jdl USA presents Rabbi naam schiffon
public speaker author and good friend of
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
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
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
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
$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
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
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
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
assault um that’s the story of uh of uh
now this whole thing where Abraham
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
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
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
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
um another interesting thing about the
AKA AA The Binding of Isaac his
son why was why was that why was that
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
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
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
bow down for example to idolatry or
whatever they prefer to uh have their
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
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
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
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
decided that when God told him to to
basically to kill his son to offer him
altar you know God did not tell him when
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
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
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
flood another one was the the
Abraham and there in both
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
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
universal um an interesting thing with
uh when Abraham went to Egypt and he met
king and um I got a little bit of
sniffle pardon me for that
um they were digging Wells you may have
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
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
called if something is happening
something’s wrong you’re obligated to
bring it up whether it’s your neighbor
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
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
off I uh I was with Rabbi
um Shuka caramel the uh caramel
Marketplace in the heart of Tel
um most of the owners of the stands were
sapharic Jews but they did that day I
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
is they praise RAB the king of Israel
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
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
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
Israel Nobody Knows the Arabs like the
Saar Jews because they lived under 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
