Noach and Bereishis: Hakaras Hatov, the Root of Yiddishkeit, and the Chinuch of Gratitude

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Ready? Okay. Today, be'ezras Hashem yisbarach, we're going to talk about something which is yesodei ha-dat, the foundations of Jewish religion, one of the most important tenets of Torateinu HaKedoshah, and what the Torah wants of us as Yehudim, as Jews, the hashkafah, the way a Jew is supposed to think and feel, one of ikar sheb'ikarim. And without this, the person is far from what a Jew is supposed to be and what the Torah wants that the Jew should be, and that is to be a makir tov, hakarat hatov. I'm sure you heard many, many speeches about it, how important it is. Today, we're going to learn it through the pesukim of the Chumash. We're going to learn it in Parshas Bereishis and in Parshas Noach, this week's parsha, and we're going to learn it in Parshas Vayishlach and in Parshas Vayechi, to show you how over again and over again and over again, the Torah makes this ikar sheb'ikarim, and that without it... Adam mukrach. A person is, in Yiddish they say, opgefrekt. There's something wrong. He's missing basic, basic, basic as Adam, a person, and basic as a Yehudi, a Jew. Hakaras hatov. You have it, you're a person. You have it, you're a ben Yisrael, you're a Yehudi. You don't have it, you lack in hakaras hatov, you're a kafui tov. Not only you're not fulfilled as a Jew, you're lacking the mahut, the metziut of what every Jew is supposed to be, but you lack even ben adam. You fall lower than what a person was meant to be. Adam lo ben adam? Adam lo ben adam? There could be such a thing, adam lo ben adam. We're going to soon learn this as we begin, that the Torah seems to tell us that a person could fall lower than a person and even become a monkey. A monkey. You're looking at me, monkey? Monkey? Where did monkey come in here? You know, the goyim believe they came from monkeys. You know, the monkeys walk around saying, Please don't blame us for that. Please don't blame us for your behavior. אתם צוחקים. זה מדרש, זה חזל מפורש. What happened to the dor hamabul—I'm sorry, the dor haflagah? What happened to the dor haflagah? Human turns into monkey. Medrash, Shevet Musar explains that's why monkeys mimic person. You ever see the monkeys able to do—he does everything that a—well, not everything that I do, because I learn Torah, so I don't have the problem. But everything that the—they know how to shoot good hoops. They're very good at that. They're very good at jumping and running and—huh? You shouldn't say that? Okay. Why, says Shevet Musar? Because Adam was the origination of monkey. They think that monkey was the origination of Adam. It's the opposite. Chazal tell us that Adam was the origination of monkey, and the monkey's trying to go back to its roots. Shevet Musar says this. That's why what? It's mechakek. It does the same thing as the monkey—as the person. The monkey, it copies the person because it's trying to go back to its shoreshim. How does a person turn into a monkey? Why does a person turn into a monkey? What happened? Why was that the onesh of the dor haflaga? Why was that the onesh of the dor haflaga? From all the onshim, Hashem could do so many different—

Things to be me'aneish, to punish. Now, he brought a mabul. You're gonna say he couldn't bring a mabul again. He promised he wouldn't do a mabul again. So the dor haflaga could not be punished with mabul. Good, so be punished with something else. There's so many punishments. He has to turn into a zoo animal, a monkey. And obviously, there was a lesson, that the dor haflaga did something that made them lower than a person, that took them to an animal that looks and sounds and almost behaves like an adam. Chaser ha-ben adam. Chasera ben adam. Ata lo ben adam. Ata kof. What did they do? So we all know they did avodah zarah, right? They wanted to go up, and they wanted to build a tower, and in their warped minds, they thought they're gonna come and fight Hashem. All right. Harbeh meshugayim b'meshech hadorot shechashvu, v'hayu lahem hasagot meshugayim ka'eilu ba'avir. Okay. But what's the connection? What, adam she'oseh avodah zarah, someone who does avodah zarah, someone who rebels against Hashem, is lo ben adam? He's not a person? What did the dor haflaga do that caused an effect that they should become a kof or monkey? You hear the question? We don't find anywhere in the Torah, in the Torah, a guy does a certain aveirah... He doesn't keep Shabbat, he turns into a monkey. In magic shows, these things happen. He's able to take a stick, turn the guy into a pigeon, a monkey. But nowhere in the Torah does it say that if you do such and such, you're going to turn into a monkey. Here we find by the Dor Haflagah that they turned into a monkey. So there's got to be a reason for it. Why? Why? Was it avodah zarah? It's got to be something else. So let's delve into Dor Haflagah. Let's understand Dor Haflagah. What did Dor Haflagah do that brought out the monkey in them? Brought out the monkey in them. Chazal tell us, based on the pasuk, that the Dor Haflagah were coined a name: Bnei HaAdam. Bnei HaAdam. Bnei HaAdam. The pasuk says, Vayeired Hashem lirot, He says, to see, in this week's parashah, Parashas Noach, Bereishis Yud Aleph, pasuk hei, Vayeired Hashem lirot es ha'ir ve'es hamigdal. Hashem went to see this tower that they built. But it doesn't say asher banu, that they built. It says, asher banu Bnei HaAdam, the children of man. Says Rashi, in the name of the Chazal. The children of—wait, wait, wait—the children of monkeys, of horses, of donkeys? Well, of course. Of course they were Bnei Adam. Why does it say Bnei Adam? Let's read the Rashi together. Ela Bnei mi? Who are they children of? Of course they were Bnei Adam. Shema Bnei chamorim u'gemalim? Were they the children of chamorim, of donkeys or camels? Ela Bnei Adam ha-rishon. They were the children of Adam Harishon. Shekafah ha-tovah v'amar ha'isha shenasa'ti imadi. Afilu kafu b'tovah limrod b'mi shehishpiam tovah, u'malta min ha-mabul. Hashem saved you. Now this is 300 years from the Dor Hamaflaga to the Dor Hamabul, 300 years. So you should have known history. 300 years ago, your great-grandparents were saved. So we're rooting it back to who? To Adam, who was the great-great-great-great-grandfather. He was also kafui tov.

Because when Hashem asked him why he did the eitz hadaas, the chet eitz hadaas, who did he blame? Ha'isha asher nasata imadi. Yeah, Hashem, you gave me this wife. She did it, her fault. I gave you a ezer, I gave you a help, I gave you a wife. You're blaming her? That's a kafui tov. Grandchildren of kafui tov. So now we're starting to see that the kafui tov is what? Is the root, is the root of the sin of the dor haflaga. Because it doesn't say Bnei Adam that did avodah zarah. Just say that the people did avodah zarah. No, no, no, it's more. We're dwelling into the root of the avodah zarah. What's the root? And the answer is, the root is because they were kafui tov. Bnei ha'adam, because they were kafui tov. So meila, this is what they are being coined as. Their aveirah is not the avodah zarah, but the kefiyas hatov, which led obviously to the avodah zarah. Now how does kefiyas hatov lead to avodah zarah? Very simple. If a person appreciates Hashem, because he appreciates what Hashem does for him, someone who's modeh to HaKadosh Baruch Hu is modeh b'tovato shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu. But it's something interesting here, yeah? Because what do we have? We have over here that they did a tremendous aveirah. And yet we're rooting it to kfiyas hatov, which explains, why monkey? What's the monkey? And the answer is, Ata lo ben adam. The lesson to be taken: you could walk around eating, talking, even doing business, and have a tremendous mind to v'hatzlacha in this world. Yet the Torah says, Ata lo ben adam, ata kof, you're a monkey. You look like a person, you sound like a person, aval ata lo ben adam. There's a story that they say over. They say over a story that there was once a daughter of a prominent mayor in a town, that she went crazy and she decided that she's a chicken. She had a mishpachah, she got it on that she's a chicken. So she went to the backyard, yeah, and she took off habgadim shelah, and she stayed with the chicken, eating corn kernels like a chicken in the coop. The father, who was a prominent mayor, hitbayeh. She was so embarrassed. What happened to his daughter? Anyone who could heal my daughter, I will give hon rav, I'll give all my money, okay? There היה יהודי אחד, היה חכם פיקח. Jew was a smart guy. He says, I'm going to take care of this. Goes to the mayor. He says, Leave it to me. I'm going to take care of her. He goes to the backyard. He takes off his begadim, and he goes on all four, and he sits next to this daughter, and he starts eating the chicken food, like, and he's pecking. So she says to him, What are you doing here? He says, What do you mean, what are you doing here? I'm a chicken. He says, So, so too, I'm also a chicken. I'm a rooster, okay? And together this went on for a while. One day he turns to her and he says, Eifo katuv? Where does it say that a chicken has to be in a chicken coop outside when it's cold? Maybe it could be in a house. Maybe it could be in a house, in a warm room. Let's go inside. It's muchach. It has to be that we are outside in a chicken coop? She goes, You know, zeh ha'ayon tov. You're right. They both went in. He tells her, Who says a chicken has to be b'livgadim, b'onil bash? Who says a chicken has to sleep on the floor? He can sleep in a bed. Who says a chicken has to eat chicken kernel, chicken food? Garinim, בוא נאכל ביצים. Let's go eat.

Let's go eat bread, you know, whatever you guys like, hachmaniot, jachnun, whatever you guys eat, okay, I don't know, whatever it is, yeah. And little by little, he convinces her, and she starts to behave like a regular person. He comes to the father and he says, All right, pay up. Pay up. You see? She sleeps in a bed. She goes to work. I got her to do everything like a regular person. He goes, But what are you talking about? She still thinks she's a chicken. So he tells the father, Ma ichpat lecha? Ma shehi choshevet? Why do you care what's inside her? As long as she eats and drinks and sleeps like a regular person, she's a person. Give me money. Pay me up. Bifnim hi choshevet shehi chicken. Ma ichpat lecha? What's the problem with the story? Of course it makes a difference. Just because you walk around and you act officially like a person, and you go to work and you even sleep in a bed, ... Ma bifnim? Ma bifnim? What's inside you? Chicken. Adam shehu kafui tov, choshvim shehu ben adam. Choshvim shehu ben adam. Choshvim. Look at him. He's so honorable, respectable, big businessman. Hu kof, hu chaya, hu lo ben adam. This was the lesson. That was supposed to be taught to the dor hahaflaga, that we're supposed to take from it. But I want to go one step further, rabosai. Did you notice that they didn't just come and say that they were. The Torah doesn't just come and say that they were kfuyei tov. We're dragging Adam HaRishon into it. No? What do you have to, you know, in English there's an expression: Why are you dragging my great-grandfather into this? Why are you dragging my parents into this? Yeah? Yeah, everyone's smiling. I have to say, it's between me and you. What are you dragging my parents into this? Why is the Torah dragging Adam HaRishon into this? How did Adam HaRishon come in here? Rabosai, בוא נלמד אדם הראשון. בוא נלמד חטא עץ הדעת. Till today, we are living לתקן חטא עץ הדעת. The Saba miSlabodka, the mashgiach used to say, the Saba miSlabodka, Alter of Slabodka, used to say that he has 300 sichot to understand Adam קודם החטא. Now he's going to work hundreds of sichot to explain Adam לאחר החטא. Adam and his chet is very, very complex. החיים, היום יומיים, העולם הזה, לתקן. We're trying to be metaken. I could go and spend hours to explain to you how every story and every churban is all tied back to where? עץ הדעת. But if someone asks you, what was chet eitz hadaat? The answer is, Chazal tell us in one word, and that is, kfiyat hatov. You're right. Yecholim l'hagid sichot meleot lavin, aval b'milah achat, b'kitzur, it's kfiyat hatov. He was a kafui tov. Eitz hadaat was kafui tov. And here the dor haflaga, the dor avodas zarah, it's being tied back to where? To the kfiyat hatov of Adam Harishon. Let's talk. The kfiyat hatov of Adam Harishon. Let's talk. You notice, Adam gives a name to Chava. Chava, em kol chai. When does he give her this name? After. Why after? Tell me, could you imagine you go on a date with somebody, no name, no name, no name. After your first fight, okay, now you get a name. After the—what was till then? The minute he had the first initial contact with her, Excuse me, Chava, em kol... finish, give her a name. It's after sipur shel eitz hadaat.

The she'eilah: why? Why did he wait till after? So I heard a pshat from my rebbi, Rav Pam zecher tzaddik livracha. I believe my uncle, Reb Zalman Sorotzkin alav hashalom, laTorah says the same pshat. Adam HaRishon. Shh. Adam HaRishon could have been very angry, could have been very angry. He could have blown up and be b'kaas at Chava. She destroyed his life. You realize what she did to him? Do you have any idea what she did to him? He says, Good, she killed him. פשוט. Simply, she literally killed him. You're right. Do you realize when a guy has a bad day in business, he comes home, he blames his wife for it. You ever notice that? Even when she's not at fault. Could you imagine when she is at fault? She forgot to give a message and you lost a big business deal. You come home, you get angry, right? Adam HaRishon didn't just lose a big business deal. He lost every deal. Kods v'dardar tatzmiach. His business went south. He lost. You know what he went through, a parnassah because of his wife? Could you imagine a wife who spends on credit cards? She doesn't stop spending, and he comes back and he sees that he lost all his money. Imagine you come to the... and you see no more money in the account. You know why? The wife went and she's... Only maybe a malach could keep quiet. This is even worse than that. L'dor dorot, he got a curse. Kotz v'dardar tatzmiach. I have another question for you. When he ate from the eitz hadaas, you think she just made him a delicious dessert? You know, a nice ice cream from eitz hadaas, like a lemon—what do they call it? Lemon marmalade? What do they call it? A sherbet, a lemon sherbet. Shaila what the eitz hadaas was. Okay, lemon sherbet. Chazal, the Baal HaTurim brings it: Hinasta li min ha'etz, v'ochel. She gave me from the eitz. Why does he have to tell Hashem, Hinasta li min ha'etz? Hinasta li. She gave me. Did you eat from the eitz hadaas? Hinasta li, achalti. Why does he madgish? Why does he stress, Hinasta li min ha'etz? She gave me with a stick. She beat me up. The Medrash says she came with a stick: You better eat from the eitz! Hinasta li min ha'etz! And he was scared, I guess. And why'd she do that? The Medrash says she was afraid that if she would eat and he wouldn't eat, she'll die and he'll go marry somebody else. Could you imagine the scheme? The scheme. All right? That's the answer. So next time you're saying the shiur. After all this, he turns around and he says... Chava ashma. Ein kol chai. I see the positive. I see the good. I find the good point in her. With all that she did to me, instead of getting angry, I turn around and what do I call? Ah! Who's kedai to come for this, huh? It's just the beginning. There's plenty more to come. Hu ratzah l'hadgish. He wanted to emphasize that with all the bad that she just did, but she has a tremendous quality, a ma'alah. Ein kol chai. She's the mother of all life. She gives me children. Every time he calls her, every time he says her name, he remembers Ein kol chai. Instead of getting angry, you know, a person should learn this. He comes home, he should call his wife, my children. So every time, instead of getting angry that she burnt or she did, the mother of my children. The Gemara says that there were Tanaim that had very, very difficult wives. And the Gemara says, what did they used to say? Shemegadeles es baneinu. They bring up our children. We have to be makir tov. We have to see the positive.

This was the koach, yeah? Adam Harishon wanted to bring out the positive. He doesn't even know what I'm talking about. You know why? Because, you know, for the whole life it's a change of way of looking, that somebody could come and do something to me. And I say, you know what? I don't look at the bad. I look at the positive. Eim kol chai. And it wasn't just enough to reiterate, lachzor על זה בבדעת, במחשבה שלו. He called her that, that every time he called her name, he should remember, Eim kol chai, Eim kol chai, Eim kol chai. She's the mother, the mother of life, the positive. להכיר את הטוב ולא להסתכל על הרע, ולא להסתכל על הקלקול. You don't have to be sorry. There's nothing to add to this. This is so beautiful. It's so beautiful. What do you say, it's meirdik. That even though—ah, you're asking me to steer to the conflict. I said, wait a minute. Let's talk a minute. Let's talk a minute. So the question is, why did he do this? So I want to tell you, to understand Adam, we have to really interpret and explain another Chazal. Now, if you don't give me fresh air, air conditioning, I'm going to have to leave because I'm boiling hot. That's heat. Let me explain to you the difference between air conditioning and heat, okay? Let me explain to you the difference between air conditioning and heat. It's not— Okay, thank you very much. Ashrecha. I makir tov to you forever and ever. Now, what does Adam HaRishon answer to Hashem when Hashem comes to him, bichvodo u'v'atzmo, Borei Olam comes to him bichvodo u'v'atzmo and asks him, Hamin ha'etz asher tzivisicha l'vilti achol mimenu achalta? What does he answer? Hi nasna li min ha'etz va'ochel. No, you guys know Hebrew. When you want to speak about eating in the past tense, I ate, you say, achalti. Hi nasna li min ha'etz va'ochelti. I ate, I ate. Va'ochel is a difficult word. You know why? Because it could mean past, present, and future. Ochel, achalti. It can mean achalti. Ochel means now. Ochel means I will eat. He should have said, Hi nasna li min ha'etz, achalti, says the Medrash. Ochel v'od ochel. I'll do it again. That's what he tells Borei Olam. He'll do it again. Do you understand how HaKadosh Baruch Hu comes to him? The fear, the pachad. He was scared. He was hiding. HaKadosh Baruch Hu, bichvodo u'v'atzmo, comes to him and says to him, Because it says, Hi nasna li min ha'etz va'ochel. It doesn't say, va'achalti. So the Chazal דורש... Ochel, ochel, v'od ochel. I'll do it again. Why would he say, Do it again? How can he do it again? So Baalei Mussar explain, the Baalei Mussar say he didn't take responsibility. Could you imagine someone says you did something wrong? It's his fault. You have our people like that. No matter what they did wrong, it's the other guy's fault. Can't do teshuva. There's no way to fix it. So he'll eat again. He didn't say he'll eat again. Mimeila, mimeila, he's going to eat again. Why? Because he blamed the wife. He didn't take responsibility. I would say it different pshat, rabosai, and I think it's emes la'amito. The shoresh of the chet of Adam HaRishon was a lack of hakaras hatov. So if he came and he said that, Isha asher natata imadi, he didn't have hakaras hatov. And if you don't have hakaras hatov, what is it? Ochel v'od ochel. I'll do it again. When a person is not a makir tov b'shoresh, he will sin again and again and again and again. It was—he never said he'll do it again.

Again, the Torah was made that from his response, we know he'll do it again. Because if a person is a kafui tov, he's a kafui tov, you should know that he will sin again and again. Rooted in chet eitz hadaas, kipshuto. Of course, there's a lot of depth in chet eitz hadaas, but this is the shoresh, the simple, in one word: lack of hakaras hatov. And if you have lack of hakaras hatov, you'll do it again and again. And the tikkun, rabosai, what is the tikkun? Hakaras hatov. Hakaras hatov, that's the way to be metaken. That's the way to fix. How do you fix eitz hadaas? We're here to fix eitz hadaas. And the answer is yesod. Yesod of Yahadus is hakaras hatov. Why in the name? Let me discuss with you. Avraham Avinu had a daughter. You know he had a daughter? His daughter's name was what? Huh? You made up. You make up nice midrashim, you make up. His daughter's name was Bakol. Bakol. Hashem beirach es Avraham bakol. One man d'amar says bakol means he had everything. He had a son. And the other man d'amar says he had a daughter. Her name was Bakol. You want to explain to me why someone would call his daughter Bakol? Maybe she had... she had kol, she had all. Kol hamaalos. He was waiting for the shidduch. He wanted to make sure on her resume she's Bakol. She has everything. What kind of expression is Bakol? You know, Esav says, Yesh li. Rav. Yesh li rav. What does, what's his name say, Yaakov? Yesh li kol. I have everything. The difference is, when a person is makir tov, he has everything. Avraham Avinu was saying, Hashem, berach oti bakol. I have everything. I'm makir tov to Hashem. He named his child Bakol. So every time he called her Bakol, he was saying, Hashem, I thank You for everything. I have everything I need. Every time he called his daughter Bakol, he was saying, Borei olam, natata li hakol. You gave me everything. Others look for money and for who knows what they're looking for. I appreciate, Hashem, berach es Avraham bakol. So he called his daughter Bakol, that in the name it's hoda'ah to HaKadosh Baruch Hu that he has everything. Where did I get this from? This idea, this is my own understanding of the name Bakol and why Avraham called it Bakol. Yehuda. Yehuda. Yehuda was called Yehuda, ... odeh Hashem. Leah. Now I thank Hashem. ... odeh es Hashem. Chazal say Leah was the first to thank Hashem. First, the first person in the world to thank Hashem was Leah, because she said, ... odeh es Hashem. Question. You don't think Avraham Avinu, you don't think Yitzchak, you don't think people in the past, Adam was makir karbanot. Noach was—everyone thanked Hashem. What are you talking about? What did Chazal mean that Leah was the first? My rebbi, Rav Pam, zecher tzaddik livracha, told me a me'oirdike pshat. She was the first one to name a child Odeh Hashem. It's one thing to thank Hashem. It's another to name a child that every time you say his name, you're bringing out, I remember the praise, the thanks, the thank that I owe Hashem, the thanks that I owe Hashem. She was the first one, you hear, to understand odeh and to name a child, Hapam Odeh Hashem. I want to show you something interesting. Yehuda had a very interesting characteristic. What was the ma'alah of Yehuda? The Medrash says that because Leah, she took pelach hodiyah, she took the root of praising Hashem, zachah, she was zocheh that her children had the ma'alah that they were modeh laHaKadosh Baruch Hu. And who are they? Yehuda.

Tamar, what does Yehuda, it says, Tzadkah mimeni. He said, It was me, right? By Tamar, he was modeh that it was her, right? Right? It was modeh that it was me. David HaMelech, what did David HaMelech say? David HaMelech said, right, Odeh laShem. He praised Hashem constantly. This was the children of, the children of Leah, okay. Now, because the mother said, Hapaam odeh es Hashem, that's how and why the child and the grandchildren—what is the connection? It seems like because Leah did this, it became what? A midah in the children. The Medrash continues and says that Rachel took pelach shel shtikah, quiet, huh? Quiet. When the story with Leah, she never said anything, right? She didn't give out the simanim and the whole story. She didn't tell Yaakov that Leah was the—so she took shtikah. And because of that zechah, that Binyamin was a shotek. Binyamin knew that Yosef was sold. Binyamin knew his brother was—he never said a word. Do you know what the stone on the choshen that Binyamin is? What stone is he? Yashpeh. That's the stone that Binyamin is, yashpeh. Chazal say, Yesh peh. Why yesh peh? He kept quiet. Shatak, like Rachel when she was shatak when they were giving the sister as a wife to her husband, Yaakov. She kept quiet. Yesh peh. Also Binyamin kept quiet all the years, never told Yaakov what happened to Yosef. The question is, yesh peh seems to say the opposite. It should say ein peh. The name of the stone should have been ein peh, not yashpeh, avnei yashpeh. And the answer is, because when a person has nothing to say, doesn't talk, that's not a maalah. The maalah is yesh peh. He has what to say and he doesn't say it. Yesh peh, yesh peh. He has... He's quiet. He had what to say. Yesh peh. He had a lot to say, and he still kept quiet. See, my son is going like this. Yes, it's beautiful. You know what a shatkan is? They say the Chazon Ish was a shatkan. He was very quiet. Huh? You think the Chazonish had nothing to say? The whole world stood on his psak halachos. He hardly ever spoke, the Chazonish. People who have what to say don't say. It's usually those that have nothing to say that don't stop talking. But that's a shmooze, a sichah for a different time. But what do we see from here? That it's a midah. That just like the midah, the Chazonish used to say that he's very quiet. It's a mishpacha fellow, which means it's a trait of my family. It's a family trait. Shtika is a trait. It's a midah. How about hakaras hatov? You would say hakaras hatov is in the mind. It's the way a person thinks. No. It's a midah in a person, of who the person is, that he's a makir tov. And like I explained to you, if you don't have it, you're like a kof ba'alma. You're mamash like a monkey. Getting back to the vort, so what do we have? That because Leah, nu, she had modeh to Hashem, and she called her child that. So in the child became the shoresh of the midah of what? Lehodot laKadosh Baruch Hu. I want to read to you two beautiful things. If you take a look, it says Yaakov Avinu gives a bracha to Yehuda. Yehuda, atah yoducha achecha. Yehuda, your brothers will praise you. Yoducha, praise. Yehuda, atah yoducha achecha. Says the Targum, what does it mean? Odisa. You were modeh, v'loy behitisa, and you were not afraid. With the story of Tamar, you were modeh. Meila, Yehuda and—

Odi sal, u'de'tama begin kein. Because of this, thecha Yehodu nachecha, v'yiskaru yodeinu al shmecha. Why are we called Yehudim? It comes from this pasuk, that Yaakov Avinu said Jews will be called Yehuda. Why will Jews be called Yehuda? Because what Yehuda was modeh, and because Leah said, Hapam odeh es Hashem. There's a Medrash. The Medrash says, Amar Reb Shimon ben Yochai, you kol achecha nikraim al shmecha. All Jews will be called on your name. Ein adam omer Ruveni ani. Maybe my great-grandfather is Reuven. Why am I calling myself Yehuda? No one ever says, Ruveni, I'm a Ruveni. No one ever says, I am from a different shevet, I'm from Shimon. What do you say? Yehudi. Why? Because Yehuda means the shoresh of every Jew is Hapam odeh es Hashem. The first thing a Jew does in the morning, when he wakes up, what's the first word that comes out of his mouth? Modeh ani lefanecha. Modeh ani lefanecha, Melech chai. It's the first thing that a Jew says when he wakes up in the morning, when it comes out of his mouth: Modeh ani lefanecha. Why? Because Yehuda is what a Jew is. So not only a ben Adam means to be modeh and thank and be makir tov, but as a Jew, uniquely and specifically, we are makirei tov. Makirei tov. You know, in the story of Purim, something is so interesting. How many times does it say, Ish Yehudi hoya. Ish Yehudi. Why the emphasis so much that Mordechai was an Ish Yehudi, and the war of Haman was against by Yehudim. Yehudi played such a big role. The name Yehudi, the phrase that he's a Yehudi was such a big part of Purim, and the answer is because Haman was a tremendous kafui tov. Chazal say, v'lo zachar, and we say it in the piyut, in the krovetz, v'lo zachar chasdei Shaul. Haman was a tremendous kafui tov. Why was Haman alive? Because Mordechai's great-grandfather, Shaul, saved his great-grandfather Agag. How did he come, right, Agag? He was supposed to get killed in the war. Shaul saved him. Shaul didn't kill him, and that night he had a baby, and from that came Yehuda, and from that came Amalek, right? So v'lo zachar. He was a kafui tov. And you want to know something? Haman was even a kafui tov. He was a chashveirish. Achashverosh did so much for him. Achashverosh built him up from nothing. And what did he do? He backstabbed him. He planned to undermine him and to get rid of him and to take over and to steal his wife. Yehudi, ish Yehudi, the makir tov. Klal Yisrael yidnar makirei tov. Klal Yisrael are makirei tov. Now I understand something very beautiful. We think, and I almost understood, that the reason why Leah called Yehuda, Yehuda, that she should remember, Hapaam odeh es Hashem. Leah called Yehuda because she wanted that Yehuda, Yehuda, should be Yehuda, that he should be odeh es Hashem, that he should give over to the children this zechus, that every Jew should have this thing, that he's able to be makir tov and not to be a kafui tov. Now let's go back to Adam HaRishon. You know why Adam HaRishon calls her Chava after the eitz hadaas? Because he realized. He said, Hinah ha'ishah asher nasata imadi. He was a kafui tov. So now he was mesaken it. He fixed it by saying, Eim kol chai. Now everything, everything fits together, rabosai. You see? This is the pshat. Adam HaRishon realized that where was the shoresh of his chet? Hinah. So what did he turn around? He was mesaken it, and what did he say? Eim kol chai.

I'm makir tov to what she is. That was the beginning of the tikkun, the beginning of the tikkun for the chet of the eitz hadaas. Avraham Avinu, he was teaching his family Klal Yisroel, the beginning of Klal Yisroel, Yitzchak with his daughter, that Bakol, got to appreciate and be makir tov. There's a custom Ashkenazim have, and I know Sefardim have it as well, that after Hallel, they say a pasuk, and it's a segulah for arichas yamim. Which pasuk? Hashem beirach es Avraham bakol. How did that come into Hallel? No, Yedalach. No, you're gonna say the pshat for me? Go ahead, say the pshat. This is Hallel. The lesson of Hallel: Avraham zakein ba bayamim, but Hashem beirach es Avraham bakol. To realize that Hashem gave everything. To realize that Hashem gave everything. That's Hallel, and that's a segulah for arichas yamim, because life, if you're makir tov to the Eibishter, Hashem gives you life. Hashem gives you life. Hashem gives you life. You hear? That is the yesod of Yadus and the yesod of Adam. Now let's go back to explain Bnei haAdam. Remember I asked you a question, a simple question: Why are we dragging the story of the Dor Hamabul—I'm sorry, the Dor Haflagah—all the way back to Adam Harishon, Bnei Adam, that they're the grandchildren? And the answer is— It all is in the shoresh. If the parents are makir tov, if the grandparents are makir tov, if the great-grandfathers are makir tov, then the grandchildren will be makir tov. Hapaam odeh Hashem. Leah, by being makir tov, she instilled in her children and great-grandchildren Yiddishkeit, that they're makirei tov. Bnei Adam, where did it come from? Where did it come that a person could do something like the dor haflaga? Where could it... And the answer is, Bnei Adam. It's all rooted in where? In the great-grandfather. You know, rabosai, I know many fathers and mothers that come complaining that their children are not makir tov to them. Here, take a look how ungrateful he is. Maybe you should look in the mirror and say that I trained my children, that I give the right chinuch, that my children should see what it means to be makir tov. It's all rooted in the grandparents. There's a very nice story, and with this I'll end. I wrote down a following story, that there was once a person that came to the Rav, and he says, Rav, you have to help me. My daughter, she wants to marry a guy. She wants to marry a guy. Please, if you could talk to my daughter, she wants to marry a gentile, could you convince her? So the Rav says, I'm very sorry, I can't help you. What do you, why can't you help me? Twenty minutes, twenty years too late. Twenty years too late. You should have came to me twenty years ago. What was twenty years ago? He says, very simple. Twenty years ago, when I sat in the beis knesset, and I gave the sichot, and I gave mussar, you sat there and undermined me. You sat there and you said, Ah, what does the rabbi... Now, twenty years later, what do you expect? You expect that the daughter should listen to me? What do you expect is supposed to happen? It's a tremendous lesson. If in the home, the father walks around being makir tov, appreciating all the good, appreciating everything that's good that happens to him, and the children will pick it up. It's all in the shoresh of the home. That was the lesson that has to be taken. Bnei, bnei, bnei, bnei, bnei. It's all about the children seeing and going in the footsteps of the grandparents when it comes to hakaras hatov. So this, rabosai, is the end of the shiur. We'll stop over here. But this is the lesson. It's very important, rabosai. You have to learn this. If you're makir tov, your children will be makir tov. If you're kfuyei tov, don't expect...

Expect the children to be different. Bnei ha'adam, it always shayach. And then a person could start thanking the Eibishter, and with this, the Eibishter in return gives taka, Hashem, berech Avram bakol, because the more you makir tov to the Ribono Shel Olam, the more the Ribono Shel Olam gives you. I asked you a question: why did He give her the name Eim Kol Chai? So the simple answer is that He, whenever He spoke of her, He would remember her ma'alot and not the chisronot. But the way I'm explaining to you, it's even deeper. He was putting into the children, just like by Yehuda, Leah was putting into the children the concept of hakarat hatov, He was putting into the eim kol chai that in the briah, the children that come from the mother should have this nekudah of eim kol chai, that I'm makir tov. It's in the shoresh of rebuilding a world. In a world that you can have children, the children have to be like the father sets up eim kol chai that we appreciate. I'm a male of the children, and the world will be a tikkun on that chisaron. Now, I just want to tell you one more nekudah. I thought about this a lot. Why was the klalah, okay, why was the klalah of Adam Harishon, the parnassah, koitz v'dardar tatzmiach lach, why was that the klalah? I mean, so many things could have went wrong. So the pashut pshat is, I always understood that Hashem gave you from the etz hadaas, and the etz hadaas—I'm sorry, the etz hachayim—and that was by itself, it grew. And you could have had just, you went into anything, you got your food off the tree, you rooted. So now, in order to get sustenance, you have to now go and work hard. I think it's a lot deeper. If you're not a makir tov, so then למעשה you weren't makir tov that the Eibishter gave it to you. So now you have to work hard to get it. I always thought about it for a very long time. If you were makir tov, the Eibishter would give it to you. He gave you on a silver platter. You're not a makir tov, then what happens? You're not a makir tov, then what happens? Then all of a sudden, I think you should take this away. This is a very big problem. Okay, yeah. Pick up until I died. Yeah? We spoke about this. The nachash, right? What was his punishment? What was the nachash's punishment? Why earth? What's the point of eating earth? So there's a lot of different pshatim. I always thought of something interesting. You know why Hashem created so many different delicious tastes of food? The Rishonim talk about it. It's all that Hashem wants, that you should enjoy. Lehanos bo bnei adam. You don't appreciate. So you know what? I have to feed you. I'm going to have to give you to eat. Okay, so you know what? Go eat this. There was such a lack of hakaras hatov in the story of the eitz hadaas that each one was punished in his parnassah because you weren't makir tov. Now, you ever try seeing when a person gets parnassah easy? He's very thankful, right? It's one of the hardest things. Had you had hakaras hatov, you would have had parnassah easy. Flavor food. It's l'hanos bnei adam. Hashem did it to make you the nachash, the yetzer hara, the lack of hakaras hatov. That's why the Eibishter punished that they shouldn't have any taste in the food. The lesson, in a simple, of the eitz hadaas is lack of hakaras hatov. Okay, we'll stop over here. You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.