Yabok in the middle of the night all by himself. Now the Kishh does not say why did he why did he cross the river Yabok and be by himself doesn't say but the Gmorrah gives an interpretation that's a very very strange interpretation he forgot small earthnware jars right cuz they were camped there and they packed and they crossed the brook says oh got to go back for these jars but you don't have to follow I'll just go by myself and that's when he encounters the mysterious man, why would he bother to go back for small earthnware jars that aren't worth very much? So the Gmorrah says [snorts] a strange Gmorra too loves his possessions, loves his money more than he loves even his personal safety. Now that's also a little strange. It's it's actually reminiscent of an old Jack Benny joke. It's a classic classic joke. Jack Benny had it had a persona. It was not true of being a miser being a very very stingy guy. So this was in the radio. This is before there was television that he's mugged in Central Park and the rapper says your money or your life and there's like a 30 second pause. In radio that's enormous because you know there's no picture. You don't know what's going on. 30 seconds. And Jack Betty finally says, "I'm thinking about it. I'm thinking about it." But surely at Sadic, you know, wouldn't value his money more than his life. But the moral explains that Kazal don't mean more than his life. But but at Sadic understands that every possession God gave him is not superfluous. You use it for something. Maybe use it for stuck. That's fine. But to simply waste it, that you don't do. If God gave you two pens, there's a reason why you have two pens and not one pen. Figure out how you can use the second pen in a good way. But you know, there's an old tradition and I wish it would be better documented because I don't think you can find a documentation from Kazaw, but it's an old kida thought that the language of the small earthnware jars is the same term that is used for the Kaneka story pan the jar of oil and this is the misa that they say remember after the flood that destroyed the world and after almost a year Noah finally sends out the doves and the last time the dove comes back with an olive leaf symbolizing that the earth has regenerated and it's possible to come out again. There's a tradition that on that leaf there were some olives as well. And Noah squeezed the olive oil that was on that branch into a small earthnware jar. And that was lovingly preserved for hundreds and hundreds of years as a sign of God's kindness in bringing the world back again after its destruction. It was given to Sheame, who was Noah's most righteous son. And eventually it found its way to Ara and to Yitra and to Yakov Katanim. And that was the jar that Yakov had left behind. And that was the jar that he went back to retrieve. And the tradition says that that was the miraculous jar that was found hundreds and hundreds of years later sealed with the co that was used for the miracle of Kaneka. So the pakash of Kaneka was the p that Yakov went back for and it was the jar of oil that Noah had squeezed from the olive branch that the dove had brought back. Be it as it may, Yakov makes this trip. He crosses the Yabok River and he encounters a mysterious man. That's how it's described. And they are wrestling all night. And sometimes Yakov is on top winning and sometimes the man is on top and they're fighting and they're struggling until the morning until the break of dawn. And once the dawn breaks, the man says, "Let me go. The dawn has come." And Yakov said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." And the man said, I'll say man, but we'll see who he is in a moment. The man said, "Your name shall no longer be Yakov," which is heal. It shall be Israel. You have excelled. You have triumphed with God and you achieved victory. That's why Yakov has the additional name Israel. Triumph. Victory. Excelling. Success. Kazal tell us that this so-called man is none other than the guardian angel of Asov himself. That before Yakov can encounter Asov in the flesh, Yakov has to encounter the Asov of the spirit. And what is the whole story of this mysterious wrestling match? Excuse me a second. The says that Hashem is telling Yakov that Jewish history shall be a period of long darkness. There will be long periods of darkness and in those periods of darkness enemies will be trying to destroy us and sometimes we will be we will be ascendant and other times we will be subordinated and defeated. But God is promising Yakov that after the darkness will come a dawn goolah mashiach. And when that dawn comes, the very enemy that tried to destroy you will acknowledge your greatness will bless you, will give you a braha. And the safer says that every time we don't eat a sirline steak the seatic know the area of the animal the hindquarters that has the gir we are actually remembering that encounter because Jacob is limping in the morning because the angel dislocated his thigh and we remember that encounter when Mashiach comes we will be limping. We will have had many, many, many years of suffering. Many years. We're not going to be in such great shape when Mashiach comes. In other words, right before Mashiach comes. But then there's going to be a dawn. And with that dawn, even the enemy will bless us. That's the general message of this war with As he's going to meet tomorrow morning, but the ASV is a prototype for all of the forces that tried to destroy us in so many ways. So, it's an optimistic vision. It's a hopeful vision. It's a vision that can give us strength in very very dark moments. But the has two interesting observations about this encounter with the angel of Asaf. That is why is it only Yakov that is attacked by this force of evil? We don't find a similar attack on the part of Abraham and the part of only Yakov. So the says a well-known thought that Perkavo says the world stands on three pillars [snorts] the study of Torah divine service and right Ibonz three three pillars are based on the pureos. Now, it's a well-known idea that each of our patriarchs exemplified a a commitment to one of I mean, they they all did everything, but they specialized, so to speak. Abraham specialized in the loving kindness. Yitzk, who was a sacrifice, represents divine service, and Yakov, who spent 14 years in the yeshiva of Sheaman A, we talked about this last week, represents Torah. Although you don't see Torah from the text of the but according to 14 years of uninterrupted Torah learning plus all the years before that. Yakov is called Yoshaleim. He dwelt in the tents of Torah learning. So here's what the says the angels of Asov symbolically represent the forces of evil that try to defeat us. The Yateshorus including our own Yates horus. And the surerhara is a strategic thinker meaning the har is willing to let Jews do mitzvos in the short term as long as there'll be no continuity. So this is what the says the is not going to bother Ara. Let the Jews do let them do eventually their Jewish identity is going to peter out anyway. So I'll let them do their for a while. Let them build their magnificent synagogues. It's not going to last. So let him do it. Yakov represents Torah. Torah is intergenerational continuity. Torah creates the structure for an eternal nation that the angel of Asf has to stop. Now again, I I'm not I apologize for those who are not from the United States. Uh but I think there may be parallel histories elsewhere. I'm more familiar with the history of of orthodoxy or Judaism in the United States. But this was certainly the pattern in the United States itself. You know, the first wave of major Jewish immigration took place in the mid 19th century and these were mainly German Jews who were educated and actually successful. A lot of the investment banking, Goldman Sachs and the like are from the very very assimilated German Jews who came in the mid 19th century. They actually looked down at the pist Jews, the Esen, the eastern Jews who were more primitive, less educated, etc. and the like. There was a lot of anti-semitism of Jew against Jew in those in those days and the like. So the first thing that the German Jews did was they primarily created what you might call benevolent societies, charitable societies. They were doing gaset. And then came the age around World War I magnificent synagogues. I remember it from my childhood. stained glass, beautiful edififices, magnificent shelves, all of which are now churches. I mean, basically, these were inner these were inner city buildings that were taken over uh by churches. And you can still see the Hebrew letters of the ten commandments [snorts] side by side with the Christian crucifix. You can see the adbos still there from the masonry. A magnificent schulse. They don't build sh like that anymore. Maybe for good reason. Um, so what happened to a Torah, a Yiddish based on, it petered out. And a Yiddish based on beautiful synagogues and prayer services, it petered out to whatever degree there's a vibrancy of Orthodox Judaism in the United States. And there's a lot to go, a lot that needs to be done, but there is a vibrant growth. It only started primarily after World War II with the growth of Jewish day schools, more yeshivos and community kaleim because you understand this when there is Torah. So people are learning why what is Judaism about what are the values that's something you can communicate. When you don't have a Judaism that's based on limma Torah, then it it very swiftly degenerates into sentimentality, gastronomical Judaism, bagels and locks, cardiac Judaism, you know, emotionality, if there's such a word. [snorts] And it may carry you through for a while. It may carry you through for a while, but it doesn't go to the next generation. And that's what the says why the angel of Asf had to destroy Yakov. He didn't bother with Ara and because an Ara and Isuk without a Yakov is not going to last anyway. The world needs three pillars. All three pillars are vital. But it's Torah that gives the energy to the other two pillars. Through Torah, you build you build. But if the and the and the are not tora, it's not going to go over. That's the's first observation. His second observation is based on the Zohar. Lamisa, the angel of As wanted to destroy Yakov, but he was not successful. But he was partially successful. He dislocated Yakovai. Yakov is limping the next morning. That's why we don't eat the area of the sciatic nerve to commemorate that event. So here's what the zor says. The zor says just as the thigh supports the body, right? If I stand up, my thigh is supporting my weight, so the thigh represents those who support Torah financially and emotionally. The angel of Asov could not take away Torah from the Jewish people because there will be people who will learn Torah no matter what their conditions are. Even if they're abject poverty, even if they're suffering, even if they don't have bread in their house, there will always be some Jews who will learn Torah. The angel of Asov could not vanquish the commitment of at least part of AmIrael to Torah. But the angel of Asf had a partial victory. It weakened the support of Torah. That the support of Torah is always going to be precarious. And said [snorts] that if you have a yeshiva or a Jewish mosat that does not have financial problems, you must question whether it's authentically a Torah institution. Torah institutions are supposed to be financially [snorts] stressed. That is the victory of the angel of Asov in which Yakov is limping. Uh so well I always say tell my [clears throat] my when I share this thought that they should be very proud of their yeshiva because we indeed have all sorts of financial problems and according to the kind of proves we're a bonafide Torah institution. Now just as a matter of information. So what are you going to say? So next time a yeshiva asks you for money you're going to say hey not supposed to give you anything. You're supposed to be poor. What do you want from me? Well, that doesn't work. Let me give you an analogy. Uh when Kaba was cursed after the sin of the eight sadas, so she was cursed that you will give birth in suffering. Child birth will will be suffering. Well, you know, when anesthesia was invented and developed in the the late 19th century, there were Christian clergymen, all men of course, who said a woman is not allowed to take anesthesia for childbirth because that contradicts the biblical injunction that she's supposed to suffer. What gives her the right to make it a little easier for her? Now the Jewish position was there's nothing wrong with anesthesia if a person needs it. And the reason is a curse is not the same as a mitzvah. In other words, God is telling us the nature of things is this is going to be painful. Not that it's not a mitzvah. Thou shalt suffer. It's not written as a commandment. It's nature. But we are given permission to alleviate the negatives of nature. Just like every sickness, right? We can take medicine for sickness. If we go to a doctor, we can take anesthesia. So here's the same thing. The victory of the angel of Asf was indeed God basically saying financial support of Torah is going to be a challenge. Yeah. But that doesn't mean God doesn't want you to do your part. It just creates a greater sense of a greater a greater sense of obligation to build up uh build up Torah. And again, the the notion that yeshivas are all financially strapped is is really quite amazing. If you think about the amount of money that is in the world, again indeed the amount of money in the Jewish people themselves, some of whom were quite wealthy and you know every single cause, [snorts] you know, the study of of Assyrian hieroglyphics uh between uh 1500 B.CE CE and uh 1450 BC you know we'll have an endowed chair somewhere with you know money million dollars entertainments games you know computer games whatever it would be there seems to be a lot of money for a lot of things but Torah education somehow struggles really it's it's almost I mean it's almost a miracle in a negative sense that Jewish education is such a low priority even among the Jewish people. I guess well I guess outside of the Jewish people I wouldn't expect it necessarily but that Jewish people don't see the importance of Jewish education in this way but says this was the victory of the angel of of As. [snorts] But now let's go further. The angel says got to leave. It's the crack of dawn. got to leave. I once heard just a little little bit of a joke. It's an interesting remark. He says, you know, this is the way of a Russia. Um, you know, the whole night the angel has plenty of time to fight. When it comes to attacking Jews, they're never in a rush. As soon as you ask him for a favor, oh, sorry, you got to go. You know, it's like he has to go. Exactly. When YaKob asked him for a then he has to go. The whole night there was no particular problem. Okay, that's a bit of a humorous remark. But Rashi says that angels are assigned opportunities to sing before God and to praise God. And some angels are only given like one opportunity in a million years or whatever it is. And if they don't show up, if they're awol, whatever it is, they lose that opportunity. So the angel of Asab is begging. The angel of Asab is begging to go uh and praise God. And Yakov says, "I'm not going to let you go until you bless me." And the angel blesses him with Israel and YaKob. Although, let me point out, the angel actually does not, if if you were to be asked the question, who named Yakov? The angel did not really name Yakov. The angel is informing him that God will name him. The actual change of name occurs later by Hashem. The angel is not doing the name, but the angel is informing him what God will do. But then Yakov says to the angel, "Tell me your name." Now Kazal say he's the angel of Asa. We don't know if Yakov knew that. But the angel gave a very peculiar answer. Why do you ask me my name? Rashi says, "Angels have different jobs. Sometimes I do this, sometimes I do that. My name changes based on my job in any given moment. I don't have a fixed name." That's the simple meaning. Why do you ask my name? But Rav Shadran, the great mag, the great preacher of Shallayam says, we translate this in a different way. Instead of saying I don't have a name, his name is why do you ask my name? He's actually answering the question directly. What is your name? Why do you ask my name? That is his name. Again, if you're older, you may remember Abbott and Costello. Who is on first? This is exactly that. You know who's on first? Whatever it is. Okay. So, what type of name is it? Why do you ask my name? Is that a name? Why do you ask my name? Rashadran gives the following martial. He gives the marshall of a peasant, an illiterate peasant who lives out in the sticks, lives out in the country. He's never been to a big city. He finally shows up to a big city to market a day. And everything is new to him. He never saw a car. He never saw any any modern convenience. There's electricity. And he is told that if he buys a ticket and he goes into that building, he will see animals and people coming out of the wall. It's a movie theater. In other words, he'll actually see people and animals coming out of the wall. So the guy thought this is very impressive. He bought his tickets. Uh he also had a big flashlight with him. He comes into the a dark room. He doesn't know why it's all dark. And all of a sudden in what had been a blank wall, he sees animals, people coming out. And he couldn't believe it. There was no door there. So he pulls out his big flashlight and he shines it on the wall to see if there's a hidden door. But of course, [snorts] by turning on his bright light, he obscures the picture. People can't see the picture. So they yell at him and they tell him, "Shut your flashlight. We can only see the movie if it's dark. We don't see the movie if the lights are on." This mush itself is a little unusual. The Bali Mush usually do not bring mash involving movies, but this is the mush that brings. And Shodran said, "This is a mushel for Ola." Ola Maza is a world of darkness. We don't always see the light of God, the light of Torah. Now, when you're sitting in the dark, two things happen. You don't see the real things that count and you see things that are imaginary. Like the movie, you could have a bag of diamonds on the seat next to you and you're not going to notice it. On the other hand, you're going to see the illusions of a movie, which are not real. So the nature of darkness is you see things that are not real and you don't see things that are real. That's exactly what it means to live in darkness. Living in a world of darkness, we think all sorts of things are important that are actually not important. the amount of money you make, honor. We have different grudges. We have different resentments that we take extremely seriously, like it's the biggest deal in the world, but they're not really real. And the important things we put on the back burner. When you turn on the lights, two things happen. The stuff that's not real vanishes, and then you can see the things that are real. Torah is compared to light connecting to Torah. The lights turn on. So here is the way the uh in the name of his rabbi actually uh interprets Yakov's question. When Yakov asks the angel of Asov, what is your name? He's not asking for a name. A name cababalistically is a source of your power over people. That's why the Arizal says that a person's name is somehow representative of the powers of his soul. We don't really know how that is, but that's what the Arizal writes. So given the fact that the angel of Asov represents the Yateshara, represents the powers of evil, Yakov is saying, "How do you trick people to follow your ways? Your ways are so foolish. They're so stupid. They're so counterproductive. What's your name? How do you trap people? And the answer is the way I trap people is people don't bother to realize what I represent. They don't think about it. My name is don't ask. You don't ask. You [clears throat] don't turn on the lights. So yeah, you get fooled. That's my name. That's my secret. Because if a person is able to think things out clearly, they're not going to follow the path of the har. It makes no sense because whatever short-term benefit you get from whatever sin you're committing is for sure going to be infinitely less than [snorts] the negative consequences of not following God and vice versa. whatever inconvenience a mitzvah is is infinite decimally small compared to the gain on the bra that you're going to get. Right? So this is the idea. Now there is a a final thought I want to share with you about Jacob that's actually very fascinating. The Gamarra in discusses what did this mysterious man look like? What did he look like? So according to one opinion he looked like an axe murderer the way you know looked like a vicious person who wanted to kill him. He was a Russia he looked bad. According to another interpretation he looked like a Talmet with a long white beard. He actually had the appearance of being righteous and [snorts] holy. Some modern interpretations, this is not clear clearly in want to suggest that the mysterious man that Asf is wrestling with, I'm sorry, that Jacob is wrestling with, if you follow the view that it was at Kim, is none other than a mirror image of himself. Yakov is engaged in an inner struggle with his own demons. The night before this momentous this momentous encounter with Asov. Yako feels I am not worthy. As as the Gomorrah says, am I any better than him? I wronged him. I cheated him. I deceived him. I did all the things that are repugnant to my morals and my values and my service of God. And Yakov is wrestling wrestling within himself. Did I do the right thing? And the idea of triumph from the heel to Israel refers to the idea that the person who honestly goes through the nephesh and the spiritual introspection will ultimately become close to Hashem because of his willingness to confront. And it and it's so symbolic that he's doing this all alone in the middle of the night. you know, if he would be discussing it with his family, you know, his family will say, "You're a good guy. Of course, you did the right thing." But Jacob didn't want to hear yes people. It would simply say, you know, you're fine. You're good. He needed to confront this. He needed to confront with honesty all of the ambiguities in his behavior and determine as objectively as possible whether he was on the right path. And that's when God answered him. And this would explain an interesting final point that is Ara had two names. His original name was Avram and he was renamed Araham. Uh Yitzk had no name change. Now Yakov [snorts] had a name change but Yakov's name change did not supersede. Meaning unlike Avam who cannot be called Ara, he's only called Abraham. Yakov is called both Yakov and Israel at different times and there are reasons for it. But both names remain Yakov and Israel. Meaning the second name does not supersede the first name. They both coexist. And the reason is because there's actually a connection between name one and name two. Name one Yakov is the heel. The heel is the part of your body, part of your foot that's in the ground in the mud. Israel is the name of triumph and victory. But Yakov achieved his triumph only because he was willing to wrestle in the dirt of even his own behavior if he felt if he felt there was some question. So the name Yakov doesn't get replaced. It is precisely the honesty of struggle that enabled the triumph of success. And that's why Yakov has both of those names. So again, as I say, there's, you know, so much in these parios, but I thought focusing on Yakov's encounter with the mysterious man would be useful, some useful lessons for us to consider. So thank you and you have a wonderful, wonderful shabas. And I actually have a very important uh announcement to make uh regarding Ibonet's activities. Uh this Kaneka Ibana will have be celebrating its first year in this new building and has undertaken a major campaign to raise funds for the coming year. Uh they need $80,000 for the rent and maintenance of the building and another $120,000 for programming and projects. Ibana has already made a huge impact on the community with number one intensive learning programs in the morning and classes almost every evening and an open baked medish all day for anyone in this community. Uh number two very popular classes for women three times a week. Number three, it hosts the Rabbitical Council of America conversion program uh in Jerusalem. Uh, number four, it's a long list. Tested projects, single events, and exciting educational tours. Number five, communal meals for Shabbat in the holidays. Number six, a successful and inspiring weekday shak minion. Number seven, a very popular YouTube channel with 17,000 followers and over 3 million views. Number eight, uh they have contributed over 120 sets of fillin to soldiers in the IDF who have requested them, many to soldiers who had never before put fillin on in their lives. Uh every contribution does help. Uh please donate today. Uh dedications are available and can be viewed on the on the website. Uh again, those of you who benefit specifically from Iban have at a minimum a certain debt of hakar uh and certainly uh in this time where I mean we we were zoka to see a big big Yeshua with the release of the hostages but we are not out of danger. We're very very far from being out of the woods yet out of the hot water. Uh we need the rahim of of as we always need the rahim of aeshbu and one of the greatest ways of eliciting the opening of the gates of heaven and the shamim uh is by the rahim and the we show to help others whether it's in the learning of Torah or the like. So this is a very very good way to deal with the mats uh that that we are in. Uh so is Hashem may I be very much in its fundraising efforts. [music] >> [music and singing] >> Is he [music] shing [singing]