Transcript

to evaluate it unless he's very very destitute and therefore you have to help him. The story is generally told as illustrating his his genius. But l'chora that misses the point. Misses the point. Point was not the point was not whether that was something genius or not. The point was that the Beis Halevi again wasn't so preoccupied with himself that his perspective was why is she intruding upon my time with a foolish question but his again his orientation was towards others so that he understood where the question was coming from. And because of that he recognized an opportunity to do chessed which otherwise would have been totally lost and totally missed. So that's what the Torah says יפה שיחתן של עבדי אבות meaning that it has to be reviewed again and again because it needs to be internalized. Not just enough to know. And if it's not internalized if if there's no orientation of chessed inside a person so then it's impossible to adequately practice chessed. Even if practicing chessed would be enough, it's impossible to adequately do it unless it's an orientation which is internalized. And that יפה שיחתן של עבדי אבות mitorasan shel banim. Now there are l'chora countless examples which could be given but it's probably better maybe for each of us to sort of reflect on this and maybe generate our own examples and to try to be m'ayein a little bit in the

שיחתן של עבדי אבות. שנונו אלו הן שבמיתה שתויי יין ופרועי ראש אמר אני הולך למות על ידה אם כן מה חפץ לבה.

So this is quite a remarkable Chazal. Quite a remarkable Chazal. I think without this Chazal if we would have been left to our own resources to elaborate what happened here between Yaakov and Esav, so we would have said that Esav was totally disinterested in the bechora. His orientation was totally olam hazeh and as such something to do with with religion, with Torah, with avodas Hashem was totally alien to him and that's why he he wasn't interested in the bechora. And yet Chazal say no, that Esav actually was interested enough to inquire from Yaakov about מה טיבה של עבודה זו. Precisely what prerogatives does the bechora afford to me? Again, I recognize that a bechor, right, before it was transferred to Kohanim, that it's the bechor who has the right to do avoda. So Esav was actually interested in it. What is it which quelled that interest was when Yaakov tells him כמה אזהרות ועונשין ומיתות תלוין בו. So what was the what was the dialogue here really about? So Esav was interested in religion. He saw that the experiences of religion can be very enjoyable. Be it singing, be it the music, or be it even in literally in the case of bechora the prerogative to do avoda. And even to Esav, even to Esav that was enticing. Even to Esav that was enticing. So what did what was Yaakov answering him when he said kama azharos עונשין ומיתות תלויים בה. Yaakov was telling him, of course, all the experiences, all the ceremony, all the ritual is tremendously meaningful. But in order for it to be genuine and authentic, and thus again really meaningful, so it has to be anchored in a lifestyle of discipline of Kedushah. And that it's only through compliance with the azharos and the yiras hachet from the עונשין ומיתות תלויים בה that a person authentically and genuinely partakes of the religious experience. But just if a person just associates himself with the, again, with the ceremonial side, be it the singing, be it the music, be it again whatever, whatever ritual it is, but it's not again anchored in a lifestyle of Kedushah and Taharah, so then yeah he'll experience something but it's more likely to be some kind of aesthetic experience than it is a genuine religious experience. In order for it to be a genuine religious experience that a person's experiencing Kedushah and Taharah through doing the avodah, that a person's experiencing Kedushah and Taharah by singing during the davening, so then that has to be anchored in a disciplined lifestyle. And that's what Esav said, "Well that price I'm not willing to pay." That price of accepting that discipline on myself I'm not willing to pay. The same idea really emerges from the Ramban in Parshas Yisro. Ramban in Parshas Yisro commenting on שמור וזכור בדיבור אחד נאמרו. So the Ramban explains that al pi Kabbalah the night of Shabbos is k'neged Shamur and the day of Shabbos is k'neged Zachur. That Shamur of course are the mitzvos lo sa'aseh of Shabbos, the issur melacha, and Zachur is the mitzvas aseh of Shabbos, or Kiddush. Then the Ramban explains that mitzvos lo sa'aseh are rooted in midas hayira and mitzvos aseh are rooted in the midah of ahava. The midah of ahava is really greater than the midah of yira, which is why the Ramban says the halacha is that עשה דוחה לא תעשה. That's the famous Ramban on Aseres Hadibros. So what does it mean, what's the idea that Leil Shabbos is k'neged Shamur and the day of Shabbos is k'neged Zachur? So clearly that means, again in theory, right, logically not chronologically, that there's a sequence. And that a person can only genuinely attain Zachur, again Zachur again symbolizing and representing again a mitzvas aseh when again a person experiences, again religiously he experiences Kedushah clearly, right, the goal, the end that we aspire to, but that can only happen if it begins with a Shamur. Again it has to be rooted, it has to be anchored again in a discipline represented by the lo sa'aseh of Shabbos. It's only when a person is nizher in all the pirtei pratim, all the minutiae of issurei Shabbos, of tiltul muktzah, that a person can genuinely experience and be uplifted by Kedushas Shabbos. The same idea again of Shamur v'Zachur, the same of מה טיבה של עבודה זו. That's what the Sfas Emes comments. We have the hekesh of כל שישנו בשמור ישנו בזכור. Again, which is why al pi halacha so nashim are chayavos b'Kiddush hayom even though it's a מצות עשה שהזמן גרמה. So what does it mean again the Sfas Emes asking al pi aggadah, what does it mean that the hekesh is כל שישנו בשמור ישנו בזכור? Maybe the hekesh should have been in the other direction. Again he's asking al pi aggadah. Obviously it has its answer al pi halacha as well. different answer. So what's the point? So the Sfas Emes, kimdumani, says it's the same. כל שישנו בשמור ישנו בזכור means that if a person wants to partake of the zachor, so then the prerequisite for that is that he first has to be yeshno b'shamor. A person can't simply catapult and again say, well, I'll I'll I'll experience the zachor without the shamor. That's what the again on on another level, that's what Chazal are saying כל שישנו בשמור ישנו בזכור. Our teva of not being so zariz certainly inclines us at times to lose sight of this yesod of מה טיבו של עבודה זו of כל שישנו בשמור ישנו בזכור and it's certainly something which a person needs to constantly reinforce. In this week's sedra:

ותהר ותלד בן ותאמר הפעם אודה את ה' על כן קרא שמו יהודה ותעמד מלדת.

A pasuk here encapsulates a very, very important yesod. Why is tefillah so central to one's avodas Hashem? I think the Rav used to say in the name of Reb Chaim that even though Reb Chaim's derech in in contrast to the earlier generations of Gedolei Acharonim who preceded him, but when you study, let's say, the Teshuvos of the Mishkenos Yaakov, so virtually every every siman in Mishkenos Yaakov talks about an issue which is a machlokes Rishonim, and the Mishkenos Yaakov says: I think this is a Gemara in Megillah which certainly shows that the Rambam is right about this machlokes and מכריע כסדר מחלוקת ראשונים. On the other hand, when you study, let's say, if you when you study Reb Chaim, it's not just that Reb Chaim's is not a sefer psak, but it's the the goal, again, is is not to be machria in the Rishonim, but aderaba to explain both tzadim of the machlokes in terms of being totally, totally consistent with all the Gemaras, that the Rambam had one mahalach, the Ramban had another mahalach. I think with just one exception, so that's true of virtually every every shtickel Torah in in Reb Chaim's Chiddushim al haRambam. So that's why it's very remarkable that when it came to this machlokes Rishonim about tefillah de'oraisa, tefillah derabbanan, so really against his whole derech halimud, so as though he couldn't help himself, Reb Chaim said he can't understand how there wouldn't be a mitzvah of tefillah. How could it be that there wouldn't be a chiyuv to davven? It's just so basic, it's so fundamental, how couldn't there be a mitzvah? So why is it so basic? Why is it so fundamental? That a person comes to the Ribono Shel Olam with a wish list and says here, do me a favor, chanenu me'itcha, hashivenu avinu letoratecha, slach lanu? Why is that so basic, why is it so fundamental? So the answer is because the ikkar of tefillah is not so much the bakasha, but rather the explicit or implicit acknowledgment that we have to ask Hakadosh Baruch Hu for everything because we're totally, totally dependent upon him for everything. So the ikkar of tefillah is not so much the chanenu me'itcha, but rather the previous line of אתה חונן לאדם דעת, the recognition that without the Ribono Shel Olam, so we have nothing. So it's not the gratification that we seek, which is why tefillah is so important, but rather it's the acknowledgment of our absolute dependence upon the Ribono Shel Olam for anything and everything. That's why tefillah is so central and so important because tefillah, again, when understood correctly and when experienced correctly, is a statement of our total vulnerability and dependence on the Ribono Shel Olam. A sense of perpetual need because a person is never self-sufficient. So several years ago in a Shabbos in yeshiva, I discussed these kinds of ideas and afterwards a yungerman told me in the name of Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach on this pasuk of הפעם אודה את השם ותעמוד מלדת, I think, I assume Shlomo Zalman referred to it, the Ibn Ezra basically says, the Ibn Ezra, the question is what's the continuity in the pasuk? So it seems to be a very strange cause and effect. Here Leah is thanking the Ribono Shel Olam. Aderaba, so she's so grateful to the Ribono Shel Olam, so the Ribono Shel Olam should shower her with more brachos, right? And instead, הפעם אודה את השם, and what's the reaction? What reaction does that elicit? Vatayamod miledet. That's a very strange reaction to her הפעם אודה את השם. So the Ibn Ezra says that what it means is ka'omer אודה השם שנתן לי כל זה ויספק לי. That her hoda'ah wasn't simply a hoda'ah, which obviously she's to be praised and singled out. The Gemara in Berachos says that no one thanked the Ribono Shel Olam, whatever this Gemara means, until Leah came around and said הפעם אודה את השם. But there was also apparently a little bit of element there of הפעם אודה את השם, so now I have nothing more to ask the Ribono Shel Olam for. So if the hoda'ah contains that element as well, a sense of self-sufficiency, so then takeh vatayamod miledet, then nothing else is forthcoming from the Ribono Shel Olam. That's what Rav Shlomo Zalman said, a person always has to ask. A person always has to ask, again, not with the emphasis being on the desire for gratification, but rather the emphasis being on the acute awareness that without asking a person has nothing. A person has absolutely nothing and therefore the hoda'ah to Hashem should never be with the notion of yaspik li. Of course it should be hoda'ah to Hashem, but never with the notion of yaspik li because even what a person has already, he doesn't have a grip on, he doesn't have securely. Nothing exists without the Ribono Shel Olam's ongoing bracha, hence the need for ongoing tefillah. That's why the Rav zichrono livracha used to say and sometimes we think in terms of bakashas tzorchim, that a person can add personal bakashos. Sometimes we think that the bakasha has to be a very important bakasha in order to merit inclusion in, again, in our private Shmoneh Esrei. But if a person needs something little, so then that doesn't really merit it. So the Rav said no, whatever it is that a person wants, the way he said it at the time was if a person's plotzing, he wants to get maftir, so then let him ask for that in Shmoneh Esrei also. The point not being to encourage a yeitzer hara for maftir necessarily. The point being that the idea of bakashos tzorchim again is not so much the individual tzorech, but rather if it's anything that you're working for. No matter what it is, if it's anything you're investing time in, if it's parnassah, if it's college, על אחת כמה וכמה if it's learning, that whatever a person's investing time in needs siyata d'shmaya and therefore rightfully does belong in a person's Shmoneh Esrei. Because the, again, just asking for the big things, but if you're working for the small things, right? If you are concerned about your GPA, so not including that in the Shmoneh Esrei, so the implication is, so that I'll take care of, that's a little thing, that I'll take care of, I'll hit the books tonight and that I'll take care of, but the big things, so there I realize that I need siyata d'shmaya, so I'm going to ask for that. No, there's no such thing as a little thing which doesn't need siyata d'shmaya. There is no such thing. There's nothing a person can do without siyata d'shmaya. And that's what the Rav said, again, bakashos tzorchim in Shmoneh Esrei is supposed to be comprehensive. Okay, ella mai, if you don't want to include it because it shows that you shouldn't want it, that's a different story, then you shouldn't be working for it either. But if it's legitimate, the fact that in a hierarchy of needs it doesn't necessarily rank highest doesn't mean that it shouldn't be included in one's tefillah. Chazal see that in the psukim. I don't know if this is from Rabbeinu Ephraim upon the Bach, but I suspect this is in his sefer Chamesh Elloh. So he assumed that the assumption he was making is that pachim ktanim is just like we find in the story of Chanukah, the pach is associated with shemen, that it's a pach shemen. So with that assumption he said that Chazal darshen that levado is also the letters of lebado as in lashon beis habad. And that's the remez in the Torah she-bi-khtav for this drashas Chazal that Yaakov went back for pachim ktanim. Be that as it may, whatever prompts the drashas Chazal, whatever in the Torah she-bi-khtav prompts the drashas Chazal, so what's the idea that Yaakov went back for pachim ktanim and that he was alone in gathering up the pachim ktanim? Why couldn't he have gathered up the pachim ktanim when everyone else was around and they would have helped him carry the pachim ktanim? Why did he have to be alone? So I found the zichrono livracha had a very, very, very beautiful pshat. He said what the pachim ktanim symbolize is that in a person's life there are all kinds of minor details, usually details which have to do with seemingly inyanim gashmiyim, materialistic matters, physical matters, financial matters, all kinds of pachim ktanim which make a claim on our time and which in reality do need to be attended to. Vayivater Yaakov levado, that Yaakov alone had the ability to attend to these pachim ktanim, to worry again about inyanim gashmiyim, to worry about paying the rent, to worry about health, to worry about inyanim gashmiyim, and to do so without becoming materialistic. To worry about the little details but without being petty, without being drawn down from his level in avodas Hashem. On the contrary, Yaakov Avinu had the capacity to deal with the pachim ktanim, again, and integrate it into his avodas Hashem, to do it leshem shamayim. That's what it means by vayivater Yaakov levado, that no one else had the same capacity that Yaakov had. Only Yaakov could deal with the pachim ktanim without being petty. Only Yaakov could do that. Even though again this vort emphasizes the levado, the uniqueness of Yaakov Avinu in that respect, but it's clearly an imperative for all of us. It's something we all aspire to. Again, not that we're going to eclipse the Vayivaser Yaakov Levado, not that Yaakov Avinu won't remain levado in his ability to do so, but basically, as the Rambam describes in perek gimmel of Hilchos De'os, so this idea of a person to be concerned with the pachim ketanim without being distracted or diverted from one's avodas Hashem, it is what the pasuk of bechol derachecha da'ehu obligates us to do which Chazal again then paraphrase as the Rambam says in the imperative of בכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים. So the emphasis really is a dual one here. On the one hand, the emphasis is that the pachim ketanim can't be neglected, that a person does have a responsibility to attend to the pachim ketanim. That's one, one emphasis, but equally what's being emphasized is that a person has to strive to the best of his ability that that attention which is paid to the pachim ketanim again, be integrated into his avodas Hashem. And that the time that we spend again on what pachim ketanim symbolize, what they represent, should not be time which is diverted from our avodas Hashem. It should not be time during which we are distracted from that, but rather, again, it's something through our kavanas, through our focus, it's something which is incorporated into one's avodas Hashem again as described by the Rambam there in Hilchos De'os. And again, even though again perfection or or near perfection is Vayivaser Yaakov Levado, but what's so striking about that Rambam in Hilchos De'os where he explains what bechol derachecha da'ehu means, what's more striking than anything he says is where the halacha appears. Because in Hilchos De'os later in Hilchos De'os in perek hey, perek vov, so the Rambam has things which are incumbent only about only on Talmidei Chachamim. Rambam says כשם שהחכם ניכר בדעותיו, so too he has to be nikar bema'asav, that a chacham eats differently, he talks differently, he does everything differently. And the Rambam clearly has many things which are incumbent upon a chacham, but not incumbent on us, not incumbent upon the rest of us. And what's so remarkable is that this din of bechol derachecha da'ehu, this din of בכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים, the Rambam doesn't incorporate into that perek, but rather earlier in Hilchos De'os when he's addressing each and every one of us. So it's again, it's not something intended only for yechidei segula, but it's something that each and every one of us has to aspire to, has to strive to achieve. And when you think about it, it has to be that way for the simple reason, simple reason that there's שני כתובים המכחישים זה את זה. As a pasuk echad clearly, clearly our tachlis in olam hazeh is to be involved with Torah and mitzvos and avodas Hashem. Not not to amass wealth, not to do anything of that variety, but to be oved Hashem. That's a pasuk echad. A pasuk sheni is that if you look at how much time we spend over the course of our lifetime on eating, on sleeping, on earning a parnassa, so that clearly for most people represents the majority of their life, represents the majority of their life. So how can it be that the majority of our time is spent on things which are a diversion or a distraction from what is our ultimate that ken gozar chochmoso that our avodas Hashem is not supposed to be limited to when we're fortunate enough to have the Gemara in front of us, when we're fortunate enough to be omed bitfillah, but even when we're busy with pachim ktanim, with the eating and the sleeping and the and everything else which goes together with pachim ktanim, maintaining a seder that everything should be in order, even when we're busy with the pachim ktanim, so clearly that too is supposed to be integrated into our avodas Hashem in terms of our kavanos, in terms of how it's done, the refinement with which it's done, and only with that, only with that understanding and that perspective do we have the kosov hashlishi and again that was typified by Vayevaser Yaakov levado. וכל אשר הוא עושה השם מצליח בידו. So what where did Potiphar have the sensibility or sensitivity to know that the Hakadosh Baruch Hu was with Yosef? So Rashi quotes from Chazal that שם שמים שגור בפיו. And be'emes, when you look at the psukim, the Torah doesn't record too many of Yosef's conversations during the course of all these years, but every time we're told, it's reported to us something which Yosef said, it taka involves shem Shamayim. He tells Eishes Potiphar, איך אעשה הרעה הגדולה הזאת וחטאתי לאלוקים. He tells to Sar Hamashkim, he tells the Ofeh, הלוא לאלוקים פתרונים ספרו נא לי. And then when he first is introduced to Pharaoh, אלוקים יענה את שלום פרעה. So was it just sort of a mannerism? I mean we we say Baruch Hashem, Im Yirtzeh Hashem, Be'ezras Hashem, we sort of say it routinely, automatically. Obviously, that's not how Yosef Hatzaddik functioned. So why was it so important that it was שם שמים שגור על פיו? The answer, our avoda requires that we maintain focus. It requires that we not become susceptible to hesech hadaas. Everyone has routine, a routine to follow, everyone has commitments to fulfill, and even if when a person initially devised his routine or undertook those commitments, he did so with goals of avodas Hashem in mind, but the danger that a person will be distracted what the ultimate goals and purposes of life are and just be consumed by his routine. A very great, we need to be constantly reminded so as not to be mesiach da'as. That's what the Rambam says at the beginning of Hilchos Brachos, is why Chazal were mesaken so many brachos. Why is it that every time you turn around there's another chiyuv bracha imposed upon us? So the Rambam says, לזכור את הבורא תמיד. Because it's necessary that we shouldn't be distracted, that we should constantly remind ourselves of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, of the Ribono Shel Olam. When Yosef HaTzadik said that shem Shamayim was shagur al piv, when someone said good morning to him and asked him how he was and he said Baruch Hashem, so he said it again both reinforcing and at the same time expressing this awareness of being lifnei Hashem, of being totally dependent upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And it's critical, again, that a person constantly reinforce that in word and in deed. And particularly here we're discussing how in word, how that was accomplished. shem Shamayim was shagur al piv, but it's a cyclical process because on the one hand, שם שמים שגור על פיו again reinforces something, but on the other hand it also gives a person a sensitivity. If a person is, again, consciously, not just out of habit, not just habitually, but consciously has שם שמים שגור על פיו, so then the way the person sees the world is different. If it's שם שמים שגור על פיו, so then a person sees the yad Hashem in the world. And this the psukim say was so true, not only did it have that effect on Yosef HaTzadik, not only was this, again, was this hanhaga of שם שמים שגור בפיו, not only did it help Yosef HaTzadik reinforce his emuna, not only did it develop within him the sensitivity to see yad Hashem in the world, but it even had that effect on Potiphar. That וירא אדניו כי ה׳ אתו, that that constant reinforcement, that constant reinforcement that Yosef HaTzadik said that everything, everything is bidei Shamayim. So that had the effect again of even changing the way Potiphar, at least, at least vis-a-vis Yosef, saw the world. And as the result of שם שמים שגור בפיו, again, not only did it transform the reinforcement transform Yosef, he had long since been transformed, but it had that effect, lehavdil, obviously to a totally in a totally different way and not to the same degree, obviously, but it had that effect even on Potiphar, even on Potiphar. If when a person says im yirtzeh Hashem, a person doesn't just say it habitually, doesn't say it automatically, but really stops every time he says it and truly means what it expresses, i.e., that anything we do is only if the Ribono Shel Olam allows us to do it, is only if im yirtzeh Hashem, so that again is a very powerful reinforcement of our yesodos ha-emuna and in turn, in turn that will lead us to act accordingly. And again, it's the same yesod of the Rambam there in the beginning of Hilchos Brachos. The more a person reinforces this and thereby Internalizes, two things happen. Number one, a person's behavior becomes increasingly consistent with what he believes. The more the belief is reinforced, the more it's internalized, so the more our behavior is consistent with it. And number two, the more the belief, in this case in particular of hashgacha pratis, is reinforced, so then the more sensitivity a person has to recognize all the examples of hashgacha pratis in his life, individually and in the life of Klal Yisrael collectively. And be'emes, that second yesod is very prominent within Chanukah. The Rambam writes at the end of Hilchos Chanukah in perek daled,

מצות נר חנוכה מצוה חביבה היא עד מאד וצריך אדם להזהר בה כדי להודיע הנס ולהוסיף בשבח האל והודיה לו על הנסים שעשה לנו.

So there's a remarkable diyuk in the lashon HaRambam. Rambam begins by saying that mitzvas ner Chanukah is lehodia hanes, lashon yachid, and then he concludes ולהוסיף בשבח האל והודיה לו על הנסים, lashon rabim, she'asa lanu. So the pshat in the Rambam seems to be that by reflecting upon the nes, the single nes of Chanukah, if a person reflects upon that and a person then internalizes that lesson to be learned from the pirsumei nisa of the one nes of Chanukah, so the result is that a person will then recognize countless other nissim which Hakadosh Baruch Hu did for us. וצריך אדם להזהר בה כדי להודיע הנס. The idea of ner Chanukah is to get us to focus on the nes of ner Chanukah, but it's not supposed to stop at that. That is supposed to then allow us, again with this emunah and with this emunah internalized, it then allows us to recognize the countless other nissim ולהוסיף בשבח האל והודיה לו על הנסים שעשה לנו and all that results again just from the original focusing on the nes, lashon yachid. A remez lichora to this idea in Chanukah, that Chanukah is, again, not just to be mefarsem the nes of Chanukah, but to develop the sensitivity to recognize nissim, is lichora from the minhag Yisrael of singing Maoz Tzur. After all, the Maoz Tzur is equally appropriate for Pesach, for Purim, for Chanukah. Chanukah is not disproportionately represented in Maoz Tzur. You could just as well have sung Maoz Tzur on Purim and have extra niggunim for akros kumas berosh. You could just as well have sung Maoz Tzur on Pesach. So why is it takeh that the song, again, which for us is reserved for celebrating the yom tov of Chanukah doesn't really accentuate Chanukah more than any of the other nissim in Jewish history? Ela mai is heim heim hadevarim. The whole point is that in terms of Maoz Tzur it's retrospectively, but in terms of our lives it should be prospectively as well, is that the whole idea of Chanukah is that through the hoda'as hanes of Chanukah that a person should deepen his appreciation or even first acquire an appreciation for all the other nissim she'asa lanu and that's again the remez of the song of Chanukah has to review not only the nes of Chanukah. but all the other Nissim she'aso lanu as well.