Parashas Toldos, Part 2: Learning to Sense the Spiritual World

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. I want to show you something interesting. You know, when Yaakov comes in to get the brachos, Yitzchak exclaims, Re'ei reiach b'ni k'reiach sadeh asher beiracho Hashem. The reiach of my son is like the reiach of the field. Which field? Gan Eden. Rashi says that it was Gan Eden. Rabbi Yerucham, Rabbi Yerucham in Daas Tevunah explains how Yitzchak was able to pick up a scent, a feeling, Gan Eden. Isn't it beautiful, huh? It was Gan Eden. He was able to pick it up. He was able to smell it. And he brings a beautiful Chovos HaLevavos that brings a story. The Chovos HaLevavos in Shaar HaKniyah, perek vav, brings a story from Eliyahu Hanavi. Everyone likes a good story. Here's a story. Eliyahu Hanavi. They were going, traveling, Eliyahu Hanavi with another person, and they pass by a dead carcass. From an animal, and when a dead carcass smells terrible, right? Carcass, dead animal, smells bad. The person who was traveling with Eliyahu Hanavi put his finger to close his nose, close his nose. And he said, Wow, it smells terrible. Says Eliyahu Hanavi to him, Yeah, but look at it. It has nice teeth. Look at the carcass. It has nice teeth. Then they passed by, another few blocks after this, they passed by a person, and the person was a sinner. Eliyahu Hanavi put his finger on his nose to close his nose. This person didn't feel anything. When he passed by the dead carcass, when it was a physical bad odor, that he smelled. But the sinner, his spiritual odor he didn't feel, but Eliyahu Hanavi felt it. And it bothered him, and he kept, and he had to close his nose off from the scent. Says Rabbi Yerucham that there are certain people who are only sensitive to the physical, but they're not sensitive, and they don't pick up the ruchniyus, the ruchniyus, for the good and for the bad, for the good and for the bad. And he says something so interesting. He says when someone is pure, he'll pick up those spiritual... Sense. Listen to the lashon he uses. I thought it was such a beautiful language, so, so eloquent, the way Rabbi Yerucham explains it. Yitzchak Avinu ha-shaleim b'chalchushav. Don't forget, Yitzchak's blind. He's talking about a blind person. Yes, some people say that when a person's blind, his other senses get stronger. Rabbi Yerucham is not saying that. Rabbi Yerucham is saying the opposite. His sense of smell was extremely good because he was a keen teruchniyus, and it was a ruchniyusdike smell. His chushim were very clear and very healthy. So he says, says Rabbi Yerucham, so mimeila, Yitzchak Avinu ha-shaleim b'chalchushav, hirgish vehiriach mamash es hareiach Gan Eden. He was able to detect the smell of Gan Eden, of Yaakov Avinu shemalei es kol siva'osav, and that steid tapuchim asher kara Chazal, which is in the Gan Eden. And he says like this: in that gan, what are the fruits of Gan Eden? It's a beautiful language. And he says, what are they? He says, they're beautiful spices and herbs, and they are.

Spice of chesed, a spice of tzedakah, righteous and doing chesed. Psamim shel emunah, spices of emunah. Spice of emes, of truth. Psamim bakol mikol kol, all different types of spiritual spices. The Gan Eden. Gan Eden is a beautiful—it's a, it's a—when you go in, there's apples and oranges and, yeah, there's chesed and emunah and tzedakah. A person spiritual will pick up on it. You walk into a fruit store, it smells apple, it smells pear, it smells apricots, peaches, peaches. Everybody says, smells some peaches. There's a ruchniyusdike smell to the peaches of Gan Eden, yeah. Ha'im efshar lanu letzayer reicho shel Gan Eden, oi lukesimrei sa'ashan, hana'im v'hamesikus, the sweetness and the aroma, the beautiful fruits and spices of Gan Eden. And then he says something so interesting. A lot of people, you walk into their house and they'll put all different types of flowers and smell and, right, to give a good scent to the house. He says, You want to make your house smell good? Fill it up with chesed and tzedakah and emes, and you walk in, wow, it smells great. You're right. Your buddy, who's not holding by much, he'll walk in, he won't smell anything. But a talmid chacham walks in, he goes, Wow, what a house. You know, many people over the years have told me that they had a special feeling when they walked into the home of my grandfather and grandmother, zichronam livracha. There was some warmth, there was a certain feeling, and they came and explained what it is. But there was something that they felt. And I listened, and I've heard the same nusach over and over again, the same expression. When my uncle put out a sefer, Das Chaim, in the introduction he writes that my grandfather and grandmother, being talmidim of Slabodka, my grandmother was a talmid of Slabodka, and growing up in Radin by the Chofetz Chaim, the house, the walls of the house, were seeped with chesed and middos and shmiras halashon. There was a ruchniyusdike atmosphere, and you were able to pick up on it. You walk into a house, It's cold! The guy looks at the thermostat. What? It's not cold. It's 80 degrees, 78, 79 degrees. Yeah, but it's cold. Your house is cold! And you can walk in and the house doesn't have to be 80 degrees. It can be 60-something degrees, and you say, It's warm. It's warm. The ruchniyus. There's a ruchniyus, and you have to be able to pick up on that ruchniyus. Yitzchak, on one hand, was sensitive to the oshon, to the smoke of the avodah zarah. He was also sensitive to what? On the good side, to the ruchniyistic good senses and smells. Gan Eden. Huh? Yafeh מאוד, huh? Yafeh. Bo tishmu. I want to tell you a story. It's a story that, to me, opens up a lot. My grandfather told me, I think it's already now in the sefarim when they write about the Alter from Slabodka, that every morning there was a talmid of the yeshiva that would bring him his breakfast, a porridge. He would make the porridge, and he would bring it to the Alter, and the Alter would eat it. This bachur had to leave to go for a wedding, so he went away for a few weeks from the yeshiva. In his place, he got a friend of his to take care of the job of making breakfast for the Alter. He brings the breakfast to the Alter, the Alter from Slabodka. He puts it down. The Alter takes a bite, and he begins to yell, Chazir! Tarfus! Machilim oti tarfus! The bachur from the yeshiva came running, What? Tarfus? They look. Tarfus? It's a porridge. I mean, how much tarfus could be already in a porridge?

In an oatmeal cereal. What could be there in a farina? Today they eat oatmeal. Oatmeal is machal... I don't know if you know that, but all right, we won't go there. Today they think it's very healthy. Maybe hiskatnu ha-dorot. Ah, nashim, mitnagim kemo behemot, az ochlim machal behemot, subim. Mi haya ochel? Hayom rak subim ochlim. Okay, good. All right. בסדר, שיהיה ככה. But what could be in a farina? What? So they ran to the bachur and they said to him, Tell me, what did you put into the farina of the altar? What did you do? He said, Nothing. Exact ingredients that my friend told me to put in: a teaspoon of farina, chalav, chema, tzafsukar, zehu. Let's go, let's check. They looked. It's the same farina and the same chema and everything the same. Nothing different than what the other bachur put in. Couldn't figure it out. So they said, Tell me, tell me, what did you change? He said, The only thing I changed was like this. The bachur told me to put the bowl of farina, yeah, to put in one teaspoon of chema and one teaspoon of sugar. Ani samti shtei kapiyot. I put in two things of butter and two things of sugar. Why? So they came to the Alter. They said, HaAlter, it sounds like he just added a little more. He says, No, no, no. He wanted to show better than the other guy. Want to make it better, yeah? Psychologically, b'hargashim, in his way of thinking, it was lidgaot, to be mitgaeh, that, see? Subliminally. He didn't even pick it, but it was—the alter felt it b'te'imat. He felt it when he tasted the porridge. Midot ra'ot, bad middos, chazir, tarfus. He couldn't take it. Hear what I say. It's beautiful. Bad middos. Bad middos. It's in the porridge. It's there. Now why don't we feel it? And the answer is, hergel, hergel, hergel. We get used to it. Halavai sheanachnu rak im bad middos misvivateinu, hu im harbeh yoter garua mizeh. We see fighting, every seret, every movie, retzach, and everyone's backstabbing the other guy, and that's what makes the movie so great. What makes a movie great? The more plot. But listen, אני לא בקי נפלא בעניינים אלו, אבל הייתי פעם ילד, אני מבין. ספר, a good book and a good movie is—what is it about? It's about the plot, right? What's a plot? You know what a plot is? The web we weave. It's about deceit, and it's about backstabbing, and it's about sheker, and all the middos ra'os. And then we walk out saying, That was a good movie. That was a good book. That was a good book. You know, you got yourself used to seeing zevel and shiflut ha'adam in its glory, in its raw form. And mitraglim l'zeh, that we don't become, and that we're not sensitive when we see sheker. It's unbelievable. I'm telling you, you know how beautiful the parsha is, the lesson. It's a lesson, tremendous lesson. Yitzchak had to be cut out, lo lirot shum davar, not to see, not to hear, not to... And this was in order he should remain kadosh, and for Karet to see better. Because if you're exposed to all the junk of the world, it has an effect on you. It has an effect on you, rabosai. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.