Category: Parsha

How to Wrench Yourself Out of the Paralyzing Plague of Darkness: The Life-Changing Lessons We can Learn from What Rav Shimshon Dovid Pincus Says about Why Hashem Hardened Pharaoh's Heart & Why Hashem Punished Him Anyway

24/1/2020

In the book of Rav Shimshon Dovid Pincus's ztz"l transcribed lectures Nefesh Shimshon - Gates of Emunah, Living with Faith: Bringing Hashem into Our Daily Lives, Rav Pincus gleans from the Rambam to clarify an issue that confounds people when they come across it in the Torah:

Why does Hashem harden Pharaoh's heart?

And why does He then punish Paroh (Pharaoh) when it's HASHEM who repeatedly hardened Paroh's heart?

It all connects to the paradoxical concept of bechirah chofsheet – free choice.

What Does "Free Choice" Really Mean?

Rav Pincus notes that this concept is often misunderstood.

Human bechirah goes far beyond that of animal bechirah.

Animals don't have bechirah. A hyena cannot decide to skip eating a fresh carcass just because it wasn't properly slaughtered.

Even with their offspring, animals care for them out of instinct. Animal sentimentalists don't like to hear this, but many species either abandon or eat their young when they feel the environment won't support them or when they sense their newborns are weak.

But human bechirah goes even further.

In order to have real bechirah, a person must have the ability to either do wonderful healing acts or cruel destructive acts.

This includes the ability to destroy oneself – not just physically in This World, but to actually destroy one's soul and eliminate any chance of obtaining even a tiny smidgen of bliss in the Next World.

In other words, to enable true bechirah, a person must have the ability to NOT do teshuvah...even if they want to.

And this chilling truth explains the dynamic between Hashem and Paroh.

When You Cannot Even Move to Save Your Life

Theoretically, a person has the ability to repeatedly make such poor decisions that he cannot return from that state of evil...even if he wants to.

In fact, during the Plague of Hail, Hashem sent Moshe Rabbeinu to tell Paroh that everyone should move inside.

Whoever remains outside would be killed.

The Brisker Rav explains that even though these giant fiery hailstones could certainly break through roofs, Hashem set things up so that the roofs would provide protection.

Only those foolish enough to remain outside would be killed.

Then Hashem caused a weird reaction in the Egyptians (who'd decided themselves into a state where teshuvah was impossible).

If the Egyptians feared the hailstones, they wouldn't be able to go inside!

They lost the ability to move, even an obvious move for their own self-protection.

Instead, Hashem decided to make their hearts so hard that when they saw the hailstones, they'd say, "It's not for real. It can't be."

And that's exactly what happened.

As it states in Shemot 9:20, only those who feared Hashem (and not the hailstones) retained the ability to access their free choice and protect themselves by ducking into a building.

Rav Pincus explains that when a person can no longer move spiritually, his state is called Choshech Mitzrayim (Darkness of Egypt, the 9th Plague). He quotes Shemot 10:23: "No man could arise from his place."

So a person who falls into "a state of total immobility" is "like Pharaoh and the Egyptians at that time."

Rav Pincus likens it to incurring a massive debt without ever getting one's finances together. Then when the time comes to pay up, the debtor has nary a penny with which to even start returning the massive debt.

This can be experienced on a less sinister level, explain Rav Pincus, like when a person damages his capability of kavanah in davening to the point that he can no longer daven Shemoneh Esrei.

Even on the day of his wedding while davening Mincha at the Kotel, a groom may discover that despite is best intentions, he was not able to daven this all-important Mincha with kavanah.

It's because of all the previous Shemoneh Esreis without kavanah.

Rav Pincus says this is the reason why some people fly out of shul the minute the davening ends. It's as if the shul spits them out do to their repeated lack of desire.

On page 115, Rav Pincus states:

The power of free choice gives man the frightening ability to chain himself and throw away the key.

Of course, this reminds me of the story popularized by Rabbi Wallerstein from the Kav Hayashar, in which a fabulously wealthy yet uncompromisingly tight-fisted mohel is particularly mosser nefesh to travel a great distance to perform a brit milah, where he discovers he must perform the brit milah on the half-demon child of a captive Jewish mother.

Despite his appalling miserliness, this mohel always conducts a brit milah completely free of charge. A brit milah was always the exception to his utter lack of generosity.

After refusing to accept anything from the demon father, the demon father finally opens a cabinet containing the mohel's "keys," and tells the mohel that he can have these keys since they don't really belong to the demon because they originally belong to the mohel.

After getting his "keys" back, mohel then returns to normal society and is indeed able to generously give tzedakah after that.

And therein lies the solution to recover the ability to do teshuvah even when you've destroyed that ability.

(See? In Judaism, there is never despair! Even from the Point of No Return, you can still return IF you REALLY want to!)

Teshuvah from Love Fixes Everything

The secret is teshuvah from love.

Even if in the extremely rare instance that Hashem doesn't want you back, your pursuing of Hashem's Will can turn everything around for the best.

Teshuvah from fear is still a million times better than not doing teshuvah at all.

However, if one has reached the Point of No Return, if one is stuck in Choshech Mitzrayim (whether it's the guy who can't daven or a complete rasha like Paroh), the key to getting unstuck is teshuvah from love.

Teshuvah from fear:
Giving someone money only after being threatened with a big stick.

Teshuvah from love:
Giving someone money because you really want to give it.

Teshuvah from fear is Hashem's Act.

Teshuvah from love is completely your act.

Rav Pincus states that while teshuvah from fear can be eliminated, teshuvah from love can never be taken away since that type of teshuvah belongs to the person.

Page 119:

Hashem will never take it away from him because that would contradict the principle of free choice.

And how can we access that?

How to Free Yourself from the Paralyzing Plague of Darkness

Here is Rav Pincus's advice on page 120:

When a person is in one of those low states where he feels nothing is moving for him, his goal at that time should not be to change his deeds.

Rather it should be change himself, his inner being.

Certainly easier said than done, but nobody ever said that escaping the Point of No Return was a bowl of stone-free cherries.

And this is where it gets a bit confusing, but still doable.

Rav Pincus presents the example of someone who wants to get out of his distraction and start learning seriously out of fear for his future (maybe the fear of getting a bad shidduch or no shidduch, getting a bad reputation or a lackluster portion in the World to Come, etc.).

So he commits to learning 5 hours straight with passion.

Rav Pincus says that is changing one's deeds, not one's self.

However, if a person works to develop a feeling of love for Torah, an appreciation for the value of Torah itself, this changes his whole approach to learning. In that case, a person should decide to come even just 5 minutes early to learn and then stay 5 minutes later.

That is changing one's self.

Why?

Because it demonstrates a thirst for learning. When you love something, when you crave it, you can't wait to get it! And then you don't want to leave it.

Superficially, it looks like both are changing deeds only.

But when a person makes a mental shift in his attitude and decides to come early to learning (or davening for that matter) and leave later, that reflects his own self.

NOTE: It's even more beneficial to read the whole thing in Rav Pincus's own words, the section called "How Far Free Choice Reaches," pages 109-122.

Final Thoughts & Plan of Action

Please also note that despite the fact that Rav Pincus himself absolutely loved learning & davening, he absolutely loved Hashem & felt loved by Hashem, Rav Pincus still recommends baby-steps.

5 minutes earlier and 5 minutes later!

This is something you run across again and again in Judaism.

BABY STEPS MATTER.

No one should scoff at small steps in the right direction.

Your smallest toddling step in Hashem's direction is very precious to Hashem.

So tachlis, what can you do if you find yourself immobilized in Choshech Mitzrayim?

I believe it's to consider your soul's real desire:

Where do you want to go?

Who do you want to be?

Why do you want to go there & be different in that way?

And how can you express that new and better desire?

And if you do find yourself in that frightening place where teshuvah from fear no longer exits, consider that rather than it means Hashem is rejecting you...

...consider that maybe it's a sign that Hashem cherishes you so much, He wants you to do teshuvah from love so He can pour upon you all the reward and closeness that comes from teshuvah from love.

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Rav Avigdor Miller or Parshat Va'era and Some Very Sharp Mussar on Learning Lessons that Applies to Current Events

23/1/2020

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What was the purpose of the 10 Plagues?

In Parshat Va'era: Judgments with Justice, Rav Avigdor Miller informs us that it wasn't just about Pharaoh.

"And Egypt will know that I am Hashem."

That was the main reason.

And many Egyptians indeed gleaned that lesson from the Plagues.

They joined the Exodus from Egypt, becoming the dreaded Erev Rav.

But the real lesson was for Bnei Yisrael themselves.

THEY needed to know Who Hashem was.

They needed this prior to accepting the Torah on Har Sinai.

WE need to know that He is Hashem.

The Profound Principles of Middah K'Neged Middah

Middah k'neged middah (measure for measure) is a well-known concept in Judaism.

As Rav Miller puts it on page 5, "the punishment a man gets in this world, in some way resembles the thing that he’s done wrong."

Rav Miller notes that middah k'neged middah is often obvious. The connection between the sin and the consequence is usually not hard to connect...if only a person would just contemplate it.

So why is the connection not often seen?

Rav Miller explains on page 6:

And the Mesillas Yesharim sets down the principle that most people don’t learn the lessons that Hashem wants to teach them because they’re just too busy to think.

There’s more than one reason, but the main reason why people don’t learn is because they’re too busy with life.

There are so many things to do, so many happy things, so many other things – whatever it is, but they’re busy all the time...People don’t pay attention and they don’t learn the lessons that they are expected to learn because they don’t make time to think, “Why is Hashem doing davka this and davka that?”

Midrash Rabbah says that with every Plague came a type of dever, pestilence. Yes, there was a Plague of Dever, but all the Plagues were accompanied by some sort of dever too.

What do you do in a case of dever?

Rav Miller quotes Bava Kama 60b: "Dever ba'ir, kanes reglecha – When there's an epidemic in the city, stay at home!"

Don't go out and mix.

And that's exactly what the people decided.

In those days, the Jewish elders, the zekeinim, were truly great Sages to whom the people really listened.

That's why Moshe Rabbeinu went to them first with tidings, because he knew the Am would listen to the zekeinim.

Anyway, the Jews closed themselves in their little homes.

And there was nothing to do except talk to each other.

And the zekeinim guided them to speak about tachlis, to contemplate what was happening.

Rav Miller says that many Midrashim derived from these conversations at home, with the Jews thinking and drawing conclusions, like the following (pages 7-8):

Let’s say when Makkas Dam came; so they’re sitting in their houses and talking.

“Did you hear what happened to Mamrei the Egyptian down the road? He went for a drink and his mouth is all bloodied up as if somebody punched him in the lips. He’s vomiting from disgust.”

“Aha! That bloody Egyptian now! You remember when he smacked me in the mouth and my mouth was bleeding? Now he’s getting it right back in his face!”

“Maybe in the wells there’s some water they can drink?”

Nothing doing! Look at the well next door – you see how red it is? Look at them – they’re digging in the ground trying to find an underground spring. And his brother, the wicked slavemaster – he’s walking around dehydrated begging for a sip of water. He looks like he’s about to faint.”

“Is that so? He’s the one who forced us to work all day in the sun and didn’t let us drink from the well. He’s getting exactly what he deserves, midah k’neged midah.”

Rav Miller freely acknowledges he is oversimplifying the conversations for our benefit.

The discussions probed much deeper than that.

Why?

He explains on page 8:

So they were talking all day long – but not like we’re talking here. I’m just talking kindergarten talk now, but they went to the bottom of it.

They had nothing else to do – they didn’t read newspapers or novels in those days; they didn’t waste time listening to the radio.

And the zekeinim taught them how to use their time during the makkos – to think about what Hashem was trying to teach them and to talk about it.

And we are supposed to do this too.

Rav Miller's Profound Losses

On pages 9-17, Rav Miller explains why he discusses the Holocaust the way he does.

He admits that it's very painful.

People forget that he himself was almost a victim, he and his wife and children. People forget that he knew the precious Jews slaughtered by the evil ones.

The victims were his wife's siblings and Rav Miller's other close friends. As he says on page 11:

My chaveirim, my best friends were all murdered.

Rav Feivel Pilvishker, zichrono l’vracha, a tzaddik, a young man who was learning all the time. He was always thinking in mussar in his spare time. And they found his body in the field outside the town – he was shot there and left to bleed to death.

Other friends too – Aharon Birzher, my chavrusa. He was the son-in-law of the Kurdaneh Rav, and he was murdered along with the Kurdaneh Jews.

My rebbi, Rav Avraham was burnt up alive in a fire when the Germans set fire to the hospital.

Rav Elchonon Wasserman zichrono l’vracha was in Slabodka and they marched him out with all the Slabodka boys – my chaveirim – and they shot them dead in the Ninth Fort.

Certainly we weep rivers of tears. When we say here that we try to understand that Hashem does things for a reason, it’s b’derech klal, on a general level.

But the fact that we lost our people is a devastating blow that we will never cease weeping for.

He acknowledges that many people feel it's a mekatreg on the victims to search for the meaning behind it all.

Yet Rav Miller says it's a mekatreg on Hashem if you don't discuss it.

Hashem doesn't do things for no reason.

And this is why Rav Miller delves into this painful subject: He does it all for the honor of Hashem.

(Note: Despite the middah k'neged middah Rav Miller discusses here, he clearly acknowledge here and in other lectures that we cannot know all the reasons for everything that happened in the Holocaust. There were such inhuman acts of brutality and sadism, such sheer savagery, we really cannot just point fingers.)

Some Very Sharp Mussar

Yes, there were wonderfully special people in Eastern Europe, Jews of unparalleled wisdom and yirah and emuna.

But Rav Miller states that those same towns portrayed as chassidish strongholds also included Reform communities.

In A Daughter of Two Mothers, Leichu is herself religious and therefore focuses on her fellow religious Jews. But even in their small town sheltered from the influences of the big cities, the poisonous strains infiltrated.

I remember thinking how odd it was that within this small town brimming with good frum Jews, Leichu didn't have a proper school. She either needed to attend the local public school with the non-Jews or the local Jewish school run by the Reform. (She ended up with the non-Jews, who ran their school with more propriety & concern for the children than the Reform school.)

Why wasn't there a religious school for the religious population?

Isn't that weird in such a lovely little town full of wonderful religious Jews?

So, it goes back to what Rav Miller was saying.

Likewise, in Lea Fuch Chayen's memoir, Out of the Depths, she recalls a moment toward the end, when she and her friends are slowly starving to death outside in a roofless boxcar covered in snow.

Lea attempts to raise their spirits by recalling Purim and predicting the many Purims they'll enjoy with the families they'll create by themselves after the War.

At that point, a Jewish woman in her thirties says, "Who is Purim?"

Who is Purim?

It's astonishing that a Jewish woman of her age from the burgeoning Jewish metropolis of Budapest (which also hosted a thriving frum community) never even heard of the holiday of Purim. I think it's sort of like if a Jew from New York never heard of Purim. She thought it was the name of a person, she was so far removed.

It's to this undercurrent of destruction Rav Miller refers.

He recalls how the Chafetz Chaim himself declared before the Holocaust that there wasn't one Jewish home without someone off the derech.

Rav Miller reminisces about on old rav who looked so beautiful and pious, as if he must come from such a pious family.

Then Rav Miller discovered that this rav was the only one of 5 brothers who remained frum! The other 4 went totally off the derech.

And as Rav Miller emphasizes, these rebels weren't quiet. Hard as it is to believe, they marched around with large signs: "We declare war on the Klerikalin" – Klerikalin were the rabbanim and the frum people.

And Rav Elchonon Wasserman said (page 12), “You’re declaring war on Hashem?! So Hashem will declare war on you!”

Chilling words.

Rav Miller tells us the truth, both the beautiful and the ugly (page 12):

What about all the apikorsim who lived in Slabodka?

I was there; I saw! Slabodka was a churban.

There was a yeshivah, it's true, but the city itself was no good at all.

Europe was being turned upside down by the Jewish resha’im.

*

Do you hear people speak about that when they teach about the Holocaust?

No, you don’t hear that. The whole subject is not even mentioned.

People are busy carrying out a propaganda campaign against Hakodosh Boruch Hu.

You know what they say? They say that they were all tzadikim in Europe.

Ahh, it was a wonderful place – they were all righteous, all kedoshim, and we just don’t know why Hakodosh Boruch Hu would do such a terrible thing to them.

I would never say this myself. I have no right to judge, me a former suburban secular girl growing up in America's materialistic 80s.

Even now, who am I?

But Rav Miller can say it. He has that right.

And then the dvar Torah gets very sharp.

I appreciate it; I want to hear it. It's the truth.

But his message definitely bothers a lot of people.

On page 13, Rav Miller opposes all the blame placed on European rabbanim for not telling Europe's Jews to go to Eretz Yisrael.

These rabbanim constantly exhorted their beloved brothers and sisters to do teshuvah, to prevent the Destruction.

The truth is that when you run away, you leave people behind.

Maybe there's not much choice. At one point, there really was no choice.

Okay.

But if you really love your brothers and sisters, you will try and prevent bad things from happening to them.

If you really care about someone, you're not just going to run off and leave them behind.

You'll try and prevent them from being harmed.

(I want to add also that in the memoirs I've read, sometimes big rabbanim were asked about escape, and the rabbanim said something like, "You can try. But there's a Heavenly decree on us and success isn't likely. But you can try."

Also, in A Sun and A Shield, the great talmid chacham Rav Yosef Paneth (also known as the Illeander Rav) found himself in a forest ghetto with around 7500 Jews.

He and his family struggled to convince other Jews to escape with them into the forest. He told his fellow Jews where they were going.

Yet who listened?

Out of 7500, only the rav, his wife, their children, a couple of men, and a young widow and her son agreed to escape.

The only children to survive that ghetto was the Paneth children (though not all of them) and the widow's son.

That was it.

So you have to understand that even when an extremely chashuv and holy rav actively told people to escape and even offered to help them escape with them, they simply would not.

(You can read more about that episode HERE; just scroll down to the middle of the post.)

Furthermore, Rav Miller makes a practical point that many don't consider (page 13, boldface my own addition):

They said that the gedolim, all the tzadikim, the Chofetz Chaim zichrono l’vracha too – all the leaders of the generation are at fault because they didn’t preach that the Jews should get up and move to Eretz Yisroel.

That six million Jews should get up from Europe and go to Eretz Yisroel in those days when nobody would let them in anyhow!

Also, you had families like the frum Kanners in Germany who were number 1 on the aliyah list for a capitalist visa – and they were constantly pushed off by the secular Zionist Resettlement office in Berlin.

(Personally, based on what I've read of the history of that time, I feel they were pushed off because they were frum. The secular Zionists did not want frum people in Israel. I can't prove it, but if you read the book, it's weird that they kept replacing the Kanners with others whom the secular Zionists claimed were in immediate danger and therefore needed to take precedence. But even when Mr. Kanner faced life-threatening danger and was actually sent to a concentration camp, the Zionist Resettlement office still did not allow him to use his rightful visa. See HERE for more on that.)

The Most Helpful Response to Jew-Hatred

On pages 14-15, Rav Miller says:

If only the Am Yisroel would have huddled together in their homes with their parents and grandparents and discussed the news with a clear mind, a great many lessons could have been learned.

“Why is this happening?” they should have thought.

All of a sudden, Germany – a civilized country – is committing such barbarous acts against them? What’s it for?

They should have thought about and discussed it with the ziknei hador; the same way the Bnei Yisroel in Mitzrayim spent time thinking about what Hashem was doing, the German Jews could have done the same.

And page 15:

There still remained a small island, the Torah World – wonderful yeshivos.

But they were a tiny minority because they had already been abandoned by the people.

The heart of the people was already in the hands of the misleaders.

And these misleaders didn’t say, “Look at what Hitler is doing! It’s time to do teshuva.”

The Chofetz Chaim zichrono l’vracha said it; Rav Elchonon Wasserman said it, “Do teshuva,” but who listened to them?!

Rav Miller notes that the initial middah k'neged middah was obvious.

Germany forbade intermarriage.

(Just as a side point: As a young secular girl first learning about the Holocaust, I was confused as to why this decree was presented with such offense by Jews in Holocaust books and lectures. After all, I wondered, weren't Jews NOT supposed to marry non-Jews anyway? Yeah, I got the basic idea that the Germans weren't coming from a good place. Sure. But why were the Jews so offended? Weren't they against intermarriage anyway? That's what I wondered back then.)

Then Jews must add Hebrew names to their identity papers: "Israel" for boys and "Sara" for girls. This is highly symbolic and obvious if you know that one of the reasons why Hashem redeemed the Jews from Mitzrayim was because of they kept their Jewish names.

I had no idea about that when I first learned about the Holocaust. But it became obvious later.

Rav Miller continues along this vein until page 19, but I don't have the stomach to write about it anymore.

It's just that we really, really need to listen to our real talmidei chachamim. Our real Gedolim.

If we love ourselves and love each other, that's what we need to do.

(If you want to see the whole picture of that time period, it's very worth reading everything Rav Miller describes on pages 11-19. A lot is left out of this post.)

Just the Act of Trying Reaps So Much Reward!

The rest of the dvar Torah discusses examining our deeds.

Rav Miller also answers the complaint of "What, I need to drive myself crazy trying to think about what Hashem is hinting at when I bite my tongue or stub my toe?"

As Rav Miller reassures us on page 21:

If you’ll make use of the opportunity, even if you won’t guess the real reason, you still struck gold!

Let’s say you’ll blame yourself for something else that wasn’t the real reason – but at least in that one thing you’ll improve.

And that’s already a great hatzlacha.

All credit for quotes and material used within goes to Toras Avigdor.

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Rav Avigdor Miller on Parshat Shemot & The Importance of Desire

15/1/2020

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This week, we have Rav Miller speaking about Parshat Shemot: A Career of Aspirations.

He starts off by talking about Baby Moshe and the Nile River.

The Nile River eventually flows into the sea.

When the basket holding Moshe Rabbeinu was placed in the Nile, it should have kept on floating until that beautiful baby boy would've been lost at sea.

But instead, Paroh's daughter saved him.

She went into the Nile to cleanse herself of the wickedness of her father's home. Her maidservants pretended that they could not reach the basket. So even though the princess was too far away to save him, she reached out her hand anyway and Hashem miraculously extended her arm enough to grasp the basket.

And thus history was made.

The greatest Prophet to ever live and the savior of the Jewish people owes everything to this Egyptian princess.

Why did she do it? And why did she succeed?

It all came down to one word: ratzon.

Desire.

3 Things Happen When You Desire to be Good

Rav Miller notes that the root of ratzon is ratz – run.

If you really desire something, you run toward it.

Rav Miller says that when a person sets his heart on something, like to be a sincere & dedicated servant of Hashem, 3 things happen (pages 10-11):

1) He'll see opportunities that others don't see, opportunities he realizes he can utilize for his goal.
2) Certain processes develop in his mind, processes that enable him to understand & internalize the material better.
3) Hashem will help him get on the right path; Hashem will bring him mentors & friends who can help him.

Ironically, people can set their heart on being unhappy too, with similar results.

You Can be a Chafetz Chaim Too!

Once a person decides to be unhappy (though unhappy people do not see their choices as choices or decisions, rather they see their responses as results; they generally view themselves as victims), then the unhappy person gets led in that direction.

Rav Miller explains (page 11) how reading newspapers and listening to the radio incites indignation and fuels unhappiness, in addition to causing unwanted physical changes in the body due to all that stress and unhappiness.

Interestingly, he said all this before the advent of social media. His descriptions of the effects of physical and emotional effects of media are even truer today about tweets and posts than they were back then.

Rav Miller says you can have a pleasurable life if you do the following (page 14):

But you have to start out originally on this path: “My way in life is to love life.” And that’s the idea of being a chofetz chaim.

It says...Who is the one who desires life? [Mi ha'ish hechafetz chaim – Tehillim 34:13--MR]

You have to love life.

Chofetz chaim means that you desire it.

And so the first thing is to make up your mind that you are going to love life.

Decisions, Decisions...

Rav Miller notes how important this attitude is for life, including for marriage.

Decide that you really want to be good to your future spouse.

(He reassures us that we can also decide this even if we've already been married for 50 years.)

He recommends that you really desire to be good person, a good spouse, and that you desire to build a home like a Mikdash in miniature, and that you really desire to produce tzaddikim.

And it's implied that sincere desire emanates from sincere motivations.

You can't want children who act like tzaddikim just to impress your community or your family or reassure your ego.

You must want children who really are tzaddikim.

I believe this takes some fine-tuning to get down to our nitty-gritty motivations and polish ourselves so that our motivations emanate from the right place.

Nothing is guaranteed and we don't know what kind of soul-tikkunim we need in life that might prevent our desired outcome.

We might crave something with all our heart – something good! Something we believe Hashem wants too.

And we lose it. Or we never get it.

But a good ratzon is still a good start.

You'll never know what you can achieve until you try.

Stretch out that arm.

Quotes & dvar Torah all courtesy of Toras Avigdor.

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Rav Avigdor Miller on Parshat Vayechi: A Glimpse into What It Will Be Like at the Beginning of the Ingathering of the Exiles, Plus How to Identify with Your Fellow Jews & Ideas for Extra Kavanah in Shemoneh Esrei

10/1/2020

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In this week's dvar Torah by Rav Avigdor Miller, Parshat Vayechi: Becoming One People, he discusses how on Yaakov Avinu's deathbed, Yaakov Avinu notes how different each of his 12 sons are from one another.

Then Rav Miller cites Gemara Pesachim 56a, which mentions a man who went around saying, "I want to live along the coast."

He loved the seashore so much, he dreamed of building a home by the sea when he retired.

When they looked into why he loved the sea so much, they discovered this man descended from Zevulun, which was the sea-faring Tribe. Hashem ingrained within Bnei Zevulun a love for the ocean.

Another man went around saying, "Donu dini – Judge my case."

Whenever there was a disagreement between this man and another, he wasn't interested in arbitration or compromise; he wanted the straight-out verdict: Who's right? Who's wrong? And what must be done now?

He said "Donu dini" so often that they checked into his lineage and discovered what you probably already guessed: "Donu dini" descended from the Tribe of Dan.

Rav Miller explains about the inner make-up of Bnei Dan (pg. 4):

Dan was rigid; he liked to follow the strict line of the law.

There are people like that who are very strict with rules; they don’t like to deviate at all.

Even little children sometimes are born that way; it’s their nature to follow rules. Others, not so - they’re more flexible; they’re not such sticklers for din.

I really love reading about the innate character of different Shevatim (Tribes). I don't know exactly why; there's just something so geshmak about it.

Maybe because it validates the different traits we see and soars over petty differences.

Your family, society, or culture may see your individual personality traits as negative. But maybe your innate traits are perfectly fine (as long as they are being channeled positively).

Maybe you, with your particularly traits, are just as valuable as the people who look down on you.

Maybe Hashem WANTS people exactly like you in the world. (But again, there is still the issue of utilizing these traits for a beneficial purpose.)

For example, if you are more laid-back or compromising, you could see a Danite as uptight or rigid, but really, he is behaving exactly as he is programmed. Hashem WANTS him to be this way; that's his role.

Likewise, a Danite could see a more flexible or accommodating person as weak or compromised or less of a truth-seeker...but really, that person is exactly what Hashem wants him to be.

Devorah HaNeviah, who was a Naftalite, arbitrated disagreements under a palm tree in the area between Tiveria and Beit She'an. She engaged in mediation between struggling parties. That's very different than the "Donu dini" approach of Dan.

Yet both types are obviously highly valued by Hashem.

A Glimpse into What It will be Like When Mashiach First Comes

On page 5, Rav Miller offers us a glimpse of how things will look when Mashiach comes.

As we daven in Shemoneh Esrei "Taka b'shofar gadol l'cheruteinu – sound the great shofar for our freedom, our full independence," Rav Miller says there will be some great blast that will proclaim to the nations to liberate Am Yisrael from our subjugation.

We don't know exactly what that will sound like, but we'll all recognize it when it happens:

There’ll be great conferences in countries all over the world and the nations will come together to see what can be done to help facilitate the reestablishment of the Am Yisroel as a nation on its own land.
***
It’s a warning blast to the nations that the truth of Hashem Elokei Yisroel is on the march forward.

No more UN votes on whether to give us our independence in our Holy Land.

No more palavering about whether we belong here or not.

It will be self-evident that Jewish settlement in Eretz Yisrael absolutely must occur.

Furthermore, Rav Miller notes that entire communities will need to be transplanted within Eretz Yisrael.

And we will need a livelihood for every Jew. (Rav Miller refers to the Rambam, Hilchos Teshuvah 9:2).

We'll need homes built for everyone too.

In a nutshell:

There will be a great shofar blast that will somehow proclaim the obvious to the entire world.
The entire world will cooperate in the goal of facilitating the return of the entire Jewish People to Eretz Yisrael.
Entire communities will need to be transplanted.
Parnassah will need to be found for every family.
Homes will need to be built for every family.

Gather Us TOGETHER from the 4 Corners of the Earth

And this is the big challenge for which we pray every day, also in Shemoneh Esrei:
"Kabtzeinu b'yachad – Gather us together..."

We don't just plead to be gathered back to our Land, but we plead that it happen "b'yachad – together."

We are more disparate than ever. In addition to innate Tribal characteristics, just contemplate the difference between an upright Jewish family in Yemen right now and an upright Jewish family in Baltimore.

Maybe they're even both Asherites, but who could be more different?

At this point, you could have more in common with an Ashkenazi Shimonite from your hometown of Los Angeles than you could with your fellow Yissacharite who is a Bucharian from Uzbekistan.

Heck, we even have this today. A Kohen from Brooklyn might feel more comfortable with a Yisrael from Brooklyn than he is with a fellow Kohen from Tunisia.

So it's very important to beg Hashem that this much-anticipated Ingathering occurs with a strong feeling of togetherness.

Rav Miller on page 6:

The Teimanim should be together with the Sefardim.

And the Sefardim with the Ashkenazim, and the Williamsburgers with the Lakewooders.

We want everybody within those communities to get along with each other.

What is the Secret of Our Coming Together?

According to Rav Miller, this unity will not happen automatically; we will need to MAKE it happen.

(Until I read this, I really thought it would happen automatically. Always something new to learn, eh?)

Anyway, this is what Yaakov Avinu was so concerned about as he looked at his very different sons.

So when Yaakov Avinu cried out to Hashem, the brothers answered with Shema Yisrael.

As Rav Miller offers the brothers' solution on page 6:

There’s one Hashem who we’re all serving and that’s going to keep us together despite the differences in our nature.

Whatever differences you see, they are overwhelmed by the yachad, the togetherness that comes from of our serving the One Hashem.

Don't Be a Stranger

And once again (pages 8-9), Rav Miller waxes into his usual beautiful soliloquy of how important it is to identify with ALL Jews who are serving Hashem, regardless of their minhagim or ethnicity or style of clothing.

We must stop getting distracted by externals.

If a Jew is serving Hashem, you must do everything you can NOT to feel like he or she is a stranger.

Are we really so different from each other?

"No," says Rav Miller. "We're not strangers to anybody if they're loyal Jews."

He offers all sorts of advice for awakening that feeling of identification and unity.

A Jew who serves Hashem connects to Hashem in the same way you do.

You're serving Hashem TOGETHER, whether you feel it or not.

A Jew who serves Hashem is also connecting to our greatest spiritual giants throughout the generations, from Avraham & Sara Imeinu to Moshe Rabbeinu to Eliyahu HaNavi to Ezra HaSofer to the Sages of the Gemara to the Rambam and the Chafetz Chaim and the Baba Sali and, well...EVERYONE.

We're don't serve Hashem on their level, but there is a basic connection that bonds us: They kept Shabbat and we keep Shabbat.

Moshe Rabbeinu and Tzipporah had a kosher kitchen and you have a kosher kitchen.

It's a profound & unique connection worth investing in.

Look at the mezuzot, the tsniyut, the children coming out of Jewish schools, the men coming out of study halls, the women buying kosher food and wheeling baby carriages.

Rav Miller says (page 9) that we should walk through a neighborhood of religious Jews and think:

“I’m walking among my people. It’s my people and I love them. I don’t care what hat he wears or what group he belongs to; it’s all my people! These are the people in this world whom I identify with.”

Like Your Jewish Self by Learning More about Judaism

The more we learn about ourselves, the more we can live in that reality.

Rav Miller mentions that at one time, newspapers were a rarity, especially in the small towns.

Stam reading material wasn't so common either, so what did people have to read and talk about?

Parshat hashavua.

Rav Miller recalls a family recently arrived from Europe to Williamsburg. They weren't such learned people, but all they spoke about was Parshat Hashavua. Chumash. That's what they read, that's what they knew, so that's what they always spoke about.

How beautiful.

Actually, I have a friend whose grandmother was born into a wealthy Chassidic family in Poland in 1898. The father hired a private rebbi to teach his sons and her grandmother sat herself in the corner to listen and she learned too.

(And contrary to all the Jewish-feminist propaganda, no one objected. No one felt scandalized or appalled. It wasn't controversial. In fact, sometimes all her brothers ran out when they could sit no longer and the rebbi simply continued teaching her. A fully educated Jewish girl wasn't common, but it wasn't unheard of either.)

And what reading material could be found in a proper Chassidish home at the turn of the century? Not the deplorable Yiddish novels of that time!

They had seferim on halacha, Chassidus, mussar, mefarshim on Tanach, prayer books, and so on.

That's it.

So her mind grew accustomed to literature on that level. Holy literature. And it stayed with her for the rest of her life, enabling her to re-build her family after the agony of Auschwitz. She successfully countered the secular influence that tried to infiltrate her American grandchildren and ended up with admirably frum progeny.

Rav Miller recalls the long Torah lectures people used to listen to willingly.

Yes, people used to be very into this.

In the Ben Ish Chai's time, men, women, and children gathered to hear his long drashot.

In Rav Mutzafi's time, entire families (including the women and children) participated in a family reading of 5-10 chapters of Neviim & Ketuvim every Shabbat.

People LIKED it.

When you learn, you can think about how you are learning what Rav Ashi and the Rambam learned.

We're all connected.

Greatness of Soul Supersedes Even the Greatness of Intellect

Then Rav Miller says some of the radical things he's so loved for, like:

"We have to be proud of our great grandmothers who had more da’as, more emunah, than many gedolim of today. "

That's a very strong statement, which he derives from Rav Yeruchum Levovitz, the Mirrer mashgiach.

And back when Rav Miller said this, Gedolim like Rav Bentzion Abba Shaul and Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach and the Lubavitcher Rebbe were still alive.

Then Rav Miller recalls Josephus's description of the Roman torture of the Jews, and how the Jews refused to renounce their Judaism.

He emphasizes how these martyrs weren't the Gedolim; these were the regular Jewish folks.

"Your Rewards in the Next World Depend on Your Loyalty to Klal Yisroel."

Let's end with the following powerful idea on page 15:

It says: ! כל יִשְׂרָאֵל יֵשׁ לָהֶם חֵלֶק לְעוֹלָם הַבָא

["Kol Yisrael yesh lehem chelek l'Olam Haba – All of Israel has a portion in the World to Come."]

It doesn't say we're going to have individual Olam Habo.

It’s only because of Yisroel.

Hakodosh Boruch Hu is not going to give Olam Habo because of your good deeds – it’s only because you’re a member of Yisroel.

Your rewards in the next world depends on your loyalty to the Klal Yisroel, on how much you identify with Hashem’s people.

All credit for all quotes goes to Toras Avigdor.

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Rav Avigdor Miller on Parshat Vayigash & The Best Baggage We Can Bring with Us to the Next World

3/1/2020

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In Rav Avigdor Miller's dvar Torah Parshat Vayigash: Seeing the Secrets of the World, Rav Miller notes Yaakov Avinu's urgent desire to go see his son Yosef upon hearing that Yosef is still alive.

Why did Yaakov Avinu feel this way? That's the interesting question.

After all, the Avot & Imahot were not sentimental people. They were firmly grounded in emunah. Olam Haba wasn't merely an obscure idea; it was more real to them than This World.

They loved their children in the deepest way possible – but without getting sappy or sentimental about them. They knew that regardless of how little time they ended up spending with them in This World, they would spend eternity with their children and each other in the Next World.

Traveling also meant a long, grueling journey in ancient times – something particularly arduous for the older man Yaakov Avinu was by then.

So what was Yaakov's real motivation for seeing Yosef?

Why Even Emunah Peshutah Demands that You Should Go Out & Look

In a nutshell, Yaakov Avinu wanted to use his miraculous meeting with Yosef to increase his ahavat Hashem, his love of God.

(On pages 4-6, Rav Miller explains in detail and via compelling stories how that works.)

And this is a lesson to us, to really open our eyes and see Hashem's Hand in everything.

We can have emunah peshutah (simple faith) and still greatly benefit from looking at Hashem's World and actively noticing His Presence in it.

As Rav Miller explains on page 8:

Emunah peshutah is very good. It’s excellent if you have the emunah peshutah you were taught in your childhood – very good, very good! But it’s not good enough!

I once gave a mashal here.

Suppose Moshe Rabeinu announced to the Am Yisroel, “Let us all come now to Har Sinai to see Hashem come down on the mountain and give us the Torah.”

And here is one Jew who says, “I have emunah peshutah. I don't have to go. You go and tell me and I'll believe you. When you come back, tell me what happened and I'll be mekabel.”

Oh no! You're missing an opportunity. You have to come and see it for yourself!

ּאִלו ּ קֵרְבָנו לִפְנֵי הַר סִינַי וְלֹא נָתַן לָנו

Seeing something is altogether different. Just to be there and see with your own eyes gives you emunah.

So this frum Jew who has emunah peshutah, we say to him, “Nothing doing! You better go out into the world with open eyes and get a little more emunah than peshutah.”

And apparently, the Sha'ar HaBechinah (Gate of Examination) in Chovot Halevavot says that the best way to do this by studying Hashem's Creation.

What is the Best Baggage You Can Bring with You to The Next World?

If we pause to really look at the world around us, it increases our emunah.

On pages 9-11, Rav Miller explains how to do this with leaves.

On page 9, Rav Miller emphasizes:

“Everything in this world,” says the Rambam, “has within it חָכְמָה עֲמֻקה שֶׁאֵין לָהקֵץ – a deep wisdom with no end to its profundity."

Every natural object is full of the wisdom of Hashem with no end to it. And for what purpose?

It’s trying to show you something; it wants to make known to you the greatness of Hashem.

On pages 11- 15, Rav Miller explains how to do this with bakeries, fruit, fruit seeds, nature, and your own eyes.

On page 12, he even recalls the time he used an orange to respond to on person's demand that Rav Miller prove there's a God.

Let's end with a final quote from Rav Miller on page 15 (boldface mine):

When we come to the Next World we will be questioned, “What did you bring along with you? How much baggage did you bring from your stay in that world?”

And therefore our purpose in this world is to fill our lives with as much baggage as possible – and the best baggage you can bring along with you to Olam Habo is a mind that thought constantly about Hashem.

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Rav Avigdor Miller on Jews Falling in Love with Ourselves in Parshat Miketz

26/12/2019

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In Rav Avigdor Miller on Parshas Mikeitz – Chanukah 3 – Pride of Israel, Rav Miller first delves into the real story of Chanukah.

And the ugly truth about the story is that our real enemies were the same persecutors who joined the Reform Movement (and got the Malbim imprisoned on false charges) or the Communist Yevsektsia, both of whom made trouble for dedicated Jews with the non-Jewish authorities.

Today, we have terrorist-sympathizing Leftists, among others.

Back then, these troublemakers were known as mityavnim – those who became Greek, the Hellenizers.

Through their vocations (like tax collecting), they came in contact with the Greek elite, and then these mityavnim became upper-class elitists who scorned Torah ideals and strove to emulate the ideals of their surrounding society.

Yes, this has repeated itself several times, particularly in the past 200 years.

So Rav Miller emphasizes that all the tragedy and challenge of Chanukah started with Jews who fell in love with their surrounding non-Jewish society (including the aspects diametrically opposed by the Torah), and lost their heads.

Then he segues into the story of a Jew who could have been swallowed up by his non-Jewish surrounding society, but didn't allow that to happen:

Yosef Hatzaddik.

When "Nice!" Means "The End"

Upon his release from lengthy imprisonment underground, Yosef Hatzaddik was made into one of the most powerful people in Egypt.

And back then, Egypt was a vast & powerful empire, plus it was the leader in ancient hi-tech.

And Yosef Hatzaddik was second only to Paroh (Pharaoh) at the top of this incredible empire.

From both Egyptian royalty and the masses, Yosef received accolades, honor, glory, and all the material benefits available at that time.

Yet he remained Yosef ben Yaakov Avinu.

Rav Miller points out how the allure of a nice non-Jewish culture is ironically what destroyed the Jewish people via assimilation.

He gives examples from America (page 8) and from Germany (page 9).

Rav Miller recalls his visit to Germany just before yemach shemo took over in 1933.

Though Rav Miller was identifiably Jewish, an older German professor rushed over to help the young Rav Miller lift his suitcase on the train.

Such humility and a sincere desire to do chessed! What could go wrong?

Rav Miller recalls a country with no violence, a country that was so clean & law-abiding that no one even littered the streets. Even as a Jew, you could get an education, even a doctorate (as one former yeshivah bachur did, Rav Miller recalls).

Jews loved visiting pre-WWII Germany, a bastion of modernity & progress.

And look what happened in the end.

On page 10, Rav Miller exhorts:

“Don’t make any mistake about it,” Hashem was telling us. “It’s all shav v’sheker!” Like the medrash says: Eisav – what does Eisav mean?

הוי שוא
– How false he is!

How false is the gentile culture! How false are their ideals and attitudes!

How false they themselves are!

And not only Germany – everywhere!

No Inferiority Complex?

Rav Miller reminds us how many Jews got lost in America, Canada, England, and France.

Where are the Jews who came to American in the mid-1800s? Why don't we hear about them?

Why are so many of the Jews we know today only 2nd- or 3rd-generation Americans?

Vast amounts of Jews came to America over a century ago. Where are they now? Where are their descendants?

Rav Miller explains that traditionally, Jews didn't have an inferiority complex.

They had fear of their non-Jewish countrymen.

Jews only knew of rabble-rousing when the rabble came pouring into their neighborhoods to make violent trouble.

So the Jews had fear, but no feelings of inferiority.

Why Do Some Jews Hate Themselves More Than Non-Jews Hate Them?

But when Jews enter into non-Jewish society, they read and hear what that society thinks about them.

And suddenly, the Jew feels bad about himself.

Rav Miller explains why a Jew sometimes hates himself more than non-Jews hate him:

Non-Jews, even those who don't really like Jews, have other things to do. They have other things to think about.

But a Jew influenced by non-Jewish culture?

Rav Miller explains:

But the Jew who has now learned gentile attitudes is living with himself always – he can’t escape it and so he learns to despise himself, to hate his own people.

It's so true.

Why is covering hair such a big nisayon for many Jewish women today?

Why is tsniyut (dressing & behaving with dignity) being bulldozed, with short skirts entering even the most insular communities (though not all of them, baruch Hashem)?

Who says that long clothing and wrapping up your hair is oppressive?

In many cultures throughout history, women covered their hair.

Outside of primitive cultures, women dressed tsniusly.

Today, even the most tsnius woman is not wearing as many layers or wearing the sheer lengths that chassidish men wear.

Some women go on diatribes against sheitels or hair-scarves.

But what about the chassidish men who wear a velvet kippah AND a fur shtreimel in the middle of summer in suffocatingly humid New York or the desert of Arad?

Who's head-covering is more oppressive and more uncomfortable?

Yet who's complaining?

It's all attitudes from non-Jewish society.

Look at how even the most ultra-Orthodox Jews need to tiptoe around toeva, making sure that even in their rejection of the worst parts of it, they don't sound too judgmental.

If you journey throughout history, someone somewhere is always nitpicking at Judaism for one reason or another.

They polytheist cultures didn't like the exclusionism of One God.

Ancient Egyptians, who worshiped sheep, didn't like the Jewish practices of sheep-herding and dinners of grilled lamb chops.

One Roman elitist criticized Jews for being too nice to slaves.

Greeks considered Jewish tsniyut (for both men & women) odd & backwards. They wanted to celebrate the human body by putting it on display. They took this so far, they considered brit milah a type of mutilation.

In fact, some Greek thinkers even considered the lack of idols and human statues in the Beit Hamikdash as "barbaric" and displaying a hatred of fellow humans. Weird, right?

Later, Jews were despised for killing a "god." (Yeah, talk about irrational contradictions.)

I was confronted with this accusation during Home Ec class in 7th grade. It was terrifying because I knew that no one would be on my side, what with blonde blue-eyed Tina insisting, "My pastor says that the Jews killed Jesus, not the Romans!"

Most of my classmates attended church, and respected the words of a pastor.

So I felt it was me against over 20 others.

Fortunately, a black friend of mine named Valerye came to my defense, passionately asserting her pastor said it was indeed the Romans.

Phew!

Anyway, the list goes on.

Rav Miller notes that even observant Jews look at fellow frummies through the eyes of non-Jewish values.

They don't see all the mitzvot being performed in frum homes; they see only the aspects criticized by their surrounding society.

But back to Yosef Hatzaddik...

Self-Love, Chanukah-Style

Yosef Hatzaddik didn't find lamb chops repulsive even though he'd been immersed for years in a society that worshiped sheep.

He also kept his brothers away from Egyptian influence even when they were in Egypt.

Yosef Hatzaddik loved Hashem. He loved Am Yisrael, even when it was hardly an Am.

And that's the real message in Chanukah (page 17):

And Chanukah tells us that great lesson, that beauty is only by us!

We always have to be on guard not to look for beauty and culture and perfection outside of our people.

You have to fall in love with the Am Yisroel – that’s what Chanukah is telling us, that we have to fall in love with ourselves

Rav Miller's Great Passion

This is one of Rav Miller's big passions:

He kept praising frum Jews.

Yes, we all know there are bad ones. He knows it too; he mentioned them occasionally.

Frankly, I think this was his way of preventing another Shoah.

That's why he was so passionate about seeing fellow frummies in a positive light.

He vehemently opposed putting down other groups that were uncompromisingly shomer Torah & mitzvot, even when he didn't personally subscribe to their hashkafah. He only praised them no matter what.

He wanted Jews to burst with love for Hashem and each other and the Torah's mitzvot.

He wanted Jews to serve Hashem with happy hearts.

This is what prevents Jew-hatred.

This is what hastens and sweetens the Geula.

Seeing ourselves, our Torah, and our God through positive eyes is the secret to Jewish survival.

Credit for all quotes goes to the wonderful Toras Avigdor.

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Save Your Eternity by Maintaining Your Equilibrium: Rav Avigdor Miller on Parshat Vayishlach

11/12/2019

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In Rav Avigdor Miller's dvar Torah Parshat Vayishlach: The Disturbed Wicked, we see that Esav is running away.

That's funny, because initially, it was Yaakov Avinu who needed to run for his life.

And Yaakov really needed to. But Esav did not need to. No one was pursuing him.

The Midrash quotes Mishlei 28:1, that an evil person flees even when there is no one in pursuit.

Esav meets up with Yaakov Avinu, his twin brother who has merited success beyond Esav's wildest dreams.

Even though Yaakov met him with great diplomacy and insight, which mollified Esav to some extent, Esav still came away from their meeting suffering confusion and resentment.

Rav Miller points out that Esav was a Jew. (This is when you could still opt out of Judaism.) He had a brit milah, he'd been taught Jewish values by the greatest people on Earth. He could've stayed with the family, despite the firstborn rights being taken from him.

The Shechinah rested on this family. It was a tremendous & holy family. Yes, Esav could no longer have been the leader of this family, but isn't being an important part of such a family, of such Nation-building, enough?

Had Esav remained, his descendants could have stood at Har Sinai to receive the Torah, says Rav Miller. Tannaim and other great Sages could have descended from Esav.

Esav would have had a part in the inheritance of Eretz Yisrael.

But he left everything behind.

No one chased him away.

But he still left.

Shevet Esav? It Could Have Been, If Only...

Rav Miller explained that Esav capitulated to one of the strongest yetzer haras: the yetzer hara of getting flustered, of losing your equilibrium...and running away.

On pages 7-8, Rav Miller explains the various letter combinations of the word rasha (רשע) and how it all points to the agitation that bad people often feel. They don't enjoy yishuv hadaat, they don't enjoy menuchat hanefesh, or any of the other positive mental & emotional states that come from emuna & bitachon.

Esav could've chosen the path of Aharon HaCohen, who generously allowed his younger brother, Moshe Rabbeinu, to take the lead. If that's what Hashem wanted, then that's what Aharon HaCohen wanted too.

What was good enough for God was good enough for him too.

Rav Miller quotes the Chovot Halevavot (Duties of the Heart), which states that if you want to be a truly good person, if you want to be a real eved Hashem, then you must develop peace of mind.

On page 9, we glean some solid life advice from Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) 10:4:

If you're suddenly thrown into confusion, don't do anything; just stay where you are.

Don't upset your equilibrium any more than it has already.

Keep on going with your life.

Continue to get up in the morning and daven, go to work or yeshivah or prepare breakfast or all the good things you normally do as part of your routine and your responsibilities.

Keep on observing Torah & mitzvot.

Don't let go.

Eventually, the upset will pass – and YOU will remain.

Don't Let Despair Incite You into Becoming a Big Rasha

On page 10, Rav Miller relates the true story of someone who lost his equilibrium in an understandably difficult situation, and as a result, lost his wife & children too.

Rav Miller notes that at various steps along the way, the person could've traced his steps back with no harm (or very little harm) done.

But this person didn't and so he lost out.

Rav Miller uses this to emphasize that even if you do leave your place, so to speak, don't be too embarrassed to come back.

In other words, don't stay down for the count. Get back up again.

Again, Rav Miller quotes Kohelet (7:17): "Don't be a big rasha."

Even being a little rasha is certainly forbidden; even small sins are wrong.

But don't let your small sins upset your equilibrium so much that you throw caution to the winds, decide that nothing matters anymore, and become a big rasha.

Planting the Seeds of Soul-Perfection 5 Minutes at a Time

Rav Miller encourages us that if we read the right books, listen to the right lectures, and work on ourselves enough, we can train ourselves to respond to life with menuchat hanefesh, with an unruffled soul.

On page 13, he tells us how we should generally handle bigoted bums, and reminds us of the infamous story of the young Jewish counselor who responded boldly to a couple of Jew-haters...who then proceeded to beat in his skull, yet got off with just a slap on the hand.

There, Rav Miller always tells of the time he was blocked by 4 weasels on the sidewalk. He also tells how women can protect themselves too.

Then he gives the example of how a man coming home should be prepared for anything, even a pail of bilge water dumped onto his head (so to speak).

At first, the man can only hold a pleasant countenance for 5 minutes before he gets caught up in the stress of the situation.

But he starts with 5 minutes and eventually, those 5 minutes expand into 5 hours.

(With working women nowadays, this could apply to them too. But as far as I know, working women do not come home expecting a warm welcome and things being done for them, like a warm dinner waiting and a clean home – unless of course, she is paying a nanny and a housekeeper and a cook to do these things for her. But how many are doing that? Hardly anyone.)

Rav Miller also gives the example of a woman who, upon meeting up with her husband at home, can mentally decide to give her husband some quiet. Maybe she wants to chat or complain or attack, but instead she restrains herself and gives him that quiet space. Maybe she can even empathize with him in her mind.

Rav Miller states that when people (either the husband or wife or both) do the above, "they are planting the seeds of perfection in their soul."

It may not feel like that, especially at first, when you might just be feeling repressed and seething inside with a fake outside.

But really, regardless of how it feels, you really are planting the seeds of perfection in your soul.

The Special Segulah Ring

Apparently, Shlomo Hamelech requested a golden ring he could look at whenever he got flustered or upset. Someone created such a ring for him with the letters ג ז י – Gam Zeh Ya'avor, This Too Shall Pass.

(The gold itself will eventually pass on too. As they say, you can't take it with you.)

Someone made such a ring for Rav Miller and he always kept it.

My youngest sister-in-law always says with a laugh, "Everything passes. Whether it's good or bad, it all passes!"

I love this idea.

It means that when things are good, you should really appreciate those times because they'll pass.

But take comfort in the bad times – because those too will pass!

(Now I want to get myself a ring like that...)

Who Ends Up Outlasting It All?

On pages 17-18, Rav Miller discusses the difference between healthy fear and unhealthy fear.

And we, the descendants of the ish tam, the brother with perfect character, are still here to tell the story. Yaakov’s children are still around because we are the nation that doesn’t lose its peace of mind.

We don’t move away from our ideals and we calmly make our way through life by means of utilizing our seichel. That’s why we’re still around and it looks like we’ll be here for a long time.

Like Yeshaya Hanavi said, we’re the Am Olam, the everlasting nation.

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Were You Ever Despised or Treated as Inferior? Then You Need to Read Rav Avigdor Miller's Dvar Torah for Parshat Vayetzei

5/12/2019

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Dear Readers, this week's dvar Torah contains AMAZING chizuk & inspiration, including information you may never have heard before.

If you've ever felt:

not good enough
downtrodden
rejected
despised
pushed aside
inferior in comparison to others (especially within your family)
not as "blessed" (i.e. you were never the Golden Girl/Boy and certainly never had a snowball's chance in heck of becoming one) as others in your family, school, or community...

..then this is the dvar Torah for YOU.

Hold on tight, because Rav Miller takes us on a whirlwind ride this week...

Where are All the Reuvenim?

In Parshas Vayeitzei 3 – The Afflicted Righteous, Rav Avigdor Miller discusses a very intriguing core idea within Torah.

Originally, Rachel Imeinu was supposed to have been the primary mother of the Jewish people. Yaakov Avinu saw via Nevuah (Prophecy) that she was his true zivug and the primary mother of Am Yisrael.

And to be sure, Rachel Imeinu holds a revered position among us to this day.

But ultimately, Leah Imeinu merited to be the primary mother – and she's also the woman from whom Mashiach descends.

As Rav Miller notes we aren't called Reuvenim or Shimonim (Leah Imeinu's first 2 sons).

We are called Yehudim, after Yehudah, the 4th son of Leah Imeinu & Yaakov Avinu.

It's very interesting, if you think about it.

We aren't even called after Leah Imeinu's firstborn, Reuven.

And even though Rachel Imeinu's firstborn Yosef Hatzaddik is renowned for his tremendous gevurah in the face of some of the worst trials, and that to this day, all Jewish boys are blessed to be like Yosef Hatzaddik's sons, Menashe & Efrayim, we are not called Menashe'im or Efrayimim.

We are Yehudim. (Wouldn't the refrain of that popular song, ki ani Yehudi, sound funny if it was ki ani Menashe'i?)

But why was the pre-destiny switched?

Leah wasn't Actually Hated. So What Does It All Mean?

The Torah makes an explicit connection between Leah's suffering and her fertility.

The parshah states (Beresheit 29:31): "And Hashem saw that Leah was hated, so He opened up her womb and gave her children."

Except that Leah wasn't hated.

Yaakov Avinu couldn't possibly "hate" Leah.

Part of the proof is verse 30: "And he loved also Rachel more than Leah."

"Also...more than" implies that Yaakov Avinu loved Leah, but he simply loved Rachel Imeinu more.

Rav Miller emphasizes that Yaakov Avinu absolutely fulfilled the dictum of our Sages, to love his wife as himself.

So he loved both Rachel & Leah as himself!

But he just loved Rachel even more.

So as much honor & affection as Yaakov Avinu showered upon Leah Imeinu, everyone know (just as everyone knows now) that she wasn't originally meant for him and that's not who he originally agreed to work for 7 years.

And both Rav Miller & Rav Shimon Gruen's wonderful weekly newsletter on the parsha emphasize that Yaakov Avinu was not angry with Leah and did not confront her, but confronted her father Lavan, who was the real snake behind the deception. Applying this lesson to real life? Go easy on your spouse, especially when he or she does something that really isn't his or her fault.

So Leah lived with this knowledge that she was the fifth wheel.

Even when Yaakov Avinu went to meet Esav, he kept Rachel Imeinu and her children the more protected part of the configuration. He also protected Leah Imeinu and her offspring, but circumstances forced him to grant the added protection to Rachel Imeinu.

And this was a very public configuration, to boot.

So this was the position Leah was always in and she knew it would never & could never change.

And because of this, Leah was always weeping and talking to Hashem.

The Secret to Greatness: Choose HOW to Respond to Your Suffering

Rav Miller notes that the Gemara shows Leah Imeinu as a very wise young woman.

So how did Leah Imeinu respond to her understandably painful & irremediable situation?

Leah Imeinu decided to dedicated her entire purpose to building Am Yisrael.

Rav Miller emphasizes that this is the proper response to any encumbrance: COMPENSATE.

Don't just complain & sulk. Don't get depressed or look for distractions and escapes.

Compensate!

How can you make the spiritual best of the situation?

How can you, like Leah Imeinu, use the pain of your situation for spiritual growth?

Page 9 (boldface mine):

It’s not merely the fact that Leah suffered so much that caused her to become the mother of the Am Yisroel. It was how she reacted to her suffering!

Why being "Chosen" is No Guarantee

As much as Rachel Imeinu also davened and strove to attain character perfection, circumstances impelled Leah Imeinu to daven even more & strive even more.

Had situations been reversed, Rachel Imeinu would've been the one to daven more & strive harder.

But she wasn't.

Leah found herself in the more agonizing position.

Page 9:

And that’s why Hakadosh Baruch Hu rewarded her, because actually she attained a bigger perfection than Rochel.

This is a tremendous secret to success.

Rav Miller goes on to make the mind-boggling point that this doesn't mean that Leah was better. In a sense, he says, Rachel was always better; Rachel was The Chosen One!

Because Leah wasn't The Chosen One, she needed to work harder.

And eventually, this tremendous inner investment earned her a tremendous place in the eternity of the Jewish people, in eternity as a whole.

In fact, despite Rachel Imeinu being the authentic zivug of Yaakov Avinu, it is Leah Imeinu who is buried next to him.

History Replays Itself Again between the Descendants of Leah Imeinu & the Descendants of Rachel Imeinu

Now Rav Miller brings up a point I'd never considered: the saga of Shaul Hamelech (King Saul) & David Hamelech (King David).

And look at how history replayed itself.

Shaul Hamelech is a descendant of Binyamin – Rachel Imeinu's youngest son.

According to his innate nature, Shaul was a better person than David Hamelech (who was the descendant of Yehudah, Leah Imeinu's 4th son). The Gemara says Shaul was a perfect tzaddik.

Who was supposed to head the royal line of the Jewish people?

Who was supposed to build the Beit Hamikdash?

Who was supposed to produce Mashiach?

Shaul from Shevet Binyamin!

"Shaul bechir Hashem – Shaul is the chosen of Hashem" (Shmuel II:21:6). Even the Bat Kol said it!

Shaul possessed exemplary character & lineage, and was exceptionally tall & handsome (quite different than the ruddy redhead of questionable birth born under Mars that David was).

But then Hashem decided that Shaul needed to be usurped by David (who also composed our beloved Tehillim).

Why?

Hashem Values the Humbled Person Who Works Harder

Hashem wants us to learn a tremendous lesson:

Hashem chooses the lesser one, the overlooked one. (The Kli Yakar also notes this several times throughout his commentary.)

The smaller mountain, Har Sinai, was chosen as the place to receive the Torah.

Gidon was the youngest of the smallest family of the smallest Tribe at a time when Am Yisrael was under the thumb of Midyan.

The one who looks least important, least impressive, and so is forced to strive the most – that is who ends up at the top.

This is literally all over Tanach, and even stated outright at times, especially throughout Mishlei/Proverbs.

Avraham Avinu grew up in a terrible environment, as did Moshe Rabbeinu.

Think about it.

Rav Miller notes that in Ur Kasdim, Avraham Avinu was the hated one because of his rejection of polytheistic occultism.

Moshe Rabbeinu was hated; he even needed to run for his life at one point. Later, he wasn't loved by the people as much as his brother Aharon HaCohen.

David was despised by much of his family until Shmuel Hanavi came to anoint him as king.

Chana, the mother of Shmuel Hanavi, felt very put upon by her co-wife, Penina. It's logical to assume that in the eyes of the community, people pitied Chana: "Oh, look. Poor Chana. She's such a lovely person, but she can't have children and so her husband needed to marry another woman, and she's producing one child after another while Chana still remains barren. Poor dear."

And before all that, you had Noach who was mocked and denigrated by his generation when he started building the ark – yet it was Noach who survived and earned the right to repopulate the planet.

(Please also note that sometimes, their pain & humiliation was very public, and not just within the private realm.)

Much later in the times of the Gemara, look at how belittled Rebbi Akiva initially was.

In recent generations, look at how many truly great tzaddikim were locked up in prison on false charges – hated for sure by many people, but profoundly loved by Hashem.

Rav Miller notes that many of our greatest works were written in Exile (pg. 12):

...all these seforim were born out of the needs of the time, out of battle.

It’s only the necessities of battle against the difficult environment that created these great men and great works.

And How Does Exile Refine Us?

Rav Miller stresses that while David Hamelech would've turned out very well no matter what, his extra suffering forced him to catapult all the way up to a state he originally wasn't meant to reach.

And so we in Am Yisrael must also realize that this is the way to our own spiritual perfection (page 13):

Hakodosh Boruch Hu says openly, “I loved you of all the nations, that’s why I visit upon you all of your sins” (Amos 3:2).

It means, “That’s why I’m giving you this treatment of being s’nuah [hated] in this world. It’s because I love you more than all the nations and I want you to struggle to achieve perfection.”

And this is the reason why the Jewish nation is the highest in morality of all the people.

I’m not talking about the Jews who are so in name only.

We’re talking about true Jews.

There is nobody in the world and there never was who could even remotely compete with us in morality.

Speaking of true Jews vs. Jews in name only...

Is this one reason why, at the End of Days, the Erev Rav take over?

Is this why the Erev Rav are on top while the regular real Jews struggle under their thumb?

We know who the real victors will be in the end.

Prudently, Rav Miller also warns us against looking at America's old pilgrims, or nuns & priests, or Buddhist monks, Lamas, or seemingly nice non-Jewish religious groups as comparable to the average Jew of yore.

Yes, they certainly look good. A tiny minority have even been truly heroic in saving Jewish lives. But as he notes, if you see them from up close, a different picture begins to take shape.

The real way to spiritual achievement is to struggle against Galut, both the general and the personal Exile.

"He was on the bottom of the pile, he was the s’nuah [hated one], and that’s why he came out on top."

On pages 14-16, Rav Miller describes the stories of 2 boys he personally knew, one born into a good Torah home and one not. And he also describes a very big rav who needed to make himself great because he was not from a great home.

And once again, the same dynamic plays out.

Rav Miller also addresses the well-known phenomenon of people who did not grow up frum mourning over their lack of Torah background. "And rightfully so," says the rav.

However...

He also notes that many people raised without Torah would not have become as great if they had been raised in a Torah environment.

You see converts & baalei teshuvah on fire, and even after the fire dwindles, you still see many of them struggling and striving.

And then you see FFBs going by rote.

But even among FFBs, you see those who struggle to overcome the "by rote," to overcome whatever was not so Torahdik in their upbringing.

Some of the FFBs I've met with the best middot are those who were raised by a father who seemed very important outside the home (not one of the Gadolei Hador, but merely a chashuv guy), yet was really kind of a jerk at home to his wife & children — even a bad-tempered tyrant.

Rather than flying off the derech, their father's hypocrisy forced them to dig for the real Judaism, to embrace truly good middot and not just the facade of good middot.

It's not so socially acceptable to say this (one side dislikes hearing that a rabbi can be a jerk, while the other side dislikes hearing that suffering children can actually turn out well despite everything), but I think it's an important point to make: Regardless of your upbringing & environment, you can overcome the natural set outcome by sheer will.

(Yes, it all comes back to ratzon – desire.)

On pages 17-18, Rav Miller offers brief examples of wives and students in difficult circumstances and what they can do to use these unhappy circumstances to their advantage.

Rabbi Zechariah Wallerstein has spoken of a girl in his school who was diagnosed as hopeless by the New York Board of Education (the top "experts," the "builders" of education), and even told she had a bit of Down Syndrome (which means that she is defective at the chromosomal level).

Yet she overcome it all and ended up excelling academically.

The "experts" were wrong.

We have the famous verse Tehillim/Psalm 118:22, which is recited in Hallel:

"Even ma'asu habonim hayatah l'rosh pinah" – The cornerstone despised by the builders, despised by the experts, THAT is the one which will merit to be the cornerstone of the most exalted building to ever exist.

If you were never despised, if you were never the sanuah, then you actually have no chance of becoming a cornerstone.

As always credit for all quotes and for the dvar Torah itself go to Toras Avigdor.

Image courtesy of James DeMers at Pixabay.
Image design courtesy of PosterMyWall.

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Rav Avigdor Miller on Parshat Chayei Sara: Sara's Tent as the Prototype for the Beit HaMikdash

22/11/2019

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(B'ezrat Hashem, any limud or positive acts from this post should please go as a zechut for the complete & speedy recovery of Menachem Mendel Shlomo ben Chaya Rochel.)

In Rav Avigdor Miller's dvar Torah on Parshas Chayei Sarah 3 – Sanctuary of Sarah, we learn that Sara Imeinu's home was the greatest home in history.

Like the Kli Yakar, Rav Miller compares Sara Imeinu's home to the home of the Mikdash.

And her passing was like the Churban (Destruction).

Rav Miller states that the first Churban in Jewish history was actually Sara's passing.

While we tend to think of the Giving of the Torah as our Nation's monumental event (and it was indeed), Rav Miller explains that our founding Fathers & Mothers were the magnificent part of our history.

The Shechinah dwelt in their homes.

It's amazing. What was in the Kodesh Kadoshim (Holy of Holies) in the Beit Hamikdash was actually in the homes of our Avot & Imahot.

When they passed on, the Shechinah went into Exile.

What Were Avraham & Sara like as Chatan & Kallah?

Rav Miller describes what the beginning of the marriage must have been like.

Initially, Avraham Avinu was Sara Imeinu's teacher (they had a 10-year age difference & people married young back then), so he showed her all he had learned about his own observations of the world, observations that gained him tremendous TRUE knowledge because "he saw better than any professors will ever see."

And Sara Imeinu soaked it all in.

On page 5, Rav Miller describes what Sara's own study of the world must have been like.

Sara started off as the brilliant student of her husband, then she rose to great heights on her own, eventually achieving nevuah that surpassed even that of her holy husband.

A Truly Fun Home

On page 7, Rav Miller describes the great challenge of perceiving Sara Imeinu's home:

Now as much as I’m going to tell you, you must know that it is not going to approximate what the greatness of that house was.

I’m like an ant looking up at a tremendous mountain trying to describe what’s high up on the summit.

I’m not capable of fully understanding the greatness of Sarah’s tent.

It’s like a blind man speaking of the glory of the sunlight — we never saw it and we have no idea about the splendor that prevailed in that house.

Let's consider this for a moment.

Rav Miller acknowledges that we generally consider Avraham Avinu the builder of our Nation. He was the one out there doing things.

And indeed, he was a tzaddik beyond our imagination.

However, who built the Beit HaMikdash?

Sara Imeinu. In her tent.

When they slaughtered meat, they were like the Kohanim performing korbanot.

When they ate, it was like they were eating offerings from the mizbeyach.

Sara Imeinu's challot were the prototype of the Lechem Panim in the Beit HaMikdash.

Rav Miller goes on to say (pg. 8):

All their thoughts and all their deeds were devoted to the ideal that Hashem is in our house.

That’s what made it a beis hamikdash — the kedusha, the Awareness of Hashem, was so dense that it constantly impinged on their awareness in everything they did.

Now don’t think that a Jewish home is lacking cheer and fun.

Avraham and Sarah lived very happy lives. They had more fun in their home than we have – much more.

Why was Yishmael's Laughter So Bad?

And now we can understand the problem with Yishmael's laughter.

Rav Miller acknowledges what the mefarshim say about the symbolism of Yishmael's laughter.

But Rav Miller says that just the plain meaning, that Yishmael was laughing & jesting in such a holy home – the same as clowning around in the Beit HaMikdash on Yom Kippur – just the laughter on its own was absolutely appalling.

What's the Secret to Keeping House like Sara Imeinu?

Interestingly, despite the fact that Sara & Avraham were extremely wealthy with hundreds of servants, Sara Imeinu performed most of the housework herself.

And what's the secret to housekeeping like Sara Imeinu?

It's on page 11:

Every chore that people do in that house, if it’s a frum house and they do it l’shem Shamayim, that’s the ingredient – l’shem Shamayim, then they’re building something that’ll last forever.

Then Rav Miller says even more radical things (radical to our ears, anyway):

When a mother is putting clothing into the washer she’s thinking, “I want to maintain a frum Jewish house because Hakodosh Boruch Hu gave me this function. I don’t have to work in an office. I won't run for elections to be a city councilwoman – it’s a waste of my life. Right here is the place where I achieve.”

And children!

“The more children that I can have, the bigger the achievement.”

A woman like that is building a Beis Hamikdash – she is emulating the avodas Hashem that made Sarah into Sarah Imeinu.

Rav Miller acknowledges that the term "l'shem SHamayim" is bandied about so much nowadays that it has lost its meaning for us.

So he emphasizes that l'shem Shamayim means "with the awareness of Shamayim."

Everything Avraham Avinu & Sara Imeinu did, it was with this awareness.

People talk about "mindfulness" a lot nowadays, and an awareness of Shamayim is the real mindfulness we are supposed to cultivate.

The Old Treasure in the Home

On pages 12-13, Rav Miller goes into vivid detail of the baby-steps we can take to add to our lives more kavanah l'shem Shamayim.

He also mentions a pithy proverb from Gemara Erechim 19b:

"Saba b'veita – pacha b'beita."

"An old man in the house is a calamity in the house."

Retired men belong in kollel, says Rav Miller, not being a nuisance to his wife in the home all day.

It's such an interesting 2000-year-old observation because we see in our times how shalom bayit often disintegrates when a husband retires. So many women complain of a retired husband who spends his time nitpicking at how she runs the home, criticizing how things are organized, and kvetching.

Get thee to a kollel!

Then Rav Miller quotes the same Gemara:

"Savta b'veita – sima b'veita."

"An old woman in the house is a treasure in the house."

A man is a treasure in yeshivah.

A woman is a treasure in the home.

Rav Miller explains how women grow wiser as they grow older. They dispense wisdom & chessed.

Yes, I see in the Yerushalmi communities how dedicated older mothers are to their grandchildren & adult children.

For example, when a daughter gives birth before Pesach, Yerushalmi mothers invite the entire family (all those little darlings!) for the entire week of Pesach.

It is tremendous work to host small children and take care of a yoledet, all the more so over Pesach and often with their own children still at home and more guests coming. But they do it so willingly!

I really look up to them.

And their wisdom is a real treasure too.

My husband and I still turn to his mother for health remedies & advice, plus a little bit of dream interpretation. (Her own mother was a kosher dream interpreter in Morocco.)

Although sometimes, the dreams go a bit too far – like when my mother-in-law's long-dead brother came to her in a dream after yet another son was born to us and requested that we name this son after him because none of his secular children had done so.

So we did. It's hard to say no to the dead. Chessed shel emet and all that. Do the dead favors, even though they'll never be able to pay you back. It's a big mitzvah.

Anyway...

Among frum women in general, I've seen how grandmothers develop patience they lacked in their younger years.

I've seen how supportive & discreet & sensitive they are with their children struggling with their own children – struggles these older women didn't necessarily have to deal with in their child-rearing years, but have become all too common now.

Society considers older women crones and old-fashioned and no longer useful or beautiful.

But Judaism declares: sima – She's a treasure!

Reaching Back to the Original Nature & Nurture

On page 14, Rav Miller goes into a brief yet lovely exposition of Eishet Chayil (A Woman of Valor).

Ultimately, Avraham Avinu & Sara Imeinu are the prototype for us.

No matter what home we grew up in or what background we came from, our real nurturing comes from this first Jewish couple.

A convert is referred to as the son or daughter of Avraham Avinu & Sara Imeinu.

We need to stretch back further than our immediate family & background to reach it.

It's there, it's accessible, but we need to cultivate an awareness that it's possible.

Let's wrap up on Rav Miller's final note (pg. 15):

It’s beyond our sight; it towers beyond our range of vision how great we could become – but every person who begins the career of building a home has the right, the obligation, to build that home on the same foundation that Avraham and Sarah laid down for their home.

And that’s the foundation of the greatest possible loyalty to Hakodosh Boruch Hu and the greatest possible dedication to the ideal of making the very best home that they could make.

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The Kli Yakar on Sara Imeinu in Parshat Chayei Sara: Her Wisdom & Deeds Elevated Her to become the Exalted Princess of The Entire World

21/11/2019

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The Beit HaMikdash was the Home of Holiness, and Sara Imeinu's home was also a home of holiness, a place of unsurpassed sanctity in the world at that time.

In Beresheit 23:2, the Kli Yakar says that while Avraham Avinu eulogized her, he initially:

"...did not weep over her because he knew that she had ascended to the Heavenly Apex [Marom], to a place precious and honorable beyond where she had been in this land of darkness."

Please note that the Kli Yakar says that Avraham Avinu knew [yada]. He did not believe or think or assume Sara Imeinu had risen to the heights of Heavenly Bliss.

Avraham Avinu KNEW it.

Then the Kli Yakar expounds:

And then afterward, he wept over the Beit HaMikdash that was destroyed in his days just like the angels of peace [malachei hashalom] wept over our Destruction...the weeping was over that which seemed to him as the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed in his days.

(According to footnote #31 in this parshah in Elihu Levine's fantastic translation of the Kli Yakar, the Metzudat David on Yeshayahu 33:7 interprets "malachei hashalom" as "messengers of peace," referring to those who were sent to bring tidings of peace to Yerushalayim, yet ended up weeping over the Destruction.)

So...

Sara = Beit Hamikdash

Sara's passing = The Destruction of the Holy Temple

That's a very powerful equation!

Think about everything the Churban (Destruction) meant:

the cessation of the atoning korbanot
no more miraculously protective Ketoret
the end of the unimaginable joy of Simchat Beit HaSho'evah
an end to the soul-stirring music of the Levi'im
an end to the beautiful & holy service of the Kohanim
a withdrawing of tangible closeness to Hashem
the shattering of its astounding splendor...

Sara Imeinu's passing was EQUAL to all that.

Then the Kli Yakar states that Avraham Avinu knew that while Sara Imeinu's "sun had set only in This World," she was now eating the fruits of her deeds in Olam Haba.

The Kli Yakar also explains that the verse "Sara died in Kiryat Arba, also known as Chevron" hints that Sara died the death of only the most exalted tzaddikim like Moshe Rabbeinu.

Sara Imeinu was in the most wonderful place possible. The loss wasn't hers.

It was the world's loss.

As the Kli Yakar exalts her:

...because she was a sarah over all the world in her wisdom and her deeds...

Sara Imeinu's name is also a title: sarah (שרה).

It's the feminine form of sar (שר).

A sar is a ruling minister, a prince, or the ministering angel over an entire nation.

So when the Kli Yakar states that Sara Imeinu was a "sarah al kol ha'olam," he was saying that her wisdom & deeds made her a princess, a ruling minister over the entire world.

This is our role model.

This is our mother.

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<<Previous

What Does "Free Choice" Really Mean?

When You Cannot Even Move to Save Your Life

Teshuvah from Love Fixes Everything

How to Free Yourself from the Paralyzing Plague of Darkness

Final Thoughts & Plan of Action

The Profound Principles of Middah K'Neged Middah

Rav Miller's Profound Losses

Some Very Sharp Mussar

The Most Helpful Response to Jew-Hatred

Just the Act of Trying Reaps So Much Reward!

3 Things Happen When You Desire to be Good

You Can be a Chafetz Chaim Too!

Decisions, Decisions...

A Glimpse into What It will be Like When Mashiach First Comes

Gather Us TOGETHER from the 4 Corners of the Earth

What is the Secret of Our Coming Together?

Don't Be a Stranger

Like Your Jewish Self by Learning More about Judaism

Greatness of Soul Supersedes Even the Greatness of Intellect

"Your Rewards in the Next World Depend on Your Loyalty to Klal Yisroel."

Why Even Emunah Peshutah Demands that You Should Go Out & Look

What is the Best Baggage You Can Bring with You to The Next World?

When "Nice!" Means "The End"

No Inferiority Complex?

Why Do Some Jews Hate Themselves More Than Non-Jews Hate Them?

Self-Love, Chanukah-Style

Rav Miller's Great Passion

Shevet Esav? It Could Have Been, If Only...

Don't Let Despair Incite You into Becoming a Big Rasha

Planting the Seeds of Soul-Perfection 5 Minutes at a Time

The Special Segulah Ring

Who Ends Up Outlasting It All?

Where are All the Reuvenim?

Leah wasn't Actually Hated. So What Does It All Mean?

The Secret to Greatness: Choose HOW to Respond to Your Suffering

Why being "Chosen" is No Guarantee

History Replays Itself Again between the Descendants of Leah Imeinu & the Descendants of Rachel Imeinu

Hashem Values the Humbled Person Who Works Harder

And How Does Exile Refine Us?

"He was on the bottom of the pile, he was the s’nuah [hated one], and that’s why he came out on top."

What Were Avraham & Sara like as Chatan & Kallah?

A Truly Fun Home

Why was Yishmael's Laughter So Bad?

What's the Secret to Keeping House like Sara Imeinu?

The Old Treasure in the Home

Reaching Back to the Original Nature & Nurture

Myrtle Rising

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