The Test of Life, Part 3: Living a Life of Kiddush Hashem

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Let's come, rabosai, and discuss a different answer that I was thinking, maybe. Why does the Torah not mention the nisayon of Ur Kasdim? Why does the Torah not mention the nisayon of Ur Kasdim? You know, there's a beautiful Beis Yosef, a story. The Beis Yosef prayed to Hashem that he should be zocheh to the ultimate zechut that a Jew has, and that is l'kadeish Shem Shamayim. Every Jew lives l'kadeish Shem Shamayim. This is the ultimate. Kiddush Hashem, right? L'kadishach v'laritzach. You want to be mekadesh Shemcha ba'olam. That's what every Jew focuses his goal on. What is the ultimate of Kiddush Hashem? Lamut al Shemo HaGadol. To die al Kiddush Hashem. Many tzaddikim prayed to have the zechut to die for Kiddush Hashem. Many asked this, that they should, at the end of their life, it should be with the zechut of Kiddush Shem Shamayim. The Beis Yosef, like I said, as many other tzaddikim prayed for this zchut, but Beit Yosef never got it. We all know that the Beis Yosef had a malach that came and taught him Torah every night. The Gra also had a malach that was willing to teach him Torah, but the Gra said, I don't want. Didn't want. Didn't like the chavrusa. Could you imagine a malach comes to you and says, How come? You want to learn with me Gemara? Nah, not interested in the... Don't like the chavrusa. Don't like it. What's the reason? He said that he wanted Torah only through ameilut. Had to work on it, to be given the Torah, to be delivered from a malach, the Gra didn't want. You know, it's interesting. Every person actually gets the entire Torah delivered to him by a malach in the womb, in the mother's stomach. Yet he forgets that Torah. What do you have to forget that Torah for? Let him come out and let him have it. What's the big deal? We all know that there's a little under the nose, there's a little, right, indentation, and that comes from the malach, and you forget the Torah. IY goyim have it. Goyim learning Torah with a malach, I don't know. Or maybe it's just that there shouldn't be a difference. If every Jew would be born with this and a goy would not be born, it would be pretty clear, and the whole world would want to become geirim, right? They would all want to become Jews. We could discuss that at a different time, okay? But whatever it is, you're getting the Torah from a malach. So why is it that we have to forget that Torah? And the answer is, like the Gra, any Torah that's delivered without you working hard on it, it's not the same thing. Yes, the malach teaches you the Torah, but did you work on toiling on understanding? No, you're sitting in your mother's stomach. You're being fed all the delicious food that your mother's eating. You're warm, you're comfortable. Everything, unbelievable, yeah? Gan Eden. You know, it's brought down in the Chazal that when Rivka had the two children in her stomach, when she passed by the makom Torah, the yeshivot, Yaakov Avinu was jumping to go out. When Esav saw that they were passing Beit Avodah Zarah, he was jumping to get out. So the meforshim ask a question: Why is Yaakov Avinu jumping to get out, to go to the yeshiva? He has the best yeshiva in the mother's stomach and the best makif shiur, the malach.

What's he jump? What's he running to come to yeshiva's beis nosen meir, beis ohel simcha, whatever yeshiva you want to call ourselves. So there's a very famous answer. Today everybody takes credit for this answer. Yeah, it's a malach was the Rebbe, but who was the chavruta? Esav. He's sitting on the same bench as Esav. He was running away from Esav to go to yeshiva. The malach wasn't the problem. The melamed was not the problem. Who was the problem? The chavruta that's sitting on the same bench with him. My grandfather used to add to this. So why is Esav running away? Well, he's not crazy. He's learning with a malach Torah. He's learning with a malach Torah. He needs to run to Beit Avodah Zarah. He needs to run. You're right. A person has taavot. He likes avodah zarah. You're learning with a malach. Are you crazy? That's what you—you're trading in the limud with the malach to run to Beit Avodah Zarah, hevel havalim. So my grandfather used to answer, Yaakov needs to run away from Esav. But Esav has to show the world, what, he's running from me? He's running from me? Nah, I gotta run from him. What's bad, right? Yaakov was saying, I can't be with this guy in the same bench, in the same yeshiva. So Esav says, What? I'm gonna run also. I'm gonna show that you're running, I'm running from you. But I would say more simpler, on both ends, Yaakov and Esav. Yaakov is running away even though the malach is teaching him because— Torah b'ameilut. It's not the same thing. He's being taught spoon-fed the Torah, but all of a sudden he sees the yeshiva and the ritcha d'Torah, the ameilut haTorah, and his heart jumps. His ahavat haTorah, he wants to learn. Why is Esav running to Beit Avodah Zarah? He's learning to malach and the teretz is, no. Torah bli ameilut doesn't do it. It doesn't do it, rabosai. Listen to me. Today we live in a society where they're throwing at us so much gilui arayot and so much tumah, hashkafah, so much. There's only one solution to it all, besides for shutting off the mekomot shel tumah. Besides for that, there's one solution. The Rambam says to learn Torah. She'ein arayot mitgaberet b'adam, b'lev ha'adam, ela b'mi shepanui min hachochmah. If you don't learn, that's what's going to happen. You learn, it pushes away all the garbage. So people are going to say, But I learned, and it still doesn't help me. What's the answer? It's how you learn. If you learn with bli ameilut, if you learn without delving into the Torah, not going to help you. Not going to help you. Torah b'ameilut. That's what helps. Yaakov, says like the Gra, not interested. Not interested. Malach, you're teaching me, I'm going to run to yeshiva. Esav is not taken by what he learned. He's not taken by what he learned with the malach. It's still driving his yetzer hara, it's driving him to go to beis avodah zarah. You'll ask me a question. So then why does the Eibishter send the malach to learn with you if you're anyway going to forget it? He's shaking his head, because he wants to know. Moshe, you're good. You want to know. So why do you need the whole story for? To learn it, to forget it? And again, it's bli ameilut, and therefore what? I'll give you a simple answer. Torah is so deep. Torah is so amok miniam. What does it say, the lashon of the pasuk over there? Chavah minyam. So if the malach didn't teach it to you, that you got it as you were being created, you wouldn't be able to be tofes it afterwards. In order for you to come to this world and be ameil to retrieve, you needed to have learned it to retrieve it. Otherwise...

You'd never be able to be masig, masig at haTorah. Bet Yosef, obviously he felt differently, and the Bet Yosef, he learned with the Malach. So the Beis Yosef, when he learned with the Malach, he used to call him the Magid. It was called the Magid. The Malach was called the Magid. He asked him, You know, I daven always that I should be zoche to die al kiddush Hashem. How come Hashem never answered my prayer? How come I was never zoche to be a kadosh, to be killed al kiddush Hashem, to die al kiddush Hashem? And the Magid answered the Bet Yosef, Shelcha gadol. What you have is even greater than one who dies al kiddush Hashem, and that is you live at a chai al kiddush Hashem. Zachita, you were zoche to melamed Torah l'amo Yisrael, to write Torah that for years and years they're going to learn your Torah. Zachita lekadesh Shem Shamayim, lo b'mita, ela b'chayim, in life. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.