Lech Lecha: Avraham’s Rescue of Lot—Achvah, Mesiras Nefesh, and Pidyon Shevuyim

Transcript

This week's parsha, and I don't mean the political parsha in America, I mean the parsha of the Torah. We find the war, five kings and four kings, the Arba Melachim against the Chamesh Melachim. This is found in Perek Yud-Daled, Bereishis, and there's a lot of introduction in the beginning of the perek, the history, who was serving who, who was subordinate to who, and who took over who. Really what's nogea to us was the parsha of Lot within the story of the Daled Melachim and the five Melachim, lechora. Meaning, lechora, we only care, pashtus, the history of Avram. So there is a very important part that Avram plays in the war of the Daled Melachim against the five Melachim, and that is that Lot was taken captive by the groups of Melachim that won, that overtook Sdom, and Avram makes it his business to recapture Lot, and thus he fights a war which he wins miraculously, retrieving Lot, and the rest of the story as we find in the parsha. So let us begin to read not so much from the beginning, which is the history of the war, how the war started, but let's read from pasuk zayin. Actually, better yet, let us read from pasuk Yud Aleph. In posuk yud aleph, perek yud daled, after the introduction of why the war, who the war, who the components, it says as follows: Vayikchu es kol rechush S'dom va'Amorah. As they overtook S'dom, they captured the rechush, the wealth of S'dom, the booty, so to speak, of S'dom, whatever was left over from the war, v'es Amorah, and of Amorah, that's kol ochlam and all the food, vayelechu, and they left. Vayikchu es Lot v'es rechusho, ben achi Avram, vayelechu. They also took Lot, his wealth, the son of the brother of Avram, and they left. V'hu yoshev biS'dom, and behold, he is living in S'dom. Rabosai, there's a choirah poshut diuk. There's a choirah diuk that jumps out at you in this pasuk. Lot was not Lot and rechusho ben achi Avram. It was Lot, ben achi Avram, v'es kol rechusho. I want to say who Lot is. First I define Lot, so I say Lot, who is ben achi Avram, and then I write v'es kol rechusho. You don't write he took Lot and all his rechush, ben achi Avram. Let us say that ben achi Avram is his last name. So we're not going to come and say he took Chaim, all his wealth, Goldfinger, right? You would say Chaim Goldfinger and all his wealth. So it's Lot, ben achi Avram. V'es kol rechusho should technically be the way the pasuk writes, and it's not so. Pasuk stops, lo et rechusho, and then it says ben Achi Avram. Isn't the pasuk identifying for us what Lot's priorities were? Yes, that's a very nice pshat. You're mechaven to the Rosh Yeshiva of Telz's pshat. Rav Gifter learns like this, but it's a little bit of a drush, not the pashut pshat. The pasuk, and we'll get to it. Very good, very nice. But before we get there, let us first just learn pshat. In pshat, the way the pasuk reads, it would seem logical that it should first say Lot, ben Achi Avram, and then rechusho. So if you look at the Torah Temimah, there's a sefer called Tosefes Berachah, and there he challenges a lot of the diyukim that we have to try to interpret them as peshatot, pshat ha-mikra'os. So I always, when I have a diyuk, I always like to look there to see, well, maybe this is the derech ha-mikra'os. And interestingly enough, it's like when you look in the Yellow Pages for the name, let's say, Goldstein, what would come up? Hundreds of pages, right? That's exactly what comes up in Tosefes Berachah in this parsha. You saw the list, right? He has a list.

This is correct. There's an entire list, starting from Chumash to Tanach and so on and so forth, that this is not a kasha. This doesn't bother him. That what? It could say sometimes, loit v'skor rechushoi, and then go back to the last name, or to the history, or to the home place of the person that we're referring to. So it's not a kasha that it says, loit v'skor rechushoi. If you'd like to have the list, if you'd like to have the computerized list, so to speak, you can go look at the Tosefes Bracha. But I do find that Rav Gifter in Sefer, he asks this for a kasha, and before him, I also find that the Netziv, the Netziv asks a kasha in Emek Bracha, in Emek Davar. So I assume that it's a good ha'ara. Why does it say, loit rechushoi? And tonight, im yirtzeh Hashem, maybe we shall have a teretz. But before we continue, let me just throw out the teretz that this fine gentleman said. Says Rav Gifter in very short language, and then he says afterwards, v'havein, so to speak, he gives you a wink. So it's good farshtein, vos mir red do, that originally Lot was called what? Ves Lot ben achiv. In the beginning of the parsha it says he takes Lot, Vayikach Avram es Lot. What is Lot? Lot is called Lot ben achiv. That was when he was macha yeshiva bochur, so to speak. But as he ventures out into the world, and he becomes a member of the society of S'dom, then he identifies himself much differently. He becomes Lot v'eskor rechushoi. I guess later on somewhere we can call him Ben Achi Avrom. Says Rav Gifter, v'havdein. Understand what we're saying. Obviously this was a sicha, a mussar shmues for the bachurim. Tells not to venture too far away from the yeshiva, because your identification will change immediately as you become involved with maybe the wrong communities, the wrong societies, and the wrong cliques, so to speak. Says Rav Gifter, that's the pshat. First it was lo yi ben ochi. Says the Torah, now it's lo yiv kol rucho. First he was chayil, and now he's what? Doctor Charles. It's a dundermensch, a dundermensch. It also follows nicely with the end of the pasuk. The beginning of the pasuk is in lashon avar, and now it's v'hu yoshev b'Stom, meaning he's still— Okay, that's more already drush. You're pushing the pshat a little bit. I'll tell you the emes, the Netziv himself works on the v'hu yoshev b'Stom also. What's the chidush, v'hu yoshev b'Stom? We'll get back to it towards the end of the shiur. Why again? Because it says lo yiv kol rucho, and why say v'hu yoshev b'Stom? We know where Lot was. This wasn't a chidush, and if they took over Sedom, obviously they captured Lot in Sedom. What's the point of saying v'hu yoshev b'Stom? Of course they captured Sedom, and he's there, so they took him. But they took him because he was not there. V'hu yoshev—in the Torah it's telling you that's why he was caught, so to speak, because he was sitting in Sedom. I think it's הזמן ... We'll get, we'll get back. Continues the pasuk, Vayavoi ha-palit. A historic, a historic event happens. The palit. Who is the palit? It's Oyg Melech HaBashan, Chazal tell us. And he was called a palit because שנפלט מדור המבול. He was very lucky. He was the only individual not in the teivah that didn't belong in the teivah, that didn't fit in the teivah, however you want to say it. Whatever it was, he was niflat m'dor hamabul, and he survived it. Chazal tell us, the palit, he got onto the top. Kasha, here, here, it was boiling hot water. We'll leave that already for aggadic shiurim. Al kol panim, this is the palit. The palit is Oyg Melech HaBashan. Says the pasuk, Vayaged l'Avram haIvri, and behold he tells Avram haIvri, v'hu shochein b'eilonei Mamrei haEmori, achi Eshkol v'achi Aner. Where is this? This is all taking place in the eilonei Mamrei, the fields, the plains of Mamrei, who was achi Eshkol and achi Aner, and the heim ba'alei bris Avram. These were, so to speak, the people of treaty with Avram. They were friends, they had shaychus to Avram.

Like we find later, Rashi brings this down, that when Avraham had to know about the milah, should he do it? B'rabim, people should know about it, they should know about it. In the beginning of next week's parsha, it was ... who gave him eitzah on the milah. These were Avraham's confidants, so to speak. Rabosai, there's two ha'aros in this pasuk as well. What does it mean, Vayagid l'Avram haIvri? What do you mean he told Avram the Ivri? Since when, and why not till now, don't we find Avram to be called Ivri? And what is Ivri bichlal, what does it mean? Comes Rashi, and Rashi tells us, you know what Ivri means? Ivri, sheba me'ever hanahar. He came from the other side of the river. He was like an outsider. Habai side, who cares, and why here? What's the point? Vayagid l'Avram. But this is the first time we're identifying and discussing and telling over a story about Avraham Avinu. It should say, from the beginning, when Hashem, whatever it is, Avraham Avinu, he went, he had Avram haIvri. Why over here? The poet, when he comes to speak to Avram, so it says he speaks to Avram haIvri. And what does bichlal mean? Nothing. He's ba me'ever hanahar, he comes from a different country, a different section, he comes from over the river. It's a pshat in the pasuk. Peledike thing. So many parshiyos talk about Avraham Avinu till here, so many pesukim, so many things. I mean, this is not the first time we talk about Avraham Avinu. All of a sudden, a new name. Comes in with a new name one day. Imagine a person's called one name for many years, and one day he walks into shul and he identifies himself with a nickname or another name. Right away, what does the Ringenhead—something must have happened. He lost his money. I mean, there's got to be some explanation to why this man has a different name all of a sudden. L'cheira, what's the pshat that here Avram takes on a different name, and what b'chalal does that name mean, Ivri? He's from Ever haNahar. What's the significance of it over here? A third ha'arah, l'cheira, that we have to understand: what's the point of telling me that he's living b'Elonei Mamrei? Who cares where he lived? Imagine if I tell you a story that I went and I told Yaakov, Yaakov, where do you live? And what street? What's the name of the house? Six thirty-one. Okay, so when I come discuss Yaakov, I don't have to come and tell you where exactly Yaakov lives. What's the negeiah? What bearing, what reference, what nafkamina does this, where Avram lives, have to do with the fact that the palit came and he told him the story? And I'll tell you, I didn't see any meforshim ask this question. L'cheira, I mean, it's a whole pasuk here: Vayavo ha-palit, Vayaged l'Avram haIvri. And the pasuk says, V'hu yoshev. Here we have to identify now where Avram Avinu is living. V'hu yoshev, behold, he's sitting b'Elonei Mamrei haEmori, achi Eshkol, v'achi Aner, v'heim ba'alei bris Avram. Ela mai? Ba'alei bris Avram. So tell me the pashut milah. V'fagea tamimo, you'll tell me that Avram lived among baalei bris Avram. Yes. You have a teretz to me? First, first, listen. We live in a society that first you have to concede, okay? This is part of the problem that we live in in our times. People don't concede things that they win or they lose. So please concede to me on the question. No, he's not conceding. I want you to first concede on the question. No, he's not conceding. Okay, go ahead. He's learning from the times. Yeah, go ahead. ... Why is the ... over here? Why is that through this parsha? Because he was ... he had his own people, ... Uh-huh. You're trying to say that he lived a comfortable ... he lived, ... he bust off with ... he had a good buffer zone. He had a nice community around him. What do you have to know? I have to know here that he has friends. This here is the first time we talk about Avraham Avinu. Here, we're not telling you a parsha, Shalom Aleichem, I want to introduce you to Avraham Avinu. This ... is Avraham Avinu.

Emails and mail from a lot of friends. That's not what's going on over here. ... You're telling me a story, that the ... came to tell Avraham Avinu a story. And now, by the way, you got to know Avraham's address now. Very important. It's very nogea right now to know that Avraham lived among the ... It's shayches. This is opposed to life. By his life he said ... So here he told him that he was ... where he was sitting, and when he gives the teretz for Sedom, ... Boy, I see it. He's playing mind games, throwing the ball back in my court. I mean, you know that I'm going to tie together who ... that ... You know my style. Okay. So the truth is, you're right. You're right, but you still didn't give me a teretz. I have a good teretz. You have a good teretz. Yeah, I think that this pasuk— First of all, do you like the question? It's an unbelievable question. They don't concede to the question. It's unbelievable here. I think that this pasuk magnifies the midah of chesed in Avraham Avinu. Yes. Don't say any more. Okay. Okay, beautiful. Very nice. If I think I know what you're saying, you're saying very, very good. Thank you. But let's move on. Rabosai, we have three questions. Bottom line. Yeah, but what's in it over here? I have to—you're in the middle of telling, you know, let me tell, I have a friend that doesn't like me. What do you mean doesn't like me? He doesn't like the way I talk to him. Why? Because every time I begin a story, I have to, within that story, inject all the information. Now, little does he know I'm a mind reader. That's the way I live, and that's the way I talk, and that's the way I think. And he's not that way. The Torah is definitely not that way, that you're injecting information which is not relevant to the story. So you're telling me that's important to where you live. Okay, so, you know, so find me a place that's a relative and it's important to tell me where you live. It's got to be more than this. There's something going on in this pasuk. There's a dynamic in this pasuk which is, lichoira, completely extra on face value. Vayavo Yaakov, vayagid lah, vayarachel. We're finished. No. You have to know Avram's the Ivri. You have to know he's living in a loi nei mamre. You just said that loi became part of the people. He wants to tell you that Avram was just as wealthy and he did not become part of the people. You see that in this pasuk? Yeah, that's why he called Avram an Ivri. He's separate from everyone. He can live with goyim and still be separate. It's a contradiction. That's a problem that when light meets darkness, that Avram... I don't know. You're injecting in a story about a palit who comes and tells about a light. You're injecting information which is completely not necessary for the story itself, completely out of context. First of all, Ivri, where was... What's the negiah to the story? Where, who, Eshkol, Aner, Mamre? This is negiah to the bris. When you're getting close to the story of the bris, they should tell me, you know, he lives in Mamre and the reason why he lived in Mamre. So these are the three questions we want to address tonight. Question number one: why does it say Lot, that's Korachushai, and then ben achi Avram? We also want to address tonight what's the pshat in the pasuk when he says he's called Ivri. And the third thing I want to address tonight is what's the pshat in Aner, Eshkol, and Mamre, where he lived. What's the negiah where he lived? That's not so. It's very good, very good. Okay. So, rabosai, let's begin with Ivri. Why was he called an Ivri? So the emes is, Rashi tells us one out of three pshatim. You see, today we like to conceal. We like to conceal, meaning the less you say, the better off you'll be. But the emes is, it's really one out of three other pshatim that it says in the Medrash. If you take a look at the Medrash Rabbah, Ivri. Why was he called an Ivri? Shtei Medrash. Why was he called an Ivri? Nick, one second. Oh, here it is. Ivri. Reb Yehuda, ... Rabbanan. It's machlokes, Reb Yehuda ... Rabbanan. Reb Yehuda omer, Reb Yehuda says what? Kol ha'olam kulo mei'ever echad, v'hu mei'ever echad. Ivri means one side and one side. The whole world was what? On one side, but Avraham Avinu was what? Alone on the...

On the other side. Kasha, the whole world can zayin on one side, I'm on the other side. Me'eiver echad, me'eiver sheini. Reb Nechemya, what does Reb Nechemya say? Says Reb Nechemya, shehu mibnei banav shel Eiver, that he was mibnei banav, the children of Eiver. Avraham is a descendant of who? A descendant of Eiver. What's the last shita? Rabbanan amri, shehu me'Eiver ha-nahar, hu Mashiach, meaning he speaks lashon Masicha, hu Masiach, he speaks b'lashon Ivri. Which really adds to the question: not only you're telling me that he's an Ivri, what, me'eiver ha-nahar, but that he speaks that language. Why over here? Okay, like we asked. So we have three pshatim. Pshat of Ivri either means one side of the world against Avraham Avinu on the other side, or Ivri means they all came from who? They came from Eiver. Now Rabbeinu says the support on Moridik vort, Moridik, Moridik pshat. Why did the Polite feel so secure that Avraham Avinu is going to fanem zikh faloyt? Why am I saying this? I mean, what do I mean by that? Fanem zikh means he'll take on for flight to go get him back. Chazal tell us that this Polite, it's a Medrash right over here, had no l'shem Shamayim whatsoever going through his body when he told Avraham Avinu about Lot. It wasn't even an ounce of l'shem Shamayim. What was it? He liked very much Sarah. And he knew that Avraham Avinu is going to start off fighting to get Lot back, and he'll definitely lose, because how could one person go against an entire union of armies? And then he could go afterwards and take Sarah. This is why — Chazal in the Medrash, right over here — this is why Lot did what he did. Vayavo ha-palit. He told Lot Avraham Avinu in order he should get killed, as they state in the Medrash. Klal wasn't l'shem Shamayim. So what gave him the idea that Avraham would, takke, take on such a crazy war, which on the sofech rishonim means, when you look at, he definitely would have lost? What gave him to take on such a war? Chumash along the Siforno says that's what lays in this word Ivri. What's the pshat? This palit didn't know that Lot was related to Avraham Avinu, but rather what? Lot behaved like an Ivri. Lot behaved like an eved kulever, like a grandchild of Ever. And he knew that Avraham Avinu behaved like a grandchild of Ever. So mustama there's some connection. Mustama there's some shaychus. They come from the same communities. They have some background together. They must have met each other somewhere. And therefore he would, what, go fight to save this person. That's what the Siforno says. Rabosai, let's look it up inside. Vayavo ha-palit, vayaged l'Avram ha-Ivri. Lo yoda Polit shehoyah Avraham karov loit. Not that the Polit oygnu that Lot and Avraham were related. So what made him think that Avraham would take on such a crazy war, and that he would get killed for it, that he could be able to take Sarah afterwards, like Chazal tell us? So he says, Rak yoda shehoyah machzik b'de'os Ever k'moihu. That they both believed, and they both lived, and they both thought like a child, like a grandchild of Ever. Lot behaved like a grandchild of Ever, and Avraham Avinu behaved like a grandchild of Ever. He will machzik b'de'os Ever k'moihu. Thus, the Polit oyg realized that Avraham would fight this war to save Lot. Rabosai, I have a major kashya here. Before we get to the stirah that there is to the words of the Siforno, a pashte kashya in understanding the Siforno. Just because me and you have a shaychus, just because me and you maybe had some connection way back when, just because maybe we come even from—

So say in communities, that means I'd risk my life for you. What's the teretz that the supporter says? If you call and tell me that Lot was a son, or naturally like a son, okay. So you come and say, I can hear. A man ... a person will go and commit suicide, so to speak, to go save his son. Why does the supporter say, Don't learn like that, but rather learn, Vayavoi hapalit vayaged l'Avram haIvri, that he's telling him why? Because he knows that Avram's an Ivri, and he knows that Lot is an Ivri. So what? That's a reason that Lot should be guaranteed, that Lot should be under the consumption that he's going to go and give up his life for him. What? Slow, slow, slow, good, good. You know what it is? I produced this dynamic that you people answer because you know what I'm going to answer. So what I did is, it's a tremendous thing, because eventually I'm going to stop coming. What happens, I'll have you people just sit by yourselves and learn the Chumash again. You see, this is what's creating my own monster, you understand? Okay, now, listen carefully, yeah. I'm saying good. Okay, Chazal tell us—she's trying to tell you—Chazal tell us, Lot ... always accompanied Moshe Rabbeinu because of this chesed that he came to tell Avraham Avinu, even though technically it was shelo l'shem Shamayim. His whole kavanah was what? Well, well, well, Avraham will be ... take Sarah. What are you saying? What are you answering? You're asking. I'm saying I'm not sure what we're doing here. No, Apolli. No, Apolli. Y'all by Apollit. Why is he called Pol? You're trying to explain. Why is he called Pol over here? Because he also had shaychus to chesed, because he was nitlap mehamabul. Because Apolli means he was saved from the mabul. How was he saved through chesed? You say that the reason why he lived through the mabul was because of the chesed of now, meaning, because Avtal lived later because of that. Okay, that's what you see from here. I mean, I'm trying to get something. I'm trying to show you like this, that when we say b'deios, we don't just mean that they're both coming from the same community. There's more than that. There's something called the daas of Ever, the shitos, the way of thinking of Ever. There's more that's in the sevara than just what meets the eye. Very good, I'm maskim, but let's move on. There's a problem with that, though. Yes. Because if that were true, then you're really seeing two very different kinds of people. How could he pull it together from seeing one person living in Sedom in that environment and then seeing Avraham Avinu, who's obviously living a much... So we're going to answer that. We're going to answer it. We're going to get there. Okay, so again, we have to be cautious that we are addressing. Let's just backtrack, because we'll soon see we're going to start moving very quickly ahead. And then we're going to start moving quickly backwards to answer all the questions. Once we get to Yissachar, once we get to understand the depth of this parsha. So again, question number one again is, light, Mr. Chushai, right, ben Achi Avram. The second question is, why Ivri? Why is it found over here? And the third question is, lainei mamrei, honor, eshkol mamrei, ba'livris Avram. What's the shaychus, the kesher over here? Why? So we're addressing another shaila now. We see that Og was secure in thought that Avraham Avinu will take on the cause of Lot. Meicha teisa? How do you know this? How do we know? So pashut you learn because he was related, so the sevara that's not true. That's b'chalal not true. And that's why he's called Ivri. What's pshat Ivri? Like the second pshat, that they all come from the family of Ever, which means they are a people which descend from Ever. But if you look at the seforim, it's a little bit more, that he's machzik b'de'os, machzik b'de'os, says the seforim, which means they both live with the same hashkafos, the same tchunos, and thus he was secure that he would fight for him. Freigt ich dir, just because two Spaniards...

They're both Spanish or they're both Italian. That means that one person will give up his life for another person. There's more. What's the more in your saying? It has to do with the dayos of eiver. It's not stam kosher, but it has to do with— okay, let's move a little ahead. Rabosai, if you take a look in the Medrash, the Medrash gives us a different reason than the Sipurno why Lot— I'm sorry, why Oyg was secure in the thought that Avraham will definitely go and try to save Lot. And the Medrash is, within the Medrash where it says why Shlomo Hashem Shamayim, Oyg is coming, says the Medrash as follows: Vayavo hapalit. The palit came, and he tells Avraham— says the Medrash, why did he do this? Says the Medrash, oh, who Oyg? Who palit? Who is the palit? It's Oyg. And why was he called Oyg? Sheba u'matzas Avraham yoshev v'osek b'mitzvas ugos. He came when Avraham Avinu would be osek in the mitzvah of what? Of ugos matzos. He was baking matzos. It's k'dai, maybe it's kedaiish to tell you pshat from— I may be k'daher. Oyg is called Oyg, why? Because he popped in, poompt, exactly when Avraham Avinu was baking matzos. Could you imagine you call a guy a scrambled egg? How'd you get the name scrambled egg? A guy that was walking there, and I came and I met him, and I pulled—came in, he was cooking an egg. They call me scrambled egg. You'd laugh, right? Why is he called oig? Because he popped in on Avraham. Avraham was baking matzos, he's called oig. So, because zeh zichron livrachah, ... When Avraham baked matzos, the heart, the regesh, the kavonos that he put into those matzos left an atmosphere that was mashpia on anybody that was there. That means what? You were able to tell in oig that he was there and he saw the way Avraham baked matzos. That's the pshat. If you behave like a scrambled egg after you saw somebody baking a scrambled egg, maybe we call you scrambled egg too. But that, of course, is no shaychus, right? You don't become a scrambled egg because of that. Oig changed because he saw Avraham's baking matzos. It was mashpia on him, the svivah, the ruach, that you were able to be to'eim, you were able to taste in oig. He saw Avraham's baking matzos, and after the contact, the oig me'aleh, he was called what? Oig. Now, you know what you see from this medrash? His real name was not even Oig. His real name was what? Polit, from the time of the mabul they used to call him Polit. He started to become Oig, because people met him. Wow, you know, you're different, behaving differently. What happened to you? Because then Avraham baked matzos. Something happened. I changed. Something changed in me. Not enough to become a good person. I understand, but there was something. That's the pshat. It left the rosh. Al kaponim, says the Medrash further, Hu lo niskaven l'shem Shamayim. He didn't have a kavanah l'shem Shamayim. Ela amar Avram zeh kunyon. Avram is a copy of light. It's a carbon copy of light. Rashi brings it down that Avram and Lot looked exactly alike. V'achshav ani omer lo, nishba ben ochicha. So when I come and I tell him that his nephew was captured, what's going to happen? V'hu yeitzei l'milchamah. He'll definitely go to war. V'neherag, he'll get killed, v'ani notel es yarushaso. Rabosai, frekt the Zayde zichrono livrachah, but how could the Sipporno argue enough in the Medrash? What does the Sipporno tell me? Lo hayah yodea. He didn't know that he was related בכלל. Sipporno said that Lot, as far as Lot was concerned, is not a relative of Avram, but rather Lot, because the Ivri, the Hebrew, whatever the Sipporno says. Frekt the Zayde, it's not from the Medrash. The Medrash says clearly, clearly, that what did Lot say, what did Avram say? They look alike. So I'm going to come and I'm going to tell him, mamash, your nephew, for sure he's going to go out and fight. My grandfather says, he leaves us by a question: she'ein ha-kashya.

But I'm not very happy with one other thing. What's the shayches? What's the point that they look alike? What does that have to do with anything? Yeah, what's going on? What does the Medrash say? If the Medrash will come and tell me, guess what? What Eisav said, it's the nephew of Avraham, so let me tell him, don't say that. Zivikunim. He talks about the fact that they look alike. What's the shayches? Like, you only like your nephew if he looks just like you? Chaim looks just like his uncle. Ooh, that's why his uncle loves him. He gets special prizes for him because he looks like— that's baby stuff. It happens. Unfortunately, that happens. That's not for Avraham Avinu a gesheft. That's not— he goes to war because they look alike. What's the Medrash talking about? Peh, no, it's only one thing. What did Lot say? He looks so like his brother. He looks just like his nephew. If I call him and I tell him his nephew was captured, he'll come and— what does zivikunim have to do with anything? So there's more here. You see, I believe that this sipur is being medayek a kerech. It's not a stirah to the Medrash, but it's a diyuk from the Medrash. It's not so much the relationship; it's the zivikunim. There is some connection. There's some shayches between what? Between Lot and Avraham. Ikunim, they're doimeh. That's what the sipur means, and we will continue because we're going to get back to this point. Now, we explained. One of Rome would go and try to save Lot is nephew, his nephew. But, boys, there's a little bit of a Rashi that we have to work with. It says in the next pasuk, Vayorak es chanichav. Avram decides, Vayishma Avram. Avram heard, ki nishba achiv, which, by the way, we'll at the end of the shiur, we will speak about this nishba achiv, because l'choira it's not achiv, it's ben achiv. We'll get to it later. Vayorak es chanichav. Vayorak is a lashon of he girdled—let's say armory—you girdle yourself with armory, right? You put on the gun, the holster. Vayorak, he holstered chanichav, his chanichav. What is chanichav? What does the word mean? Come to Rashi, and Rashi tells us, what does chanichav mean? Chanichai ksiv. It's written without a yud, so it's really chanichai. Ze Eliezer shechanacho lemitzvos. It's a lashon of chinuch, and it refers to Eliezer, says Rashi, because Avram was being mechanech Eliezer lemitzvos. Now, rabosai, I have a hard time answering the following question: Does Rashi mean that he was being mechanech him throughout the years? That's what it means? When we say that Eliezer is called chanichai because he was mechanech him, that means throughout, and that's why Eliezer is referred to chanichai, which would bother me, then why say it over here? Why do you have to tell me here that Eliezer was called chanichai because Avram was mechanech him? Which leads me to say another pshat that really doesn't mean chanicho throughout the years he was mechanech him, but rather here he wants to be mechanech him l'mitzvos. Meaning, in this situation, Avraham takes Eliezer, zoch Rashi, why? L'chancho b'mitzvos. He wants to be mechanech him in the mitzvos. Again, rabosai, hear what I'm asking? I have a question. I'm not sure how to learn up this Rashi. When Rashi says chanicho refers to who? Eliezer. Why Eliezer? Because Eliezer was nischanech b'mitzvos al yedei Avraham. Now, does that mean that Avraham always was mechanech Eliezer, so he calls Eliezer chanicho? So why teach me that here? I mean, why is it—we don't refer to Eliezer anywhere else as chanicho. Is there a direct relationship between the fact that he was his talmid and the nes that happened, that he was able to fight the war by himself? So why is that to be mechanech him in mitzvos? Because if he had been mechanech him in mitzvos, he wouldn't have been supposed to have that. Not be it, not be it, because the truth is there are meforshim that learn that if you notice, he didn't take under oath from Mamre; he told him to stay home. Why did he tell him to stay home?

Because they're not on par with the nisim that happened in the war, the nisim couldn't happen if they went along. As a matter of fact, those meforshim that want to learn that hagufa is why Lot thought that Avram would lose the war. He thought that Lot, Avram would lose the war because he would take Lot under eshkol hamamrei. And of course, with this you can go a little further and say that's why it's important to know that Avram was sitting there between Aner, Eshkol, and Mamrei. You can work with this. I'd rather believe a different pshat. Many pshatim in Torah. I'm asking. I don't have time to go through. I mean, I could work your pshat back and forth from the pesukim. I've worked it through, but I'd rather move on because I want to get to a different yesod. Now. So a different place, nu. Okay, let's move on, boys, let's move on. Yeah? Yeah? Good. So you're with me? Are you all with me? What we say Chanukah, do we mean Chanukah in general, that Eliezer was what? Was the mechanech al yedei Avraham Avinu. So why over here? Why is it important to teach me here? Unless we learn that here is where he's being mechanech, and this is the mitzvah that he's being mechanech him in. Which mitzvah are we referring to? So in Brisk they learned a very interesting mahalach. When I was in yeshiva, they used to learn that it was the inyan of pidyon shvuyim over here, since it was a shavui. So there's a din of pidyon shvuyim. Shvuyim? Captured? Pidyon shvuyim. The problem in the yeshiva we used to have with this is, the Chinuch writes many places, like seif vav, that there's no din of pidyon shvuyim by goyim. Which means that one goy is not mechuyiv to be podeh another goy. Lo samod al dam re'echa, which is retzichah, that a goy is metzuveh. The lo samod al dam re'echa, which teaches me to be podeh shvuyim, that they're not mechuyav. Again, a goy is mechuyav in retzichah, meaning it's one of the sheva mitzvos Bnei Noach. One could conclude from that that the pidyon shvuyim which comes from lo samod al dam re'echa, that's from the Torah. Where do we know pidyon shvuyim from? Don't watch as your brother's blood is spilling; be podeh him. Go and redeem him. A goy is not metzuveh in that, even though he's metzuveh in retzichah. So again, in yeshivas, Brisk, you speak about, did he have a din of a Jew or a goy? Light. So if he had a din of a goy, there's no pidyon shvuyim, so what was the mitzvah then? So they say over a pshat from Reb Berel. I'll just throw it out there so this can be interesting, because, you know, today it's in style: Brisk on Chumash, the new hit. You didn't see it yet? The new Artscroll book, Brisk on Chumash, you didn't see it yet? Ah, come on. Let me just throw this out. Reb Berel used to say over like this. If you look at the beginning of the parsha, it says, Vayelech ito Lot. Avram went and Lot went with him. The next pasuk, it says, Vayikach Avram es Sarai ishto, v'es Lot ben achiv. It says, Rebberel, make up your mind. Was Vayelech ito Lot, or was Vayikach Avram es Lot? The first, second pasuk in the parsha, it says, Lech lecha, right? And he goes. Go, leave. Pasuk daled, it says like this: Vayelech Avram, he went. Vayelech ito Lot, and Lot went with him, which means Avram didn't take him. Lot had a cheshbon; he wanted to go with Avram, and we all know Chazal tell us because he wanted to get rich. Okay. Then it says, Vayikach Avram es Sarai ishto v'es Lot ben achiv. So then who did? He took him. So did he go or he took him? Says Rebberel, it's not a kasha. He became a ger. Lechatchila in hilchos geirus, you're supposed to push the guy off. So Avram אומר, Don't come with me. Vayelech ito Lot, like by Rus, he went anyway, and meileh Vayikach Avram, Avram took him. So Rebberel, he was a ger, and meileh he was a ger. What happens? There's a halacha, pidyon shvuyim. Nope. In Brisk, you know, they can't end with that; it has to go one more step further. Chazal tell us that he was chozer l'suroi, that when he went to Sdom, the pasuk says what? Vayisa Lot mikedem, mikadmon shel olam, that he went off.

So the answer, because a ger, like Shteim Shulchan Aruch, even though he's chozer l'suroi, even though once he goes back to his old things, he's still considered a ger. Of course, once you're a ger, once you're a Jew, you remain a Jew. And then they bring the famous Brisker Rav, that a ger toshav that's chozer l'suroi—you know what a ger toshav is? People live in Israel. For example, an Arab who wants to live in Israel, and he keeps the sheva mitzvos Bnei Noach, he has halacha of a ger toshav, which means he's a ger who lives among us. The halacha is that if a ger toshav is chozer l'suroi, he goes back to his old ways, he's not considered a ger anymore. So what's the difference? The difference is because his guf was not geirus, but it's a kabbalah. So once you're mekabel, and you un-mekabel, you undo your kabbalah, then you're always ger. Masha'enkein, on from Loit that took on a real geirus, says Reb Berel Soloveitchik that what? He was a real ger, so even if he went back to his old ways, he remained a ger. Meileh, it's a halacha pidyon shvuyim. Fine, this is all very nice Brisker Torah. I believe there's another pshat over here. What's the story over here that Avraham Avinu went to be podeh? I have a kasha. Ask you a kasha. Is a person mechuyav to be podeh somebody if he himself will be in sakana? Pidyon shvuyim, right? We're talking about pidyon shvuyim. Are you mechuyav to be podeh shvuyim if it's a sakana for you? This is a very big machlokes in the poskim, very big machlokes in the poskim. The Radvaz says that anybody who puts himself in a sakana to go save somebody pidyon shvuyim is a chassid shoteh. Radvaz siman nun beis in the teshuvos. Chassid shoteh. The Beis Yosef disagrees. The Beis Yosef, paskens in Shulchan Aruch, a person could put himself in a sakana to go save somebody else. Now, l'choira, in this case, Avraham Avinu put himself in a sakana to go save what? To go save Lot, if we learn that it's pidyon shvuyim. L'choira, that would be a raya that a person could put himself in a sakana to go save pidyon shvuyim. Even this Beis Yosef, if you look in Pischei Teshuva, in Yoreh Deah, even this Beis Yosef is not talking about a person who is an adam gadol, a person who is a tzaddik, a person who is ruma ma'alah compared to the person who you are redeeming. If you look at the Pischei Teshuva, he brings down that even the Beis Yosef that says you should put yourself in a sakana, but a gadol doesn't put himself in a sakana for a katan, a smaller person than him. It has to be shaveh b'shaveh. Rabosai, if so, we have a problem. How could Avraham Avinu put himself in a sakana for what? A sakana for pidyon shvuyim of Lot. Just to add to the kasha, there's another question as well. Forgetting who putting yourself in a sakana for what. For another person. What about when you're not even sure that that person could be saved? You don't even know if you can save that person. Are you mechuyiv to put yourself in a sakana? Says the Beis Yosef, as well as the Bach, as medayek in the Rambam, that even if you're going to hold that you should put yourself in a sakana to save another person pikuach nefesh, you can save. You're not sure that, but he's gone, he's free. And the lashon of the Beis Yosef is because al kol panim, you're a safek maybe he'll live and he's bound to live. So you could put yourself in a safek sakana for a vadai yeshua. And the Bach is medayek like this in the Rambam. Look in Choshen Mishpat, it's clear in the Rambam that a person could go and save if he knows for sure it will work. If he doesn't know if it's going to work, even the Beis Yosef holds you can't put yourself in a sakana. Now, rabosai, over here, was it so sure that it's going to work? Lav davka. Was it halacha of putting yourself in a sakana avron for a light? It's also a pele, it's also a kasha, right? So it's very difficult, and again, I'm rushing a little through it, I know because of the time. It's difficult to say that this is the parsha of pikuach nefesh. Now when we talk about mitzvah that Avraham was running—

What's pidyon shvuyim? Difficult. Like we said, first of all, by goyim there's no pidyon shvuyim, so you have to learn that Avram, that Lot was really a Jew with a ger, a bris keturah. Then you have to go in hilchos pidyon shvuyim how you're supposed to put yourself in a sakana. It's another shaila of he's putting himself in a sakana, and even those that hold you should put yourself in a sakana, that's only if you're the same level, but if you're bigger than the person you're running for, state pikuach nefesh, you shouldn't do it. This is an issue for itself. What was the reason that he went? Let's get to the other reason which the Netziv says, and then we'll get back to the kashas, and you'll see what I want from this whole shiur. Before I introduce to you the Netziv, let me read you a medrash. Read you a medrash. It says, Vayarak es chanichav. Vayarak es chanichav. The medrash like this: רבי יהודה בר נחמיה. רבי יהודה אומר, הן הוריקו פנים כנגד אברם. Rak is a lashon of spinning, like they spin in Avram's face. The people in the house of Avram, that Avram tried to get to go to the war, they didn't want to go. חזל tells, רבי יהודה אומר, הן הוריקו פנים כנגד אברם. Why? אמרו, they said, הן מלכים לא יכלו לעמוד בהם. The five kings couldn't survive this war. ואנו יכולים לעמוד בהם? So me, you, and a few guys, we're going to be able to win this war? They refused to go. Says the Gemara further, says the Medrash, what did he answer them? Says the Nechemya, Avram hoirik panim k'negdo. Avram spit them back in the face. Avram answered them strongly. What did he say to them? Amar, he said, Eitzei, I shall go out, ve'eipol, and I shall fall al kiddush shmo yisbarach, for kiddush Hashem. You're listening, rabosai? Listen to a Medrash. Avram tells them, Rabosai, let's go fight. And what do they answer Avraham Avinu? You gotta be kidding. I ain't going nowhere. This is crazy, right? States the Medrash, Avram rebutted. Avram answered them. What did he say to them? I'm ready to fight. I'm ready to die for kiddush Hashem. Rabosai said, what was the kiddush Hashem over here? What is the Medrash talking about? What kiddush Hashem was happening over here? I'm ready to kashya. You know, if you say pidyon shvuyim, it's a mitzvah, okay, yeah. And what's the ta'ina of the people in Avram's house? I'm not mechuyiv to give up my life for what? For pidyon shvuyim, right? What's Avram's answer? No. There's kiddush Hashem here. There's a kiddush Hashem. What do you mean by there's kiddush Hashem over here? Rabosai, let me introduce to you the Netziv's pshat in the beginning, in the first kasha that I asked you. Rechushoi, they took the rechush. Lo yizkor rechushoi ben achi Avram. Zogt the Netziv in Emek Davar, me'ir with a pshat. The emes is, they went bizdoyn. That's why if you look at the end of the pasuk, it says, V'hu yoshev bizdoyn. They didn't need to go to Sdeim. The war wasn't fought in Sdeim. The war was fought where? In the field, the battlefields. They made it their business to go to Sdeim. Says the Netziv, that's why at the end of the pasuk it says, V'hu yoshev b'Sdom. He didn't go to war, but rather he was sitting home in Sdeim. Says the Netziv, meilo what? He wasn't a captive of war. He wasn't a captive of war. So why did they take him? And the answer is, they took him, him and him alone, because he was achi ben Avram. And the war wasn't against light, to capture light, but to go against Avram Avinu. Listen good. Netziv. These are words that came out of the heilige Netziv. Listen carefully. V'hu yoshev b'Sdom. There's a reason that the pasuk starts off that he was sitting in Sdeim. We knew that Lot was in Sdeim. So why does it have to repeat it? To teach me that he wasn't part of the war. In the battlefield, you take captives. You don't come back to the city and capture somebody. What's the point of taking Lot? Bishlema you take the rechush, I understand. Bishlema you take the oichel, I understand. So why do you take this Lot?

It's not light ben Achi Avram. It's what they took. They took light, they took his rechush, and they took ben Achi Avram. It's not identifying Lot anymore, says the Netziv. It's telling me what they were taking. Their goal was to take Lot, to take all his money, and guess what? We're going to take Achi ben Avram also. They're going to get back at Avram Avinu. If you look at the Midrashim, rabosai, Nimrod had quarrels with Avram Avinu. Nimrod had a lot of stories with Avram Avinu. If you look at the Midrash, a lot of people don't know. By the way, I'm sorry, I have to apologize about one thing. When I kept on telling you pirushim, drashot, I had the work of Rav Efraim just knocking it off the map. I just want to say, the Zohar HaKadosh writes clearly there was a mitzvah pirushim. Some are machlokes if you're interested. But I'm getting back to the Netziv here. So what's the pshat? Avram Avinu and Nimrod had this big duel. It's going back years. You see, Nimrod and Avram don't get along very well. Avram believes in Hashem, and Nimrod is a kofer. Now that Nimrod won the war, guess what? Now he guts back at Avram Avinu, ben Achi Avram. You see, as a matter of fact, the Midrash says he was so happy because he thought he got Avram himself, because he looked just like Avram Avinu. If you look at the Midrash, he thought he captured Avram. He brought him home, and here about look, you caught Avram Avinu. He looked at the passport, he looked at the identification. What was it? It was ben Achi Avram. But whatever it was, it was to get back at Avram Avinu. Chazal even tell us more, that there's a long parsha with Avram Avinu. Avram Avinu used to take people in. And he used to tell him, I'll give you the food for free if you believe in Hashem. Nimrod came and he needed food. Avraham Avinu says, Hashem. So he says, sign to me that there's an Hashem and I'll get you the food for free, because Nimrod didn't have any money on him. The Midrashim say that Avraham carried a shtar with him all the time that Nimrod was maskim that there's an Hashem. So he tried to take light to capture him, to do a swap, to do a trade. You give me the shtar, I'll give you back light. This was an internal war against Avraham. This light was a direct assault on Avraham Avinu and the hashkafos of Avraham Avinu. Now, rabosai, it takes on a different meaning, the entire parashah. Vayavoi hapalit. The palit comes, and who is he talking now? And he tells Avram haIvri. You see, he's telling him pshat. When Lot was captured, he wasn't captured because of Lot. He was captured because he was an Ivri. He was captured because we're trying to get back at the fact that you're on the other side, that you're me'ever, that you're on the other side of the entire world, and they're trying to get back at you. That's pshat, Vayavoi hapalit, vayaged l'Avram haIvri. Now, when he comes to fight, what is he fighting now, Avraham Avinu? He's fighting a battle of Kiddush Hashem now. It's an entire different milchamah. You see, it's not Lot per se. It's the milchamah against the Ivri that they're trying to uproot. Now, rabosai, listen carefully. We ask the question, what right do you have to put himself in a sakanah? There's a Kesef Mishneh that says that a person has the right to give up his life for Kiddush Hashem on arkus mesani. You know what arkus mesani is? A string, a red string. What does that mean? If the goyim want the Jews to start wearing red shoelaces, when Jews wear always black shoelaces, even for that, there's yehareg v'al ya'avor. A person could go and give up his life for it. In other words, like this: if he tells you to do avodah zarah, you give up your life. If he tells you to do ... you don't give up your life for that. But when it's shmad, when they're trying to go against — the halacha is, even on a minhag, they're trying to uproot a minhag to destroy the Torah and Klal Yisrael, halacha is you give up your life, yehareg v'al ya'avor. This is what was going on in this parsha. Now, rabosai, with this, we can answer another mighty kasha. If you take a look, if you take a look, it says by — what does he say? Vayishma, he heard, ki nishba achiv, that his brother was what? His brother was captured. Now, why does it say nishba achiv? It was really—

Ben achiv. It wasn't achiv, it was ben achiv. Let me ask you a question, rabosai. Let's take a look. When they left each other, Vayipareid, right? There was a fight between Lot and Avram. It says like this: Vayivchar lo Lot, pasuk yud aleph. Everybody look at pasuk yud aleph. Vayivchar lo Lot es kol kikar haYarden. Vayisa Lot mikedem, Vayipardu. They separated. What's the lashon of the pasuk, rabosai? Ish me'al achiv. Same lashon, me'al achiv. Rabosai, let's look at Rashi. It says Rashi, when they separated each other, what does Avram say? Avram tells him that there shouldn't be a fight. Look at pasuk tes: Halo kol ha'aretz lefanecha. ... Im haשמאל va'eymina. If you go left, I'll go right. V'im hayamin va'asmila. If you go, I'll go to what? To the right. Says Rashi, B'chol asher teishev lo esrachek. It doesn't mean if you go to the west, I'll go to the east because I want to stay away from you. That means I'll always be around the corner. You'll go to the left, I'll be around there. I'll be to the right. I'll be there. See Rashi? Lo esrachek mimcha, v'eemod lecha l'magen ul'ezer. I'll always be there to watch you, to guard you, and to help you. The sof davar hutzrach. Says Rashi, in the end was— Was what he really did need. Vayishma Avram ki nishba achiv. Rashi brings our pasuk. The Eibishter is giving me a matanah. I believe there's a matanah from Shamayim, this pshat I'm going to tell you, because it's so emes, it's so beautiful. Rabosai, listen to the pshat in the pasuk. So Avram guaranteed Lot that even though we're splitting up, we'll always be vayipared ish me'al achiv. The achvah, the friendship, the brotherliness between us doesn't have to mean relationship, nephew, uncle, but it means achvah, like Jews are brothers, achvah, achdus. That will always remain between us, vayipared ish me'al achiv. And he promised him that. Mimeila, vayishma Avram — that's pshat in the pasuk. Avram heard what? Ki nishba achiv, that the ach, that he promised the achvah, he's in trouble, and I promised I'll help him. Mimeila, Vayarok es Chanichov. That, rabosai, in itself was the kiddush Hashem. What was Avram Avinu? Avram Avinu's whole avodah was chesed. His whole avodah was to do chesed. Lot was Nimrod. What the malachim tried to uproot, they tried to uproot haIvri. They tried to uproot Avram and what he stood for. Mimeila, Avram had to go and fight for what? Avram had to fight for achvah, for achdus. To show that his chesed is not some I do chesed, but a moser nefesh for the chesed. I'm going to go fight a war, and that's the kiddush Hashem that the Medrash is referring to, you see? And that's pshat: Vayavoi ha-palit, and God gave l'Avraham Ivri. V'hu yoshev. Where is he sitting? Where is Avraham Avinu sitting? Avraham is sitting under Eshkol, Mamre. What was the kesher that Avraham had with Aner, Eshkol, and Mamre? He had a kores ha-bris with them. He had a kesher with them because what? They had a relationship, pashut, because he helped them. They gave him an eitzah. There was an achvah. That's the pshat. Avraham, where was he sitting? He was sitting among Aner, Eshkol, and Mamre. Don't think these were big tzaddikim, Aner, Eshkol, and Mamre. Rabosai, don't even think Lot was such a big tzaddik. The meforshim ask for a kasha, Lot. Avraham has to go save Lot; Lot is the charasha. And you know what the teretz is? Achvah. There's a certain achvah when a person, your baal bris, meaning we're friends, we have a kesher, you overlook who and what the person is, and Avraham went to fight for this achvah. Vayishma Avram ki nishba achiv. I just want to end with one story. Just, I think this will shed light to what I'm trying to bring.

It comes out from our words that the details of the milchama, meaning, it's not so much a halachic issue, pidyon shvuyim. We can't pin down any special halacha why Avram had to get up and fight this war. It's what? It's achvah. There's a certain achvah. He promised as a brother, as an achdus, there was a kesher, I'll be there for you. There's a very nice I heard from my grandfather, zichrono tzaddik livracha. I think it's a very, very, very deep understanding in what means bein adam l'chaveiro. There was a Yid, a man in Avreich, that was running in the streets on Erev Shabbos, from store to store, doing the shopping. So the Alter from Slabodka meets him and says to him, Young man, tell me, what are you doing? He says, Rebbe, I'm running from store to store to buy for Shabbos, like the Gemara in Kiddushin says, Rav machrachei, Rav would clean the head by itself, by himself, even though he had many servants. Lichvod Shabbos he did it by himself. This Tanna would be Molech shibuta, he would make the herrings for Shabbos, from Chasidish Tanna, made herrings for Shabbos, Molech shibuta. This is what the Tannaim did. Matter of fact, they say over from the Steipler, I heard this, that someone walked into the Steipler's... It's Erev Shabbos, Rav Erev Shabbos is home, and they saw him laying on the floor making sponge. Making sponge? The guy was shocked, you know. You know what sponge is? In Eretz Yisroel, you make sponge. So squeegee for the floor, because they have drains. In Eretz Yisroel, they make sponge. What is— I have to explain what sponge? Okay, I'll explain sponge. You see, in Israel they don't have carpets. See, here we're very sophisticated: carpets, vacuum cleaners, harahein. In Israel there's no carpets. It's all marble, whatever, flat. What they do is they pour the water out, and you sit and you scrape the floor, and you spritz the water out from the mopset on whoever's walking out in the street. That you have to learn what sponge is in Eretz Yisroel. That's called sponge in Eretz Yisroel. So if you get a beautiful nice day and all of a sudden it starts to rain from Shamayim, suds and stuff, you'll know that you were lucky to get a sponge from someone's mopset. Okay, now. And he's sitting making sponges. Yes, good. What? The Gemara talks about it. The Gemara says, Tannaim would sit and do simple menial things l'kavod Shabbos by themselves. Okay? Sounds like a good answer. You'd say, you're a Gemara, you'd say, very nice, right? Alter got very angry at this young man, very angry at him. He says to him, This is why you're helping for Shabbos? Because the Gemara says so? You should want to help for Shabbos because a person should be a mensch. What are you telling me Gemara? I'm doing it because I say you're stating the Gemara. Don't even bring me Gemaras for. I need you do it because a mensch helps his wife and his mother, or whatever the case may be, for Shabbos. Don't come and give me a chesh, hamaisim mita Gemara. They're very angry. I said, what is the point of this story? The point of the story is that sometimes halachic things tell me that I'm not mechuyiv to do it. Halachically, technically, you could find and say that the halacha doesn't require this. But then there's menschlichkeit, which precedes, precedes all halachic requirements. Avraham Avinu was a baal chesed. What is chesed? Chesed is not בעל השטייט mit afton chesed. He was be'etzem a baal chesed. He was be'etzem a person that had shaychus, kirva, achvah. Mimeila, Vayishma ki nishba achiv. He goes to fight that war. Halachically to fight it, it's not pikuach nefashim. You're right, it's all not. But it's Avraham Avinu. And for Avraham Avinu to fight that war, it's to bring out what chesed is. That's the Kiddush Hashem. If Avraham wouldn't do it, it would be a chilul Shem Shamayim. So let us just one minute recap the whole thing, and this one we'll say good Shabbos, and I'll tell you why I'm telling you all this. Again, I think we answered all the kashas, pretty much. Yeah? You with me?

Let's go from the beginning. What's the first kasha? The first kasha was why it says, loit. It's called rechushoi ben achi Avram. The answer is, l'choira, according to Netziv, beautiful. It wasn't loit ben achiv. That wasn't the point. They didn't take loit, and we have to know who loit is. We knew who loit was. The Torah didn't teach me that. The Torah is teaching me what they were taking. They were taking loit. They were taking rechushoi. And you know what else they were taking? They were trying to take ben achi Avram. So it's not going back on loit's credentials and loit's ID, but rather on what they were taking. Fine. Why does it say that v'hu yoshev b'Sdom? Why is it so important to say that he was sitting in Sdom? The Netziv says, maי riddik, that what? That he wasn't part of the war. They went back for him. They went to look for a captive called loit, to get back at Avraham Avinu. This was—they're trying to fight the hatred towards Avraham Avinu. Mimeila, what does oiv do? Ahovei hapalit, vayaged l'Avram haIvri. The Siforno says what? That he was machsib b'de'osav shel Ever. There was a certain shita. He knew that Avraham Avinu was chesed. He knew that Avraham Avinu was a tzaddik, and he's going to come and fight such a war. And that's the pshat in the rest part of the pasuk when it says, v'hu yoshev. Where is Avram sitting? Elainimamrei achi Eshkol. To Avram there was achvah. Someone does him a toivah, someone has a shaychus to him, Avram stays with him. A lot of people, you do them a favor, the next day they don't know you. You know who you are. Rav Hutner, zicher tzaddik livrachah, used to always say, there's a person that passed by in the street, and he didn't say hello to him. So Rav Hutner would say, Why didn't he say hello to me? I never did him a favor. Why doesn't he say hello to me? How did he do me a favor? They didn't know who you are. But who yeshiv? Avraham. Avraham, the pshat is he had a kesher with me, we had a shaykhes. I do know you. I do. I do. I live with you. So if he had a shaykhes with Lot, and that's the pshat, Vayishma Avram ki nishba achiv. Achiv means what? His brother. There was an achvah, there was a kesher, and he promised him that he'll always keep this kesher. Im hayim lo, vayipared ish me'al achiv, that they'll always remain an achvah. Rabosai, let me tell you why I'm telling you this. Our Yidden today are shavui, are captured, in Eretz Yisrael and in Iran. Not in Iran. There are 13 Yidden that are captured in Iran. 13 Yidden. We read about it from time to time. Every now and then it's in the ated, it's in Hamodia, the picture, here, and we read the article and we go weiter. Let me tell you how this story hit home. Let me tell you how this story hit home. Me, it bothers very much. It bothers me. I live with this story. It bothers me. I even hung up a picture of these 13 Yidden on my desk in my house. It bothers me. I come, I see Iranian Yidden, I always ask them, Explain to me what happened. I want to know what went on over there. I can't understand it. Look, I have a son. He's, as they say in Hebrew, shoval. Anybody here know Hebrew? He's the type that could jump from ten-story buildings, and he thinks it's a big joke. I don't think it's a big joke, but he thinks it's a big joke. So, Baruch Hashem, he has a knack for getting stitches in the most difficult and the most worst places possible. He wants stitches on your foot, your hand, the... He always gets it right on the forehead, you know, just where the plastic surgeon can make a good buck from it, all right? I have this problem, k'seder, that he needs these stitches. I also have a problem that I'm a rebbe in a yeshiva, so insurancees don't want to pay for cosmetic surgeries. So I always try to find, does he really need it? Does he mamish need it? A few weeks ago, he needed it. There was no question about it. I called out, maybe a hera, a hint. He tells me, you know, there's a doctor in Flatbush who gratis works during the day in Borough Park. They say he knows how to make good stitches, and he won't charge you much. I'm thinking, maybe, maybe. I call up the fella. He's not home. Tells me finally he comes home.

About to share, he went to daven in a place, whatever he did, I should come to him now, ten o'clock at night, I should come. So I bring him my son. He looks at him and he goes, I'll tell you the truth, I'm not a plastic surgeon. And I suggest you to go to a plastic surgeon. So I'm like, Ah, that's it. I bedavka waited for hours to get to him till he came home. So I said, You sure? The kids just went on for 24 hours. I couldn't get a plastic surgeon. I come back to him, he only had 24 hours on stitches, only had 24 hours. I come back to him, and all of a sudden I hear him talking upstairs in his house in a language, was a dialect I thought maybe was Russian. I wasn't sure exactly what language he was talking. He comes down, so I say to him, Tell me, you're Russian? You're Bukharian? What exactly? No, he's Persian, Iranian. No, I hear Persian, Iranian. So I started asking, Tell me that. Rabosai, you know what the guy told me? One of the guys is his brother, and one of the guys is his brother-in-law, the 13 years that are sitting now in jail. One is his brother and one is his brother-in-law. He brings me the picture and he shows me which one is his brother and which one is his brother-in-law. And he tells me that he has a mother upstairs who knows from nothing. See, they take away all the papers, all the newspapers, all the radio. The mother knows from nothing. And I started to ask him, Tell me, what did these people do already? He tells me, Taminoti, believe me, these were the nicest people in the community. The one that got 13 years was a moel and a shochet who did it for free. He would do milah and shechitah in the communities for free. His brother was a Gabbai tzedakah in the beis knesses over there in Iran. That's what these, that's the fault that these people are sitting in jail for. That's what they're sitting for. So I asked him, tell me, how do you sleep at night? I would not. I can't sleep thinking about it when it's not my brother. Imagine if it's my brother. So he tells me, and I'll never forget this, when it came out of his mouth, it left such a roishem on me. I felt silly that I even asked such a question. He says to me, 'Ma ata sho'el? אנחנו מאמינים בהשם. תראה, אין לי שום ספק,' he tells me. 'I have no question. We will see nisim v'niflaot in the next few weeks. No question. I don't even have a doubt,' he tells me. He says, 'HaKadosh Baruch Hu yodea. He knows what's good and what's not good. There's nothing.' So I asked him, tell me, do they torture? He says, 'A hundred percent they torture the prisoners. They pull the hair, they pull the nails. They torture.' This is what he told me. Rabosai, not only in Persia, they took soldiers recently. Shvuyim. These are shvuyim. Now I'm not telling you we could, as achvah, to go fight for them like Avraham did, to go and show a chesed. We can't do that, but at least think about them. Think about them. Daven for them. I mean, if chas v'shalom a person had, chas v'shalom a person had his own relative in such a situation, would there be one tefillah that would go by that he wouldn't mention it? So why should it be... But if they're not closely related to us, that we shouldn't daven for. They say over there, Reb Chaim Shmulevitz said a moirdige mussar shmues when the airplane was hijacked, the Sabena Airlines. Remember, the Sabena Airlines was hijacked. A footler was on the plane. A lot of people, chashuve people, were on that plane. So Reb Chaim Shmulevitz said a shmues in the yeshiva before they started saying Tehillim. Reb Chaim was very sick, was already towards the end of his life. They wheeled him in with a wheelchair. And I asked a few people that were there, tell me, what did Reb Chaim say? Because I heard it was an unbelievable shmues. So I heard from many people the same nusach. He says the walls were shaking during the Tehillim. That was the his'orerus that went on in that beis medrash. So I said, what did Reb Chaim say? He told me Reb Chaim got up and said, Rabosai, what would be if your brother or your sister would be on that airplane? How would you daven? How would you say Tehillim? That's how you're mechuyav to say Tehillim, even if it's not your brother, even if it's not your sister, because they're a Yid. That's the way you're supposed to react to Yenem is a problem, Yenem is a matzav, especially a shavui, when someone's captive. This is the parsha that Avraham is teaching us. Rabosai, now you understand what I'm driving at. Avraham Avinu...

You was technically not mechuyiv to do what he did. Technically not mechuyiv to do what you did. Now, listen, that's why I was mearech a little bit in the halacha tonight, because I'm trying to bring out a point. Pidyon shvuyim, I'm not so sure you're mechuyiv to be moser nefesh for pidyon shvuyim, like I told you from the Rishonim. Not clear. It's really not clear. It's not clear that Lot was a Yid that you're mechuyiv for it. And even if he was a Yid with bris Torah, is zecher not mechuyiv to be moser nefesh when you're greater than the person that you're being moser nefesh for, like the Pischei Teshuva brings down. And it's only if you're guaranteed. The truth is, there's a Medrash right here that says that Avraham Avinu was guaranteed. Mishuara lo, yira nachli libo b'toch Hashem, is Avraham Avinu that he was guaranteed. He felt secure that he would win the war. So maybe that alleviates a little bit the kasha what Ra'akia put yourself in a sakana to say. Again, I don't think that's the sugya here. I don't think it's a halachic issue to go save Lot. I think that it's vayishma Avram ki nishba achiv was a reaction. It was a reaction from Avraham Avinu, a brother, shavui, my brother is captured. Not his relative, like the Sforno says, ben achiv. It wasn't so much the ben achiv, but the relativeship. It was the achvah. It was the kesher that one had to another. It's the promise that he promised him. When, Vayifred na me'al achiv, there'll always be a kesher, there'll always be an achvah, I'll always be there for you. That's what was me'orer Avraham Avinu to pick up and fight a war, a dangerous war, a big war, even if halachically you're not mechuyav. Now you understand, rabosai, what I'm trying to bring out from the entire shiur. Now you see why I went through all these details in halacha, because the key is ki ish echad, achim. I'm ach, a brother is stuck somewhere. A brother is shavui. I mean, imagine, I tried to explain this. Imagine if it was an onesh hamishpachah. Imagine if you had a soldier stuck by guerrillas in Syria, and it's your relative. You wouldn't sleep at night. So why should it be so different? It's a chayid, it's another person, it's someone else's child. To not think about it is a chisaron. It's a chisaron. The least we could do, eilu b'rechev v'eilu basusim, they're fighting in Israel wars, Baruch Hashem, we could least daven. The least we could do is daven. Shouldn't miss a tefillah. Thirteen Yidden in Eretz Yisrael, the Shmuyim, lestakel b'zeh. Ivri. This is the milchamah of Ivri. We should win the milchamah of Ivri, fighting a war against Jews in Eretz Yisrael, fighting all over the world against Jews. We should be zocheh to win the war, even on b'nes like the daled melachim against the five melachim, to be a sgulah. Just finish it off today. Ha'oros yesterday, a few questions. We said a whole shiur to explain those questions. I just want to be mosif a few points that the Rishonim say. A few nekudos to clarify, and also I want to be modeh al ha'emes, that this fine gentleman over here said a pshat, and I pushed it a little bit away, and then when I thought about it more, I thought it's a good perek, very nice teirutz, and I found a raya from the Medrash to what he said, so I'm going to speak it out to him. It says in the pasuk, it says in the pasuk, Vayikchu es Lot v'es rechusho ben achi Avram, vayelechu, v'hu yoshev b'Sdom. So we asked the question, why does it say Lot, rechusho, and then ben achi Avram? It should say Lot, ben achi Avram, and then it was called rechusho, right? Not pshat, Vayikchu es Lot v'es rechusho, and then ben achi Avram. So we said over from the Netziv yesterday that the Netziv says a pshat, that what it means is that they took, that they took Lot, they took his money, and they also took ben achi Avram. Not Lot, who was ben achi Avram; they took him because he was ben achi Avram. Okay. Now the emes is, if you look at the Rishonim, the Rishonim really ask the question, because I told you that the Tosefes Bracha says it's not a question, but you see the Rishonim are bothered by the question. Here, take a look at the Siforno himself.

The sefer says, Vayikchu es Lot ben achi Avram, hisamtzu lishbo es es Lot, mipnei shehaya ben achi Avram, sheyadu ashir. In other words, the teretz that the Netziv gives, that they took him because he was ben achi Avram, the seforno already says this pshat. I want to point out that the teretz of the Netziv is already found where? It's found in the Seforno, that they took him bedavka because he was ben achi Avram. Saying the people who captured him captured him because he was ben achi Avram. The only thing is, the Seforno says it was a money thing. We learned yesterday that they took him because they tried to go against Avram, and that's how we explained Ivri, right? Because the machamah was the neged Ivri. The Seforno says it was only because they knew how rich Avram was, vayu metzapim sheyifdehu Avram b'hon rav, and they knew that Avram would go and want to redeem him with a lot of money, pidyon shvuyim, right? Like we spoke yesterday, you see a little bit of mashma'os of pidyon shvuyim. I want to point out that in Zohar Kadosh it's brought down that Avram taka went to save Lot midin pidyon shvuyim. In other words, we spoke yesterday that it was midin pidyon shvuyim, and that's why Eliezer, he took lechancho b'mitzvos, the mitzvah of pidyon shvuyim, and then we had kashas on it, right? Our kashas was what? There is no chiyuv sakana to put yourself in a sakana for pidyon shvuyim. You see that the Seforno learned that there was pidyon shvuyim, meaning with money. When they took him originally, they took him because he was achi ben Avram, but not the way we learned exactly yesterday. We learned yesterday what? They took him because they were trying to get back at Avram, l'kanter. Likanter, he says they took him because he was achi ben Avram, but not likanter, but rather what? To get the money. They knew he was rich, and they knew that he would be paid. So in other words, what I'm trying to say from this, you see that the yesod that we said yesterday is true, that they took him not because agav אורחא they took him. They took him because he was achi ben Avram. But the only thing is, you see that he's going on a derech acher to explain why they took him because he was achi ben Avram, not because, like we said yesterday in the shiur, because ever and they tried to destroy Avram and the shitos of Avram, but rather what? Because of the mamon, because they knew he was rich and they would be paid. What? No, no, no, no. No, it answers the question why they take him. They took him because they knew that Avram was rich and they— He's not answering this nekudah. He's just saying they took achi ben Avram. Why they take— could be he's answering the Netziv also. He doesn't speak it out clearly. The point is that you see a different mahalach, that they took the davka Lot because of Avram, but not because against what? Yagdut, but because they knew that Avram had money. Now, we also spoke out a diyuk yesterday, vhu yoshev bisdom, that the Netziv explains why does it have to say vhu yoshev bisdom? It's obvious. Of course vhu yoshev bisdom. It's clear, right? So if you take a look, the Netziv says vhu yoshev bisdom is to explain to me that be'emet the milchamah was where? The milchamah was not in Sdom. It was in the battlefield, and Lot was not there. Lot was sitting in Sdom. So why'd they go back to Sdom? They went back to Sdom just to get Lot, just to get back at Avram. That's why it says vhu yoshev bisdom. I see that the Midrashim— The Medrashim say, it's another nekudah. The Medrashim say that what's the pshat, v'hu yoshev b'Sdom? It was like an onesh for Lot. V'hu yoshev b'Sdom, had he not lived in Sdom, he would have never had these problems. He would have never had the problem, right? Again, we ask the kasha: why does it have to say v'hu yoshev b'Sdom? We know where Lot was. Lot was sitting in Zohar, right? So first of all, the Aben Ezra says a me'odige chiddush. V'hu yoshev b'Sdom is not referring to Lot; it's referring to Og. V'hu, Og was yoshev b'Sdom. That's how he knew the news. The palit himself. V'hu, says the Aben Ezra, v'hu haya bayom hahu yoshev b'Sdom, peirush, ha-palit. And that's why he was called Palit. Rashi says he's called Palit. Why? Because he was niflat miDor haMabul. Says the Aben Ezra, lefi shetati, everything's beautiful. He wasn't Sdom, and he escaped Sdom. They captured Sdom; he escaped by ha-palit. And that's pshat, v'hu yoshev b'Sdom. It's going back on who? They didn't capture Sdom. Very interesting. It's a very interesting pshat, the Aben Ezra. V'hu yoshev b'Sdom is not going back on Lot. It's going back on who? On Og. And that's what it says.

Va'palit from that war. Palit means he remained. Palit means he was saved. He was a refugee. Palit is a refugee. So either he's a refugee from the Dor HaMabul, like Rav Eliezer, the refugee from Sdom, and that's very simple pshat. But— Rashi says both. Rashi says by va'avoa palit, oh, an Achanavi, an Achanavi. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Rashi brings this pshat, but he doesn't explain who Yoshev Bisdom is. Rav Eliezer's meisiv, hu yoshev Bisdom, it goes together. Hu yoshev Bisdom by va'avoa palit. You're right, Rashi brings down the second pshat. Okay, now, the Aruch HaChaim says a different pshat. Why does that say hu yoshev Bisdom? Why does it say hu yoshev Bisdom? So Aruch HaChaim says hu yoshev Bisdom means, how could you take from Avraham Avinu—what pshat? Take from Avraham Avinu, you go and capture, even today, right? You want to make a war, you don't kill the president of that country. Here, I'll give you an example. Let's say today Israel is out to get Arafat. They're not going to kill Arafat. Who are they going to kill? The people around Arafat, right? They killed the minister. They just killed the minister yesterday. Okay, now, what happens? You don't go and directly go against the melech. So says the Aruch HaChaim, what's the pshat? They went, they took the nephew of the melech, they took the nephew of Avraham Avinu. How could you do something like this? So he's saying hu yoshev Bisdom, meaning he's not anymore attached to Avraham Avinu. They looked at him, he says he's disattached from Avraham. He's sitting in Sdom, and meila, the goyim, the malachim, they said we can go and take loot. That's why it says hu yoshev Bisdom. One pshat we said for the Netziv, hu yoshev bizdon means that the— one pshat we said from the Netziv means going back on the palit. Another pshat we said over from the Netziv, hu yoshev bizdon, is to tell me that they went bedavka back from the battlefield all the way to the city just to get light. A third pshat we're saying is, hu yoshev bizdon, that's what his onesh means. The Torah is telling me, why did he have to get punished? Why did light have to go through this? Hu yoshev bizdon. Listen, don't tell you to sit in Sdom. You sit where there's fire, you'll get burnt. If he would have sat in the beis medrash, he wouldn't have had this problem. How many people, you know, they go out and big things happen, terrible things happen. You know what the answer is? Who told you to go out? You would have stayed in the beis medrash, you wouldn't have had these problems. Where there's, what they say, where there's smoke, there's fire. Where there's din, there's going to be problems. That's the way it works. Another pshat we're saying almost from the Rachaim HaKadosh. The Rachaim HaKadosh is saying, hu yoshev bizdon, so they didn't look at it like they're going directly against Avraham Avinu. They look at it now that he's now from Sdom, so we're making war against Sdom, we could take already Lot, light, even though it's bad, achi Avraham. Okay, we had another diyuk, and we asked, what's the pshat that it says, hu shochein beilnei Mamrei haEmori, achi Eshkol vachi Aner, v'heim ba'alei brit Avram? Why does it have to say that? And we ended off the shiur with this. We weren't sure what's the pshat that he's sitting in Elonei Mamrei, Aner, Eshkol. Why does it have to say this? So I see the Midrashim say pshat. The Midrashim say, Midrashim say, why does it have to say— oh, I'm sorry, the Siforno brings it down— why does it have to say that he was sitting be'Elonei Mamrei? What does that mean? The Siforno is bothered by our kasha. What's the pshat that it has to say over here that he saved? We know, when it's al kol panim, it's not נוגע over here, right? Why is it נוגע over here to tell me? So the supporter says a pshat: ופיכך עמו עימו למלחמה. It's trying to introduce to us why, למלחמה. I mean, how can you look later, Avraham says, I don't want to take anything, but I want other Eshkol and Mamre, what? They should take their share. What do you mean, their share? What do they have to do with this? So this is why he tells me, והוא יושב, בני ממרא, meaning these people were his chassidim, so to speak, and when he went to war, these are the people who went with him, and these are the people who helped him in the war. That's how the supporter learns pshat. But if you see the supporter's me'orer the kasha: why does he have to say—so what do we want to say? We want to say pshats like this. And the truth is, in the shiur in yeshiva, I didn't explain it to you 100%, but last night when I said over farakhavei, I explained it much better. I asked you a kasha: what's the pshat that Avraham Avinu went to save Lot? You go save Lot, it's a sakanah. So we said pikuach nefesh, and then we had a whole back and forth: is there a halacha of pikuach nefesh when you're in a sakanah? If you're going to be in danger, are you mechuyav to make pikuach nefesh? Back and forth, yes, no, a whole story, right?

So somebody here said a very nice thing. Someone told me, what do you mean? Avraham Avinu was so sure that he wasn't going to have any sakana because he had bitachon in Hashem. Therefore, to him, there was no problem to want to go and put himself in a sakana. You remember you told me this yesterday? So I said, because it's not halacha, right? What was bothering me with this teretz? Every person come and say the halacha of sakanat nefashot don't apply to me. Migo ma'aseh, there's halacha of sakanat nefashot. Here, for example, are you supposed to be mechalel Shabbos for sakanat nefashot? Should a person come and say, I'm a tzaddik, to me it doesn't apply? That's what I meant to ask you. You can't go against halachot with your yesodot of what? Of, I have bitachon. I mean, you have bitachon for today, for tomorrow, but lemaaseh, there's halacha. Then last night I was thinking to myself, maybe this person is right. Why was I thinking this? The Ramban tells me there's halacha that a person is mechuyav to go into a danger. The Rapo yerapeh, a person is mechuyav to go to a doctor. The thing is, says the Ramban, that a person could be on a madreiga that he says he's a baal bitachon and he doesn't go to a doctor. So you see, even though the halacha is what, that you have to go, but some people could say, I need baal bitachon and the halacha doesn't apply to me. What would be Shabbat? Maybe, yeah. I was thinking maybe, yeah. Maybe a person who is a talmid chacham and a tzaddik and everything, he could come and say, you know what, sakanas nefashot, Shabbos, to me it doesn't apply. Maybe. I saw the Medrash last night and I said, you know what, maybe he's right. Because if you take a look at the Medrash, a person comes, a person has a sakanat nefashot. Is he mechuyav to mechalel Shabbos? He's mechuyav to mechalel Shabbos. Mechuyiv, mechuyiv to mechalel Shabbos. A person who has a problem, Shabbos goes off. Could a person come and say, Li yesh bitachon Hashem will heal me and I'm not going to be mechalel Shabbos? I never saw such a thing. But I do find this nekudah by doctor. You see that you can go against the halacha of doctor. The only thing is that doesn't bother me so much. I'll tell you why. Because could be doctors only for those that don't have bitachon. Not the pshat you have to go to a doctor, and if you have bitachon, you don't have to go. That means you don't have to go to a doctor. Those that don't have bitachon, okay, they have to go to a doctor. You understand? Where does it start? It doesn't start that everybody is mechuyiv to go to a doctor and you're the case which is different. That means a person shouldn't be having to go to doctors. That means a person should have bitachon, Hashem, Hashem will heal me. Now, אנחנו קטני אמונה, right? We are weak in emunah, so therefore we have a halacha that, well, we can go to a doctor. It's different than Shabbos. By Shabbos, the halacha is you mechalel Shabbos for a choleh. Could a person say, Ani yesh li bitachon, Hashem will heal me without the doctor on Shabbos? Not that simple. I don't know, I don't know. A person comes and says, I don't take my medicine on Shabbos. I don't want medicines on Shabbos. I have bitachon, Hashem is going to help me. I don't know if you're allowed to do that. I don't know.