Vayeira: Avraham and Sedom—True Chesed, Ayin Tovah, and Seeing Good in Others

Transcript

This week's parsha we find that Avraham Avinu is told about Sdom right away goes to daven. Why does the Eibishter tell him about Sdom? The pasuk says, Hamechaseh ani meAvraham asher ani oseh. How can I conceal from Avraham, Avraham? We have to speak about it at a different time, when the Eibishter has the right to do things without discussing with Avraham first. Just because a person is a tzaddik doesn't mean that the Ribono Shel Olam can't run the world and punish. Unless maybe he meant because of Lot. That's what it means, Hamechaseh ani meAvraham asher ani oseh, because since it was a reference to Lot, so Hashem says, How can I conceal it to Avraham? But that's not what it says in the pasuk. The pasuk says a different reason. Avraham is hayo yihyeh, he's Avraham Avinu. It's a long discussion. Many mefarshim say a different pshat. Avraham was being tested with the story of Sdom. Sdom was the antithesis. of what Avram stood for. If Avram had an agenda, the first thing he should have wanted was daim off the map. That was within the... I don't remember where I saw it, but years ago I saw this pshat, and I thought it was a brilliant pshat from the mefarshim, that HaKadosh Baruch Hu wanted to see how Avram reacts. I'm going to wipe out Sedom and other... The exact opposite of what I stand for, and everything I'm trying to institute in the world, they're standing against it. And how does Avram react? He's davening, and if you notice, not stam davening. He's fighting with the Eibishter, you know, ten tzaddikim, and then fifty tzaddikim, and forty tzaddikim, and put so much effort into it. They're reshaim. I want to bring out a point, and I just need one more second to bring out another point, and then the two points come together. What is daim? What is the root of daim? And a better question: are people who are completely reshaim, are reshaim and has nothing to do with us, so we can have some shaychus to daim? Chazal tell us, kofin al midas Sedom. Certain behaviors are daim. Ze neheneh v'ze lo chaser is midas Sedom. It's unbelievable. A person thinks daim was off the map. Torah, Chazal are teaching us that every person can have daim. What is daim? So let's identify daim, and then we'll put the two things together. There's a meyridike Mishnah in Avos: Ha'omer sheli sheli v'shelcha shelcha, זו מידה בינונית. It's normal. Yours is yours, mine is mine. It's normal. Rabbi Yehuda says now, zu midas Sdom. How dik is that? So first of all, why is it midas Sdom, and what's the machlokes? Shalishi, it says yashrus, no? Let me tell you, there's a gevaldige Rabbeinu Yonah on that. Rabbeinu Yonah says it's not that he doesn't give tzedakah; he gives tzedakah also. But he gives it without feeling that, oh, I want to help the other guy. He does it with tzaras ayin. You want to hear a peldike thing, and then you'll see pshat in this medrash. When light came, right, so they were all angry at light. You know why they were angry at light? Rashi brings it down. What are you bringing us this chesed, this stories with the salt? She wanted to— that's why she became a salt. Atah ba lekan lehanig rishus? You're trying to put this rishus that you should lend somebody else. Says Rashi, loshon of Rashi. I saw the mefarshim ask, bishlema, you don't want to do chesed, that's one thing. But how could you be convinced that doing chesed is rishus? How do you go from this extreme to that extreme? Teretz, rabboisai, is all very pashut. Shalishi v'shalcha shelcha is that Rabbeinu Yonah, that it's tzaras ayin. You know what tzaras ayin means? Selfish. It's not to see with an ayin tovah.

If you don't see with an ayin toivah, then you can look at a maaseh chesed as a maaseh rishus. It's a peldike thing. A person can do a mitzvah, a chesed. What? It's the charishus. What are you coming to bring rishus into our town of Zdoin? And that's that Rabbeinu Yonah that says that it all depends on how. You can give tzedakah also, but if inside it's not given with ayin toivah, rather it's given with tzaras ayin, the lashon there is chachlilus, chachlilus mitzaras ayin. It's the lashon of Rabbeinu Yonah. Then that's midas Sdom, and that's the pshat in the Mishnah. It sounds like it's midah beinonis, sheli sheli v'shelcha shelcha. Sounds like it's normal. The second man d'amar is saying, yeah, but the root of it, your selfish, you hold mine is mine and yours is yours, that's midas Sdom, it's the shoresh. That's the machlokes in the Mishnah. The question is the shoresh. Avraham Avinu's chesed was that he was selfless. The Ribono Shel Olam was testing him in the story of Sdom. I'm going to bring you anshei Sdom. If you mean anything about yourself, you would never daven for Sdom, you'd never care about it. But if the pshat is your chesed is real, your chesed is emes, so then the pshat is there's no me, so I could daven even for my biggest soneh, so to speak. I could daven for my biggest adversary. What am I trying to bring out? You know, rabosai, we could talk from today till tomorrow, you have to do this and you have to do that. There are certain things we go to the shoreshim. Your whole life's view changes because of it. For one of them is taivas ayin, to see good, to feel good. It's a certain... and then, and then if not, ma'aseh zdoyim. Ma'aseh S'dom becomes yashrus. The Rishonim talk, and I don't want to be marich, but they say they had court systems and they had all mahalachim, zaranza. Fakert, they thought they were extremely, extremely moral, extremely moral with laws. I'll tell you a cute maaseh and I'll let you on your way, because... the liberals like that. So let me tell you a maaseh. They're so moral, the environment is so moral. My father told me, my father told me that he was once driving, you know, years ago, a Plymouth. In those days they had the Plymouth. Remember the Plymouths? He was driving, my grandfather, and there was a cop directing traffic. So the cop told him to go to the right. He shouldn't go straight or whatever, or left; he should go right. My father doesn't hear so well, and also he's... that's the type person he is. So instead of listening to the cop, he went straight. The cop banged on the car, and he made him roll up the window, and he was mecharef him, and he was megadef him. My father, the police asked him, Yeah, but why are you talking to me that way? Like, why? His response was, You violated the law. The law is you have to listen to a policeman. And he was screaming and he was yelling, I could put you in jail. You violated the law. So my zeide turned to him and said, Look in the Chukim u'Mishpatim, lo yitov. Look at the Chukim u'Mishpatim. What's the violation of law? You didn't hit a guy, you went right instead of left, right? Ay, what about that you were shoyfech and you made ashen blot, as they say in Yiddish, from somebody? That's not a problem. The judicial—you didn't listen to the judicial. Judicial could be, rabosai, if it's not from the within, toiv. It's very important, rabosai. I'm telling you, I can't explain to you how a person's whole view of everything changes if inside he works on being toiv, toiv, toiv, toiv. See things positive. See things good. Avraham saw everything chesed. Chesed could mean that you could ... That's what it could mean. Sdom, which saw everything, yeah, yeah, yashrus. They thought—how could you, the lashon Rashi, how could you bring this rishus to us, that you do chesed? It's a rishus to lend somebody else salt, yeah? Rishus. Atah ba l'hani kan, rishus זו. It's unbelievable. Another entitlement. Which chesed did he see? Where? No, the chesed ... They're people. He tried to find the good. Ulay yesh b'socham me'ah chamishim tzaddikim. He was trying to find something good from within.

Could you imagine if it's an ir shekula tzaddikim? Sedom would try to find the one bad guy. They would daven today, Bish, the guy get rid of Avraham Avinu's camp because there's one bad guy in it. And Avraham Avinu's davening the other way around. In this horrible camp, maybe, Hashem, there's one good guy. The chiluk between chesed and Sedom. Koifin al midas Sedom, and that's why we're koifin. Why are you koifin al midas Sedom? I always thought about, why are you koifin? Rabosai, midas Sedom is deeper. Deep. It goes real deep into the shoreshim of anti-Torah, midas Sedom. Dafka. You'll see, your whole life will turn around. See good. Learn to see the toiv in every person. Everyone has so many ma'alos. There's so much. Just the Gerer Rebbe used to say, Havdan es kol adam l'kaf zechus. You know, Gerer Rebbe's vort? Orshat es kol ha'adam. Just say es kol ha'adam, every person. Says the Gerer Rebbe, you have to not dan every person. You have to dan the whole person, es kol ha'adam. You never say, He has this midah. Yeah, but he has thousands of other good things. What do we do? We zoom in on the— we zoom in on the— Yeah, you saw what the guy said, you saw what he did. Yeah, but what about all the other things he says and does, and he's trying? He's kulo toiv. A person can be kulo toiv. Ah, you see, he has this midah. Yeah, but that's all he is. That's it? There's nothing else over here? And you want to know something? When you look at it from the outside, you see it's nishtamal. If you want to know the truth, it's a sign of not normal thought. Toiv ayin means either you're normal or you're not. Toiv ayin is about being glatt and not glatt. Rabosai, work on it. I'm telling you, you have hatzlacha.