VIDEO: Rabbi Nachum Shifren – JDL USA: Darka Shel Torah HaYom HaZeh – VAYEIRA

public speaker author and good friend of

the late Rabbi mayor

Kahana everybody here Natasha you with

me all right let us look at this week’s

para par by the that was my bar mitzvah

para many moons

ago well you

know the par starts out very interesting

where Abraham ainu Our Father Abraham is

in the middle of the desert now I’m not

sure if it was a Sinai desert or the

negtive could be around Beva I’m not not

exactly clear let’s put it this way it

was pretty hot

out how do we know Torah tells us that

it was so hot that nobody came by now

why did AB pinch his tent out tent out

there in the middle of the midbar in

desert

well he was a kind of a guy where it

says about him in the Torah that he

represented loving kindness

giving um you know uh the kind of a guy

who is looking for people to invite into

his house to uh have a bite to eat with

him and that’s exactly what he did he

put his tent in the middle of the desert

Arab would come by he uh would uh he

would say well did you enjoy your dinner

or did you enjoy your drink they of

course said yes he said okay well

that’ll be

$100 there’s a story about that and the

guys go what what a rip goes I’ll tell

you what you don’t owe me a thing

because the food is not mine it belongs

to God just thank say a prayer thanking

God and you’re out of here pretty

amazing right what a what a Twist I

wonder how restaurants would been

willing to do that um yeah so uh

Abraham’s uh his whole uh DNA was

forid is it called in Hebrew loving

kindness giving that was his whole whole

emmo uh whereas when

l in the par we also talk about l in

conjunction with the uh destruction of

Sodom and Gomorrah Everybody Knows by

now that Sodom Andor well not not a nice

place okay uh people were very mean with

it says Rashi tells us one of the lead

commentators they were bad with their

money and they were bad with their body

meaning it was pretty evil stuff going

on but it’s interesting that in contrast

to Abraham who was so interested in

giving to others Lo’s

wife uh she they were told when they

left the destruction of s gorah don’t

even look back don’t let let let let the

L the evil uh you know uh cleave to you

so she did look back and then she became

a pillar of salt why

salt because the uh our Torah tells us

that when uh L would try to invite

people into his house why would he do

that because he’s he’s the nephew of

Abraham right so he he figured out that

Abraham’s tremendous Fortune was based

on the fact that he was a giver so

wanted to copy him but his wife didn’t

like it his wife used to tell him oh you

want to introduce that evil habit into

our house you know giving salt to the

people was in her eyes evil you know

putting salt on your food whatnot so he

became a PO

assault um that’s the story of uh of uh

that particular thing

now this whole thing where Abraham

pitched his tent

uh it was U it was called Isel abam some

people called it a an in like where you

come in and rent a room or whatever

other people call it even a a uh a like

a bar kind of a setup but nonetheless

that was what he did now it says

shamam

Abraham Abraham when

he uh when he were was um uh cono coning

these people to give thanks to God

essentially what he did was spread the

concept of God throughout the whole

world uh have you have you ever gone

into a I don’t know football game or

soccer game or go to the beach order a

burger a hot dog I don’t know whatever

very notice what’s going on there it’s

kind of an amazing thing when you think

about giving a bless in and and being

grateful for every little thing that you

eat or drink do you ever see

that not much

right think about it a minute you’ll see

that the Torah tells us that everything

belongs to God and if we don’t give a

blessing it’s as though we’re stealing

from

him uh it’s an amazing concept we need

think about it the whole world belongs

to him except when we make a blessing

before we whether whether it’s Grace

after meals or whether it is uh a

blessing before we eat which we do both

um and contrast that with the football

game and soccer games and all that I

think you get the idea but uh definitely

is something to think about uh so we see

that God’s name was Sanctified

throughout the whole world through

Abraham

um another interesting thing about the

the

AKA AA The Binding of Isaac his

son why was why was that why was that

something that needed to

happen

well uh God did that as a test to see

how Abraham’s faithfulness would be

that’s a tough test to uh put somebody

through nonetheless he was the um the uh

how should we say it the uh

test for the entire world uh to prove

that

um that Faith amuna what we say is

Paramount and that if there’s no amuna

in God then really there’s no basis for

any sort of spiritual uh U Journey

right so also he wanted people to know

the world and of course any satanic

Force out there that might want to um

use uh Abraham as some sort of wedge to

you know to uh give criticism or to

landbase them with some with some sort

of uh you know uh decree or whatever

about about his justifiable you know

Deeds somebody might want to call into

uh question those things so God put that

test there to uh steal all the people

that had these um these thoughts right

the level of

thoughts um but what’s interesting about

the AA and The Binding of Isaac on the

altar where Abraham was going to use him

as an offering basically kill

him there’s been a lot of people that

have given their name up in the uh for

the sanctification of God’s name a lot

of people have given up their their

their lives there’s no shortage of

Jewish uh Heroes who rather than rather

than

bow down for example to idolatry or

whatever they prefer to uh have their

own lives

taken so why was this so uh Salient in

Jewish history why why why this well one

of the things that the Torah mentions is

that there’s this amazing saying

Vash Abraham got up in the morning on

the very day after God told him to

slaughter his own

son uh he did it early in the morning he

didn’t have any slaves or any servants

to help him Mount his his um donkey

whatever it was back then his camel he

did everything himself and he woke up

Before

Dawn one of the reasons that a lot of

Jews who feel the need to cleave to God

and to show their reverence of God by

being very early in the morning through

their prayers Hally speaking in terms of

Jewish law we have till about the first

three hours of the day to pray there’s

no stress about praying in the morning

there are people however that

um

uh they go above and beyond right and

they wake up well still dark so that by

the time they get to the middle of their

prayer the sun is Over the Horizon which

is which is the ideal time

actually Abraham

decided that when God told him to to

basically to kill his son to offer him

as an offering on the

altar you know God did not tell him when

to do

it he he he he essentially he could have

done it either the next day or the next

week or the next month there was no

rush but we learned from this a very

great lesson when we do something for

the sake of Heaven

we do it with with u alacrity as they

say we do it with a certain purpose as

quick as we can right to show our love

for the mitzvah for the Commandment or

whatever it is that God tells us to

do

uh

now we

see

uh regarding going back to Sodom and

Gomorrah uh we see that um there’s

there’s been other uh actions that have

been have taken place in the past one

was the uh the big

flood another one was the the

circumcision of

um of

Abraham and there in both

places it says that

um God did it in the middle of the day

why because he didn’t want he he wanted

the entire world to see this amazing

Mitzvah and if anybody would oppose it

God would of course deal with him on his

terms so

um this is also a sanc sanctification of

his name these events took place in the

middle of the day in order to show us

that uh these things are these Salient

points are are Universal and their

praise is

universal um an interesting thing with

uh when Abraham went to Egypt and he met

aim there who was the

king and um I got a little bit of

sniffle pardon me for that

um they were digging Wells you may have

recall from the

para

and ao’s people were stealing Wells from

Abraham at at the last part of the para

when they’re sitting down having a a

meal with each other and then they’re

blessing each other and saying

okay this we’re going to make a a an

oath that neither side will you know uh

disparage or otherwise um disadvantage

the other side um and Abraham slips it

out that uh you know by the way your

some of your

servants

um stole some of my

Wells a Mel’s reply was very very

pointed and he said you never told me I

didn’t know that why didn’t you tell

me we learned from this a very big thing

it’s

called if something is happening

something’s wrong you’re obligated to

bring it up whether it’s your neighbor

or your family member or

whomever a lot of people like to keep

things hush hush and there and thereby

letting uh something that is really not

right or just just go past past the um

you know past the Finish Line that’s not

the right way to do it so we learn this

uh through Abraham which by the way uh

he was uh remiss and

not uh and not um admonishing a and the

other people that were with him that’s

what that’s an interesting point that we

had you know at the very beginning of

this of this podcast the uh interesting

and inspirational music that was played

showed some interesting stuff about

spartic Jews I’ll tell you a little

story before we sign

off I uh I was with Rabbi

k mo and we were in the

um Shuka caramel the uh caramel

Marketplace in the heart of Tel

Aviv and

um most of the owners of the stands were

sapharic Jews but they did that day I

will never

forget they announced that RAB was

coming to make a tour of of the

marketplace to you know greet his

wellwishers that sort of thing everybody

closed their stand now you don’t closer

stand uh because people need the money

that’s their pronos you closer stand

that means maybe their family have less

to eat but in that day everybody did and

the Safar people said

is they praise RAB the king of Israel

the Safar

Jews and I I remember once Rabbi cono

said and I know this to be to be at

least there’s there’s a connection here

he once said to us at the

Yesa the name of the Yesa he once said

to us that’s the Safar Jews were the

last normal

Jews well everybody else is not not

normal so what he really meant is the

Safar Jews lived under Arabs for

hundreds and hundreds of years they

understood them and they understood

there’s no making deals with them

there’s no peace there’s no this there’s

no that they’re either lying or they’re

positioning themselves to either kill

you or somehow disadvantage disadvantage

you RAB K believed that he knew it and a

lot of his followers were there for

Safar

Jews

um ashkanazi Jews are from Europe right

where we have the the uh of Germany and

Hungary and all those other places

they’re not from the Middle

East this has been a serious problem for

a hundred years in

Israel Nobody Knows the Arabs like the

Saar Jews because they lived under them

they know them

the ashkanazi Jews know Beethoven mozar

you know that sort of thing anyway we

have a lot to learn in this week’s paraa

I hope that uh we U covered a few

interesting things for you and uh with

the help of God and with your

help jdl will be very successful they

they’re turning to all of you I’m

turning to all of you make a small

donation to them and uh it will be

absolutely ex uh it will be absolutely

um uh H made made everybody make

everybody happy whoever is involved in

that Mitzvah and so God bless everybody

have a shabbat shalom and we’re looking

forward to talking to you next week all

the best