Toldos: Rivka’s Tefillos, Yitzchak’s Akeidah, and the Mesiras Nefesh Behind Raising Children

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Parshas Toldos. The parsha begins with the tefillah, the davening Yitzchak and Rivka to have a child. Pasuk says clearly, Vaye'tar Yitzchak laShem lenochach ishto ki akarah hi. She was an akarah. She couldn't have children. It's interesting that Rivka, as well as Sarah, as well as Rachel, as well as all the imahos, were all akaros. They all couldn't have children. It wasn't a coincidence. It was done on purpose. It was a master plan, so to speak. The Rabbeinu Shalom had a cheshbon that all the imahos should be akaros. This is a Chazal. Chazal tell us in Yevamos, daf samech daled, that there's a reason why all the imahos were akaros. It's a famous Chazal. Everybody knows it. HaKadosh Baruch Hu mis'aveh l'tefilosan shel tzaddikim. The Rabbeinu Shalom wants, taiva, mis'aveh, very strong language of wanting, for the tefillah of the tzaddikim. And so the Rabbeinu Shalom makes them an akarah. An akarah will daven to have children, and she'll put all her koiches, all her kavanos in the tefillah. The Rabbeinu Shalom wants this tefillah, b'meila He makes them an akarah. It's interesting that there's another Medrash that says a different pshat. The Medrash, in hakdamah to Parshas Tetzaveh, that the p'sichah l'Eichah says that the reason why the Ribono Shel Olam made Rivka akarah, it's not that she was part of the list of all the other akaros, but it's specific to Rivka, a cheshbon, a separate cheshbon, a separate reason. And that is that the umos ha'olam should not say that the brachah of Lavan, who said, Achoseenu ati hi, l'alfei revavah, gave her a brachah that she should have children, grow into a big nation. So the umos ha'olam shouldn't come and say it was their brachah that caused Klal Yisrael, that brought about Klal Yisrael. Pashut pshat in the Chazal is that they shouldn't take credit for the brachah. They shouldn't take credit in Klal Yisrael that it's כאילו they created Klal Yisrael. And what's the big deal if they say it? What's it—let them say what they want. What's the difference? Let them say it. They'll take credit, so let them walk around taking credit. I don't know, is it such a big issue that the Ribono Shel Olam had to make that she should be an akarah and suffer for all these years in order that the goyim shouldn't mistakenly think? It's not an interesting Chazal, no? That they shouldn't come and say, the umos ha'olam shouldn't come and say it was their brachah. And if they say, they say a lot of things. Let them say what they want. How does it affect us what they say? That it should be that such a tzaddik should have to suffer ten years, ten years of suffering of not having a child. And it's also interesting to point out that don't think the bracha that was given was a weak bracha; it was a big bracha. L'maaseh, we use this bracha. Every kallah by the chuppah gets this bracha, Achiseinu ati l'alfei revava. So what are we making cheap the bracha? Takah is a good bracha. So shelo yomru, they shouldn't think it's their bracha. I mean, it is a good bracha; it did work, it is something. We use that bracha. If it would be a bracha that's wrong or bad, we wouldn't use it. So if someone gives a bracha and it works, so let him feel that his bracha had something to do with it. What's the big deal? What's the ... the big to-do? The goyim are going to say, so they'll say it, so what? Takah gave a good bracha. What's the pshat in this Chazal? I believe the pshat in the Chazal is different than the simple pshat we just said, that the goyim shouldn't take credit. It's not about the goyim taking credit. The issue is not that the goy will feel that he and his bracha, he...

He was a—he's the reason for Klal Yisroel. Nah, that's not enough of a reason to make, l'choira, Rivka an akarah. There's a deeper pshat in this Chazal, and I'd like to discuss the whole inyan of why the imahos were akaros, because the Ribono Shel Olam is mis'aveh l'tefilosan shel tzaddikim. Pashut, you learn that the Ribono Shel Olam wants the tefillah. That's the pashut pshat in the Gemara. I have a question, and this question bothered me since I was a little boy. I remember asking this question to my rebbe in class when we learned this Chazal, this Rashi. I asked this question. I got a prize for the question. It's taka a great question. If the Ribono Shel Olam wants their tefillah, it can only be making her an akarah? It can be many things. The Ribono Shel Olam can make that they should be sick or lack parnassah. There's so many reasons why a person needs to daven. So dafka an akarah? You're right, He wants the tefillah, let's say. That's the pashut pshat in the Gemara in Yevamos סמך ד in the Chazal. Fine. But so why akarah? Anything, any nisyonos, any difficult situation, in order to bring about that they should daven. Why akarah? Why specifically this nisayon? This year, I was zocheh to find that the Satmar Rav, in his sefer Divrei Yoel, asks this question, but not in this week's parsha, in Parshas Vayeishev. If you want to look it up, it's page ריש מם, agavurcha, like in the middle of a shtikel Torah, he brings this Chazal and he asks this question: You want them to daven. Why does it have to be akarah? It could be many things. And he gives an interesting teretz, which I would say, re'uyim hadvarim l'mi she'amram. Only a Satmar Rebbe, someone on that level, on that madreigah, would give such an answer. He says the following. He says that tzaddikim, when they get nisyonos, when they get difficulties, they don't really daven with all their force, because they end up saying, Gam zu l'tovah. They think it's for their good, it's for their benefit. So therefore, they don't put all the effort, mamash, ki'ilu meisim nafsham b'kafam, which tefillah means, to put your mamash, your whole life into it, because they accept, yeah, whatever the Eibishter does is l'tovah. So deep down, they don't feel the need to completely daven to change the situation. But children, children is tachlis habriyah. Children is Klal Yisrael. Children is Torah. It's all about Torah. So that, important, that they're going to daven with all their koiches. Beautiful teretz. And he ends off, V'havein, understand, which means not all can understand this answer. It takes a certain type of a person, and obviously what he means is an ehrliche Yid will understand. You accept what the Eibishter gives you, you take it. But this, to not have children, ah, that a person puts his whole life, his whole life into davening for, because that's the tachlis, Yiddishkeit, the links, the continuation of Klal Yisrael. That a person is going to daven with all his koiches, the biggest tzaddik even more. And the Ribono Shel Olam is meisavel the tefilos of tzaddikim. For what? Because He knows that this they're going to daven for, because this is so important. I believe that we could say that maybe that's pshat in the pasuk. The pasuk says that Yitzchak davens. It says, the pasuk, Yitzchak davened. Vaye'etar Yitzchak laShem, lenochach ishto, ki akarah hi. Maybe we could say, nice to hear, nice pshat in the pasuk. Yitzchak davens laShem. Why does he want children? It's laShem. Also, lenochach ishto, for his wife, she should have children. Listen, just because you accept the nisyonos of Hashem, what Hashem gives you, yeah, but what about your wife? For her, so you have to daven for her that she shouldn't suffer. Could be the pasuk is saying, Yitzchak, the reason why he davens here is laShem. It's all about Hashem. Also, lenochach ishto. He looks at his wife, he feels bad for her. She's suffering. The suffering part, it doesn't move him because he's mekabel with a deibishter. The suffering is not the problem.

Avonos adam l'Hashem. He needs to do Torah, mitzvahs. But he looks at his wife, she's suffering. You can't be mekabel yissurim b'ahavah. Your yissurim, you can be mekabel b'ahavah, not someone else's. I once asked this to my Rebbe, Rav Pam, zecher tzaddik livrachah. If everything is gam zu l'tovah, we believe everything is for the best, so why do I suffer for Yenem? Why should I feel bad? I should say gam zu l'tovah when a person has a bad calamity, a bad tzarah. And of course he answered me, Yissurim shemekabel b'ahavah, not yissurim. Imagine a guy walks around mekabel yissurim; the other guy's yissurim b'ahavah. Your yissurim b'ahavah and his yissurim, it should bother you terribly. And why? The answer is very simple, chaver, which I discussed with my roshei yeshiva, my Rebbe. Your ruchniyus is your concern, but when it comes to the other guy, his ruchniyus is not your concern; his gashmiyus is your concern. You have to care about his physical, what he needs. Vitur, to say, I don't care, gam zu l'tovah, that's for you, on your cheshbon. So that's Vayeter Yitzchak laHashem. He davens. It's all about the Eibishter, Ribono Shel Olam. I need children. I could teach them Torah, the future Klal Yisrael. But then also it's l'nochach, he looks, ishto. He asks the Eibishter for children because his wife is suffering. Her tzaar, her tzaar. He can't be mekabel b'ahavah. And this is l'choirah based on what the Satmar Rav says, that the pshat is, the Ribono Shel Olam mis'aveh l'tefilosan shel tzaddikim. Knowing that they won't daven for the person, so they need something, a cause, which is Hashem, Hashem Shamayim, that they're going to daven for. So the nisayon is akaras not to have children. I would like to tell you over a me'oreidike Malbim, and with this Malbim give a different pshat, a different teretz to the kasha: why akaras? Why not having children is the nisayon that is chosen to bring about tefilosin shel tzaddikim? It could have been anything, like I asked, and the teretz might be based on a beautiful Malbim. You read the words of the Malbim; they're so beautiful, grammatical. The grammar, the language is so beautiful, so rich, as well as the yesod that he brings out, that it really moves. It's very moving. The neshama gets stirred when you read the words of this Malbim. Beautiful. He says, look, the imayos were akaros. Why, says Malbim? He says to have a child physically is not a nes; it's teva. Every creation in the world gives off offspring. But to give off children Klal Yisrael, children which are chelek... beautiful, beautiful Malbim. You should know, when I read the words of the Malbim, my neshama, there was something inside, it was stirring. It's a beautiful Malbim. The words he uses to have children, kodesh hilulim, like the first fruit, which is beautiful. He said, That's not nature. That's not teva. That can't come about by itself. So what does the Ribono Shel Olam do? The Ribono Shel Olam makes the woman, the mother, akarah. She, through the akaras, has to work on herself to become close to Hashem, to daven. She, in English, in English, Yiddish, we call it shteiging. She grows. She elevates herself through her situation to the point that now she's ready to give birth to Yiddishe kind, a Jewish child. I'm going to read you inside, rabosai. Hu neged hateva, to have a child that's heilik, a holy child is neged hateva. V'tzarich l'zeh eizer Eloki. You need Hashem to help you with it. Al kein haya meisenu akaros. Why? Ki sheyeitzei min haklipah pri kodesh. In order it should come out pri kodesh, ein hateva muchenes me'atzmah. Can't do it on its own. Till yefia koach Eloki. It needs the help, a higher spiritual being to be able to do this. Shezeh yesoder al yedei hatefillah. And that comes through the woman who davens, through her tzarah, through her nisayon.

L'hatzil neshamah kedoshah bas Elokim, that the woman should become a bas Elokim, connected to the Eibishter, and then ta'as Chayil, she's able to produce such a child. Yitzchak, he wasn't an akarah. It says clearly, Chazal, he was able, but she wasn't able, because Yitzchak went through the Akedah, says the Malbim. So he was fit to have already such a child. Rivka, coming from Besuel's house, had to go through this cleansing, this spiritual elevation, this steiging, this ilah to go up, and then she was fit to be able to have a child like Yaakov Avinu. Unbelievable Malbim, unbelievable. To have kedushah is not—what do you think, to have a Yiddishe kind is just a child? It's not a child. Goyim have children. Everybody has children. Animals have children. Every being, every form of life, fruit, are molid peiros; they give off. But you're going to compare a Yiddishe kind to a fruit, to an animal, to a tiger who gives a child, to even a goy who gives off a child? Kedushah needs that the mother should have been a spiritual entity, a being, a bas Elokim. If you look at the Ran in the drashos, he says this point, lihyos mechubar, that through the tefillah, the mothers, the imahos, became mechubar to the Eibishter, that now they were able to give off Klal Yisrael, which is very much the yesod this Malbim is saying. Through the tefillah, they were able to grow into, to grow into the mothers that are capable of giving such Klal Yisroel. As I always say, Klal Yisroel is gebaitigt to daven for the Yiddishe mammes, from the tears of the Jewish mothers. It doesn't happen by itself, Klal Yisroel. There's a beautiful Chassidishe deher I saw. If you look later in the parsha, when Yaakov Avinu gets the brachos from Yitzchak, Yaakov enters and Yitzchak says to him, Re'ei, reiach bni k'reiach hasadeh asher beiracho Hashem. Look at the smell. It's like the smell of Gan Eden. Rei, meiredik, unbelievable. He's, he's exclaiming, the, the, kvelling, the, meiredik, the reiach bni. Then he begins the bracha: V'yiten lecha Elokim mital hashamayim u'mishmanei ha'aretz, v'rov dagan v'tirosh. The yiten, the vav, l'choira is not belonging there. It should be yiten. The bracha begins from there, yiten, Hashem should give. Why does it say ve, ve and He should give? I mean, you didn't give a bracha before that you should add. You're starting here, the bracha, yiten. So the Chachamim, the Chazal already darshen, what's the v'yiten? The vav is to tell me yiten v'yosef v'yiten. It's like you're supposed to read it twice. Yiten, and again v'yiten. He should give and give. More and more. And therefore, vav is appropriate. The vav is to tell me yitein v'chozev v'yitein. See, the Sifarim say, ... I saw from the Amshiner Rebbe, sheinah deher. He says like this, that actually the bracha began from reiach b'ni k'reiach sadeh asher beiracho Hashem, and v'yiten is actually a continuation. What's the pshat? So he brings a beautiful maaseh. He says when the Ruzhiner Rebbe, the Ruzhiner Rebbe came to get a bracha from the Barditchever on the day of his chasnah, the day of his wedding. The Barditchever always spoke to the Eibishter about the beauty of Klal Yisrael, so he says, Ribono Shel Olam, look, look, where are you going to find chassanim, a chassan like this? So beautiful. Azoi heilige sheine chassan, look, look. Says the Amshiner Rebbe, yeah, but he came for a bracha. Well, he asked the Rebbe for a bracha. What did the Rebbe tell the Eibishter? The Eibishter, take a look how gevaldik your chassan is. Where was the bracha? He says, you misunderstanding what the Barditchever was saying. The Barditchever was saying to the Ruzhiner, Bracha? That itself is the biggest bracha.

Look. Look at the difference between you and a goyish person the day of his wedding. Look at the levels. Look at the kedusha. Look at the Yiddishe heilikeit, what a chosson, a Yiddishe chosson looks like. That itself, he was telling him, is the biggest bracha. Zeh yesh se'ovah, that when people would come to ask the Chofetz Chaim for a bracha, he would say, You want a bracha? Okay. He'd open up the Chumash, and he would say, it says clearly, Re'eh, nasati lefanecha hayom es habrachah v'es haklalah. Es habrachah asher tishme'u. Okay, you got your bracha. You listen to the mitzvos Hashem, it says clearly, that's the bracha. Okay, go ahead. The person wanted a bracha, so he said, Okay, here it is. This is the bracha, asher tishme'u. Good. Understand and appreciate what it means to have Torah. And I think that's what he was saying to the Amshinover Rebbe, understanding the bracha, the baditcher, that he was telling the chasid, Bracha, asher tishme'u. Look, look, this is the bracha. This is it. Then he says, that's the pshat. Re'eh, reiach b'ni k'reiach hasadeh. Yankev Avinu, you came for brachos? You're already benched. Look at you. Don't you realize the biggest bracha is to sit and learn and to daven and to have Gan Eden? Re'eh, reiach b'ni k'reiach hasadeh sheberacho Hashem. Oh, you want more? You want also gashmiyus? Okay, v'yiten, okay, I'll give you. And also he should give you, okay, there's the... but the iker. What's the main part of the bracha? Re'eh, reach b'ni k'reiach hasadeh. Bracha is to understand. Bracha is to realize that a Yid is gebentsht. And what is he gebentsht? That he's able to reach levels of reach b'ni k'reiach hasadeh, heilig, kedusha, Yiddishkeit. Dos heist gebentsht. That means that you're mevarech, you're patka gebentsht. You have to appreciate the kedusha ilulim that a person is. We're heilig a mensch. We're not a regular offspring of a cat. And even a person can't create what we are. Re'eh, reach b'ni k'reiach hasadeh shebeiracho Hashem. You want more? V'yitein lecha Elokim mital hashamayim u'mishmanei ha'aretz. Good, okay, I'll give you also this. That's the pshat, rabosai. In kedusha ilulim, kedusha ilulim, a Yid is nitztam. Yid is zogt nitztam. It's much more. And in order to produce that, the imois had to go through the nisayon, the nisayon of being an akarah. Tefillah, rabosai, is not the purpose anymore, according to the Malbim. It's actually part of the tefillah, part of the inyan that the Ribono Shel Olam wants, that you should become davuk to the Eibishter, to be able to create another Jew, another Yid. It's not mis'aveh l'tefillosan. Otherwise, you're right, the Ribono Shel Olam could give many nisyonos. It's not about the tefillah anymore, according to the Malbim. And if it was, then, ein hachanami, the question was, give mother nisyonos. But it's not that. It was part of having a child needed first an akaros, which would bring about tefillah, and the tefillah would be the thing that would connect the person to the Eibishter to be a bas Elokim, to be able to be connected to the Ribono Shel Olam in order to produce. So the Ribono Shel Olam mis'aveh l'tefilosan shel tzaddikim. That happens to be true, so He gives them other nisyonos. But here the Ribono Shel Olam wants that they should daven to get close to Him in order they should be able to have these children. So it's a whole different point. There's an interesting lashon of a Medrash, rabosai. The Medrash says, the Ribono Shel Olam mis'aveh l'tefilosan v'sichasan shel tzaddikim. The Medrash adds the word sichah. What does it mean, sichah? Tefillah is sichah; it's the same thing. So what's the double lashon, the redundancy, HaKadosh Baruch Hu mis'aveh l'tefilosan v'sichasan? And I think the pshat, rabosai, is very pashut. Tefillah lankiya teif, v'lifnei Hashem...

Yishpoch sicho. In a matzav of ani, when a person is lacking, there's tefillah, but there's something even closer than tefillah, and that's called sicha. You know, when a person has trouble, daiga b'lev ish, yasichenah l'acheirim. Chazal use the same word, sicha. What is sicha there? When you speak to somebody to get something off your chest, and you're close to him, he's your friend, that's called daiga b'lev ish, yasichenah. Yasichenah means I speak it over with someone who I can relate to, I connect with, someone that I'm close to, a friend. The darga of tefillah—tefillah is even for goyim, ki beisi beis tefillah yikarei l'chol ha'amim. Beis tefillah is for everybody. A goy could daven today, b'shta. But sicha, that relationship, sicha, the relationship, closeness, that you speak over lifnei Hashem. Tefillah la'ani ki ya'atof, lifnei Hashem yishpoch sicho. The sicha means that he connects, and this is the imoyus needed more than just tefillah. According to the Medrash, it's deeper than tefillah. It had to be like the Malbim says, kirva, such closeness, that HaKadosh Baruch Hu mis'aveh l'tefillosan v'sichasan. The sicha is as well part of the—because the sicha means that they're batel to Him, they become connected to the Ribono Shel Olam, like the Ramban says in the drashos, in order to produce a Klal Yisroel. I've told you in the past, maybe the k'maise, that changed my life. It's something that was made a whole difference in who I am. My shadchan for my wife was a chashuve person called Rabbi Yaakov Tolidano. Rabbi Yaakov Tolidano was the Rosh Yeshiva in France, in Paris, an adam gadol, tzaddik, a yirei Shamayim, a talmid chacham, tremendous personality, a big speaker. The way he davened and the way he gave over shiurim in Mussar, a dynamite. Talmid Rav Shach. He was one of the biggest talmidim of Rav Shach, and later became the Rosh Kollel in Gateshead. In Gateshead Kollel, they didn't just take everybody. The best guy became the Rosh Kollel, and when he left, the next guy after him who was best at that moment, the best guy became the Rosh Kollel. And he was Rosh Kollel for many years. Rabbi Yaakov Tolidano was a chaver of brachah, zichrono livrachah. He got a very bad machlah, Lou Gehrig's disease. Lou Gehrig's, that the body closes down, Lou Gehrig's disease. The mind works perfectly till the end. Just the body doesn't function. Terrible machlah. I went to visit him towards the end when he was sick already and he couldn't move. And I came there, he was sitting, and they were giving him to drink coffee. He couldn't pick up the cup, so they were giving him to drink. And I couldn't see it. I was taken back by what I... I began to cry. So he turns to me in Yiddish and he says, Vos veinstu? Why are you crying? So I told them, Al hai shufra d'bala bara. This beauty. It's a Gemara in Brachos about Rabbi Yochanan, al hai shufra, the bala bara that's disintegrating into the ground. He looks at me and he says, Veinish, don't cry. I want to tell you something. There was a haskalah, a movement in Morocco, and there was a danger for Yiddishkeit for the children. Don't forget, his father was the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, Toldos Danon. He wrote the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch for the Moroccan Jews. He was a gadol baTorah. His father, Rav Fal Baruch, Fal Baruch Toldos Danon. The children were in danger because of the wave of haskalah that passed through. So the boys were sent to England, to Gateshead, to learn in the yeshivas, Rabbi Yaakov included, and they got saved. They remained religious. The girls, they were swept away. A lot of them were swept away. His sister became frei, became non-religious. She came to visit him, he tells me, and she looks at him and she was overwhelmed by what she saw, and she turns to him and she says, Yaakov, zu Torah v'zu scharah?

Okay, you see, you chose a life of Torah. The Eibishter paid you back. He says, I answered her. I answered her. She didn't understand what I told her, but you're a ben Torah. You'll understand. I told her that the closeness, the kirvah that I feel to the Eibishter through my machlah, through my disease, through davening in this situation, I could have never achieved such closeness any other way. I thanked the Eibishter for this machlah. Those are the words he used. He says the machlah brought about that I should become attached to the Eibishter with love. She didn't understand. You'll understand, he tells me. Veinish don't cry. Tzadikim become baser l'Elokim, connected with the Eibishter through tefillah, through the koach of tefillah. And the Ribono Shel Olam wants this kirvah in order to what? To produce Klal Yisroel. We are not such big tzadikim, but we could at least look and see what tefillah does. Tefillah brings, Li kirvas Elokim li tov. Tefillah brings about closeness to the Ribono Shel Olam, attachment to the Eibishter. Now I can go back to understanding the Chazal. I began with the Chazal that the goyim shouldn't claim that their bracha made Klal Yisroel. The question is, so let them say, who cares? What's the big deal? I give you the answer, apace, on everything I just told you with a story. They told me that there was once a person that came to the Chofetz Chaim, and he asked the Chofetz Chaim for a bracha, a gutte kind, for good children. The Chofetz Chaim said, Tayere Yid, my beloved Jew, gutte kinder you don't get with a bracha. Gutte kinder you get mit shlofen ba nacht. You don't sleep at night. You work hard during the day to learn with them and to daven with them. That's how you get good children. It is that way that the person is able to get good children. Shelo yomru, they shouldn't come and say that Klal Yisrael is a bracha. They came from a bracha, Achiseinu ati la'alfei Revava. The kal anderer chuppah gets this bracha, so she thinks that's it. No, no, no, no. There's a Rivka Imeinu. There's a nisayon of tefillah, of davening. You have to put sweat and tears to have Klal Yisrael, to have such children. Shelo yomru. It's not the umos ha'olam per se. It's not so much the goyim are going to walk around saying it. The goyim are going to misunderstand what it means. Klal Yisrael, Klal Yisrael is not built on brachos. Klal Yisrael is built on hard work, on hard work. It's built on tefillah, on tears, on sweat. And that's why the Ribbono Shel Olam made that he should be in Akedah, that we should understand the inyan of— Favd Yitzchak. I'd like to tell you over something which is connected to this yesod. If you take a look later on in the parsha, what was the bracha that was given? Hakel Kel Yaakov, veyadayim yidei Esav. What is Kel Kel Yaakov? So of course it means the kol of Torah and the kol of tefillah. Like it says in the pasuk, Hashmini is kolech, har'ini es mareich, it's the kol haTorah v'kol hatefillah. Actually, there's a medrash that says it's not referring to the kol haTorah of the grown-ups, but it's referring to the kol haTorah of the children, tinokos shel beis rabban. When the kol of the tinokos shel beis rabban, then you have the kol of Yaakov, and then you won't have the yadayim yidei Esav. Why dafka the tinokos shel beis rabban? Why? What's wrong with Hakel Kel Yaakov, that the person himself learns? Why does it have to be Hakel Kel Yaakov, that if the tinokos shel beis rabban, then ein hayadayim... And we see this clearly, right? Because Amalek, Amalek is Esav.

Hal morcha fight Esav, but the tinokos shel beis rabban. So you see clearly, and that's really this medrash here, that the medrash says, Hakol kol Yaakov, that it has to be with tinokos shel beis rabban. Why? So there's a meyridige vort from the Belzer Rebbe, zechuso yagen aleinu, a beautiful vort. He says, Esav, we're always worried about Esav. Why? Because Esav has the zechus of kibud av va'em, right? All the sefarim write, Esav kibud av va'em. Tell me something: he had kibud av, but did he have kibud em? Doesn't look like he had too much kibud em, right? Kibud av, you see, but what happened to the kibud em? So what happens if a person is mechabed his father, not his mother? So what, you tell me he has a zechus of kibud av? It's a great question, beautiful question. Belzer Rebbe asked this question. Zechaina livracha. Meigen de kakash, yeah? Okay. So he says like this: let's take a look what it means to do a half a mitzvah. You know, Talmud Torah is a mitzvah of veshinantam levanecha. Veshinantam levanecha means Talmud Torah, yeah, is a mitzvah, good. But there's two parts to the mitzvah that you should learn, and then there's a second part of the mitzvah, that the children. Levanecha is the children. So what happens if you learn, but you don't make your children learn? Ah, so you also have half a mitzvah, huh? All right, so let's make a cheshbon. If you do the mitzvah bishleimus, that you learn and the children learn, so then we turn around to Esav and say, when you did kibud av va'em, you also did it, you only did half. Doesn't count. But if you show the Eibishter that you do—he likes it, I see the—he likes this. But if you do a half a mitzvah, yeah? If you only do half, so then Eisav says, I also only did half. I did av without em, and I should have the zechus. Say, nah. Achein, the Gerer Rebbe's father was the Bilgorayer Rebbe. The Belzer Rebbe's father of today was the Bilgorayer Rebbe, and he was the nephew of the Fridiker Rebbe. Reb Yosher, Reb Yosef. Daivai thinker, Reb Yosher, Reb Yehoshua. Al kol panim, so he answered. He says maybe we could say it's merumaz in the pasuk this vort. Why? It says, V'hayah ka'asher tarid, u'farakta ulo me'al tzavarecha. What does tarid mean? When you'll go down. When you go down, then Eisav is going to become on top of you. He says the word tarid could be a remez for taryag, meaning if you make the mitzvos taryag, which means you don't separate, you take the mitzvah of shinantam levanecha, and you consider you and your children all one mitzvah. So if you make taryag mitzvos, then you have a hand over Eisav, because Eisav, kibud av va'em, it's one mitzvah, and he didn't do it. But if you're going to make it like it's two separate mitzvos, which means there's taryag mitzvos, there's taryag, and then there's another one to teach your children, so you know what? He too kept the mitzvah of kibud av va'em. He's got a full mitzvah. He'll say, you know what? Kibud av, that's one mitzvah. Kibud em is a separate mitzvah. It goes together. Efsher kemen zogn nach a davar. Why is it davka that the kol kol Yaakov has to be the tinokos shel beis Rabban? And the answer is, could be as follows. Your Talmud Torah has to be such a Talmud Torah that it's veshinantam levanecha, goes to the next generation. If the Torah stopped, it means that you weren't learning the way you were supposed to be learning. When the kol is kol Yaakov, kol Yaakov means that the next generation is going to learn also. Torah machzeres al achsanya shelah, where the Torah feels that then it's, you know, it's brought down in the beginning of Reb Boruch Ber, Reb Yechiel Shmuel, that Reb Boruch Ber wrote that the Torah goes back to those that love it. HaTorah machzeres al eilu she'ohavim. If you love Torah, then the Torah goes back to stay by you. This is what it means. And I want to tell you a maiseh. There's a beautiful story that I heard over b'shem Rav Zaks, Reb Mendel Zaks said over, that he was by—

The Chofetz Chaim, when they came to Rad to say over the shidduch for my Bubby, my zeide, they came to tell the Chofetz Chaim that Rameshel Landinsky, who was the Rosh Yeshiva's granddaughter for my zeide, who learned Radin at the time of Shmuel Walkin. So the Chofetz Chaim said, It's a good shidduch. He likes the shidduch. And he says that there's moiridike ma'alos in the family of Walkin, in the family, because the Beis Aharon is to be talmid chacham. And he said the following, that Reb Bochber used to say that the reason why the Beis Aharon, the Alter Zeide, was so matzliach in Torah was because he was meshamesh the Netziv. Meshamesh the Netziv. He had tremendous kavod and haracha and anavah under his rebbe, the Netziv. He was supportive to his rebbe, right? Shimush talmidei chachamim, his rebbe, the Netziv. Aber ich vil zogen, said the Chofetz Chaim, es hot zich tamit besiras nefesh. Besiras nefesh. Az kinder zen, when children see that the tatte is moser nefesh for Torah, then the kids are talmidei chachamim. It's the way it is. And because the Alter Zeide wrote his sefer on Bava Kama in jail, he was put into jail for speaking against communism, and he learned and he wrote his sefarim, showed tremendous mesiras nefesh for Torah, meileh the children are lions, as that was the expression that he used, kinder veln zayn leibn, they'll be lions in Torah. The point is, in the kol Yaakov, that's how you produce tinokos shel beis Rabban that are able to sit and learn. It comes from mesiras nefesh. It comes from hard work. It's not just you have children and grandchildren, the kinder. It doesn't work that way. Tefillah. You know, every day, every Shabbos, we say, Zarah chaya v'kayama, zarah d'lo yifsak mipisgamei araisa. We daven. It comes from tefillah. It doesn't happen by itself. Zarah d'lo yifsak mipisgamei araisa. It has to be that we ask for children, that sit and learn. It's something special. This is the pshat: Hakol kol Yaakov v'hayadayim. When is the kol Yaakov? Kol Yaakov, you see it when the kol Yaakov is in the tashbar. When you see that the children are, that's when you see that the kol Yaakov is taka real and is taka strong. It doesn't happen by itself. This is what we see from Yitzchak. Yitzchak had to be an akeidah to make a Yaakov Avinu. That's what the Malbim is telling us. In order to produce a Yaakov, there had to be a mesiras nefesh, you see? There had to be a mesiras nefesh. Tell me, Avraham Avinu showed his whole life mesiras nefesh. Avraham Avinu was thrown into the furnace. He could produce a Yitzchak. Yitzchak went through an akeidah, so he could produce a Yaakov Avinu. Yaakov Avinu also, his whole life he was fighting mesiras nefesh, he could produce shevatim. You see? It doesn't happen on its own. That's what this Malbim is teaching us. To produce a Yitzchak, it's either mesiras nefesh from the tata, or the tefillos from the mama. Those are the words of the Malbim that they say. In order to produce a Yaakov Avinu, a Klal Yisrael, it needed a mesiras nefesh, the akeidah. Of Yitzchak and Rivka, who didn't have it, the tefillah, the akaras, the sichasan, that she got close to the Eibishter through tefillah. This is the lesson, l'choira, in the beginning of the parashah. I would like to touch on another topic. Maybe it's a separate topic, but it's also on the inyan of tefillah. At the end of the parashah, we find that Yitzchak Avinu had the be'eiros, the story with the wells, digging and undigging the wells. What's the whole story about the wells? It's like a whole to-do in the parashah. So the Ramban says that there's no pashut pshat in it. There's no way to understand simply the story of the be'eiros. So then what is the be'eiros? Says the Ramban, it's a remez for the future, for the three Batei Mikdash: Sitna, Chayvos. It's all about the future, the three Batei Mikdash, that two of them will be destroyed through the goyim, and the third one will remain. That's the third Beis HaMikdash. So I always wondered, why is it that Yitzchak...

Got this, this. I mean, why not Avraham Avinu? Why was it Yitzchak that had to have the nevuah of the three batei mikdash? So, I think there's a special reason, a specific reason why Yitzchak gets this nevuah, and the answer is as follows. The Mishkan, the Mikdash, was actually about kaparas avonos, din, chiyuv, and the Mikdash comes and is mechaper. For example, we even know that the whole ענין of the Mishkan was about the eigel, because they had the eigel. So the Ribbono Shel Olam went and did the Mishkan, lechaper al maaseh eigel. Yitzchak is din, gevurah, din. What is din, Rabosai? So we always understand din means din, punishment. It's not, Rabosai. Din is in order to bring about chesed. Rav Chaim Vital explains that chesed is not as great as din, which gets muntak, gets sweetened by chesed. It gets fixed by chesed. It's called hamtakas hadinim. Hamtakas hadinim is a bigger darga; it's even greater than just chesed. Din, and then there's chesed to fix the din. Yitzchak was gevurah. Yes, true. Notice, who did he marry? He married Rivka, and Rivka was the exact shidduch for him. How was she chosen? Because of her chesed, because din. Needs chesed, the mizug, the combination of din and chesed. This is brought down in all the heilige sefarim, in the Chassidishe sefarim, Kabbalah sefarim, the inyan of din and chesed. The Mikdash is about din and chesed, which means that there's a din, there's chiyuvim, and the chesed comes and is mamtik these dinim. If you notice, it says that a person should always daven and be zohir, tefilas hamincha. Sharei lo ne'ena — Eliyahu was answered only by tefilas hamincha. What's Eliyahu that was ne'eneh by tefilas hamincha? Eliyahu was Pinchas. Pinchas is a kohen. Pinchas is din. In all the sefarim, Reb K'brach, Pinchas is din. But what kind of a din? It's chesed. It's the chesed to be mamtik the din. Mimeila he got the avodah. That's how Pinchas was in the sky. As they state in all the sefarim, all the sefarim speak about how Pinchas represents din, kano'us. But the chesed of being mechaper, vayechaper al Bnei Yisrael, vayechaper al Bnei Yisrael — the kaparah is the chesed. He got the avodah, because avodah is lhamtik. It's there. So Eliyahu Hanavi lo ne'ena ella b'tefilas hamincha. What is mincha, rabosai? The word mincha means a present. Why? Because you have the korban tamid, chiyuv. Then you have the second korban tamid, also chiyuv. Then you have something called mincha, right? So what's the mincha? So b'emes, the shteit in sefarim, the mincha was that he davened lifnos erev, right? What's the lashon? Vayeitze Yitzchak lasuach basadeh lifnos erev. What does lifnos erev mean? He starts to see the night coming, the galus. He davens mincha before, lifnos erev. Yaakov Avinu is chesed, l'hagid baboker chasdecha. It's clear, the chesed. Balayla, it's emunascha baleylos. It's emunah. Yaakov was about layla, it's about emunah. Yitzchak, Yitzchak is about lifnos erev. Lifnos erev means he davens before the din is coming. He sees the galus. He sees the galus coming. Vayeitze Yitzchak lasuach. That's why the sicha—remember I told you, sicha always means a dargah of tzarah and being able to miskarev to HaKadosh Baruch Hu mitoch tzarah. That's pshat, Vayeitze Yitzchak lasuach basadeh. The same nusach, see? Yitzchak's tefillah was a special tefillah. It's called tefillas hamincha. It's when the tzarah is coming and you see the tzarah, mincha. You're able to daven.

We're able to be, Vayeitzei Yitzchak lasuach basadeh. If you take a look, it's brought down the Baal HaTanya. Tanya says that Moshiach will come, it's going to be b'schus chesed. What's the pshat, b'schus chesed? He says it says, azei shteit in Chazal. Chazal say that Yochol yechosim b'kulah, Avraham Yitzchak Yaakov, they'll be chosim b'kulah. Talmud lomar, b'cha chosim, with you Avraham will end. Pashut means the bracha. Says the Baal HaTanya, means the geulah. The chasimas hagalus, the galus will end with you, with chesed. That will be what will drag us out of the galus. Why? So I think the pshat is there, pashut, rabosai. Tzion b'mishpat tipadeh, v'shaveha b'tzedakah. We don't deserve, right? We know there's two zmanim for the zman of geulah. There's one zman of geulah, b'itah achishenah. One is that we'll deserve it, and the other is we won't deserve it. So what's going to drag us out of the galus when we don't deserve it? And the Torah says chesed. What's pshat? If we do chesed, so HaKadosh Baruch Hu will do chesed with us. Lifnim mishuras hadin. Mitzad hadin, we're not going to be able to be pulled out of galus. We don't have the zechusim to be merit it. But if we do chesed, so HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, I'll do chesed with you. Tzion b'mishpat tipadeh, v'shaveha b'tzedakah. Chesed. This is the pshat. Vayeitzei Yitzchak lasuach basadeh. When is the sadeh? Sadeh, we said, lasuach basadeh means lifnei erev, before the galus. So what's his tefillah? Vayar, gemalim ba'im. It says in the pasuk that he saw the gemalim. The Chiddushei Sefarim, it says gemalim is milos sadeh. Gemalim is chesadim. Gemalim is for about gemilus chasadim. This is the pshat. The way to get out of the lifnei seref is through chesed, is through chesed. Maybe that's merumaz in the pasuk, Vayetar Yitzchak laShem lenochach ishto. Yitzchak is davening, but he knows he also needs the koach of who? Of Rivka, lenochach ishto, opposite. The gevurah and the chesed together. Chazal say he was standing in one corner and she was standing in another corner and she was davening. It's the gevurah and the chesed together, the gevurah and the chesed. It's called mizug, to be able to join together gevurah and chesed. It's called hamtakas hadinim. And that's the pshat, Vayeitzei lasuach. When the din is there, then you have to need chesed. You need the Ribono Shel Olam should say, you know what, you're right, you don't maybe deserve it, but I give it to you anyway. Chesed, chesed, chesed. Vayeitzei Yitzchak lasuach basadeh, v'hinei gemalim ba'im. That's the pshat in the be'eiros, the Mishkan, the Mikdash, the third Beis Hamikdash. The third Beis Hamikdash is going to be the din that's going to bring about chesed. The first two was din. It's din. Yitzchak has to fight for the be'eiros. The last one he didn't have to fight for. Why? Because the last one is chesed. You're going to get it anyway, richoives. You get it anyway. The Ramban says you get it anyway without a fight. Two. You hear? Two, it's going to be din. In din, we might not deserve it. We're going to have to fight for it. The third one, we're not going to have to fight. I think the remez is, it's b'chesed. Tzion mishpat tipadeh v'shaveha b'tzedakah. And that is the koach of Yitzchak. And we find this an interesting nekudah, that Yitzchak and Rivka, the tefillah creates Yaakov, the chesed and the gevurah together. There's an interesting Maharal. Maharal says, if you notice, the pasuk—I'm sorry, the bracha of Mechalkel chayim b'chesed, it's chesed. Chayei mei—techiyas hameisim. It's interesting. Techiyas hameisim is in the bracha of Mechalkel chayim b'chesed. Whose bracha is it? Does anybody know what bracha? The first bracha is Avraham. The second one is Yitzchak. The third bracha is Yaakov. So the bracha is Yitzchak. It's called gevuros. You know the name of the bracha is Atah Gibor Le'olam Hashem. It's called gevuros. You look at Reb Chaim Vital and the Torah on siddur, it's called gevuros. Interesting, huh? It's called gevuros. The bracha is called gevuros, Mechalkel chayim b'chesed. So how does it—Yitzchak? And the answer is, what is gevuros?

Gevuros is chesed. It's mechalkel, and therefore it's techiyas hameisim, and the Maharal says techiyas hameisim will be b'schus Yitzchak. What does he mean, techiyas hameisim b'schus Yitzchak? When a person passes away, we use the expression, we say the following: HaKadosh Baruch Hu heimis oischa b'din. The Ribono Shel Olam gave you death with din, u'mechayeh oischa b'din. He's going to revive you b'din. What does that mean, b'din? And the answer is gevaldik. Why do we have misa? Misa is in order that a person should cleanse himself to be able to live later techiyah l'asid. So it's all b'din. It is din, but it's chesed b'din. Mechalkel chayim b'chesed. He first gives you life b'chesed, and then when you die, He gives you techiyah b'chesed. Chesed in din. Yitzchak. Hamtakas hadinim. Yitzchak. Yitzchak is about hamtakas hadinim, hamtakas hadinim, hamtakas hadinim. Yitzchak is about the chesed through din. Went to the Akeidah. It's avodah, it's din. Yet what came out? Came out kedushah, that he was ra'ui to be ma'aleh to Klal Yisrael. That's chesed in din. That's chesed in din. That's Yitzchak. And that's why techiyas hameisim, gevuros, it's mechalkel chayim b'chesed, together with the din. With this, I think we can explain a pshat. The Gemara tells us in Shabbos that when losted, the Ribono Shel Olam comes to Yitzchak. I'm sorry, the Eibishter comes to Avraham and he says, Bonecha chatu. Your children sinned. So Avraham says, Okay, they have to die. There's nothing I can do. He comes to Yitzchak. You know what Yitzchak says? No, you have to be melamed zechus on them. Why? How much does a person already sleep? So you got to cut those years out. How much does he eat? How much... Ah, says the Ribono Shel Olam, okay, we're going to keep you. So who protects the Mikdash? Ah, Yitzchak is din. How does he protect it? Al pi din he explains chesed, that there should be a limud zechus. The koach of Yitzchak, and that's the whole Mikdash. The Ribono Shel Olam is trying to explain to us that Mikdash means hamtakas dinim. Yitzchak is din. Yes, Yitzchak is din, but in the din is to find rachamim and chesed. It's like Yitzchak, the din, he is the one that's going to be—not Avraham the baal chesed. Avraham the baal chesed says, Okay, they deserve to die. It's Yitzchak, the din, that's saying what? Hamtakah, sweeten it. Vaker? What? Lamed zechus. Tell me, what month was Chanukas HaMishkan? Nissan. Why in Nissan? It was actually finished way before Nissan. Says the Medrash, we waited for the month that Yitzchak Avinu was born. Why are we waiting for the month that Yitzchak Avinu was born? Yitzchak Avinu was born as chesed, din, Mishkan. That's the whole inyan of the Mishkan, and that's why I believe that the— The nevuos of the be'eiros are in Yitzchak. Efaker din. Din. Ad Rabba. Din. Din means that he had to fight for it. Avraham had everything, so to speak, easy in a certain way. The Olam loved Avraham Avinu, gemalt him chesed, and they gave him. Yitzchak was din. Yitzchak had to fight till the last one, because the last one is chesed, the chesed, the chesed, the chesed. This, rabosai, this, rabosai, is tefillah b'zman hazeh. What is tefillah today? It's hamtakas hadinim. When it's din, you can find chesed in the din. The tefillah is keneged the korbanos. It's keneged the avodah in the Beis Hamikdash. It's called avodah. Eizehi avodah shehi balev? Hamtakas hadinim. Getting back to the yesod I started with. If a person would only understand that through tefillah, how much chesed he could feel, the love of the Eibishter that you feel through the tefillah. That's the chesed in the din. The actual tefillah becomes the chesed. Imagine if a person had tzaros and he couldn't daven. He didn't have the lifnei Hashem yishpoch sicho, that he's able to converse to the Eibishter, raise gissenem hartsn, Ribono Shel Olam.

He didn't have that lifnei Hashem yishpoch sicho. That itself is the greatest chesed. That's the hamtokas hadin. In the din, in the nisyonos, the Ribono Shel Olam gives us chesed. The chesed is the tefillah. In the Yitzchak, the Ribono Shel Olam gives a Rivkah. By Yosef, tefillah. And that's how we produce a Klal Yisroel. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.