Vayishlach: Ein Od Milvado—Yaakov’s Bitachon, Tefillah, and Facing Esav

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. This week's parsha, we find the confrontation of Yankiv Avinu with Esav. A lot of limud, a lot of things are learned from this parsha: how to address confrontation bichlal, how does one react in face of danger, fear, insecurity. We should learn from Yankiv Avinu the mahalach of how he dealt with it: maaseh avos siman l'banim, yafa sichasan shel avdei avos. It's all Torah, it's all limud. Every response, reaction that Yankiv Avinu took is a lesson l'doros, how we are supposed to react when we're confronted, when we're confronted. In avodah, there's two types of confrontation. There's the ruchniyus. Esav represents the aveirah, the yetzer hara of Esav. It also, it represents the actual danger, the danger of Esav, the sakanas, say ruchni and say gashmi. I'd like to bring out. How we see very much the mefarshim, how Yankev Avinu responds with bitachon. The chelek of bitachon, that Yankev Avinu responds, and we should take this as a limud, bitachon. Learn up from Yankev Avinu. Vinat mishvera matzav. How do we take, and how do we react to a shvera matzav? Begin with the Chazal. Chazal bring the pasuk, it's a medrash: Machzik b'oznei kelev, over mis'aber al riv lo lo. A pasuk in Mishlei, chovav yud-zayin, they quote this pasuk. Machzik is to hold on to the ears of a dog. You're looking for trouble. Anyone who touches a kelev, kelev ra, and he gets bitten, he shouldn't be nishtomem. He shouldn't wonder why he was bitten. He just touched a kelev. Machzik b'oznei kelev. So he's mis'aber al riv lo lo. He got himself into a fight that's not his. And this is Yankev Avinu's on Chazal. Yankev Avinu, in this week's parsha, from the way he deals with Esav in the beginning of the parsha, he is looking for confrontation. Zeh is on Chazal, a medrash, davar shel peleh. All the mefarshim, baalei mussar, ask, al riv loi loi? Yankev is confronting Esav. This is a war already that's been going on years and years and years. Esav is mevakesh lehargo. How could Yaakov Avinu lose sight of the reality? The reality in front of him is that Esav is a tremendous danger. So, avadeh the pashut pshat is, halach l'darko. Esav maybe wouldn't have come to you when you go to Esav for. I'll limuder speak b'arichus. Rav Chaim Shmulevitz has many shmuzen about this inyan. I'd like to discuss a mahalach, chaveirai, gevoytan anderer Chazalin, from words of the Anderei Baalei Mussar. What's the taich of mis'aber al riv lo lo? The fight wasn't his. He was looking and he was bringing on a fight that was not his fight, a riv lo lo. Interesting lashon of Chazal. Notice it doesn't say that he's being mis'aber al davar she'eino riv. The diyuk in the lashon of the Chazal—it's a beautiful lashon. The pasuk doesn't say that he was mis'aber al riv she'eino, that he concocted in his mind, it was his illusion, it was his phobias. That's not what Chazal are saying here. What Chazal are saying is there was a riv, but the riv was lo lo.

Maybe Chazal are saying it wasn't his fight. Not that there wasn't an issue, and if he would have looked the other way, there wouldn't be a story. The story is there. Yaakov Avinu had kluger mench. Yaakov Avinu didn't have illusions of the reality. But hishtatchn, again, we're with small people, but we're just recording the words of the Chachamim. L'maaseh, it was mesavera riv lo loi. It wasn't his. Maybe the pshat is it wasn't his fight to fight. Whose fight to fight was it? Let's talk about another Chazal. There's a very famous Chazal: Vayivaser Yaakov levado. After the fight, Yaakov is left alone. Vayivaser Yaakov—well, actually before, before the sar shel Esav—he's vayivaser Yaakov levado. He's left alone, levado. The Chazal, the Medrash tells us, levado. It's a very interesting word, levado. We find the same word by the Ribbono Shel Olam: V'niskav Hashem levado bayom hahu. So just like it says by Yaakov, levado, the Ribbono Shel Olam, echad, states levado. Reb Brechya b'shem Reb Simon amar: Ein k'Keil. There is no one like the Ribbono Shel Olam. U'mi k'Keil Yeshurun. L'maaseh, shteit in pasuk that there is. It's possible to be k'Keil Yeshurun. And how could a person be like Yeshurun, like the Ribbono Shel Olam? And the answer is: Yisrael saba. Yaakov Avinu was like the Ribono Shel Olam. מה הקדוש ברוך הוא כתיב ביה, ונִסְכָּה ה' לבדו, ה' ... ויעקב לבדו. He was left alone. Vos meint es? Yaakov Avinu, azoy vi der Ribono Shel Olam, vos, vos, vos meint es? What does it mean, וַיִּוָּתֵר יעקב לבדו? Yaakov reached the madreigah of levado, which is ונִסְכָּה ה' לבדו. Rebbe Yerucham, in the Daas Torah, has a whole arichus. Yaakov Avinu, and of course, ganz Klal Yisrael, has to learn a yesod: we're alone. What does that mean, we're alone? Our chashivus, our greatness, is who we are, and it's not dependent on anything else. And he brings the pasuk, הן עם לבדד ישכון ובגוים לא יתחשב, that Yaakov Avinu didn't have to come on to nobody. Yaakov Avinu, and he speaks about the inyan of ... and this is Yaakov Avinu levado, ונִסְכָּה ה' לבדו. Just like the Ribono Shel Olam doesn't need to come on to anyone, he's hakol yachol. Ribono Shel Olam's greatness is not dependent on anyone's recognition or anyone's admiration. Yaakov Avinu was levado. It's a long shmues, rabosai. It's a tiefe shmues. It needs to be learned בעיון, like all other Torah from Rabbeinu, as well as all other Torah from what we learn on the Gemara. It's the same Torah, the same lamdus. It's lamdus shereid Rabbeisai. I'd like to bring it in one nekudah, so to speak, palpable, which should be we should be able to have from it the he'ara. ... ה' לבדו, לבדו, I am like the eved. What does it mean? I'd like to say a taich, rabbeisai. When a person thinks he's levado, a person realizes that he's alone and that he can't rely on anyone, then he has who to be with and who to rely on, and that's levado, the Eibishter. V'niskav Hashem levado. Where is the Ribono Shel Olam? It's levado. In this world, we don't see, we don't see. It's very hidden. But when you take everything away, Hashem's greatness shines forth. V'niskav Hashem, exalted. The Eibishter becomes exalted, levado. When does the person reach that madreigah?

The same thing is when he's also Vayivaser Yaakov levado, when he's alone and he knows that he has no one who to rely on. V'niskav Hashem levado, and that's the yesod that we'll talk, barichus, of Ein od milvado. Yaakov Avinu, by being levado, came to the madreigah, the havanah, the hakarah of V'niskav Hashem levado. It's alone. It's ich mit der Ribono Shel Olam. With the Ribono Shel Olam, it's mir. It's a very, very beautiful dehera, boisai. Think about it. When a person, a Yid, bifrat, recognizes that he's levado, that he can't rely on others, it is then that he starts to see V'niskav Hashem levado, that it's only the Ribono Shel Olam, and He's the only koach, and He's the only one that could do for you. Vayivaser Yaakov with the levado, reaching the madreigah of V'niskav Hashem levado. And Daas Zekeinim found in the sefer V'ani Bechasdecha Batachti, quotes a vort from my zeide, very nice vort. On the pasuk of Tehillim kuf yud ches, ches, V'ani bechasdecha batachti, it says over there, Tov lachsois baShem, mivtoach ba'adam. It's good to trust the Ribono Shel Olam. More so than having trust in a person. So he brings from my zeideh zatzal a kasha: Ata dasi degreise chiddushim from David HaMelech. That's what I need David HaMelech to teach me, that a person should have bitachon in HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and there's only bitachon in a Mensch. This is already the chiddush in Tehillim of, Tov lachsois baShem, iftach ba'adam. My zeideh gezogt a meiredige vort: Tov lachsois baShem. You know when I realized that that's tov lachsois? Mivetoach. When I started trusting other people. When I was relying on others, then I came to the hakarah of tov lachsois baShem. Yankev Avinu reached a darga, Vayivaser Yaakov levado, that he understood that it's He alone, and when it's He alone, it's Veniskav Hashem levado, tov lachsois baShem iftach ba'adam. He can't rely on anyone. There is no one who's going to be able to take care of the issue, only the Ribono Shel Olam alone, ein od milvado. Tov lachsois baShem. Rabosai, I want you to know, every Yid through his life is going to learn this lesson. Inar vad zaken, we will learn this lesson. And as Reb Yerucham would say, I've said this over many times, my zeideh told me Reb Yerucham gave a shmooze in the Mir. We've said that lessons that a person is supposed to learn in life, it's kedai for him to learn it quickly, because if he isn't going to learn it today, he's going to get it on his plate tomorrow. And he gave a very nice mashal to this. I went searching through the sefarim of Reb Yerucham. I couldn't find it anywhere, but I've heard it so many times in the zeidah that maybe they didn't want to print it. It's a gevaldige maaseh, it's a gevaldige mashal. Reb Yerucham used to say over a mashal that a person once walked into a restaurant, and they gave him a plate of meat. The meat was obviously, it saw better days. So he calls the waiter over. Now again, rabboisai, this Reb Yerucham said this in the mirror, so we definitely could listen to the mashal and the mussar. So the waiter comes over, and he mustam evest aaleg yedei maras nafsho. He probably, he was in the kitchen, he knows exactly what the issue is. So he tells him, Taire friend, my dear friend, I want to give you good advice. You better eat it, because if you don't eat it today as a plate of meat, you will get it tomorrow in the blintzes.

If you don't eat it tomorrow in the blintzes, you're going to get it in three days from now in the kreplach. So this meat will eventually be eaten. You will eat it. You might as well do it two days earlier than two days later. Rabbi Yeruchim said that this is a lesson in life, a lesson you're going to get it. The smarter people take it early. Sometimes it takes a whole life to learn what people learn quickly. You know, there's a very nice maiseh. They say from, I think it was Rav Margolis, one of the frumdiker poskim from Europe. He was a tremendous gaon. They were poor. They had no money. The most expensive thing in the house was a vase for flowers. They had a very beautiful vase. The wife loved that vase. The maid was negligent. She was sloppy. She broke the vase. His wife came home. The rebbetzin came home. She was mamish, she was taken. So she turns to her husband and she tells her husband, I don't understand. You don't have any reaction to the fact that the most expensive piece of furniture in the house was destroyed? You don't care? You don't have any emotion? She says, I don't understand you. Respond. He says, You know what? I will respond in three months from now. Come back to me in three, four months and I'll respond. Kitza, after three months, she more or less forgot about it, right? He turns to her and he says to her, ... the vase? It took her a second. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, nu, nu, the vase. Still bothers you sometimes? No, right? Takah para. He says, you see, I'm a big goyen. I got to where you got to after three months right away. You see? Ich hab, ich hab gich. Mimeila, where you're holding after three months, I got there right away. Mimeila, chav gezog glaych af anot takah para. Haveisai, the lessons of life, if you're smart, you get them very fast, quickly. If not, it takes time, but you'll get there. And the lessons are, tov lachsos baShem, iftoach b'adam. You're going to realize that there is only one koach that a person could rely on in this world, and that is ein od milvado. I'd like to tell you over a beautiful thing that I saw, caught my eye, a pele, a davar shel pele. Noleinu we say, Veyadata hayom vahasheivos el levavecha ki Hashem Hu HaElokim bashamayim mima'al v'al haaretz mitachas, ein od. What does ein od mean? So ein od פשוט means, ki Hashem Hu HaElokim, there's no other Elokim besides the Ribono Shel Olam. The Shlah says, no, that's not the taich. So when you say aleinu, you could remember the Shlah that says ein od means there is nothing besides the Ribono Shel Olam. It doesn't mean there is ein od, there is no other god like the Ribono Shel Olam. Ein od means there is nothing. It's all a facade, it's all a mirage, there's nothing. What you see and what you think and what you think are koiches, it's all the Ribono Shel Olam. All the Ribono Shel Olam. Ein od. Hashamayim mima'al, va'aretz mitachas, it's ein od. He says a peledike thing. He brings from sefarim, from the Komarna, that brings from the Baal Shem Tov a segulah, so to speak. People love segulos. Here you got a segulah from the Baal Shem Tov, that when a tzaarah, chas v'shalom, comes on a person, he should view the tzaarah that it's the Ribono Shel Olam that is dressed up in this tzaarah, or this person that's causing me the tzaarah, and it's definitely going to go away, the tzaarah. That when a person sees, in business, ... it's the Ribono Shel Olam, and it's ... mislabesh in this person and this situation and this scenario, it is going to fall away. And he gives a gevaldige mashal. It such touched my heart, that ... beautiful mashal. He brings from the Baal Shem a mashal. He says, a malach, there was a father who wanted to play a game, a trick, to scare his son, so he put on a costume of a bear. And he comes and he starts...

I don't have to play it out for you, right? The kid was all mefached, he was all terrified, you hear? All of a sudden he looks, hey, the patter, the chalavish came beer. What's beer? When beer. So the trick was over, so it's done. Zogt the Baal Shem, the zelbe zach, chatlu fella, all right? Then when he's mefached, he's afraid, eisav, do eisav. Start eisav, does the Ribono Shel Olam. So this is all very nice, beautiful. Let's hear how he learns up the pasuk, Vateinatzel nafshi. So if you look at the pasuk, it says, Ki ra'isa Elokim. What is the sevara of Eisav telling? You saw the Ribono Shel Olam, panim el panim, vatinatzel nafshi. What do you mean, ra'isa Elokim? What's Elokim? So pashut it means, because the malach is the malach Elokim. He says, no, he didn't see it as the malach. He saw it as Elokim. He saw it as the Ribono Shel Olam. It's not the malach. It's me'heicha, it's beautiful. When a person is confronted by something, he's supposed to view it, the Ribono Shel Olam. It's all the Ribono Shel Olam. Ki ra'isa pnei Elokim panim el panim, vatinatzel nafshi. That's how you're going to save yourself. Any difficult situation that comes, ... and if a person does that. Then anochi nami, what? Then he will be able to take the tzarah away. I believe, Rabosai, this is the pshat in the Chazal, mis'aver ariv loi loi. It wasn't his fight. It was the Rabbeinu Shlolem. The Rabbeinu Shlolem was there to protect him. The fight was the Rabbeinu Shlolem, and the protection was supposed to come from the Rabbeinu Shlolem. Mis'aver ariv loi loi. He didn't get it. He thought it was him that Esav is attacking him. Esav is not attacking him. Ai, lemaaseh Esav is attacking him. Yeah, that's what it looked like. It looked like Esav is attacking. But it was the Rabbeinu Shlolem who was testing him. And how was it supposed to go away? It was going to go away that the Rabbeinu Shlolem was going to take it away. It's interesting. Lemaaseh, lemaaseh, why did Esav change his mind? It's interesting, I always thought about it. I don't understand. He was coming prepared for war. Could you imagine a person that's prepared for war and he sits on the thing and he comes there and he goes, You know what? Nah, I changed my mind. Nah, leave it alone. Nah, forget it. Loz up. Maybe you can help me on this one, I don't know. I always say, Eicha bli pashut pshat? Pashut pshat is... So the pashut pshat is, I don't know, something, some brotherly love there, something, I don't know. There's a love-hate relationship. Ochi Esav, you're raising your hand, I can't figure it out. You think I can figure out Esav? I can hardly figure myself, I should figure out Esav. Yes, maybe, I don't know, chevsheh, ches, yad achim, yad Esav, beis halevi, ches, it could be. You know, Rabosai, the real pshat is. You know why he changed his mind? Because זה אתהבישת. That's what it is. This is the way it is. Lama, in Hebrew, when I grew up, my mother always used to say an expression, Lama kacha. That's the way it is. For the same reason he came. It's riv loi loi. He came to yankiv, דהבישתתם גשיקט. ממילא, דהבישתתם מבקש. That's what it is. It's a riv loi loi. Lama kacha. How is this? Hafla vefeleh. Matzavim fall away sometimes in ways that we couldn't figure. What happened? Just disintegrated. It just fell away. ישועת השם כהרף עין. Why is ישועת השם כהרף עין, the sefarim say? Because it has to be the stop button. It's on and it's off. Because if there's—

If there's anything else in it, then you could start saying, Well, the stomach has to do with this. The stomach has to do with that. The stomach... If all the nekudos come together—no, it's keref ayin. There is nothing that brings it about more than the fact that the Rabbeinu Shalom said, Keitz sam lachoshech. It's time to stop. And this is a lot in Miketz with Yosef. We're going to learn this. Keitz sam lachoshech. It just stops out of nowhere, because the Rabbeinu Shalom said it should stop. Misha amar lo, lamai dai, hu yomer l'tzarosecha dai. That's what it is. It's time that the Rabbeinu Shalom says. And I want to tell you a big yesod, Rabosai. Part of what Yankev Avinu prepares himself to Esav is tefillah. We know this, right? One of the doron, milchamah, and tefillah. Rabosai, I want to give you a big yesod: what is tefillah? Let's learn what was the tefillah of Yankev Avinu. Let's learn up the tefillah of Yankev Avinu as he prepares for Esav. Vayomer Yaakov, Elokei avi Avraham v'Elokei avi Yitzchak, Hashem ha'omer eilai, שוב לארצך ולמולדתך ואיטיבה עמך. Katonti מכל החסדים ומכל האמת אשר עשית את עבדך, כי במקלי עברתי את הירדן, ועתה הייתי לשני מחנות. הצילני נא. V'atah amarta again. You told me, Heitev eitiv imach. Tell me, you know people who could talk to the Eibishter like that? You promised me, dos nit tzugezogt, heitev eitiv? First of all, you know, he contradicts himself a little bit. Katonti מכל החסדים, and then he says, V'atah amarta, you owe it to me. That's a shtickel a peleh, no? Rabosai, it's pashta kein ingele. My kids talk to me like that. You promised me. I don't deserve it because I did... You promised me anyway. I don't understand. K'tainti mikol hachasadim. In the same sentence, k'tainti mikol hachasadim. And then he says, Hatzileni, hatzileni. This kasha bothered me for a very long time. Now, vadai, I know all the Torah, k'tainti mikol hachasadim, shema yigrom hachet, and again the answer. So what's l'maaseh? In the same sentence, you can't come and say, I don't deserve it, but I do deserve it, right? I saw this year pshat from the Rebbe of mine. A sefer came out recently from one of my rabbeim, Reb Chaim Mintz, the mashgiach in Staten Island yeshiva. Beautiful sefer called Eitz Chaim. Now, he doesn't address this kasha, but he addresses others on this tefillah, and he gives a peledike teretz, rabosai. He asks the kasha: Why does he talk so much about all the past chesed? And then he says a meiridike yesod. He says, What is tefillah? How does it work? I mean, l'choira, tefillah—the Ribbono Shel Olam, He decided something should happen. So how does tefillah change it? If a person deserves whatever he got, what koach does tefillah have to change that? So he brings from the Mabit that asks this for a kasha, and he says a meiridike yesod. What is tefillah? Tefillah is to recognize that it's only the Ribbono Shel Olam who can give it to me. It's a Mabit in Shaar HaTefillah, perek beis. בעניין התפילה, ... צריך שידע האדם ויעקב קודם שיעשה, כי אין מי שיכול לעשות את שאלתו. He has to know that nobody could fulfill his need; it's only the Ribono Shel Olam. כי הוא בורא את העולם ולא נסכל לילות, ולזה צריך להקדים ולסדר שבחו של מקום, says the Mabit. Therefore, you need to begin by talking about Hashem's kindness, Hashem's greatness, Hashem's goodness, because it's for the person to understand that if I get it, it's because the Ribono Shel Olam is tov u'meitiv, and that is the yesod of tefillah, says the Mabit. Mabit says that a person must recognize, and the truth is, you look at the Shemoneh Esrei, we say this: כי קל מלך גדול, ... כי קל מלך סולח. We end every bakashah because You are the great One who... Because a person must be makir that the hatovah comes from the Ribono Shel Olam, and that is tefillah. And then he says, and he brings from the yetzer ha-tefillah something poetic. The tefillah does nothing. It's a davar shel peh. I saw it, I was literally, I was taken back by it, because the Mabit—I knew this. That's my bread and butter, as they say. This is what I deal with all my...

Life is giving drashes about bitachon and tefillah. Tefillah is, to me, was a chiddush nifla. I have to read it for you inside. Hatefillah lo ysigrem shinui utmurah b'ratzon Hashem l'shanos l'tov adam... The tefillah does not do anything. It's not the tefillah that does it, because the Ribono Shel Olam and His will cannot be changed. It's a davar pashut. If you think about what he's saying, the metzius is that the tefillah cannot change a ratzon Hashem. Hashem's ratzon is greater than the tefillah. So then what's the pshat? Tefillah is supposed to change the person. That when he changes himself to recognize that the Ribono Shel Olam is tov u'meitiv, that understanding changes the matzav. Ki Hashem yisbarach muchan umezuman tamid lheitiv libriosav haholchim bidrachav. The Ribono Shel Olam is waiting to be meitiv with the person. The hatov is already—just come and get it. It's there. Take it. So what stops us from taking it? Because we're not makir. So it's us that we don't have the ability to get to that hatov. So the minute we daven and we recognize everything is ein od milvado, it opens the door that we should be able to what? Get the good that's there. And that is why, says Rav Chaim Mintz, ... Yankel Avinu is davening because he's davening, kedas is tefillah. V'atah amarta eitiv eitiv. I know it's there. I'm not complaining. I'm not coming and telling you you owe it to me. I'm telling you, Ribono Shel Olam, I recognize it's there because You said it's there, and I believe and I trust. U'meileh, I'm mispallel to the Ribono Shel Olam. Katonti. And I think this is what he means. He doesn't say it, Rebbe. If I say good, I'm sure you're happy that I'm mosif in your words. Katonti mikol hachasadim. The problem is me. Notice the lashon, katonti mikol hachasadim. Something's missing here. Katonti mikol hachasadim. And the answer is, katonti. It's me that maybe isn't able to get to the chasadim. And we find that there was a takah ta'ina on Yankiv; there was a certain bitachon. That's gufa what Chazal are telling us. Shema garam hachet ... but he says, ... something's wrong here. Again, there's the paradox. Didn't he just say, ... and then all of a sudden turns around, ...? So the truth is, the simple teretz is ... Eisav, you tell him, ... The Ribono Shel Olam, the Ribono Shel Olam, He knows better, right? That would be the answer. Maybe he's saying a different pshat. Katonti. I became small mikol hachasadim because it needs a tremendous bitachon to get to that. And chu gufa, maybe he didn't have that bitachon. Again, and I don't mean our levels of bitachon, trust me. Because Yankel Avinu's nish bitachon by huns valt geven tzaddikus, trust me. We're not comparing ourselves in any way, shape, or form to Yankel Avinu, but Chazal tell us this. Sefarim say a beautiful vort: Vayira Yaakov vayetzer lo. I told it to you on the way in. Vayira Yaakov, and I didn't plan on saying it in the shiur, but obviously it was bashert, because you asked me the kashya, I answered you, and this came out, so now it's in the shiur. Vayira Yaakov vayetzer lo. I don't remember, my zeide said over, chassidishe sefarim מסתמא, if I'm not mistaken. What was vayira? What was he afraid of? Vayetzer lo, that it bothered him. Okay, that was gufa the vayira. Yankel Avinu, vayira because vayetzer lo. Why was he scared? What was he scared about? But this, ... a mechidike shtikel from ... I see the time. Fasten your seatbelts, we're coming in for landing soon, okay? There's a mechidike ... ... When he was in Europe.

They wanted to confiscate his dira. Welcome to the world of Russia, of Mother Russia. They wanted your dira. They took it. Briskerov had a bigger dira than average, and they wanted his dira. So the family was scared. No dira means you live in the streets. You go to Sibir. There was no... Briskerov said, Don't worry about it. They're not going to take your dira. They said, What do you mean? It's the nicest dira on the block. They're going to take it. He says, No, they won't. They won't take it. And he told them over a pshat in this week's parsha. He said, Haflufah, haflufah. You notice after he finished with Sari Shel Esav, it says that you were able, im Elokim va'anashim vatuchal, and you were able to withstand. Tell me, where is the anashim? It still didn't happen yet, fregt the Briskerov. Ki sarisa im Elokim... gefahrlich... Ki sarisa im Elokim va'anashim vatuchal, but didn't happen yet. So far he fought with Elokim, he fought with the malach, but the adam didn't happen yet. Zogt Briskerov, haflufah, says, It's a shame. Says like this: You notice that when they were fighting, Chazal say that the earth, it was so, so much sand that it went all the way up to Shamayim. The avak went all the way up to Shamayim. What is theatrics? It's so important to know that they fought with such a ... that the earth ... to Shamayim. You have to give us an illustration of such a fight that the earth went up all the way up to the sky. So, Brisker Rav, no, there's a lesson. It's symbolic for something. Brisker Rav, that the fight is not in this world. The fight is in Shamayim. And if you win in Shamayim, then you won in this world too. If a person is matzachein by the Ribono Shel Olam, he will be matzachein by all the enemies as well. Meila, zokt Brisker Rav, that's why he was able to have the havtacha, ki sarisa im Elokim v'im anashim vatuchal. It's going to be that way too. In advance, it was known that he... and you see, taka, what happened after the fight, fight, fight, fight with Esav, which was a ruchniyusdike fight, the fight with Esav, the person fell away, which is really what I brought out. What happened to the fight? And the answer is, it fell away. It fell away. The fight mimeila fell away because the sarisa im Elokim was there. Mimeila, v'adam vatuchal. It's, you're going to be okay. You already won the battle by winning the ruchniyus that the Ribono Shel Olam says, matzachein, and kachava. He never lost his dira, and nobody knows why. Every time they would come, they would say, We'll get back to you, we're looking into something else. I don't know. Brisker never lost his dira. Wrote that in all the Brisker Torah sefarim. I'd like to end with two nekudos, rabosai. The first is a vort from the Alter. That's in Madregas Adam, and the second is a vort from the Vardiker, and the second is a story from the Alter. We say, before we take out the Torah, Ki lecha levad batachnu, Melech Kel ram v'nisa. What is ki lecha levad? Again, you see the same nekudah, ki lecha levad. What are we telling the Ribono Shel Olam? Ribono Shel Olam, see that my only bitachon is You. I'm not doing any other bitachon. I don't have any other security, only the fact, lecha levad batachnu. Zogt the Alter from Navardik, mashal l'mah hadavar domeh. An oni comes to an ashir. You know why he doesn't really give him a big check? Because he thinks, There's so many other ashirim. Okay, so I'll give him a little bit, and go vaiter. But if the ashir, says the Alter from Navardik, sees that the guy is not going to anybody, and he doesn't—

And he's only relying on him. So what does he do? The lesbrei has rachmanus on the guy. He gives him what he needs. So, the ... ki lecha levad batachnu, we tell the Ribono Shel Olam, we're not going to try any other avenues. So you got to do it for us. You got to be nichmera. I'm relying on you to the point that I'm not going anywhere else. ... So I want to tell you over a maaseh, and this will end. Zeide told to me, I've seen it over the years in different sefarim, it's a maaseh of the Alter of Navardik. A person came to the Alter of Navardik, and he tells him that he has a child that's sick. It's a problem. So the Alter of Navardik says, you know, for a hundred ruble, which I would say, let's say a hundred thousand dollars today, okay, just to give it to you. I think we can get the big doctor from so-and-so. Are you willing to pay? We'll put the money together. He said, ... Yes, Rebbe, yeah. So we'll go get this big doctor. The guy starts writing out the cheshbon. I don't have the checks in those days, forgive me if I don't know the details of the exact money part of it. It's never good money, okay? Whatever it is, he's starting. So the Alter says, Gevaldig, great, okay. Let's get the minyan together, come, let's go, and let's say Kaddish and Amen yehei shmei rabba. The guy's looking at him. They're going to get the doctor? He says, No, no, no, no, this is it. Shteit in Chazal, kol ha'oneh amen yehei shmei raba b'chol kocho, kor'in lo gzar dino. The guy, the father started to... you know, Rebbe's, a gutte zachah, yehei shmei raba, so a hundred thousand dollars. You see? Es nisht gechapt that the tefillah is worth just as much to the doctor, if not more. Now go back, you got to daven. That's how you have to daven. A hundred thousand dollars, does that get saved by the doctor? Das farshtein zich. Not segreise madreges, hadaysei. These are big madreges. But on a simple level, we're going to have to learn this one time or another, and that is, ein od milvado. It's only through tefillah. And things just, they just disappear. Problems go away because HaKadosh Baruch Hu is all there. It's always there. Hein am levadad yishkon, u'vagoyim lo yischashav, and I give this, so to speak, as a homework. What does that mean? Does it mean that in the UN they don't like us? Maybe. A lot want to learn that that's pshat in the pasuk. Hein am levadad yishkon, we live alone, u'vagoyim lo yischashav. Maybe that's Reb Yerucham's deher. V'niskav Hashem levadoi, that Yidden are alone and they... But the way we're learning, v'niskav Hashem levadoi, hein am levadad, u'vagoyim lo yischashav, they can't rely on the goyim. U'vagoyim lo yischashav. They shouldn't be mischashev with the goyim and rely on what they get and the security that they're getting from the goyim, because it's not going to be there. You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.