The Test of Life, Part 1: Why the Torah Highlights the Avos’ Trials

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. I want to point out something that, as a child, always bothered me. When you read about Avram, as well as Yitzchak, as well as Yaakov, you don't get a picture from them that they were talmidei chachamim. You don't see that they were big rabbanim. We don't see that they were big yireim u'shleimim, she'amdu v'dibru sichot musar v'arba'at haTorah. We don't see that. We learn their lives and the difficulties they had in their lives. Chazal tell us that Avraham Avinu was a zaken v'yoshev b'yeshiva. Yitzchak, Yaakov, they sat in yeshiva. Sat and learned all day. The Gemara in Yuma, daf chaf-ches amud beis, says Avram, zaken v'yoshev b'yeshiva. The Rambam quotes it by Yaakov also. By Yitzchak, the avos hakedoshim sat all day in yeshiva. Yet in the Torah, there's no mention of it, that Avram sat in yeshiva, nothing; that Yitzchak sat in yeshiva, nothing. Yaakov, people know because שם ועבר, 14 years, ויצא יעקב, and even that, ברור, clear in the Torah, specifically mentioned in the Torah, it's hidden, right? It's Chazal. You have to look at the Gemaras. You have to look at the Gemarot to learn and to realize that Avraham and Yitzchak and Yaakov, למדו בישיבה בהסמדה. But what do we have in the Torah clear? Daily life and the difficulties and the tests. The Gemara in Avodah Zarah tells us that Avraham Avinu's Masechet Avodah Zarah had 400 prakim. 400 prakim. We have a few prakim, Masechet Avodah Zarah. That's how much Gemara Avraham Avinu had on the topic of Avodah Zarah. We have a few prakim, and we walk around, Shas, Shas. Avraham Avinu sat and mechadesh and taught and learned so much Gemara, no mention of it. Why? As a child, I always wondered, when I try to picture what the Avot looked like, you know, whenever they make a picture for children about Avraham and Yitzchak and Yaakov. What picture do they present? Avraham Avinu going and standing and camels and, right, Yaakov's sheep with the lavan. You ever see a picture of Avraham Avinu sitting by a Gemara? Why are you laughing? But they should have it! According to the Gemara, Avraham and Yitzchak and Yaakov was kinim yoshvim b'yeshiva, yeshvu v'lamdu kol hayom. Why in the Torah no mention? And the little bit that we do know is in the Chazal, and even the Chazalim, there's no remez in the Torah for it. Not even a remez. Is there a remez anywhere that Avraham Avinu sat and learned? Where is it? There's no remez at all. Not even merumaz baTorah. It's not even in a hint, a mention, that Avraham Avinu sat and learned all day Torah. Yes, he did chesed all day and he dealt with people all day, and... but that he sat and he learned? Yes, Vayashkem Avraham baboker.

Avraham davened. We learned that Avraham davened, Vayashkem Avraham baboker. Why don't you come and tell me Avraham Avinu, how he davened and all hilchos tefillah, that he was mechadesh? Start Torah should come and say, look, Avraham Avinu got up for Shacharis at six o'clock in the morning. Yeah, six o'clock in the morning, not nine o'clock in the morning. Six o'clock in the morning, yeah. Vayashkem. Don't say it. Next, say Avraham Avinu hitpalel netz. Don't say it. Vayashkem Avraham baboker. Avraham wakes up in the morning, and we deduce from this tefillah, he prayed, he was mechadesh Shacharis. But what is clear, and what the Torah does show us clearly, his life and the tests, hanisyonos she'avar. Lama? Muchach, it is clear from here that the lesson, me'ikar of the Avot, is the nisyonot hachayim that they went through, and the lessons that we have to take from it. It's important, of course, to learn, and maybe it's a davar pashut that Avraham learned. It's pashut. You know, there's a Chassidic word, they call it avot, Chassidic word. How do we know that Yaakov wore a yarmulke? How do we know he wore kippah? So they say, Vayetzei Yaakov miBe'er Sheva, vayelech Charanah. Ha'im haya yotzei beli kippah? Badayi hu lavash kippah. Of course he wore a yarmulke. Would he walk out in the street without a yarmulke? Certain things are simple. That's not a real pshat, by the way. And that the Avot wore a yarmulke, I don't even know. It's a good question if the Avot wore a yarmulke. And when did yarmulkes start? We could talk about that in the halacha shiurim. Whatever it is, that they sat and they learned, that's not the chidush. What else are you going to do? What else were they going to do? Of course they sat and learned all day. Of course they davened to Hashem all day. What the chidush is, what they're teaching, what's something that's out of the norm, that we have to learn and emulate, is their life and how they dealt with chayim v'nisyonot kashim shel hachayim. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.