Chayei Sarah: Kulan Shavin L’Tovah—Contentment, Cherishing Each Day, and the Roots of Chesed

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Shalom Aleichem, bruchim haba'im. Chayei Sarah, the parsha, the life of Sarah. Sarah's life ends, and she's nital l'kvurah. You know, Avraham Avinu and Sarah Imeinu were amudei hachesed. They were pillars of chesed. They created a yetzirah, a new creation, a home, a home of chesed. Klal Yisrael, Yidden have chesed. It's in our genes, the mesorah from our avos, the imahos. They gave us this midah of chesed. Yet we could still always work on becoming bigger and stronger in the midas hachesed, to be able to do more chesed, to go beyond our capabilities of chesed. How does one work on becoming an ish chesed, a person of chesed, a giver, to be a giver, to be a baal chesed? What is the avodah? What could one work on to bring him to be a bigger baal chesed? You know, in the parsha we find something unique about Sarah. Vayihyu chayei Sarah me'ah shanah v'esrim shanah v'sheva shanim, shnei chayei Sarah. Rashi, quoting the Medrash, already asks, what's shnei chayei Sarah? It says, Vayihyu chayei Sarah. These were the years of Sarah, 120 and 7. Shnei chayei Sarah is repetitious. Shtei sheinah, it already says, Vayihyu chayei Sarah. This is the years of Sarah. Why does it have to repeat, shnei chayei Sarah? Says Rashi, kulan shavin l'tovah. That after we enumerate the years of Sarah, we're trying to bring out the completion. Shnei, these are the years, kulan, all of them, were shavin l'tovah. They were all good. The meforshim ask, really? They were all good years? Years of nisyonos, years of difficulty, pain, struggle. Could we really say kulan shavin l'tovah? It's very easy to say about someone else's life when it's difficult, kulan shavin l'tovah. But is that the truth? Kulan shavin l'tovah? Are you allowed to say that about someone who had nisyonos? Yeah, it's all good. It's good to yahrzeit. There's a pshat, an answer from Reb Zisha of Poliye, famous teretz. He said a unique pshat in Rashi. Kulan shavin l'tovah is not Rashi or the Chazal who are telling us kulan shavin l'tovah, that she had good years, but rather kulan shavin l'tovah in her eyes. To Sarah, they were kulan shavin l'tovah. They were all good years. So you can say, altz gutte yahren, the life was good. I think what he's trying to say, pshat, that this was one of the mailos of Sarah. Just like Chayei Sarah, me'ah shanah, esrim shanah, sheva shanim, Rashi is telling us that these are all mailos. The attributes of Sarah: one hundred like twenty for chet, twenty like seven, l'yofi. And of course, yofi means ruchniyus, a spiritual yofi. So also one of her mailos is that to her, the way she lived life, her attitude to her life was, Kulan shavin l'tovah, see, all's good, even though she went through the greatest of difficulties and nisyonos. Rabbeinu Yonah enumerates one of the ten nisyonos. The Mishnah tells us, everyone knows, Asarah nisyonos nisnaseh Avraham Avinu. What exactly are the ten? So the Rishonim argue which events in the life of Avraham should be included in the ten nisyonos. Rabbeinu Yonah enumerates the tenth one to be, Batamah Sarah b'kiryas Arba.

And that Avraham Avinu had to come and obtain a makom kevurah for Sarah for a tremendous large amount of money. This was one of the asar nisyonos. Interestingly, after the Akedah. After the Akedah, which was a tremendous test of Avraham Avinu, this is also a test. And even after the test of Atah yadati ki yerei Elokim atah, that Hashem says, Now I know that you're a yarei Shamayim, he gets tested again with the test of having to buy a makom kevurah, a burial plot for Sarah, and it costed him a great amount of money, and he had to, vayimazak the Yiddish handlen, he had to beg for the place, and this was one of the asar nisyonos. Is that such a big nisayon? Avraham passed a lot of big nisyonos. How and why is this, that Avraham buys the lot, pleadingly, from Ephron, one of the asar nisyonos? Mefarshim explain, pshat, Rabbeinu Yonah: a lot of times there are big tests in life, situations that call for tremendous strength, tremendous emunah, akeidah. But then there's daily life and the difficulties of daily life, where life is hard and it's not going easy, and a person has to deal with the struggles, the daily struggles. This is one of the struggles. After the akeidah, now his wife passes away, she's nifteres, and then he has to go buy a lot, and he has to beg for it, and he has to pay a lot of money, and as the mefarshim say, Hashem promised him Eretz Yisrael; it's really his. And he still has to do all this and pay so much. He could have complained. Not complaining about life's difficulties is also a nisayon. Let me repeat that. It's a tremendous pshat. Sometimes there are nisyonos, which are obvious nisyonos. There are situations that arise in a person's life which force the person to muster koiches and emunah. But then there's the daily life and the difficulties. Do you complain, or do you accept, Kol man d'avid Rachmana l'tav avid? That's also a tremendous nisayon, how we live our life, how do we view and how do we take things in life. Do we accept, Gam zu l'tovah and Kol man d'avid Rachmana l'tav avid? So here we're learning that Sarah excelled in this. Sarah excelled in the Gam zu l'tovah and Kol man d'avid Rachmana l'tav avid. And here Avraham Avinu, in the petirah of Sarah, also has to bring out this middah. He has to engage this middah of Kol man d'avid Rachmana l'tav avid. And possibly we could say in drush that this was the tribute to Sarah. The tribute to Sarah's life, who taught Kol man d'avid Rachmana l'tav avid, was for Avram to— To exercise the midah of kulan shavin l'tovah, gam zu l'tovah, kol ma d'avid Rachmana l'tav avid in her petirah, has, so to speak, a last will and testament, a tribute to Sarah and her life. Let me repeat this because it's a verydik yesod, it's a verydik pshat. Chayei Sarah, the name of the parsha is the life of Sarah. It talks about her death. And the answer is, what is life? Life is living. It could be difficult life. It could be a life of struggle. But sigalept the day, the life, and we take it positive, and we accept it that it's good, and kol ma d'avid Rachmana l'tav avid, and that's kulan shavin l'tovah. This is the maila, the attribute, the tzidkus of Sarah Imeinu. This is what she leaves us with, that she lived her life kol ma d'avid Rachmana l'tav avid. Avraham Avinu needs to go through that midah. Avraham has to experience.

And portray and bring out that midah in her death. Here, when he has to bury her, he goes to the akeidah and his wife dies. Room for complaining, difficulty. He has to bury her. He can't find a lot. He has to beg Ephron. He has to pay a lot of money, and yet he accepts it. And this is how Rabbeinu Yonah learns is a test, and even a test after he already passed the test of the akeidah. Sefarim explain that actually it was gam zu l'tovah, kol ma d'avid Rachmana l'tav avid, that Avraham Avinu paid so much money for the akeidah. It was a good thing. At the moment, he could have viewed it as a negative, something to complain about. It's not going his way, so to speak. Yet, it's, say mefarshim, it was the greatest chesed. It was the greatest hatovah. Why? Because now that Avraham paid so much money for it, it became a talk of the world. You hear what Avraham paid for the— you heard? In all the papers, the local Canaanite times, there was a big talk. Today it would be the Washington, what do you call that, the business journal. You heard what he paid for the Empire State Building? He paid crazy amounts of money. Like I said, everybody talks about it. Like this, no one could deny it later, that it belongs to Avraham Avinu. At the moment, Avraham could have viewed it as, Wow, oh, look what I had to go through and to pay. In truth. It was the greatest chesed because no one could deny now Avram bought this for Sarah. I always like to say, he paid money. Chazal are focused on the words, oiver lasocher. Oiver means money that's oiver, passes from one socher, which means everyone takes it. I was thinking maybe oiver lasocher could also mean in the talk. It goes from the mouth of one socher to the other. It was the talk of the business, in the business community, oiver lasocher. Not that the money. The money means the price that he paid. Efsher, b'derech remez, oiver lasocher, the price he paid was oiver lasocher. Everybody schmoozed about it in the business circles, in the whole world. Everybody talked. You heard, you heard? You saw? A crazy amount of money. And that solidified and clearly to the world, Avram bought this for Sarah. A few weeks ago, I was at the Maras Hamachpeilah, and it dawned on me, besides for all the other hergeshim, to stand where Avraham Avinu and Sarah, Yitzchak, Rivka, Yaakov, it was, the outpour of emotion was very strong. But there was a part of me which intellectually I was thinking, I mean, the Arabs claim that they, their grandmother Hagar was the main wife, Yishmael is the main son. Isn't it bewildering, and mamash a tmiah atzumah. That they're not buried there. And even according to their admittance, it's Avram, Yitzchak, Yaakov, and even Bava Asa, they have over there for Esav's head, which is what Chazal tell us clearly, which means Yitzchak and his two sons are buried there. I mean, it speaks volumes that the history is Avram, who's buried next to Sarah, not next to Hagar, who's buried next to Yitzchak and not to Yishmael, that the mishpacha ha'ikar, the main wife and the main son, was Sarah and Yishmael and Yitzchak. It's almost non-deniable. When you come to a family, Beis Hakvaros, and two members of the family are not there, and two members which you claim are not the ikar are there, it pretty much speaks volumes. And could be because it became clear that Sarah was there. The parsha was Avram bought this for Sarah, and that was the greatest toivah that they can't deny later, that it wasn't for Sarah. I even spoke to the tour guide and asked him this question, and he said to me, Okay, the kashya is the Teretz. Not much that they say makes very much.

But this is one of them. You're right, you're right, it's a good ha'arah. I do want to tell you that there's a meyredike goyen, Rabbeinu HaGra, zchuso yagen aleinu, says a meyredike pshat in the pesukim, how it's merumaz in the pesukim that Avraham, together with Adam, together with Yitzchak, together with Yaakov, is buried there, including Esav. He says four times it says, Ephron tells Avraham, v'es... ukvor meisecha, kvor meisecha. Four times he says, yeah, kvor, and then you'll go and you'll bury. And the fifth time he says, v'es meischa kvor. The language is the reverse, not kvor meisecha. Four times it says kvor meisecha, and the fifth time it says v'es meischa kvor, says the goyen, almost beruach hakodesh, that the pshat of the pasuk is tzaddikim and not really meisim. Before techiyas hameisim, they're going to die so they can wake up. So really, kvor means they're buried, and the meisim come much later. So it's kvor, they're buried, and meischa, second later, years later, before techiyas hameisim. The fifth one is going on Esav. So Esav was rashaim b'chayeihem, kruyim meisim even, and definitely when they die, so it's meischa kvor. He first died and then he got buried. So almost merumaz in the words of the Torah. The, the seder of kvurah of the Maras Hamachpeilah, four families which were kvar mesecha, and the fifth, which is ve'es meischa kvor. Maridik. So you see clearly in the pesukim, like a nevuah, Maaras Hamachpeilah is unzer. Kol ma d'avid Rachmana l'tav avid is the secret of life and happiness in life. It's the yesod of every Yid. A Yid lives with the emunah of kol ma d'avid Rachmana l'tav avid. And here we're learning that we got this also birushah from Avraham and Sarah, with all their nisyonos that they lived, they lived with kol ma d'avid Rachmana. How do we work on that? It's a tremendous avodah. It takes a lot of, so it takes a lot of work. It doesn't come by itself that a person should have this middah of kol ma d'avid Rachmana l'tav avid, to be happy. I believe that the shoresh, you need to work on hishtapkus, a middah called hishtapkus. What is hishtapkus? A person to be content. When a person's content, hishtapkus, that leads the person to be able to live a life and have a view, a gishah, a mabat of kol ma d'avid Rachmana l'tav avid. And let's discuss this. Because as I told you before, it's misodei hadas of a Yid, and it's also the chochmah of life, the trick of life, is to live with kol ma d'avid Rachmana. What is hishtapkus? Let's discuss: to be content. Chofetz Chaim, zechuso yagen aleinu, zecher tzaddik livrachah, used to farteitch the Mishnah, Eizehu ashir? Hasameach b'chelko. Happy, rich, a rich person in life is someone who's sameach; he's happy b'chelko. It says, Chofetz Chaim, it doesn't say b'mah sheyesh lo. What it says is b'chelko. He's happy with his lot. It should say b'mah she... with what he has. He's happy with what he has. Says the Chofetz Chaim, sometimes a person has little to nothing. So what do you tell? He's happy with nothing? With extreme little or poverty? And the answer is chelko. He's happy this is his lot in life. A person is mistapek. He finds that this is his life, and he's content with it. He accepts it, that this is my lot in life. And that leads to osher v'simchah, or to be...

person to be rich and happy, so to speak. This is the midas hatzadikim. Tzadikim live this way. They have nothing, yet they're happy, which is different than the whole world that has and still yet very unhappy. They can have difficulties, tzadikim, that we look at it and say, Wow, what a horrible life, what a difficult life. And they look at it, What are you talking about? It's great. It's beautiful. Let me quote you a Ramban in this week's parsha about Avraham Avinu. Extremely eye-opening about the midah of histapkus, which leads to happy in every situation, kol mah d'avid Rachmana l'tav avid. The Ramban on the pasuk where Avraham passes away. We began with sorrow when she passed away. Rashi says, Kulan shavin l'tovah. She accepted all her days. See, all's good. Good to tag. They were good days. The Ramban says the same by Avraham Avinu. Pasuk says, Bereishis chof hei ches, in this week's parsha, Vayigva Avraham vayamas Avraham b'seivah tovah. Avraham passes away old age, zaken v'savea, extremely satisfied, satisfied. Says the Ramban, shera kol mashalas libo v'sava kol tovah. Anything he could have asked for, he got, and he was very happy with all the good. Says the Ramban, we find sava by many who passed away, sva yamim. The wording, the text, the expression of the pesukim always says sva together with the word yamim. Days, satisfied with the days, says the Ramban. What does that mean? Shesova nafshi b'yamim. They're satisfied with the actual day. They don't need anything to happen during that day to make them happy with the day. The day itself is the greatest kinyan. The day itself is the greatest present, life. And they don't need that the life should bring. People in the morning, they wake up, they right away looking to their phone, something, a business deal, something, and that's going to make the day that they can look forward for that day. Tzadikim, they look forward for the day, not for what's going to happen during that day. Sova. They're satisfied. It's a beautiful Ramban. Sova yamim. V'hu sipur chasdei Hashem et tzaddikim. This is the story of the tzaddik, that Hashem gives them these beautiful days, u'midah tovah, and it's actually their attribute as well, shelo yis'avu b'ma'osris, that they don't need anything extra. Different than all other people, says Ramban. Most people, ohev kesef lo yisba kesef. The more they have, the more they want. They're never happy. Ein adam meis v'chatsi ta'avaso b'yado. So when they pass away, unsatisfied, because they always want more. Yesh b'yado mana, then he's mesaveh masayim. The tzaddik is sova yamim. He's extremely happy with his days that he had, not missing anything. He's a mistapek. He's content. The day itself, the moment of life. is the greatest gift, the greatest kinyan that he has. The Ger Rebbe, Sfas Emes explains that's the pshat in the beginning of the parsha we have, right before Avram sends Eliezer to find a wife for Yitzchak, the pasuk says, V'Avraham zaken, ba bayamim, coming in the days. So it could be an expression, getting older. Coming in the days is getting older. Says Sfas Emes, ba means he comes to Shamayim with the days. His days are complete. His days are his kinyan, his accomplishment. You know, there's an expression in English, killing time. Yeah, you killed it. You're wasting time, wasting days. Avraham was ba bayamim. The days, they were full. They were complete. His kinyan was not even what he accomplished in life, but the days themselves were full days, kulan shavim l'tovah. Full life, life. It's a tremendous outlook of what...

Life, the importance and the satisfaction of a day of life. Life. Reb Zalman Obach used to say, We wish people arichas yamim v'shanim. I mean, if you live many years, you're living many days. What's yamim v'shanim? What's long days and long years? Reb Zalman used to say, A person could live long years, but his days are empty, very short days. How many people sit there, they could be eighty years old, but the whole day is empty. We wish a person arichas shanim, but not only the shanim, but the yamim. The days should be long, full, complete days. I want to tell you a nice story. My rebbi, Rav Pam, zicher tzaddik livracha, every time I bring up his memory, his fond memory, so to speak, it's a certain... I miss him. I miss the rebbi, Rav Pam. Once went to him, it was already during this time when he was sick, and I saw he was upbeat and happy. I said, Rebbe, I see you're in a good mood. So he tells me, Of course I'm in a good mood. It's a beautiful day. I'd like to describe you what the day really looked like. It was dark, and it was nasty, and it was snowing and then raining and raining and then snowing. Yet Rav Pam said, It's a beautiful day. What world was he living in? He was living in the world of Avraham and Sarah. He was living in a world of sva yomim, the day. I don't care what the day brings, the day that I'm alive, the day. It's a beautiful day, a beautiful day. The nisyonos of the avos in their days didn't hold them back from fulfilling the day. It didn't hold them back from having a complete day and a complete life. Unfortunately, us, when we have difficulties, we, for lack of a better term, forgive me, we can land a couch out of commission, the expression out of commission, hours and sometimes days, and they just go by empty. The avos utilized. They utilized every moment of every day, regardless of all the difficulties and pain and strife and struggle that they went through. Let me tell you a beautiful medrash, rabosai. Medrash Rabbah, Bereishis, nun ches gimmel. Rabbi Akiva says a shiur, and he sees the talmidim are in yeder zakn eindremlen. They're dozing off. Let me look around, let me see. No, the olam is, everyone is pretty much up, I guess we're, Baruch Hashem, everyone is fully paying attention. Anyway, so they were falling asleep, and he wants to wake them up. So he gives them a riddle, and the riddle is: Why was Esther zoyche to be shaylet, to rule over 127 medinos, Achashverosh's malucha? And the answer is because her grandmother, Sarah, was Sarah. Sarah means to rule over. She was shaylet. She ruled over 127 years of her life, our parsha. Vayihyu chayei Sarah, kuf chaf zayin shanah, me'ah shanah v'esrim shanah v'sheva shanim. She ruled. She was Sarah. The word Sarah means to rule over, to be a king, to be a queen. She was a queen over 127 years. What does that mean? And this is what he woke them up with. This was supposed to be a riddle. What's the riddle? Why is this the riddle to wake them up? Interesting question. Many learn that the shelita, that she ruled, she ruled over herself. She had full control over herself, over her eivarim, and that's what it means, Sarah. Why is he telling it to the talmidim, 127, don't waste time, right? Make sure that complete, 127, kulan shavin l'tovah, don't waste time by falling asleep during the shiur. I'd like to share with you another pshat, and maybe it is somewhat connected to the first pshat.

Pshat, maybe it's a cousin to the first pshat, so to speak. It's a pshat from Reb Nissan Alpert, zecher tzaddik livracha, zichrono livracha, Reb Nissan, Reb Pair Reb Nissan Alpert said a moirdige pshat. On who did Sarah rule? So we said the first pshat is she ruled over herself. Says Reb Nissan Alpert, she ruled over her nisyonos, and she didn't let her nisyonos rule over her. Moirdik, moirdik. She was shaylet, she was Sarah, she was a queen. What was she a queen about? She ruled. What did she rule over? The situation, and she did not let the situation rule over her. The difficulties didn't get the best of her. She got the best over the difficulty. She had it was in control. Moirdik. Kulan shavin l'tovah. To be able to take difficulty in the day and not let it drag you down, but rather to be fully active, productive through the day, through the nisyonos, through the struggles, through the difficulties. Queen. That's a king, that's a melech, shalta. She ruled, she ruled, she ruled. How does one work on the kol ma d'avid Rachmana l'tav avid? You need to be positive and not negative. You need to be content and not constantly complaining, negative. You're missing something. It's not good. Very important. Positive, positive, positive outlook. Everything is good. I need—what I need? No, I have what I need. I'd like to tell you a meyudike taytsh: kol, kol. Kol ma d'avid Rachmana l'tav avid. What is kol? Kol ma d'avid Rachmana, kol. So pashut means everything, but there's a little secret to the word kol. You know, Hashem beirach es Avraham bakol. In this week's parsha, before he sends Eliezer, the pasuk says, Hashem bein es Avraham bakol. Notice the word bakol, with everything. Rashi says bakol, according to one man d'amar, according to one opinion in Chazal, bas hayah lo l'Avraham u'shmah Bakol. He had a daughter, and the daughter's name was Bakol. I looked in the book of names—you know, there's a book of all—nobody was called Bakol. I heard of Kayla. I never heard of Bakol. Why would somebody call his daughter Bakol? I have everything, so I call her Everything? I make a good business deal, so I call her Deal? I bought a house, I'll call her Buyus? Why would you call a daughter Bakol? What is the meaning, and why the name Bakol? I've always said the pshat based on something I heard from my rebbi, Rav Pam, zichrono tzaddik livracha. Rav Pam once told me— We know that Leah calls Yehuda, Yehuda, praise, hapaam odeh es Hashem, because now I can praise Hashem. Chazal say that Leah was the first to praise Hashem. First. Really? Is that true? The avos, they never praised Hashem? Is it true that Leah was the first to praise HaKadosh Baruch Hu? Said the Rebbe Zatzal of Pam, the first to name a child, Hoda LaHashem, praise to Hashem. Of course the avos praised, but to take a child and give him that name in order that whenever—there's the reason to do it—so whenever she calls him Yehuda, she's saying, I praise Hashem. And that was a chiddush, something new, that Leah was the first to do that. So I wanted to say, could be that the bakoil is the same concept on the Kol Ma D'Rachmana L'Tav Avid, which means he took a child, he had a boy, Yitzchak, and then he got a girl. He had everything he needed. A person thinks he needs a house, and he needs to take trips, and he needs a car, and he needs—no.

A home with the children, bakol. You have everything you need. Avram saw the bracha. I have Ben Ubas. Hashem mekayem peru urvu. I have a home. And therefore he named the daughter Bakol, Ichabatz. In English, this expression, she means everything to me. She meant everything to Avram, because it was bracha me'eis Hashem. He had everything he needed. Let's talk about the word bakol. There is a certain secret. Let's use the word a secret in the word bakol. It doesn't just mean everything. It means something the way we're explaining it: I have everything. I'm content. I have bracha me'eis Hashem. Let's go a little further in the word bakol. If you notice that in benching, we already speak about this magical word bakol, this special bracha called bakol. We bench the Baal Habayis, sheHaKadosh Baruch Hu should bench him, kemo shenisbarchu avoseinu, like our forefathers, our avos were benched bakol, mikol, kol. Bakol, mikol—what is the play on words, bakol, mikol, kol? And the shtei sheini rishonim, Avraham was bakol. Hashem beirach es Avraham bakol. Yitzchak was... Vayochal... Ki koel, coming week's parasha, he ate from his koel. And Yaakov said, Vechi yesh li koel. So we bench and bless the balabayis. Sheyisbarech kemo shenisbarchu avoseinu with this bakoel, mikoel koel. Esav is the opposite. He says, Yesh li rav. Rashi quotes the Chazal, while Yaakov says, Yesh li koel. Rav means I have a lot, but I need more. Satisfaction, bakoel, is midas hatzadikim, which is what we have been speaking the whole time from the Ramban and the Rishonim, histapkus. If the man is content, that is a tzaddik. So we say that that is the midah of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. Now, bakoel, mikoel koel. The Sfas Emes points out that we find this throughout the Chumash in Bereishis, this magical term, this magical bracha called bakoel that the Avos had. By Avraham it says, Vayiten lo me'aser mikoel, that he gives Avimelech ma'aser mikoel, because what Avraham has is koel. When he gives Eliezer over all his belongings so he could write a big check to Yitzchak to entice Rivka to come after Yitzchak, so kol tuv, kol tuv adonav b'yado, kol tuv, says Sfas Emes again. We find the riches and the kinyanim of Avraham are called, his rechush is called. Keil. I would like to add, the Sfas Emes didn't point this one out, but there's another one that we could add in the beginning of the parsha, where it says that Eliezer is summoned by Avraham Avinu. Who is Eliezer? Ha'moyshel b'chol asher lo. He was a moyshel, remember? Moyshel, keil. Avraham's, his, what he, Yitzchak, and chazamlten zayn leben, his blessings were keil. Ha'moyshel b'chol asher lo. Let me read for you a Ramban that takes this bakol to a different level. What is this magical bracha bakol? It's moiradik. You see a theme, that it's by the avos, not just Avraham, but Yitzchak and Yaakov, bakol, mikol kol. We use it in benching as the bracha that we want to give the balabayis who just gave us to eat. So it's not just randomly Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, bakol. No, it's k'moishenisbarchu, that they were blessed. There was a bracha having. It's the greatest bracha to have bakol, mikol kol. And this was the bracha shenisbarchu Aviseinu, and all over.

If we find Avraham Yitzchak Yaakov's Yerusha, their kinyanim, their Yiddishkeit, farmegn, is called bakoil, while Eisav is called yesh li rav. Let me share with you a Ramban on the words of the pasuk, V'Hashem beirach es Avraham bakol. Aval acheirim chidshu b'zeh b'peirush hakasuv hazeh inyan amok. They told us a very deep concept in this V'Hashem beirach es Avraham bakol, v'darshu b'zeh sod mi'sodos haTorah, a secret, a sod mi'sodos haTorah. You hear this bakol. Yitzchak just קינאס אך, it's not a small thing, this bakol. It's not just, oh, I give you a blessing, you should have everything. No, no, no, no. It's not called everything; it's called bakol. What is bakol, this magical word, this secret? It's a secret. The Ramban calls this a sod mi'sodos haTorah, the Ramban. V'amru, and they said, bakol tirmoz al inyan gadol. It's a remez for something very big. V'hu sheyesh laKadosh Baruch Hu midah tikra kol. The Ribono Shel Olam has a midah, has an attribute called kol. Why? Mipnei shehu yesod hakol, because this attribute, as HaKadosh Baruch Hu is, yesod hakol. Very deep Ramban, rabosai. You know, sometimes we could say pashut, but then you see a Ramban like this, it's deep. It's mystical almost, that there's something that the word koil personifies, which is yesod hakoil, which the Eibishter is that yesod hakoil. U'bo ne'emar, and then he quotes a pasuk in Yeshaya, perek mem-daled, chav-daled: Anochi Hashem oseh koil. I made koil. Koil, only the Eibishter can make it. V'yamid ha-shminis miYud-gimmel midos. It's the eighth midah in the Yud-gimmel midos: Hashem, Hashem, Keil, erech apayim. One of them, the eighth one, is this koil. Which one is it? I'll later explain to you. I believe it's noitzer chesed la'alafim. Hashem creates chesed. He's able to generate tremendous chesed because of this midah, koil. Says the Ramban, midah acheres tikra bas. There's another midah which you need to add to. Sometimes you have an ingredient, and you need to add another ingredient to be able to fully take out the power of the other midah, to get the nutrients of that other midah. So what is the midah of koil? What do you add to it? You have to add bas. Netzeles mimenu u'bo hu manhig es hakoil, and through it he's able to channel this koil. Bas is the channel to the koil. Ramban, Ramban on the pasuk Chumash right here in front of us in this week's parsha. Bihi beisdin shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu, hanirmaz b'milos Hashem b'chol makom. Ramban continues with deep inyanim. Anyways, Ramban says this midah that HaKadosh Baruch Hu has, koel, which is munhag, it's channeled through bas, was given to Avram. That's pshat, VaShem beirach es Avram bakol, ki hu ish hachesed, because he was the man of chesed, vhisnaheg b'zu, and he was the one who fully, fully brought to fruition this midah. He was the one who lived this midah. Vlachein tikra gam hi koel, ki lashon ki shmi b'kirbo, my name is in him, which means Avram Avinu carried the, VHashem beirach es Avram with the midah of HaKadosh Baruch Hu of bakol. How do we simplify this Ramban pshat that we can walk away with our simple understanding, our katnus hamoichin? How do we explain this deep Ramban? And I would tell you, I think the pshat is there, pashut, can be explained in a simple way. Koel means to have everything you need. HaKadosh Baruch Hu has everything. He's not missing anything. He's shalem. And because he's shalem...

He's able to give. When someone feels he's missing, he's lacking, he can't give. They talk about this by love, for example. If you don't love yourself, you can't love others. When you're lacking something, the point is it's shefa. When you have a shefa of something, you're able to give to somebody else. The Rabbeinu Sholelem is kol, so therefore he's able, bakol, to give over further. Noitzer chesed la'alafim. There's no end to the chesed, and Avraham Avinu was meirach bakol. He had everything. Did he have everything? Probably not, but he had everything because he had the midah of everything, and therefore he was able to give away everything because he didn't need anything. See the difference? When someone is needy, he thinks, I have to. How can I give you if I need it? To be able to say, I have what I need, and therefore it's extra, I can give it to you, is the midah of chesed. We started this shiur: how does one work on the midah of chesed to be a giver? Most of the people are takers because they're needy. They're not content, and therefore they're constantly looking to have and get because they feel they don't have fully yet. They didn't fill up their cup yet, so how could I give you if I don't have a full? Hashem, beirach es Avraham bakol, and shaval, gamzul l'tovah, kol ma d'avid Rachmana l'tav avid. I'm happy. I'm content. And when I'm content, I can give. I can be a giver. You know, when we bench, something interesting, I've always thought about it. A person could eat meat and fish, the most expensive. He could eat literally the greatest meals, most expensive. At the end of the day, it's just a shahakol and a borei nefashos at the end. Yet if you eat a kezayis of bread, you have to bench. It could be a dry piece of bread which you got in the store for a nickel, and you bench. Why? Sovea, because bread makes you content. Birchas hamazon. And that's why in Birchas Hamazon we say, You gave me bread, Baal habayis, you supplied me with bread. You fed me, so you have this koach that you gave me sevia, I give you back the bracha. I give you back the bracha. Kemoshenizbarcha veiseinu bakol, mikol kol, svia, content, histapkus, I feel complete. Meiredik. Guy could eat steak after steak. It's a borei nefashos, and this steak and rib steak and that. He could eat the entire shmorgasbord of chaveisa of meats. Today there's something, if I'm not mistaken, it's called the Meat Island or a meat something, I don't know where the chaveisa. You don't even know, the Olam Haba, Hashem, you don't know, where they give you all the thousand different types of meats, aleph from the shor habar to chevesvas to the duck, okay? At the end of the day, all that is a shahakol and a borei nefashos. The tzaddik sits there with a piece of bread, kezayis, is mechuyiv in benching, to be modeh to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, all these brachos. Hafla vafela. Svia. The biggest bracha, the biggest hoda'ah to the Eibishter in return is when you're saveya. Sefardim have a nusach. I'd like to quote you the nusach of the Sefardi benching. Sefardim's nusach of benching is, Sheyevarech baal habayis b'shmo hagadol, Hashem's great name, kemo shenisbarech avoseinu b'chol mikol kol. What is shmo hagadol in the context of bakol, mikol, kol? Maybe it has to do with this Ramban. It's the Ribbono Shel Olam's name is Kol. He's oseh kol because He's yesod hakol. That's the shmo hagadol, Hashem's great name, His greatness. Let us find the Rashi. Rav Shaimberg always used to tell me this Rashi. It says, Moshe Rabbeinu begs the Ribbono Shel Olam to go into Eretz Yisroel, and what does he plead? Atah hachilosa l'haros es avdecha es gadlecha. You began, You started to show Your greatness. Please let me go into Eretz Yisroel and see more. Rashi says, What is Hashem's greatness? So if I had to say Hashem created a great world, that's what Hashem's greatness is, says Rashi, zu midas tuvcha.

This is Hashem's kindness, His giving. Hashem is a giver. Tuvcha, that's Hashem's gadlus. Why? To give means that you have everything. A small person, the smaller the person, the less he gives. The bigger the person, the more ashirus, so to speak, the more he's able to give. This is Hashem's greatness, koil, that He has everything, and therefore He is what? Meitiv lakol. Meitiv lakol. I'd like to share with you a story. It's a very deep story, and there's actually two limudim, two parts to the story, and each one for itself is a tremendous hashkafic lesson, and it speaks directly to what we spoke here today about content and to share with others. When one is content with his days, he shares with others. My bubby, tzivyu walken, olah hashalom, zichronah livrachah. I learned a lot of hashkafah from her. She grew up at the feet of the Chofetz Chaim. She was a radnah girl. Zeide, R' Moshe Lintzinsky, was the radnah Rosh Yeshiva who lived next door to the Chofetz Chaim, so many a day and many a Shabbos, the bubby was around the Chofetz Chaim. And a lot of hashkafah from that home of the Chofetz Chaim, a lot of it was directly from the mouth of the Chofetz Chaim, and a lot of it was the— The atmosphere of Radin. It was the ruach of Radin which she conveyed in everything she said and did. Had a lot of conversations with her. I was very close to her. Once asked her, Bubby, do you think about death? Are you afraid to die? Parshas Chayei Sarah, life, what is life? I asked her this question. Tachshvegin shtarben? Do you think about dying? Are you afraid of dying? And she told me, Nein, no. I don't think about it. I'm not afraid of it. So I asked her why, and she said to me, Valich vi leben. Mameila, tachshvegen shtarben, ich vil leben. The moment, life. Life, positive. Life itself is the greatest gift. Why would I think about dying? Ich vil leben. Life is precious. She was an older woman. She was in her high 80s at the time. Ich vil leben. Why should I think about dying? Which is a tremendous lesson of sva yamim, but let's hear her second reply. She left where we were talking. I was sitting at the table in the kitchen. She left and she went to where they make the food, the gas range, and she started cooking. I think it was an egg. And she was quiet, and I realized she was thinking about the question. Like I gave her food for thought, literally in the kitchen, okay? And then she turns to me, I'd say about two, three minutes later, Aharale, a muz doch shtarben. A person must pass away. Daftoch machen plats far andere zol kenen leben. The world is meant. You gotta make place for others to live. You had your time, you had your days. Great, now give others. If everyone's gonna live forever, not gonna be enough room in the world, right? Give everyone a chance. I learned a tremendous yesoid. When one is very content with their days, they're happy with the life they had, they were sovea b'yamim, you're able to share with others. Those that lived a life where they were never content, so they're always, Oh, I need more time and I need more life because I need to accomplish and to... I have to achieve more and get more and obtain more. When one is content, he's able to share. This, rabosai, I believe, is the lesson of the parsha of Chayei Sarah. How did Sarah and Avraham create a home of full giving? And the answer is because they were happy. They were content.

People who are happy, people who live kol ma d'avid Rachmana, whatever I have is good, are able to give everything away, to be openly, to be a noisen, like the Eibishter, who is noitzer chesed la'alafim. Hashem is a giver. Godlcha, Hashem's greatness, when you're great, midas tovcha, you're a giver. You're kind, you're giving. Positive, happy, content means chesed, giving, sharing. Misery is misery. I just made that one up. That's very good. Misery is misery. Happy is giving. This is the lesson of the parsha of Chayei Sarah. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.