Bereishis to Chayei Sarah: Noach’s Chein, Avraham’s Chesed, and Eliezer’s Negius

Transcript

Catch up with a few yesodos, pashas Bereishis, from the beginning to the end. I haven't been here for a few weeks, more than a few weeks. I want to begin with an interesting yesod. At the end of Parshas Bereishis, we find that Noach was matza chen b'einei Hashem. In the beginning of the next parsha, Parshas Noach, it speaks about Noach's tzidkus: Ish tzaddik, tamim haya b'dorosav, et haElokim hishalech Noach. Very nice, beautiful stuff, things, right? But it's not clear if the nesiat chen, that he was nosei chen, is connected to the next parsha, right? Why was he nosei chen? It says, Noach matza chen b'einei Hashem, but it doesn't say clearly why. Not in Rashi. It just says that he found favor in the eyes of Hashem. So if you look at the Gemara Sanhedrin, the Gemara says that actually Noach was supposed to be killed together with the rest of the people. He was supposed to be killed. Af al Noach nigzar. So why was he saved? Noach matza chen b'einei Hashem. Special, special favor. Gemara Sanhedrin. So the question is, if he was tzaddik tamim haya b'dorosav, et haElokim hishalech Noach, why isn't that good enough? Why does it have to be, Noach matza chen b'einei Hashem? There's a good enough reason, right? Here's the reason. Someone is tzaddik tamim hayah. Could you imagine writing on somebody, I saw the sign you wrote over there, ragav, vagaon, who? I got all scared from this person. I didn't realize you're talking about me. Reading it, who's this person? Can you imagine if you wrote, tzaddik, tamim, who, l'kim his'halech Noach? That's tremendous things you'd say, right? So the question is, Mr. Kayk, if I came special for Leiku just for you, no? Eating potato chips now? What's eating over there? Okay, special Leiku. I traveled two and a half hours to teach him. He's eating potato chips. See, this I can't do in Leiku. I can only do that here. This, you know, I give it over there, I lose half the crowd. Half the audience runs away. So the question—no, these are my trophies. Can't survive. So the question is, why does he need nesiat chen? What's wrong with the fact that he was a big tzaddik? No, it's a good question. So the Sippurno learns that actually he himself would have been saved anyway. But the question is his children. Why was his children—don't forget, his children didn't seem to be the greatest of tzaddikim. So the nesiat chen helped that the children were saved, which is a good question. How does the nesiat chen of Noach help for the children? That's a good question. As they say in English, what are the mechanics of this pshat? Why is it that if you're nosei chen, it helps you for the children? That's a very good question. But before we answer that question, we first have to explain another question. And that is, what does nosei chein mean? What does it mean? So the truth is, many mefarshim say different things. And it's interesting how each one, from his background, says a different pshat. In the Olam HaTorah, they explain the siyatchen, limud haTorah. He used to learn Torah. The Gemara says, Min lamed shelamad Noach Torah. How do we know this? Because it says, Mina beheima tahorah. From the pure. V'she'eina beheima eina tehorah. How does he know? He learned Torah. All right. So the question is, he learns Torah, and we find that there's a pasuk by Torah: Yaeles chein v'Yaeles ahuvim, chein al lomdeha. Chein haTorah al lomdeha. That those that learn Torah get a special chein. The Rambam brings this down l'halachah, that those that learn Torah at night, special at night. You come at night, you come at night. Chut shel chesed nimshach alav. Right, that's a famous Rambam in Hilchos Talmud Torah. What is chesed? Chesed means chein. How do we know this? Because it says by Esther, Esther noseis chein.

V'einei kol royeha. And the Gemara says, Chut shel chesed mashuch aleha, that she had a chut, a string of chesed, right? So what do we see? Chein. It says, Tenu lachein ulechesed. Chein and chesed go together. What's the difference between chein and chesed? L'choira, we're learning chein is to find grace, right? So l'choira, if chein is chesed and chesed is chein, so why do we say l'chein ulechesed? Maybe taka means one thing. Maybe a dikduk, you know, it's two words which mean the same thing. All right, that's for a different time to discuss the difference between chein and chesed. All right. Well, there's some people here that are called chein, so maybe the question if you could start calling them chesed. I don't want to go there. But al kol panim, is chein chesed and chesed is chein? Maybe, possibly. But that's not the point of what we want here today. We're just trying to get back to say that he learned Torah. And if he learned Torah, Reb Nachum says such a thing. Reb Nachum Partzovitz used to say at the lenteich, he used to learn Torah. And since he learned Torah, he had chein. This is the yeshiva pshat. And why was Noach matza chein? Chassidishe olam has a whole different pshat. Of course, they're not going to speak about Torah per se. What do they speak about? Avodah. So they say, if you look at the Sfas Emes, the Gerer Rebbe, they say, Es Elokim hishalech Noach. It says clearly in the pasuk that Noach was a big oved Hashem. He worshipped Hashem greatly. So if someone is oved Hashem truthfully, with great fervor, as we say in English, fervor, what happens is you get what? Chein. My Rebbe Rav Pam zatzal says a different pshat, and the truth is the yesod of this pshat is based on a sefer called Erech Apayim. Erech Apayim is a whole likut on anger management. Beautiful sefer, Erech Apayim. So he says in the sefer Erech Apayim that someone who holds himself back, he refrains from having anger, he's noisei chein. Says Rav Pam, ah, that's pshat in the pasuk: Venoach matza chein b'einei Hashem. Why did he find chein? Because he didn't get angry. And how do we know Noach didn't get angry? It's a mefurash Chazal. Chazal say Noach, he was Noach labriyos, Noach lamakom, which means he was a person who was noach. Noach means he was easygoing. Hear, Rabbi Weiss, huh? He was comfortable, easy. Hear, Rabbi Weiss was saying a pshat: Venoach matza chein b'einei Hashem doesn't say why; it just says he did. So I always say pshat: chein doesn't have to have an explanation. It's self-evident, chein. I always say that. But l'choira by Noach it must... It doesn't have—it's by itself. Mi she'ata nosein... Matzias chein lo tzarich hesber. You know, it doesn't need to be a why. It just is; you find favor. But l'choira, if he was saved from the mabul, because the Gemara says he was supposed to die. If not for this, he would have been saved from the mabul. So he must be just not... that Rabbeinu was noisei chein. There has to be a reason behind it. So I told him that in the Olam HaTorah they learned, he learned Torah. And it says by Torah, Vayaalas chen. Chein al lomdeha, that those that learn Torah have a chein. So therefore, Noach, we know, learned Torah, right? It says in the, B'heima tahorah, b'heima she'einah tehorah. So therefore he was noyach, a chein. See, the sefarim write that he was a big baal avodah, Elokim hisalech Noach, all right. Rav Pam zatzal quotes the Sefer Erech Apayim that Noach didn't get angry. Noach wasn't a kapdan, wasn't a kapdan. And since he wasn't a kapdan, Noach matza chein b'einei Hashem. Now if you know, Rav Pam points out, this middah helped him survive the teivah. Could you imagine what it was like in the teivah? Every two seconds the animals bothered him. If you think the children are bad when they're hungry, right, you just see what the lions and the tigers are when they get hungry, right? Every two seconds, it says, the Gemara says, he didn't have a minute to sleep. Chazal say that Noach did not rest for a moment in the teivah. And if he was one second late, he got it over the head, right? The lion. Says Rav Pam that this middah, this middah, all right, that this middah, that he wasn't a kapdan, made him survive the teivah. So that's v'Noach matza chein b'einei Hashem. Az eiz iz a tzaddik to tell me that the Chofetz Chaim would say that when a person would get angry—

It would say, Venoach, because he was noach, matza chein b'einei Hashem. Noach. He was nach, he was calm. Chazal say he was noach labriyos. So you see that the metzius chein, because what? He didn't get angry. So l'choira, l'fi zeh comes out a Gemara, you know, pshat in the Gemara, which I don't think they follow through, Rav Pappa doesn't follow through, but l'choira, you see that the whole—he was supposed to die. Whatever he did was not enough to keep him surviving. Yeah, but because he didn't get angry, because he was noach labriyos, that itself made him survive. I try to wonder to myself, what happens if Noach wouldn't have made it? So there would be no world. I mean, what happens if Noach doesn't make it? I never understood, like, what was the master plan without Noach? And then HaKadosh Baruch Hu puts more and more emphasis on the middah of not getting angry. You see that because he didn't get angry, there's a world today. So it says here, it's a moiridik, huh? Because he was noach, he was matza chein, and because he was matza chein, he survived. If not—question—what if not? I don't know. I could have started from scratch again. I don't know, but whatever it is, we're here today. It worked out this way. That we're here today because he didn't get angry. Didn't get angry. Now I want to point out something very interesting. This could be pshat in the sipur, that really he would have survived anyway because of his own chesed, his own mitzvos ma'asim tovim. His children, because he wasn't nice, because he wasn't angry. If the pshat is noisechen because he didn't get angry, and the sevara says that helped him for his children, so you see that not getting angry helps with the children. What's the mussar itself evident, Rabbi Yisai? Anger doesn't have to mean that you get angry and you yell at the other guy. That's not what anger means, okay? Even though the Gemara says that kol hako'es ki'ilu oved avodah zarah, it's mamash like you did avodah zarah. You see that they're not learning that it's per se one kaas, hakpadah. When we talk about noiach labriyos, we don't mean they didn't scream. Noiach labriyos doesn't mean not screaming. Noiach labriyos means not to be makpid. You know, Rabbi Yisai, it takes a whole life to work on this, a whole life to work on this. You know my father—who here knows my father? You know my father? If there's one thing that my father instilled in us was this: not to be makpid, not to be makpid, to be mevater, to be ma'avir al midos, be makpid. You know Reb Dovid Kviat was... you know Reb Dovid Kviat? Sure, Reb Dovid Kviat—b'dei olam here knows. We brought him here, he was my father's, the family, Reb Dovid Kviat, okay. You know what Reb Dovid Kviat was? He was noach. He always used to speak about it, to be noach labriyos, be mevater, don't be makpid on every little thing. Wherever you sat and he sat, wherever you told him to speak, he would speak. If you told him not to speak, it was also good. Whatever you told him, it's fine. Rabosai, this is v'noyach matza chein b'einei Hashem. Now, this is all simple mussar. I didn't come from Lakewood just to give you simple mussar. My job is to make shtikel Torah out of it. So what's the shtikel Torah I want to make? How does it work? Why is it that if a person is not a makpid, he's nosei chein b'einei Hashem? Why? Why should it be that way? So let me tell you what I think. And this is emes l'amito. It was worth it to come all the way from Lakewood to teach this to you. You know, Esther wasn't a kapdan either. Kol asher yomar lah Hegai, shomer ha-nashim, was good enough. Okay, so you're talking because you think that a bucharie woman is not supposed to be makpid. Most women are so makpid like you never saw in your life. Tchunas ha'isha is to be makpedet and to be ka'asanit. That's what they're all about. Okay, now, if you look at Esther, she was the exact opposite. What was the exact opposite of Esther? Whatever Hegai told her was good enough. Was she makpid? No, makpid, no. And the...

The pasuk goes out of its way to say that. The pasuk goes out of its way to say, Vati Esther noses chein b'einei kol ro'eha, and the pasuk goes out of its way to say, Vayikshah davar, eis asher yomar lo hegai, whatever you tell me, it's good. She had no hakpadah. So from Esther, it's a good understanding of why makpid and chein go together. So I'll tell you what pshat is. I'll tell you on a simple level, and then I'll tell you on a עומק, עומק. On a simple level, rabosai, you know what makpid means? Ani. It's all about ani. When it's all about ani, you're makpid on every little thing. When there's an ani, then there's no ani Hashem. Ani Hashem works. The less the ani of by you, the more ani Hashem. Yeah. I told you, you know the famous story from the Chernobler with the choizer? It was a person that left the choizer, one of the Rebbes. He left the chaburah, chaburah of the talmidim. So he went to say goodbye to the Chernobler Rebbe. So he knocks on the window, and the Chernobler asks him, ‘Ver iz? Who's there?’ So the guy answered, ‘Ich. Me, ani.’ So he doesn't answer him. ‘Ver iz?’ ‘It's me. Ze ani.’ ‘Me? You don't recognize? You know who it is.’ Still didn't answer. Third time. So he says, ‘Why didn't you answer me?’ He says, ‘You're still not ready to leave the choizer.’ Because the chayzeh taught us there's just ani Hashem. There's no ani. There's no I, ich, it's me. The chayzeh's lessons were all about the only thing that is ani is ani Hashem. Chut shel chesed, it's brought down that the inyan of Rabbeinu Shalom being mashru shchinasoi, yeah, Rabbeinu Shalom is mashru shchinasoi. How is the Rabbeinu Shalom on a person? He's the chaperson. Rabbeinu Shalom is mekadesh. The answer is, this is the oymek: bitul hayesh gives room for ruchniyus, for kodesh to be chal. The more bitul hayesh that there is, the more it's shayach for kodesh to rest on it. You know, it's very interesting. If you look, the aron, the aron wasn't tofes makom, you know that. Rabbi Weiss, you know, this you should teach to the oilam. How big was the aron? Give me the measurements. Yeah, that's what it says in the Torah. But tell me something, did the aron actually take up any room? No. Kedusha means to be chal on something which isn't tofes makom. A person is also, he could be tofes a big makom. You know, some people could be a certain measurement, but around them, everything has to be, you know, they have to be felt wherever they are. Even the space, everybody has to know, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here. Notice me, I'm here. And then there's certain people that even when they're here, you don't even notice that they're there. You know why? They're not makpid, they're not tofes makom. The less you're toifes makom, that's what you learn from the Arn Kodesh, the less you're toifes makom, the more it's chal kedushah. Rabosai, this is a big lesson. You want to be kadosh. You want chein. You want to be zoche that the Ribono Shel Olam should be chut shel chesed, that people should look at you and find you l'chein ul'chesed. You want zechusim for your children, that Noach matza chein b'einei Hashem. This is lesson number one. Lesson number two. Lesson number two. You know, I was thinking to myself, maybe it's really nogea to lesson number one also. What was the response of Noach after the story with Cham? What was the response? So pashtus, he cursed him, right? He cursed him. Take a look at the pasuk. It says it twice, Vayomer. Once...

It says, Vayomer Arur Canaan, and then it says, Vayomer Baruch Shem. Right, look at the pasuk. It's interesting. Right? It says it twice. So why does it have to say Vayomer? He could have said, Vayomer Arur Canaan u'Baruch Shem. Why? Unless you don't want to put it in the same sentence. You know, you have to, you know, a good speaker, because first he gives the one thing and then he makes a stop. And it bothered me. This year I found the me'irdike thing. The Netziv speaks about this kashya, and the Netziv says a me'irdike chiddush. The Netziv wants to know: was Noach angry or not angry? Because if Noach was angry, then how Yitachen the Ribbono Shel Olam came to him, Eina nevuah chal ela mitoch simcha? And this is a kashya bothering me all my life. So I always learned that Noach never got angry. I learned all my life that Noach never got angry. Yeah? Yeah? Noach never got angry. The Netziv wants to tayn that Noach did get angry. And the Netziv says that's why it says twice Vayomer. The first Vayomer was a hairaas shaah. Yeah? It had to be. Why? Because he had to curse him. So even though he was angry and the Shechinah can't rest when a person's angry, yet Hashem came to him and Hashem gave him to say the klalah, special chiddush. And that's why it says Vayomer, because the next one had to be already mitoch simcha. So first of all, I noticed a big yesod, even in the Netziv. He got angry, and a split second later he wasn't angry again. I mean, when somebody does that to you, you'd be very angry, no? You know what he did, right? You know that he wanted children. You know that he wanted... It says in the Medrash that the entire time in the teivah, Noach couldn't wait to have a child, because he needed someone to serve him, very Bucharian style. He needed a son to service him. So he was waiting, he was waiting for a son, and finally when he comes out, look what Cham did to him. So you would have taken Cham, and you would have smacked him around. You would have given him something you'd never forget his whole life, right? That's what you would do. That's what most people would do, right? But before that, right, before he gets a chance, he says, angry. So the way I'm learning, he didn't even get angry, which is an unbelievable chiddush. But even according to the tzaddik, he got angry, but a second later he was okay. So you have to say that even his anger was with a cheshbon, which means he got angry. Stop. Could you imagine when you get a tantrum? You ever get tantrums? You ever get angry? Sometimes. Could you imagine you got angry and you're on the clock? Okay, in a minute's time, I'm not angry anymore. Would you be able to do that? But you hear what I'm telling you? It says that he got angry. It's unbelievable. You're not listening. He got... I'm learning that he got angry, and that's how the Eibishter was able to come to him. You hear? Unbelievable. Did he get angry or didn't get angry? If you're learning he got angry, unbelievable. But if you're learning like the Netziv, he got angry, but a second later he was happy, because otherwise the Shechinah couldn't have come to him, says the Netziv. So even in the Netziv's pshat... You see that his anger lasted for how long? One second. How long does it say? So let's say he would said it like a yeshiva man, Arur Kenaan. And if he said it like a Bucharian Sefardi, like Balkoreh, it was longer, Arur Kenaan. Okay, so another two seconds, all right? How long could it have been already? How long could it have been already? This is the pshat. When a person has shlita, he has self-control, sholet b'rucho. I want to tell you another thing. I don't believe for a minute that he ever cursed his son. It's mashma he cursed him, right? Arur Kenaan. So there's a pshat from my great uncle, Reb Zalman Sorotzkin zatzal, beautiful pshat. It wasn't even a curse. What it was, it was a blessing for Canaan. Why was it a blessing? Most people do well when they are sholet on themselves, right? They're free, they behave. You know, the Sefarim say the minute you give them freedom, then he makes graffiti all over the walls, right? Give him freedom, right? So, fakert, the best thing for him is to have someone on top of him.

To keep him in line. Arur Kenaan, eved avadim yihyeh lecha. It wasn't even a klala. He said, Listen, you're free, look at your babe. Okay, I'll give you an adon. It wasn't even a klala. So even when he got angry and he gave a klala, it wasn't, Come, let me throw you out of the house and let me divorce you and I'll... Come here, I'll learn with you, I'll help you. That was the klala. Sometimes that's a klala. But all right, the point being that a person has to be able to be rachok, rachok min hakaas, rachok, rachok min haklalot, rachok, rachok from anything which is... Keep me inside this. Huh? Keep me inside. So you know what you do, you get a heart attack? I'll tell you what you do. I'll give you good advice. You go to the mirror, and you look in the mirror and you say, You, look what you did to me yesterday. To yourself. Scream at yourself. Yeah, look in the mirror, scream at yourself. Tell me, who's one's worst enemy? Who does the worst damage to a person? He himself. Man is his worst enemy. You know that, right? You know, right? A person could be chayin dimyon, and he's his worst enemy. That's just the way it is. So scream at yourself, or scream at the shulchan at the table. What's wrong? The Gemara says, Hashover keilim b'kaaso... No, Rambam calls it mitaken. The Gemara calls it, if you do it, it's called mitaken. I'd say it was a good thing. So there's ways on doing without being shover keilim on Shabbos. I understand, so you don't have to do the shover keilim, but you can let out your kas. Scream at it. Scream. Take the keli, that's what I just told you. Take the keli and scream at it. No? It says, ha-shover keilim b'toch kaso, so don't break it. Who told you to break it? Talk to the keli. What do you want? Scream. I'm gonna... and you... okay, done. And you only have a few seconds. From Noach we learn that even on the aveirah that happened, the kas was a few seconds. Lesson number two, rabosai. Lesson number two. Parshas Lech Lecha. You find something very interesting. Avraham Avinu finds out about Sdom. Avraham finds out about Sdom. What's his first reaction? Kiddush nifla, no? Avraham... What does Hashem say? Hashem says, I'm going to destroy Sdom. So what's the first thing that Avraham Avinu does? Davens. He davens. Now who was doimer already? Who was doimer? Who? Actually what I said. I'm sorry. Everything that was anti Avram, the Seforno explains that the antithesis, and things we call the antithesis, the anti of Avram was done. Yet what does he do? He goes to daven. And what kind of davening, Rabbi? It says clearly in the pasuk, Vayigash. Says Rashi, we find hagasha l'milchamah, l'deirin, u'ltefilah. So what does l'milchamah mean? He was ready to go to war. Here? Yeah, he was ready to go to war, with the Eibishter. He was ready to fight. He was done. Read the Rashi, Vayigash, nu. First read the pasuk. The oilam wants to hear the pasuk. It says, Vayigash Avraham vayomar... So what is Vayigash? And especially he's really talking to the Eibishter anyway. He just finished. So Vayigash means hagasha l'milchamah. What kind of milchamah? The answer is, it means almost literally, he was ready to go to war for them. Why is he ready to go to war for them? Yeah, what's the... What's the reason that he's ready to go to war for them? Can I ask you a better question? What does the Eibishter need to tell Avram all this? Hamechaseh ani me'Avraham asher ani oseh...

But Hashem can't do anything unless He tells Avraham. He has to first run it by Avraham. What was Avraham Avinu? Every time the Eibishter does something in the world, He first has to discuss with Avraham Avinu, what does it mean? Hamechaseh ani me'Avraham asher ani oseh? What does it mean? So read the Ramban. The Ramban says a few pshatim. Pshat number one, that people later are going to complain, Avraham Avinu, how come you didn't stop the story with Sdom? Achzarius! You're an achzar! You didn't stop it. Read, read, read. It's on the pasuk. It's on the pasuk. Hamechaseh ani me'Avraham asher ani oseh, says the Ramban. ... mipnei hachata'im ha'ba'im ... ... lemaan asher yetzaveh ... Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Says the Ramban. Yeah. Says the Ramban like this: Ki yomru hadoros haba'im, eich kisah mimenu, oi, eich nis'acher hatzadik al shechenav. How could you be an achzar? These are your neighbors. ... Neighbors? You call them neighbors? In English we have an expression, neighbors from hell. I mean, you're talking about mamish—these are neighbors? It's a פלאי פלאים, no? Tell me, there's one person in the world that you wouldn't call an achsar. Who would that be? Avraham. Avraham Avinu is the classic case of chesed. Malachim come to his house, you hear? And he's running, and then he's treating them, and then—talking about Arabs, stam, the people in the street. Not only that, he's sick, and he's anyway what? Running to do the chesed. Would you call that an achsar? Not in my wildest dreams. Ramban says Hashem was afraid that the doros later would call him an achsar. So I always used to think, from here you see that people are sick, and what they could do is take a tzaddik and make him into an achsar. The littlest thing that he does—oh, he could have a tzaddik who helps and does, and he's running all day, and then—you saw what the Rav did over there, you saw. What about the fact that all day long he's running around helping people? All day long. He's running, he's teaching, he's coming. You saw what he did. You saw how he said. You saw how he answered. Maybe that's the pshat in the Ramban. People are people. ... Yeah, you listening? It's one thing to do chesed with strangers. It's one thing to do chesed with people you like. What about, do you do chesed with people you hate? People you hate. Oh, you hate. Oh, that's impossible. That's impossible. You have to be tzaddik. You have to be a big tzaddik. What do you say, Rabbi Weiss? Pshat no ampan, no. You hear? And for this, you'd be called an achsari. And the Rabbeinu Shloilem is scared of this, that people are going to call Avraham Avinu... If you read the next piece of the Ramban, you'll notice even deeper this pshat. And why am I saying this? You know how many times people come and say, I fight with this guy, but he deserves it. I hate this guy, yeah, but he deserves it. There was nobody more deserving for hatred than Esav. Yet Avraham Avinu not only had milchamah, he's ready to go to war for them. You would say, mishugah. Say mishugah, only meshugah it was, right? The middas hachesed of Avraham Avinu. Now I want to show you something interesting. The Ramban says that why does he...

He tells, he says another pshat. He adds to this pshat, and he says like this: You know why the Eibishter told him? He says like this: V'hinei, notice Avraham has a tremendous maila. L'maan asher yetzaveh es banav... la'asos tzedakah u'mishpat. Avraham knew tzedakah u'mishpat. Says the Ramban, what is tzedakah u'mishpat? It's a balance. On one hand, tzedakah; on the other hand, mishpat. So Hashem is going to discuss it with Avraham Avinu because he knows right and wrong. So if it'll be maskim, says the Ramban, I don't know, that's a Ramban. Ah, he's kol chesed, and I have a different question: Hashem doesn't know? Hashem doesn't know? What is this Ramban? Pli, point there. After I came from Lakewood for this. Get up and read it. Read it. Read it. Nu, gavaritz. How do you say gavaritz? What happened to... he ran away. Okay, gavaritz, let's go, nu. ... ידעתי בו שהוא מכיר ויודע שאני ה' עושה צדקה ומשפט... רק בצדקה, כן? ... והנה אם בדרך צדקה ומשפט יתנהגו, יתפלל לפני... Oh, if the tzedakah mishpat is right, so then he'll daven for them. ... ואם חייבים הם לגמרי, גם הוא יחפוץ במשפטם. And then if... so therefore, ראוי הוא לבוא בסוד ה'. So therefore I have to take him in on the decision. Rabosai, I don't know which sefer, because they don't like to quote this Ramban, maybe because it's so controversial. Only Ramban. The Rabbeinu Shalom felt that he has to discuss with Avraham Avinu. Why do you have to discuss with Avraham Avinu? Hashem... Hashem... what good... I came from Lakewood for this. You know, rabboisai, I want to tell you a chiddush nifla. Lot was a tremendous—not Lot, sorry—Lot. Lot was a tremendous baal chesed. You know that? Lot was ready to be moser nefesh for his orchim, for his guests. Unbelievable. If you notice that when he was saved from S'dom, he was saved in two people's zechus: Avram, Vayizkor Elokim es Avraham, and also it says in Chazal, in his zechus. But which zechus? The zechus that he did for Avram. It's not Avram; it's the zechus that he did for Avram, that when they put him in the box, Sarah, they asked, No, what's in the box? Mistama they had very serious customs detectives there, scary-looking dudes, and you probably got looked at them and you, I gotta tell, I gotta tell, because if they open, I gotta tell, I gotta have to tell, right? And af al pi kein, balad... shamarta sod v'zeh. Okay. So the mefarshim, Daas Zekeinim, ask this: if you want to have a zechus, what's wrong with the zechus of hachnasas orchim? He just did a tremendous story. You know why Lot got saved? The zechus of hachnasas orchim. You know what the answer, rabboisai, says the Alter? This he saw by Avraham Avinu. This is nothing. He was mimicking what he saw by Avraham Avinu. Avraham also did mesiras nefesh, hachnasas orchim. This doesn't show yet who Lot is. Lot, sheshomer es hapeh—what is that mashal? Lot doesn't... For Leit to keep his mouth shut, that was a tremendous zechus for Leit, you hear? But this, that he did hachnasas orchim, I would have said it different tense. Not that it's chesed, no, good chesed is beautiful, classic answer. But I would like to, you know, introduce another teretz. Chesed, if it's real chesed, then it's balanced between tzedakah and mishpat. Do you believe for one minute Avraham Avinu would give away his children for the chesed? Does that make sense? On one hand, Leit did tremendous chesed, you hear? But on the other hand, he was ready to give away his daughters for it. Where's the chesed for the children? You do here chesed and here mishpat. That's the chiluk of tzedakah or mishpat. When the chesed is amok, with real chesed, so the chesed has in it tzedakah or mishpat. It's not a contradiction. You said to me, but Avraham Avinu's chesed. Yeah, but what type of chesed? Chesed that has tzedakah or mishpat, you hear? Leit did chesed, he did chesed, okay. Where was the tzedakah or mishpat? Nothing. He's ready to give away his daughters for it. This, rabosai, is what's...

What's over here? The Rabbeinu Shlomo... Hmm? What is the ... asking? Yeah, we learned this, Rabban. Tzedakah without... chesed, what's tzedakah and mishpat? Rabban says, Avraham's chesed was tzedakah u'mishpat. What does that mean? If tzedakah u'mishpat, ein chesed. It's not called chesed if it's not b'mishpat. בלי... אתה לא יכול לעשות. It's Rabban. It's beautiful, no? Beautiful pshat. Okay. So let me explain here. Avraham's chesed with the Arachim, that was a no-brainer, as they say. No-brainer. It was pashut. Of course, you love chesed, you run to do chesed with Arachim. The question is, we have to put to test the tzedakah u'mishpat. So Hashem gives him din. How do you react to this din? Avraham, how do you react to this din? It's hard, huh? It's complicated. Right? Wrong? You know, when you think something is right—I'm sorry—when you don't want something, automatically it becomes wrong, just because you don't want it. Sinah mekalkeles es ha'shurah. The Rabbeinu Shlomo, I hope it's a beautiful vort, the Rabbeinu Shlomo was putting Avraham to the test. Is he me'al ha'negiut with his chesed? Here's din. How do you react to this din? Let me see. Let me see. Shelo yomru doros haba'im, the future generations shouldn't say he's an achzar, which means his chesed is not real. His chesed is not amok. His chesed is tainted. With negius, Avraham proved this chesed is beyond negius. Story of Sdom. This week's parsha teaches this to you also. Want to hear this week's parsha? You know Eliezer... Nice, nice, nice. That is good, no? It's good stuff. This separates the men from the boys. The boys like stories, sipurei safta. The men like sipurei avot, which is what we do here. We learn about the avot, to understand. Sipurei safta, there's plenty of good speakers out there. What they do is they tell you twenty stories, and then they say, With this we can understand pshat in Rashi. At the end, digging back into the Rashi. We do it the other way around. We learn the Rashi, and at the end, if you want, we'll say a story to... melafetet ha-pat, a little bit. A little bit kibud seudah, maybe, if you want. All right. You know, Eliezer was the most honest eved that anyone could ever have. Eliezer, eved Avraham Avinu, most honest. If you notice, he had a daughter. Chazal tell us he had a daughter, and he wanted the daughter for Yitzchak. Chazal even tell us that he had a negius to the point that ulai, einai, that when he said ulai lo tova ha-isha lalechet acharai, he really meant what? Elai. But l'maaseh he said what? He didn't say eilei. So, in English we call this a subliminal—what do you call that? When a guy makes a mistake and really— a Freudian slip, excuse me. Freudian slip. That's the pashut pshat, Freudian slip. So if you want to know where there's a mekor for Freudian slip in the Torah, the answer is, Ulay. Torah says it clearly. I'm going to tell you a little different. Yeah, yeah. I'll tell you a different pshat in this Chazal. Yeah, Rabbi Weiss. First I'm going to ask you a different kashya. Why is it that when it says Ulay, it says it later? When he tells over the story to Besuel, he says it later. Why didn't he say right away to Avraham Avinu? When he tells Avraham Avinu, Ulay lo seilech ha'isha acharai, he should say it right away, Ulay. Machon? Good she'eilah. Should say it in the beginning, Ulay lo seire. So Rashi should say Ulay. But there it says it with a vav. In the beginning it says it regular. Later, when he says it over, says it. Chaim Shmulevitz and all the gedolim, famous pshat, that kol zman he had the negius, he didn't even know himself that he had the negius. He didn't even catch it himself. Now that the shidduch was finished with Rivka...

So then the geze fell off. All of a sudden he goes, Hey, wait a minute, wait a minute. Oh, I really meant myself. Yeah? I really meant myself. Only after the geze falls off, then he chap, then he catch, because now it's already finished. It's already Rivka finished, done. You know, sometimes people are alive, you mention their name, everybody is ready to be shofech chamato alav. You know, ... The minute he dies, unbelievable, yeah? Like the famous thing, Acharei mot kedoshim emor, right? Why is it, why is it that the minute a guy dies, all of a sudden everybody has only the nicest things to say about him? Only on the night. You should know, I know a certain Rosh Yeshiva that put in the tzava'ah, no hespedim. So the real, so the simple reason everybody says no hespedim, because brought down in the Zohar that when you say good things about a guy and it's not true, the malach sits there and starts whacking the guy on a double whack. You know what a double whack? One is, A, you could have been this and you weren't, and B, how did you lie to the oilam and fool them that you were this? Right? So it's brought down that you get double smacks. You know, it's funny because they bring down, first you get a smack for not being that, and then you get a smack for why people think that you're that, because you're not. What's going on over there? All right. So the truth is, nothing. They say over that gedolim, because some sofer used to read his letters, the letters people sent him, he used to read the headings, lichvod haRav haGaon haTzadik, like what you wrote on me over there, haGaon, on your letter, whatever you wrote over there. So you read it. So why does a person have to read it? Why would you read it? People asked the Chasam Sofer, why are you reading it? He said, I'm giving myself mussar. What? They think I'm a gaon? Am I really a gaon? I could have been a gaon, I should have been a bigger gaon, a tzaddik. Am I really such a big tzaddik? Vayalokeach mizeh tochachah al atzmo. He used to take it for tochachah, okay. But this Rosh Yeshiva wrote he doesn't want any hespedim, not for all the above reasons. You know why he doesn't want a hespedim? The same people said all horrible things about him in his life, he doesn't want they should get up afterwards and start saying good things about him. He doesn't want. Same crowd, same people. Nobody, he was nothing, he was... The minute it comes by levayah, Whoa... So why is it that way? Why is it? And the answer is, katuv b'sefarim hakdoshim, the moment a person dies, the negius falls away. You're not mekaneh anymore. Why do people talk bad? Most of the time it's kinah and sinah and kavod and all the terrible, horrible middos. The minute he dies, ein almanah... What are you mekaneh? What, in the grave? What are you mekaneh? So the negius finished. Ah, all of a sudden you see the good parts. Yay, he was this, he was a tzaddik. So ulai, the minute the negius fell off, all of a sudden he started to see a whole different picture. That when he spoke to Avraham Avinu originally, he never said ulai. He taka said—I'm sorry, he never said eilai; he taka said ulai. What's the—why is he finding excuses, what happens if? I don't know if she doesn't want to come. Why would you think about that? And the answer is, you think that the lady might not want to come, but the real reason is because of what? Because you don't want it. You know the famous Gra, ulai and pen. The Gra says whenever it says pen, geshurim milvavcha, right? Pen tishkach es Hashem. Pen is when you don't want it to happen. And ulai is when you do want it. Ulai yesh chamishim tzaddikim b'soch ha'ir. So ulai is when you want—maybe it should happen, and pen is when maybe, chas v'shalom, it should happen. So Eliezer used which lashon? Ulai. Maybe she's not going to want to, because he was hoping it wouldn't work out, that she wouldn't want to go. He was hoping that she's not going to want to go. What do we see from here, rabosai? Eliezer was eved Neeman. And on top of eved Neeman, I believe he knew the answer of Avraham Avinu: Ein arur mitdabek im baruch. He knew Avraham Avinu's Torah, so mistama he knew this halacha also. And yet, because of negius, let's see, he thought it was right.

And he told, maybe the lady... When you want something, right becomes wrong, and wrong becomes right. That's the way it is. זו הדרך. When it's about me, and I, and I, right becomes wrong, and wrong becomes right. What do I have? Let's go back to the question. I said to you by Avraham Avinu, right and wrong. Shtuy! Hashem was testing: is the chesed real? Is it me'al hanikiyut? Because if it's with nekiyut, that even something which is achzaryut could become the right thing to do. You know, a person could do achzaryut l'shem Shamayim. A person could do achzaryut thinking, I have to do that. Hashem was testing, testing Avraham. Avraham chesed, let's see, when you're confronted with Sdom, what happens. Let's see, let's see, let's see. This, rabosai, is the pshat in the story of Sdom. But he saved Sdom, Avraham, before the big war, no? Saved Sdom. Who? Avraham Avinu. Saved Sdom. Why are you going to war for that? He saved the Sdom. Yes, so that was because of light. That's not... that's to do with light. The whole malachim has nothing to do with דין per se, okay. Now, rabosai, I'm going to tell you another beautiful point. Another beautiful point. I never understood. What's the pshat? Hashem was hika b'sanveirim, vayilu limtzo es hadeles. They couldn't find—don couldn't find the door. Pesach. They couldn't find it, yeah. What happens if you find that you get blind? What's your reaction? A normal person becomes in ganzen, ah! And if he realizes that the whole city becomes blind, you run fear to the nearest doctor. Mamshichim, let's go find the door. Where's the pesach? Where's the pesach? What do you want? I gotta be crazy. Let me ask you, why was HaKadosh Baruch Hu hika אותם בסנוורים? Why that? So the pashut pshat is so they shouldn't be able to find the door. תלוי הא בהא. Since they were going for the door, so Hashem wanted that they shouldn't find the door. There's a very interesting pshat from Reb Yitzchok Volozhin. Reb Yitzchok Volozhin explains that you know why they couldn't see the door? Not because they were blind. They weren't blind. Sanverim doesn't mean blind. Sanverim is double vision. They saw two, so they were never able to find, like a cross-eye. They couldn't. Vayilu limtzo es hapesach, כי לא יכלו. They couldn't find the door, because otherwise if they were hika them sanverim, why do you have to say vayilu limtzo es hapesach? You ever see in the mirror when you go into that thing in the amusement parks? You never know how to get out. You don't know how to— that's where they got it from here, vayilu limtzo es hapesach, according to Reb Yitzchok Volozhin. You don't know how to catch the— Vayihyu limtza Pesach. Okay. So the pashut pshat in Vayihyu limtza Pesach was in order, in order that they shouldn't continue. You know what to me is a פלא? After they're blind and everything, he goes out and he tells them that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is destroying Sdom. Vayihu k'mitzachek b'einei chasanav. Ha! Big joke. Are you crazy? What, you think this is a joke? You don't know that everybody's blind? Something happened, right? So if you look at the Siforno, the Siforno says a very nice pshat, because Hashem—Lot tells them that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is destroying. Which shem does he use? Which name of Hashem does he use? The shem Hashem. It doesn't say Elokim. It says the shem Hashem. Go look at the pasuk. It says, the Siforno, Vayihyu k'mitzachek b'einei chasanav. How could the middas harachamim destroy? So that was the joke. According to the Siforno, it comes out, היו למדים גדולים, למדו חומש בעיון עם אחידה. Chida, תמיד עם השם, ה' אלוקים. זה תמיד תורה של האריזל, וחידה, huh?

Mashgiach Hashem, with the shem Hashem. So he says, ... I was in Rav Wolkin's shiur, ... Hashem is ... It's pshat in the sefer. ... What's the pshat in the sefer? He says, ... nifla v'nora. ... Nu, read it. Oh, sefer. ... Nu, read. It's there, it's there. ... Nu. You know what I'm saying? ... They knew which name. ... It's not a sefer; just look at the kli yakar. It's the kli yakar. Okay, it's the kli yakar. You see, all right, the memory slips. It starts to slip at a certain age. All right, go ahead. Yeah, nu. ... but the emes ken hu, ki resha'im mehapchim midas harachamim ... So what does he mean? What is the kli yakar? ... I'll tell you everything beautiful. You know, we think ... we think ... was ... with, what do you call that, with fangs and horns, you know, they walked around, the devil themselves, yeah. They walked around thinking that they're the highest class of society. Like Germany. Perfect. Beautiful. And the machine is the... You know, if you look, she asked for salt. So they all upset at her. What? Which means they helped. Shita. Shita. You know what their shita was? What's the shita? I'll tell you what their shita was. What's takkeh pshat? How much the salt cost already? You have chicken. Don't give salt. ... If you look later, she was punished with the salt, that she turned into salt. Why did she turn into salt? Why? Why? So you see, because the salt was the main part of the chet, Chazal say. The worst, she was nitfas al ha-melach. The fact that she... So according to some shitos in the Gemaras, in the Chazal, that's how she told the people that the orchim are here. She went from place to place saying, I need salt. I need salt. Did I hear orchim? Salt? You have orchim? Oh! So this is how she was meramez that there's orchim. Okay. So that's why she turned into... But if the pshat is that she didn't want to give salt to them, so what? So it was a salt-free diet. What's the big deal? That's why she has turned. So can you imagine if a guy does aveiros with money, he'll turn into a dollar bill? Can you imagine? Oh! This big dollar bill was once this and this rasha that ran after the money, kol chayav, and he turned into a dollar bill. You get punished. You're punished because you drink the salt. To turn it into salt? What do you need to turn it into salt for? Pshat, rabosai, is gevaldig. The ikar rishput was the salt. You know why the ikar rishput was the salt? Meat, you got to feed, orchim, you got to feed them, but don't let them enjoy. There's no reason to make it taste good. Bishita, yeah? You can eat that. It has to be good. Where does it say it has to be good? So, bishita. Bishita. That's where the rishut was. Everything was bishita. They had a mahalach, yeah? They had a rishut in their mahalacha of mishpat, yeah? This is the pshat, rabosai. Listen carefully. Ach... he likes it, he likes it, he likes it, especially a bachur. Can you imagine giving borscht palov without all the kumin and without the... yes, it's rishut. I love you. I come to like this. I love you. I love you guys. You have no idea how much I love you fellas. Come. Yeah, gevaldig. Tell yourself how nice.

It's the last time I machla kacha. HaKadosh Baruch Hu could have made them shituk hayad, if that's the problem. Hachaser HaKadosh Baruch Hu, does HaKadosh Baruch Hu miss ways on how to stop people? He could have done anything with them. Why did He give them Sanhedrin to teach them? Echatem ivrim, you're blind. You don't see what's in front of you. The mahalach of Sdom was they believed they were right, and the truth, Sdom, Sdom, and they were blind. Vayehi ki metzachek b'einei chasanav, derishut, their anti-chesed was so strong that no matter what, we have to get the ... They're not allowed to be ... And for that shituf, we're ready to kill. And if we get blind, we'll fight in the blind for it. Vayehi ki metzachek b'einei chasanav, midas harachamim, midas hadin. That's the klal. Hashem, the rachamim, they don't understand rachamim and din. It's din. What's rachamim and din? That's what it means. But Lot was telling them is that Hashem, in rachamim, holds you completely off. Hashem in rachamim, to them there's no rachamim, there's no din. They don't understand. It's mishpat. What's rachamim? It's only for the goodies, like Avraham Avinu. Avraham Avinu is a ... Huh? ... צדקה ומשפט, צדקה ומשפט. היהודי יודע שיש צדקה ויש משפט. אם זה כולי דין, הסימן שאין לו רחמים. אם זה כולה רחמים, סימן שאפילו הרחמים זה לא רחמים; it's weakness. The din without rachamim means it's not din, it's rishut. Din without rachamim means it comes from rishut. Rachamim without din comes from weakness. בצירוף שניהם is the midas harachamim, the din, which is beautiful, the shitah. לעשות צדקה ומשפט. They were so off. היו כמצחק בעיני חתניו. So you get blind. Din, everything is din over there. They have no idea. There's no havanah of what's going on to the point that they were ivrim. Someone showed me on Shabbos that this vort that I said, the Shem Mishmuel says the same vort. Ivrim wasn't physical; ivrim was spiritual, like ivrim. Heku, what is it? What's wrong? למה הם עיוורים? למה הם רואים מה שהתורה אומרה? למה הם עיוורים? It's, למה זה חסד. To be destroyed by Him, that's called chesed. אבל הם אומרים שהשם זה סימן רע של רחמים, אז איך בהשגחה של כזו נוראית? We don't kill people; that's not called chesed. But for these people, that was the best thing you could do to them. That's it. לבן אדם הזה, אם אתה הורג אותו, זה החסד הכי גדול שאתה יכול לעשות. בשם. לא הבינו. לא הבינו. שזה תמיד לעשות טוב, זה לא להזיק. זה ממש, אנחנו אומרים פה דברים... You know what, you guys are lucky, you're getting the solid, the solid of my divrei Torah from the last few weeks. I spoke so much hours and hours. You getting the best of the best. The ... Look what happened to you. And they're mitzachek. They don't understand what ... They don't get it. They don't get it. They don't get nothing. To them, din is not din. ... They're completely off. Now, someone's gonna come and say, But that's doin. What does that have to do with us? You want me to say something very mean? Okay, I will. You could be a ... You, yeah, you could be a ... Gemara says it clearly: koifin al midas S'dom. It's a Mishnah. A person can act like S'dom. Does that mean that he's gonna try to kill an orech? No. You don't have to kill your orech to be a S'dom. שלי, שלי; שלך, שלך. Yours is yours, and mine is mine. That's called S'dom. This is even better. This is less. Yours is yours and mine is mine. My zaidy told me that when he came to America, he found a new word that he never heard before: It's not my business.

It's not my business. Mind your own business. That's shali, shali. The Hebrew word, al tifra. Al tifra. Shali, shali. This is mine, this is yours. You stay. You don't bother you, don't bother me. Tzadik, you stay there. Why should you force a guy? ... You force a guy. A Yid is ... so why don't you give it to him? You're not chaser. ... I'm going to tell you one last final shot, because we're supposed to end. That's the tachnit, at least. No, the tachnit. I'm sorry, this is the tachnit. Next week we won't listen to the tachnit. By next week already we'll have changed the tachnit. But this week, the tachnit. You look on the sign, it says. Look at the sign. What does it say on the sign? Ten to twelve, it says? No, it says ten to eleven-thirty. Could you imagine the first week you don't listen? Imagine the wife that doesn't cook the plov for you. Get rid of her. The first week already she's not listening? They don't listen to women. They don't listen to women. Why are you talking? You know what the answer is? Because you don't know how to tell. If you knew how to tell a woman, then they'd listen very much. It all depends on the niggun that you use and the bituyim that you use. She's right. She go toward, you go toward. Both of you come six o'clock home, what do you want to tell? Okay, we'll discuss your marriage counseling. Yeah, from 11:30 to 12:30, marriage counseling. A little bit of my best advice: go home and love your wife. She's a tzadekes. She puts up with you. She's a tzadekes. Listen carefully. You come home and she puts up with you, and I'm talking about me too. That's what it is. That's tzadekes. What do you think? The bad people, they're tzadekes. They give up their lives for us. Okay, ready? Final and last pshat. What is this? All right, final and last pshat, rabosai. I feel bad because I really have a lot, a lot. We can just—there's weeks and weeks of stuff and hours and hours of Torah. All right, we'll get into it one other time. Just know one thing: I wasn't here. You missed me? Learn to appreciate when you don't have something. Don't wait. Don't wait till you don't have it to appreciate. That's what you should learn. All right? Don't wait to lose it and then start appreciating. Yetzer hara comes and right away makes people not appreciate. Appreciate, appreciate. Learn to appreciate. As long as your wife is alive, Baruch Hashem, lorech yamim v'shanim. Yeah? Appreciate, because when it's not here, you'll understand what you miss. That's what I'm saying. But you have to know, Baruch Hashem. Understand that Baruch Hashem, lorech yamim v'shanim, lorech yamim v'shanim, lorech yamim v'shanim. You should be zoche that your wife should bother you for 120 years. Now I have to speak to her and ask if she wants me to give you that bracha also. Come, ready? Let's go. Afterwards, I want to finish, I want to finish. The final and last pshat. We find the peledike thing in this week's parsha. Pilei ployim, pilei ployim. Eliezer was a smart guy. He wasn't a naar, right? Eliezer was—if you looked in the pictures in the ated, you would have every week Eliezer, every week, just next to Reb Eliyashiv and Reb Chaim Kanievsky and Rav Yosef, you would have Eliezer. Eliezer was unbelievable. So Eliezer—Eliezer was unbelievable. Life... yeah. So Eliezer does something very peculiar, very, very peculiar. Before he even gets a chance to find out who Rivka is, he gives her tzmidim and nezamim and nose rings and this and that. As a matter of fact, lavan, his eyes popped out when he saw it and he starts running. I was wondering how he saw the nezamim by—he was in the house, no? Unless she came home. You hold that she came home. I know, but that's pshat, that he saw it because she came home. The Meshech Chochmah says he first heard her speaking; somebody came from Avram, so he thought he's going to be the chosson. Chosson—that's a famous Meshech Chochmah. He was the chosson, is famous. And then he said he went slower. He was running at first, then he started to walk, because he saw and heard the nezamim. And where did he see the nezamim? After he heard—no, but I'm saying, but where was she? She was in the house.

Now says, she thought that he saw the neshamah. Okay, it's a shtikel Torah, right? The pasuk from the pasuk, you could say that he saw from far, like a telescope. You know, the minute he had a radar to see, to see neshamim, you know. Okay, but kitzur, it's not important. Point B is also that she told her mother, right? So that's the kasha that the Rishon... he asks the kasha, the Netziv. She asks the kasha. That's what I was going— I was going after Netziv, but I'm being mekatzer because I don't want... It says that he had to hold the mother, and then it says that he came running. So the Netziv wants to know, so how do you find out? Well, he told the mother, and the mother has a special house. So the Netziv says the Rashi's pshat is not so pashut. Really, he didn't have a special house. Iyun Netziv. I want to say always pashut: whenever there's money, certain people have a sixth sense, a sixth sense, like a dog. There's money, tzmidim, let me go run. Okay, the kitzur— he has a sense. Ooh, tzmidim, there's something going on over here. Comes running. Okay, so what happens later on when he tells over the story, he tells Besuel that I asked who she is and then I gave her. Says Rashi, why did he do that, from the Chazal? Because Besuel looking like he's a crazy guy. You don't even know who she is, and you give money, but what's going on over here? What's your story? L'maaseh, if you take a look, he takkeh didn't do that. So what's the takkeh pshat? I mean, Besuel has a good question. Could you at least find out who she is? So even if you're going to say that he had bitachon in Hashem and the siman, and he trusted, but you still don't have to, like, right away throw all the presents. I mean, what's the point? You have to know if the presents were kiddushin, maybe it was matnas kiddushin, but the truth is later on it's mashma that it was afterwards the kiddushin, because she had to be maskim if you want to go, you know, okay. Yesh lefalpel b'chol zeh. In derush, I want to say a me'oreidik pshat. If you notice, Rashi says there's a remez to each one of the things he gave her. One is a remez to the shekalim, beka. The second thing is for the luchos, and the third thing is for the Aseres HaDibros. So I want to say pshat's like this. Rivka was a deeper person, so she understood the remez in the jewelry, and Eliezer was telling her before we even talk, before there's even what to talk about, this is what we're talking about. We're talking about beka l'gulgoles, luchos, Aseres HaDibros. Besulah only knows money. What does he know? Aseres HaDibros, luchos. He sees money. To him it's a kasha, what are you giving money? Because he doesn't see the remez. Hu adam hedyot. Hu adam... Eliezer knew that. Yeah, Eliezer knew that to Rivka, you start off the shidduch before we talk, before we even have bat me'at. This is what I'm asking. This is a beautiful pshat. I've said it over, I said it over when I was 13 years old. I said this pshat at a bar mitzvah of a cousin of mine, and I said I was 13 years old, I said this pshat. I say it over, I hold it's a beautiful pshat. Years later, I asked a few questions on this pshat. Bishlema Aseres HaDibros, you understand why he chose that, because Klal Yisrael is Aseres HaDibros. The shnei luchos, it doesn't say shnei luchos, he says metzumadot, because it comes from a lashon of tzmidim. So what's the tzamud? Why? Just say shnei luchos, what's tzamud? So, grade the shteit the luchos at Tzamud. Maybe. I want to say better, and I want to ask another question. Why dafka beka lagulgoles? That's the only thing he could have picked. All the things that you pick is beka lagulgoles? So I want to say pshat like this, rabosai. You know what? Aseres HaDibros, that's Klal Yisroel, but there's more to Klal Yisroel: that the luchos, which is בין אדם למקום, בין אדם לחבירו, the rights and it's mitzumadot, that it comes together with the chibur, בין אדם למקום. And what's the beka lagulgoles? All the mefarshim say halves, that nobody's a whole; it's you and me, the shidduch, the chasnus, and the yesod of Klal Yisroel, and even atah, we come together in achdus. This is the yesod, the Aseres HaDibros, the בין אדם לחבירו, בין אדם למקום, in the luchos, and the beka lagulgoles. That's shidduch, baal and isha, shneiם ביחד. No, but the beka lagulgoles. This, rabosai, is the yesod, the yesod. One final last thing, and I want to, because I really want to say this is beautiful. You know, he wanted the shidduch dafka from Beit Avi. Eliezer was the shadchan; it was not good enough. As great as Eliezer was, ein arur misdabek im baruch. Tell me, is Lavan better? Is Betuel better? Who was Lavan and Betuel?

One of the biggest gangsters that ever lived was Lavan the Arami, all right? Now I want to tell you even more. Betuel not only was a gangster, he was a murderer. Betuel tried to kill Eliezer. Betuel tried to kill Eliezer. Betuel died. Betuel died. And Lavan, did he try to kill Yaakov? He told murderers. Also, his name was Betuel because he was—he was, he was a nosim, okay? I'm saying, you tell me, he was a creep, and money, you know, you know the geneivas that went on over there. You know the lie, Lavan haArami. You talk about liars and stealers and murderers and rapists. You talk about—could you imagine, I once told somebody, Who did you do a shidduch with? I can't say Eliezer, because that would be ein adam misdabek in baruch. Besuel. What? The gangster, the murderer, the rapist? I mean, how would he even say that he did a shidduch like that? And that's what he wants. I don't want Eliezer, because ein adam misdabek in baruch. You know who asked this kasha? Not with the way I spoke it out, because the way I spoke it out, I added to, like, a whole bunch of things. He asked a kasha. He was a koifer. He was a regular heretic. Vanochi panisi habayis. Avodah zarah. See, he was a heretic. So it says, the Ran in the drashos, chelek chamishi, the Ran in the drashos asks, I don't understand. If he's a koifer, that you want, and Eliezer was eved Avraham, the tzaddik, that you don't want. What? The Ran. The Ran. Oneh haRan, shtei terutzim k'achas. He puts it together, but this is what he says. Kefirah is not birushah. It's not hereditary. Midos ha'avot. It's a Ran. What is it? Reb Leib Chasman took it from the Ran. It's in the Ran. That's where it comes from. So good. So I can't help it. There's nothing wrong if Reb Leib says it over. It's the Ran. It's a famous Ran. The second part of this Ran is—yeah, everybody speaks, it's a Ran, it's a famous Ran. The second part of this Ran is that if a person is a koifer, you could change him. If a person has bad middos, he's lost, done. There's nothing you can do. You can't do anything with him. You can't change him. Good. That's what the Ran says. Point being, middos means tikkun, that you're able to work with the guy. Okay. I wanted to say, but which middos? It doesn't say which middos. It just middos. Truth is, he didn't check on all the middos. He only checked on one middah. That is chesed. He only checked on chesed. Chesed, chesed, chesed. Good heart. That was the question, does she have a good heart? As a matter of fact, the Alshich says he checked to see if she was honest b'diburah. Why? Because she came and she said, V'gam l'gamalecha eshov. Eshov means I'll draw the water. It doesn't mean ashka, I'll give her to drink. Why didn't he say ashka, I'll give the camel to drink? So the Alshich says, eshov, because I don't know if they're going to drink. Who says they're going to drink? I could draw the water and put it in front of them, but do I know? So she was so nizer in her dibur. Ah, gevaldik. So the Mazeidi brings this down in his sefer, and he says, but I thought it was about chesed. Which one is it? Is it chesed or is it— So he says, chesed ve'emes always goes together in the Torah. V'chesed ve'emes yechupar avon. Whenever there's chesed, it has to be together with emes. Because then the chesed is real chesed. So even the emes that he searched for in Rivka was emes, was truthfulness, because that brings out the chesed. So according to this, it comes out that there was one midah that he looked for: gangster, murder, rape, outs, avodah zarah, chesed. But this I want to explain, a ma'arech deke pshat. You want to hear? It's something very interesting. I don't know if you—the Zohar brings down on the way back from taking Rivka, he was trying to be with Rivka. With Rivka, it's a Zohar. That's why first he gave it to him, give it to her. Zohar, brought down the Zohar. Avraham was right. At the end of the day, something, something in the shoresh. Ein arur misdabek im baruch. The word arur and baruch is who you are. It's not what you do. Okay, point being, with this I want to explain a ma'arechdeke thing. He asks Bat Miat. Bat Miat, who? And then what's the next question he says? Ha'im yesh makom l'havich lalon. Who asks a question? You know anybody who asks questions like that? Tell me, you ever ask a person—

What's your name? You have a place for me to sleep? Could you wait for an answer, maybe? You want to know who I am? What does it mean? To sleep. What's your name? You have a place for me to sleep? Sir, I'm calling the cops, right? That would be the first response, right? Know when I say pshat, ha'im yesh makom... Do you have a guest house, chesed? The one question he wanted to know: did she have chesed? Did she see the chesed in the house? Shidduch is done. That was it. Ha'im yesh makom lalein. Does he have a place to sleep? Does he invite guests? He could be a... he could be chesed. So what did he do? He took her away from the house. He brought her to Yitzchak. Beautiful. The shoresh was good. The chesed was there. So you see that the shidduch for the avodas Hashem, the karban Yitzchak — Yitzchak, kadosh. One thing: chesed, chesed, chesed, midas chesed. Okay, I'll tell you one. If this is what you wanted, five more minutes. Okay, you see it's gonna work the other way. The minute I go after twelve, they're gonna stop me. I'll tell you one more. Vayakom Avraham al pnei meiso. Unbelievable, huh? Most people in such a matzav, they snap at any guy who comes in: Bit time, don't talk to me now, right? People are courteous in such a matzav, right? Avraham Avinu is busy being courteous, that's all. Vaya'avor Avraham... he's bowing down to the Bnei Cheis. If you look at the Kli Yakar, he says, What's pshat? Nesi Elokim atah b'sochenu, and he bows down. Says the Kli Yakar, he was telling them not... You're the chashuv. That's one pshat. He bowed down to the Eibishter. That's different. That's a support. Good, good. It's not important. I don't want to go through that right now. But the point is, Nesi Elokim — no, I'm not. Which means you're being mechabed me? No, no, no, no. The kavod. What is this? I'll tell you a very deep thing. You see from here, Avraham Avinu bought the Mearas Hamachpeilah. You know what the Mearas Hamachpeilah was? Entrance to Gan Eden. The entrance to Gan Eden. Aruch HaShulchan says not like that. Aruch HaShulchan says if he knew what was there, he would have never sold it, and he could even come with complaints later. It's a mekach ta'us. It's a very famous Aruch HaShulchan. I don't have time to speak about the Aruch HaShulchan, but the point being, point being, rabosai, point being, Gan Eden, you hear? You would think that Avraham Avinu, when he buys Gan Eden, he went to the mikvah, and he stood in the corner davening to Hashem, saying Tehillim, you know, unbelievable hitorerus and hachanos. What are the hachanos that Torah teaches us when he bought Gan Eden? Mearas Hamachpeilah? The chesed and the middos, kavod habriyos. That's what you see from here. Peilei pelei, pelei pelei. Torah records just this, how he behaved with the Bnei Cheis. Gan Eden. Gan Eden. I want to tell you more. You know, it says, Tekumah haita. Vayakam hasadeh. The sadeh went up. Tekumah haita went from a melech to a hedyot. So first of all, what's melech and hedyot? The lashon is a little strange. It should be from a tzaddik, from a rasha to a tzaddik, not melech and hedyot, you know. And what's the tekumah? I want to say a very deep pshat. Even Gan Eden, when it's in the hands of a hedyot, is nothing, worthless. It's what you make from it. You know what a melech is? A melech is royalty. It doesn't mean even tzaddik. With a person who's a melech, he takes something and he makes beautiful out of it. If he's a hedy, he could take beautiful from a garbage. You give him a gold watch, he'll make junk out of it. Tkuma hait, and this answers the kasha, ay, it was a mekach ta'us. No, it wasn't. Teretz was not mekach ta'us, because in the hands of Ephron, it was taka worth nothing. He brings down, v'shmama, baholah, it was a creep house, it was a cave of creeps. That's ... that min haShamayim brings us a midrash. And min haShamayim, whenever he went in there, he heard voices, ooh, he would run away, I gotta get rid of this piece of junk. You know, the teretz is the same Gan Eden. You know they say over that Gan Eden — it's a cute joke, but it's a cute joke — that Gan Eden and Gehenim is actually the same thing. So if you're a tzaddik, so for you it's Gan Eden, and if you're a rasha, it's Gehenim. Learn all day, and Gehenim is ... For the point being the same thing here too. Tkuma, it depends on whose hands it is, yeah? I'll tell you one more thing. I'll tell you one more thing. It's a good vort. I had those one more thing I wanted to tell you, which is very geshmak, very, very geshmak, very geshmak. Good vort. I had had yet. Ah, okay. I'll tell you ... Vayashbiacha baHashem ...

Why did Eliezer have a shvua? So pashut, because he had negius, he wasn't going to do it, you know. Rabbi Yerucham says it's not true. Rabbi Yerucham says that he was eved ne'eman, nothing. Avraham wasn't afraid for himself. It wasn't about Avraham, the shvua. Pashut, you learn Avraham was afraid for himself. No, no. It was for Eliezer, to teach Eliezer that whatever you have to do and it's a mitzvah, lishboa al ha-mitzvos. You have to have siyagim and gedarim, and you have to be careful. It's just to be mechazek what? And he says, you know for which nekudah? Ein b'dibur. Eliezer, you said you're going to do it, so now make a shvua as a siyag to mechazek. Beautiful piece of Rabbi Yerucham. So I said a ... thing, you see how the importance of siyagim, the siyag, that even in Eliezer eved Avraham, which Avraham knew he's going to do it, af al pi ken. So I want to tell you a good story I had this week, because I promised you I'd end off with a story. Like this, at least when they walk away from the whole shiur, they'll say, Oh, I heard a good story, at least that. You know, here in Queens, the workers, the housekeepers are Polish. Usually Polish. In Lakewood, in New Jersey, it's all Mexican. They have them broken the Polisher? Only Mexican. You can't find a Polish guy there in Lakewood, New Jersey. Mexican? Only Mexican. That's all it is, okay? It has its ma'alos and chesronos. There are different groups of people. Polish are a certain way, but it's a whole different ... cleaning lady. I got into a different cleaning lady, okay. Kids are this week, the cleaning lady, because it's weekly, because by the time Friday comes, either they're found in the river dead, boyfriends and girlfriends and whatever else goes on in their lives, or they're deported to Guatemala, wherever they come from, okay. The kitzur, or the pshat is they took three other jobs and they got lost. That's what it is. So weekly you have to change them. Weekly, weekly you have to change them. So the kitzur, this week's goyta is a ... she likes to talk, and ... she doesn't behave very nicely. So she comes into my house, yeah, so she comes into my house, yeah, and she begins to babble. To me, talks to me. I don't even talk to regular frum ... I don't talk to ladies at all. I don't even talk on the phone to a woman. And here she's talking, ... So I decided, on one hand there's a din of kavod habriyos. I'm so makpid on kavod habriyos. I grew up that you treat a cleaning lady with respect. On the other hand, if it's tzniua, a Yiddishe fray, I don't talk to her. I don't talk to a ... How could I? So I made up my mind that whenever she opens her mouth, I leave the room. The minute she starts, I just walk out of the room. She asked me how many children I left the room. How many children do you have? I left the room. Left the room right away. I just walk out of the room. Kitzur, there's one of my talmidim in Lakewood, he speaks Spanish. He comes from Spain, so he speaks Spanish. He's Latino, right? Ladino. He's not a Latino, he's a Ladino. He comes from Spain and he speaks Spanish. So when he comes to the house, he asks her if there's anything that she wants to convey to me, because he could translate. So she says, Yeah, I just have one question. Why is it that every time I open my mouth, he leaves the room? That was the question. That was the one question she wanted to know. And I'm like, whoa. So I said, answer her back. I wasn't gonna look at her. You know, like the Satmar Rebbe. Satmar Rebbe was—he came by boat. He came by boat from America to Eretz Yisrael. Now, all the Israeli soldiers knew that he was anti-Zionism, so they didn't like him very much, you know. L'maaseh, he came with a lot of stuff. Rebbes have a lot of luggage, you know. So in those days, you had to pay tax, two hundred, three hundred dollars, whatever it was, because it was overload. So the soldier asks the gabbai, Ashkenazi, if he has to pay three hundred dollars if the Rebbe knows what dollars are. He knows what dollars are. The Rebbe heard this. The Rebbe was sharp like you never—so he turns around to Ashkenazi, he says, without even looking at the guy, Zug dem shaygets. Zug dem shaygets az vinkt vi toyzn kemels tuch, which means less than a thousand dollars never left my... I don't know what a dollar is.

Because I know what only a thousand is, two thousand. Trying to make one who never knows what money is. He says, I know money no better than you. You never saw the money I ever saw. So, dem shayt. I did the same thing. I didn't look at her. I told this guy, tell her that we have respect for women. I gave her the whole shmooze about, you know, ... You know what she said? ... She says, someone should teach in our community this code of love for behavior, because the husbands and wives in our community should know this. This is something they should know. She wishes. So I realized, ... the inyan of gedarim and siyagim. A person has to make gedarim and siyagim. You think you're losing out because you're not losing anything. Gedarim and siyagim. See, Avraham Avinu held that Eliezer, even on something that he held he would do anyway. Still, gedarim and siyagim, gedarim and siyagim. ... We'll see again, next week, same time. Now, same time means ten o'clock, not ten-thirty. I'll try.