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Each week, Rav Shlomo Katz opens the parsha through the inner world of Torah, drawing from the deep wells of the Chassidic masters.
With warmth, clarity, and honesty, these teachings weave together Chassidus, Tanach, and lived experience, inviting us to encounter the parsha not only as a text to be studied but as a mirror for the soul.
Okay, so I'm excited. What I wanted to do, if you could pass these around, with your husbands, we're very, very deep into the world of the Mi HaShiloach of the Izbitza. We spoke about this when we met a while ago. And in order to have a like a לשון, I don't know if you want to call it like a לשון משותף, or to be able to be holding, to borrow a very yeshivish term for a second, to be able to be holding in a in a place that's, you know, the the vibe of what what where your husbands are in the afternoons, and because it's my favorite Torah in the world, the Torah of the of the Izbitza, what I'd like to see and see how that shtimt with you, is to be going into very deep עקרונות of in Chassidus from this line of the Mi HaShiloach, and it happened, I mean if it could not it doesn't have to be on the parsha, but it just so happens that it works out great when it is, like like this piece is.
And this piece that we're going to be seeing, we'll be learning right now from the Mi HaShiloach, R'' Mordechai Yosef, line of the Izbitza Rebbe, is not a it's very unique, and you'll see why. It's very, very unique because it explains to us why we feel sometimes so messed up when we're when we're looking into the eye of a nisayon. Anyone have nisyonot? Right. So I thought That's why I wasn't sure if this shiur is shayach for for for for everybody.
But the way that the Mi HaShiloach, the way that the Izbitza Rebbe approaches this has a lot of ramifications. Now, sometimes you could learn certain teachings, and they can make you feel very good, and enlightened, and sometimes you can learn certain teachings and be like, "Oh my God, I'm so low. I'm so far from-" I don't know if that ever happened to you, like you ever get very depressed learning like a book about סיפורי צדיקים? Sometimes it makes me feel Because of that reason. Because sometimes it has this it has this ability to like just make you feel so like איפה אני ואיפה הם, you know? And sometimes we have to like close those those those sefarim.
The Izbitza is not like that, because the Izbitza is talking to the person that's looking into the nisayon, into the complexity of life, looking right at him, and saying, "You're not meshugene, but let me let me map out a way with you to understand how to navigate in a very unique way." Sorry, do you just mind closing the door out there just because I know that if the door is open, chevra are going to come in and out, if you don't mind. So it's ערב שבת וירא. It's the It's the Shabbos where probably the greatest nisayon at at least till that time, man had to go through. And whenever we read the parsha of the akeidah, there's always this question inside of us that we don't want to admit that we have.
And that question is, "How in the world, what kind of a God would tell a a a father to kill his son?" Right? What kind of a What kind of an Abba would do such a thing? What kind of an אבא שבשמים would do such a thing? Add that on to the whole notion that Avraham Avinu was promised that through him will be כי ביצחק יקרא לך זרע. So Avraham Avinu is told, let's just map it out a little bit. Last Shabbos we have the birth of Yitzchak, right? What is he told about even before, even before Yitzchak's born? Avraham Avinu hears from Hashem', "You're going to have a line, you're going to have a lineage," cuz he asked Me, he like Avraham Avinu asked Hashem', "Through who is this going to go, this whole like monotheism, this whole Hashem' thing?" And he says, "What, it's going to be through Eliezer?" That's what he says last Shabbos, "It's going to be ובן משק, ובן משק ביתי דמשק אליעזר? Like it's going to be through the servant?" Hashem' tells Avraham Avinu, "כי ביצחק יקרא לך זרע. No, no, no, no, it's going to be through Yitzchak." And then what are we told in Parshat Vayera? "Go and kill your son." Do you ever have a feeling Do you ever get that feeling in life that Hashem' gives you something, and then He tells you, and then you feel like He takes it away from you? What do we do with that? How do we deal with that? In fact, the Izbitza's son, the Beis Yaakov of Izbitz, I've learned this with your husbands a few months ago, right before Rosh Hashanah, a month ago, I guess, bit more, that the first the the reading of the Torah on Rosh Hashanah, both days, is the complete picture of what we go through in this world.
Cuz on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, do you remember what we read on the first day of of Rosh Hashanah?
וה' פקד את שרה כאשר אמר, that Sarah has a child. And the second day of Rosh Hashanah, what do we learn? Akeidat Yitzchak. Chana is the Haftarah. But but Akeidat Yitzchak is what we learn on the second day.
So the Izbitzer's son says all of life is acknowledging that Hashem gives us things, and our inyan in this world is seeing if we're willing to return it to Him. That doesn't mean chalilah are you willing to kill your kid? That's like, especially we have this our precious baby here, but I'm saying it's a bigger picture of like, do you understand that this world is much bigger than just getting things from God? It's the willingness to give back to God what He gave you if that's what He asks for. And that's the reading of the Torah of Rosh Hashanah. Now, let's learn the Mei Shiloach inside, and based on everything that we just said right now, but just try to keep try to keep your finger in the page.
I don't know if we'll get through the whole thing, but at least the ruach of the thing. Everyone has a copy, right? Yeah. Okay, so at least the ruach hadevarim is what we're going to try to get to, and please feel free to chime in. Like, אין פה ענין of like just me reading out text.
It's it's I enjoy much more when there's obviously interaction. Okay, והאלקים נסה את אברהם.
ענין נסיון של העקידה היה גודל האמונה שהיה לאברהם אבינו בהשם יתברך. That was the whole nisayon of the akeidah was basically can how how big was Avraham Avinu's emunah in Hashem?
כי אף שאמר לו כי ביצחק יקרא לך זרע, like we just said, even though Avraham was told through this will be your offspring, ונאמר לו את בריתי אקים את יצחק, it was also told to Avraham Avinu that I will make my bris with יצחק, ועכשיו כשנאמר לו העלהו לעולה, put him up on the mizbeach as a korban, as a קרבן עולה, עם כל זה, with all of this mishmash, האמין בדברים הראשונים כמו מקודם, ולא נפלו אצלו.
What do you think that means?
האמין בדברים הראשונים, כמו מקודם, ולא נפלו אצלו. I can tell you very easily what it means, but I want to hear if you understand the the question here. What does it mean, האמין בדברים הראשונים? Can you just pass that other We don't need that that other micro- that other Yeah, yeah. Yeah, thank you.
You're welcome. Yeah. Well, Chana, what were you going to say? Like, I guess just like looking at it scanning, like, he he had this belief that like Hashem had given him a child for a certain purpose and at that it it never continued, like it didn't happen yet. So what did he believe in? He believed in Hashem's word and Hashem's promise to him and Hashem's Even though the the second command seems to be completely Yeah.
contradicting, that he still believed in the first words that he was told. What were you going to say? That. Yafeh. How could you believe? How does that work? I mean, it's it's correct, but how do you do that? How do you believe something that you're seeing in front of you is actually being ripped apart into shreds? It also says like when, you know, the נבואות is like עם ישראל is going to start coming home, and we're going to get our act together, and the שכינה is going to come back, and then you look around here and you're like, I don't really it's not exactly how that promise is unfolding and that prophecy is not really for being fulfilled the way that I I thought I was told.
So the Izhbitzer is pointing here to something very, very deep about life is that sometimes in our kishkes we know that something is going to be true, and it's true, but it seems that all the messages from above are contradicting that which we know to be true. You with me? Yeah? You understand that? And that's basically the birth pangs of the final, final moment of geulah, right before it's completely revealed to us. It'll seem that everything contradicts each other. Some of your husbands were were were by me on on when was it? Last night? No.
Two nights ago. And that's exactly what we were learning that night: the Torah of the סתירות הקדושות, of the the holy contradictions, that the more real something is, the more it looks like it's a contradiction. If something just comes down without any contradiction, for instance, this is how Rav Shlomo would give the analogy. If someone, he said it like this, if you're on the subway, let's say you're on the subway, and you're you're a bachelor, you meet this girl on a subway, and your eyes lock, and it looks like, wow, something inside of you says this is the person of my dreams, but they're about to get off the next stop, and then you ask quickly, "What's your number?" and back then it was before obviously smartphones, so you like figure out a way to write down the number on a piece of paper, no, sorry, she tells you the number, and then you go home, and you remember the phone number, then you call, and then you start dating, and it all works out, and it's gevald.
So you have a cute story. "Oh, where'd you meet?" "On a subway, and then you gave numbers, and then it was beautiful, it's gevald, amazing." What happens if you forget the number, you're you're not sure about one number, and you're dialing the wrong number for 2,000 years, and then after 2,000 years, you finally figure out the right combination of the numbers that you were given, and then you call and she picks up, and then you get get married? What hits you deeper? What kind of a What kind of a What kind of a longing is formed? So it's the longing of distractions, of complications, of, "Hashem, how could it be? You gave You finally have this soulmate appear in my life, it seems to me, and now I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm dialing the wrong number all these years." So obviously that makes the kesher infinitely deeper, and it came as a result of unclarity. Avraham Avinu is the first person bringing down emunah into the world. It cannot be that Avraham Avinu is told by God things, it's crystal clear, and we move on.
If there's one thing we say about Avraham Avinu is that what did he go through in the world? Nisyonot. That's how we refer I mean, when we think about Avraham Avinu's life, we think about a person that went through nisyonot. You could say לא מגיע לו.
לא פייר.
The guy's three years old, he's breaking his father, you know, a little kid, he's breaking his father's idols, he's doing all these things, such big things, you're giving him nisayon after nisayon after nisayon, and especially culminating with this nisayon which seems to be completely contradicting each other. What kind of a רבונו של עולם acts like this? Nachon? You could say very easily זה לא פייר. Now, none of us would say that, 'cause obviously we don't want to be חוצפה'דיק to Hashem. But did you ever say to Hashem in your own private life this is not fair? Right? Did you ever say this is fair, actually, about anything? Our Our human nature is to look at things and actually say, "כן, זה לא פייר, אבל" Okay.
Avraham Avinu could have said it's not fair. And the point the Izhbitzer is making over here is that the person that's bringing down emunah into the world, doesn't he acts differently?
האמין בדברים הראשונים, he believed still כי ביצחק יקרא לך זרע, ולא נפלו אצלו, they didn't lose importance, simultaneously, what is he doing? What Hashem is telling him to do right now. Which to us seems like a stira. Seems like a contradiction.
If you believe in כי ביצחק יקרא לך זרע, then you wouldn't go and take your son and put him up as a korban.
נכון? You wouldn't. Let's see how the Ishbitzer Do you understand the like the problem with this? But obviously, we're presenting the issue so that we could we could get a gevaldige Torah out of this. Yeah, of course.
I once heard Rabbi Tatz say that emunah is not faith, but faithfulness, like loyalty to to what you believe, and I feel like it plays into each other, like Avraham was faithful to Hashem because he knew that Hashem would be faithful to him. Like didn't he didn't get stuck in the logic of like, "That doesn't make sense. You gave me a child, and now you want me to sacrifice them." Like I feel he went above the sequential, you know, Logical. Yeah, logical way of thinking and kept his faith to God, faithfulness in Him.
It was like a two-way Such a deep statement what you're saying, because I feel like I need to replug into that all the time when I see like people that gave up their lives so that they could come here and move to Eretz Yisrael, and then their son gets killed in a battle or something, you know. Logically, I can't really I can't do much with that. Logically, I'm I'm very Logically, I'm I'm יש לי מעצור, I'm I'm I'm stuck. But if I darshen it the way that you said in the name of Rabbi Tatz, yeah? Rabbi Tatz, he's gevald.
נכון, I'm operating from a place that's not teva. Noach wouldn't By the way, if Noach was told this, what would Noach do? If Noach was told you're going to you're you're, you know, he'll have a brit with Hashem, and the offspring would come through you, and then he was told, "Take his one son and put him on an altar, what would Noach do? Noach operates within the world of teva. Logic. He'd get back on the boat! Later! It was cool.
This was nice. We're done.
נכון. נכון.
Can I add something also? Cuz I was also having a similar thought of there's this concept of just reframing language in general, like let's say in therapy, it's like, "I'm really happy, but all these things happen," and it's like you can be happy and all of these things could have happened also. Like you can hold these two different totally contradictory statements, and that's a huge part of our relationship with Hashem, because we can't limit Him. Like we can't limit Hashem. Hashem can be, you know, this and this and this and everything else.
So, and I think it's like a nisayon that or it's a concept that we all relate to of like there's something great happening in my life, and there's something really difficult, and it's from the same God. Like we're always balancing those things. 100%. I can't relate to people that anymore, like באמת, like people that are close to me or that I'm close to, the ones that are seeking to get out of that tension, I can't really there's not there's not much I could relate to, even.
You know, definitely today, right before Mashiach comes, אין מה לעשות, this is how it's going to be. This tension is the way it is going to be. But we have על מי לסמוך, we have Avraham Avinu to understand how to do it, and that's what the shiur is today. So let's go to the second paragraph.
Unless does anyone want to say something else? We're good? Vayter.
וזאת האמונה אין בשכל האדם להשיג. Nechama Liba, that's exactly what you said. This emunah you cannot logically arrive at because it doesn't add up.
It's true, it doesn't add up. But if you look closer at the pesukim, you see something amazing.
והנה באמת לא היה לאברהם דיבור מפורש מהשם יתברך שישחט את בנו. The Torah never says שחט your son.
What does the Torah say?
והעלהו שם לעולה. What does that mean? Bring him up. Elevate him. No, you're going drush already.
The pshat, on pshat, what is והעלהו שם, huh? Just put him on the altar. It doesn't say ותשחטהו. If you look at the pesukim, it just says קח נא, and it's true, it gets very mushy and emotional to make it seem like Hashem is like gruesomely trying to stick it to him, קח נא את בנך, את יחידך, אשר אהבת, the one and only one that you loved, את יצחק, and then it says והעלהו שם לעולה. That's all it says.
על אחד ההרים אשר אומר אליך, and then it becomes very abstract. On one of the mountains which I will tell you. So the Ishbitzer says, exactly, באמת לא היה לאברהם דיבור מפורש מהשם יתברך שישחט את בנו.
על כן, לא נאמר והשם ניסה.
So therefore, it doesn't say והשם ניסה. It just says רק והאלוקים ניסה. So this is already for מתקדמים. Hashem puts us through many tests, but when the Torah Look at the word of God, the name of God that's used for this test.
What's the difference between השם, י״ק ו״ק, and Elokim? What do you think? Is it one din and one rachamim? Yafeh. Which one is din, which one is rachamim? Do you remember? It's okay. It's okay. Din is אלוקים, י״ק ו״ק is rachamim.
Now what other gematria do we know about the word Elokim? Hateva, the nature. So it says והאלוקים ניסה. That means the God of nature, k'vayachol, the God of logic, so to speak.
והאלוקים ניסה את אברהם, ויאמר אליו אברהם, ויאמר הנני, היינו שהיה אליו דבר באספקלריא דלא נהרא.
Now let me explain to you what this means if you haven't learned it before. When Chazal try to make a clear distinction between the נבואה of Moshe Rabbeinu and the נבואות of all the other נביאים, it uses a certain terminology: אספקלריא המאירה and אספקלריא שלא מאירה.
אספקלריא is like the lens, the vision.
אספקלריא דלא נהרא means an unclear vision.
אספקלריא המאירה means complete and total clarity. with the נבואה. When Moshe Rabbeinu prophesied, it wasn't, it was very, very clear. There wasn't, it wasn't confusing.
When the other נביאים prophesied, how did they receive their prophecies? Sleeping. Sleeping, dreams, other ways, but not like total straight up awake consciousness, right? Moshe Rabbeinu, clear. God spoke to Moshe Rabbeinu crystal clear. Avraham Avinu, it says according to the Zohar that the word Elokim, when it says Elokim in the Torah, that's relating more to אספקלריא שלא מאירה.
It's din. It's not so clear. So when it says והאלקים נסה את אברהם, it wasn't wasn't so clear to him what Hashem is really saying. He just knew he had to do what God says, but it wasn't clear to him what's going on over here.
ועל זה נאמר והאלקים, לשון תקיפות. So this is a very important word in the world of איזביצא. You know what the word takif means in Hebrew? Firm, valid. Conviction.
Firm. Valid. Like tekifut, like takif actually means to be like from the it's like לשון לתקוף, like it's like you know like to attack. So Elokim the איזביצער says refers to a God of like conviction, of chazak, of like, "This is what you have to do, and you can't ask any questions," right? But it's not clear to you really what you're really saying, or the reason behind it, or how this is going to add up with the rest of my life, but I get a vibe that Hashem is saying, "takif! Gotta go ahead and do something." Therefore the איזביצער says, ועל זה לא נקרא הניסיון על שם יצחק.
It's weird, the Akeidah is called עקידת יצחק, but the nisayon is referred to Avraham Avinu. Why wasn't it Yitzchak's, why wasn't it a nisayon for Yitzchak? Isn't that strange? How old was Yitzchak at the Akeidah? 39? Yeah, late 30s. Late 30s. How come this wasn't his nisayon? Avraham Avinu, it's his nisayon.
Yitzchak is not his nisayon. The Akeidah is called עקידת יצחק, but the nisayon is Avraham Avinu's nisayon. So again, ועל זה לא נקרא הניסיון על שם יצחק, כי יצחק האמין לאברהם כי מהשם הוא, ואינו ניסיון כל כך. Avraham Avinu told Yitzchak, "We gotta do this." So for Yitzchak, pashut.
אספקלריא מאירה from his father. Pashut. From Avraham, it's like, "I don't know what's going on over here, but I just gotta do this." For Yitzchak it's Pashut. Abba said, so we do it.
So it's not his nisayon, it's Avraham's nisayon. But the akeidah is called Akeidat Yitzchak.
רק אבל גם בחיים the result of like הרבה פעמים הבן אדם שקורה לו like הניסיון, אז הוא לא תמיד מרגיש את זה כמו שהסובבים שלו, or like, do you know what I mean, like someone מישהו שסובל ממש וחולה נגיד, a lot of times it's like harder for like the people around him or like the סביבה כאילו.
נכון.
But the person himself like יותר כאילו לפעמים יותר קל לבן אדם עצמו לקבל את זה, this is just what's happening, מאשר לסובבים אותו שזה יותר כאילו to see the person they love let's say going through something or whatever, זה יותר לגמרי.
וגם יותר מזה, כשאדם עובר ניסיון בסוף השם נותן לו כוחות. Right. Like whatever that means.
To the person going through the nisayon, but not to the סובבים אותו. Exactly. So a lot of times כאילו הבן אדם עצמו כאילו is like, right, getting all like whatever, emunah, whatever, and it's more for the סובבים אותו שזה נגיד Avraham Avinu נכון. So wait, how would you plug it into this story? So over here how does that work? Yitzchak was getting like like emunah and koach and that Cause cause what was going to happen to He's going to be שחטed.
אבל זה מפחיד. Like Avraham Avinu, זה קשה בתור אבא וזה, אבל it's like נכון. You're not the one being שחטed, כאילו.
נכון.
אז like Wait, so who I just want to understand, who got the extra kochot over here כביכול? Yitzchak. Yitzchak. So for him it's not a nisayon cause he got the extra kochot. For Avraham Avinu, נכון, Avraham Avinu getting more kochot would mean that it's an אספקלריא מאירה, that it's clear.
It's still for him אספקלריא לא מאירה. You know, it's amazing if you learn out פרשת העקידה, you see what we just said right now through every pasuk, because when it comes I just remembered a Torah from the Netivot Shalom, gorgeous teaching, one of the first teachings I ever learned from him. He said, are you are you are you into the Netivot Shalom, are you into the Slonimer? little bit? He said something amazing. The pasuk that describes Avraham Avinu raising up his hand to shecht, so you know what the lashon of the pasuk is? It's wild.
It says, וישלח אברהם את ידו ויקח את המאכלת לשחוט את בנו. So, what does that mean? Avraham sent, he had to send his hand to go and pick up the the knife, right? I'll give an example. Nechama Liba, can you can you move that book a little bit? Okay. Did you have to give Did you have to send any messages? Did you have to send a message to your hand? Why Why not? When would you Okay, so now I'm going to say to you, now don't do this, but I'm going to say to you something, okay? I want you to punch yourself in the nose right now.
Okay? So, what would you have to do if you felt that this was like דבר השם? Because it's not because it's כאילו נגד הטבע, so you'd have to force, so you'd have to like send a message. So, what does it mean by אברהם אבינו, וישלח אברהם את ידו? He knew in his deepest depths that the first words were going to be חי וקיים. But he also knew that he had to do what Hashem told him to do right now. So, he sends his Yeah, he has to send a message to himself, but it's like וישלח אברהם את ידו.
Go, go, go, go, till getting ויקח את המאכלת לשחוט את בנו, and he lifts it up, while the whole time, what does he know?
כי ביצחק יקרא לך זרע.
כי ביצחק יקרא לך זרע. However, קח נא את בנך את יחידך. It's like It's a wild thing.
So, what we're saying actually shows up in the description of Avraham Avinu's experience in the pesukim, which is amazing. It's like Avraham needs to go against his teva, like there's nothing natural about him. So, you see that he You don't have to like command your hand to pick up a book. He's like going against mamash! Teva as mamash! It's amazing.
This feels like a like a total tikun, I guess not total cuz here we still are, but it feels like such a tikun for חטא אדם וחוה. Because like they I mean, I guess it depends which mefarshim you're going according to, but like they did make cheshbonot of like, Hashem said don't don't eat from the tree, and it was like, right, but then we'll we'll be more godly, this and that, and they did that. Like they tried using their logic, and then this was like literally the opposite. Like, I know what you really want, nachon.
but you said to do this, so I'll do this. The sefarim are filled with saying what you just said right now. Mamash.
תיקון אדם וחוה, אברהם ושרה, ממש.
It's all there. In fact, the beginning of the parsha is Avraham Avinu Vayera. What's the beginning of the parsha? Where is he sitting?
פתח האוהל. What area is that? What does the Torah say? Alonei Mamre.
והוא יושב פתח האוהל כחום היום. Where was Where's Alonei Mamre? You ever been to Aloney Mamre? Where is it? That was years ago. Is it like near like Eli? Oh, you're thinking about Elon Moreh. Oh, I am.
Which which is, which is.
זה לא באזור ש...?
זה לא באזור שכם אלוני ממרא? No. Street in Nabi Daniel. Not that either.
Kiryat Arba, around there. Aloney Mamre. Mamre's place was of dwelling was there, Aloney, the trees of Mamre. It's Alon, it's over there.
And it says, and look at the this parsha is so deep, it's it's all a preparation for the end of of the parsha. I know we're going on a little bit tangent here, but it's it's a gevald Torah. It says that Avraham Avinu, when he wanted to shecht cattle for the guests, it says, ואל הבקר רץ אברהם. That means he was running after the cattle.
What does it say? After the bakar, after the cow. What does it say? Why why did he Why was he running after it? It was right there. Why? Because it started running away from him. The Midrash tells us, Avraham Avinu was running after it.
Why is it Why is it not being just sitting here waiting to be shecht'd for the guests? Why is it running away from me? Listen to this. This is amazing. The Midrash says that the cow was running and running away till it went inside some kind of a cave. And then Avraham Avinu runs after it, it goes into a cave, and then Avraham Avinu hears a voice.
He says, the voice says, "It's not enough we have to be embarrassed from you, we still have to be embarrassed from Hashem?" And it was the voice of Adam, who was waiting for thousands thousands of years to have a tikkun for him and Sarah. What was their what was the pegam, like how did they what did they fall in? What was the pegam that they fell into?
תיקון האכילה. So Avraham Avinu, by the way, that place was the the bakar ran to this cave, the cave is Me'arat HaMachpelah, that's how Avraham Avinu found Me'arat HaMachpelah. So he realizes, oh, now I'm here to do I'm saying this because you was talking about the tikkun for Adam va-Chava through Avraham and Sarah, and then he comes back and the Torah explains to us, first he gives them milchigs, if you look at the pesukim, then he gives them fleishigs, and they have a seudah with divrei Torah, which was a tikkun for how the man, the primordial sin, of how how we first fell, for תיקון עץ הדעת.
So it's all tikunim going on in this parsha, 100%. And it's also תיקון האמונה, which is which is what you brought up. Okay, so now let's read it again, this third paragraph. You're with me? Is this too meshuga, or it's okay? Okay.
ועל זה נאמר ואלוקים לשון תוקפות, ועל זה לא נקרא ניסיון על שם יצחק, כי יצחק האמין לאברהם כי מהשם הוא, ואין לו ניסיון כל כך, רק לאברהם היה ניסיון, לפי שלא היה אצלו הדיבור מפורש. It wasn't clear to him what's going on. Now, look what the Izhbitzer says here. This is very hard for us to understand or connect to, but look at the פנימיות of this: ואם היה לו שום נגיעה כאב לבן.
If Avraham Avinu understood a relationship as a parent more than, meaning if he interpreted his relationship with his son to be more important, the father-son relationship more important than what? Than being an עבד השם, אז היה מכריחו לרחם עליו, then he would have forced himself to have rachmanut on him, כי באמת מאת השם היה שלא ישחטו, of course, because at the end of the day, from Hashem his inyan was that you don't שחט him, והניסיון היה רק למראה עיני אברהם. What was the actual nisayon? Not, will you, not are can you please שחט your son and be saved at the last second. The nisayon was, are you willing to do something that's absolutely against your natural instinct? Now, if we think about this a little bit deeper, I think we could come to the following conclusion about something that Be'ezrat Hashem, well, you had, but a deep inyan. When a when a son comes into the world, what what's the first thing we do to a son, to a boy, baby boy?
זה הגיוני?
זה זה Don't give me all the medical reasons.
I'm not talking about that stuff, because even, you know, before they discovered that medically it's very it's much healthier, but I'm talking straight, and you have people today that, you know, they have this inyan of like that a brit is a barbaric תקופת הקדמונים, like a you know, this is a ritual an ancient practice that really is barbaric and וכולי. But but there is something in what they're saying, chalilah, not למעשה, but there's this voice in what they're saying and saying like, how how in the world did you understand a God that tells you to do such a thing? Would you come to that conclusion on your own even if the even if the world of medicine told you that it's the right thing to do? Probably not, because our instinct is have rachmanut on our children, and we would never ever want to hurt them. You know, at that moment, you should know in the sefarim it says, it should be a big segulah for everyone to listen to that cry of the child, that that moment of קבלת, that's called that's a moment of kabalat ol malchut shamayim, which I really say, I'm really that moment of the of a brit is the moment of me joining Avraham Avinu and saying, I don't understand how this world works at all, because finally there's a child in this in this world, and now I'm supposed to do this because you said so, but my instinct says to me, like I've mamash seen mothers that had a very hard time giving their child they show up at the brit, then giving the child זה זה מאוד קשה. But our lives are like this.
There's a lot of things that don't add up. But the kabalat ol malchut shamayim isn't, will you, חלילה, שחט a kid? Hashem just wants to know, are you willing to go for Me all the way even when nothing adds up? And when you are willing willing to go the whole way, then what usually ends up happening to you? You're spared from what you thought was your cruel destiny. That's what the Izhbitzer is saying. That's what the Mei HaShiloach is saying, and he's going to just explain it a little bit a little bit more clearer over here on the bottom.
עיקר הנסיון מהעקדה, מחמת שהיה מפורש לפניו עליו לא תרצח. By the way, Avraham Avinu knew the what the Torah was going to say in the Ten Commandments also, he knew. And what what does he know that the Torah says?
לא תרצח. And who so, who told us לא תרצח? Hashem.
And what is Hashem saying now?
תרצח. But he's not. He doesn't say תשחטהו.
העלהו שם לעולה is all that's said.
מה גם לשחוט את בנו, כי בפשיטות היה בנקל לפני בנקל means easily.
בפשיטות היה בנקל לפני אברהם אבינו לקיים מצות השם יתברך בכל נפשו, אף להעלות עצמו. For Avraham Avinu, for him, it's it's the easiest thing to mekayem all the mitzvot of Hashem with all his heart and soul. And if Hashem told him jump off a a mountain, it'd be just as easy for him to jump for him himself to jump off a mountain like Hashem telling give tzedakah to the poor.
There's no difference by Avraham Avinu. By Avraham Avinu, there's no difference to give a little bit of tzedakah to someone that's saying, "I need five shekel for Shabbos," and if Hashem told him, "Go and שחט your son." There's no difference by Avraham Avinu.
אין לו נגיעה עצמית. He has no, how do you say that?
נגיעה עצמית, he has no motive, yeah, personal motive.
A negiah, I don't have any negiah to him. And he repeats here, רק שאיתא בזהר הקדוש, שזה המאמר היה לו באספקלריא דלא נהרא. It came through unclear lens, this nevuah that Hashem told אברהם אבינו, היינו, שלא נאמר לו מאמר מפורש. And now he explains what was going on in Avraham Avinu's heart: והיה נבוך בלבו.
So what does navoch usually mean? Embarrassed? Yeah. So he was embarrassed in his heart because he expected himself to be someone that can clearly understand what God says when God talks. And he was You ever have that? I bless you all be-ezrat Hashem with your kinderlach when they actually come home with homework and you have no idea how to help them? I'm right now deep parashah with my ahavah in geometry, I can't There's I'm just I can't do it, like Hopefully, with Torah stuff I'm a little bit better, but I I just can't. I So Avraham Avinu, and I expect, listen, I'm the father, I should know how to Avraham Avinu says to himself, "I expect, I'm Avraham Avinu, I bring I brought down Hashem to the world." How old is Avraham Avinu over here? Do a cheshbon.
How old is Avraham Avinu when Yitzchak's born? A hundred. Yitzchak is it's מחלוקת מפרשים, 36, 38, 39. Avraham Avinu is almost 140 years old. How long has he been on the journey, at least the way the Torah the פשט of the Torah tells us, how many years is he in the פרשה of God? Since he's three.
The Midrash says since he's three, let's just go from the Torah, from the פשט of the Torah, the date 75. Lech Lecha happens when he starts עליה he's 75 years old. That means he's in the פרשה for quite a long time already. 65 years, נכון? Is that what it is? 65 years, he's he's God-ing, whatever that means, right? He's in the פרשה.
He expected of himself at this שלב in life, after all he's been through, to understand exactly what God means when God talks to him. And here, נבוך בלבו. So the Ishbitzer says, היה יכול לפשוט הספק לכל צד. It would be very easy for Avraham Avinu to say, "It's not clear to me, but based on what I was told already, I could definitely find a היתר to get out of this commandment." That's what he's saying, right?
שאם again, היה לו קצת נגיעה ליצחק כאהבת אב לבן, היה פושט לעצמו שלא יעלהו.
If he was operating here, removing Hashem from the picture and just being more an Abba to his son, be very easy for him to remove this ספק.
שעמדו כנגדו מחשבות ודעות שונות, והיה נבוך בהם. But he was so embarrassed.
נבוך over here, actually, you know how you say maze in Hebrew?
מבוך, I think you say, מבוך, right?
תפארת? Maze, נכון, מבוך.
בדיוק. Is there another word? No, that's the right word, נכון?
מבוך. מבוך. Maze.
So when you're in a maze, you're like, טוב, לא מבין מה קורה, like he said, how could how did I end up in a maze? I'm I'm the I'm the clear guy. I'm the guy that like leaves everything and just goes and starts walking. I'm the guy that says when I got to my destination first thing is, I gotta go now go to Egypt. Like I'm that guy that just goes, יש לי בהירות הדעת.
I don't get stuck in these things. Here he was stuck.
וכדאיתא במדרש, היה לו מה להשיב. He could have said back to God, when he had the commandment, he could have said, אמרת כי ביצחק יקרא לך זרע, ועכשיו קח נא את בנך?
וחס ושלום לא עשיתי כן, כבשתי רחמי לעשות רצונך.
This is what the Midrash tells us that Avraham Avinu says God forbid, I didn't go in the in the world of, but you told me like this, לא נכנסתי לזה. But you promised me this, Hashem!
כבשתי רחמי לעשות רצונך. I overcame all my nature, cuz the nisayon is Elokim, I I conquered all my nature to do your ratzon.
וזה היה עיקר הניסיון, the Ishbitzer says.
So now I'm gonna ask you: What was the nisayon of עקידת יצחק for Avraham Avinu? What was the nisayon? Based on what we just learned, what do you think? Don't try to sound deep. Say what you're feeling. Not not not like, I gotta come up with some kind of Just say pshat. After this, what do you feel that the pnimiyut of the nisayon of Avraham was? Yitzchak, we already established, there's no nisayon.
Why? He had clear prophecy that came through the mouth of his father. To make the to to help you answer the question even clearer: Adam Harishon Okay, Adam and Chava were told not to eat from the tree of knowledge, correct? Not exactly. Who told Chava not to eat from the tree of knowledge? Adam. Who told Adam not to eat from the tree of knowledge? Hashem.
Adam Harishon is the first one to eat from the tree of knowledge or the second one? Second. Why is he the second one? Why didn't he eat it right away? Cuz he received clear prophecy from Hashem not to. When he gave it over to Chava, though, it became already אספקלריא דלא מאירה. Avraham Avinu does a tikkun for that as well, and he tells his son, we're going up, and this is what we have to do.
מקבל's it, fine. Avraham Avinu, though, is really not he's נבוך בלבו, he's in a maze, he's trapped, it's unclear. He could have used every טענה for היתרים. The Midrash says, but I didn't.
So what is the ikar nisayon of a person in this world? I'm just gonna help you. The ikar nisayon of a person in this world is when they have al mah lismoch to get out of hard situations. When they have an al mah lismoch. Do you know what that means? How would you say that much better than me?
שיש להם גב.
אם יש לי גב, meaning, when I can absolutely justifiably Legal loophole. Betach! That's the ikar nisayon of Avraham Avinu. It's not that he ended up putting his his son on an altar. It's that it really wasn't clear.
It can it was self-contradicting. In in Yeshivish terminology, just to make some of you feel more at home over here or trigger things, I'm not sure, this is called a a setirah minei uvei. When you learn Gemara, this happens all the time. It's a setirah minei uvei, meaning what's presented, huh? Within itself.
Within itself, meaning it's a self-contradiction.
זה לא you're I'm not contradicting you, you're contradicting yourself. Avraham Avinu could have Now when that's so clear to us, when we feel like something is self-contradicting, so what's the easiest thing for and the most natural thing for a person to do?
עזוב אותי מכל זה. You figure out your own סתירות, אני בינתיים, I'll let you figure out what you want.
So Avraham Avinu could have said, listen Hashem, you figure out exactly what you want me to do and בינתיים I'm not doing any of this stuff. And in life, we're presented quite often with things that seem to be setirot minei u'vei, self-contradictions. The עיקר ניסיון of Avraham Avinu was exactly that, that he could have relied on all the justifiable heterim to get out of responsibility. That's the penimiyut of the nisayon.
And you know what would have happened if he would have patur'd himself, if he would have exempted himself? So what would what maybe what would Hashem say? What would the world say? What would the rabbanim say? What would Yidden say? Maybe they'd say, yesh lo al mi lismoch.
יש לו גב.
למה לא?
למה לא? Maybe they'd come to that conclusion? Ai, but you know what you'd be missing? You'd be missing the rest of Avraham Avinu's actions paved the way for Jews to be able to hold on to emunah for dear life. So yeah, you got out of the nisayon, the self-contradiction, shekoiach, but מעשה אבות סימן לבנים.
When we learn these stories in the Torah about Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, and the imahot, Sarah, Rivkah, Rachel, Leah, it was preparing, it was paving roads for us to be able to make it in this world and get over all the נסיונות הקשים ביותר in their merit, in their zechut. So that's why this You understand a little bit why I'm so in love with the Mei Hashiloach? Because he doesn't let you off the hook of what really matters in life. He puts you It's like זה כבר למתקדמים. You know what I mean? Like, this is already for, how do you say, מתקדמים? More advanced.
Advanced. It's like yeah, this is like the You can get away with Yiddishkeit finding heterim for everything and even go to Gan Eden, but that's not what we're here for. You can have all the heterim not to serve in the army, but right now Am Yisrael is in צרות צרורות, kivyachol. So all the heterim and they may add up, ashreichem, shekoiach! You'll go to Gan Eden.
You didn't do an aveirah, kivyachol. However, that's not our inyan. Our inyan is even if it's אספקלריא דלא מאירה, and we're living in a מציאות of an אספקלריא לא מאירה, it's the whole reality. To me this zman is more confusing than Auschwitz because in Auschwitz it was very clear that we have שונאים ששונאים אותנו and they're killing us.
But since Auschwitz, we've kind of been feeling that Hashem loves us again, so to speak, and brought us back, and we're rebuilding this, establishing a state, and we still have so much צרות, זה אפילו יותר מבלבל. It's even more unclear. So I could The way that the world is doing it is just very confusing. Like the It's like so mamash.
manipulative and sneaky and it's like It is.
ואני דווקא בדיוק אותו דבר כמו ש So what I'm saying, you take like an American who like doesn't sway whether they are or they're not, that doesn't say They're like so confused, like are the Jews horrible, are they not? No, no, no, I want to make You're saying the same thing. I'll explain to you why you're saying what you're saying, I think, and why you're saying what you're saying. Ha-emet is not what we're talking about.
The nisayon of how could it be, Hashem, that you haven't already done away with all the reshaim today, this is זה שאלה גדולה מאוד. It's a big question. How could it be that so many walking donkeys are still talking?
איך זה יכול להיות? How could that be? That's why the עיקר ניסיון of our dor right now is that even if things seem to be contradicting, and it does seem Listen, establishing a state that's not מיוסד על פי התורה is a stira miniyah u'veiyah, it is! With all the תורות of Rav Kook you'll ever give me, it still is self-contradiction to the believing Jew. However, we're אברהם אבינו יידן, we're כי ביצחק יקרא לך זרע, and even though העלהו שם לעולה, we believe there's something bigger going on here, and I have to keep on listening to what Hashem is saying to me in the moment, even if it seems that it contradicts what it said before.
So I'll I'll end with one eitzah: how to how to have koach to go through self-contradictions. This is my favorite teaching from the Warker Rebbe. The Warker Rebbe, his name was Rabbi Yitzchak of Warka. Have you heard of the chasidut of Amshinov? The Amshinover Rebbe? So this is where Amshinov originates is from Warka.
And Rabbi Itzaleh Warker was a talmid of the Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Peshischa, meaning he was around, he was a friend of the Mei HaShiloach, a talmid of the Kotzker Rebbe, he was around the same time. We know the Gemara says that אין הנבואה שורה אלא מתוך שמחה. Like, to have prophecy, you have to be b'simcha, because you won't hear the word of God if you're בעצבות. It just doesn't work.
Prophets, even if they have to prophesy very heavy things, they would only say it, they would only prophesy if they reached some type of elated state of of happiness, and only then prophecy would come through. So it's like sometimes we think if I if I show Hashem I'm in a enough pain, then He'll tell me what to do. It's not true. It's the opposite.
It can only come down, right? So let me ask you a question. Any of you grew up with The Little Midrash Says? I grew up with it, it was very big in my house. The imagery, you know, the pictures they would do for the parashiyot? So if I had to draw up an illustration, right, of of Avraham Avinu walking up to the akeidah, what do you think the panim of Avraham Avinu would look like? Tsubrochen, crying, freaking out. He's unclear.
Right? He's he's unclear. How do we know that's not the way he walked up to the akeidah? Because he ended up hearing, "No, no, no, no, don't שחט him." But the only way he was zocheh to hear, "No, no, no, no, don't שחט him," is because he was in a state of of simcha. It's it's crazy. This is completely against our nature.
Right? Huh? So Breslov. It's very Breslover, yeah. It could be. Like nachon, I could definitely see the correspondence to it.
But Reb' Yitzel Vorker is saying when you're going through a nisayon, as much as it's painful, if and and if life isn't clear to you, you could say this is the cruelest thing in the world or the coolest thing in the world, the only way to get out of that mess and to hear אספקלריא המאירה, clear prophecy, is only in a state of simcha. And the state of simcha sometimes can save us from ending up damaging ourselves and harming ourselves in very, very intense ways. If Avraham Avinu wasn't b'simcha, what would he have ended up doing? He would have ended up killing his son. Which is not the ratzon of Hashem.
He got to hear the ratzon of Hashem clear because of his state of simcha that spared his son's life. So I want to give us a bracha that even within these moments of self-contradictions and things that feel cruel, we plug into the middah of Avraham Avinu, we plug into somewhat simcha doesn't mean, you know, like I'm talking about inner simcha. Simcha that I'm a Yid, and even though life is insane, thank God זה החלק שלי ולא משהו אחר, and that we should be zocheh to hear what we need to do in this world when it's most confusing with utmost clarity, like the end of the story of Avraham and Yitzchak. Yofi, yishar koach.
If this was too wild you have to tell me, because this is like This is great. Mitkadmim, this is already, you understand, this is this is big stuff. Where's the place for like the being obviously like in like Yahadut, like we don't believe in just like tuning out like any pain, like we do believe also in like davenen and like approaching Hashem, and like when we do feel pain and we do feel like that atzvut, cuz a lot of times like a strong tefillah can come from that that place as we see with like Chana? I'm going to pull it right back to you. What Chasidut did you talk about 30 seconds ago? So Rabbi Nachman says you have you have one hour a day to tune into that.
That's the hour that you're doing hitbodedut, right? Right, so the hour the hour that you're doing hitbodedut, we're reserving it for we're reserving that for that. The rest of the day, no. But give it 100%, he's not denying the space for that. That's why we relate to him so much, you know, he's he gives that space to to to be worked out somehow.
He's not denying it. But the only thing is is that don't let it creep into other places of the day. Lo pashut, but worthwhile.
לא פשוט, but worthwhile.
Seder? Can I ask a question? I have a lot of questions, but one question. It is You know, just very practically for us today Yeah. how are we supposed to have clarity on like what's really the message Hashem is trying to give us and what like our mental capacities and everything else that's coming into play is is at? I don't know if I'm expressing this clearly, but I feel like with Avraham Avinu, who was like dialoguing with Hashem, he somehow came to the recognition of Hashem on his own and had this. And then, thank God, you know, we have the Torah, so at least we have clarity and direction from the Torah, but then תכלית, like in our lives when we're going through something that's not necessarily like halachically it could be this or that, like how how are we supposed to tap in to really have that inner knowing when, number one, if it's very hard to get to that place of true simcha, and number two, like there's really so factors and I feel like we just don't have that gift today of of like like the only way, I don't know.
I I have to tell you that I so resonate with your question, and I think everyone should have that question. 100%. I just don't know of any other way besides really tuning into hitbodedut to answer you. I don't know.
And I think that's why Rabbi Nachman said the time will come that it will be clear to every Jew that to be Orthodox without hitbodedut is one of the most סתירה מיניה וביה. That's the most self-contradicting things in the world. Reb' Natan says there's going to come a time that we're going to hear, like in the future, that people are going to be told, "You know, there used to be this thing people thought they were Orthodox and they didn't do hitbodedut," and people are going to crack up. They're just going to start laughing, 'cause they're going to be like, "Wait Wait a second, but how how did they know how to do anything?" So, you'll tell them, "Oh, there was a Shulchan Aruch." It's like, "That That was enough for them? They didn't have questions about life?" So, I don't know, I really don't know what to tell you.
But, you know, if you want, I could share something very very special with you guys. I just got it yesterday, two days ago. It's an amazing person. She's a talmidah of Rav Weinberger, and she surprised me.
I couldn't believe this. I have a series on hitbodedut I gave many years ago, and she took them all, and with today's technology, you know, it's very it's much easier to like get things written and put together, and she she presented me with like my, ke'ilu like, my own pamphlet, like a חוברת of of hitbodedut. So, if you want, I could share it with you, and tell me if it speaks to you. It's in English, and it's very much based on the teachings of my greatest one of my greatest השפעות in Breslov is a רב named Rav Erez Moshe Doron.
You all know him or you've heard of him. He's unbelievable. Talk about clear. He's אספקלריא, to me he's אספקלריא המאירה.
Who is he? He's in the Israeli world very very a prolific author. He has many books, but the way he writes his books based on Rabbi Nachman, it's very unique. It's very down-to-earth and and deep. I've been a I've been a fan We've we've learned his teachings here for many years.
And I hadn't seen him, it's so funny this is coming up now, I hadn't seen him in many years. I didn't see him for like 15 years, at least. And I was driving to IKEA in Rishon LeTzion last week or this week, it's a very long week, very long week. It's the longest week I, ממש.
I think this week, no, last week. It actually doesn't matter at all. Just for my brain, for my sanity, it does. And I remembered that I had, you know, I put out a new book last week, and I knew I had it in my trunk of the car, and I it's on I checked on my Waze, for some reason I thought of him, and it was only 20 18 or 20 minutes from where he lives, in Yad Binyamin.
So, out of the blue, I was just like, "You know what? I'm going to call him." And I said to him, "תשמע, עברו שנים, אבל אני עובר ליד היישוב שלכם, ויש לי ספר חדש שמאוד מאוד קרוב ללב שלי, אני רוצה לתת לך אותו." He was so happy, and we met up after years. And I just saw him this last week. So, it's it's very special to mention him. His way of talk of bringing down hitbodedut also, I feel is in a very you know, sometimes you could learn about hitbodedut from some of these ברסלבר רבנים and you just you want to become חב״דניק, or or you want to become מתנגד.
You're like, you know, it's it's too So, if you'd like, I mean, I will I'll share it with you guys, and because I don't I don't really see another way to go like this place of מעל הטבע unless I do the most un- un-טבע'דיק thing in the world and talk to something that can't be seen. Beseder? For now, that's my answer. We'll see if there's other answers. Well, I'm sure you have more questions.
I just I know I have to run, so but but hold on to them, and be'ezrat Hashem, we'll keep this זמן קבוע, okay? Sounds good? So good, thank you so much. Yofi. Yofi, I'm so glad.