Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan - Parashat Lech Lecha

[Music] good morning today we are learning parashat and we are using art school homash we're on page 55. is the beginning of the development of the jewish people we speak about avraham we learned about avraham at the end of parashat noah and as our sages say for ten generations hashem was patient with people from adam until noah he was hoping they will do the shiva follow the right path and they didn't until noah came and hashem destroyed the whole world and gave second opportunity to noah to start humanity and uh for more for ten more generations hashem waited until avraham and for those 10 generations again people were sinning rebelling against god and hashem was patiently waiting maybe they will do to shubham until avraham came and hashem chose avram and the rest of the nations became background they became support team they became our companions but the whole world from avram and on is created for the jewish people alone that me that is because hashem created the world for the purpose of having uh communication with his creatures and our forefather abram was the only one out of the whole humanity who accepted that who said yes god i recognize you and i want to be close to you i want to thank you i want to praise you and i want to ask you for your protection no one else in those 10 generations did it of course there were righteous people like shem the son of noah and his grandson ever but they were localized they were not going out trying to spread the knowledge of hashem to the whole world whereas avraham he was not only thinking about himself but he he said i want to give this opportunity of connection to hashem to other people as well and he said hashem is so good and the whole purpose of his creating the world was to give this good to people i want to allow god to fulfill his design the whole reason he created the world was to give and the ultimate giving is the eternal giving which is in the next world because in this world everything is temporary and therefore it's not ultimate good and i want god to have opportunity to fulfill his potential by giving to more people it's not enough that he's just gonna give me god has infinite potential the more people he'll give it to next the next world the better it is for his plan and avraham took upon himself to work for god he became god's partner he said god i will help you to um to succeed in the world avraham avraham said to hashem hashem i'm going to dedicate my life to you i will i'm going to work for you to inspire people to live their life in the way that you command it so that they earn rewarding but the real benefit is for hashem because hashem desires to do kindness as the sages say more does the cow want to nurse the calf then does the calf want to drink milk hashem created it in such a way that the giver gets more out of the act than the receiver it feels good to give for us of course when we give we know that in not only we're doing what's right not only it feels good but also we will get a reward in the next world but ultimately even if even if you're not getting reward for your action it still feels good to to give even if you give anonymously it feels good to be a giver and hashem is the ultimate giver he doesn't expect anything in return and therefore the more he gives the better it is for him of course we cannot say that hashem actually feels pleasure he's not a man he doesn't have nervous system and and the brain that we have but still when his plan is fulfilled when his potential is fulfilled in our terms he feels pleasure so avraham from now on becomes the partner with god as opposed to noah and everyone who lived before avraham they were working for god as a day's worker he he comes to work he gets paid he goes home and he spends the money whereas avraham he is a partner a core owner of the company of the world and therefore whether he is at work nine to five or even when he goes home he is thinking what can i do to better the company everyone he sees he advertises the company he develops connections with uh clients so he works for the company 24 7. every moment of his life he's thinking how can i improve the company because i'm the partner so too noah and uh everyone before avraham were just doing the right thing hashem you want me to do this and then i'll get the reward fine i'll do this um with pleasure with kavanagh but i'm only doing it because it's it's good for me it's the right thing that's what god said so i'm working for god god is my boss whereas avraham became partner and we the jewish people are also partners with god with not just serving god once a week when we go to church god forbid for a couple hours every sunday morning and for the rest of the day for the of the week we are free from god no it's not only when we go to synagogue not only when we go to yeshiva or beit midrash every moment of our day both when we are awake and when we sleep we devote our existence our life our efforts to god and to building his company to build his name brand name in the world and to allow him to give to others some companies might want to have clients so that they can charge them so that they can get more income but god wants more clients so that he can give more to them and we the jewish people are trying to give hashem more opportunity to give reward and we will see later when hashem wants to destroy saddam that's exactly the reason he comes to avraham and asks him for advice he says avraham is the the master of the whole world he's the manager of the whole world before i destroy anything i have to ask him for permission and he gives abraham opportunity to speak on behalf of sedom before destroying them so now let's continue and we will see how avraham is actually um the the partner with god the manager of the world and he desires that that that hashem should should give more pleasure more reward to people and and um one more thing about saddam hashem actually says openly why do i want to ask avraham permission about saddam whether i should destroy it or not and he said because i know that avraham teaches his children and his household that they should do proper things righteousness and charity in order that hashem should fulfill his promise of giving reward to those that that listen to him so the reason why hashem chose avraham is because avraham is trying to inspire people to do the right thing so that god can give them reward he's giving god more opportunity to give and that's that's uh our purpose in life our purpose in life is to give god opportunity to give eternal reward to more people including us that's why we should strive to do good in life giving god opportunity to give me eternal reward and i also want to give god opportunity to give this eternal reward to as many people as possible and so that is uh what we pursue every moment of our life who can i inspire to do more to why not because of me because of god god will so to say enjoy giving pleasure to more people very good now again we're on page 55 and hashem said to avram go for yourself from your land for yourself means it's your decision you have to make the decision i cannot push you i'm not commanding you i'm telling you that that's the right thing to do but you have to make the decision but when you make the decision you have to realize that whatever god tells you is for your good go for yourself it will benefit you but you still have to make your own decision only if you make the decision then it will benefit you if you feel that you're forced to do something then there is no free will no freedom of choice and therefore you don't get the reward for doing it if somebody forces you to put on tiffily and they grab you they extend your hand and they tie the feeling on you and put it on your head and strap you to your chair and say sit here for for for the next two hours and fulfill them itself to fill in if you don't want to fulfill them itself to fill in and they are forcing you you don't get the reward because if it was up to you you wouldn't do it so a person only gets a reward if he chooses to do mitzvah and what's good about it is once he makes the decision to do a mitzvah even if circumstances beyond his control stop him and he is not able to accomplish the mitzvah he is still given the reward why because he committed himself to doing it he made the decision to do it and whatever happens after that is already up to hashem if hashem wants that outcome he's going to allow you to be successful if not he's gonna stop you but the decision was made you still get the reward so go for yourself make the decision for yourself and then you will get a reward for yourself where should you go from from your land which means the original land and current place of dwelling from your relatives your friends and relatives you have to leave also as they say if you want to be great you cannot do mediocre things you cannot do average things you cannot do things that everyone is doing if you do things that everyone is doing but everyone is doing it then you're going to be like everyone else and nobody a simple part of a masses of people if you want to be great you have to be doing things that are great that are more than average and so hashem says to him go from your relatives if you stay with your relatives you're going to become average or even worse like them and from your father's house you have to become independent sometimes our past stops us our relatives our parents this is uh what the torah meant at the beginning al qaeda man has to leave abandon his father and mother start building your own life attach yourself to your spouse and then you will become one great individual a husband and wife one unit so hashem tells avram you have to become independent you can no longer be in your country if your country is bad influence you can no longer be with your relatives if they are not a good influence and you can't even have contact with your father's household where should you go to the land that i will show you so this is a great advice if you want to make a goal for yourself you should say number one is whatever god wants me to do i will do wherever god wants me to live i will live a person shouldn't say oh i think i want to live here i want to have this job i want to marry this person because maybe it's not good for you maybe that's not what god wants from you maybe god wants you to do this and you say no god i want something else number one you are rebelling against god number two it's foolish because god knows what's better for you like when i asked my wife where do you want to live after you get married she said i want to live in my husband's house wherever it is so that i right away knew that she's going to be a good wife so too when hashem tells us go we don't ask questions where we say i will go wherever hashem says when hashem said to the jewish people will you take the torah we didn't ask what do we have to do what's written there we said yes because if god is giving and his ultimate good must be what he's giving is good and plus he's the creator he's in control if he tells us to do something we have to do it so hashem says to avraham and this is one of avraham's tests leave everything you've known so far and go where i'm not telling you now but you have to accept that you will go wherever i will tell you to go so hashem continues and he gives him a a promise assurance and i will make you a great nation yes if you listen to god you will become great and i will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing you will be the source of blessing i will bless those who bless you and him who curses you i will curse and all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you and since abraham the jewish people became the ethelons they became the the example for everyone to follow if if if a non-jewish mother wants good for her daughter what does she tell her my dear daughter make sure you marry a jewish boy they are the best husbands they don't drink they don't do other bad things they don't beat up their wives and that's praise for the jewish people and that's what hashem says i will make your name great and families of the earth shall bless themselves by you so did avraham pass his test verse 4 tells us so avram went as hashem has spoken to him exactly as hashem said without knowing where i'm going and lord went with him avram was 75 years old when he left kharan together with his wife sarah and the lord his nephew with all their wealth and all the people that they made in haran and here interestingly there are there are three uh interpretations what does it mean all the souls that they made in some say made means they bought these are slaves that they bought when you buy something it's equivalent of you making it you acquire it you possess it it's yours as if you made it second explanation is made made souls means you gave them eternal life you teach them about torah you teach them about one god they made these souls means they taught them about hashem and they took them away from idol worship and the third mystical explanation means they actually made these people using this according to some opinions he himself wrote this book which describes the process of creation and how using the 22 letters and the 10 numbers you can create anything you want so using that knowledge avram and sara created people created their slaves okay now we'll go to page verse 6 avraham passed into the land of kanan as far as the site of shechem now we're on verse 7 hashem appeared to avram and said to your offspring i will give this land once avraham is in the land of israel hashem tells him all this land is going to go to your children now remember that avraham doesn't have children which means that in the same promise hashem tells him that you will have children so avram built an altar via hashem as thanks and prays to hashem avram builds an altar doesn't say what he did on that altar but we assume he brought offerings then he really relocated to the mountain east of bait el and page pisces and he built an altar there as well so that's second altar that avraham built and he invoked hashem by name which means he prayed to hashem then avraham journeyed on going towards south and he was doing it in order to physically acquire the entire land hashem told him you'll acquire this land so avraham said okay the law is that whoever wants to acquire land that's being given to him he has to walk around its boundaries to show his uh mastery of it so now avraham is going all the way from north to all the way south to throughout the land of israel and hashem tests him again verse 10 page there was a famine in the land and avraham descended to egypt the verse says that the famine was in the land not anywhere else it was a localized famine as a test for avraham what will avraham do will he complain or not will he go back home or not and what did avraham do avram descended to egypt he decided to go to egypt and here there is an argument between the sages whether he did the right thing or not some say he did the right thing he didn't complain and he didn't go back to his father he said i will temporarily go to egypt and when things are better i'll come back according to some commentators avraham made a mistake according to ramban avraham should have stayed in the land of kanan even though there was famine and he should just be patient use all his resources and then when all the food and all the water is gone god would make a miracle and there would be plenty again this was according to ramban this was a test to avraham's of avraham's trust in hashem and he failed he got scared and he went to egypt but what's interesting is that we say um whatever happens to our forefathers is a sign to the descendants which means whatever happens to avraham it's over and the previous generations is teaching for us of what's going to be with us when we learn history we expect the same thing to happen to us so there was a famine in the land of kanan and avraham went to egypt so to the jewish people the the family of yaakov there was a famine in the land and they were forced to go to egypt and as we're gonna learn now paro pharaoh abused avraham's family he stole his wife but afterwards he was punished severely by god and he got so scared he let her go he begged for forgiveness and he showered avraham with gifts and he sent them out so too will happen in the future the jewish people will be oppressed by uh pharaoh and the the egyptians will be punished and they will shower the jewish people with gifts and they will request that they should leave egypt immediately exactly what happened to avraham will happen later to the jewish people verse 13 avraham asks his wife please say that you're my sister that it may go well with me for your sake and that i may live on account of you because in egypt they had a simple rule if i see a woman that i like i can take her as a wife what if she is married not the problem i just kill her husband so avraham said don't tell them that you're my wife because then they'll just come and kill me if you tell them that you're my sister they'll say okay fine you're permitted i'm going to go and speak to your brother to make a wedding i'll ask him for your hand and this way we will be warned that somebody is interested and they are considering to marry you and will run away and that's what they did when the verse 15 when the officials of pharaoh saw her they praised her to pharaoh and woman was taken to paro's house and he and he treated avraham well for her sake and he acquired sheep cattle donkeys slaves and maisons female donkeys and camels even before he knew that they're married paro already gave avraham great wealth and then later when he found out when he got punished he found out that avraham is really her husband he showered him with even more gifts page 59 but hashem afflicted pharaoh along with his household with severe plagues because of the matter of sarai paro summoned avram and said what did you do why did you say she's my sister here's your wife take her and go and they escorted avraham out of egypt because egypt was a dangerous place even paro knew it egyptians you cannot trust um you cannot trust them with women especially because egyptians were from the um race of ham hamid nations african nations which were dark skinned and when they saw a woman from the race of shem who was light-skinned they were shocked they never saw such never never saw such a beautiful woman even though keep in mind sarah was not a young woman at that time she was a grandmother and still they desired her now avraham went up from egypt he with his wife and all that was his and lord with him to the south of the land of israel avram was very laden with livestock silver and gold and he came to bed el between bethel and i to the site where he built the the altar before and he prayed there again now lord also had numerous flocks and verse 7 tells us that there was quarreling between the shepherds of avram and the shepherds of lot what were they fighting about the passage says the canadian and priesthood were then dwelling in the land the land still belonged to the canaanite tribes but the shepherds of lord told the shepherds of avraham that your master doesn't have children when he dies who is he gonna give all his wealth to to his nephew our master lord and therefore since god promised all this land to avraham eventually avraham is going to give it to lord that means this land is ours that means that we can pasture our sheep there and the shepherds of avram told them that may be true we don't know if avraham will have children or not even though he is old but still the land was not given to avraham yet and avraham didn't give it to lot yet it still has an owner different owner you cannot just pasture your flux in someone else's field so they started quarreling and avraham said please let there be no strife between me and you and between my shepherds and your shepherds please separate from me if you go right i'm gonna go left if you go left i'm gonna go right now we go to page 61. lord raised his eyes and he spotted the best land and that was the the plain of jordan the jordan river was watering the plane it was well watered like the garden of hashem it was a beautiful plot of land and lot desired it however lord did not pay attention that it was the location of siddom and amore the two evil cities surrounded by three more cities five cities in in total that were evil and lord said i don't care that right now i'm next to a sadiq a righteous man and i don't care that i'm going to the place of evil people i only worried about money money talks to me and he left now verse 14. hashem said to avraham verse 15 all the land that you see to you will i give it and to your descendants forever i will make your offspring as the dust of the earth arise and walk the land like we said you have to walk the land through its length and breath and avram dwelt in the plains of mamre which is in now the next um story is going to happen when abraham is in hebron and lot is in stone just give me one moment now uh chapter 14 the war of the kings there were four kings in middle east four kings four great empires they conquered many nations among them were the five um city states [Music] now on page 63. among those that were subservient to them were also many other nations like zamzumim a meme and it so happened that for 12 years these five city-states served the four empires the four kings but then they rebelled and for 13 years they were not paying taxes to the four kings in the fourteenth year the four kings got together under the leadership of kedorla omer and they decided to punish the five kings but on the way to punish them they went around and they destroyed all the other nations that i mentioned and then they came to fight against the five city states now we're in verse eight and the king of saddam went forth with king of amura and admira and so him and so on and engaged them the four kings in battle in the valley of siddhi four kings against five verse 10 the valley of cd was full of bitumen wells and when the kings of saddam and gomorrah lost the war they fled and fell into these these wells these holes in the ground that were used to take out bitumen while the rest of the kings and their soldiers fled to a mountain so the four kings came they took control of the the five cities they took all the wealth and all their food and they departed and they also captured lot and his possessions and they left and they went north east towards baghdad verse 13 then there came a fugitive and told avram the ivory that his nephew was captured and when avram heard that he armed his disciples now we go to page 65 who had been born in his house 318 people and our sages say that 318 is gematria of eliezer that means that he only took one soldier eliezer and he ran after the four kings and he destroyed them he pursued them until done he deployed against them at night he divided his army and attacked them at night he struck them and pursued them as far as which is to the north of damascus he brought back all the possessions he also brought back lot and all the people of sudaman amara so avraham risked his life to fight against the four empires the empires that just now destroyed about 10 different nations and with either 318 soldiers or just eliezer with some friends they won and as soon as they won now king of sedona verse 17 went out to meet him after his return from defeating kedorlao we'll see why king of storm came out but in the meantime in verse 18 we learned about malkit said the king of shalem which is yerushalayim brought out bread and wine he was a priest of god the most high we learned that this was none other than shem the great great great grandfather of avraham the son of noah shem ben he served as the high priest of yerushalayim he blessed avraham saying blessed is avram of god the most high maker of heaven and earth and blessed is god the most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand and he gave him a tenth of everything who gave whom avraham gave malkit zedek 10 of everything that he uh won everything that he earned this is the first mention of our forefathers separating massa 10 of their income the now the king of siddom sees that avraham is generous and he opens his mouth give me the people and take the possessions for yourself king of saddam tells abraham abraham i'm a king but i don't have any subjects all my people were captured now you recapture them so they belong to you but please be nice to me give me my people back i'm willing to give you all the wealth just give me back my people i need my servants how am i gonna eat breakfast in the morning i don't know how to prepare it for myself so avraham said to the king of sudom i lift up my hand to hashem god the most high maker of heaven and earth if so much as a thread to a shoe strap or if i shall take from anything of yours i don't want you to say i made avraham rich far from me only what my soldiers have eaten and the share of the man who accompanied me let them take their portion let me pay my soldiers but the rest you take i don't want anything now we'll go to page 67. god's reassurance to avraham after these events the word of hashem came to avram in a vision saying fear not avram i'm a shield for you your reward is very great so here hashem is promising him two things number one you just he you you just uh won a war against four kings don't be afraid that they will regroup and attack you i'm a shield for you nobody is going to hurt you and avraham was also worried that since he killed a lot of enemy soldiers perhaps he lost his merit perhaps he killed someone innocent and hashem tells him your reward is very great don't worry you did not lose any merit and you did not kill anyone who was innocent and avraham says to hashem my lord hashem elohim what can you give me seem that i go childless even if you give me the whole world but when i die i will lose all my possessions and not this world and not next world is uh good for me if i don't have anyone continuing my path and again remember avraham didn't care about himself he cared about god he was a partner with god and he tried to create a world where people will follow god and because of that they will earn the reward and avraham wanted very much to give god opportunity to give good to people and avraham said if i die there will be no one who will teach the world about you then what what's what's all i'm about for me if i cannot serve you anymore and and suddenly verse 4 the word of hashem came to him saying that one meaning eliezer will not inherit you only him that shall come forth from within you shall inherit you you will have your own biological son and hashem took him outside raised him above stars and said gaze now towards the heaven and count the stars if you are able to count them so shall your offspring be and he struck he trusted in hashem and he reckoned it to him as righteousness now interesting um hashem promises the jewish people that they will be as numerous as dust we see that earlier on on page 61 in verse 16 it says i will make your offspring as the dust of the earth now hashem says your offspring will be like the stars and elsewhere it says your offspring will be like sand so there are three um comparisons jewish people are gonna be like dust and they're gonna be like sand and they're gonna be like stars what's the difference dust is so tiny that there's no number for the dust sand is already a little bit larger you can take every grain of sand and you can count and stars also they're so they're huge and you can count them so each one speaks about a unique uh uniqueness of the of the jew dust means it's indestructible it's already on the lowest level dust is going to stay dust even if you grind it it's going to stay dust cannot destroy dust you cannot divide into anything less it's just going to stay with the name dust that's that's speaking about the the the quality of the jewish people that they cannot be destroyed that they are eternal and that they are humble like dust sand is that has the quality that you have you have uh sand on the beach and as much as the ocean is trying to wash away the sand or push itself onto the ground the sand stays firm even though it's tiny tiny pieces every jew by itself might be small in compared to billions and billions of of non-jews but if you take the jewish nation together they can stop the evil the evil is trying to go on top of them to wash them away to conquer the earth and jewish people like sand on the beach are standing and not letting the ocean flood the earth not letting the evil to take over the world the jewish people are teaching the world morals they're teaching the world the way of god and stars when you speak about individual jew from far away he looks tiny just like a star looks tiny speck of light when you come closer to the star you see that it's a huge sun it's a huge huge burning ball that gives a lot of light and warmth so too you come to a jew you speak to a jew any jew from far away he'll look small and insignificant and maybe even you'll look down on him that's how the non-jews and the secular jews look on us and that's because they're far from us and they say why do we have religious jews or they go in say why do we have jews at all who needs them but as you come closer and you can do this experiment choose any jew and come to him and speak to him find out what's on his mind and you'll be amazed how special every jew is how deep his thinking is how caring his heart is how noble his thoughts are and you will see he's like a star that's shining bright with light and warmth that's the comparison to dust sand and stars and of course the what recently became known that the equal number of stars and grains of sand on earth imagine that number of stars in the universe is the same number of grains of sand on earth amazing and and hashem compares the two telling us that it is the same you will be like stars and you will be like sand because they are the same now uh we continue to page 15 this is the covenant between the parts when avraham asked hashem how will i know that i will inherit the land yes you promised me that i'll have a lot of descendants thank you how do i know that this land is going to be mine in what merit what if my children will sin what if they don't don't have enough merit so hashem said don't worry verse nine he said to him take to me three female calves three goats three rams and a turtle dove and a young dog cut them in a center and place each piece up instead of a counterpart but the birds don't cut up um so basically what hashem is telling avraham is that the merit through which you will get the land of israel is the merit of offerings korbanot and at the time when you we don't have the temple our prayer serves as the korvanod as the offerings and now come um comes the prophecy in verse 13 prophecy of egyptian exile and redemption and he said to avraham know with certainty that your offspring shall be aliens foreigners in a land not their own and they will serve them and they will oppress them 400 years but the nation that will they will serve i shall judge and afterwards they will leave with great wealth and the fourth generation shall return here so it happened the sun set and it was very dark and behold there was a smoky furnace and a torch of fire that which passed between these pieces as a as a sign of sealing of the covenant on that day hashem made the covenant with avraham saying to your descendants have i given this land now we'll go to page 71 chapter 16. now sarah avraham's wife was barren she had no children but she had an egyptian maidservant that they got when they visited egypt whose name was hagar and sarai said to abraham i want you to have children get married to my maidservant and hopefully you'll have a child with her and that's going to be a good sign for our family and maybe through that i will marry to have a child as well so as soon as avraham took hagar she conceived and as soon as she conceived she became hottie must be i'm better than sarah my my mistress and so she's she mistreated sarah and verse 6 says sarai dealt harshly with her and she fled from her and before that um she asked avraham what to do and abram said do whatever you want i i let you she's your servant and um her god ran away into the desert an angel of hashem found her by the spring of water in the desert and he said to her hagar me servant of sarai where are you going and she said i'm running away from sarai my mistress and the angel said return to your mistress and submit yourself to her domination don't be haughty you're her servant and stay her servant and another angel came and said to her god i will greatly increase your offspring and then a third angel came to hagar and said you will conceive again because she had miscarriage and you will give birth to a son and his name will be ishmael signifying that hashem heard your prayer and he shall be a wild man like a donkey his hand is going to be against everyone means this is a prediction for the arabs that they will be thieves and they will be terrorists that they will fight against everyone and everyone's hand will be against him and i'm saying this on the morning when there was a terrorist attack in france exactly what it says he is against everyone and everyone is against him and over all his brothers shall he live the the arabs spread throughout the world and now they populate most countries and they do trouble in most countries this was a prediction even before his birth they will be wild people now we're on page 73 verse 15 hagar gave birth to a son for avraham and verse 16 um and and they named him ishmael verse 16 says avraham was 86 years old when ishmael was born now the torah skips 13 years chapter 17 when avraham was 99 years old hashem appeared to abraham and said to him i'm shaking one of the names of god walk before me and be perfect how i will set my covenant between me and you and you i will increase you most exceedingly so hashem says i want to make a covenant the covenant is number one i will add to your name your name shall be avraham signifying that you are the father the manager of all the nations in the world and you have to do brit milan that's your part of the covenant and my part of the covenant is that i will be a god to you and to your offspring forever and i will give you this land the whole land of canaan as an everlasting possession now we go to page 75 and it speaks about the laws of circumcision as for you you shall keep my covenant verse 10 says every male among you shall be circumcised when verse 12 says at the age of eight days every male among you shall be circumcised and verse 14 says punishment for somebody who for a jew who does not do circumcision throughout his life an uncircumcised male that does not do circumcision that soul shall be cut off from its people which means a jew who chooses not to do brit milan for their for in his entire life and he dies without circumcision he gets cut off from his people means he gets carried verse 15 promise of son to sarah as for sarah your wife do not call her name sarai but sarah is her new name and i will bless her i will give you a son through her and avraham prayed that ishmael should survive and hashem said don't worry ishmael will survive he'll become a great nation but yitzhak your son will be your real descendant i will fulfill my covenant with him and then the last paragraph speaks about avraham circumcising himself at the age of 99 and ishmael was 13 years old when he was circumcised verse 26 on that very day was avraham circumcised with ishmael his son and all the people of his household born in his household and purchased for money from a stranger were circumcised with him so all the people at that time were circumcised at whatever age they were and yitzhak was the first person who was actually circumcised at the right time at eight days old that is why the the night before brit mila we called it because if brit mila occurs on the eighth day that follows the example of yitzhak who was the first one who had brit millah on the 8th day thank you for your attention and shabbat shalom all the best [Music] you