Lech Lecha: Avraham’s Ten Nisyonos and the Mesiras Nefesh of Everyday Life

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Parshas Lech Lecha. We begin to read and learn Avraham Avinu's life. Avraham Avinu's life could be summed up with one word: nisyonot, nisyonot, nisyonot. Tests, tests, and in Yiddish we say, weiter, and again tests. Or if you want to say it, test mit test. That's how they say it in Yiddish: one test after another test after another test. A life of difficulty. The Mishnah tells us, Asarah nisyonot nisnaseh Avraham Avinu. Ten, ten tests, major tests. Not just what we call today, Ah, I had a difficult day. Real, real, real difficulties, real tests. And the Mishnah in Perek K, in Avot, tells us, Mishnah gimmel, Ve'amad b'kulan. He passed all the tests. He passed them. Avraham Avinu's life is a life of nisyonot. I'd like to discuss. Life and the test of life. Because this is the Torah is telling us, Ma'aseh avos siman labanim. Chazal tell us that the whole Bereishis is meant to teach us. It's meant to be a mora derech on what a Jew is supposed to behave and what a Jew is supposed to live his life. So what are we supposed to learn from Avraham Avinu, starting from Lech Lecha, Vayeira, Chayei Sarah, the life of tests, and how to pass those tests? The Gemara tells us, Ein lecha adam she'ein lo yisurim. There's no such a thing as a person that does not have yisurim. There's no such thing. Every person has his chayim v'nisayon shel hachayim shelo. That's it. I want to point out something that, as a child, always bothered me. When you read about Avraham, as well as Yitzchak, as well as Yaakov, you don't get a picture from them that they were talmidei chachamim. You don't see that they were big rabbanim. We don't see that they were big yereim u'shleimim, she'amdu v'dibru sichot musar, v'arba'at haTorah. We don't see that. We learn their lives. And the difficulties they had in their lives. Chazal tell us that Avraham Avinu was a zaken v'yoshev b'yeshiva. Yitzchak, Yaakov, they sat in yeshiva. Sat and learned all day. The Gemara in Yuma, daf chaf-ches amud beis, says Avraham zaken v'yoshev b'yeshiva. The Rambam quotes it by Yaakov also, by Yitzchak. The Avos HaKedoshim sat all day in yeshiva. Yet in the Torah, there's no mention of it, that Avraham sat in a yeshiva, nothing; that Yitzchak sat in yeshiva, nothing; Yaakov, people know because shem va'ever, fourteen years, vayeitzei Yaakov, and even that, not clear in the Torah, specifically mentioned in the Torah. It's hidden, right? It's Chazal. You have to look at the Gemaras. You have to look at the Gemarot to learn and to realize that Avraham and Yitzchak and Yaakov עמדו בישיבה בהסמדה.

What do we have in the Torah? Clear daily life, and the difficulties, and the tests. The Gemara in Avodah Zarah tells us that Avraham Avinu's Masechet Avodah Zarah had 400 prakim. 400 prakim. We have a few prakim, Masechet Avodah Zarah. That's how much Gemara Avraham Avinu had on the topic of Avodah Zarah. We have a few prakim, and we walk around, Shas, Shas. Avraham Avinu sat and mechadesh, and taught, and learned so much Gemara. No mention of it. Why? As a child, I always wondered, when I try to picture what the Avot looked like. You know, whenever they make a picture for children about Avraham and Yitzchak and Yaakov, what picture do they present? Avraham Avinu going and standing, and camels, and, right? Yaakov's sheep, and the love. You ever see a picture of Avraham Avinu sitting by a Gemara? Why are you laughing? But it should have it. According to the Gemara, Avraham and Yitzchak and Yaakov was zekeinim yoshvim b'yeshiva, yeshvu v'lamdu kol hayom. Why in the Torah, no mention? And the little bit that we do know is in the Chazal, and even the Chazalim, there's no remez in the Torah for it. It's not even a remez. Is a remez anywhere that Avraham Avinu sat and learned? Where is it? There's no remez at all. It's not even merumaz baTorah. Not even a hint, a mention that Avraham Avinu sat and learned all day Torah. Yes, he did chesed all day and he dealt with people all day, but then he sat and he learned. Yes, Vayashkem Avraham baboker. Avraham davened. We learn that Avraham davened, Vayashkem Avraham baboker. Why don't you come and tell me Avraham Avinu, how he davened and all hilchos tefillah, that he was mechadesh? Start Torah should come and say, look, Avraham Avinu got up at shacharit at six o'clock in the morning. Yeah, six o'clock in the morning, not nine o'clock in the morning, six o'clock in the morning, yeah. Vayashkem. Doesn't say it. Next. Say Avraham Avinu... Doesn't say it. Vayashkem Avraham baboker. Avraham... And we deduce from this, tefillah, he prayed, he was mechadesh Shacharit. But what is clear, and what the Torah does show us clearly, his life and the tests and nisyonot she'avar. Lama? Muchach, it is clear from here that the lesson, b'ikar of the Avot, is the nisyonot hachayim that they went through, and the lessons that we have to take from it. It's important, of course, to learn, and maybe it's a davar pashut that Avraham learned. It's pashut. You know, there's a chassidic word, they call it avot. Chassidic word. How do we know that Yaakov wore a yamulke? How do we know he wore kippah? So they say, Vayetzei Yaakov miBe'er Sheva, vayelech Charanah. Ha'im haya yotzei beli kippah? Vadai hu lavash kippah. Of course he wore a yamulke. Would he walk out in the street without a yamulke? Certain things are simple. That's not a real pshat, by the way. And that the Avot wore yamulke, I don't even know. It's a good question.

About where Yamulka. And when did Yamulka start? You could talk about the halacha shiurim. Whatever it is that they sat and they learned, that's not the chiddush. What else are you going to do? What else were they going to do? Of course they sat and learned all day. Of course they davened to Hashem all day. What the chiddush is, what they're teaching, what's something that's out of the norm, that we have to learn and emulate, is their life and how they dealt with chayim b'nisyonot kashim shel hachayim. I want to show you something interesting. Lech lecha me'artzecha u'mimoladetcha. Hashem sends him, mibeit avicha, that he had to leave his home and move el ha'aretz asher ar'eka. Galut. It would seem that this was his first test. Asarah nisyonot nisnaseh Avraham Avinu. What was his first test? Lech lecha. It's a big machloket. If you look at the pirush haMishnayot laRambam on the Mishnah, where the Mishnah says, Asarah nisyonot nisnaseh Avraham Avinu, the Rambam begins that the first nisayon is Lech lecha. That's where it begins, Lech lecha. Pirkei d'Rabbi Eliezer, Chazal, Gemarot. Perek d'Rabbi Eliezer, perek chavav, אות למד א'. That the first of his ten tests was Ur Kasdim. What was Ur? Ur Kasdim. The pasuk just tells us in last week's parsha that he was born in Ur Kasdim, Ur. When you read the pasuk, the implication is it's the name of a place, Ur Kasdim. That's what Jews say. Simply, when you read it, you would say that's the name of the place. The Rishonim say, and it's a big argument between the Ibn Ezra and the Ramban, maybe it's just the name of a place, or maybe Ur is a fire. Avraham Avinu was three years old, and he was taken because he was fighting. They were saying there's no Hashem, and he was fighting. We know the story with the idols, and he broke his father's idols. And they took him and they threw him into a kivshan. They threw him into a fire. Ur. That's the Ur, the fire of Kasdim. And that actually is what the first test. I read you: כשנולד, ביקש נמרוד להורגו, ונחבא במחבוא אדם שלוש עשרה שנה. That's the first. He had to hide for 13 years. The second test of the ten, shishlichu l'Ur Kasdim, v'nitzol, and he was saved. And those are the two tests before Lech Lecha. The Rambam doesn't mention this as the tests. The Rambam mentions Lech Lecha. That's the beginning of the ten tests, perek yud aleph. That the ten tests begin with Ur Kasdim. The question is, if Ur Kasdim was such a tremendous miracle, you know, in the slichot we say, Mi shanah l'Avraham, kivshan ha'esh. Hashem answered his prayer. He saved him with a tremendous miracle. We all know the story. Fire came out, and he didn't get burnt up. Why is there no mention in the Torah of the nes of Ur Kasdim? It's unbelievable question. No mention. It's funny how we pick — in English there's an expression — pick and choose the history. Why does the Torah pick and choose? You know, we're not going to talk about Avraham Avinu learning Torah. No, we're not going to do that. We're not even going to talk about Ur Kasdim. The Rambam...

He's right. You know why it's not one of the ten tests? Because you see that the Torah didn't find it important to mention it. The Ramban already asks this for a question. The Ramban says, Devenezru asks why it's not mentioned. I'll give you a reason, says the Ramban. Says the Ramban that of course it was a tremendous miracle. We say it every day in davening. Avram hot tzeiso oto... Does it say that? ... hotzeisa oto. Ani Hashem asher hotziacha me'eretz Mitzrayim. But just like over there it was with miracles, yetziat is with miracles, so too Avram, Hashem hotzia oto. Miracles, says the Ramban, it's with miracles. Here, it doesn't say that He took him. It doesn't say lakach. I read you the Ramban. Rabosai, you want to hear the Ramban? You want to hear it? Al yiftach otcha, Rabbeinu, b'kushyotav. Rabbeinu, Devenezru has some questions and he's going to make you think, Oh, O Kasdim wasn't the first of the ten nisyonot. It wasn't from the miracles. Ki od eten lecha taam d'raya b'zeh. I'll prove it to you. Why? Aval hagoyim hahem lo hizkiru zeh b'sfarim, lefi shehem cholkim al daato. V'lo yechoshvim b'nisot shel maaseh kshafim. The problem was that the Goyim denied were kazdim. Just like in Mitzrayim, they denied Mitzias Mitzrayim in the miracles, says the Ramban. But there, the Torah was able to show you, no, it was miracles. Here, the Torah—what's it going to write, the story and what they said and it was not? You can't prove it, right? Therefore it's not mentioned. That's how the Ramban learns. Says the Ramban, U'mipnei zeh lo hizkir od hakasuv hanes hazeh. That's why it's not mentioned. Here, the question—here it's a tremendous question. Ur kazdim! Here's a nes. Vezach lefish perek d'Reb Eliezer, anisayon harishon, she'amad bo. אז למה לא מוזכר? Why is it not mentioned in the Torah? And the Torah says because the Goyim said it was maaseh k'shafim, witchcraft. U'mipnei zeh lo hizkir od hakasuv hanes hazeh. Kayotze tzarich l'hazkir divrei hachachamim alav, ka'asher hizkir divrei chartumei Mitzrayim. You have to be fair, right? Equal time. In English they call it equal time. You say this side, you gotta give the other side. V'lo nisba'aru divrei Avraham imohem, ka'asher nisba'aru divrei Moshe Rabbeinu basof. By Moshe Rabbeinu, we proved it at the end. You saw clearly that Hashem—Moshe was right. By Ur Kazdim, you can't prove it. They said it was maaseh shechafim, so you could prove the Torah doesn't mention it. So like the teretz of Ramban. Rabbeinu Yonah says, What? The Torah mentions it. Who said the Torah doesn't mention it? Says Rabbeinu Yonah, it's not mefurash baTorah. It's true. Midivrei Kabbalah, Chazal tell us, yes, ... is a davar hazeh min haTorah. There is a remez. Why? Shekodem parshas Lech lecha, me'atzmo laniskel lmaalah shnei paamim murkazim. How many times is ... mentioned? Twice. Lodia, to teach us, shebishvilo so hanisayon shamad bo, yiftach Hashem mizbarach, vevia la. So actually, last week's parsha is the reason why, bischut zeh, Lech lecha me'artzecha... So it's actually what? Mentioned. And then he brings, Ani Hashem. He brings this other pshat from the Ramban, hotziticha, mashma bderech nes, like it says, Anochi Hashem Elokecha asher hotzeisicha...

So what do we have, rabosai? It's a machlokes, it's an argument: when and what is the beginning of Asarah Nisyonos. According to one opinion, it starts with Lech Lecha. According to a different opinion, רבי אליעזר, when does it start? Ur Kasdim. Why is it not mentioned in the Torah? So the Ramban says because they couldn't prove the miracle of Ur Kasdim. Rabbeinu Yonah says it's mentioned. It says twice, Ur Kasdim, it's mentioned, Ur Kasdim, and that's Lech Lecha. Lech Lecha אל הארץ אשר אראך, בזכות Ur Kasdim. Let's come, rabosai, and discuss a different answer that I was thinking, maybe: why does the Torah not mention the nisayon of Ur Kasdim? Why does the Torah not mention the nisayon of Ur Kasdim? You know, there's a beautiful Beis Yosef, a story. The Beis Yosef prayed to Hashem that he should be zocheh to the ultimate zchut that a Jew has, and that is, l'kadesh Shem Shamayim. Every Jew lives l'kadesh Shem Shamayim. This is the ultimate. Kiddush Hashem, right? Takdishach min aritzach. You want to be mekadesh es shimcha ba'olam. That's what every Jew focuses his goal on. What is the ultimate of Kiddush Hashem? Lamut al shem HaGadol. To die al Kiddush Hashem. Many tzaddikim prayed to have the zechut to die for Kiddush Hashem. Many asked this, that they should, at the end of their life, it should be with the zechut of Kiddush Hashem Shamayim. The Beis Yosef, like I said, as many other tzaddikim prayed for this zechut, but Beis Yosef never got it. We all know that the Beis Yosef had a malach that came and taught him Torah every night. The Gra also had a malach that was willing to teach him Torah, but the Gra said, I don't want. Didn't want. Didn't like the chavrusa. Could you imagine a malach comes to you and says, How come? You want to learn with me Gemara? No, sorry, not interested in the Gemara. Don't like the chavruta. Don't like it. What's the reason? He said that he wanted Torah only through ameilut, put the work on it, to be given the Torah, to be delivered from a malach, the Gra didn't want. You know, it's interesting. Every person actually gets the entire Torah delivered to him by a malach, in the womb, in the mother's stomach. Yet he forgets that Torah. Why do you have to forget? It's not powerful. Let him come out and let him have it. What's the big deal? We all know that there's a little under the nose, there's a little, right, indentation, and that comes from the malach, and you forget the Torah. IY goyim have it. Goyim learning Torah with a malach, I don't know. Or maybe it's just that there shouldn't be a difference. If every Jew would be born with this and a goy would not be born, it would be pretty clear, and the whole world would want to become gerim, right? They would all want to become Jews. We could discuss that at a different time, okay? Whatever it is, you gain the Torah from a malach. So why is it that we have to forget that Torah? And the answer is, like the Gra, any Torah that's delivered without you working hard on it, it's not the same thing. You ask the malach teaches you the Torah, but did you work on toiling on understanding? No, you're sitting in your mother's tummy. You're being fed all the delicious food that your mother's eating. You're warm, you're comfortable. I mean, unbelievable, yeah? Gan Eden. You know, it's brought down in the Chazal.

That when Rivka had the two children in her stomach, when she passed by the makom Torah, the yeshivot, Yaakov Avinu was jumping to go out. When Esav saw that they were passing beit avodah zarah, he was jumping to get out. So the mefarshim ask a question: Why is Yaakov Avinu jumping to get out, to go to the yeshiva? He has the best yeshiva and the mother's stomach, and the best magid shiur, the malach. What's he jumping? What's he running to come to yeshiva's Beis Noson Meir, Beis El Simcha, whatever yeshiva you want to call ourselves? So there's a very famous answer, and today everybody takes credit for this answer. Yeah, it's a malach was the rebbe, but who was the chavruta? Esav. He's sitting on the same bench as Esav. He was running away from Esav to go to yeshiva. The malach wasn't the problem. The melamed was not the problem. Who was the problem? The chavruta, that's sitting on the same bench with him. My grandfather used to add to this: So why is Esav running away? Well, he's not a crazy. He's learning with a malach Torah. He's learning with a malach Torah. He needs to run to beit avodah zarah. He needs to run. What's he running? You're right, the person has taavot, he likes avodah zarah. You're learning with a malach. What, are you crazy? That's what you— You're trading in the limud, the malach, to run to Beit Avodah Zarah, hevel havalim. So my grandfather used to answer, Yaakov needs to run away from Esav. But Esav has to show the world what? He's running from me? He's running from me? No, I gotta run from him. Looks bad, right? Yaakov was saying, I can't be with this guy in the same bench, in the same yeshiva. So Esav says, What? I'm gonna run also. I'm gonna show that you're running, I'm running from you. But I would say more simpler, on both ends, Yaakov and Esav. Yaakov is running away even though the malach is teaching him because Torah b'meilut. It's not the same thing. He's being taught spoon-fed the Torah, but all of a sudden he sees the yeshiva and the ritcha deTorah, the ameilut haTorah, and his heart jumps, his ahavat haTorah, he wants to learn. Why is Esav running to Beit Avodah Zarah if he's learning to malach? And the teretz is, no, Torah bli hameilut doesn't do it. It doesn't do it, rabosai. Listen to me. Today we live in a society where they're throwing at us so much kilu'ei ra'ayot and so much tumah, hashkafah, so much. There's only one solution to it all, besides for shutting off. Besides for that, there's one solution. The Rambam says to learn Torah, she'ein arayot mitgaberet b'adam, b'lev ha'adam, ela b'mi she'panui min hachochmah. You don't learn, that's what's going to happen. You learn, it pushes away all the garbage. So people are going to say, But I learned, and it still doesn't help me. What's the answer? It's how you learn. If you learn with בלי עמלות, if you learn without delving into the Torah, not going to help you. Not going to help you. Torah b'meilus, that's what helps. Yaakov says like the Gra, Not interested. Not interested. Malach, you're teaching me? I'm going to run to yeshiva. Esav is not taken by what he learned. He's not taken by what he learned with the malach. It's still driving, his yetzer hara is driving him to go to beis avodah zarah. You'll ask me a question, so then why does the Eibishter send the malach to learn with you if you're anyway going to forget it? He's shaking his head because he wants to know. Moshe, you're good. You want to know. So why do you need—

The whole story, for to learn it, to forget it. And again, it's bli ameilut, and therefore what? So I'll give you a simple answer. Torah is so deep. Torah is so amok miniam. What does it say, the lashon of the pasuk over there? Chavah minyam. So if the malach didn't teach it to you, that you got it as you were being created, you wouldn't be able to be tofes it afterwards. In order for you to come to this world and be ameil to retrieve, you needed to have learned it to retrieve it. Otherwise, you'd never be able to be masig, masig et haTorah. Bet Yosef, obviously he felt differently, and the Bet Yosef did learn with the malach. So the Beis Yosef, when he learned with the malach, he used to call him the Magid. It was called the Magid. The malach was called the Magid. He asked him, you know, I daven always that I should be zoche to die al kiddush Hashem. How come Hashem never answered my prayer? How come I was never zoche to be a kadosh, to be killed al kiddush Hashem, to die al kiddush Hashem? And the Bet Yosef answered him—I'm sorry, the Magid answered the Bet Yosef—Shelcha gadol. What you have is even greater than one who dies al kiddush Hashem, and that is... Leave, ata chai al kiddush Hashem. Zachita, you were zoche to melamed Torah l'amo Yisrael, to write Torah that for years and years they're going to learn your Torah. Zachita l'kadeish Shem Shamayim, not b'mitah, ela b'chayim, in life. You know, Yitzchak Avinu, Akeidah was a korban. It's interesting. You know, a korban can't become not a korban, correct? And Yitzchak had special halachot of a korban. Yitzchak was not allowed to leave. Tell me, is that a real halacha in korban? A korban's not — a behemah that's kodesh is not allowed to go to Chutz Laaretz. I don't see it anywhere. Rabbi, why? So I'm asking an unbelievable question. Show me where in the Rambam does it say that a korban is not allowed to go to Chutz Laaretz. Where does it say it? I'm not — you know what, maybe I should go back to Lakewood. I'm going back to Lakewood. I'm asking. It says that Hashem said, you should — Huh? So I'm asking you a question, but the halacha, in halacha, where does it say — it's weak. You know what the pshat is, rabosai? I thought about it for a very long time. Haram miBrisk chiddesh yesod gadol. Yitzchak was not a regular korban. Tell me, was Yitzchak supposed to ever be nishchat? Never. V'ha'aleihu l'olah. He was just supposed to be put onto the mizbeach as an olah. But what's that? But olah means that it should be nishchat. And the answer is, says HaRav miBrisk, chidush. He was a special type, a unique korban. And what kind of korban was he? Korban mechayim. Korban that was going to live. He lived as a korban. A korban that has to live is a korban. Eino kedai lihyot bachutz la'aretz, because hachayim, his life had to be kodesh, so he had to be in Eretz Yisroel. Yeh Moshe. Chayim. Adam yachol lihyot korban laShem, korban mechayim, from life. To be makriv your life, there's two ways how you can be makriv your life. You can be makriv your life by giving up your life, and you can be makriv your life by living, living with sacrifice, sacrifice for Hashem. Korban mechayim.

Avraham Avinu, in Ur Kasdim, was ready to give up his life for Hashem. That's not that difficult, you know that? In one minute, a person could be in the orer. A person could be moved to give up his life for Hashem. You know what the difficult is? Is to live as a korban every day l'Hashem. That's the difficult part. Ur Kasdim is not from the asarah nisyonot, I believe. You know why? They threw him into a furnace for Hashem. All right. But to live with Hashem every day and have difficulties of life, nisayon of parnassah, rav, hunger, nisayon of banim, nisayon, one after another, nisyonot, v'nisyonot shel hachayim, shel hachai chai, yom yomi. That's nisyonot. מה שאברהם אבינו ישב ולמד, עדיין לא חידוש. תראה, מה שהוא נתן את החיים דקה אחת לקדוש ברוך הוא, זה גם לא אומר שום דבר. אבל להקריב את החיים, לך לך, הבעיות, רעב, והעיר רע בארץ, את הפרנסה. The last of the Akedah, the last one is the Akedah. What's the Akedah? להקריב את אפילו הבן שלך. אין דבר שקרוב לאדם כמו הבן שלו. U'vam zeh hayah muchan. Tell me, is the akeidah the zechus of Avraham or the zechus of Yitzchak? It's a big machlokes. It's a big question. It's a whole question. It's a whole question. Akeidas Yitzchak, l'zaro — some put in l'zaro shel Avraham and some put in l'zaro shel Yitzchak. It's a whole question. Who gets the zechus of the akeidah? What's the question? Of course it's a zechus Yitzchak. He gave up his life. And the answer is, it's easier for one minute to give up your life, but for Avraham to live that way for years to come, that he gave up his child, that's more difficult. Yeah? You hear the difference? Rabosai, life, life. You know it's very easy to come Yom Kippur by ne'ilah and to scream, Hashem Hu HaElokim, and think to yourself, I'll be a good Jew and I'll jump into learning Torah and I will do all the mitzvot. That's one second, ne'ilah, at the height of hitorerut. It's another thing every day to live that way, when you wake up every morning and it's not easy, and this is bothering you and that's bothering you and this nisayon and that nisayon and this person and that person. Lihyot chazak, lihyot omed b'nisayon. That is called Omed b'nisayon. That's called, Atah yadati ki yarei Elokim atah. Atah, atah yadati ki yarei Elokim atah. Atah yadati. What? Hashem did not know till after the Akeidah, Atah yadati ki yarei Elokim atah. What does it mean? Nifla! HaKadosh Baruch Hu, you did mashe b'lev adam. Teid'u sheb'lev ha'adam ze rak l'HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Adam balev is only for Hashem, and of course Avraham was only for Hashem, and Hashem knew that. What is nisayon? Why do we have nisyonot? Rabosai, why do we have nisyonot? Well, if Hashem knows what's in my heart, He has to test me? And the answer is, it solidifies. It tests how much, with what I have in my heart, how real is it? How strong is it? It can't be budged. Nothing could change it. There's nothing in the daily life that could, in Yiddish, also, shteren, that it should ruin it.

But it's complicated. I stand strong in my conviction to do. I'll tell you, dati, כי ירא אלוקים אתה. מה, לעמוד בניסיון ולצעוק ה' הוא האלוקים, זה לא יראת שמים, רבותיי. אני לא אומר שזה רע. I'm not telling you that's great, beautiful. But it still doesn't prove. You know what proves? Mar Cheshvan. This month is called Mar. Why is it called Mar Cheshvan? אין חגים. Back to life, back to parnassah, back to all the things that drag us down. And להיות עומד חזק, תקיף, ללמוד, להתפלל, להיות חזק ביראת שמים — זה סימן. That's a siman. That's the proof, כי אתה ידעת כי ירא אלוקים אתה. That's the proof. I want to show you something interesting. Mesilat Yesharim explains in his first perek, aleph, chovato shel adam בעולמו. Why are we here? A person at some point thinks to himself, Why am I here? Why am I here? Why am I here? Why am I here? No? You ready? Answer. Very simple. Mesilat Yesharim makes it pretty simple. Why are we here? נמצאת למדים, נמצאו למדים כי עיקר מציאות האדם בעולם הזה הוא רק לקיים מצוות. Vil avod, vil amod b'nisayon. I ask you a question. Why the Avot? Don't tell me about learning and their greatness in learning. Ikar kiyum ha'adam ba'olam hazeh zeh la'amod b'nisayon, to learn because I like to learn, I enjoy to learn, I love... Torah is beautiful. Who wants to learn? Mi lo yilmad? Ha'bayaii k'shezeh neged mashu, when it's challenged by something. Oh, let's see, let's see if you learn. Ma ze chidush? Adam yoshev v'lomed, she'ein lo baayot, ein lo dagot. Ze chidush hu mitpalel laKadosh Baruch Hu b'kavanah when nothing is bothering him. The chidush is when it's a test, when something is, you need to say it stares, it's in contrast, and you still learn and you still daven. La'amod b'nisayon, la'amod b'nisayon, zeh. And that's what we saw in the Avot, and that's why the Avot is only about life, nisyonot. I have a question. If this is the ikar, if this is what we're here for, so I have a question. So how come every morning we say, Al tevi'einu lo lidei... nu? V'lo lidei? Maybe that's what you're here for. But that's what you're here for. I don't say, I got person and pray, Hashem... Please give me that I shouldn't have the reason why I'm here. Imagine a person says to the doctor, Please do me a favor. Please take, make sure that my heart doesn't work. I mean, honestly, you came to the doctor, the heart should work. You came here to this world, l'amod b'nisayon. So you daven to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, Al tevieni lo lidei chet, v'lo lidei aveirah, v'lo lidei nisayon. So many mefarshim say, the Gemara says that a person should not ask for nisyonos. The Gemara says in Sanhedrin, daf kuf zayin amud aleph, Le'olam al yavi adam atzmo lidei nisayon. You shouldn't come and make yourself have a nisayon. I think there's a very big difference between davening that Hashem shouldn't give it to me, and asking that Hashem should give me, right? I'm not—you're right. Does it say anywhere, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, no, don't give me prush shleimah, no, don't give me nisyonot? You're right, that I hear. We don't ask. But how can we daven? How can we pray that what? Not to give me nisayon? But that's the whole...

רק לידי ניסיון. Ah, see, he knows one answer. That's the famous answer. It has to be the comma. You always have to pay attention to where the comma is. ולא לידי ניסיון, ולא לידי ביזיון. The bizayon of not being עומד בניסיון. If you're עומד בניסיון, great. But if you go in the streets of Manhattan and you're not עומד בניסיון, it's a ביזיון. Hashem ישמור. Hashem ישמור איך שאדם נראה כשהוא כמו גוי ברחוב. The problem with this is, it doesn't really fit into the words. It should have said, ולא לידי ניסיון וביזיון. It seems like it's two things. ולא לידי ניסיון, ולא לידי ביזיון. It seems like it's two things, right? So I saw Reb Chaim Kanievsky gives a beautiful teretz, beautiful teretz. Says Reb Chaim that there's two types of nisyonos. There's nisyonos which are out of the norm, פרשיות בחיים, which are difficult situations which are not normal. That we ask, לא לידי ניסיון. But on a daily basis of nisayon testing me, if I'm מקיים תורה ומצוות, זה ודאי חיובי, ולכן באנו לעולם. איזה תירוץ יפה. ה' זכינו לגור בדור כזה, שאיזה תירוץ הוא נתן. נהיה teretz. It's everything I spoke to you about. To come and say, I learned Torah, and it's easy? Somebody have to go, go stand in your mother. You know what? Go back to your mother's stomach for that. ... Shkam shama lomdim Torah. פה עולם של הפרעה, it's שמפריע. It's testing, it's challenging. Remember the word that I teach you: challenge. A challenge of everyday keeping Torah, mitzvahs. ... נסיון, ניסיון גדול. We ask Hashem, don't give us something which we can't. It's out of the... but the normal, everyday difficulties and challenges for limud haTorah, for kiyum hamitzvot, for טהרת העיניים, שמירת העיניים. That's life. That's what we're here for. We're here for that. We're here for that. So we can't ask for that. This, rabosai, I believe, is the lessons. Parnassah is normal nisyonot. All the nisyonot that Avraham Avinu went through, that's life. Life, chayim. I know you all like a nice Kabbalistic word. What's the root, the shoresh of the word chayim? Maybe it's chai, or maybe it's the two yuds in the middle. Maybe it's the Hashem that's in the chayim. Life, it fits Hashem in it. That's life. A person thinks... Chayim. You ever see a guy that does nothing all day? You know what you ask him? Vosech chayim. He's making a, Vosech chayim, vosech chayim, vosech chayim! You know what happens to that chayim? Not very happy about it. That doesn't bring very much happiness. Harotzeh lachyot, yamit atzmo. The Gemara says in Mesechta Taanis. You know, one of the most difficult things is to be able to live every day, to be inspired, b'hitorerut, b'hitlahavut, and not be miyu'ash, and not to be negative. These are big nisyonot. People think nisyonot, they have big diseases. You don't need big diseases for nisyonot. Nisyonot is daily nisyonot, daily, daily, daily. I woke up, I'm not in the mood. I meet this guy, he's mean to me. I go to this wedding, they speak lashon hara. That's a nisayon. Those are very big nisyonot, and that's what we mean by the chayim.

Nisnisyon. Rav Hutner zecher tzaddik livracha once said something very inspiring. He says all the books of the Gedolei Yisrael that they write, he does not like. He doesn't like them. Why? So some always say, because the stories are exaggerated. He didn't say that. He said something very unique. He said the storybooks show you how the tzaddik, at the end of his life, had this attribute and had that attribute, but little do they show you growing up, the nisyonot, the difficulties that they had to achieve those things. He said, does the books write about the Chofetz Chaim that when he was 20 years old, he went to a wedding of a friend, he sat at a table, and everyone was speaking lashon hara. And the Chofetz Chaim, because he was pure, said, You know what? I don't want to hear that, and he turned around and he didn't want to listen. And what do the other people at the table do? Look at him. Frummy, he's this, right? He's the antisocial. Yeah. His wife screamed at him. He came home from synagogue half hour late. What are you coming home half hour late for? Were you... Difficulties, the hisnagdut, to doing what you have to do. That's chayim. That's nisyonot hachayim. That books don't teach you. It's an unbelievable thing. We think the Chofetz Chaim was born the Chofetz Chaim, but the truth is, he was. That's the truth. Rav Avtali Trup, zecher tzaddik livracha, said about the Chofetz Chaim, a dimting him and other gedolim and tzaddikim, he was kadosh meirechem. This is what he was, kadosh meirechem. But what does kadosh meirechem mean? You think he didn't have difficulties? You think that he didn't have problems? We don't see the problems. We just see what? The end result. I'd like to give you a word of chizuk, all right? If life is about nisyonos, amad. What does the word amad b'kulam mean? What does amad b'kulam? You know what amad means? Withstood. The Sfat Emes says, amidah is always a lashon of tefillah. Al hamakom asher amad. Avraham went back to the place where he was standing. Chazal say, amad. What does amad mean? Tefillah. He went back to prayer. Amad b'kulam, he prayed. He davened to Hashem. You know how you survive yisurim, nisyonot, difficulty? You daven to Hashem. You daven to Hashem. You daven to Hashem. Amazing. A saran nisyonot nisnaseh Avraham Avinu. Reb Chaim Volozhin explains, nisnaseh Avraham Avinu. Avraham is our father, as the father of Klal Yisrael. He had these nisyonot, and he instilled in us on how to live through them as an av. He tibia. He was matbia. He put it into our genes on how to be עומד בניסיון. Reb Chaim Volozhin says it in another place. Many Yidden, many Jews, went al kiddush Hashem. They went into flames of Auschwitz and other shmad inquisition, and we don't make them into Akeidas Yitzchak like Avraham and Yitzchak. Why is Avraham and Yitzchak so special? They went on the akeidah. How many Jews on akeidah sacrificed their children? Reb Chaim Volozhin says, of course Jews are able to do it. That's because Avraham Avinu, he instilled it in Klal Yisrael. He instilled it within us. We can be עומד בניסיון. No matter how difficult it is, we're able to do it. We're able to do it because we have good genes.

You know, in English they have an expression: he, he has good genes. HaBais say, we have good genes. Avraham Avinu, Avinu, Avinu. As Avinu, he went through it, and he instilled in Klal Yisrael the kochos to be able to go through a nisayon, and what are the lessons that have to be taken from him? Vaya'amin baShem, he had emunah in Hashem. The pasuk says, a lot of emunah. Amad, Sfas Emes says, amad, tefillah, amidah, to daven to Hashem. One of the pshatim that the mefarshim explain, v'lo lidei nisayon. What's lidei? Lo lidei nisayon. Don't bring me to a nisayon. What's lidei? That I fall into the hands of the nisayon. Don't put me into the hands, that I should fall in the hands of the nisayon. I should overcome the nisayon, and not the nisayon should overcome me. And we daven to Hashem for that. That's one of the pshatim. V'lo lidei. Don't put me in the hands of the nisayon. Don't put me in the hands of the nisayon, which means it shouldn't have a grab, it shouldn't take hold of me. I should take hold of it. I should have shlita, shlita over it, and not that it should be sholet over me. And that's also tefillah. So we have here Vaya'amin, emunah. We have over here the lesson of Omed b'nisayon, tefillah. Now I'm going to teach you another lesson which I saw in the Chidah. Something beautiful, beautiful. You know, Avraham Avinu, one of his nisyonot was he had to go fight the five kings. Who told him that there was a problem, that he had to go fight, and that Lot was taken and that he went to war? Not Og. HaPalit. Og, okay, vayavo hapalit. And who—what happened? It says in the pasuk, vayavo hapalit. And what did the palit do? It says in the pasuk, he spoke to Avram haIvri, right? Here, the pasuk says like this: Vayavo hapalit. This week's parsha, vayavo hapalit. Vayaged l'Avram haIvri. First time he's called an Ivri, right here. Why is he called Ivri here? The Chidah asks this for a question. So Chazal tell us Ivri means that the whole world was on one side, and he was what? On the other side. Ivri. Ask the Chidah, but why here? Why are we being taught this here when he had to go fight what? So the Chidah is busy with the word Ivri, and he gives different terutzim, and he says, V'li nirah, he says, I have a very big chidush. What does Ivri mean? Over. How did Avram take every challenge? Ivri, that's over. Gam ze ya'avor. ... Vayavo, he came. Vayaged l'Avram. What is Avram? Ha'ivri. What does he mean, the chiddah? That ... over. But that's how he took everything. Oh, another guy takes, Oh no, not again. That's Hashem again. ... What do you want from me? What do you want from me? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's quiet. Five minutes, it's quiet. Again. ... No lados baya. Vayavo ha-palit. Nu, muzem. And then he brings a chiddush. Shamati, says the chiddah, I heard that Shlomo HaMelech had a ring, and on the ring it said, Gam ze ya'avor. Chiddah. Chiddah brings it down. Who here is dealing in diamonds? Everybody. Okay, that's a silly question in the Bucharian community. Okay. I also deal in diamonds. I deal in diamonds, and I deal in teaching diamonds. Okay. Could you tell me, you ever saw a necklace? You ever ... David.

Did you ever see a thing, gam ze ya'avor? You should do it. It's called Shleima Melech's jewelry. Do it. Do it. Open up a thing, a line of jewelry called Gam Ze Ya'avor. And it doesn't mean gam ze ya'avor that someone's going to take it off your finger and steal it. That's not what it means. So what does gam ze ya'avor mean? Says the Chida that Shleima Melech, in his wisdom, learned how to live, and that is everything is gam ze ya'avor. It's going to pass. It's going to pass. And he explains how life is just passing by us, and we all know the whole Mesilat Yesharim, prosdor. To me it sounds very depressing. Imagine you tell a guy, Don't worry about all your problems. You'll die anyway. What's the big deal? Hakol over. You think it'll work? Could you imagine if I was a psychologist and I'd open up a practice, and any guy that comes to tell me about his problems, you know what I'd tell him? Al tid'ag, machar tamut, machpat lecha. No? Hayiti matzliach kacha. Could you imagine if every guy that walks into my office and starts pouring out his heart to my... ואני אומר, אל תדאג, מחר תמות, מה אכפת לך? מה זה בסדר. I have news for you. Actually, it's an open medrash. The Orchot Lener, in Mesechet Sukkah, the last piece in the Orchot Lener, brings a medrash פלא. What's the Medrash Pliah? The Medrash Pliah is that Iyov was very, very pained by his yisurim, and he came to complain to Hashem, Borei Olam, I can't take it anymore. So what did Hashem do? He says, Come with me. Let me show you the sukkah in the backyard. What's the sukkah in the backyard? Sheva, sheva. Today the sukkah is beautiful. Today we live in a tekufah that the sukkah is even nicer than some of the rooms in the house, Baruch Hashem. But really, technically, what is a sukkah? A sukkah is sheva, sheva, seven by seven, the walls finished, three walls and a tefach, and it's good enough. And Hashem shows him this. Nitpa'es Iyov. Iyov felt great afterwards. Ha, moydik. So maybe he was thinking, Sukkos is coming, Al simchas beis hashoeva, maybe, yeah. Moshe! Matai yoshen? Ma koreh lecha? Mati sukkah? Yoshen ba-sukkah? Zeh habayis, zeh ha-sippur פה. What's the pshat? You hear the question? It's a great question. So the Rachaner says this pshat: Sukkah dira arai. Sukkah dirat arai. Hachaim zeh arai. Gam zeh ya'avor. That was the lesson Hashem was telling him. So I have a question for you. I have a question. This is the nitpa'es Iyov, gam zeh ya'avor. Al tidag, olam hazeh... הדל אבלים, קשה. קשה להבין את זה, קשה להבין את זה. רבותיי, you know what gam zeh ya'avor means? It's only there to test you. The minute that it's not שולט on you, you pass the test, and it's going to go away by itself. החיים זה לא מציאותי. המציאות זה אך תורה, ללמוד, להתפלל, לעבוד את הקדוש ברוך הוא. המפריעים, it's a mirage. You ever see what a mirage is? You think, Whoa, they look... It's not there! It's not there בכלל. בכלל not there. Not really there. It's there to test you. The minute it's not שולט, אתה שולט על זה. The minute you say, אני לא נתפעל מזה, it doesn't affect me, I'm going to do... אני אלמד, אני אתפלל, הניסיון עובר. The nisyon is going to go away by itself. It's going to go away by itself. ר' חפץ חיים lost his child, Reb Leib, he loved, Reb Leib. Reb Leib was the dayan of Radin. He passed away in the...

The Chofetz Chaim. The Chofetz Chaim, how did he respond to the death of his child? He got up in the beit knesset and he gave a clap. He ka'al ha'amud, v'amar, Yetzer hara, atah choshev she'atah tishlot alai, v'ta'akev oti milichtov et haMishnah Berurah? You think you're going to stop me from writing the Mishnah Berurah? Ha! I win, you lose. I'm going to write the Mishnah Berurah. He gained nothing. Ma atah choshev? You think you're going to... No. I will write the Mishnah Berurah. And the Chofetz Chaim said, where did I learn this from? I learned this from a mother in the times of the Spanish Inquisition. That's what the Chofetz Chaim said, that there was a sipur of a mother who lost a child in the Spanish Inquisition, and she stood on top of the child that was bleeding and was dying, and he said, Borei Olam, ad achshav hayah li ahavah laKadosh Baruch Hu, velaben sheli. I had to share the love. I had to share it between Hashem and my child. Achshav shehaben lo nimtza, kol ha'ahavah sheli eilecha, Borei Olam. מה רחבת חיים, עם אמא, אמא רגילה, אמא פשוטה, יהודייה פשוטה, simple Jewish mother, could be so strong in her emunah to accept. Not to be over, chas v'shalom, b'berirut, to not be lost, viyuash. Shalta al hamatzav, v'lo hamatzav shalat aleha. אז קל וחומר אני, שאני בן תורה, קל וחומר אני, שאני לומד תורה ומלמד תורה, ומרביץ תורה, ומגדולי ישראל, יש לי את הכוח הזה. HaKadosh Baruch Hu, אני אוהב אותך אהבה שלמה, המשנה ברורה ימשיך, ואני אכתוב את המשנה ברורה. This is what a Jew, every Jew has in himself, even לניסיונות קשים. But like I said, what are the stronger nisyonot? The daily life nisyonot are sometimes even harder. But we have the kochot, עמד בכולם, Avraham Avinu instilled in us the ability to withstand life and the difficulties of life. אתה ידעתי כי ירא אלוקים אתה, that we could be yarei Shamayim regardless of what happens. And whatever it is, גם זה יעבור. It will go away. I would like to share with you one story with this. Like this, you'll have a trick in your arsenal to fight nisyonot, which is really in the words of the Chida, of גם זה יעבור. I'm going to give you not a physical ring. But a mental ring, okay? You ready? Does everybody want to get a ring? A mental ring. This story is a mental ring to learn how to be omed b'nisayon, and not to be overtaken by all the trivial things of the day and the difficulties. Not parnasa. Yibochonu ten parnasa. Mazeh, zeh, ishah, banim, zeh ko'ev li, zeh amar alai, zeh diber alai, zeh asah li. ... Boneh, ספר סיפור. Oh, you take off your rings already. You want to make such a ring. ... Now you can wear that here, but I can't take that to Lakewood. They'll not let me wear a ring like that in Lakewood. Okay, you ready? Listen carefully to a beautiful story. There was a big rav in Europe. His name was Rav Magulis. Oy, a chacham, a rosh shelo haya mehader. He was brilliant. Not only sharp, fast, tafas maher. Babayit lo haya shum davar. He had nothing in his house, no money. It was an empty home. The best people...

Piece of furniture in the house was a vase, a fancy vase. Maybe they got it as a matanah for the wedding, a vase, a big one of these vases for the atzitz, for the plant in the house. The cleaning lady was cleaning the house, and she was clumsy, and she broke it. The wife came home. Ah, the rabbanit, she was so taken. Oy, she'd have nothing, and the only thing they had to make the house, a little furniture, was the vase. And the cleaning lady broke it. Rav Margulis, the rav, the talmid chacham, was sitting and learning, lo ichpat lo. He couldn't, he didn't even pay attention to the whole thing. So it bothered her. I think his name was Rav Zalman. Rav Zalman, what matters there? Ein lecha shum teguvah? You have no response to what happened? She goes, No, no, no, no. Tzedakah! Come on, she starts to scream and yell and holler. And the fact that he didn't say respond got her even more angry. Why don't you respond? Why don't you tell me, say something? He said, You know, you're right. I should respond. I will respond to you in six months. Come back to me in six months, I will respond. Okay. After two, three weeks of her eating herself up, Rav Zalman turns to her. It says, the vaz, huh? She turns to his wife, the vaz. She goes, Oh yeah, the vaz. Eizeh such a shlamazel, this, eizeh, the cleaning lady. Okay. A month, six weeks, he turns to her again, No, the vaz? Okay, she wasn't... Yeah, chaval al ha-vaz, vazeh... Okay. After a few months, it was forgotten. After six months, he turns to her and says, Chanaleh, tagid li, the vaz? All right, kapara, sheyeh kapara. She says, You see, ani yesh li rosh mimaher. Ani gati lekan miyad. Ma shelakach lach lachshov shisha chadashim, what took you six months to catch? I was quick in my head. Nope. She said, Tzadek, you're right. You know, look six months in advance. Yeah. He said, he went, he did, lots of tiskoret, zafilu. You won't even remember it. It's just the daily, every day, in Yiddish, shteren. It's just there to make you, lamod b'nisayon, lamod b'nisayon, taamdu b'nisayon. Al titya'ashu, hakol over, aval haTorah, sheata lo lomed, biglal zeh, that you'll never get back, and you'll always feel bad afterwards that you missed it. לעמוד, stark, לעמוד חזק, לעמוד. המידה בניסיונות, to be strong. וזה מה שאברהם אבינו מסר לבניו שיעמדו עמד בכולם. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.