Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan Parshat Vaera 1

good evening we are learning parad and we are using the AR scroll kumash we are on page 78 chapter 18 um last week we learned about um the the mitvah ofit and we learned that circumcised himself he was 99 years old and he he circumcised uh his son Ismael who was 13 years old and he circumcised all male members of his household um all the servants the slaves um and a year later when Abraham is 100 years old he is going to have a child um what was stopping Abraham to have a a son we see that it was the Covenant which means Hashem didn't want Abraham just to have a child and uh whatever happens happens no Abraham had to uh have a um security he had to have um a promise from Hashem that Abraham's children are going to be uh God's Nation forever and because of that uh he had to circumcise himself first that's why we call it bit the Covenant of circumcision and only after Hashem is established his Covenant with him only then Abraham and Sarah could have a baby so from even before birth from conception Yak was under the Covenant of between Hashem and Abraham now chapter 18 speaks about 3 days after the circumcision appeared to him to Abraham in the plains of mamre while he was sitting at the entrance of the tent In the Heat of the day and our sages say why was Abraham sitting by um by his the entrance of his tent In the Heat of the day so according to the simple meaning it was hot the heat of the day in olden times if uh it's hot outside it's even more hot inside the tent the tent was mainly used at night when it was cool but In the Heat of the day you didn't sit inside the tent you sat by the entrance of the tent in the shade of the tent that's the simple explanation but I Sayes say that since Abraham was um not feeling well the third day after uh circumcision is the most painful day for uh a man and therefore he really was suffering and uh unlike his usual self when he would go out to find guests Abraham couldn't walk far so he wanted guests very much and not being able to go out to the marketplace looking for guests he did the next best thing sitting by the entrance of his tent so how is he going to have guests if he's sick so he said I will express my desire My Desire is to have guests I will do whatever is in my power I can't go I'll just sit in one place and hope guests will come if Hashem will send me guests that will be a sign to me that I should fulfill this uh commandment of of uh hospitality and one once I have opportunity to fulfill the uh commandment of hospitality it means that I have ability we judge our abilities by our opportunities if we have opportunity to do something that's a sign that I have ability to do it and in fact that's what happened um as we read further the guests came and Abraham greeted them successfully and he ran and his wife ran and they prepared a feast where did his uh weakness and suffering go and the answer is since God send him guests to take care of them Hashem will also send Hima he will also send him healing so that he can take care of those guests and exactly those same guests that he wanted to take care of they themselves provided him with healing and all of a sudden he was able to run he was able to take care of them and somebody is asking can we can we apply this in our times every opportunity is a sign that we can do it and the answer is most often yes most of the time it is true those times that it's not true is the times when we made a mistake we thought that the opportunity is there but really it wasn't sometimes we have two good things to do and we need to choose one over the other for example we have two mitv both both are good uh actions and we have to make a decision which one am I supposed to do now yes it's true they're both important but being that one of them is better than the other it means that the one that's more important is the one Hashem wants me to do and my test is to figure out what is it using my mind to the best of my ability my logic trying to remove any bias from myself not to have any ulterior motive and if necessary asking advice what should I do now and uh only then I will be U led by Hashem to the the right um mitvah so most of the time when I choose the right thing to do Hashem will provide me with ability to do it but once in a while if I make a mistake in my calculation or I ignore a bias or I fail to ask advice and I choose something that I not supposed to be doing then it's not going to work Hashem is not going to give me ability because he doesn't want me to do it he wants me to be somewhere else so we have to keep our eyes open and if something is not working out after we have put in effort and we we we tried our best and it's still not working that's an additional sign that perhaps we are on a wrong path and we should have courage to change Paths of course you have to to also be aware that sometimes our effort is not enough and Hashem wants us to put in a little bit more effort or try more again and again and perhaps that is the the test so life is not easy life is challenging and rewarding but whatever Hashem wants from us he for sure 100% of the time gave us ability sometimes we don't believe in ourselves and we don't even try but you'll be surprised if you do try from now on any opportunity to do or speak that you get you take it upon yourself you will see that you will succeed in all of them in fact uh there was a a whole school of thought Yeshiva of naak that um had this philosophy they said that Hashem is in charge of everything means he can do everything and uh if I really want something to and I trust in Hashem he will give me ability to accomplish everything even if I'm scared if I even if I not sure how to do it I with courage and with trust in Hashem I take it upon myself and I go do it if I need to speak publicly I need to speak to somebody I need to do something I need to quickly run and I'm not sure if I'm going to make it I quickly go do it I don't say no no no don't ask me I I I can it's not for me no they if if somebody asks me to do something I say of course if you're asking me it's as if Hashem is asking me I can do it so that's the attitude we should have why should we decide what what we cannot do it's like sometimes I offer my children food that they uh never tried yet and they say oh I don't like that food and I say but you never tried it how do you know you don't like it it or I think I'm I'm not going to like it so don't make a decision in advance especially a negative decision that oh I I uh I know it's not going to work out so I'm already giving up before I started so AB said I am sick under normal circumstances I cannot take care of guests and it's the heat of the day people don't travel in the middle of the day they take a lunch uh break they go to shade to rest the hottest part of the day why are you sitting by the entrance your suffering there are no guests and even if guests come you don't have strength to take care of them abam says I have strength to sit here and look for opportunities and I trust that if opportunity comes the strength will come with it similarly people young couples they think should we have another baby or not and they say no we don't have strength we cannot afford it what's going to be and the answer is should we have a baby of course we should have a baby but how will we be able to afford it Hashem will provide if Hashem will send us the baby the greatest miracle on Earth to create a human being then for sure he can send us parasa if Hashem can give us a baby he can give us strength and wisdom to take care of it so if you rely on Hashem say Hashem you want me to have a baby maybe I'll ask my Rabbi my Rabbi says for you in your situation that's the proper thing to do that's it I will do my part and Hashem will do his part I will be ready and Hashem will give me ability so abam is sitting there and Hashem appears to him that's already a good sign Abraham is sitting to and and and is ready to do hashem's command and Hashem appears to him so as they communicate and Hashem is uh giving him prophecy Abraham lifts his eyes and he sees behold three men were standing over him now um some say that Abraham had to interrupt his uh prophetic vision and he had to ask Hashem for permission to take a few minutes to take care of the guests and then he came back to his meditation to his conversation with Hashem and some say that this was actually part of his prophetic Vision that in his state of meditation and communication with Hashem he saw a vision of three men who visited him and according to ramban one of the commentators he says that the the whole uh uh chapter or at least the the the two pages page 79 and 81 are a vision of Abraham that really the Three Angels only came to Abraham in the vision and they gave the message to Abraham in the vision but other commentators say that it actually happened in real life um that as Abraham was speaking to Hashem he saw the three men who were the angels that Hashem sent and Abraham had a test will I continue speaking with Hashem and ignore the three men who may need something or will I excuse myself from the Great Creator and go take care of the lowly people and abah passed the test he recognized again that if Hashem is sending him an opportunity it's a sign that he is supposed to take that opportunity and act upon it and that's exactly what he did he perceived he understood so he ran toward them from the entrance of the tent and bow toward the ground now verse verse three our sages say should be read before verse two or it's read after but it's we should keep in mind that it happened before verse two and he said abam said to Hashem before he ran AB is speaking to Hashem he sees the three men walking and now he says my Lord Hashem if I find favor in your eyes please pass not away from your servant please wait for me let me take care of the guest don't leave don't leave I'll come back and we'll continue speaking and then he ran to the guests and he bowed down to them toward the ground and now he speaks to the guests in verse four he invites them let some water be brought and wash your feet and recline beneath the feet the tree I will get a a little bit of bread that you may sustain yourself then you can go on on your on your way in as much as you have passed your servants way and they said do so just as you have said so abah is offering them the three things let's say four things that a traveler needs a traveler needs some uh water to wash his feet and to drink he needs to cool down in a shade of a tree and he needs something to eat and ab is saying I'm going to provide your basic needs how in a simple way I'm going to give you just a little bit of food a little bit of bread but Abraham does much more than he offers so verse six Abraham hastened to the tent to Sarah and said hurry take a volume of three of flour fine flour knad it and make cakes in the Torah the word uh for cakes is ugot UGA what we say is uh cake in mother Hebrew but UGA also means a a round loaf of bread so he asked Sarah to make bread then Abraham ran to the cattle took a calf tender and good and gave it to the youth he gave it to his son Ismael who hurri it to prepare it so he delegated s to make bread he delegated to Ismael to prepare meat and he himself took cream and milk and by that time the calf was ready and place these before the guests and stood over them beneath the tree and they ate now a question is asked what about the bread he asked s to prepare the bread but he never served the bread and I would say just say that a miracle happened and Sara's menstrual cycle came back which she didn't see for many years she's already 89 years old and according to some commentators she never had menstrual cycle in her life um so this was really a A great miracle that an 89 year-old woman after never having a a a menstrual cycle for the first time in her life had a period now when a woman has a period she becomes impure nowadays the only uh practical difference is that she cannot U have marital relations with her husband but in olden times people also were concerned about spiritual impurity both um in the earlier times and during the bet mikdash because you cannot go to bet mikdash if you are impure so and a woman who is in when she touches food the food becomes impure and uh a regular person may eat it she can eat it also but somebody who knows that he needs to serve Hashem in bet mikdash or somebody who needs to speak to Hashem through prophecy he cannot uh become impure himself so he would stay away from impure food and so since Sarah became Nida she made the bread impure and Abraham being the prophet he would not touch the bread and he would not serve it to his guests and therefore he didn't serve any bread to his guests but of course these were not regular guests they were angels and therefore they didn't need to eat but it says and they ate so the commentators say they only PR pretended that they're eating the Angels they don't need to eat but we learn from this that when in front of people you don't brag and you don't show off even if you are an angel and you don't need food if food is served before you you have to at least pretend that you're eating and another question is asked how is it that he took cream which some say is butter and milk and he took the calf which is meat how can he serve his guests meat with milk that's a good question isn't it not allowed to eat meat together with milk the same time or same meal or together various answers are even some say that it was before giving of the Torah and then others argue and say yes but Abraham kept the Torah even though before it was given so then they say yes but according to Torah only cooking meat and milk is forbidden but serving them in a cold state is permitted and that's what he did he served butter milk and meat separately in a cold State according to Torah that's permitted it's only forbidden rically but then others argue and say yes but AB kept rein claws as well so then they say yes but that's only for human beings but these were angels and uh Abraham served it on the table and he told them you know choose either you want meat or milk and they ate both because they were angels and they were permitted or he didn't know they were Angels but at least they're not Jewish or this was before giving over the Torah they are allowed and he's not putting his own stringencies on them he doesn't say I am a big righteous man and because of that you have to suffer you I'm not going to give you meat so we have to remember that that even though we take certain stringes upon ourselves but if we have someone who is not as strict as we are we have to be willing to allow him to live a life according to his uh level we can choose for ourselves but not for someone else and then someone else says a different uh answer that Abraham didn't serve it at the same time as it says here he took cream and milk and he served it while Ismael Was preparing the calf because cream and milk is ready he just takes it out the calf you have to sh you have to skin you have to cut up you have to roast by the time Ismael was ready they already finished the butter and the milk and all the vegetables and fruits so you have to read the pasuk uh separately he took butter and milk and served it after they ate he took the calf which he had prepared and placed it before them so he actually served them at different times that's uh another answer and one more answer is that if you read Hebrew you will see that in in English they say that he had prepared so prepared sounds like he cooked it but in Hebrew the words are and the calf that he made what does it mean he made the calf yes this was not a simple calf the sages say that he chose a calf from his uh cattle but the something happened and the calf ran away and Abraham had to quickly prepare a new calf so using the power ofala using the power of seph Abraham actually made an artificial calf which is artificial meat which is not real meat and the prohibition of mixing meat and milk doesn't apply to artificial meat it's like tofu and so there is no problem to begin with it was a par of meat and Abraham was permitted to serve it and the Angels were permitted to eat it okay now we turn to page 81 verse 10 one of the Angels tells Abraham I will surely return to you at this time next year and behold Sara your wife will have a son the Angels Came all on PES and we have a tradition that y was born on PES which means the Angels Came a year before his birth and it took another few months until Sarah became pregnant her period started was established and then a few months later she became pregnant and our tradition says that Sarah became pregnant on Ros sh and is was born on PES which means he was born U only uh 6 and 1/2 months in the seventh U month he was born premature now SAR was listening at the entrance of the tent she heard and verse 12 Sara laughed at herself say I have withered shall I again have delicate skin which means will my youth come back and my husband is old so we said that her period began why is she questioning so it could be that she didn't understand what's going on why why why am I bleeding what is this she didn't recognize it maybe she thought it's just an accident it's a one-time thing for sure it's not going to come back for sure it's not going to cause pregnancy so she said will I again become young will my skin again be delicate and even if I will my husband is old he's 99 years old so she questioned God's ability so verse 13 Hashem rebukes her Hashem said to Abraham why is it that Sarah left is anything beyond Hashem yes at the right time she will have a son and Abraham spoke to Sarah and said why don't you trust Hashem why are you um laughing in uh disbelief and Sarah denied it and said I didn't laugh because she was frightened she had such great respect for Abraham that she was she wanted to give a good impression she didn't want to lower her esteem in his eyes she said no no I didn't laugh and he said no you did because Hashem told me that's how much they they uh loved each other and tried to look the best for each other Abraham and Sarah even though they were married already for many many decades they still wanted to gain respect of each other very often a couple gets married and they don't care about each other's opinion anymore when we're dating I want my date to think good of me but when I get married already I let the guard down I allow myself to do all kinds of things thinking that's it I don't have to impress him or her and that is a mistake even when you are 90 and 100 years old you still have to look and act on your best behavior in front of your spouse now verse 16 so the man the Angels got up from there and gazed down toward sedom because that was their next mission and when Abraham escorted them Hashem appeared to him and Hashem said shall I conceal from Abraham what I'm going to do Hashem said I'm planning to reveal future to Abraham why page 83 verse 19 for I have loved him because he commands his children in his household after him to keep the way of Hashem which is doing charity and Justice Hashem says I know that Abraham is not just righteous for himself he is continuing this path for his children and for future Generations so I appoint him as the manager of the world and therefore I have to consult him before destroying part of the world so verse 20 Hashem said the outcry of Sodom and Amora has become great because of their sin I will descend and see if they act in accordance with this outcry the report that I received then destruction and if not I will know what to do with them so the the the two angels now went to Sodom one Angel finished his job and went back to shamay every Angel does only one job in this case the angel who uh gave the good report left the angel that healed Abraham went to sedom to save lot and the angel Gabriel went to Sodom to destroy it now Abraham heard that Sodom is about to be destroyed and Abraham decides to stand up for it even though they were evil Abraham is still trying to give them another chance and first he says what if there should be we're in verse 24 what if there should be 50 righteous people in the midst of the city will you kill the righteous Hashem said no no I'm not going to kill the righteous they'll um they'll have to come out I'll give them a chance and ab says yeah but why should they suffer and leave the city and all their houses and possessions why don't you save the city for their sake and Hashem says I will then AB becomes more bold and says what if they out of 50 they will be missing five will you save the city for 45 and Hashem says yes and page 85 aam says what about 40 yes 30 yes 20 yes what about 10 people will you save the cities for 10 people Hashem says yes but you should know there are no 10 people unfortunately so when Abraham hears that they don't even have 10 therefore Hashem will not save the city for their sake therefore Abraham understands that the righteous people that are found there will have to exit they'll have to leave their possessions and the city will be destroyed but they will be saved and Hashem departs from Abraham now we're in chapter 19 and we learn what actually happened in Sodom lot is sinting by The City Gate just like Abraham was sitting by his tent lot was a good person relatively and he did learn many good things from Abraham and he is sitting like Abraham looking what can he do to help others and he sees that there are two people and he bows down to them and he says my lords turn about please to your servant's house spend the night and wash your feet and then in the morning you can go on your way and they said no no don't bother we'll sleep on the street he urged them very much and they agreed and he prepared A Feast for them and all of a sudden they heard that the people of sidom surrounded the house and they called out to lot in verse 5 and they said where are the men who came to you tonight bring them out to us that we may know them the expression that we may know them means that they actually wanted to rape them we actually they actually wanted to sodomize them that that's where the expression s sodi comes from because that's what they wanted to do so page 87 lot goes out and tries to appease them he says in verse 7 I beg you my brothers do not act wickedly see now I have two daughters who have never known a man I shall bring them out to you and do to them as you please lot is willing to give up his two daughters to be raped just to save two guests why is he doing that so some say that the reason he's doing it is because if you have a choice to allow people to do a great sin or a lesser sin it's smart to ask them to do a lesser sin although we cannot choose we cannot say we don't want him to suffer and therefore we'll let him suffer that we cannot do so lot is not completely correct but there is some truth in what he's doing he says if you rape a man that's a death penalty that is forbidden according to Torah um homosexuality is uh Capital crime whereas whereas if you have relations with a single girl that is only punishable by lashes that's also negative commandment punishable by lashes so if you have a a a transgression that carries death penalty and transgression that carries only lashes makes sense to do uh trans ression with lashes and again it was wrong what he did you don't give someone as a sacrifice to save save someone else um he he should have fought and U protected his daughters and his guests but nevertheless that's what he did and look what the people said they said stand back this fellow came to SJ to live among us and would act as a judge now we will treat you worse than them they said we don't want your girls we want the guests we don't want to have relations with a woman we want to have relations with a man they actually were out to do the worst sin possible don't give us a less sin we want to do a big sin and not only that we're going to punish you and then we're going to take your guests verse 10 the the the Angels stretched out their hand and brought lot into the house and closed the door and the men who were at the entrance of the house they struck with blindness lot didn't know that these were angels and bashem he was saved by them now the the angel said to lot who do you have over here that you want to save all that you have in a city remove from the place for we are about to destroy this place so lot went out to try to gather his relatives but none of his relatives including his two married daughters wanted to come they didn't believe him as it says he seemed like a Jester like a Joker in the eyes of his sons-in-law so it was already Dawn and the angels told Lord get up take your wife and your two daughters because we are destroying the city verse 16 still he lingered he couldn't make a decision should I run should I not what should I take with me so the man grabbed him by grasp him by his hand and his daughters and his wife and they dragged them out they took him out and left him outside the city and Lord asked them please have mercy on me don't tell me to run into the mountains let me go to the nearby city which was also supposed to be destroyed but please save that City temporarily and they agreed page 89 verse 23 the son Rose upon the Earth and L had arrived at the town of soar now Hashem had caused Sul sulfur and fire to rain upon Sodom and Amora from Hashem Out of Heaven Hashem overturned these cities and the entire plain with all the inhabitants of the city and the vegetation of the soil Lot's wife looked behind him and she became a pillar of salt because she couldn't part with her past she became part of the past because she wanted to enjoy the suffering of her evil neighbor neighbors she had their fate now what happened to that um place it became what is now known as the Dead Sea yam the salt sea the whole thing was turned over um filled with salt and the Jordan River flowed in filled it with water and now that's what dead sea is it's called Dead Sea because nothing lives in it but now we know it's called Dead Sea because there are a lot of dead things underneath now verse 30 lot went up from T because it was only saved temporarily and he settled on the mountains his two daughters with him now page 91 he dwelt in a cave he with his two daughters and um the daughters started thinking what's going to be the whole world was destroyed our father merited to be the new Noah that's what they thought so what's going to be there are no other men in the world they thought how are we going to have children so they said we must figure something out and have children from our father verse 33 they gave their father one on that night and the older one came and lay with her father and verse 35 the next night they gave their father wine to drink and the younger one lay with him and thus both girls conceived from their father the older one gave birth to a son and she called him moav which means from my father and the younger one um G gave birth to a son and she called his name benami and these two boys became progenitors of two Nations Amon and moav chapter 20 Abraham traveled from there South and settled in Gad which is the present day uh Gaza Strip and again Abraham in order to protect himself said that Sarah is his sister so a king of gar sent and took Sarah just like par once did and God came to a in a Dream by night and said to him behold you are to die because the woman you have taken is a married woman now to go to page 93 a is defending him self and he says oh my Lord will you kill an innocent person didn't Abraham tell me that she's his sister and she told me that he's her brother in the innocence of my heart and integrity of my hands have I done this and Hashem said to him yes I know that's why I'm not punishing you I'm giving you a chance to return her verse 7 now turn the man's wife and he will pray for you and you will live but if not you will die and the Torah tells us that a did not approach Sarah Hashem didn't allow him so a arose early next morning he called all his servants and told them what happened and all his servants were also sick and they couldn't understand what's happening and he told them I made a mistake and I'm doing a public repentance and a called Abraham and said to him what did you do how what sin did I do against you that you brought upon me and my kingdom such great sin and Abraham said in verse 11 because there is no fear of God in this place and I knew that they will kill me for my wife so it's not my fault it was self-defense in any place where there is no fear of God you have to expect the worst