Transcript

And im yirtzeh Hashem the Yeshiva is going to begin an initiative whereby hopefully be-ezrat Hashem every day ישועת השם כהרף עין so hopefully this is not something that will need to be prolonged but pending that ישועת השם כהרף עין that every day there should be a minyan who are fasting and not a Yom Kippur Katan where all bnei hayeshiva are encouraged to fast but every day there should be a minyan fasting. So the way the system is going to work is that there will be a sign-up with 12 slots for every day and from amongst all the bnei hayeshiva so people should fill the 12 slots every day. So lemaiseh if a person volunteers he probably ends up fasting once a month. It's not again the whole initiative obviously will be voluntary but even if a person is fully participating it's not especially taxing. So to get this up and going will probably take a little time until the sign-up I don't think it will be up in time to arrange for tomorrow. The sign-up will probably be up in time to you'll probably get an email about it in time for people who are going to sign up for Wednesday so they'll know on Tuesday and they'll be mekabel ta'anit Tuesday to Mincha and then there will be a Mincha which is devoted to a Mincha of a ta'anit. That's the plan be-ezrat Hashem. So to try to implement the program as of tomorrow even though the sort of the logistics won't be ready in time so we're hoping that maybe within our shiur we can arrange if there are 12 volunteers. Again it would mean being mekabel ta'anit at Mincha today and then fasting tomorrow and then that at a coordinated time to all go to the same Mincha and that Mincha would have kriat hatorah vayehal with a haftarah and sim shalom aneinu in Mincha. It wouldn't have the seder selichot that would be the change. So if you're able to again no pressure intended encouragement yes pressure no. If there are again we'd be looking for 12 in case someone wakes up tomorrow morning and isn't feeling well and needs to matir neder or something just as there's a safety net. So we'd be looking for 12 people who are in a position to volunteer for tomorrow. So if we could know early enough so that if we don't have it to look for reinforcements elsewhere. So maybe if you could either orally and or by email reach out to Daniel so he'll coordinate it im yirtzeh Hashem and then and hopefully it will have the desired effect. The matzav is getting worse not better in Eretz Yisrael just to understand the background to this. Not only because of rachmana litzlan the casualties that are increasing which are horrific absolutely horrific but the international pressure is being ratcheted up to tie Tzahal's hands. And it's a very simple fact you don't have to be a political scientist to understand the following reality. If Hamas is not destroyed after what happened on Shmini Atzeret so there is no more security in Medinat Yisrael. Maybe there'll be a little bit of an illusion of security but there is no. It means what they did was so brazen and so horrific if that can result in a ceasefire if all the hypocritical humanitarians out there are going to try to pressure. If you can walk over to someone and let's say an individual and you can attack the person with impunity. Hamas doesn't care that a few thousand people were killed. Those are all replaceable pawns. That doesn't mean anything to them. As long as the heads of the beast are there. So the society raises these people to go on suicide missions of killing Jews. That's what there's plenty of replaceable parts there. So the fact that they've killed four thousand or five thousand however many Hamas fighters, okay, it's each one is a kim b'aveirah d'hora'ah but it doesn't change the equation. So the eis tzara is not slackening, it's not even staying steady. The eis tzara is intensifying. So we have to find the, clearly whatever, I don't mean we in this classroom, I don't mean we in this yeshiva, I mean we in the broadest sense possible, clearly including we in this yeshiva and including we in this classroom but not exclusively. Clearly whatever we're doing is not enough. And so this is sort of one attempt to intensify our efforts. It's certainly not intended to preclude any other forms of intensifying. So if it, again everyone knows his own personal situation and that's why chas v'shalom there is no pressure intended, but if some of you are able, and again since the idea is to try to sustain this, hopefully again ישועת השם כהרף עין that it won't need to be sustained and if someone signs up for next week, it's al da'as that you know Hakadosh Baruch Hu should give us nisim gluyim and the eis tzara will have passed and the person is not al da'as kein signing up, but so as to be mema'et in tircha d'tzibura, so we're only looking to have twelve people sign up on a daily basis which allows the manpower of the yeshiva to be stretched quite a long stretch of time. So if that's something that works for you, so please email and or tell Daniel and maybe if you can do that even if you know already before the next shiur, so then if we're not able to generate the minyan so then we can look elsewhere to generate. And then by the sign up for Wednesday, so then it should all be hopefully happening online that way. Let's take a look here. We go a little bit backwards in terms of the seder haparshiyos. Let's go back to Lech Lecha to perek yud-beis, pasuk vav. Vayavor Avram Ba'aretz you have perek yud-beis, pasuk vav. ויעבר אברם בארץ עד מקום שכם the other day that's going to be a little tricky because a lot of people I imagine will have family obligations and the pool will be much much smaller. Thursday will be a little bit of might be a little bit of a challenge, so again that you don't have to tell Daniel about that, when the general sign up goes out if it doesn't conflict with any obligations if you're in a position to do Thursday that may hopefully not but it may be a makom of fewer anashim than other days.

ויעבר אברם בארץ עד מקום שכם עד אלון מורה והכנעני אז בארץ

what does Ramban say?

ויעבר אברם בארץ אמר לך כלל תבנהו בכל הפרשיות הבאות בענין אברהם יצחק ויעקב והוא ענין גדול והזכירוהו רבותינו בדרך קצרה.

So to understand Sefer Bereishis... Bereishis, we need to know this following principle. It's a major principle, inyon godol. Chazal presented it, but very much, very much bekitzur. ואמרו כל מה שאירע לאבות סימן לבנים. Right, the way we paraphrase it, מעשה אבות סימן לבנים. That whatever happened to the avos foretells, foreshadows future events and patterns in Jewish history. ולכן יאריכו הכתובים בסיפור המסעות, the avos' traveled, vachafiras habeiros, what we read in Toldos last week, the digging of the wells, ush'ar hamikra'os. Which seemingly,

ויחשוב החושב בהם כאילו הם דברים מיותרים אין בהם תועלת.

Seemingly these are דברים של מה בכך. Right, do we really need to know that Avraham Avinu took an Amtrak and he went, you know, and he took the Amtrak and he got off at Shechem? So lemai nafka mina? Or that Yitzchak's avodim dug a well and there was contention over the well. וכולם באים ללמד על העתיד. But they all foretell, foreshadow the future. כי כאשר יבוא המקרה, but again, it's not only the way I've been translating it until now has been inadequate as we'll see from this next line, im yirtzeh Hashem.

כי כאשר יבוא המקרה לנביא משלושת האבות יתבונן ממנו הדבר הנגזר לבוא לזרעו.

It's not only that it foreshadows, but it clinches the gezeirah. vada. Again, that translation will, I think, be clarified here. כי כל גזירת עירין, any gezeirah min hashomayim, כאשר תצא מכוח גזירה, when it leaves the realm of just being a gezeirah, an edict, el poal dimyon, and it's translated into some symbolic action. Right, dimyon here in the sense of symbolic, not, not, not imagination or imaginary. el poal dimyon, כאשר תצא מכוח גזירה, when it goes from being in the realm of just gezeirah to a symbolic action, el poal dimyon, תהיה הגזירה מתקיימת על כל פנים. So then the gezeirah will materialize. That clinches the gezeirah. ולכן, and this explains again, this is not only something the Ramban says which we need to know in order to understand Sefer Bereishis, but the truth is to understand Nevi'im as well, one needs to understand this metaphysical principle.

ולכן יעשו הנביאים מעשה בנבואות כמאמר ירמיהו שציווה לשריה והיה ככלותך לקרוא את הספר הזה תקשור עליו אבן והשלכתו אל תוך פרת ואמרת ככה תשקע בבל.

So too Bavel shall sink.

וכן עניין אלישע בהניחו זרועו על הקשת. ויאמר אלישע ירה ויור ויאמר חץ תשועה לה' וחץ תשועה בארם.

So this will be an arrow of salvation against Aram.

ונאמר שם ויקצוף עליו איש האלוהים ויאמר להכות חמש או שש פעמים אז הכית את ארם עד כלה ועתה שלוש פעמים תכה את ארם. ולפיכך החזיק הקדוש ברוך הוא את אברהם בארץ ועשה לו דמיונות בכל העתיד להיעשות בזרעו.

And that's the background to, that's the context for again for Avraham Avinu's, for the various, for the narrative of what happens to Avraham Avinu here. vehavan zeh. ואני מתחיל לפרש העניינים בפרטות. in the psukim b'ezrat Hashem. We'll see that actually the klal actually goes further than this, but but this is as much of the klal as the Ramban presents at this point. How how do we understand this a little bit? How how do we understand that that sort of the g'zeirah is clinched when it's embodied in some symbolic action in Olam Hazeh? So how do we understand it? That כשיצא מכח גזירה אל פועל דמיון then תהיה הגזירה מתקיימת על כל פנים. So Avrom Avinu coming, it it clinches the g'zeirah of kibush ha'aretz v'chulu as the Ramban is going to explain. So what's pshat? So maybe it means as follows. When it's in quotation marks only a g'zeirah, so then the reality is that the g'zeirah exists, but not in this world. There's a g'zeirah whatever kibush ha'aretz that we'll conquer Eretz Yisrael. So when Hakadosh Baruch Hu makes that g'zeirah, so that g'zeirah is right, that's not, it's not in this world. It hasn't happened in this world. It's not, it's not a Olam Hazeh reality. It's in the olamos elyonim. It's in the olamos elyonim. Kol zman that the g'zeirah hasn't entered our world, kol zman that the g'zeirah is still transcendent in in higher worlds, so then it's not final. It's not final. Maybe something's gonna happen, it's gonna be rerouted, maybe it's gonna be deflected, something's gonna happen. The significance of the poal dimyon, of that symbolic act, whether it's the symbolic act of v'yavor Avram ba'aretz, whether it's the symbolic fact of of throwing the sefer into into the Euphrates, whatever it may be, but the significance of that symbolic act is that's the way the g'zeirah enters this world. This world is an Olam Ha'asiya, right? This is a a a physical world. Unlike the other olamos which are all more spiritual than than our world. So our world is the is the olam hachomri, the Olam Ha'asiya. So the way something enters our world is when it's objectified through some external action. So that's that's l'chora the again, a little bit of a havana in what this klal is, that כשיצא מכח גזירה because as long as it's again in quotation marks only a g'zeirah, it's not in this world. It hasn't entered this world, it's not final, it's not locked in. But kashe tetzei when when it goes from כח גזירה אל פועל דמיון, when it's objectified albeit in a symbolic act, but once it's translated into an action, that's how the g'zeirah enters this world. Once the g'zeirah entered this world, it's clinched, it's locked. So then the Rav raises a fundamental question here. He says, how do you reconcile this klal and again, we'll bli neder see in the the coming days im yirtzeh Hashem some as the Ramban promises, as he applies this klal to explain different episodes, how do you sort of how does this how do you reconcile this with bechirah chofshis? If

מעשה אבות סימן לבנים, כל מה שאירע לאבות היא סימן לבנים,

so does that mean that every the entire course of Jewish history is predetermined and so where where does where does our bechirah fit in? So the Rav gives a nifladike answer to to this question. So we know in learning, right, from the Gemara in Eiruvin that what was it, two and a half years, that there was this stalemate between Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel that. What it means is that it's not pshat that when we pasken like Beis Hillel with six exceptions—the Ran says that there's six exceptions to the rule—when we pasken like Beis Hillel with six exceptions, it's not the pshat that Beis Hillel is right and Beis Shammai is wrong. No, אלו ואלו דברי אלוהים חיים. They're equally valid, legitimate views, opinions. They both constitute a cheftza shel Torah, but in terms of which is normative, in terms of which you follow halacha l'maaseh, הלכה כדברי בית הלל. So what does that mean? So it means that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave the Torah. He gave the Torah in such a way that there's a lot in the Torah that's white and there's a lot in the Torah that's black, but there's also part of the Torah that's grey. And the part of the Torah that's grey is ניתן להיתפרש על ידי חכמי המסורה who A have mastered everything in the mesorah that's white and black and B have sort of based on through doing that have conditioned themselves to sort of think with Torah logic. So then it's up to them to—so what does beshochbecha uvekumecha mean? Beshochbecha uvekumecha is just telling us the zman of mitzvas krias Shema or beshochbecha uvekumecha is also telling us what the posture should be for mitzvas krias Shema. So which is the right pshat? They're both the right pshat. They're both equally cogent, equally legitimate, equally valid readings of the pesukim. L'maaseh l'maaseh, who do we pasken like? אלו ואלו דברי אלוקים חיים והלכה כדברי בית הלל. So let's find out there's a klal of elu v'elu. So says the Rav, but elu v'elu is not limited to this—this klal of elu v'elu isn't limited to learning, it's not limited to talmud Torah. This elu v'elu also on a gzeira. A gzeira, you can have a gzeira, and that gzeira will happen. But the same way a pasuk in Chumash can be understood by Beis Hillel one way, Beis Shammai another way, a gzeira can be m'kuyam in one way or another way. And the example that the Rav gives, he illustrates it by talking about the Akeida. He said there was a gzeira that Avraham Avinu would—would sacrifice Yitzchak. That Yitzchak Avinu would be sacrificed. That was the gzeira. Now that gzeira could be interpreted and אלו ואלו דברי אלוקים חיים. There are two equally true, valid interpretations. One would be peshuto kemashmao in a physical sense, that Yitzchak Avinu would be ne'ekad and would be sacrificed in that sense. But it could also mean in an emotional sense, right? For Avraham Avinu, I think the Rambam writes about—it's humanly impossible for—for a father, for a normal father with normal feelings, for—for his son, it's impossible for the father ויקח את המאכלת לשחוט את בנו. It's impossible to do that. The only way a father can do that is if he first emotionally divorces the—the child. Avraham Avinu had to sacrifice his love for Yitzchak Avinu and only then could he have picked up the machaless. Otherwise, it's impossible. It's just impossible. The hand won't move. The hand won't move. A—a father cannot pick up, cannot pick up a machaless lishchot es beno unless he—unless he detaches. So the Akeida did happen. Avraham Avinu did, he offered his love for Yitzchak Avinu, he offered that on the mizbeach for Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The Akeida did happen. It's not the Akeida didn't happen. It happened in a different way. Oh! So a gzeira, there's אלו ואלו דברי אלוקים חיים. It's a gevaldig pshat. It's a gevaldig pshat. There's אלו ואלו דברי אלוקים חיים on a gzeira as well. So that's what the Rav says. So yes, מעשה אבות סימן לבנים, but how things play out, the bechira is absolutely crucial. Whether—whether the gzeira is going to be m'kuyam through pshat A or whether it's going to be m'kuyam through pshat B, that's where our—our bechira is so crucial. Okay, בלי נדר אם ירצה השם, we'll continue—I think it's actually the very—I think it's probably the very next Ramban, but we'll be continuing with some of these Rambans בלי נדר אם ירצה השם.