Vayeira Rabbi Breitowitz "Living With The Parsha" series

good evening everybody Welcome tonight uh par and before Rabbi Bri begins I just want to mention there are two um two names have in mind for tonight Shala for RKA she's a 3mon old baby in need and for Robert and Eva clar that would be and they should have and I also add one my grandmother and also for my wife's uncle okay everyone should have AA and all of the shos and ganen should be n through the learning that we're doing anyway I hope you're well I think this is our uh first class since the announcement of the American elections so uh so obviously there's a great deal of Interest excitements I am not going to make any political statements other than to say that the outcome of this election is absolutely a miracle Min now whether it'll be a good Miracle or bad miracle that I'm not but it is certainly there was no possible normal way that something like that could have happens so this is a year of Miracles the Cubs won the World Series if you're from Chicago or from the Midwest you know what a miracle that is and then the American election and it makes me it does make me think though of the one verse in last week's para that Hashem gave Abraham a blessing those who bless you will be blessed and those who curse you will be cursed and uh with all of Trump's many many many many shortcomings and uh all sorts of things in which he's not the right guy uh the one thing his position with regard to erel and Isel and settlements has always been that's the one thing in which there's been a relative consistency everything else he goes all over the place uh but here he has been relatively consistent and could very well be that uh that might be the source of this amazing uh success simply because of that alone so especially if he delegates all the other foreign and domestic policy to other people and you know he just sticks with with that with Israel so maybe uh maybe things will work out both for the United States and for U for Eric Israel itself uh I haven't seen the kabad stories I'm sure kabad will take uh some credit for this because Ivanka went to the Rees uh oh two days before the election so uh as I'm sure kabad probably already has some stories out out about that uh but be it as it may so we're looking at Paras Vaya and Paras Vaya begins with a verse M God Appears to Abraham in the plains of M mamre is Abram has three Canaanite people that are his ballet bricks they are his covenantal Partners on and mamre and for reasons we'll discuss that Rashi mentions God Appears to Abraham this is the third day after his Brisa when Abraham is very sick and very ill and God Appears lak to visit the as it were and then we have the vision of the Three Angels that look like people now there is a very very interesting argument I don't want to spend too much time with this just to mention the argument between rambam in the guide to the perplex in theim and ramban as to what is the relationship between the verse Vay and the Three Angels according to rambam my manes vay Hashem appears to Aram is a term that is used in tanak for prophetic Revelations via a dream and therefore the Three Angels is God appearing to Abram and he learns that the entire ire scene of the Three Angels coming and ABR order offering them hospitality and Sarah laughing all of that is the dream all of that is how God appeared to Abraham EXC me the video stop I don't know think record oh okay is Rabbi posting here just ORD it's still recording okay okay so uh okay I'll have to have to trust him um now now ramban asks the obvious question when does the dream stop because after the whole scene the the Angels go to sadome and sedom gets destroyed are we just continuing the dream what was it there was that TV show whatever it is the Dallas that was on this long very long time ago but uh it was on like for nine seasons and then it turned out the whole thing was a big was a big dream you know the dream has to end somewhere so because of this ramban as well as rash and as well as actually learned that is not the Angel's coming that was not a dream that actually happened but God made a separate appearance to talk to AB and abam interrupted his discussion with God to give Hospitality to to entities he thought were people and kazal dar the very important teaching that offering Hospitality to Wayfarers is greater than even welcoming the divine presence uh because uh you're doing you're you're doing The Godly action of taking care of people in need although these were Angels but out of initially thought they were they were people and therefore vayera is not the Angels vayera is a separate Revelation that abam interrupted by offering Hospitality to the angels now Rashi says why did why does the Torah emphasize that God Appears to Abraham in the plains of mamre why is the location so important so Rashi says because when Abraham was given the Commandments at the advanced age of 99 to circumcise he wasn't sure what to do so he asked his buddy mamre should I do it or shouldn't I do it mamre said to do it so to honor mamre God Appears in the plains of mamre and it is memorialized in the Torah so the obvious question on this again Rashi didn't make this up Rashi got this from the gamorra itself the obvious question is what's going on last week I had mentioned the Kasha of reelo mrai that since Abraham kept the whole Torah before it was given why didn't he circumcise himself on his own and that the mrai gave an answer because it's better to do a mitzo that you're commanded to do and if he would have done it when he's not commanded he wouldn't have had a second chance so that is a good answer before he was commanded but once he's commanded by God he's going to ask Mamay should I do it or shouldn't I do it and what if Mamay would have said no he wouldn't have done it so all of the commentaries on Rashi explain that when Abraham consulted with Mamay he was not asking mamre should I do it or shouldn't I do it of course he would do it that's not the question but he was asking mamre should I do it publicly like we make a bris publicly or should I do it privately and mamre advised him to do it publicly so what was the Shak of ataria here what was the discussion so the explanation would be the following avino's life was devoted to spreading the idea of belief in Hashem and what we call not just monotheism but what we call ethical monotheism the notion that there is one God and that God is concerned with human virtue because they're two different things for example if you look at paganism paganism has really two components and one can debate whether the two components are connected component number one is multiplicity many different gods component number two is almost total indifference to virtuous Behavior because after all the Greek gods uh were not Paragons of virtue uh by any sense they raped they stole they killed they murdered uh they committed multiple incests over and over and over and over again and the concept of how you worship them was simply to bribe them in various ways give them sacrifices do them favors give them homage I'm not saying that let's say the Greeks didn't have a system of morality but the system morality was not rooted in any type of theology you know they you know developed it on a on a philosophical ground Abraham therefore so the term ethical monotheism is a significant term because it introduces the idea that not only is there one omnipotent God but this is a god that is concerned with human behavior in a moralistic sense Beyond whatever selfish gift you might give that God and Abraham's kir technique was to demonstrate and to procla claim the benevolence and the compassion and the kindness of the creator that is how he was Moshe people to trust and believe in God and that was the par Paradigm of abu's personal example the of loving kindness and he was very successful uh even before he got to where Kan the souls that he and Sarah made in an or all the people that they were m i mean he made them Jewish that didn't really have a meaning but he brought them to believe in Hashem and to live virtuous lives of Charity and compassion and benevolence but now the whole image of God that he was trying to convey the god of kindness benevolence and compassion this very God is commanding an elderly man of the age of 99 to engage in self-mutilation and to mutilate the children at the tender age of 8 days or you at the age of 13 abah is very very afraid that this would undermine the whole idea of God as benevolent compassion and kind and therefore abam will listen to God because abam aino has unconditional surrender to the almighty no question about that but AR ainu is afraid that this will undermine right in other words it's one thing to say you know come have Hospitality eat good food you know give a to Hashem have a FBR have a party but when he starts conveying the message oh by the way you're going to have to undergo circumcision and the like you know he might turn people off in that way so because of this Abino had a that he wanted to keep it private I'll do it to God so what is Mam's piece of advice Mam's piece of advice is that it's a very important thing for you to serve God publicly in this way because it's important to teach people that submission to God is not always going to be a Bowl of Cherries it's not always going to be pleasant sometimes there are sacrifices that you have to make because if you don't tell them that now they're going to find about they're going to find about about it later and then they'll realize you breached your trust by the way this is a strikingly modern problem that even Jewish Outreach organizations face today all the time sometimes frankly and I and I come from the Outreach World at least on some level we kind of oversell some of the temporal benefits of Judaism we say become from become religious you'll get a great marriage within 6 months you know wonderful children no problems you know Etc and then what happens is people do encounter like one would expect there are going to be issues sometimes there are illnesses there are marital difficulties there may be issues with children things happen becoming religious is not at all an immunization against the problems that human beings face and sometimes without proper counseling it may even aggravate the problems if you don't have the right and the right approach so MRE is very very uh uh very very intelligent here mamre is basically telling abam listen AB I know that your message is sweetness and light and joy and kindness and compassion and all of that is true God is a loving God God is a merciful god god is a compassionate God the world is filled with the benevolence of the Creator but at the same time be honest enough to show them the message that sometimes there is sacrifice sometimes there is suffering and let them understand that part of being in heit Hashem is you walk with God not only when times are easy you walk with God when times are difficult in some ways this is why the maam say the AA itself at the end of the para the ultimate sacrifice the ultimate Misan is always called the trial of Abraham it is not called the trial of Y although according to araz Y was aware at least at the end that Abraham was going to slaughter him and Y willingly agreed to that as well the proof is very simple I mean was a strapping young man of 37 Abram was 99 it's very very likely that y could have you know prevented his father from tying him down but y submitted yeah I'll get you in a second so the concept is that yion us to give his life for God now that's a great great Supreme sacrifice but a righteous person does that I'll give my life for God but with Abraham besides the obvious point that it's much harder for a parent to kill a child and for a parent to give up his own life that that that is obvious I'm not going to dismiss the obvious difference but in addition the AA undermines every single thing that Abraham believed about God and everything single thing that Abram taught about God the god of kindness the god of benevolence the god of compassion the god of love how could such a God command such an act and then therefore for Abraham to trust in God even though this is not what he thought God was was an amazingly great great accomplishment now of course keep in mind that the AA has two lessons lesson one is Abraham must be willing to obey God no matter what God says lesson number two is but God doesn't want you to do it in other words there is a lesson there is a lesson in the cancellation of the AA that is just as important as the lesson in AB did you want to say something yeah yesing yes yes well what yeah very much affected that's right was right that's correct that that's correct uh we'll discuss it a little later next week as well but the arada was an extremely traumatic event you might get a superficial sense that say again well he says his eyes were blinded from the tears of the Angels you know you might you might get the superficial impression that oh the arada was a cliffhanger but it had a nice happy Sweet ending at the end uh no uh number one uh s died number two there's actually some indicator that sorus separated in other words if you learn she didn't die right away that's at the very least she seems to have separated from Abraham and the reason is because Abram was living in Bea and S died in Kon and there actually a an issue of a discontinuity why was SAR not living uh where AB was some have Stein actually suggests uh that they separated s would not live with the man right so there was trauma there and say again because of the ARA yeah yeah but rabie stanas is is assuming that s didn't die right away again he that's not the position of of Rashi but no after the fact after the fact when she discovers what abam was about to do that that's it I can't I can't live with such a man but we we'll talk about that next week a little bit more but again kazal have a different sequence kazal basically she just died instantaneously as soon as she got the news yeah um say this is I'm sure it's trou many people the whole that it just seems like a very cool text yes seems that there and and S dying as a result yeah so how do we understand such a test well again you know I I I I can't claim that we can understand such a test I think it is very very significant that God Called It Off I mean that's kind of the the lesson but uh as a general principle it just shows that the servant of God must be willing and prepared to do anything now I know Rabbi risk I mean I don't want to endorse this view at all I mean Rabbi risken in a very very controversial column which really drew the wrath of of many uh in the Torah community and so I'm not I'm not endorsing it RAB Riskin claims although the sources do not support his argument he claims that actually Abraham should have resisted the order and Abraham failed the AA by being willing to kill y so God had to call it off because abam shouldn't have gone that uh that far and uh there actually is a question why does Abram pray for Sodom God says I want to destroy sedom and Abraham argues and argues and argues and he doesn't under a peep when it comes to Y so risk and claims AB didn't pass the AA but again uh that's so untenable I mean on rosashana not only and we said actually it's in the C every day the carbonos we ask Hashem to remember the Merit of Abraham being willing to sacrifice is so H how would it be possible I mean I understand what he's saying intellectually but how would it be possible to construe the AA as air if we invoke the Merit of the AA certainly on rosashana and every single day in the corbas which is actually taken froming that portion is taken but that is that is Rabbi riskin's RAB risk and see what he says well okay okay well okay you can come you know he uh but I I think he's gone on to bigger and better controversies so I think he has bigger fish to worry about but one of his initial controversial fores uh was his explanation of the uh of the aada in that in that way and of course we're back to the general problem again I I I didn't want to talk about the AA in F but and that is uh you know there are people even today who hear heavenly voices telling them to kill their children and they do and they either go to jail or they're committed to psychiatric hospitals for Insanity so one of the questions is how does Abraham truly know that this is the voice of God should Avon basically suspect that maybe he's a schizophrenic or or or something now the simple answer would be well if you are a navi with a track record of communication perhaps you have an internal verification system you know who knows it's hard for us to really understand because we don't we don't have the prophetic experience uh in fact um was it kard himself and that's what that that that ab's n was not to attribute it to a a psychiatric episode and uh not to let his self-interest right right right so so these are very very difficult questions but but as a general rule just shows you have to be willing to go as far as God wants you to go and and all the commentaries say that this kind of almost genetically although not really genetically but this spiritually endowed the Jewish people in all generations with the willingness to even die Alem and to do whatever Hashem demands and for us it's much easier because this is what Theos were man to their children afterwards okay but again they say I mean uh all in all how do you teach the AAA to Children is a very very challenging issue and I think what I would emphasize is that Hashem ultimately said that's not what I want that's not how I want to be served unlike the Pagan cultures that did human sacrifice and everything else but now I want to talk today a little bit about a double standard right we know with hadim and women's Liberation people talk a lot about unfair double standards and here in this par we seem to have an unfair double standard Sarah overhears the Angels telling abam that next year this time of time of the year next year PES s your wife shall have a child and SAR overhears the conversation from the tent and SAR emanu laughs to herself and she says bosi after I have been worn down she's a 90-year-old woman I'm going to regain freshness of the Flesh and not only that Adon my husband is real old and she's laughing to herself but the angel say why did Sora laugh saying that she's too old to have a child so Rashi points out right away from the gamar she didn't say she's too old she said he's too old but rash says you can change the story for Shalom not to make in husband and wife it would have hurt AB Etc okay so be it as it may Sora is criticized for her laughter because her laughter implies that she thinks it really can't happen so first of all ramban points out an interesting point ran points out why should SAR think it's possible at this point remember she does not know these people are angels these are nomads these are like bedin they're not Arabs obviously because nothing sure but these are nomadic people wandering around who show up and they say Preposterous things like your 90-year-old wife is going to have a child uh next year why should she believe it it's not like aam the week before who heard it from Hashem and we'll discuss the ab tar so the ramban says we see from here a very important idea that you never know whom Hashem has designated to be theor to be the conduit of brother somebody gives you a you think they're not worth anything you say Amen you never know you never know the most unlikely sources now in the gamorra we often read about mysterious Arabs who make their appearance these are called Tas T and these Arabs tend to have all sorts of esoteric knowledge you know they they'll say something like oh if you plant here you you'll get wheat if you dig here you'll find gold I'll show show you where korak is buried and there's fire there like they seem to be in possession of all of this kind of mystical knowledge and it's always an anonymous Arab it is recorded in the rishonim that anytime there's a mention of this Anonymous Arab it's always eloh hanavi who comes in the guise of the unlikely messenger so there's a famous story they tell I don't know if it's even true about the stier that a man went to the stier uh asking for AA because his daughter was getting old and didn't have a shed I think she was already 19 you know so they were so they were giving up you know they thought uh it was too late Etc so the stier asked the man did you make a Kish when your daughter was born whatever number of years before so the man said no uh this was a low-key thing we didn't make big kishes uh and the like so the Stifler said that's your problem what does a kidish have to do with that because that a kid everybody goes over to you goes over to the father and the mother and says may you be to bring your daughter to the and you hear it a 100 times 200 times you know you even get impatient I'm hearing the same message over and over and over and over and over again but you never know whom Hashem has designated to be a channel for braa you didn't have all those Bros so the Senor was not there the whole concept of it cenor is an interesting concept so the sty said make a Kish now so to celebrate your daughter's birth so he makes a kidish he's already more than 20 whatever she was and people are say oh is your daughter engaged no she's not engaged this is an honor of her being born 20 years later and of course everybody gave MTO may you take your daughter to the K and the story goes as you would expect a few weeks later she met her Bashar and she got married so you never you never know that's what the raban said but here is the question that asked at the end of after abraam had his breast just three days before Hashem tells Abraham that Sora your wife is going to have a child and Abraham falls on his face and he laughs and Hashem says H call your son y he shall laugh so Abraham's laughter is even seen in a positive way so how come when SAR laughs she gets criticized lack of amuna lack of faith why is sar's laughter not good and aram's laughter is good so the truth of the matter is it's very very fascinating if you look at tarum unus now tarum uncus is an extremely literal Aramaic translation of the Torah very very rarely is there a non-literal departure from translation but interestingly enough the word with AB is V and he laughed and the word with s is V which just means she laughed it's the same word the tarum is two different interpretations with respect to AB it says is he rejoiced is Aramaic for in s it's she scfed now it's very very clear that there's nothing in the words that would justify a different translation it can only be that uncus is trying to understand why Abraham's laughter is kosher so to speak and sora's laughter is not because aram's laughter is an expression of joy and sar's laughter is an expression of skepticism a ruul laughter now there may be some textual support for that for example abam laughed as he fell on his face now we don't mean he thought it was so ridiculous that he lost his balance but falling on his face is giving thanks to God so the laughter is in conjunction with and that did not appear in Saro so perhaps there's a little bit of a textual illusion but the truth of the matter is the unas is difficult because why would the Torah use the exact same verb if in fact the emotions are two different emotions one is Sim and one is skepticism so because of this the M mayor Sim of dein great great God who died in the 1920s in fact uh his sa is his sa the r is or or is actually in memory of R Simka who uh he and his rebit and only had one child or one daughter who died tragically so there were no children that surviv them so um yeshivas were named after a truly truly great uh great person uh and he says the following idea he actually says both Sarah and abraam were laughing for the same reasons they both couldn't really believe it could happen but here is the technical difference this is a bit of a technical answer but it's a very very interesting technical answer the rambam one of the topics that fascinated the rambam as you already see from what I said earlier tonight is the rambam was intrigued with the concept of Prophecy the rambam talks about prophecy in many many contexts and the rambam says that when a person comes and claims that God has given him prophecies in order for him to get his Novi license the Sanhedrin has a responsibility to check him out meaning I don't have to listen to some guy claiming to have messages from God until he has been credentialed as a Noy and the process of credentials which is handled by the Sanhedrin of 70 is that this man is asked to make a bunch of predictions short-term predictions right he can't say what's going to happen 50 years now he has to say what's going to happen you know in the very near future and the predictions have to check out at a 100% accuracy rate and the Sanhedrin decides what the number is 10 20 30 and uh when there is a 100% success rate he is then credentialed as a na'vi and we are obligated to obey him now the rambam says in order to be discredited as a navi because your naua did not take place it has to be a positive NAA for Amel because if the navi says the Jewish people will be victorious and they're not he is a false prophet because God will never resend positive beneficial prophecies if on the other hand the navi gave you a prediction of a Calamity there will be a famine there will be a defeat there will be a death and it doesn't take place calam the nonoccurrence of calamitous events cannot discredit a navi because even if somebody is a true Navi Hashem has ra and evil decrees can always be an old right this is the rambam's famous idea that a a prophecy for something good cannot be nullified unless it's expressly commissional obviously if the Torah when the Torah says if you keep misos I'll give you blessing obviously that's conditional but if it's an unconditionally expressed prophecy it will happened uh and the rambam's proof is actually a peric in Yohi if you remember around the time of theban bisha so there were many many false prophets among the Jewish people that were actually encouraging the Jewish people to rebel against Babylonia and they said God loves you and God will never allow the Babylonians to destroy the temple and Exile the Jewish Nation yo was the downer yo was basically saying don't you rebel against Babylon you don't have the merits God is not going to protect you the Bas ofas is going to be destroyed and yo told one of the false prophets I sincerely hope that you're right and I'm wrong but if you're right and I'm wrong that does not discredit me as a Novi but if I'm right and you're wrong the whole world will know you're a false prophet because you said God would save and God didn't save okay this is CLA number one of the rambam now CLA number two is a question the rambam asks on himself if cannot be now remember this is getting a little ahead of ourselves when yov runs away from ASF and yakob is very frightened so God Appears to him in a dream that's the dream of the Angels going up and down the ladder and God promises him I will take care of you I will bring you back to where it Israel I will sustain you I will protect you from your enemies and that gave Yakov a lot of comfort many years later he comes back and the night before he encounters ASV he is frightened and distraught that perhaps he and his family will not survive the gamar in Bros asks the question why is Yakov afraid did he not have a Divine promise many years before and the gorr's answer is certainly Yakov had a Divine promise but Yakov was concerned that because of his sins he thought he might have committed sins he would forfeit the Divine promise and that's why he's worried so the rambam asks on himself if according to me positive prophecies are never going to be enough then how could Yakov be afraid that he would forfeit Divine protection by virtue of his sin is that not right this is the round B's question on himself is that not a contradiction to the rule so the rambam's answer is we have to differentiate between a prophecy and a promise what makes something a prophecy a prophet is not a prophet simply because he has Divine visions and we can prove this The Book of Daniel right the Book of Daniel is filled with all sorts of mystical visions and yet Daniel is not a navi and Daniel's book is not in the N it's in the why is that so because the explanation is what makes you a navi is not your Visions what makes you a Nai is God gave you a responsibility to communicate your vision to others the of is from articulation a person could be a but not a na'vi a navi is someone who's given responsibility so here is what the rambam says if God Appears to you and makes a promise to you but you're not a navi who is given a mission to communicate it every promise God makes is theoretically conditional on you having Merit and you can forfeit that promise through sin and that is why yo is that that perhaps his sins will cause him to Forfeit but the RAM says when Hashem is not just making a promise to you but when you are a Nai who is given the mission and the responsibility of communicating it to others that is when we apply the rule that will not be an old because the rambam says because if we didn't apply that rule it would be impossible to discredit AI if no matter what he says it doesn't have to happen so God said at least in One Direction in the positive direction it's going to so this is the the ra makes between and is so now the says quite beautifully at the end of God communicates to Abraham I will give you and Sarah a child at that point it's a beautiful promise but it's the realm of in the realm of ha AB can laugh it's a ruul laughter it's not really a happy laughter according to and he can say I just hope I'm not going to mess up by my meaning abah is entitled to doubt whether it will happen because on the level of perhaps he will not be worthy now the learns the following because this is a bit of an interpretive problem Hashem told Abraham right before his breath that he's going to have a child from Sarah that's the end of the Torah does not tell us did he tell SAR now words when was the first time that SAR became aware she would have a child if you read the Kish literally it would be 3 days later when she hears it from the Angels but what about hashem's conversation with abam did he tell her so the ramban actually says he didn't tell her because you know he was recovering from the circumcision it got lost in the shuffle it's a little bit of a do he just he he didn't get around to it I'm sure wives can identify with husbands not telling them you know some really important information oh I just you know you know I just forgot to tell you whatever it is forgot to tell you about the 50 people I invited for l or whatever it is but the M learns differently M assumes AB did tell Sarah even before the Angels now the is asserting once abam tells Sarah it leaves the realm of and assumes the realm of and therefore Abraham was entitled to be skeptical on the level of but s cannot be skeptical because it's now the level of n now the truth of the matters there there is one big question I'm sure I'm sure that all of you are thinking of in order for to become it's not simply a question of oh I tell somebody I made I have to be commanded to tell somebody something AB couldn't make it n just because he told his wife so we have to assume that implicit in Hashem telling him was a commandment to tell it to his wife and once he communicates it it acquires a new G of NE rather than that is the terce of the in which he's learning both ab and S were initially skeptical unlike Tunas but Abram's sad skepticism had a h justification but by the time it got down to SAR there was not a justification yeah like I get what you're saying that communicating it's now on a human level I know this simplistic I mean the woman's been unable to be children she's 90 years old yeah I mean it's a little bit like of course she's going to be a little skeptical it's her body that hasn't been operational so now so now I mean like the man is all through great we having a baby but you know like it's her body and like why shouldn't a a woman have skepticism well you know I I do understand that but so give you thought which which addresses what you said so so far I've given you two Abraham is Joy s is skepticism they're both Skeptics yeah right now the third is from the or right the orim is RA benar great great Moroccan God who died in the 1700s uh you know that he is buried and harim came from Morocco toim and uh although harim is not always the safest place but on his yard site which is in tamas I believe I believe it's in the month of Tas there are still to this day thousands and thousands of people that come to the Kev of the kados is called very R very few are called the kados and the or says you know abam and Sarah laughed for the same reason joy happiness abam had full faith in God and Sarah had full faith in God exactly the same so now we're back to the problem so why is SAR criticized so listen to what the says there actually is a Rabin tradition that Rashi brings that SAR actually experienced a physical Rejuvenation of her body at the age of 90 she began to menstrate there's even a whole discussion of why she didn't bring out certain food because she rendered it ritually tum because she was Pier Anita and her laughter was the joy at rediscovering the Rejuvenation of the self so the says the following when the Angels say why is SAR laughing this is the subtl thing why is she laughing now when she sees physical evidence of God's promise Abraham laughs when he hears the God's promise and Sora believed it but that wasn't enough to make her laugh because the physical reality was stronger than the Divine promise Abraham laughs as soon as God makes the promise Sora believes but she doesn't laugh until she sees is the physical reality so it's a whole new translation is why does sar laugh now and she didn't laugh before that that's the thing so from a human perspect no one second from a human perspective you're 100% right this is a very subtle event subtle sin so to speak obviously when she sees the physical experience that makes a real difference but on her level the reality of divine promise should be just as tangible it's very very amazing this is not a level that any of us could really experience it should be the same as an actual reality maybe she was what she was Contin well the implication so so this is the the says for a there is no difference between God's promise and the reality that you see with your own eyes in fact God's promise is stronger my eyes could fool me hashem's promise is there's a g in Basra in which a certain disciple R was once giving AA and say whatever that means is a very very ambiguous term you never know exactly what it means but the the the gates of will be 100 OS tall and they will be comprised of jewels Sapphires and rubies imagine 100 am of sapphires and rubies so a talmid is listening to the D and the talmid thinks to himself well okay exaggeration can't really be that way so the Tet was on a sea Voyage shortly thereafter and they got a little lost at sea and he sees huge slabs of diamonds rubies and sapphires floating on the surface of the ocean huge as big as said the kind of being held in abeyance till mashia comes so when he gets safely home he goes to his rebi and says Reby Reby you were right I saw it everything you said I saw itan was annoyed said you mean until you saw it you didn't believe it and there's kind of a not such a great ending ran looked at the person and burned him up with his G some kind of like the x-ray vision and like he became a g a pile of bones because once again amuna know they say the karbi somebody told the karbi once that there's a Reb you claims that every sukus he sees the YP and the karbi said I'm much better I don't see them but my amuna tells me that they're there and that's even stronger you know just just as a related matter I remember hearing when I was in yiva many many years ago the gar discusses different comparing B to ER is B is modern Iraq Babylonia so the gamar then says b is north of er Israel then it says and how do we know B is north of arel because there's a verse in the n that is prophesying that the Babylonians Will Conquer ER Israel and it says meetone that the evil shall come from the north and that's how I know Babylonia is North now what type of question this how do you know that Syria is North of Israel how do you know that Canada is north of the United States it's a map I mean you just know that you have to have a verse from the tanak to prove that b is north of AR the answer that the Bali musers say is that we think I don't need a PK if we have geographical reality but the reality is the other way around what the PK says is more real than the reality I don't need a map if that's what the pect tells me yeah I'm sorry if our of the is supposed to be internal regardless of what's Happening yeah of course said in the beginning part of why we need to take Bros so seriously if we could just think Hashem could do anything anyway no matter what well again again Hashem can do everything but but once again when I said that amuna that means in this case it's amm's promise in other words once Hashem made a specific promise now Hashem can do everything but without Bros I don't know what Hashem is planning for me right so Bros are various mechanisms that elicit Divine Mercy and the like in the case of Sora though there already was a Divine promise so there was no need for for anything else according to the or's interpretation she should have looked at the Divine promise makes like BR sound like this like magical well this is a whole you know this is really a whole a whole very very difficult issue the whole issue of prayer for example let's factor out even Bros for a moment let's focus onil you know if you say you know God is a god of love and God is a god of mercy and God will give me what is best for me and no matter what happens in my life even if it seems to me bad is gamova you know so what exactly is the purpose of doing if God thinks it's good for you he will give it to you if God doesn't think it's good for you he won't give it to you what's the purpose of asking right that's that's the general that's a very very good and and deep question and the classical answer thato gives in the seim is that prayer prayer is not changing God's mind prayer is a vehicle to change you and you become a different person in your relationship to God and therefore God deals with you in a different in a different way in many ways Bros although not as direct as is somewhat of a similar idea uh because by putting your faith in the coak of people who are righteous and holy you're not praying to them of course you are in effect aligning yourself with those who live by the will of Hashem and therefore that is also a vehicle of transformation uh for you so it's not God that changes it's you that changes and here's the other thing too there's a very very important gar in that raises the question why were the matriarchs barren why was SAR Barren for so many years why was Rael Barren for so many years so the gamar says because God desired their prayers now this is an amazing thing because what if Sara would have said the following she was Barren for many years she's 90 years old what if she would have said this is hard for me I suffer very much but I know that whatever God does is for the good and I accept what God has given to me with perfect faith that it's gam Zula now that sounds like a very very righteous response in point of fact if that would have been her response she would have missed the boat because God made her in that difficult situation because God wanted her prayers so one of the most difficult issues that this is not just an ancient issue that we all face in life is there are two modalities of how we relate to adversity and suffering one is the modality of amuna of acceptance of gamova of understanding that even in darkness there is light and in saying I accept what God gives me and I will see the BR in it and the other is I will do whatever I can to change this by praying to Hashem because that's what Hashem wants me to do now these are in some way contradictory mat and when do you do rout you know plan a and when do you do plan B now I remember hearing a story about Yakov ketki again I'm not not going to give you a complete answer because it's it's a difficult question that uh there was a child that had a very very severe uh either genetic disease or cancer I don't remember the details and the parents had been taking the child all over the world for medical treatment and also the to get Bros from every sadic and every so they finally came toov keski great great God and they told rakov the whole story how the child we took the child everywhere we're going to every Sonic that we know and rakov who was known for his gentleness and kindness rakov said do you have other children and they said yeah so he said may you have nakas from your other children so people were absolutely sh you know they they they literally sucked in their breath they couldn't believe it he essentially he's telling them your kids going to die think about the other kids now and people couldn't believe what appeared to be callous and cruel so much not consistent with his character but the parents later said that this was such an important message for them and for their child because it really was the signal that it's time to move from mode a to mode B in which let's stop slepping our child around from place to place let him be home let him be with his siblings let him be with his friends let everybody prepare for the next stage and that brought inner peace to them it gave their child a certain calmness and serenity in the final weeks of his life and it gave them a sense sense that God essentially is telling them you've done everything you're expected to do and now you let go now the question becomes what point is that right certainly you know somebody gets sick we're obligated to do whatever we can to heal but it does indicate that that you know Jews live with contradictions and sometimes the avod is to change the fate and sometimes the aod is to accept the F and one needs to know now clearly thear indicates that Theos was to pray Hashem wanted their prayer in fact it's very interesting you see from this gumar a fascinating point we think that we pray because we have needs that need to be met I have a need so I pray it's really the opposite my need is to pray but if I don't have needs I may not think of that Hashem creates needs so I will turn to himo of that Doctrine which personally I have a great deal of trouble with yeah what would we think of a king who intentionally imposed suffering on his subjects so that they would petition him for the real I understand in the case of a human I I understand the question is very excellent question in the case of a human King that would be nothing more than an inflated sense of egotism and uh there can be no moral justification to make you suffer because I want the ego trip of you begging me to take you out of your suffering 100% correct but if you understand that connection to God is the greatest greatest blessing and benefit that a soul can have then in a sense go whatever God puts us through is a lesser suffering in order to achieve a greater blessing you see there's the difference would be the spiritual benefit so to speak of closeness to in fact this is a famous for from theim the first G rebi you know the is cursed the snake is cursed you will eat dirt all the days of your life so the question is that's not a curse there's plenty of dirt around you know you never have to look you never have to look for food he says that's the whole point the will never have a need to pray what whatever whatever that means in the case of animals the will not have to pray to Hashem because if Hashem says I'll give you what you want just don't bother me not having needs in life can sometimes be a curse because it it's is if to say you know I have no need to turn to Hashem of course I do have that need but I'm not aware of it so no connection I have no connection to Hashem it's like they tell a story about a um this I I'm told it's even a true story although I'm not sure it is about a uh 17-year-old whose mother died and the father got remarried and the proverbial evil stepmother hated the kid she wanted nothing to do with the kid and she said to her husband basically it's either him or me I'm not going to live in the house with this 17-year- old so what the father did was the father was a wealthy man the father got the guy kid in an apartment he got him a car he gave him a credit card with kind of unlimited credit limit and said charge what you want buy what you want do what you want but I can never really see you again so on one superficial love we say why this is a this is every teenagers you know uh fantasy you know I have unlimited expense account my own car my own thing and yet the pain of basically saying don't bother me anymore take what you want there's nothing more devastating than that and that's kind of what Hashem says to the says to the so uh these are very very hard questions and these are questions that arise in life very very much when do you accept you know person's not married person's infertile illness when do you move to the modality of saying uh know when do you is it the prayer modality and when is it the acceptance modality do both exist at the same time can both exist at the same time very very hard but but it's very very clear the point is that that our job is not always to ex our job is to storm the Gates of Heaven and that's what the Emos had to do so these are something things to think about and this is the's point an interesting KES that sora's laughter was not skepticism but joy and the Tina is why is your joy now why wasn't your joy before before the amuna should have been that same reality so anyway have a good uh good good week and a good shabus and we'll see you next