5771 פרשת תולדות

 In this week’s Parsha the Torah describes to us how God appeared to Yitzchak after the death of Avraham Avinu and told him that He would keep his covenant that he made with Avraham and He would give Eretz Yisroel to his descendents. God then told Yitzchak that he would be getting all this in the merit of Avraham Avinu.

 The Siforno points out that when God spoke to both Yaakov and Avraham He told them that you will receive these benefits for their descendents in their own merit while only regarding Yitzchak did God say that he will receive the benefits through the merit of his father Avraham and not through his own merits. However, later on in the Parsha the Torah does say that Yitzchak had merited good in his own right and not only in the merit of Avraham’s actions.

 The Siforno explains the reason for this is that at the time when God first appeared to Yitzchak, he had not yet been inspired to “call out in the name of God” unlike both Avraham and Yaakov who before God had appeared to them had already “called out in God’s name.” Similarly, the Torah tells us that eventually Yitzchak did call out in God’s name.

 If we look at this Siforno a little more closely we can ask the following question. Yitzchak Avinu was willing to give the ultimate sacrifice for God when he was willing to be sacrificed at the Akeida. We also saw earlier that Yitzchak did daven to God both before he got married to Rivka and when he prayed for Rivka to have children, so what was it that was missing in his service of God that caused him not to merit all the promises for Bnei Yisroel in his own merit?

 In order to answer this question, we need to understand what it means to “call out in the name of God.” The Siforno a little later in the same piece gives us an idea of what was lacking. In explaining why Yaakov received the promises for his descendents in his own right the Siforno explains that Yaakov from the beginning of his life was sitting in the Beis Midrash of Shem and learned and taught Torah. We see from here that what is considered to be “calling out in God’s name” is to work to impact other people’s service to God.

 We know that Avraham Avinu did that his whole life and according to the Siforno so did Yaakov. Yitzchak Avinu was a perfect servant of God in his life but he did not try to bring other people to serve God. This lack prevented him from receiving the blessings for his descendents in his own merit until he was inspired to also call out in the name of God and try to bring other people to serve God.

 In our lives we should of course always work on ourselves to grow in our service of God but we should not forget that we also have a responsibility to bring other people closer to the service of God. This can be done just by acting properly and honestly in the workplace which can make a Kiddush Hashem which can bring people closer to God.

5770 פרשת תולדות

 In this week’s Parsha, the Torah discusses how Yaakov Avinu bought the rights of the firstborn from his brother Eisav for a bowl of lentils. At the end of the Parsha, the Torah continues and describes how Yitzchak Avinu wanted to give the blessings of the firstborn to his first born son Eisav and how Rivka convinced her son Yaakov to impersonate his brother Eisav to receive the blessings that truly belonged to him.

 The blessings of the firstborn primarily related to the ability to be the chosen people of God and to be the ones who will live their lives to serve God. The physical aspects that came along with the spiritual side paled in comparison to the spiritual aspect of the blessings. This was even understood by Eisav which is why he was so willing to sell the firstborn to Yaakov for something as inconsequential as a bowl of lentils.

 The commentaries are bothered as to why Yitzchak would have desired to give this particular blessing to Eisav who was a rasha instead of to Yaakov who was a Tzadik.

 Several of the commentaries explain that Eisav had tricked Yitzchak, who by the time he was ready to give the blessings truly believed that Eisav was a Tzadik and therefore since he was the firstborn was worthy to receive the spiritual blessings of the firstborn.

 The Ohr Hachayim, on the other hand, explains that even though Yitzchak understood that Eisav was truly a rasha, he still wanted to give him the blessings because he thought receiving the blessings would encourage Eisav to change his evil ways and become a Tzadik. However, even Yitzchak did not know for sure that receiving the blessings would make Eisav into a Tzadik however if there was a chance it was worth taking the risk and giving him the blessings.

 If we look at this Ohr Hachayim a little bit more closely we can ask the following question. There is a risk here to the life of Eisav and his descendents. The spiritual blessings come with responsibilities like doing the Avodah in the Beis Hamikdash. If a person does the Avodah improperly, he is liable to receive the penalty of death. According to some commentaries this is why Eisav didn’t care to sell the rights to the blessings of being the firstborn since it could potentially cause him to die. If this is the case, why would Yitzchak give the blessings to Eisav over Yaakov?

 The answer would seem to be that we don’t fully understand the pain of Yitzchak Avinu of having a child who was not following the path of the Torah. Yitzchak Avinu with everything he knew about Eisav and the fact that there was a chance giving him the blessing would not cause him to change and would even cause him to die was to him worthwhile if there was even a minute chance that Eisav would return to the path of the Torah. We see, however an additional idea here that is that we never know what things might impact a person to change. Yitzchak understood that even something which the Torah said Eisav despised could actually change him if given over properly.

 We live in a time where many of our fellow members of Bnei Yisroel, many of whom we interact with on a daily basis, have no connection to living a Torah life. This fact should cause us to feel pain for them and to strive to help them. We can never know what we say or do that can have an impact on them. It may be something as small as a smile or a nice word to a coworker or bus driver or the way a person deals with stressful situations at work. If we always try to act in a way that a person who looks at us will say look how nicely a Torah Jew acts, we may be able to help people come closer to God without actively trying to do so.

פרשת תולדות 5769

 In the beginning of this week’s Parsha the Torah teaches us about the difficulty Rivka had in conceiving a child. The Torah tells us that that Yitzchak and Rivka prayed and they were answered.

 The commentaries all discuss why it was that Sara, Rivka and Rachel were all barren at the beginning of their marriages. The most famous answer brought down by the Gemara is that God desires the prayers of the righteous. However, there is another answer brought down by the Rabbeinu Bechai that can teach us an incredible lesson. The Rabbeinu Bechai explains that each one of our matriarchs was barren for individual reasons relating to God’s plan in the world. For example Sarah was barren in order that the nation of Yishmael should come from Avraham Avinu. If Sarah were not barren, Avraham would never have married Hagar. The reason that the Rabbeinu Bechai gives for the barrenness of Rivka is that God had promised Avraham that he would die a good life – which the commentaries explain as seeing his descendants as acting in a God fearing manner. He explains that Yishmael repented before Avraham died and Eisav did not go in his evil ways until after Avraham died. This is why Rivka had to be barren for all those years so God could keep his promise to Avraham that he would not see his descendents leaving the path of Yiras Shamayim. On the surface, this answer can be seen as very simple, but if we delve a little deeper into it we can see a wonderful hidden idea. In order to fully understand this Rabbeinu Bechai we must learn two other ideas.

 The first one is that we know that Avraham lived to be 175 years old while Yitzchak lived five years longer to the age of 180.  Chazal tell us that the reason Avraham lived five years less than Yitzchak was in order that Avraham should not see Eisav stray from the correct path.

 Secondly, we learned that Yitzchak and Rivka did not start their special prayers for children until 20 years after they were married. That was the time that they were certain that Rivka was barren. They waited ten years until Rivka reached child bearing age and only after not having children for ten more years was it apparent that Rivka was barren which necessitated their special Tefilos.

 Now according to Rabbeinu Bechai the reason that Rivka was barren so long was in order that Avraham should not see Eisav straying from the righteous path, so why didn’t God have her be barren five years longer so that Avraham could both live his full years and God could still keep his promise to Avraham that he would die without seeing his descendents straying from the path of Torah?

 The answer could be that we underestimate the power of prayer. For the first twenty years of their marriage it was not apparent that Rivka was barren so Yitzchak and Rivka did not feel the need to pray specifically for Rivka that she should merit having children. However, once they began to pray, their Tefilos were enough to merit them being answered and having children. Their Tefilos were so strong that God had to shorten the life of Avraham so he could keep his promise to him while still answering the Tefilos of Yitzchak and Rivka.

 We see from this Rabbeinu Bechai two very important lessons. The first is that even if something “bad” seems to be happening to us, we must realize that God has a plan and everything is truly for the good. We may not see the good that comes from it but that is only because our knowledge is limited to our own lives and lifetimes and we don’t know all the factors involved.

 The second one is that even when things are going bad we have the power to change things through our Tefilos. Prayers are so strong that they can even change outside factors that could have been impeding the removal of our hard times.

 If we believe with a full heart that everything that God does is for the good and realize how our Tefilos can impact our lives for the better, and daven better, we should merit that all our Tefilos should be answered for the good.

פרשת תולדות 5768

 In the beginning of this week’s Parsha the Torah tells us how Rivka was barren and couldn’t have children. The Torah tells us that both yitzchak and rivka davened to God and then the Torah tells us that God answered the prayer of Yitzchak and rivka merited to have children.

 All the commentaries are bothered by why God made the Imahos barren by nature?

The Rabbeinu Bechai gives several answers to this question. One of them is as follows:

God desires the prayers of Tzadikim.

 We see from this Rabbeinu Bechai that prayer is such a special thing that God made it that the Avos were not able to have children in order that they will pray. Let us try to see some of the special aspects of prayer.

When describing theprayers of Yitzchak and Rivka the Torah does not use the word “Lehispalel” which is the commonly used word for prayer  but rather the word “Atar”. The Rabbeinu Bechai quotes a Gemara that explains that an ”Atar” is a hoe that moves hay from one place to another, so too are the prayers of tzadikim can get God to move from his trait of judgement to his trait of mercy.

We see from here an incredible thing that even if a person was being judged by God because of his actions with his trait of judgement, proper prayer can get God to move to his trait of mercy which can end up changing the path that our life was taking.

There is another idea about prayer brought down in the Gemara which says the following story about Rav Acha bar Yaakov:

  Abaye heard that Rav Acha was coming to learn in his Beis Medrash. At that time there was a Mazik in the Beis Medrash of Abaye that even damaged people when they entered in pairs and during the day (unlike other Mazikim who only damage when the person is alone or at night). Abaye told the townspeople not to offer Rav Acha a place to sleep at night so he would have to stay where the Mazik was so he could kill the Mazik. The Mazik appeared to av Acha as a dragon with 7 heads and Rav Acha davened and each time he bowed one head of the dragon fell off until it was dead.

The Maharsha asks how could Abaye have sent Rav Acha into a place of danger and assume a miracle will occur to save him and even if a miracle would occur it will cause Rav Acha to use up some of his reward in the next world.

The Maharsha answers as follows:

Surely Abaye relied on his piousness and that through his prayer he will not be hurt and he would be able to kill the Mazik and this is not called a miracle.

 The answer of the Maharsha seems to be that since he davened, the fact that he was answered would not be a miracle that would cause him to use up his merits.

The question is why is a miracle that occurs due to prayer not a miracle that would reduce their merits?

I heard an answer that prayer is built into nature. If a person prays properly and is answered, he is not receiving a special miracle but rather God answers the prayer as part of nature. Just like God keeps the world going every day, which is of course a miracle, but not an overt one so too when God answers proper prayer it is part and parcel of keeping the world running. We don’t need special merits to have our prayers answered nor do we use up our merits when our prayers are answered.

These are just two of the many ideas regarding the power of prayer. If we can really begin to appreciate the power of prayer and work on davening better, we should merit that God should answer our most fervent prayer and bring the redemption in our days.  

 5767 פרשת תולדות

 We know from Chazal that we are supposed to learn from the actions of the Avos and Adam Harishon and Noach etc and that when the Torah rebukes the Tzadikim for their actions we are supposed to learn from them. However, when we discuss the sins of the Avos we are talking about sins of the smallest degree which for us would not even be considered sins but only because of their tremendous levels of holiness are they taken to task for these miniscule infractions. Even though we are not on their level of holiness we can still learn from them the important Torah ideals that we need to apply on our own levels. With this in mind let us discuss Parshas Toldos.

In this week’s Parsha, there is a very interesting midrash that can teach us a very important lesson. The Torah when describing the reaction of Eisav to hearing that Yitzchak had given his Beracha to Yaakov the Torah says:

When Eisav heard the words of his father he cried a great and bitter cry.

 The  Midrash says the following:

 Yaakov caused Eisav to scream one scream in anguish ,when he tricked Yitzchak into giving him the Berachos in place of Eisev, was punished generations later when Haman who was the descendent of Eisev caused Mordechai who was the descendent of Yaakov to scream in anguish.

 It seems from this midrash that Yaakov Avinu was punished for his actions since it caused Eisav to scream in anguish.

Let us examine this Midrash a little more closely.

We know that taking the Berachos from Yitzchak before they were given to Eisav was not the idea of Yaakov rather his mother Rivka told him to do it. Furthermore, we know that Yaakov even expressed his reservations to his mother Rivka about tricking his father which the Torah tells us:

 Maybe my father should touch me and he will consider me to be a liar and he will curse instead of bless me.

 The Torah also tells us that Rivka responded to Yaakov the following:

 The curse will be on me, just listen and do what I told you.

 Furthermore, the Midrash  tells us that Yaakov  listened to Rivka and went to Yitzchak crying and bowed over since he really did not want to lie to Yitzchak.

Yaakov truly did not want to trick Yitzchak to give him the Berachos and it was only done because Rivka told him that he should, then why was he punished for causing Eisav to cry in anguish, even after all his arguments to his mother Rivkah, he was still told to do it?

 The possible answer might be seen from the punishment that Yaakov Avinu received. We know God punishes someone midah kneged midah. What was the punishment of Yaakov Avinu? It was that his descendent Mordechai was in anguish and screamed a  loud scream . If the sin was for stealing the berachos  from Eisav then the punishment should have been related to having something stolen from his descendents, why is the punishment related to the cry of anguish? From here we can see that the sin of Yaakov wasn’t that he tricked Yitzchak or that he took the Berachos from Eisav which were not sins at all, but rather that he caused Eisav anguish.

When Yaakov expressed his reservations about what Rivka  told him to do, the reservations revolved around not wanting to hurt and trick his father Yitzchak. However, what Yaakov did not fully consider was the anguish that losing the Berachos would cause Eisav, and on that count he was punished.

This is a very important for us. Look how far God goes to punish a lack in the mitzvos between man and man even in a case where it was tangential to an action that had to be done. Nevertheless, the lack of feeling for the other person was enough to cause there be a punishment all those generations later in the time of Mordechai. We, in our own lives have to be all the more careful about the actions we take and how they could impact other people and try to insure that we don’t even inadvertently hurt anyone else. If we can take this step, we should be merit the redemption.