Noach and Avraham: From Feeding Others to Selfless Ahavas Chesed Without Cheshbonos

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. We have the mabul and the rescue from the mabul through the teivah. When you read side the pesukim, side the Chazal, we see Noach did a tremendous act of kindness to come into the teivah to feed the animals. According to Chazal, we have even greater insight into the chesed, that he didn't sleep not day and not night. The entire time in the teivah, Noach did not sleep. He was busy caring and caring and caring for the animals, the briyah of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Chazal tell us that he was at, to the moment, like a clock, how he fed the animals. He came one minute late to the aryeh, to the lion, and that caused him to get a bite, a punch, a kick, that he remained Ach Noach. He remained with sciatic nerve problems. Yeah, he was limping. Unbelievable the amount of work, chesed, tzedkus, tzedakah that Noach did to the briyah. In the teivah. The mefarshim tell us the concept behind the teivah was Olam chesed yibaneh, that to rebuild the world, it needed to be done through means of chesed. The world had to be reconstructed. Anayah velt, and the world needs to be mushrash; it needs to be foundationed on chesed. And so the teivah was chesed and chesed and chesed and chesed. Olam chesed yibaneh. Noach, on a personal level, was a tzaddik yesod olam. The Torah is meid, Ish tzaddik tamim. Today, we give titles very freely. This person's a rav, a gaon, a tzaddik. We're very easy with the terms, with the titles. Torah, each word means something, each syllable, each ois. And if the Torah is meid, Ish tzaddik tamim, hoyah b'dorosav, the Ribono Shel Olam Himself tells it to Noach, Ki oischa ra'isi tzaddik lefanai. A tzaddik, unbelievable tzaddik. In the hakdamah to Raziel HaMalach, brought, Noach was a person who kept everything that it said in the Torah. We know he learned Torah. That's clear. Chazal tell us, מכל הבהמה הטהורה. How would he know? How does Noach know? מכאן שלמד נח תורה. So Noach sits and learns, and on top of sitting and learning, he's building a teivah, and he's giving, through the teivah, speeches about the mabul. The Ribono Shel Olam calls him a tzaddik. The Netziv, Malach HaDomeh even writes that Noach went to the mikveh every day, not only before the teivah, but even in the teivah. Even in the teivah, Noach was able to go to the mikveh. Noach is definitely qualified to be called a tzaddik tamim hayah bedorosav, no question. His actions, his tzidkus, es haElokim hishalech Noach. He goes with the Eibishter. So how are we to understand the Chazal, יש דורשין לגנאי, יש דורשין לגנאי? See, the Sefarim write that it actually wasn't יש Chazal, but יש דורשין was Noach himself. Noach himself, because he was an anav, he was humble, so he was doresh l'gnai, אילו היה בדורו של אברהם לא היה נחשב לכלום. Anavah. He was a person who was humble.

So when he heard the words, Noach, he tzaddik tamim haya bedorosav, so Noach himself, yesh dorshim, is the Noach himself, would say, Oh, only bedorosav, because if I was by Avraham, I would be nothing. All right. That makes sense for a person who's enough to talk like this. But pashut pshat, Rashi is, yesh dorshim, v'yesh meRaboseinu dorshim. It's the two ways how to learn the pasuk. How are we to understand the doresh l'gnai? Why? Why should we be doresh l'gnai? Ilu haya bedoros shel Avraham, why does a person have to measure up to Avraham? It's true, a person should say, Masa yagi'u ma'asai l'maaseh avosai. A person should always look to strive to be like Avraham Avinu, yes. But if you don't reach that, so what, it becomes a ta'ina in Shamayim? They're gonna say, Eh, you, nah, you're not Avraham Avinu. That's how they're gonna measure people in Shamayim? Then we're all done. Then it's Avraham Avinu and the rest of the world. I mean, what's—are we to say, are we to say that if a person doesn't measure up to Avraham Avinu and Yiddishkeit is upkefrekt, that's it? You're not Avraham Avinu. Okay, so, avadeh there was one Avraham Avinu, but I'm who I am. So you do have baalei mussar always speak, midaina koiches, midaina midos, right? You gotta be who you are. You're right, we have to strive to be, Masa yagi'u ma'asai l'maaseh avosai, like I said, yes. The Rambam says a person, if he wants, he can be as great as Moshe Rabbeinu. The Rambam writes this. It's a big discussion how it could be. Torah says, Lo kam navi k'Moshe. It's a discussion. Reb Chanavasman, shem yinakem dam yischus yagon aleinu, speaks about it. Acharonim discuss it. It's not for this moment to go into that Rambam. But of course, we're trying to measure up to the avos and to the tzaddikim dor acharon. Yes. But it doesn't mean we measure that that becomes our whole scale of who we are. A person is going to say, Ah, you're not like Avraham Avinu. Ah, Machamit naz, you know, eh, not like Avraham Avinu. Why should we do that? Tzadik tamim haya b'dorosav, yesh doreshim lignai. Why should we be doresh lignai? Why should we say that you measure up to Avraham? And even the lashon of the Rashi, if he was b'dor shel Avraham, lo nechshav l'klum. Nothing. Nothing. Ganisht. Atazei nemetn a tzaddik tamim haya b'dorosav, u'mizeh lo nechshav l'klum, l'klum, nothing. A pela. A pela. How come the Chazal, yesh doreshim lignai, minimizes Noach to nothing, to nothing? Rabosai, I think we have to understand properly Avraham. Who was Avraham? And why Noach then is not Avram, and in broader topic, into broader discussion, what is chesed? Like I tell you, Noach was a tremendous baal chesed from what we read. Olam chesed yibaneh. But for some reason, Chazal felt important to point out, senisht Avraham Avinu. Nisht, senisht Avraham Avinu. What's the pshat? So let's discuss Avram, klapei Noach. Let's discuss, as like I said, what is chesed. It's obvious that if we compare him to Avram, it must be that Avram had something to do—I'm sorry, the inyan has something to do with chesed. Avram's midah was the midah of chesed. So maybe we're trying to contrast Avram and Noach in chesed. What is it? A peleh. I'll explain to you, and I'll give to you many Chazalim which seem to contradict each other. There's a Chazal, a Medrash. The Medrash says that two people were called tzaddikim: Noach, ish tzaddik; Yosef was called a tzaddik. Why? Shneihem zanu es habriyos. They fed people.

They fed people. And when you feed the world, you're called a tzaddik. I was looking. Where's Avraham Avinu in the list? If anyone fed people, Avraham was mechadesh in Eshel, the concept of opening up a catering hall, a hotel for feeding people. Avraham was the one who was the baal chesed, the machnis orch, the quintessential machnis orch. He's not in the list. Yosef, with Noach, he's tzaddik, and both are called tzaddik. So it could be it's not to exclude Avraham, but the point is the word tzaddik. Here we find the word tzaddik, the name tzaddik. By Yosef we find tzaddik, and shneihem zanu, but it doesn't mean that Avraham was not part of that list. Maybe. Maybe that's all Chazal mean. Chazal don't mean to exclude Avraham Avinu from the list. But I'll tell you an interesting—Chazal tell us, on the other hand, that Avraham Avinu wasn't in the same sugya, wasn't even in the same hemisphere of chesed and tzedakah that Noach and Yosef did. Why? Chazal tell us, it's Medrash Sheicher Tov, tzedakah yeshena, was sleeping, was dormant till Avraham Avinu came. Says Chazal, tzedakah was invented almost—let's use the word invented—by Avraham Avinu. Am I missing something? The pasuk seems to tell us the tremendous tzedakah, the tremendous giving that Noach gave to the briah, Olam chesed yibaneh. So what do Chazal in Medrash Sheichet Tov mean, Yeshena? It was sleeping till Avraham Avinu came. I'll tell you another Chazal. Chazal actually tell us that Avraham Avinu took lesson from Noach to do chesed. The Medrash says he was jealous. He says, Look what Noach did for the briah. I want to do the same. Wait a minute. Tzedakah wasn't around till Avraham. On the other hand, when we talk about being zonim u'mefarnes habriyos, we exclude Avraham from the list. And then Chazal tell us, gar that it had to be that Avraham took lesson. Avraham was jealous. That's where he learned his chesed from, from Noach. The three Chazalim, they don't go together. Let me tell you the teretz to the kashya. Yes, Noach did unbelievable chesed. And yes, Avraham Avinu took lesson from Noach. And yes, tzedakah was started by Avraham Avinu. And Avraham and Noach have nothing to do with each other, and that's what Chazal mean, lo hayah b'doros Avraham lo nechsav l'klum. What does that mean? I'll explain to you. There's a tremendous Medrash, rabbeisai, a yalkut. The Medrash says that Iyov, when he had his yisurim, he turned to the Eibishter and he said, Ribono shel olam, I'm a baal chesed like Avraham Avinu. Just like Avraham was malbish arumim, just like Avraham was ma'achil re'evim, he fed the hungry, he clothed the homeless, I do the same thing. Rabbi Yishmael tells him, What? What you do and what Avraham Avinu has no shayches. It's not even—they're not even in the same sentence to be put together. Yes, you're ma'achil re'evim. Yes, you're malbish arumim. It's true. But Avraham Avinu, look at the orchim, look what he did for them, look. What do Chazal mean? What did the Eibishter tell Iyov? To be malbish an arum, that makes sense. To be ma'achil a ra'ev, that makes sense. Humanity, a human is to give for those that are needy. That's still not the chesed of Avraham Avinu. Avraham Avinu's chesed is even if the other person doesn't so much need it. But to give and to give and to give and to give, not because he is much that he needs it, but Avraham needs it. Avraham Avinu, when he was machnis orch, in cheshbon he was patur. He was a chaylah. The people didn't really need it so much.

His drive, his ahavah for chesed, it wasn't so much humane as much as it was Avraham and his chesed. Noach, yes, did a tremendous chesed. He was meizin es habriyos. They needed it. If it wasn't him, it would be nobody. That's what we call hatzolas nefashos. He gave people life. Save the world. Save the world. It's true he saved the world. It's true that he saved the world. But to save the world because he understood you have to save the world. Avraham Avinu did chesed when he's not saving the world. Avraham Avinu's middah of giving, to want to give, that's called tzedakah. And it was yeshenah. It was something that didn't exist till Avraham Avinu. And yes, Avraham Avinu looked and saw Noach and said, Wow, he saved the world. That's a chesed. Ya'amoskim. But then Avraham took it to a whole new level of chesed, a whole new chapter, a whole new sugya of chesed. That's called chesed because me, who I am, is to give and to give and to give. Selflessness in chesed. Noach did chesed because it was humane. Noach was a righteous person, a tzaddik tamim hayah b'dorosav, a hundred percent. And maybe that's what the b'dorosav means. In a humane society, Noach was humane. Maybe that's the b'dorosav. B'dorosav, where people, the humanity disintegrated. That's why it had to be yimach kol hayikum. Keitz kol basar ba lefanai, ki mal'ah ha'aretz chamas mipneihem. Society became inhumane. There was a breakdown in humanity. Noach, and that was tzaddik tamim hayah b'dorosav. He was humane. Logic, his mind was straight, yashar. He knew that you have to save the world, you have to save people. Avraham, it wasn't in the mind, it was from the heart. And I'll tell you where I got this from. If you look, Chazal call Noach chacham lematzil nefashos, loke'ach nefashos. That's the lashon of Chazal. Chacham loke'ach nefashos. The Baal HaTurim brings it down. The Baal HaTurim says that's why it says, Vayikim, hishalech Noach. The last os is mem, hishalech chaf, Noach ches, chacham. He brings this medrash. Noach was a chacham. What do you mean? If a person is matzil nefashos, he's a chacham? Why is he called a chacham? And the answer is, yes, he saved the world. Nefashos came from chochmah. It came from wisdom. It came from yashrus hamoach, yashrus haseichel. He was humane. He was humane. Avraham was a mehul. Avraham was a Yid. By Avraham, the chesed wasn't because he was humane. It was that and the fact that he was a Yid, and a Yid is a rachman, rachmanim baishanim, gomlei chasadim. The Sippurna tells us Avraham Avinu was credited for the tremendous hachnasas orchim that he did. Tell me, was this the first time he did hachnasas orchim? It's only merumez, es hanefesh asher asu b'Charan, that he helped people. Otherwise, you don't see in the Torah. There was no mention of Avraham's chesed till the hachnasas orchim in Parshas Vayeira. Says the Sippurna, what happened his whole life? He did chesed, and the answer is this chesed stands out way beyond all the other chasadim that he did. Why? Like I explained to you, chesed to feed people is noyach. Avraham's ahavas chesed, that he was drawn to do chesed, that means he couldn't sleep, he couldn't rest, and even when he was sick, he needed to do that chesed. The Eibishter didn't took out the sun because he said he's sick, he shouldn't be doing this. So why did the Eibishter send the three malachim that he should do the chesed? Pashut.

Because he saw that that Avraham Avinu needed it. The Eibishter said, I want to protect him. I want to give him a time to heal. And then he saw that he was kechaim hayom, he was standing al haPesach. He's not holding by resting anyway. Vakeret, this will bring him a refuah shleimah. I remember my Rebbe, Rav Pam, zichrono livrachah, when he was sick, so I didn't bother him. I tried to give him, you know, not to put on him extra load of... So when I had my children, the third, the fourth, I didn't tell him. I didn't come to tell him that I had a boy, for the early ones, the bris, the pidyon haben, he used to come. Finally, he got a little bit better. There was a break in the choli a little bit, so I quickly went to visit him. My son told me it's a good time to go. I went, and I tell him, Rebbe, you know, the last year or so I happened to have had a baby. So he looks at me and he goes, And you didn't call and tell me? I tell Rebbe, he's sick. I didn't want to make it... it should be an oyl, I should call and bother, and then there would be a whole discussion: come to the bris, you won't come to the bris. So he looked at me, he goes, I don't understand you. Don't you realize that if you told me you had a baby, I would feel better? You told me. I'm sick, so don't you think that to make me better, to give me chizuk... To make me b'refuah. If you would have told me I had a baby, it would have been better. The Ribono Shel Olam takes the sun because He figures it's better for Avraham to rest. Avraham shows that's not me. I'd be better off and feel better if I worked to do hachnasas orchim. That is chesed, which is unbelievable, because that's chesed not so much for the other person; that's chesed because you need to do chesed. You can't rest. You can't stop. You can't do anything till you do the chesed. This chesed, says the Ribono Shel Olam, you're comparing yourself to this איוב. Iyov, you do nice things. You malbish arumim, you maichel, you maichel re'evim, noach, he saved the world. That's tremendous chacham, chacham. You have yashrus. Ah, but this, to Avraham Avinu, there's no shaychus, to Avraham Avinu. Tzedakah, rachmanim, baishanim, gomlei chasadim. And the Seforno says that this is the pshat, hachnasas orchim of Avraham Avinu, that he could have only done it after he had a bris milah. The chiddush in Avraham Avinu's milah, in Avraham Avinu's chesed, in his hachnasas orchim, was because only after a bris milah, hisalech lefanai v'heyeh tamim, complete, the shleimus, the Yid. When he became a Yid with a bris milah, only then he was able to do this level of chesed, selfless ahavas chesed, because he had to do chesed. This is the difference between Noach and Avraham Avinu. Yes, in the list, there's amazing, there's a list of people who fed the briah. Yoisef, Noach. Avraham, Avraham was much bigger, it was much greater, it was chesed. It was titein emes lYaakov, chesed lAvraham. Avraham brought down a whole new yesod of chesed, middoimah, to the Eibishter. It was a chesed which was doimeh l'Konoi, to the Eibishter, and it became perfected by the bris milah. It became shleimus by the bris milah, like every Yid has in him the shleimus of chesed. You know, Noach didn't daven for the people in his generation. Mei Noach, the Tanach, the Haftorah we're going to read, is that Noach was blamed for not davening l'bnei doiro. Why didn't he daven l'bnei...

It's a good question. Why didn't he daven? And the answer, I think, is very simple, because he believed that it won't work and they don't deserve it. He felt that if he davens, they're not holding there. They're baalei aveirah. They don't deserve it. That's chochmah. That's cheshbon. When you start doing chesed with cheshbon, you make a cheshbon. You make a cheshbon. Avraham Avinu by Sdom did the opposite. Avraham could have made a cheshbon: they're reshaim, they don't deserve it. He davens for them. It's a whole different chesed. It's chesed, I like to call it, chesed without a cheshbon. Noach is chesed with cheshbon, because it's moral. It's yashrus. Avraham is chafetz chesed, like the Eibishter is chafetz chesed. Mizdabek b'midas Kono, like the Eibishter, that he's a chafetz chesed, avas chesed, redifas hachesed, to run after chesed. That's pshat in the pasuk, Gomel nafsho ish chesed. A person becomes one and the same as his chesed. That's the chesed of Avraham Avinu. That's the chesed of the Yid. It's interesting, before we say, Ki b'or panecha nasata lanu, Hashem Elokeinu, Toras chayim, the avas chesed. Why do we put together Toras chayim and avas chesed? Why is it together? If you look, we say, Shema b'ni musar avicha, v'al titosh Toras imecha. What is Toras imecha? Your mother taught me Torah? Unless maybe it means the aleph-beis. Maybe the mother teaches the aleph-beis. I would have said the opposite: Shema b'ni Toras avicha, v'al titosh musar imecha. Our mothers give us real good musar. Yeah, the mother's not going to lash into us and give us real good mussar. Now you're always thinking, you know, you always, yeah, you know, the mother's, right, they whine and complain and they tell you and they teach you and they contradict and then they... So why doesn't it say, Shema b'ni musar imecha, Toras avicha? Father teaches Torah. I believe it's referring to an interesting Torah, and that is, Piha pascha b'chochma, v'soras chesed al leshonah. The mother has something called Toras chesed, chesed which is Torahdike chesed. We can do chesed, but that's humane chesed. Then there's Toras chesed, what the mamish, the Yiddishe mamish taught us in chesed, selfless chesed, full devotion of chesed. Oh, that chesed is something which is ruchni, which is Torah, and that's ki b'or panecha nasata lanu, Hashem Elokeinu, Toras chayim. What's Toras chayim? Chayim is life. That the Torah creates life in who we are. The Torah is not a book. The Torah is not a text. A person can read a book about Verveis Vas and it has nothing to do with him. It's a nice story. She'eina ma'aseh. A person reads, Oh, what does that have to do with you? Torah, if you take it in, you learn it properly, then it becomes chayim. It changes the life. It becomes a life. It's a living Torah. Meileh, what happens then becomes ahavas chesed. It gives the person the love of chesed. Ahavas chesed can't be without Torah. It doesn't work. Piah pascha b'chochma. Avada the mother's had chochma, but on top of the chochma it had something else also, and that's called what? Soiras chesed. Noach had chochma, like I explained to you. Noach had chochma, but Torah chesed, that was Avraham Avinu, and I'll prove it to you. You notice we say by davening, Titen emes l'Yaakov, chesed l'Avraham. It should have been the other way around. Who came first, Avraham?

It should have said, Titein chesed l'Avraham, and emes l'Yaakov. Titein emes l'Yaakov, chesed l'Avraham. It should have been Titein chesed l... The emes... The seder, isn't there an order? And I think this is what the tefillah is teaching us. The nusach ha-tefillah means, first you need emes l'Yaakov. First you need Torah. Then we can have the chesed l'Avraham. One comes from the other. When there's emes l'Yaakov, when there's Torah, then becomes chesed l'Avraham, becomes chesed l'Avraham. This is, Ki b'or panecha... the Ribono Shel Olam's light, the Torah's chayim, that creates ahavas chesed. And that's the piyut pasuk, b'chochmah v'seirah chesed, and that's what the pasuk means: Shema b'ni musar avicha, v'al titosh Toras imecha, the chesed, the Toras chesed of the mother. That's when one's a mamish, Yiddishe mamish, they show this the way in this area. And this is Avraham Avinu's koach: chesed, chesed, chesed, l'sheim ha-chesed, only because we want to do chesed. I told you over many times that I heard from Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, zecher tzaddik livrachah. Passed with the previous Rosh Yeshiva of the Mir, and he came here to New York, and he spoke in the Mir minyan, in Keila Olam, and he said over a story from Reb Chaim Shmulevitz, an interesting story. And that was basically the shmooze. It wasn't too much more, but this story. He said that Reb Chaim Shmulevitz would walk near the Mir yeshiva, there was a shoe store, and he would look through the shoe store to see if it was for children. He would look through the shoe store. So the talmidim weren't sure why the Rosh Yeshiva keeps on looking through the shoe store to see inside the shoe store. They said, Rebbe, maybe we'll go in, we'll help you, or buy a pair of shoes. I mean, what would be the reason to be looking through the store window the whole time? He said, You don't understand. I look through the window and I see mothers fully devoted to children, complete mesirus from a mamme to a kind, from a mother to a child. To me this is ruchniyus. It's a spiritual thing. In the next world we won't see this. So I want to take it in as much as I could take it in, to see, to see selfless devotion, selfless devotion. I believe that the Rosh Yeshiva was telling us something very deep. There's a ruchni. Avadeh there's a maaseh chesed, true, that's a bein adam l'chaveiro, but there's a chelek ruchni. From a whole different plateau, that a person lives selfless for others. A mother for the child is the quintessential example of that. And that's Torah simecha. Torah simecha, that's selfless devotion. The Torahs chesed. What is chesed? Selfless. Selfless. Chesed means selfless. So that's a whole different yesod than just doing and helping others. It's completely different. It's the selflessness of giving, of giving, of giving. Chesed. And a mother, a Yiddishe mama, an eishes chayil, is selfless in her giving to her husband and her children. That's called Torah. What's behind the chesed, the shorashim of real chesed is Torahs chesed. And that's, Pi pascha b'chochma, v'soras chesed al leshonah. And that's only ki b'or panecha nasata lanu. You know when a person, le'eilu passed away and the chevra kadisha takes care of him, it's called chesed shel emes. Why is it called chesed shel emes? She'eino metzapeh ligmul. You're not expecting anything in return.

So why is it called emes? The pashut means emes, emesdik, which means you're doing it for the sake of chesed. Sfas Emes, his sefarim on Shavuos, his peirushim on Shavuos, explains a little differently. Emes is Torah. Such chesed only can come through Torah. Chesed of selfless. Chesed that is not about you. It's all about giving and doing and helping is shel emes from Torah. This, rabosai, is everything I've just told you, that the Torah changes a person to be a giver, a selfless giver, not a taker. And that's called chesed, chesed, chesed shel emes through the Torah. If you look at the Medrash, the Medrash Tanchuma says, what was missing in the dor of the Mabul? And the answer is it was missing Torah. What does that mean, it's missing Torah? I'll tell you what it means. You know what's interesting? They stole less than a shaveh prutah. Chazal say that they used to steal less than a shaveh prutah. Wait, I don't understand. What's the heter? Because they would go to the beis din, the beis din would say, It's less than a shaveh prutah, right? Could you have a court case on less than a penny? No, right? Tell me. So legally, you didn't do anything wrong. How about bein adam l'chaveiro? Did you do something wrong? Vadai did something wrong. In the America of democracy, as long as I didn't do anything wrong to you, I'm okay, right? Is it really okay? Not according to the Torah. The Torah has entire rules. Of din and lifnim mishuras hadin. The din maybe is you're patur. The din is maybe you're patur. Okay, I'm not going to get into the discussion, benoiach is neherag al even pachos mishaveh prutah. That's already a halachic discussion. But what was the idea behind stealing less than a prutah? And the answer is, there's nothing legally wrong. Yeah, but what happened to bein adam l'chaveiro? And the answer is, that's Torah, and that's what's missing, you see. What Torah fills in is not your obligation morally. It's not your obligation, but what is it? It's about bein adam l'chaveiro. It's about chesed. Tell me, is it a chesed to steal from another guy less than a shaveh prutah? כמובן שלא. Chesed u'mishpat, that it goes together. That's what it means they were lacking. They were lacking Torah in the time of the table, in the time of the Mabul. How do we apply it l'maaseh, rabosai? Let's apply it l'maaseh. How do we apply it l'maaseh? Chesed is not only what you do, but chesed is about how you do it. Avraham Avinu did bizrizus, selfless. It wasn't only the fact that he was machil l'reaiv. A person could be machil l'reaiv, but that's it. Here's your food at the table, right? But then there's something called hachnasas orchim. What does the word hachnasah mean? You bring him into your house. You're being machnis the orech. You're not just feeding him. Where are you being machnis him to? I'll tell you a maaseh. Rav Schwab, zicher tzaddik livrachah, from Monsey, Markus Schwab, told me that in Shamchai, everybody used to come to the zeide for tea, chizuk. So he says to me, Do you think that there was room for everybody? Talking about a tiny little—he doesn't even know. It was one small apartment which they divided in half. They put a partition, and the Schwabs lived on one side of the partition, and the Walkins lived on the other side of the partition, okay? They had a makeh wedding for Rabbi Hellman, who was the head of the Beis Yaakov here in Borough Park for many, many years. Chrein livrachah, he passed away. His chasan was in that apartment, erev Pesach. They took off the partition so they had a little more room. There was a partition. That's— and he told me throngs of people would come to this apartment. There was no room for them. People would wander. All the people fit into this little— So he said to me, But you didn't understand that the zeide didn't take him—

Into his house, he took them into his heart. And the heart was big; there was room for everybody, you see. When the heart is big, there's room for everybody. Hachnasas orchim. Where are you being machnis them? You're being machnis them more than just putting them at a table. Yeah, come eat, here's the table. Hachnasas orchim means to bring them in. It's a whole different chesed, rabosai, you see. Ma'achil re'evim means I feed. Yeah, I can feed people. Are you being machnis them into your home, on your table, to the point that they're sitting at your table and you're being meshamesh them? I remember the Zayde zichrono livracha was makpid that when guests, that they shouldn't sit at the back table, because a lot of people have a back table for guests. They would sit within the family. They were part of the family. You would come, you'd be part of the family. Father told me that there was once a person who would come. His hygiene was weak. Famous person, he was a talmid chacham. He suffered a lot during the war, and he lost a little bit of his... he had a breakdown. So l'maaseh, his hygiene was very bad. So he would come to the Zayde for Shabbos, and my Zayde noticed that nobody wanted to sit next to him because his hygiene was weak. So the Zayde was so makpid, he said, You know what? Come, you'll sit with me in the front of the table. So my Zayde pushed over his chair, and he had this other person sitting next to him like he's mamish... There are two balabatim in the house. There's two household, head of the household. See, there's different ways how to do chesed. We could do yemei chesed, and then we could do chesed which is chesed, which is Avraham, which is ahavas chesed. That we find ways on how to make it that it should be good for the person. I want to tell you a shteikel Chumash, that Noach was told, Boi atah v'chol beisecha el hateivah. Boi atah v'chol beisecha el hateivah. Who is the beischa? What is the pasuk referring to? So many Rishonim say it's referring to the wives. Bring your wives into the teivah. Maaseh, when he was told to come originally into the teivah, it says, you, your wife, your children's wives. So it says wives. So why when they came already, when it says that they came, it says not the wife, atah v'ishtecha, atah u'veisecha. Why does it change isha to beis? If it means wife, so let it say you and your wife, like it said, you will come, your wife will come in the beginning. That's how he was told. So if you look at the Netziv, he says a chiddush: beisecha doesn't mean wives. Beisecha means your slaves. Who was going to help Noach? It was a big organization, Noach in the teivah. He needed help. You know, Noach in the teivah was a big thing, so he needed shamashim, right? He needed shamashim. He needed people to help him. So beisecha means bringing the slaves. The Malbim says no. You know what beisecha means? With your belongings from your house. Whatever you feel in your house that you want to take with you, take with you. You want your bed, take your bed. You want your bookcase, your furniture, that, whatever you want, take. Pack it up. People think Noach came. Yeshno gradel, food-wise, he came with nothing. Noach doesn't know this. It says in the pasuk, ‘kach lecha mikol ma'achal asher yei'achel.’ Just say, ‘mikol ma'achal.’ Why does it have to say, ‘mikol ma'achal asher yei'achel’? So the goyen says, all he took was, for every meal, enough ‘mikol asher yei'achel,’ shiur achilah, a kebeitzah. So he had these compact— you ever had these compact meals? He took compact meals. He made a cheshbon how many meals he'll need for the time in the teivah, and each meal was just a kebeitzah. Interesting. ‘Mikol ma'achal asher yei'achel.’ Yet, does it say that he took for the animals? It doesn't say he took for the animals. ‘Mikol ma'achal asher yei'achel’ that you eat. Zogt the Teres Yonason, Rav Yonason Eibshitz, he didn't even take for the animals either.

He took for himself, and there was enough both for himself, which was a nes. It's like I say, from the goyen, he only took a kebeitzah, and it was enough for the animals too. So Noach took very little food into the teivah, enough for him, and that was already enough for everybody. Yet the Malbim says, Take all your household belongings that you want. What does he need it for? After the mabul, he'll make new ones, he'll buy new ones. It's a chiddush nifla. I imagine Noach must have had a mansion. Why not? I'm sure he had tremendous— and if according to the tzivui of avadim, מסתמא he had nice furniture. So the furniture he was supposed to bring— what's the pshat in them? The Ribono Shel Olam should have told him, Leave everything alone. What do you need it for? Like the Chofetz Chaim: You're passing through the world. You don't need all your belongings. Leave all your belongings at home. It's over. You don't need it. Tell me, you think in the mabul it's important for Noach to have his couch? You're going through a mabul. That's the last thing on your mind is the couch. So how could the mabul take your couch with you? The Ribono Shel Olam said, Take it with you. That's the pshat. I understand the middah k'neged middah of chesed of the Eibishter. The Ribono Shel Olam understands what it means to leave the house behind. You know, when we have the sukkah, we go to the backyard to a sukkah. In the tefillah, we say clearly, It should be considered as if I went to galus, k'ilu richakti nidod. So asks the Zohar, what galus? Where is it? What kind of galus is it, that that's galus, to go to the backyard? So the truth is, in the times of past, especially like in Europe, I can imagine what the sukkah looked like. It was a galus. To sleep in a sukkah would be like sleeping in galus, maybe, maybe. But today, you ever see the sukkahs that we buy today? They're nicer than the house even. So where's the galus? Zogt der Zayde zichaino livracha, Sifat Mishnayn Bet. You're still למעשה not sleeping in your bed at home. For a person to leave his bed, leave his shower, leave his table, it's galus. Understanding that for him to leave everything and go into the table would be so difficult. Part of the Olam Chesed Yibaneh is, Rabbeinu says, you know, take your house with you. Take it with you. You know, the reason why they say that the European Jews didn't leave, seeing the warning signs of the Holocaust, because it was difficult to leave the home. Baruch Hashem, we don't have that nisayon. But to leave everything behind and go, and that's really Lech Lecha, me'artzecha, umimoladtecha, umibeis avicha. That's part of the nisayon of Lech Lecha, to leave everything, your whole life, leave behind and move on. I know you had to do it. Sometimes, some generations we have to do it, but this is the nisayon of Lech Lecha. Avadeh, you know what it is, right? Now you guys now understand how the Ribono Shel Olam understood, that the Ribono Shel Olam understood that the chesed is mechayev to let Noach come. With Beis Sechel, with his home. Give me a very nice story to bring this out. Rabbi Hecht, the one that comes here to teach the students, he told me that originally he worked with the Rosh Yeshiva, way back before everybody was involved with them. So when the first shipment came from Russia, the Russian Jews, people didn't want to deal with them. They call them greeners right off the boat. Nobody wanted to have to. So he came to the Zayde zecherino livracha, complaining that he has no place to place them, that nobody wants to work with them. So the Zayde said, What's the problem? I'm also Russian. Where do you think I come from? I'm also Russian. I come from Russia. Where do you think I come from? What makes me different Russian than this Russian? Bring them to me. Send them to me. Kach hava. He would send people to the Zayde, and the Zayde would take them and talk to them and be mechazek them. After some time, the Zayde turns to Rabbi Hecht and asks him if he can get him Russian magazines. Hecht looks and he says, Russian magazines? What does the Rav need Russian magazines? I'm sure there's not a lot of Torah and yiras Shamayim in those magazines.

Even you have in the opposite, right? So why would you come and ask for these Russian magazines? So the zeide told him, Unbelievable. You know, they come to me, they wait. So I'm busy with others, so there's like a waiting room in front of my office. So they look around and they see people with sefarim learning, let's say, waiting for me. So they feel out of place. They feel they're not at home. When they come to me, I want them to feel at home. So I want to put these Russian magazines there. They should feel in place. They're part, just like a waiting room, so they have what to read. They should feel not different, not out of place. Chesed l'Avraham. This is Torah chesed. You start understanding what chesed really is: selfless, and to understand what the other person needs. It's not what you do which is part of chesed; it's how you do it which is part of chesed. You know, the government is a malchus shel chesed. They give, there's programs, that you have to wait on line in one of these places to get these programs. They treat you like less than a beheima. You ever talk to them? You try to talk to them, they yell at you and they scream, and they treat you like garbage. But they're giving you chesed; they're feeding you. Chesed l'Avraham. From being mazen to doing chesed is a whole different world. It's an undeveloped, it's an entirely different world. Chesed means morally I have to feed you. Yes. Chochmah, wisdom dictates I feed you. But the chesed, the gemilas chasadim, the ahavas chesed, it's how I do it. Avraham was mechadesh v'hu omed aleihem. He makes the person feel like a balabos. He makes the person feel like he is the main person and Avraham is there to serve him. That's where chesed separates itself from lekeach nefashos, from doing and being maizen re'evim. Yes, avada, people are hungry, you feed them, for sure, no question about it. But it's a far cry to the parsha, the sugya of chesed l'Avraham, what Avraham Avinu was mechadesh, chesed. I'll tell you a very nice episode that happened recently with me. I recently experienced it, what it means a Yid's chesed. In my shul, there's someone who, unfortunately, his son is very sick, a teenage boy. In Lakewood, there's an organization called Mesameach. What they do is they bring singers to entertain the cholim. He even comes to the house of the person. This particular didn't want, didn't want. The father kept on telling me, he's not up to it, he's not holding by it. And they keep on pushing. The person who calls me up keeps on pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing. No matter what I tell you, doesn't want, they're ill. Calls me up. They're right now in CHOP, in the hospital, two doors away from where this teenage choleh is laying. They're ready to come in with one of the big singers. I should call. I called them up. The father, he says, We're not holding by it. You think they let it go? They didn't let it go. They called me back and told me that they went out and they bought two pens, two pens, and they walked in for one second into the room and they gave the pens to the bachur, to the teenager. That's called chesed. That's called searching to figure out, how can I help the other person? Selfless. How can I give? He doesn't want. You're patur. He doesn't want. You're patur, right? You tried. He's not interested. Yeah, but I'm still not happy because he might not want, but I want. He might not want. He might not be up to it, but I want to do chesed. I want to do bikur cholim. I want to do, as a Yid, I want to help. So the Yid sheboi, the Yid sheboi, says, You know what? I'll figure out a way how I can do the chesed. I'm not patur. I want to do it. This is chesed, chesed, chesed.

And this is something that only you need. This is something we have to teach our children. We have to teach our children that chesed has to be ahavas chesed. Just like we can't live without breathing, we can't live without doing chesed. It doesn't exist without doing chesed. This is the lesson of the parashah of Noach. Eileh toldos Noach, Noach ish tzaddik tamim hayah b'dorosav. Mei Noach. He was supposed to daven l'bnei doro. He should have davened l'bnei doro. You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.