Toldos - Choosing Greatness

you're listening to the weekly para podcast recorded with hm's NeverEnding assistance in ra 5776 2015 this week's para is par told us the Torah tells us about Isaac he marries Rebecca and R get married they have these two children they have yob and as Jacob and Esau and these two children at the beginning of their lives as oural tell us as they explain in theim they look exactly the same they seem the same they're doing all the same things but at a certain point in time and oural say the time was specifically the death of Abraham when Abu passed on from the world their paths diverged and they started to go in two different ways asov started to go on the way which wasn't so good which indeed involved much sin and distance from hasem distance from God and goodness yakob stayed on the path which was proper the Torah continues to tell us the story how y he was blind he was unable to see and not just in a physical sense but as it's clear from the verses he was unable to see in a in a deeper sense he was unable to see the fact that ASA that Esau was doing things that were wrong that he wasn't doing the right thing that the a that he had the service of God that Esau was showing to his father was indeed just surface level it wasn't real it wasn't deep it was just to to try to impress yob however was someone who was doing it in a much deeper way in a sincere way and Rifka Rebecca was able to sense then to see she had a prophecy indeed that the greater of the two would be the younger one would be Jacob and because she knew that yakob was the greater one and there was a death to the service of hasem so therefore she encouraged the younger one to indeed take those blessings away from his older brother we'll get more into that a bit soon that whole story of the stealing of the blessings but before we do I'd like to share with you a medish and the medish is explanation and I think that with an idea which I heard from can understand what's going on in this med the med says that the eyes of Isaac became heavy from seeing meaning he wasn't able to see he got old his vision became clouded he lost his vision because Hashem caused him to lose his vision so that he not be able to see the evil of his son he had a son his name was asov he was doing acts of evil didn't want to have to see this so he lost his vision now it's the is going to say there's something different about this or deeper than this said why am I making him lose his vision Isaac is going to go out to the marketplace people will say look oh this is the father of that Russia that evil person asov so they're going to it's going to reflect poorly on on who's the father who raised this man soem said I'm going to cause him to lose his vision and he'll have to stay at home and this way no one will say anything negative about so a reference to this concept is in the in the verse in Mish in Proverbs 28:28 that when the evil ones arise person should hide so the idea is that y was led to hide he wasn't able to see so he would be left at home and this way the evil that ASA would perpetrate wouldn't reflect on him so I mean this is the first part of the med and of course it needs beer what does that mean made him blind to the people I mean this is a great s the son of aru what they forgot about all the good things that he's done they're only going to look at that because he has a son named ASV it seems very strange why is this going to be the reflection on y I mean this is asov asov makes choices why is it a reflection negatively on Isaac the M goes on to say that we find from here that whenever a person has a student or or a son who's a Russia this is the type of thing that happens his eyes become blinded we're going to skip a little bit and read onwards the me has another idea which is very interesting and certainly needs beers he needs understanding another explanation his eyes became unable to see why did he lose his vision it was because of something that he saw before it was because of something that he looked at before at the time when Abraham tied his son Isaac onto the altar the Angels were crying and when they cried what happened the tears went out of their eyes into the eyes of Isaac and they they had an effect on his eyes and when he became old his eyes the the effect that had happened so many years before at the it took hold and he lost his vision what it means when he became old so this also needs explanation why are they crying they're crying because he's about to be killed but they don't know that he's it's the of hem it's the command of God and that and that in the end everything's going to be fine with why are they crying what does it mean first of all why are they crying and second of all why is what does it mean it's falling into his eyes what what's the idea here everything here every every Nuance every word in the medish is carefully chosen what do kazal mean with this idea now there's another part of the measure what does it mean he lost his his eyes became heavy from seeing what's this mean there is another thing that he saw besides perhaps for the for the tears that fell into his eyes of the Angels there was something else at the time when Abraham tied up Isaac on the altar he was looking up and right behind Abraham was the divine presence it was there it was an unbelievable manifestation of God in the world y looked at something he shouldn't have looked at it the says MOS when he sees the divine presence at the the the the bush is burning he turns away he doesn't want to look should have done the same thing he didn't do that thing so because he did that because he looked at the because he looked at the divine presence therefore he lost his vision the me gives us an analogy what is comparable to to a King that he was going around in the in the courtyard of his Palace he looks around he sees that one of his closest friends the son of his closest friend is looking out of the window at him here he is he's he's in his in the privacy of his own home the king and someone's looking at him someone's looking it's inappropriate so the king says if I'm going to go this is a treasonous act a person has done looking down at me I'm I'm here I am in my private area no one should be looking at me if I go and I kill him right now so that's going to have a negative effect on the one who I love on my dear friend this is his son I can't do that so the king decides that instead he's going to to close those windows to board them up and this way he won't be able to see this way the the son of the king won't be able to see same way when Abraham had tied his son on the altar so looked at something that he shouldn't have looked at AB was the Beloved of God it seems that Isaac him being there him doing this it was an amazing thing but it didn't entitle him to view the to view the divine presence and therefore said if I'm going to kill him I'm going to affect negatively my my beloved Abraham the the very eyes that were looking those eyes are going to become blinded when he became old and I'm adding this in it doesn't say it's beer in the medish but this point in time was when when did all the the Risha begin when did all the evil begin it was when Abraham died so when Abraham disappears from the scene so to speak so that's when all of this stuff begins to happen that's when y loses his vision now we need to understand as we read this what is the idea why what exactly was going on at the how can can't look why is is have to turn away what is the idea Abraham didn't have to turn away Abraham was there too doesn't say he lost his vision doesn't say he didn't know there was no problems with Abraham and so what was the problem where was the where was the lack in the that caused him to lose his vision what was he looking at what does it mean that he was looking at the divine presence that was there what was the what was the lack in that act now before we answer this question all these questions I'd like to share with you another point in the para which I heard from rash pair of yeshu farak he pointed out that if we look at the verses the verses that speak about the stealing of the blessings so yobu is directed by his mother his mother as we said ru had a n she had received a prophecy through sham through the Yesa through the through her asking this question as to what's going on inside of her why are these babies moving around so much and she was told through a spiritual ultrasound so to speak that there are two different nations inside of her the greater one is the younger one which is yakob which is Jacob and the older one is not going to be as great now so Rifka knew this Rifka understood this and when it came time for the blessings Isaac was ready to give those blessings the B which represented the spiritual Legacy the Jewish people everything that the Jewish people stand for was going to be GI to a given to ASA who was not the righteous one who was not the greater one and so RI directed Rifka told Yakov to go and in fact Yakov you read theuk it's very clear that y was extremely reluctant to do this I'm going to take the bras what am I what's going to be my father will see that I'm a liar that I'm a faker that I'm a fraud and Rifka says no it's me she says if there's any CLA if there's anything negative that comes out it's going to be sent my way it's not going to be your it sounds like it's not going to be your it's not going to be your responsibility and so so she goes and she dresses him pointed out it's very clear in the verses She directs the whole entire Affair the the whole entire business a in in 27 verse 15 rif Rebecca takes the clothes of as she dressed him she dressed Jacob he wasn't so young here he was he was he was a man she dressed him and it goes on to say and she gave him the food and she you know and then he comes in but what happens later on so the verses say later on pointed out that RKA hears asash says that after this whole story after Yakov the after the events transpire that Yakov takes the blessing so asov is upset asov wants to kill yob he wants to destroy Jacob for what he's done so in chapter 27:42 it says you she finds out she calls to Jacob his her younger son and she says he wants to kill you listen to me go run to my brother laben you're going to wait there you're going to wait there until your brother's anger abates from you and he will forget what you did to him what you did to him this is Rifka talking Rifka is the one who who directed the whole story like we said yaku was kind of just going going along with it what does she mean by that she he's going to forget what you did she should say what we did or what I did why is she said why does she say to him what you did Mara said an amazing amazing and deep important essential a foundational idea when it comes to y when it comes to our approach to service of God when I do something and I believe it's the right thing to do and someone is pushing me in that direction ultimately the theas the responsibility for that choice for that action is mine I am the one who needs to take the responsibility I need to also know how to think for myself I need to understand of course I need to make the right choices but I need to learn how to think for myself what is hashem's Will what does Hashem want from me yes I can ask advice yes I can turn to others and say you know what's what's the right thing to do but I'm the one who ultimately is going to have to give a I'm going to have to come in front of God and give an accounting why did I choose this why indeed did I do this act what was the reason in behind it RKA is telling Yakov aino an amazing thing it's what you did it's true that I was the one who dressed you it's true I gave you the food it's true I gave you the advice but you're the one who did It ultimately it was your choice it comes down to who you are and the choice that you made it's bigy sight it's very important to understand we are responsible for our choices in in our service of God we are responsible whatever we do the choices we make are are ours very powerful idea now so so why am I sharing this what does it have to do the M that we spoke about earlier well comes out is you know we when we look at the AA we look at the The Binding of Isaac and the amazing sacrifice whose sacrifice was it whose Great ACT was it was it Abraham's act or was it Isaac's Act was it AB or was it Y and it seems very clear from this medish that the one who was doing the Great accomplishment was AR it makes a lot of sense too you think about it this was either the ninth or the 10th of the of of Abraham he had spent his lifetime serving God facing off with challenges this was the the the Apex the Pinnacle the Final Act of his greatness this is what he worked at and he got to through through a lifetime of work and sacrifice and walking through challenges y was a young man at the time he was 37 years old he was a young man he hadn't gone through his whole life and he was going to live many many many years after the AA it's the beginning of his service of God but it's not the end it's not close to the end and it's not even something that he's choosing on his own he's coming there he's following his father father said let's go we're going we're going on a journey a spiritual journey we're on our way and yes says okay great I'm coming whatever whatever you say Dad I'm I'm ready to do it if this is what you believe is what God wants and ready to do it but it didn't come out of his own choice so much we look at what rif says to Yakov and she's saying to him you did this you did this yes I push you I led you to it but you did it with ISU with with the AA it seems clear that the the who did the AA it was really more Abraham it was really more Abraham and so what happens when the person instead of making his own choices instead of it being about me choosing to serve God it's a result of other people's choices so then the person doesn't own his service of God he doesn't really have he hasn't access that connection yet he wasn't wasn't holding on the level ofu and I believe that that's part of theat you know we asked what is it mean that he looked at the it was inappropriate for him to look at the he was looking at the king why what about Abraham why why he didn't do anything he doesn't seem like he had any issues with looking at the he was also there and I think that is because Abraham had reached this level on his own he had chosen it y was just he hadn't fully developed his yet his his choosing yet it wasn't something that was coming from inside of himself and I think that that's part of theot why the malim are crying what does it mean that they're crying what's this sadness and why is it blocking his vision so I was thinking about this and the the PK that the the Mish brings is there's a PK in Isaiah and isah 33:7 which we see that they're that they're crying that the malim are crying these Messengers or the the angels are crying because they came to a place they were looking for peace but they found that the place had been destroyed so when you look at the you look at the AA what what are they crying about what's this what are they sad about and I was thinking you know what what could be that they were sad about that as a result of the AA there was an amazing spiritual explosion y wasn't able to have a child before as as the zor says as tell and and why because he he had he didn't have that spiritual accomplishment he had the wrong Soul as a result of him being brought on Thea as a binding so a New Soul came into him and he was able Rifka was born at that point and she was and they were able to get married and they were going to have children but the result also was that they were going to have asov there's an amazing spiritual accompl accomplishment here but with in the spiritual accomplishment is something negative and they're crying about that because there's going to be an asov and you know who asov is ASA takes this idea y hadn't chosen the AA he just was doing it because that's what his father said he wasn't he didn't hadn't fully taken that responsibility on himself asov all the things that he does he says how do I take Myer off of salt all of the things that he's talking about and he's trying to do are just they're very superficial he's just doing it because that's what you do this is what we do you know we got to be F we got to be religious how do I take how do I take off the time ties from Salt there's no obligation to take off tithes from Salt he was just trying to look good he wasn't doing it for the right reasons there was no depth to his service of God it was he hadn't chosen it he was born into it as long as abam is alive everything is fine everything is great the moment that Aram dies so all of a sudden abam is the one who really chose it ab's gone all you have is y who wasn't on the level of aru who indeed when it came to that kada hadn't really chosen it and so ASV loses even more when a passes away now asov he's not even doing it anymore he's lost his his Drive he's lost his connection because that example of somebody who was choosing it is gone and whatever as have had is gone as well and and so you know think about it why would everybody look at Y and say oh look yeah this is the father of that Russia of that evil person don't they know about all the good things and I believe that perhaps perhaps we could say the answer is that there is a reflection on Y in asov asov is is is just going off farther and farther away he's hasn't chosen it he hasn't chosen it and that is a reflection on y unfortunately heaven forbid but that's true so it's important for us to take out of this idea the great responsibility that we have to ourselves and to our children that not just to teach or not just to act not just to do what's good or to show our children what they should do that's good but it's Our obligation to to give our kids the chance to choose to choose on their own to learn to make the right choices not because we're doing it not because it's what should be done but because we are choosing what's right not because everyone around us is doing it either because this is what this is the right thing we are choosing what's good we're developing the spiritual strength we're taking respons posibility for our choices and and for our our service of God as RKA said this is what you did I Didn't Do It Rifka understood this idea she also had that Med of that encompassing aspect just like you are choosing this that's what she was imparting to yobu and that's the idea that we need to take to heart hem should bless us to be able to understand this idea to be able to develop our ability to choose what's right to develop that ability to recognize that we have the responsibility and that the more that we develop that ability to do what's right because it's what's the right thing to do because of us not because of anyone else hem should help us to be able to indeed have a true relationship with him a depth of relationship and to impart that to our children as well thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabas this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.wag.com or search on iTunes Ari goldwag [Music]