Toldos: Yitzchak’s Pure Eyes—Seeing the Inner World Beyond the Outside Darkness

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. This week's parsha, Parshas Toldos, the Torah teaches us and tells us that Yitzchak Avinu, in his older age, became hard of seeing. He couldn't see. This is in perek chav-zayin, pasuk aleph: Vayehi ki zaken Yitzchak vatichhena einav me'ro'os. It was when Yitzchak became old and his eyes became weak from seeing. Why is Yitzchak becoming blind, so to speak? And I use the word blind, even though we'll soon see if it was literally blind, that he couldn't see anything. Why was he becoming weak of sight? We don't find that Avraham became weak of sight, nor do we find that Yaakov became weak of sight. But Yitzchak, Yitzchak became blind. Why? So Rashi brings three pshatim, a condensation. He condenses three midrashim, three different midrashim, and explain why Yitzchak became blind. So the first pshat, the first reason that Rashi brings from a Midrash. He became blind because of the eshen, the smoke of the wives of Yishmael. I'm sorry, of Esav. He became blind because of the ashan of the wives of Esav. Vatichena baashnon shel eilu. They were doing avodah zarah in the home of Yitzchak. In the backyard, they were doing barbecues, but not kosher barbecues. They were barbecuing for avodah zarah. And therefore, there was a lot of smoke around the home, and Yitzchak got secondhand smoke in his eyes, for lack of a better term. He got secondhand smoke from avodah zarah. Good? You like it, secondhand smoke. Okay. The ashnon shel eilu, a second pshat, davar acher, a second midrash, that when he was put on the mizbeach and he was ready to be geshachten as a korban, the malachei hashares watched and they cried. Vahayu bochim. They were crying. Veyardu dimoseihem venaflu al einav. The tears fell onto the eyes of Yitzchak and he became blind. He became blind. A third pshat, davar acher, it's the third midrash, that this was a plan from the Ribono Shel Olam. It was planned. In order, he shouldn't be able to see and give the brachos to Yaakov instead of to give it to Esav. Why did the tears of Malachei Hashares make the person blind? It doesn't say clearly in the Medrash. It just says that they cried, and the tears fell into his eyes, and those tears blinded him. So we could come and say, we could come and say that because the tears of the malachim are so heilig, they're so spiritual, and the human eye isn't capable, capable of handling it. You could say that, I mean, because a person also cries; he doesn't get blind. He doesn't get blind from tears. You have to say that possibly because the tears of the malachim are so heilig, they're so pure, they're so kadosh, they can't be in the human eye, and they cause blindness. I've been bothered by this question for very long.

Time for many years. I mean, why would the Eibishter make that someone who was on the mizbeach as a korban should get blind from it? The result of him being a kadosh, a korban, should walk away from it blind. Why? You know, they could have cried and didn't have to go on. They could have geared their tears to a different direction. It had to be mamish falling, and not only it fell on him, it fell on him into his eyes. And what would be so bad if it fell on him on his back? I mean, pashut pshat in the Medrash, all my life I've been bothered. It's a very good question. You hear the shayla? You hear the question? Why is it that the malachim are crying and those tears are falling and they're making him blind? Why are they making him blind? Why are malachim's tears making someone blind? What's so much kedushah in it? Whatever it is, it's, I don't know. The Medrash is saying that it made him blind. And the second shayla that you have to ask is, so why was it directed to the eyes? They should have moved it a little to the side, a little more to the right, a little more to the left, and it would have went on his back. He had to become blind for being a korban, for being on the akeidah on the mizbeach. Rabosai, I'll tell you what I think the pshat here is. Yeah, it's a beautiful pshat. I was thinking about it for quite a while, and I came up with the understanding as follows. It's interesting that Rivka did not become blind. According to Rashi, that it has to do with the secondhand smoke from Avodah Zarah in the backyard, so why is Rivka not becoming blind? I'm saying, if it's so bad to have secondhand smoke, why does one guy get it and the guy sitting next to him doesn't get the consequence? It's a good question, huh? So you could come and say everybody's immune system is different. One person did become blind, one person didn't. You like the teretz? No, it's not a good teretz. The Baalei HaTosafos ask this question. The Baalei HaTosafos on the pasuk ask the question, why is it that Yitzchak becomes blind, but Rivka didn't become blind? Why not? She'll give an interesting teretz, an interesting answer. Says the Medrash, the yesh metartzim that the reason why he became blind and she didn't become blind, lefi shehaysa merugeles b'ashan avodah zarah b'veis aviha. She was already used to it. She was immune to it. And Tosafos, Baalei HaTosafos, she was immune to it. It didn't affect her. Very interesting, huh? Didn't affect him whatsoever. You know what I'm thinking, rabosai? I'm thinking something very interesting. I found that the Baal HaTosfos asked a different question. Baal HaTosfos say, if you take a look in Medrash, it seems that Yitzchak was two years in Gan Eden. You bring it. It's a Baal HaTosfos here. Uktzas teima, according to the man d'amar that Yitzchak spent two years away from everything and everybody in Gan Eden, why didn't Gan Eden cure him? Hear the kasha? Why didn't the Gan Eden cure him? Answers Tosfos, v'tzarich iyun. I don't know. Gan Eden, it should have had the effect to cure him, and it didn't cure him. Now what does it mean, Gan Eden would cure him? We think that Gan Eden, maybe it means he went to the Swiss Alps for fresh air and to rejuvenate, to recuperate. So how come it didn't recuperate in Gan Eden? I don't think it means that. It means that there's something in Gan Eden, a kedusha, that should have been able to recuperate.

What's taka pshat that it didn't recuperate? Why taka didn't it recuperate? I would say, Rabosai, even though for some reason Taisis doesn't answer this, so that leaves us with a question why Taisis doesn't answer, but maybe we could say a teretz, because it wasn't a bad thing that he became blind. It was a good thing that he became blind. It wasn't perfect. It wasn't a machlah. It wasn't something that he was sick, blind, and therefore the question is why didn't God heal him? The opposite. Maybe because he had this, he was able to even be in Gan Eden. Now what do I mean? There's another Taisis. Rashi quotes it in Parshas Vayetzei, when the Ribono Shel Olam reveals Himself to Yaakov by the dream, malachim oleh v'yordim bo. The Ribono Shel Olam says to him that I am, Ani Hashem. What am I? Elokei Avraham avicha v'Elokei Yitzchak. Asks the Rishonim a question: the Ribono Shel Olam never puts His name on a person if he's alive, because how could you ever guarantee he'll remain a tzaddik? So the Ribono Shel Olam doesn't put His stamp, His name, on a person unless the person passes away. And here He says, Elokei Yitzchak, and Yitzchak was still... Alive. Insists Rashi, Tosafos, and the Rishonim that even though normally Hashem would not put His name on someone that's still alive, kan yichad shmai al Yitzchak, lefi shekahu einav ukluya babayis. He was blind, and he was homebound. Kemeis. So therefore he was like a dead person. Vayeitzei hara pasak mimenu. The yetzer hara was taken away from him. The yetzer hara was taken away, and therefore the fact that he was blind and homebound, he's already a tzaddik for sure, to the point that we could, what, put the Ribono Shel Olam's name on the person. Maybe we could say that that's why HaKadosh Baruch Hu made him blind. Yitzchak was an עולה תמימה, he was a korban. He wasn't allowed to go out of Eretz Yisroel. He had to live a life of kedusha. Part of his kedusha was that he should become blind. And where did he become blind? From the Akedah. And what made him blind from the Akedah? The tears of the malachim. Not that it damaged his eyesight. The opposite. It made his eyesight holy. It made it holy. It made his eyesight that it was kadosh, that he shouldn't be able to see what was around him, and he should be homebound. And that's the teretz to the kasha: why didn't Gan Eden cure him? Because it wasn't bad, and it wasn't a machlah, chas v'chalilah. It was a blindness, a blindness blind to the bad of the world and to the svivah that was around him. And as a kadosh, as a korban, he needed to be able to be closed up, closed off, secured from what was going on around him. Yerida, is everyone with me with the teretz? You hear the teretz l'kashya? We ask you a simple question. Yitzchak Avinu becomes blind. None of the other Avos became blind. And the teretz is because Yitzchak was a korban. Yitzchak was a korban. And as a korban, he needed to be completely kadosh. His eyes were chosen not to see. And how did he not see? He didn't not see because they were sick. He didn't see because they were kadosh. And they were kadosh because of the tears, the malachim, the Akedah. And that's why Gan Eden doesn't cure him, because the opposite. He wasn't sick.

He wasn't sick. And the reason why he was given this eyes that don't see, so he should taka be bebais, and that the Eibishter should be able to miyached Shemayah olov. And I think it's meduyak in the words of the pasuk. Come, rabosai, let's read the words of the pasuk. Vayehi ki zaken Yitzchak. Yitzchak gets old. Vatichena einav. His eyes get weak. So that's it. That's all the pasuk should have said: his eyes got weak. Vatichena, he got weak. No, it doesn't say got; he got weak from seeing. Meiro'os, from seeing. Just say he got weak. Couldn't see. He got blind. He got old. A person doesn't come blind from seeing; he becomes blind. And the Rishonim answer this question a little bit. If you look at the Rishonim, the Baalei HaTosafos, and I think the way we're learning pshat, everything is very meduyak; it's very exact. His weakness of his eyes wasn't because of weakness, but it was a weakness, meiro'os, to protect him from seeing. That's the pshat. He shouldn't see. He was so pure, the Eibishter wanted him not to see. You know, there's a story of the Chofetz Chaim, and because of this story I was nis'orer to say this pshat. My zeidy told me that the Chofetz Chaim, when he got older, he couldn't hear well. So the people around him suggested they should get a hearing aid. Chofetz Chaim refused. He says, I don't want a hearing aid. Why? He says, My whole life I've been working not to hear. Hashem gave it to me. Hashem gave it to me. Baruch Hashem, I don't hear. Who wants to hear everything? Who needs to hear everything? The less you hear, the better off you are. The more pure your soul could be. So you want me to get a hearing aid to look, to find, to make it that I should hear more? Noticheno eino meirois. He didn't get blind. You know, blind is a mum. It's a chisaron. Blind is not a—it's a bad thing to be blind. If it's so that Yitzchak was a korban, he should have been tamim, should have been complete. Yitzchak's blindness, is that a sign of weakness? We find by Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu, when he died, it says, Lo nas'eino, lo nas... right? He didn't become blind. He was fully intact with all his eivarim, with all his senses. Because how yitachen if Moshe Rabbeinu was a complete person, he can't be blind. Even though he got old, even though he was ready to die, he had to be complete. Paul stresses this about Moshe Rabbeinu. At the end of Devarim, the Torah says that Moshe Rabbeinu was complete. Didn't lose his eyesight. Because losing the eyesight is a bad sign. It's a sign that the person is not complete. You know the halacha is that a navi needs to be complete. The Ribono Shel Olam will not put His Shechinah to speak to a person b'nevuah if the person is not a complete person, he's not a shalem. The Rambam speaks about it. The opposite. The navi had to be strong and healthy and perfect in all his bodily functions and bodily parts, because HaKadosh Baruch Hu does not bestow His Shechinah on a davar which is not shalem, which is not complete. So how is it that Yitzchak is blind? Does that a sign that he was not complete? And the answer is, what was his blindness? It wasn't a blindness that he couldn't read the Gemara. I know a lot of talmidei chachamim, they don't see anything, but they are able to learn. For some reason, they find a way how to see the Gemara. They say over from Rav Chaim Shmulevitz, zechut tzaddik livrachah, that Rav Chaim...

Chaim Shmulevitz was hard of hearing at the end of his life. But for some reason, when it came to learning, to speaking and learning in Torah with others, he had no problem. He was able to hear everything well. When it was something he wasn't interested in hearing, they even say it even funnier. They say that when a bachur would come to him and tell him that he wants to leave the yeshiva, Reb Chaim would say, What? I can't hear, I can't hear what he's saying. He would turn to his son and say, Meir, what's he saying? I can't hear. But when he spoke to him in learning, for some reason he heard very well. That he heard good. It doesn't say he became blind. Does it say that Yitzchak became blind? He became hard, became difficult, weak, meira'is from seeing. Maybe we could call it selective seeing, okay? It wasn't a chisaron here; it was a ma'alah. It wasn't that he was lacking something, because it's very difficult to say that the korban tamim—he was a korban, he was a sacrifice—he became damaged by the akeidah. He became damaged by the akeidah. And this is the question I asked you: does it make sense he should become blind because of an akeidah? He should have been rewarded by the akeidah. And the answer is, he was rewarded. You know, Chassidim have a very nice saying: There is nothing more complete than a broken heart. Yeah, but it's broken. It's not broken. It's humble. Blind? No, it doesn't say that he was blind. Vatichena einav me'ro'os. The opposite, he saw well. He saw healthy. He didn't see the evil of the world around him. He didn't see all the bad things that could be a hindrance to his kedusha. Now we understand why the oshon, the oshon, the oshon, the smoke, why is it a problem for Yitzchak and it's not a problem for Rivka? Remember we asked the question, why is this smoke, it's causing problems to Yitzchak? Why doesn't it cause problems to Rivka? So we said from Taisvis that Rivka was used to it from her childhood. She grew up with it. She got used to it. She got used to it. She got used to it. Got used to it means she became desensitized. While Yitzchak's eyes were so pure, Yitzchak's eyes were kadosh because he had the Akedah and because he had these tears of the malachim that made his eyes sensitive to kedusha. That's what made it sensitive also. So the oshon, the oshon here. No, yafeh me'od, rabosai. Bo, bo, navin ma shekatuv po. Yitzchak was a yafeh einayim. Tovah Dovid, Dovid was yafeh einayim. What does yafeh einayim mean? What, he had nice eyelashes? That's yafeh einayim. Yafeh einayim. What does it mean to have a beautiful eye? Avraham Avinu had an ayin tovah. What is a good eye? You know what a good eye is? Maybe being blind to the bit of the world is called a good eye. Maybe that's called ayin tovah. Maybe that's called yafeh einayim. Healthy eyes! There's eyes that don't see everything so well. The less you see, the healthier and better off your eyesight is. Rabosai, today, unfortunately, they give us to see everything that's going on in the world and everything that's going on around us 24 hours a day. You'd be better off if you didn't see all of this.

If it's arayot, for sure, Hashem yishmor. But even if it's not arayot, even if it's just machlokes and bad middot, who needs to see all that? It desensitizes us. We become callous to bad things, machlokes. Rivka was a tremendous tzaddekes, yet what she saw in her house, the ashan of the avodah zarah, it affected her to the point that it didn't affect her later to make her sensitive. Nu? Chazal, Baalei HaTosafos are telling us that it didn't affect her. Why not? Why didn't it affect her? The Torah says what? She got used to it. She got used to it. Yitzchak needed that his eyes should be closed from the world around him, and they were sensitive. And this sensitivity made it that the ashan, that the smoke of the avodah zarah of the wives of Esav, were difficult on his eyes. They were difficult. Desensitization. A person becomes desensitized, not sensitive to things that are in front of him, to things that are in front of him. I want to show you something interesting. You know when Yaakov comes in to get the brachos, Yitzchak exclaims, Re'ei reiach bni k'reiach hasadeh asher beracho 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 Torah explains how Yitzchak was able to pick up a scent, a feeling, Gan Eden. Very 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... Anovi put his finger to close his nose, close his nose. And he said, Wow, it smells terrible. Saysel, Yanavi 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. They passed by a person, and the person was a sinner. Eliyahu Hanavi put his finger on his nose to close his nose. Excuse me. 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 scents. Listen to the lashon he uses. I thought it was such a beautiful language, so, so eloquent, the way Reb Yerucham explains it. Yitzchak Avinu, ha'shaleim b'chalchushav. Don't forget, Yitzchak's blind. You talk about a blind person. Yes, some people say that when a person's blind, his other senses get stronger. Reb Yerucham is not saying that. Reb Yerucham is saying the opposite. His sense of smell was extremely good because he was a keen to ruchniyus, and it was a ruchniyusdike smell. His chushim were very clear and very healthy. So he says, says Reb 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 she'malei es kol siva'osav, and that state 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 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 psamim shel emunah, spices of emunah, spice of emes, truth, psamim b'kol 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 who's spiritual will pick up on it. You walk into a fruit store, it smells apple, it smells pear, it smells apricots, peaches, peaches. Everybody smells peaches. There's a ruchniyusdike smell to the peaches of Gan Eden, yeah. Ha'im efshar lanu letzayer reichos haGan Eden, oi l'kesemes ashan, hano'im v'hamesikus, the sweetness and the aroma of 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 light 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 a warmth and 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—Grandma was a talmidah 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.

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 he'll 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 ashan, to the smoke of the avodah zarah. He was also sensitive to what, on the good side, to the ruchniyus, the good senses and smells. Huh? Yafeh me'od, huh? Yafeh. Boti shmu. 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, and 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 in Alter of Slabodka. He puts it down. The Alter takes a bite, and he begins to yell, Chazir! מאכילים אותי טרפוס. The bachur from the yeshiva came running, What? Tarfus? Who? They look. Tarfus is a porridge. I mean, how much tarfus could be already in an oatmeal cereal? What could be there already, 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 ... ... נשים מתנהגים כמו בהמות, אז אוכלים מאכל בהמות, סובים. מי היה אוכל? היום רק סובים אוכלים. 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 malta? What did you do? He said, Nothing. Exact ingredients that my friend told me to put in: a teaspoon of farina, ... חלב, חמה, קצת סוכר, זהו. Let's go, let's check. They looked. It's the same farina and the same חמה 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 a bowl of farina, yeah, to put in one teaspoon of חמה and one teaspoon of סוכר. אני שמתי שתי כפיות. I put in two things of butter and two things of— I'm sugar. Why? So they came to the Alter, 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. He wanted to make it better, you hear? Psychologically, b'hargashim, in his way of thinking, it was l'hitga'ot, to be mitga'eh. See? Subliminally. He could have been—he didn't even pick it—but it was. The Alter felt it b'ta'amat. He felt it when he tasted the porridge. Midot ra'ot. It was 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. Hal'vai sheanachnu rak lo im bad middos misvivateinu. We see fighting every seder, every movie, redschach, 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 בנינים 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're not sensitive when we see sheker. It's unbelievable. I'm telling you, you know how beautiful the parsha was 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 fakert 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 know, the Rambam says that how does a person come to ahavas Hashem? Do you love Hashem or you don't love Hashem? Love, it's a feeling. How do you love Hashem? The Rambam asks this for a question. Says the Rambam that when you look at the briyah, the world around you, Hashem's great creation, the wisdom behind the creation, the greatness behind the creation, automatically you'll start loving HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and you'll start believing in HaKadosh Baruch Hu, emunah, ahavah, Hashem's greatness. Yeah, Rambam, famous Rambam. Tell me, does it really work? I know a lot of people wake up every morning and they see a whole world and it doesn't affect them whatsoever. I always asked Rosh Yeshivas and Gedolim, why don't in the yeshivas they take us for nature walks? They should take us. I remember when I was in Camp Agudah, my Rebbe, Rav Belsky, zecher tzaddik livrachah, used to take us for nature walks, and we talked about nature. It's a Rambam. Rambam says that that's how you come to ahavas Hashem, to look at the nature. So why don't we have sidrei yeshiva every day we should go, take off a half an hour instead of learning mussar, or with mussar, you want to know something, nonsense, plus mussar. It's good to learn mussar also. Let's go for a nature walk and let's see the briyah, and we'll come to what? To emunah and ahavah of Hashem. What happened? And you know what the answer that I was given? Today's times, you don't see it anymore. We don't get the lesson, and we don't pick up the feelings of love of Hashem through seeing nature anymore. You don't get it. But theoretically, we should. We should be able to pick it up. A friend of mine once told me that his father was once walking in a summer in the mountains, in the Catskills. He was walking with Rav Moshe Shiskal, zecher tzaddik livracha. Rav Moshe Shiskal was the son-in-law of Rav Moshe Feinstein, and he passed away young. Rav Moshe mourned him terribly. The loss of Rav Moshe was very, very painful to Rav Moshe Feinstein, and Rav Moshe used to say that he would have been the next gadol hador, that he was a giant. So my friend's father was walking with him, strolling, and they were talking and learning, and without paying attention, he was holding a branch, and he broke the branch. You know, some people, they fiddle. They fiddle with a branch, and they're playing with it, and they break the branch. Rav Moshe Shiskal turned to him. The person's name is Rav Daniel. Rav Daniel, what are you doing? It's alive. It's a lebedige zach. It's alive.

Hashem's creation, it's a twig. And at first he was like, What? It's a twig! What are you talking about? And he said, Avirav Daniel, it's the Ribono Shel Olam's lebedike—it's the Ribono Shel Olam's live tree. What are you doing? I learned a tremendous lesson. People who are sensitive, people who are intelligent, they see life in everything around them, and therefore they see Hashem in everything around them. It's beautiful. It's such a beautiful lesson. Listen to the lesson. We can walk around and see trees, and we can see an entire world. Doesn't affect us whatsoever. Doesn't do anything to us. Why? What happened? We become desensitized, desensitized, desensitized. And therefore when we see beauty, and when we see middos, and when we see ruchniyus, and when we see Gan Eden, we don't see anything. We don't see it. We don't feel it. To be able to be pure, pure, pure, pure, pure. I want to tell you something interesting. I once heard from a Chashuve Yid, Rabbi Weinhaus. He was a talmid of the Mir in Europe, and he said that he was once standing as a person walked over to Rabbi Yerucham, and he overheard the following conversation. He went over to Rabbi Yerucham, this person, and he asked that they say over. The Rabbi Yisroel Salanter was once walking together with somebody, and they saw sunrise. They saw the sunrise. I guess they were walking before sunrise, and they decided, you know what, let's stop and let's see sunrise. Sunrise came. Rabbi Yisroel saw it. He was so moved, overwhelmed with emotion, that he began to dance, and he made the bracha, Hanosein lasechvi vinah lehavchin bein yom uvein laylah. He was moved. He was elevated. He was nit'orer. The sun. And it rises every morning. By this point, he must have seen the sun come and go quite a while. Yet he was moved and elevated. So the person asks Rabbi Yerucham, and I heard it from the person that was standing there and overheard the conversation, We're not so far off in years from Rabbi Yisroel Salanter. Rabbi Yisroel Salanter just lived a few years ago. How come he was moved to dance when he saw the sun, and we're not even anything? It doesn't mean anything to us. We come and we wake up in the morning, that's how we make the bracha, Hanosein lasechvi vinah. And we look at our clocks and our watches. We have to go, we have appointments, appointments, appointments. Today it's not even a watch. I'm looking at my watch. I'm old-fashioned. Here today it's the phone. Appointment. What happened? Rabbi Yerucham answered him the following. On the spot, Rabbi Yerucham responded and he said, You know why we're not so moved, we're not emotionally nisoyer when we see the sun? Because the sun doesn't rise just for me, for us. It's for everyone. What? So what? For everyone, big deal. Just to give you a mashal, this Yid gave me an example. Guy gets a brand new car. If he's the only guy in the block that has the car, it's a big thing, his car. But if everyone has the same car, no big deal. אילו היה הנאה רק לו. If the sun was only enjoying it, and he had special rights to the sun—what do you call special? VIP, what do you call it? VIP to the sun. If he was a VIP, you ever see, you go on the same plane, right? But if you're VIP, VIP, they give you an extra peanut. What do they give you there already? So you can buy your drink. So therefore what? But I'm VIP and you're not VIP. Then it's a—

Exciting. You think, who knows who you are because you're VIP, because you paid for first class tickets. So what? You paid for it. What's the difference? At least I can walk around. Okay? Yeah? Good. So the sun rises for everyone. So I don't enjoy it. Yeah, I don't enjoy it that much. Big deal. And why did Rabbi Yisrael Salanter dance? Because it wasn't only for him. It was for everyone. And that's what excited him. I saw once a letter that my grandfather wrote. The person was offering him a specific thing which was very good for my grandfather, and my grandfather turned it down. He says, I don't want it. קשה לי ליהנות בדבר שכל ההנאה היא רק שלי. It's very difficult for me to enjoy something that the only one that's enjoying from it is me. You know what that is? That's not blind. That's sensitive. That has feelings, healthy emotions and healthy feelings. When you're not healthy, the whole hanaah is that I have and the other guy doesn't have. That's what gives you enjoyment. The more we see, and the more garbage from the svivah around us, we become mushpa, that we become filtered. We become completely pushed on us, all this, all... You know what that does for us? That not only we don't have healthy feelings, and have healthy responses, and healthy emotions. Vaker, we have sick emotions, and we think we're normal, we think we're healthy. Instead of getting moved by spiritual, by chesed and kindness, what do we like today? Here, what do we... We voted for a president because he's a bully. Because he's a bully, we think he's good. That that's what we... There was a time and a place we'd say, but he's not a ben adam, he's almost not a... he's a chaya ra. Well, what are you doing? We're so... and this is because the media throws at us. It throws at us all the different dashkafot raot and midot raot, and we think it's a maalah, it's a tremendous thing. He's a tough guy. He crushed all the people around him, he crushed. Yeah, he's a tough guy. You hear the maalah? Hayah tzarich lihyot shezeh chisaron hachi gadol. Hayom, zeh hamaalah hachi gedolah. Lama? Because we're flooded. That was the word I was looking for. We're being flooded with misinformation, and bad chinuch, and bad midot influencing us. This is, meraot. Best thing is to shut it all down. Look inward. What's pure, what's good, what's real. I'll tell you a beautiful story. Tell you a beautiful story. I heard from a chashuv person, Harav Levenberg. His son is a good friend of mine, a talmid chacham muflag, that wrote many, many sefarim. Imrei chein, a person sits in Lakewood yeshiva, locked away from the whole world. Al haTorah v'al ha'avodah. By his Gemara, he knows nothing from the outside world. Good friend of mine, Rabbi Yehuda Levenberg, his father told me the following story. His father told me that his grandfather, who was a big rav in Europe, was once sitting at a table and the Chofetz Chaim was sitting next to him. And on the table there was a sefer. There was a sefer. The sefer was written by a person who was not such a big talmid chacham. And in the sefer he wrote something which was wrong. It was silly. It was a silly thing to write. The grandfather of Rabbi Levenberg looked at it and he started to, like, smirk and, ooh, it's bad. What kind of silly thing did this person write? So he turns to the Chofetz Chaim and he says, Chofetz Chaim, look, look what the guy wrote. It seems like an innocent, such a bad thing. It's a sefer on the table, something that the guy wrote. And the way Rabbi Levenberg explained, it's not even lashon hara, it's lashon...

Horror. If the guy wrote it in a book, he wants you to read it. He wrote it in a book that you should read it, right? So he was giving it to the Chofetz Chaim to read. Chofetz Chaim didn't even look in the direction, moved. You get to see this on the tape. You don't get this, so I have to show—pick it up a little bit. So the book was on the table, you see? I'm conscious to the audience around me. The book was on the table, and he pushed it away without looking. He pushed it away without looking. He didn't want to see. I don't want to see. So Rabbi Levenberg tells this to the Chofetz Chaim. He tells the Chofetz Chaim, but it's not lashon hara. I mean, it's written in a book. It was meant to read. Everyone could read. It's not lashon hara. Something that's open to the public to read can't be lashon hara. If I give you a newspaper to read, what's lashon hara? You know what the Chofetz Chaim answered? You're right. In halacha, it's not an issur. But who needs it? Why do I have to know that this person wrote something stupid? What do I need it for? Better if I don't know it. The purity, the beauty of it. Not everything, because it's mutar, is something that's healthy to do. A healthy person doesn't see bad middos, doesn't see evil, he doesn't see mistakes. You don't have to look there. You look positive. You look nice about things and people, sefarim and mechabrei sefarim. Don't need to look negative. A healthy person looks positive and kind. You should be blind to negativity. Blind to bad, and blind to movies, and blind to the dirt that they're throwing at us on a constant basis. That you need to be blind to. That's very important for kedusha. And if you have that, that you cut it all out, and you train yourself to only see and hear good things, you'll see in Hashem's world beautiful things. You'll see Hashem every step of the way. You'll see a world of kindness. You'll see fruits and herbs, like he calls, of chesed and emes. I want to end with the following story. Okay? One story, yeah? One beautiful story. I was moved by this story, touched, and I take it with me wherever I go. In my mind, all my experiences, in the back of my mind, this story goes with me. The heilige, heilige, the holy Klausenberger Rebbe, zecher tzaddik livracha, zecher tzaddik livracha, the Klausenberger Rebbe. He went through an ordeal in the concentration camps, maybe worse than most. Lost a wife and thirteen children. The torture that this person went through. And he was encamped in the concentration camp. He was made to work and to be beaten. He had a tremendous ordeal. The worst experience of the concentration he went through. He was in the Moldog, Moldog concentration camp. After the war, when they freed the concentration camp of Moldog, so the buses came to pick up the people to take them to the Feldteg DP camp. That was the name of the DP camp, the Feldteg. And as the people were going onto the bus, Klausner Rebbe was waiting on line, even though he was a Rebbe, but he waited on line like everybody else to get onto the bus. And he stopped, and he asked the person that was in front of him, Please make the driver wait a few moments. I need an extra few moments. I need to go back to the bunker in the concentration camp because I forgot something. I left something there. He left. He came back 15, 20 minutes later. No, no. The bus waited, and he went onto the bus. And the person asks the Rebbe, Rebbe, what did you leave there? There was nothing there. You had nothing. You had nothing. What did you leave over there? He didn't want to answer. He didn't want to answer. I left something. He started to look. I don't...

You came back with anything? Did you find what you were looking for? Years later, this Jew that was questioning the Klausenberger Rebbe, that made the bus wait for the Rebbe, went to visit the Klausenberger Rebbe. And he said, Rebbe, what was it that you left behind that we waited for you to go back and pick up? And he said something so unique, so eye-piercing, mind-piercing, something very, very, a lesson in life which I take, and like I said, wherever I go and whatever I experience, I take this lesson with me. He said, You know what we went through in the concentration camps. We lost everything. We had nothing, literally nothing. One thing that we had, we had Hashem. That's the one thing we had in the concentration camp. We had that. And how did we have that? Through tefillah. We were able to daven. That's what we were able to connect to the Eibishter, and that was the only thing we had that kept us going. Halacha is that when you daven, you have to have a makom kavua. You need to have a set place where you daven, a makom kavua l'hispalel, to daven. All the years in the concentration camp, this is what kept me going, my connection with Hashem. And I'm leaving it behind now. I'm leaving that now. So I went back one last time to re-experience that connection, to take it with me for the rest of my life. I needed one more time to say goodbye to the place and to take the connection that I had in that place, internalize it for the future, to take it with me wherever I go. What did I learn from this? There are two worlds, rabosai. There's the world around us, and that's the Olam HaSheker. It's a world of dishonesty, a world of evil, a world of difficult people and difficult situations. But even amongst that world, there's an inner world. There's an inner world where a person could live in, and that world is pure, and that world is beautiful, and that world is the world where HaKadosh Baruch Hu dwells, where HaKadosh Baruch Hu dwells. The world around us, like I said, floods us with the Olam Chutz, with the outside world. The outside world is sheker. It's bad midos. But then there's the inner world. Yitzchok lived in that inner world, kalua babayis. He was locked in his house, blind to the outside world, but he saw much more than most people see, even though vatechena einav me'ro'os. He saw a lot, because in his inner world it was kadosh, it was pure. was purity to his inner world. And there's so much in that beautiful world where you can be connected to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Don't think that in the outside world, where things are not real and the middos are bad, you'll see HaKadosh Baruch Hu. You won't see HaKadosh Baruch Hu there. But from within, it's pure, and the middos are good, and hashkafos are good, and the eyes are pure. Your insides, you will see HaKadosh Baruch Hu from within. You will see. You'll see the Shechinah resting even in the most difficult, hardest of places. I end with the following pasuk, because with this story I understood pshat in the pasuk. By the tochachah it says that when the tochachah comes, when the bad things approach, they come to you, v'amar, you'll say, Al asher eina loi ka b'kirbi, matza'uni ra'os rabos eileh, because Hashem is not within me, b'kirbi, amongst me, matza'uni, it found me all the bad, all the evil. Matza'uni ra'os, all the bad and evil. Which means the tochachah, all the bad things that happens because Hashem is not amongst. Notice it doesn't say, Ki eina loi ka.

It says, Ki eina loikach bikirbi. Hashem is not within me. Metza'uni, it found me, re'os rabos. It won't affect you if you have HaKadosh Baruch Hu from within. You like it. It's beautiful. I was thinking about it on the way in this morning. Metza'uni, metza'uni re'os rabos. How does it catch me? How does it overtake me? And the answer is, ki eina loikach bikirbi. If the Eibishter is within the person, there could be a lot of ra'os around him, but it doesn't affect him. He's able to function, like Loizhener Rebbe, zecher tzaddik livrachah, is able to function in a concentration camp and relive the ad experience. He wanted to relive it. It's interesting how he wanted to relive that experience. Most people would say, I want to forget it. It's a new life. Let's turn the page. No. I want that. How could you want that experience? How could you want what you... You should try to get it out of your system, out of your mind. And the answer is, because even in the hardest of times, if from within, from within, there's happiness, a certain type of happiness that you're connected to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, bikirbi, and in that world it's healthy, and in that world it's love. And he wanted to re-experience it, to take that experience with him for the rest of his life. B'tz'undi rois rabois. When do the bad is when it's eina loyka b'kirbi. The internal is not pure. The internal is not spiritual. The internal is not holy. The internal is not emes. It's not truth. Let's learn from the parsha, rabosai, to work on from within, and try to block, try to block the external world. You don't need to know every two seconds about everything that happens to everybody. It's so important for you to know what happens to that guy 24/7. What does it have to do with you? We're so busy living the other person's life that what? We're not living our life. We're not busy being we. Could you imagine you're married to 50,000 people a day? Think about it. You have a hard time just to be married to one person. With the phones and the internet, you're married. You're busy with everyone's life. How could you be busy with 50,000 people's lives? And this guy and this guy, and he sat and he went and he came in, and chat and chat. What do they call that? Chat rooms? What's happened? What's happened? What's happened? What do you mean, what's happened? Did it happen to you? What's happened? Did it happen to you? Why is it your business? Why is it your business what happened to the other guy? People who are empty and don't have themselves a life need to be constantly busy with everyone else's life but their own. This is the lesson, the parsha. Let's take it and let's purify our eyes and our minds and our hearts, v'lizchot to see the beauty, beauty of HaKadosh Baruch Hu everywhere, everywhere, and in everything we watch and in everything we experience. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.