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You have increased the number that you've doubled the number of people here.
אשריכם,
okay.
Page ק״ג.
Maybe it's good we don't have too many people here,
because the first רמב״ן over here is one which I read with some amount
of trepidation for the following reasons.
The רמב״ן quotes something from the מורה נבוכים,
and he attacks it in very strong terms.
Now,
so why the trepidation?
Well,
the רמב״ם writes in the הקדמה to the מורה נבוכים,
you see something strange over here,
so don't pass it on,
because maybe you don't understand it,
maybe you don't really know what I mean.
And he in fact is משביע one that reads the מורה נבוכים not to
quote what he says and knock it,
because I'm coming to help you out,
to try to make it easier to understand the סודות of the תורה,
and you're doing me a disservice,
because quite possibly you don't understand what I really mean,
and therefore to quote what I say and knock it is not proper.
The רמב״ן apparently was not bothered by this.
רמב״ן apparently felt that due to the fact that there's something over here which
relates to the proper אמונה,
that was acceptable for him to quote it and knock it,
but in any case,
I hope the רמב״ם doesn't get upset at us.
So at the beginning of the פרשה,
רבותי,
you have הקדוש ברוך הוא appearing to אברהם אבינו.
Now it doesn't tell us what exactly הקדוש ברוך הוא said.
Immediately afterwards,
what does the תורה relate?
וירא אליו ה׳
באלוני ממרא והוא יושב פתח האהל כחם היום,
then immediately afterwards you have the story of the angels coming and being served
by אברהם אבינו,
by שרה,
ישמעאל also helps along.
So says the רמב״ם,
the way we're meant to understand the פסוקים is in the following fashion:
הקדוש ברוך הוא appeared to אברהם אבינו,
and what form did that appearing to אברהם אבינו take?
It took the form of אברהם אבינו seeing this apparition of angels coming,
and of him,
אברהם,
serving them food,
and the continuation of the story.
In other words,
the רמב״ם implies that that story didn't actually happen,
that was part of an apparition that אברהם אבינו had.
And the רמב״ן says,
"That's crazy!
How could you say such a thing?"
And apparently the רמב״ם sounds along similar lines,
says something along similar lines in respect to the fight that יעקב אבינו had
with some מלאך,
ויאבק איש עמו,
also something along those lines.
So take a look at the רמב״ן in towards the beginning of the פרשה,
about six lines in.
First word of the line on page ק״ג is ובספר מורה נבוכים.
ספר מורה הנבוכים נאמר כי הפרשה כלל ופרט,
מר כתב תחילה כי נראה אליו ה׳
במראות הנבואה,
ואיך היתה המראה הזאת?
כי נשא עיניו במראה והנה ג׳
אנשים נצבים עליו.
ויאמר אם נא מצאתי חן בעיניך,
זה סיפור מה שאמר במראה הנבואה לאחד מהם הגדול שבהם.
So says the רמב״ן:
ואם במראה,
לא נראו אליו רק אנשים אוכלים בשר.
So how could you say it's just a מראה?
After all,
in that מראה,
he just saw people eating meat.
So what's that got to do with וירא אליו ה׳?
הקדוש ברוך הוא then didn't appear to him.
What appeared to him is just some movie about whatever,
חס ושלום,
some sort of he saw something about some dream,
some apparition of people eating meat and his serving them.
So he says,
והנה לדבריו,
two lines from the end of the page,
skipping a bit,
לא לשה שרה עוגות,
ולא עשה אברהם בן בקר,
וגם לא צחקה שרה,
רק הכל מראה.
And he says,
"That's so strange.
What's the point of all this?"
And apparently the רמב״ם also says,
turning the page,
skipping a number of lines,
וכן אמר בענין ויאבק איש עמו שהכל מראה הנבואה.
ולא ידעתי,
asks the רמב״ן,
למה היה צולע על ירכו בבוקר?
Since the פסוק indicates that after that story with the שר of עשו that
ויאבק איש עמו,
then אברהם then יעקב אבינו was limping.
Why should he be limping?
Good morning.
Why should he be limping if it never really happened,
never had that fight with the מלאך,
and just dreamt about it?
So,
the מפרשים point out,
well,
some dreams,
you know,
like they seem so real that they have an impact on on the person.
Very difficult for us to understand.
In any case,
the רמב״ן himself understands that these are two separate things:
וירא אליו ה׳,
הקדוש ברוך הוא appeared to him,
and He didn't tell him anything,
not any future in the נבואה for the future.
Mainly הקדוש ברוך הוא just came to tell him that He is with אברהם
אבינו,
that הקדוש ברוך הוא appreciates the fact that אברהם אבינו did the ברית מילה.
But and then afterwards,
the story with the מלאכים.
Okay.
Now,
the רמב״ן has a lengthy discussion over here,
which we won't get into,
with respects to the following.
It would seem that part of what forced the רמב״ם to take the position
that he did is that whenever there whenever one sees a מלאך,
the רמב״ם understands to see a מלאך is not something that you could see
with a normal situation.
Normally a person is not able to see a מלאך.
So,
if in fact אברהם אבינו sees this מלאך,
it must have been some sort of apparition,
not necessarily a נבואה,
but some sort of apparition.
It wasn't something which was something that he actually saw.
And the רמב״ן says that when the תורה refers to a מלאך,
but refers to him as an איש,
then it's something that a person is able to see,
a normal person is able to see.
Whether he's able to see it because that מלאך takes on a physical form
or somehow he's able to see it even though it's not in physical form,
that I don't know.
Okay,
there's also a מחלוקת over here,
which we'll point out,
that the רמב״ם is of the opinion,
the רמב״ם is of the opinion that every נבואה other than the נבואה of
משה רבינו is על ידי מלאך.
The נבואה of משה רבינו was directly from הקדוש ברוך הוא.
The נבואה of other נביאים was על ידי מלאך,
whereas רמב״ן says that's incorrect.
רמב״ן says that also נבואה of other נביאים is sometimes directly from הקדוש ברוך
הוא,
not על ידי מלאך.
Okay.
The רמב״ן adds that not everybody that sees a מלאך is necessarily a נביא.
הגר was not a נביא or נביאה,
and nor אבימלך,
nor was לבן.
So,
not every time a מלאך appears is one considered to be a נביא.
Okay.
Skipping to,
there's a very short snippet we'll look at at the end of this lengthy
section before פסוק ב׳.
I'll just point out that we have various sources that indicate that there's some
sort of connection between קרבן on one hand and ברית מילה on the other.
As you know,
at the end of,
by the בענטשינג on ברית מילה,
so there is various הרחמןs and one of them is מיום השמיני והלאה ירצה
דמו.
That פסוק,
מיום השמיני והלאה ירצה דמו,
which we're now applying about ברית מילה,
is a פסוק which was initially stated with respects to an animal that's born,
they could only bring as a קרבן on the eighth day.
So so that similarity of bringing a קרבן the eighth day with ברית מילה
is one of the connections.
And the רמב״ן over here also cites a מדרש that indicates some sort of
connection.
Take a look by the 50,
this is about seven lines down on page ק״ז.
ועוד אמרו,
good morning again.
ועוד אמרו מזבח אדמה תעשה לי,
מה אם זה שבנה מזבח לשמי הריני נגלה עליו ומברכו.
A person builds a מזבח,
הקדוש ברוך הוא appears to him.
So אברהם שמל עצמו לשמי,
על אחת כמה וכמה.
A person does ברית מילה,
so על אחת כמה וכמה.
יישר כח,
רבותי,
on your appearance on Friday morning so early in the morning.
Very good.
פסוק ז׳,
very important.
Page ק״ח,
פסוק ז׳.
ואל הבקר רץ אברהם.
Could somebody pass a ואל הבקר רץ אברהם.
Page ק״ח.
להגיד רוב חשקו ונדבותו.
his great desire to be generous,
כי אדם הגדול,
אשר היו בביתו,
שמונה עשר שלוש מאות.
This great person that had 318 servants,
he can sit next to Yaakov.
Also room.
Page קח.
כי אדם הגדול אשר היו בביתו שמונה עשר שלוש מאות איש שולף חרב,
he had 300 318 mercenaries,
whatever,
soldiers,
והוא זקן מאוד,
and he,
Avraham,
was very old,
וחלוש במילתו,
weak after ברית מילה,
הלך הוא בעצמו אל אוהל שרה לזרז אותה בעשיית הלחם,
ואחר כן רץ אל מקום הבקר,
לבקר משם,
to choose from there,
בן בקר רך וטוב לעשות לאורחיו,
ולא עשה כל זה על יד אחד ממשרתיו העומדים לפניו.
So,
that is pretty amazing.
אברהם אבינו,
despite his age,
despite his sickness,
I wish everybody here lots of good age,
lots of good health,
and everybody should stay should always feel young,
but you guys know,
sometimes when you're not feeling well,
you don't have the energy to do nothing.
Never happened to you?
Okay,
I'm glad.
But,
you know,
and אברהם אבינו,
despite the fact that he's old and and sick from the מילה,
nevertheless,
he runs to do Soon we'll see just how sick he was in the
next רמב״ן.
Okay,
פסוק טו:
ותכחש שרה לאמר.
So,
שרה אמנו denies that she laughed.
How could that be?
And furthermore,
how could she have questioned the נבואה?
Why would שרה אמנו question the נבואה?
So,
the רמב״ן suggests a simple answer,
and you guys will tell me what question,
what follow-up question would you ask on that.
The רמב״ן says,
"Well,
hey,
שרה אמנו,
she didn't know that they were מלאכים.
Thought they're just three Arabs passing by,
and we know how reliable their word is.
We know that their votes might whatever,
because they're" So So,
now that's why שרה אמנו laughed.
Okay,
now what question do you ask?
If in fact she thought they were just passersby and not מלאכים,
then why is she criticized?
Why is she criticized?
So,
רמב״ן over here has a couple of interesting,
important answers related.
Let's take a Let's take a look.
So,
ונראה בעיני,
the second line of this piece of פסוק טו,
we're on page קט:
ונראה בעיני כי המלאכים האלה נראים כאנשים באו אל אברהם,
והוא בחכמתו,
Avraham,
at some point he realized that they were angels,
ובשרו אותו שוב,
I'm sorry,
ובשרו אותו שוב אשוב אליך...
ולשרה בן ושרה שומעת,
ולא ידעה כי מלאכי עליון הם,
כענין באשת מנוח.
By אשת מנוח,
as you remember,
the מלאך appears.
There I always thought it was somewhat funny when אשת מנוח describes to מנוח
what this מלאך looked like.
What does she say?
"The guy looked so scary,
looked just like a מלאך!"
Which is pretty amazing,
or not so amazing.
Maybe the reason why he looked just like a מלאך is because he was
a מלאך,
but she didn't realize that till later in the story.
In any case,
לא ידעה כי מלאכי עליון הם,
כענין באשת מנוח,
ואולי לא ראתה אותם כלל,
maybe she didn't see them,
she just heard,
ותצחק בקרבה ללעג,
כמו יושב בשמים ישחק ה' ילעג למו.
Yes,
the רמב״ן says that שחוק for joy is with one's mouth,
שחוק in one's heart is for לעג.
אבל שחוק בלב לא יאמר בשמחה,
והקדוש ברוך הוא האשים אותה לאברהם,
למה היה הדבר נמנע בעיניה.
Granted she didn't know that they were מלאכים,
but why is it something which is viewed by her as impossible?
וראוי לה שתאמין,
או שתאמר אמן כן יעשה השם.
She should have fully believed it,
or at least said,
"From your mouth to God's ears."
They say that רב משה פיינשטיין,
זכרונו לברכה,
when he was somewhat of an old man,
so somebody wished him,
by the ברית of a grandchild,
great-grandchild,
that he should be זוכה for the wedding of that of that child,
and he said,
"אמן."
He answered,
"אמן."
And he didn't say,
"Ah,
that's that's ridiculous.
It can't happen."
So,
this is a very important רמב״ן.
If somebody gives you a ברכה and it seems pretty outlandish,
so realize it could happen.
Now,
the רמב״ן in the continuation,
he discusses the dialogue between אברהם and שרה,
which we won't go into now.
Now,
the רמב״ן deals with the following:
as I pointed out before,
especially here in בראשית,
there are so many questions that would arise if you would read the beginning
of any given פרשה together with the end of the previous פרשה.
But because we have six days in between,
we sometimes forget what There is a major question which we would ask,
and that is:
why did it come as a surprise to שרה אמנו she's going to have
a child?
After all,
already we already read the end of פרשת לך לך that הקדוש ברוך הוא
tells אברהם אבינו he's going to have a child from שרה.
And presumably,
what should What would we expect אברהם אבינו to do the next second?
Run to שרה אמנו and tell her.
So if that's the case,
so why How is it possible that שרה אמנו was surprised by this statement
of I'm sorry?
Oh,
well,
one second,
one second.
So the רמב״ן has two approaches.
Says the רמב״ן,
וראוי שנאמר עוד the end of line six on page ק״י.
We're still in the same פסוק.
וראוי שנאמר עוד כי אברהם לא גילה אותו הנאמר לו מתחילה אבל שרה אשתך
יולדת לך בן.
So why not?
So,
number one,
two possibilities:
והמתין עד שישלח השם אליה הבשורה ביום אחר.
He was waiting for הקדוש ברוך הוא to send the בשורה to her כי
ידע כי לא יעשה השם אלוקים דבר,
a פסוק.
He knew that הקדוש ברוך הוא wouldn't doesn't do anything כי אם גלה סודו
אל עבדיו הנביאים.
הקדוש ברוך הוא will often reveal the secrets to a נביא.
And therefore,
he figures that שרה אמנו will eventually hear about it.
Now,
this of course is strange because הקדוש ברוך הוא did reveal it to a
נביא,
i.e.,
to אברהם.
So I would guess I would suggest that the רמב״ן over here is making
reference to a גמרא in סנהדרין.
The גמרא in סנהדרין on פ״ט עמוד ב׳
indicates that when there is,
generally speaking,
when there's a נבואה that's said Let's say everybody here is a נביא.
When there's a נבואה that's said to Mr.
Stiglitz,
then and he's meant to say it over to everybody,
other people also be aware that there's such a נבואה that came,
just other people were not told to say it over.
Just Stiglitz was said to say it over to others.
Okay,
that's what the גמרא says based on this פסוק,
כי לא יעשה השם אלוקים דבר כי אם גלה סודו אל עבדיו הנביאים.
Maybe by the לשון רבים,
עבדיו הנביאים.
So being that that's the case,
so אברהם אבינו figured that if שרה אמנו was meant to know about if
she was meant to know at the time of that first נבואה,
then presumably שרה אמנו would have heard about it.
And she didn't hear about it,
apparently it's something which אברהם אבינו was not meant to tell her right away.
That's a פשט one.
Or פשט two,
listen to this:
או מרוב זריזותו במצוות היה טרוד במילתו מילת המרובים אשר בביתו ואחר כך בחולשתו
ישב לו פתח האהל מלאכים באו טרם שיגיד לה דבר.
Says the רמב״ן,
אברהם אבינו,
he didn't get a chance to tell שרה אמנו,
because after all,
at the same time that he was told to to at the same time
he was told that שרה אמנו would have a child,
he was also told to do the ברית מילה.
And being that's the case,
he ran to do the ברית מילה a hundred miles an hour,
and he was so preoccupied with that,
they didn't have a chance to.
"Ay,
but why didn't he tell her afterwards?"
He was just too weak!
So אברהם אבינו was so weak,
he couldn't even tell שרה אמנו that בשורה,
but nevertheless,
when he sees those guests,
then he all of a sudden he gets a some charge of energy,
and he's able to run!
Selective,
you know,
the Sometimes there is a,
like,
לו יצויר there in some ישיבות,
there are guys that might have a might have it hard getting up for
שחרית,
but to get up for a טיול,
people they're able to get up at 5:00 in the morning.
Not in this ישיבה,
because in this ישיבה for טיולים,
we don't get up at 5:00 in the morning,
but you get the idea.
Okay.
פסוק י״ח.
ואברהם היו יהיה.
So before הקדוש ברוך הוא reveals to אברהם אבינו the plans for destruction of
סדום,
so פסוק says that אברהם will be a great nation because he's going to
teach his children.
So what exactly is the point of that פסוק at this point in time,
why is it mentioned over here?
So he says that the point is the following:
that אברהם is going to be the father of a great nation and he's
going to teach his children about justice,
about חסד,
and the children will ask,
"One second,
אברהם אבינו,
חסד,
justice,
he loves people,
so how could it be that סדום was destroyed,
his neighbors were destroyed,
and he didn't do anything about it?"
So therefore,
הקדוש ברוך הוא says,
"I therefore want to reveal to אברהם אבינו the plans for destroying סדום,
then אברהם in fact will do whatever he can do to be מלמד זכות,
to ask that perhaps סדום should be spared."
Okay.
Skipping to חמישים צדיקים,
פסוק כ״ד on page קי״ב.
So אברהם אבינו,
he first asks,
maybe there's 50 צדיקים,
45,
40,
30,
20,
10,
stops.
When אברהם אבינו asks,
maybe there's 40,
how many cities,
after all,
there were five cities that were destroyed,
how many cities was אברהם אבינו trying to save when he asked,
maybe there's 40 צדיקים?
רש״י says four.
When he asked about 30 צדיקים,
three,
20 צדיקים,
two,
10 צדיקים,
one.
The רמב״ן says,
why in the world do you have to say that?
The simple reading of the פסוקים is that all the time he was trying
to have all five,
סדום,
עמורה,
אדמה,
וצבוים,
which one am I leaving out?
And צוער?
So he was trying to save all the cities.
And the רמב״ן says according to רש״י,
it's difficult to understand why אברהם אבינו,
he needs to preface every request with an apology that,
"I feel uncomfortable and I'm not worthy."
After all,
once הקדוש ברוך הוא says that 50 could save five,
so obviously 40 should be able to save four.
So why does he need to be so apologetic?
Answers the רמב״ן that he needs,
with answering for רש״י,
that he needs to be apologetic because after all,
granted 50 could save five,
that doesn't necessarily dictate that 40 could save four.
Why not?
Because after all,
the more people that have being involved in מצוות,
then the,
then the significance is exponential.
על פי הלכה,
Rabbi Rubinstein,
עליו השלום,
pointed out that let's say you have an option of having two מניינים each
of 10 people,
could have one מניין of 20,
so it's better to have one מניין of 20,
because the זכות of having so many people דאווען together is that much greater.
And therefore we try to דאווען in the ישיבה מניין,
whatever,
rather than the whatever other מניין exist.
That's also a ישיבה מניין,
maybe,
whatever.
I won't knock that because I sometimes דאווען there,
whatever,
okay.
It is in a בית מדרש,
let's see,
whatever.
Okay,
skipping to ונדעה אותם,
פסוק ה׳
in פרק י״ט.
We'd better get moving.
י״ט ה׳.
So what was the point of the people of סדום,
why would they want to sin with the guests?
So it says,
כוונתם לכלות את הרגל מביניהם,
they didn't like guests.
They hate guests because after all,
כי חשבו שבעבור טובת ארצם,
שגנת השם,
יבואו שם רבים,
והם היו מואסי הצדקה.
They were afraid that many people would join their wonderful land,
and therefore they did whatever they felt they needed to do to see to
it that guests wouldn't come.
Ay,
so what was לוט?
Why'd they accept לוט?
So the רמב״ן gives a number of answers,
some of which are difficult to understand.
He says,
well the first is understandable,
לוט בעושר ממונו בא להם.
לוט was rich!
Everybody likes having rich neighbors.
So They allowed Lot.
Or,
ביקש מהם רשות,
he asked permission.
What did that mean?
So what if he asked permission?
Why should they let him in?
I don't know,
I assume there are many people that asked permission,
but weren't let in.
Or,
take a look at the third possibility:
שקיבלו לכבוד אברהם.
They accepted him לכבוד אברהם אבינו,
which is pretty awesome.
Let's keep in mind,
they accepted Lot before Avraham saved the city of סדום.
That's what it would seem,
he moved to סדום.
And nevertheless,
the people of סדום,
anti-חסד,
had respect for אברהם אבינו.
That's pretty amazing.
That they had respect—we see what an outstanding,
towering figure אברהם אבינו was,
that even people like סדום respected him.
Okay,
the רמב"ן,
a bit after halfway through,
has an important point:
ודע—this is 31 in the standard print—דע כי משפט סדום,
that which סדום was dealt with so severely,
היה למעלת ארץ ישראל,
כי מכלל נחלת השם.
ארץ ישראל is a very holy place,
ואינה סובלת אנשי תועבות,
does not tolerate people that violate all sorts of abominations,
וכאשר תקיא את הגוי כולם מפני תועבותם,
just as an entire nation might be thrown out of ארץ ישראל when they
violate all sorts of sins,
so also this city was destroyed.
And הקדוש ברוך הוא saw to it that this city would be a sign
for future generations that when when people severely sin in ארץ ישראל,
then there is a very severe punishment.
Okay.
Now,
the next piece is somewhat lengthy,
and he deals with the following:
one of the most tragic,
shocking,
very depressing stories in תנ"ך is at the end of פרשת—at the end of
ספר שופטים,
the story of פילגש בגבעה.
We won't go into all the details there,
just,
you know,
one doesn't need to have a great amount of sensitivity to be to realize
how tragic that story was.
But the basic story,
you have somebody passing by,
passing through with his פילגש,
and it says he wasn't sure whether they should continue traveling,
they're passing by יבוס,
which at the time was a כנעני city.
He said,
"No,
no,
we don't want to stay by the כנעני.
We'll pass by a Jewish city."
They come to a city called גבעה in בנימין,
and some old man invites them.
And then some people from the גבעה,
from that city גבעה in בנימין,
they surround the city,
and they want to violate the guest.
And in the end,
they hand over the פילגש,
and the people of the,
the wicked people from the city,
they violate the פילגש,
she dies,
and then the fellow whose פילגש was,
he cuts up the body in parts,
sends it to the Jewish people,
the Jewish people they are shocked,
and they wage war with בנימין,
a war in which many people from בנימין were killed,
and many people also from the Jewish people.
That story,
of course,
ends off,
it's close to the end,
I think maybe even ends off ספר שופטים,
with which line repeats itself in ספר שופטים?
בימים ההם אין מלך בישראל,
איש הישר בעיניו יעשה.
If we don't have a proper justice system,
then you have people doing all sorts of abominations,
doing disgusting,
terrible things.
If anybody wants some expressions of that nowadays,
it's not so hard to find.
But in any case.
So the,
so the big question that needs to be dealt with is the following:
that story sounds so remarkably similar to the story of סדום,
of Lot and סדום.
So the רמב"ן,
a lover of the Jewish people,
says,
"Well,
no,
no,
no.
That story was not as bad as סדום."
Why isn't,
why wasn't it as bad as סדום?
So the רמב"ן,
take a look at the top of page קט"ו,
this is a bit of the way in,
about eight lines into the piece,
we're in פסוק ח'.
ודע והבן כי ענין פילגש בגבעה אף על פי שהוא נדמה לענין הזה איננו
כמוהו לרוע.
Why not?
Now,
take a look at this.
כי הרשעים ההם לא היתה דעתם לכלות הרגל מן המקום ההוא.
They weren't anti-חסד.
אבל היו שטופי זמה ורצונם משכב האיש האורח וכאשר הוציאו אליהם פילגשו נתפייסו בה.
Now,
this is pretty amazing.
So they weren't as disgusting as סדום.
סדום were anti-חסד.
Over here,
they were just into זנות,
which sounds like on the scale of things which are disgusting,
so being anti-חסד is considered to be worse than זנות.
Obviously both are abominations,
but over here we see how important it is for a person to try
to seek חסד,
for a person certainly not be against חסד.
That's number one.
Number two,
very importantly points out that over there it indicates there were some people of
the city,
it wasn't the entire city,
but by סדום was the entire city that was involved.
Okay.
Now,
the רמב״ן does point out that over there the rest of the Jewish people
they wanted the people from גבעה to be handed over,
if I'm not mistaken,
and the רמב״ן explains that the halachic basis was—I'm sorry,
I don't remember if they—certainly wanted the people from that city that sinned to
be punished because there is What's the basis of that?
He says there's a rule which says בית דין מכין ועונשין שלא מן הדין.
Although there are certain punishments which the תורה says apply for certain עבירות,
there's also a situation where if people there might be a situation,
let's say,
בית דין feels that people are very מזלזל in some דין דרבנן בהלכות שבת.
They're מזלזל on some עניני צניעות.
So בית דין has the right to give a punishment above and beyond the
standard punishment that normally appears in הלכה.
So the people of the rest of the Jewish people,
they felt the people of גבעה in בנימין,
they need to be severely punished.
Now,
as I pointed out,
in the war that ensued,
there were many people killed,
both from יהודה,
from the rest of the Jewish people,
and also from בנימין.
Why is that so?
So says the רמב״ן,
well,
there was some guilt on the part of the people of בנימין,
tribe of בנימין,
and also the rest of the Jewish people.
On the part of בנימין,
that they themselves didn't punish the evildoers.
Part of the rest of the Jewish people,
that they should have first told בנימין,
the people from בנימין,
to punish the sinners,
rather than to wage war right away with בנימין.
Okay.
The רמב״ן also continues and says that another reason why so many people were
punished was there's the story with the פסל מיכה.
מיכה was some individual that had a very interesting history.
מיכה was a fellow that,
according to the מדרש,
he was originally part of a building.
What do I mean?
He was used by the Egyptians as part of the building in מצרים,
and משה רבינו saves him,
and this guy was an eternal troublemaker and had some פסל לעבודה זרה,
which caused So that was apparently around at the time of the שופטים,
and the Jewish people they didn't do anything about that.
So that's also one of the reasons for the great amount of people dying
there in battle with that story of בנימין.
Okay.
Very unfortunate episode in the history of the Jewish people.
The רמב״ן at the end of The רמב״ן at the end of פסוק ז׳,
י״ט,
ז׳,
says that the איסור to look back at סדום,
aside from whatever רש״י says,
is that the שכינה came down to punish סדום,
and therefore it was improper for them to look.
Okay.
The רמב״ן פרק כ׳
פסוק ב׳,
the end of page קי״ט,
points out it's pretty amazing that שרה אמנו,
after אברהם was told or after שרה אמנו was told that she would become
young again and have a child,
so what age was she?
What age was שרה אמנו when she gave birth?
91.
So you have a woman that's 90 years old that's take- There is some
enigmatic פסוק,
פסוק ט״ז,
הנה נתתי אלף כסף לאחיך,
אבימלך tells אברהם אבינו,
or tells שרה אמנו,
"I gave a thousand כסף לאחיך,
הנה הוא לך כסות עינים."
That money is a covering of the eyes.
What in the world does that mean?
So the רמב״ן understands that the פסוק is telling us that אבימלך says,
"The fact that I am giving you this money—" I'm sorry,
the fact that I gave אברהם this large sum of money,
despite the fact that there might be room to think that I would hate
אברהם because he got me into this problem by not saying that she's the
wife.
So the fact that I gave such a large sum to אברהם is clearly
due to the fact that I realize that I need אברהם אבינו to pray
for me because he's a holy man and because I did something so terrible
to take שרה אמנו,
and this will prevent anybody else from starting up with you.
So כסות עינים,
it will cover the eyes of anybody that has any הוה אמינא to start
up with you.
But the פסוק continues,
ואת כל ונוכחת,
which רמב״ן understands that even with all this,
שרה אמנו,
she didn't agree.
She said,
"What you did is disgusting by any standards," because after all,
when somebody comes to the city,
you don't ask,
"Hey,
is this woman your sister,
your wife?"
You offer them what to eat.
So she wasn't so—she still continued to argue with אבימלך and said what he
did is something which was very improper.
Okay.
מצחק...
I guess we'll skip that.
על אדות בנו,
פסוק י״א.
So שרה אמנו tells אברהם to send away ישמעאל and הגר.
So the פסוק points out that אברהם אבינו was upset על אדות בנו.
So רמב״ן highlights the fact that the פסוק does not say that אברהם אבינו
was upset about having to send away his פילגש.
That he didn't have any problems with,
but he did have problems with sending away ישמעאל,
that was his son and he viewed as his son.
Okay,
skipping to כ״ב א׳.
והאלקים נסה את אברהם.
The רמב״ן explains,
what is the concept of a נסיון?
After all,
הקדוש ברוך הוא obviously knows what's in one's heart.
So what's the point of a נסיון,
explains רמב״ן.
Point of נסיון is the following.
If a person has a good heart,
he is rewarded for the actions which stem from that good heart.
Just having a good heart is not something which by itself is something that
you get a lot amount of שכר for.
Rather,
הקדוש ברוך הוא wants a person to be מוציא מן הכח אל הפועל,
from the potential to the actual,
so that a person will get שכר for a מעשה טוב and not just
שכר of לב טוב.
And the רמב״ן has some line that he says,
realize that הקדוש ברוך הוא only gives נסיונות to a צדיק that has the
ability to overcome the נסיון,
doesn't give נסיונות to a רשע.
What exact that means,
I'm not sure.
Okay.
הר המוריה.
The—אונקלוס says,
ארע פולחנא,
the land of worship.
So in contrast to רש״י's understanding of the תרגום,
the רמב״ן understands that מוריה is associated with the word מורא,
fear.
Okay.
Why is it that the עקידה was דווקא over there?
Why דווקא over there in that place?
הקדוש ברוך הוא could have had אברהם אבינו do the עקידה anywhere.
Why he traveled for three days?
So says the רמב״ן about five lines before the end of פסוק ב׳,
we're on page קכ״ו.
Our last word in line is זכות.
רצה שתהא זכות העקידה בקרבנות לעולם.
הקדוש ברוך הוא wanted the זכות of the עקידה to be associated with the
קרבנות.
כאשר אמר אברהם ה׳
יראה.
And that—so therefore הקדוש ברוך הוא said that the עקידה should be in the
place where we're going to be bringing קרבנות.
When did the עבודה in the משכן start,
רבותי?
What month?
The עבודה in the משכן started what month?
ניסן.
Why ניסן?
כסלו was when they finished building the משכן,
but the עבודה started ניסן.
Why?
Because ניסן is the month in which יצחק אבינו was born.
Hey,
there are other cool people that were born in other months,
so why דווקא the חודש in which יצחק was born?
Because יצחק and the עבודה are very much related to each other,
because of עקידת יצחק.
ועוד,
another reason why the עקידה was not somewhere local to where אברהם אבינו was,
because הקדוש ברוך הוא wanted אברהם אבינו to travel for three days,
because after all,
it's a greater נסיון if he had to think about it for three days,
rather than הקדוש ברוך הוא told him to do it that second.
Okay,
פסוק ט״ז,
יען אשר עשית את הדבר הזה.
So also earlier הקדוש ברוך הוא promised that it would be כוכבי השמים.
But,
says רמב״ן two lines before the end of that piece,
והבטחה שלא יגרום שום חטא שיכלה זרעו,
there won't be any sin that will bring about the destruction of the Jewish
people,
או שיפול ביד אויביו ולא יקום,
or that will fall in the hands of the of our enemies without being
able to get up.
וזו הבטחה שלימה בגאולה העתידה לנו,
a clear-cut explicit הבטחה on the future redemption.
Okay,
פסוק כ׳:
מלכה גם היא,
she has children.
So רמב״ן points out that אברהם אבינו was very happy to hear this בשורה.
אברהם אבינו had a brother whose name was נחור.
He also had a brother whose name was הרן.
הרן died,
and אברהם אבינו married one daughter of הרן,
and נחור married another daughter of הרן.
And the רמב״ן points out,
it would seem that she only had a child now and not earlier.
How does it seem like that?
Because after all,
otherwise אברהם אבינו would have heard about it,
because after all,
the distance between הרן,
between חרן and and ארץ ישראל is not that great,
so presumably would have heard about it.
Which you see from here that אברהם אבינו did not have a כשר phone,
or he whatever,
he he certainly had email at least,
because I don't know,
the רמב״ן seems to assume that well,
of course,
he would know what's going on with his relatives,
you know,
a thousand miles away,
which is interesting,
I don't know how he,
probably there were שיירות מצויות.
Says the רמב״ן,
and it brought him great joy,
עשה השם להם נס שנפקדו בימי זקנה,
so just like שרה אמנו had a child at an old age,
so also מלכה.
Which is interesting,
because after all,
you'd think after the ברית מילה that אברהם אבינו would cut off ties with
his family.
But you see that's not the case.
That the רמב״ן understands he still had an interest in what's going on with
his family.
There's a תשובה of רב משה about the relationship between a גר and his
biological parents,
but not for now.
Okay,
in any case,
in the beginning of the פרשה,
we had some far-out רמב״ם in מורה נבוכים about how he understood the פסוקים
at the beginning of the פרשה,
which we won't go over that now.
Okay,
the רמב״ן pointed out some similarity between the concept of ברית מילה and the
concept of קרבן and a מזבח.
The רמב״ן points out how amazing it is that אברהם אבינו,
despite his being sick and his being old,
despite the fact that he had many servants,
he himself runs to take care of those guests.
Okay,
שרה אמנו,
how come she denied,
how come she didn't believe the prophecy?
Says רמב״ן,
she did not know that they were נביאים איי,
so why that they were מלאכים.
איי,
so why is she criticized?
Because she should have believed it anyway,
or should have said,
"אמן,
that may God actually fulfill what you people said."
Okay,
the רמב״ן discusses why is it that אברהם אבינו did not tell שרה אמנו
immediately the end of פרשת לך לך that he heard בנבואה that שרה אמנו
would have children,
either because he had some חשבון that he felt that it wasn't meant to,
or he didn't get around to it due to the fact that he was
so much involved with ברית,
with the ברית מילה.
The רמב״ן says that הקדוש ברוך הוא feels the need to tell אברהם אבינו
about the plans for destroying סדום,
because הקדוש ברוך הוא realized that the descendants of אברהם אבינו would ask,
"How is it possible that אברהם אבינו,
who so much loved חסד and teaches his children about that,
would not try to get involved to save the city?"
Okay,
מחלוקת between רמב״ן and רש״י with respect to when אברהם אבינו asked about 40,
30,
20,
10,
was he asking to save 4,
3,
2,
1 cities?
רמב״ן says that according to רש״י,
you have to explain,
have to deal with the issue of why did אברהם feel so uncomfortable in
asking for those fewer cities to be saved.
And he says that apparently,
when you have 20 people involved in מצוות,
it's more than double,
doubly valuable than just having 10 people involved in מצוות.
Okay,
the רמב״ן points out that that which סדום was so severely punished is due
to its effects in ארץ ישראל.
He dealt with why the people of סדום acted the way they did,
they were anti-חסד,
why they accept לוט,
he has a number of approaches.
He tries,
he finds some distinctions between the story of סדום on one hand,
the story of פילגש בגבעה,
he says the story of סדום was that much worse.
He points out how amazing it is that שרה אמנו was beautiful at the
old age of 90.
The רמב״ן tells us that אברהם אבינו's problem sending away הגר and ישמעאל was
mainly with sending away ישמעאל rather than הגר.
He explained to us that the idea of ניסיון is to give a person
שכר for that which he does,
not just שכר for that which he has in his heart.
He spoke about the connection between the עקידה and קרבנות,
and he says that after the עקידה,
הקדוש ברוך הוא promises אברהם אבינו that the Jewish people will never be destroyed
and fall in the hands of their enemies,
even if they do severely sin.
Eventually,
the Jewish people will be redeemed.
Have a good שבת.
יישר כח.
יישר כח,
רבי.