BS”D

Lech Lecha – Come on Over to the Other Side

Dr M Bank

A Guten Erev Shabbos. This weeks parsha, parshas lech lecha. Once again is an epic parsha of world history proportions. I would like to call this parsha, ‘Come on over to the other side’. Really, Avraham was considered haivri. He was considered a person that spoke Hebrew. Which, when we look at world languages today, all the languages basically, except for Chinese, Japanese maybe, all start writing from the left hand side. Hebrew, not to be difficult, but because it was in fact the first language in the history of the world, H created the world through Hebrew, loshon hakodesh, is written from right to left. So, when we reflect on it, H, from the very outset, told Avraham in this test, that he had to graduate from all ten tests to be who he was, and to be something above and beyond nature. H’ told him of this test, which until this point, he had to graduate through all the other tests.

Having been thrown into the Ur Casdim, the furnaces of Casdim, that he refused to bow down to the gods of those lands. Even his father taught him about idolatry. His father was the biggest merchant in idolatry. His father went off one day and left his business to his son, to Avraham, to take care of it, to sell whatever idols people wanted. When he came back that evening, the business was lost. All the idols in the shop were smashed to smitherines. Then there was one idol that still hadn’t been destroyed. The father, Terah, said to Avraham, what happened here? What did you do? So Avraham said, what do you mea, what did I do? These idol had a massive war – who was the greatest idol. That idol beat all the others out. He smashed them to smitherines. Look what happened in your shop. Horrified, the father said – ‘what, do you think I’m an idiot. These are inanimate statues. What do yout think? The statue can smash the other statue to pieces?’ Avraham Avinu said, ‘Abba, you hear what you are saying?’. (2.19) They are gods that have feet but cannot walk, mouths but cannot speak, they have eyes but cannot see, they have ears but cannot hear, this is a mekach taus, this is an absolute lie, what are you doing – you are trading in lies. Stop, before its too late. The King, Nimrod heard about this and grabbed Avraham Avinu, because he could be a threat to the whole nation. He was an Ivri, a person against the whole nation, with his new found belief in a god that is nothing like anything they had ever seen, because you cannot see G-d. He was also opposing the King, because the King presented himself as a god. They said to Avraham Avinu, either you bow down to the god of this nation or we throw you in the furnace. So he said, I’m very sorry, we’re not allowed to bow down to anything or anyone except Hakadosh boruch Hu. So they threw him into a huge furnace, and he walked around in the furnace and all the people saw him walking around in the furnace, not a thread of clothing, not a hair on his head, not a cell on his skin was singed by the furnace. They could smell the skin in a second. He walked around in the furnace for a while and then climbed out. No smoke coming off his clothes. No change in temperature. They were shocked.

So they said to the brother of Avraham Avinu, Haran, what’s it going to be, are you going to bow down to our god, or are you going to present to us the same challenge as your brother? Are you going to bow down to us or are we going to have to put you in the furnace? Are you going to bow down to our god or to the G-d of Avraham? He said, it looks pretty impressive, you know, Avraham, who you threw into the furnace and he came out unscathed, I’ll go with him. So they took him and threw him into the furnace and straight away he was incinerated. Completely burnt to ash in one second. What happened? Didn’t he show complete faith, yet one was burnt and one wasn’t? No, he didn’t have complete faith. He merely saw what happened to his brother, but he didn’t know why it happened to his brother. (5.11). He had no knowledge of hakadosh Boruch Hu whereas his brother knew about Him, he dedicated his whole life to Hashem. If he had to, he was willing to die al Kiddush H’. We see that the torah dedicates tremendous amounts of information on the shidduch of Yitzhak Avinu, on the promise of Eliezer the eved, his journey to Lavan, the negotiations, the miracle of how he prayed to H, every breath, every sentence, how he told Lavan. It goes through in tremendous detail. Yet when it comes to the war of Avraham Avinu with just Lot, the son of his brother with him, against 7 nations, it takes a whapping 2 sentences in the Torah.

So, this is the premise of this weeks parsha, that by going over to the other side, not just the other side in terms of world opinion, that we don’t go with popular consent. We go with ratzon H’, what H’ commands us, what H’ tells us is right. Throughout world history people have been trying to find something as if to show the Jewish nation, that is your tradition but we have a much better idea of how to enjoy ourselves in this world. We can give you the Midianite and Moabite dancing girls – how about it? We can give you the flesh pots of Egypt. Either the meat pots or the flesh pots. Or we can give you the melting pot of America, as much gold and silver as you want – which even carried a picture of the pyramid E pluribus unus, from the many we will smelt you down into one – so that you will not remember where you came from. You will not survive the American dream. For that you have to let go of the tradition of Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov Avinu to serve H’. When the Jews came from Europe to America they called it 6 day employment. Why ? Because as soon as they got a new job, on the seventh day they kept Shabbos. When they went back to work they were told they were fired. It’s a tremendous irony, the separation of State and religion. A person was not free to go to worship on Shabbos, although of course they have freedom of worship which allows the missionaries to prey on you. So its an incredible thing, an incredible tragedy, the number of people that have succumbed to the American dream. They say the assimilation rate in America is somewhere between 60 and 80% in the different cities of America. What happened to the forefathers and grandmothers with knives at their throats and guns at their heads, who refused to bow down to the gods of others. They followed in the tradition of Avraham Avinu with body and soul, they went over to the other side, they were put in a furnace emotionally, physically. Rebbetzin Jungreis in Bergen Belsen was 9 years old and the commandant of Bergen Belsen was surrounded with Alsatian dogs. Vicious ferocious German Shepherds and SS troops with machine guns. She had a craving to ask them, although she had a craving to ask them, you seemingly mighty Germans, millions upon millions, whose whole purpose was the annihilation of world Jewry; Amalek reincarnated. Those who set out to murder jews are vadai Amalek. So there she was trapped in a concentration camp, one of the biggest murder camps in the history of the world. An industrial production line. How to murder an destroy the bodies of millions of jews as efficiently as possible. So she asked in her heart, who do you think will win? Could they imagine that at the end of the war something like 50 million people had died and the jews were set free. Not by the grace of the other nations. Just by the grace of H’. H’ rescued that remnant that was willing to go through Ur Casdim and was willing to go wherever H’ wanted. The question has to be asked of the other nations, where were the nations of the world when 6 million were being murdered? All those other nations. So you see, the tremendous irony of World war Two, 70 wolves standing hungry against a tin little lamb, with nothing to depend on, only our father in heaven.

So we go forward. Avraham got the nevua, the prophecy from his father in heaven, go from his land, from his relatives, from his father’s house, “from the land that you grew up in, to the land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing. I will bless those that bless you, and those that curse you I will curse. All the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you”.

We see that those nations that take care of Am Yisrael receive tremendous tremendous levels of blessing. But as history shows, they tend to forget that this blessing was because of their kindness to Am Yisrael. If they turn on the Jews, H brings upon them terrible devastation. Look at ancient Babylon, the mightiest nation in the history of the world. Where are they today? Only in the history books. What about the ancient Egyptians – where are they today? Do the Egyptians today worship the same religion as the ancient Pharaohs? Nothing doing. If we look at the ancient Greeks, where are all those ancient Greek gods? Who is worshipping them today? Where are there descendants? If you ask where the descendants of Aharon are today, we can tell you 3,300 years later. All the Cohanim in the world are descendants of Aharon HaCohen. All the Leviim are direct descendants of Levi. We know who our forefather is from 4000 years ago. Can you imagine that? In the true year 1948 Avraham Avinu, my father, your father, our father, the father of Am Yisrael, of the whole Jewish world, and the father of Ishmael and the father of the father of Esav, was born. Those forces that were brought into the world to drive us to perfection. If we hadn’t abused it, if we had stayed at that level, we would have been invincible. That is a tremendous lesson for us. If we place our faith in the other nations of the world, and feel at home as guests, we eventually get eviction orders or eradication orders. So the best thing that we can do is to hold as tight as you can to our life raft that helps us to get through this world – through world history. So you see from this, that this parsha begins with a new birth of mankind, the story of Avraham Avinu and his descendants. This first 2000 years of creation were the error of desolation. In other words from Adam harishon to Noach and the destruction that fell upon the world. Look at Cain veHevel. Hevel had been mudered. Avoda Zara had been introduced into the world, ten tragic generations were washed away in the deluge of the flood. Ten generations from Noah failed to learn the lessons of the previous generation (Pirkei Avos 5, 2). Avraham was born in the Torah year 1948. It is a tremendous irony that in the 2000 years of our exile, from when we left the holy land 1948 years after our exile was our return. It speaks tremendous volumes that we are now in the era of rediscovery (15.29) of the light of Torah and being a light unto the nations.

Avraham Avinu began a profound change in the spiritual nature of mankind. Man of creation had an equal share in fulfilling H’s divine mission. The Torah was to be given to all mankind. After 20 generations of failure upon failure, the honour of leading G-d’s chosen people was earned only by Avraham and his descendants who protected the ratzon H. They earned Matan Torah through faith and they would be a guardian in perfecting the world, bringing all people to the light and sovereignty of one G-d, the G-d of Israel, of Issak and of Avrham Avinu. All the other gods are a non-starter.

If H knows all future events for all time and the thoughts of a person’s heart, why was it necessary to test Avraham Avinu? According to the Rambam in More Nevuchim (3.24), the trials were meant to display to the world how great a great man can be. By following H faithfully, by following what he says, a question of going with full faith, a lonely man of faith, against the whole world. It wasn’t a popular choice, it was a perfect choice. Ramban explains the concept of trial and error differently. H ensures through mercy that a person going through a trial, if he perseveres, will triumph. On the contrary, with justice, H never gives a trial that is beyond the capacity of the individual. H tests only righteous people who are able to do His will, not the wicked who would destroy His world. All of the trials are for the benefit of that man and for the benefit of mankind. That is only known to H’. The person being tested has a free choice. He must find the inner strength and inner faith to choose perfectly and rise up above the challenge. If he does, he has translated his potential into reality. He has made a great achievement for himself and all his descendants. The actual deed far outweighs the potential in the heavenly scales of Justice. He can therefore be rewarded for what he has accomplished rather than for the mere thought of what he would like to do for H’. Action is everything. To live by the mitzvos, to put on tefillin in the morning, to pray to H and only H, to eat kosher, to look for a shidduch, a wife that is the best, most faithful servant of H – one can’t find a more precious possession in this world. Even the Torah itself can’t reach its potential without the Eshes Chayil. Without a true wife, a woman of valour, when she has been through the fire of pain and come out perfect.

So Avraham and Sarah had many disciples but they were essentially, alone, they could never blend into whatever culture they were surrounded by. Avraham is called HaIvri, from the word haEver, Ever haYarden, the other side of the Jordan. Whichever side the world was on, Avraham Avinu was on the other side. Not because he was a contra, a counter-force in world history – whatever anybody chose he would choose the other side. On the contrary. The perfection of Torah is such, that when we look at torah, it is the only book in the history of the world that was written in the first draft, perfect first time, no error, no omissions, no corrections. The Torah, given 3,300 years ago on Mount Sinai, there is not one gap, one change in punctuation – perfect from before creation. As it says in the Medrash and is brought in the commentaries, H created the world through Torah. H wrote the Torah and then created the world. From the beginning there were three things called Reishis - Eretz Yisrael, Toras Yisrael and Am Yisrael. These were the things that H had in mind from the very outset of creation.

So Ivri means the other side. Literally, this means Avraham came from Canaan, from the other side of the Euhphrates. The Sages interpret this in a deeper sense. He was on the other side of the moral and spiritual divide. The Grand Canyon of moral ethics. It takes great faith to walk the tightrope across the Canyon. Why not stay there, on the other side. You’ve got your family, you’ve got your wealth, you’ve got your friends. Just hold tight. Why risk it all? Why take that great leap of faith that the average guy would not survive. Haran didn’t survive it. Nobody else in the family of Avraham Avinu survived it. All the moreso, everybody else that was in Ur Casdim. So why did Avraham take that great leap of faith? Because he knew in all his relationships with H that H is true and perfect. He had a real living connection with his creator. There was nothing in the world that would make him compromise or give up performing the will of his creator. It was full steam ahead. The amazing thing is that he was married to a woman whom H opened her heart and she came with him, and his nephew, Lot, also came with him. He was one side of world opinion – the moral and spiritual Divine, the rest of the world was on the other side. Righteous people must be ready to endure total world isolation. Popularity attracts – a person’s natural desire is to win the approval of other people. Most people bend their own principles and beliefs. Avraham and Sara were given the challenge of moving to the opposite side of the world and in so doing achieving infinite blessing for the generations that would come from them. Until then, it was impossible for them to have children. After that, through one child at the age of 90, Sara gave birth to a little boy. Through him, H guaranteed the history of the world. Through him would come forth Yaakov Avinu. From him would come forth Am Yisrael. H guaranteed through prophecy, as long as there is heaven and earth, there will be Am Yisrael. So Avraham Avinu through his leap of faith guaranteed that his descendants would be Netzach Netzachim, eternal and that they would serve H eternally through each generation. They would survive the furnace through faith.

Not only did he have to cross over to the other side of the river, but he had to clear away the ashes of world history to recognise H. At this stage Avraham’s name was Avram. The name of his wife was Sarai. Their names wer not changed to Avraham and Sarah until 24 years after they left, yet nevertheless, they were already recognised by their new names because they had already achieved their new greatness.

Lots father was Haran, Avraham’s brother, who perished in the fire of Ur Casdim. Avraham Avinu assumed the responsibility of raising his orphaned nephew. Some commentators note that H had not told Avraham to take Lot with him. Lot later through his berhaviour showed that maybe he shouldn’t have gone along with Avaraham avniu, according to the Zohar. Avraham took him because he foresaw that Dovdi Hamelekh and the Moshiach would descend from him. Isn’t this an incredible thing? Lot, after the destruction of Sodom and Amora, with his wife and 2 daughters, and his wife was taken when she looked back and the 2 daughters hid with him in a cave. Moav and Amon, the tribes that in future times after the time of Lot provoked and challenged Am Yisrael, but Yehuda eventually married one of the daughters that would be Ruth, and Yehud would become Moshiach through Dovid. Through the most impossible twists in world history, we see the miracle of what H had in mind from the outset of world history. If we show faith despite the most infallible challenges in the world, people that are assimilated and then rekindle their faith, come back to faith in H’. Through this tremendous toil, going through the furnaces of challenges to the faith, they will be blessed with incredible incredible blessings down the road. So we see that going forward, the deeds of the patriarchs are coming as blessings and challenges for their children for 3 and 4 generations. The Ramban says that it is a fundamental principle of understanding the Torah, the patriarchs, that kol ma sheira leaves, siman lebanim. Whatever happens to the forefathers is a test for the children. The Torah details such incidents as their journeys, digging of wells, because these serve as infinite lessons for the future. Abraham stopped over in Shechem in addition to prayers for Yaakov his grandson who would one day fight against Shechem, or because Shechem would be the first place conquered by Bnei Yisrael nearly 300 years before they gained possession of the land. Then, being camped between Beit El and Ay, the latter being the first place conquered by Yehoshua. According to Rashi – the plains of More, H showed him Har Grizim and Har Eval. While immediately after arriving in the land, the tribes were able to observe all of Torah. The stories of the Avos (patriarchs) are filled with such symbolic acts such as sealing a covenant with a physical act showing that when prophecy is closed, in a symbolic act, the decree becomes permanent and will never change. As an example, the Ramban brings the conquest of the first destruction of the Beis Hamikdash. It was written on a parchment which Boruch ben Neriah was commanded to tie to a stone and throw into the Euphrates with the assurance that Babylon would sink like that stone (Yirmiyah 1, 63). As we said from the outset, the only thing we have is the opportunity to come on over from the other side. To choose life and Torah, rather than death and destruction.

Avraham was sent to Egypt. Posuk 10. There was a terrible famine in the land, which was a portent for all the future famines in the land. As we say in shema, if Am Yisrael follow the ways of H’, we get our first rains – Yoreh, and our last rains, malkosh, and the land blossoms with the fruit of the land. If we rebel, let our heart go astray and serve the gods of others, then the land will quickly dry up, and the fruit of the land, and the flocks, everything will perish (has veshalom) and you will quickly be sent into exile (rachman litzlan). As it says in Pirkei Avos, beware of your words lest your disciples be driven into exile with you and they drink poisoned waters, and those poisoned waters cause them to perish, and that ill be held on your account. What is this cryptic Mishna fromPirkei Avos? Who are a person’s disciples? His own children. He has to teach his children Torah. That is part of the Torah commandment Shema Yisrael, veshinantam levanecha – teach your children. So if we have to go into exile we are afraid they will take the waters of the other nations – their philosophy, their behaviour, their wealth – they will enjoy it and continue to drink from their wells, which sometimes are deadly poisonous to the Jewish nation, that we shouldn’t go after the gods of the other nations, H has commanded us to keep His Torah. When people intermarry with the other nations of the world, that is a death blow. Shortly thereafter comes a tragedy, either on the individual or on the national level. So we can be absolutely sure that those people that physically want to annihilate the jews, they have a physical destruction. Those that want to spiritually destroy the Jews, H earmarks them for a spiritual destruction. Looking through world history, time and again, all those great nations that have taken on the Jews, covertly or overtly, either as Haman or Hitler, planning and plotting whatever they want to do to us, they rise up to be great nations and when they decide to take on the Jews, they might annihilate some but they will never annihilate all. Then, H sets his face upon them, to destroy them and they self destruct. What is left is the remnant of the Jewish people that goes forward as mark Twain describes it, without any signs of infirmity or weakness, marching through world history and arriving at this point in world history, we are here today from the corners of the world – from South Africa, from Britain, from Switzerland, from America, from all the corners of the world.

Through 2000 years of darkness, we have been brought back to life and to light, the light of Torah. The privilege of learning Torah here in Jerusalem. Ki mitzion Tetze Torah, udvar H miyerushalayim, udvar yerushalayim mi H’. These are no coincidences, that H has created this Yeshiva, Dvar Yerushalayim for us to embellish and soak up the pure waters of Torah, undiluted, with pure strength, through the greatness of the Rosh Yeshiva, who is a Levi, Rav Horovitz shlita, it is meant to be. The Leviim are meant to be teaching Torah to Am Yisrael. So, its not a luxury item, its an absolute blessing, that if we kindle our commitment, H blesses us like never before. So, we go forward and we see another chapter of world history developing. Avraham Avinu in Egypt. Another test of Avraham Avinu’s faith. Immediately after he settles in Eretz Hakodesh, his new home land, where H has promised him everything, every manner of blessing, all of a sudden there was a terrible famine. He could have been destroyed, he could have been devastated. For the first timein his life he thought he could go “Aaaaaaah”, breath a sigh of relief. As soon as he settled in, he was driven out. Through tremendous drought and famine, he had to go to Egypt, of all places, a place infamous in history then, and so prominent in history today. H’ commanded him to leave the land and go to Egypt. This sees to contradict H’s glowing promises. Avraham’s faith is not damaged one iota. He had been through the furnaces of Ur Casdim, left the previous world behind. He had seen for a fleeting moment the good that H had in his treasure chest for Am Yisrael in the futre. He also saw that Am Yisrael had to go through the straits of Egypt, the melting pot or the flesh pot. The irony is, that on the dollar bill there is the pyramid and America today calls itself the melting pot, e pluribus unum. From many will come one. That they will smelt and melt the emuna of every other faith, so that people will be inspired to live the American dream. Beware, lest your heart go astray and you worship the gods of others.

A person must hold tight so that we can come home to Torah, Eretz Yisrael and Olam Haba Be Olam Hazeh. Only if you hold with all your heart, all your soul and all his resources, just like Avraham Avinu our forefather. He was able to survive and come over to the other side. To H’s side.

This test was an event that forshadowed Yaakov’s sons descending into Egypt for 210 years. As you see the amazing thing, H promised to Avraham Avinu, “See now that I have known that you …” Avraham Avinu said to his wife, “it shall occur that when the Egyptians see you, they will say, this is his wife. They will kill me but you they will let live. Please say that you are my sister. Historically, she was related to him. Through marriage, she was absolutely his wife. That it might go well with me for your sake and that I may live, on account of you. It occurred with Avraham, coming to Egpyt, that they saw the woman was very beautiful, the officials of Pahraoh took her.’ They saw her, praised her, and the woman was taken to the Pharaoh’s house. “He treated Avraham well for her sake, for he appeared to be the brother of this beautiful woman. He acquired many sheep, cattle, donkeys, female donkeys and male camels. The Pharaoh was ready to take her for his own. H afflicted the Pharaoh along with his entire household with a sever p[lague because of the matter of Sarah the wife of Avraham. Pharaoh summoned Avraham and said, ‘what is this that you have done to me, why did you not tell me that she is your wife. Why did you say she is your sister. So I would take her as a wife. There is your wife, take her go. So Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him. They escorted him and his wife and all that was his”. This was an immensely important lesson for world history. Those who get the message that H by Divine design protects His nation, will not mess around with a Jewish woman because they know that this is part of their plague. They are making a grave mistake. We see that the Jewish nation behaved well, that they would rive the Jewish nation out with tremendous wealth, all the wealth that they had coming to them, instead of grabbing, murdering and annihilating taking that wealth in the process of destroying. This is amongst the great lessons of world history. Those nations that rise up against us, they land up in the history books, and in the museum. We become the teachers of His story, history. We become the curators of those museums. We show people what the greatest and mightiest nations of the world tried to do to us, shbekol dor vador, for in each and every generation, we say every year in the Pesach seder, they rise up against us to annihilate us. Omdim Aleinu lechaloseinu. Only Hakadosh Boruch Hu Matzileinu miyadam. Only H rises up to rescue us from their hands. That is world history in a blink.

H smote the Pharaoh and his household with a debilitating skin disease that made relations impossible, ensuring Sarah was saved only for her husband (Rashi, GUr Aryeh). It mentions she was the wife of Avrahm because it was in his merit that H punished the Pharaoh. Phraraoh never bothered to ask mercifully how are you related to this woman. If she is your sister or your wife, fine and well. Avraham Avinu knew that he would kill the husbamd, not because living with a widow is halachically better for a bnei noahc, who are forbidden to have relations with a married woman, but it is also forbidden to murder. What was the reason he would kill the husband – because he didn;t want him knocking on the door, saying give me my wife back. He didn’t want the husbad tpo have a hatred that he would plot against the Pharaoh. What is the easy way out? Murder the husband and take the wife. That was their track record back then. Shockingly enough, wesee the behaviour of those nations when there is no yiras shomayim, there is yirah of nothing. Forbidden relationships, promiscuity and marriages that are a marriage of mockery, that mess around with each other and go to the Behemas (sic) and behave like behemas (animals) that they have no control of their animal urges, it is a tragedy of infinite proportions. H gave husband and wife for sanctity and for sanctuary. That this should be an eternal dwelling place for good people to build a good home and rear good children with good values. The tragedy is that people behave like animals. They bring to the world animosity.

So Avraham went up, Vayaal Avraham. Although it is true that Avrhaam ascended from the terrain of Eretz Mitzraim, to Eretz Yisrael because it is higher than Egypt, the Zohar explains that Avraham ascended spiritually after this experience. Form the lower degrading terrible value system of Egypt, Avaraham was now at the highest spiritual level, he had been in a place of terrible darkness and pollution and was now in his former splendour, on a higher level – unlike Adam and Noah who did not regain their former spiritual level. Not did he emerge from Egypt unscathed, but infinitely greater. By going into exile, by going into the furnaces of assimilation, temptation, of all the other nations and their values, coming to the conclusion that there is nothing in the history of the world that is good for us as the Torah of H’. We have to realign our lives, readjust our sights, to be inspoired and to aspire for the infinite goodness of H and his torah.

To signify this resumption of his original mission, to proclaim H’s name in the world, Avraham returned to the alter where he had declared his devotion when he first arrived in the land.

Lot and His Choice.

The Lot of Lot. There is a lot to contemplate here. When Lot was faced with the challenge of the machlokes of the flocks, as it says in Perek 13, Avraham went up with his wife and all that was his. Lot went with him, ot the South of Eretz Yisrael. Avraham was very laden with silver and gold. He proceeded from the South to Beit El to the place where he had been at the beginning, between Beit El and Ay, at the site of the alter that he set up from the very beginning. There Avraham invoked H by name. Also Lot who went with Avraham, his possessions increased. The Land could not support them for their posessions were very abundant, and they were able to dwell together and there was quarelling between the herdsmen of the livestock of Avrham and the herdsmen of the livestock of Lot. The Canaanite and Peruzite were then dwelling in the land. Avarham said to Lot, please let there be no strife between me and you. Between my herdsmen and your herdsmen. For we are kinsman, family. Isn’t all the land before you. Please separate from me. If you go the the left I will go to the right, if you go to the right, I will go to the left. This is something incredible. Where did Lot’s wealth come from ? What did he leave ur casdim with? He left with the shirt on his back. He went with Avraham Avinu. What did Avrhaam, givce him? Avraham gave him from his blessing, from his tents, from his shepherds, from his flock, he made Lot feel like his own son. He brought him up in a way that he didn’t feel he was a noch schlepper. That he was a burden to Avraham. Avraham gave him tremendous wealth, of Avrham Avinu’s wealth and blessing. What happened ? The dispute caused by Lots’ shepherds could not be resolved. Avraham saw that Lot was not learning from his chessed. Avraha,m ran the house with pure chessed. His tent doors were open from all four sides. Why? Because people shouldn’t feel that there is any side of his home that they can’t come in and to experience his chessed from the four corners of the world. This is the lesson that anyone who doesn’t have rachamim and chessed - his Jewish ancestry is called into question. So we see from this parting of the ways, wealth and lust brings out the worst in people. Avraham resisted this completely but Lot’s judgement was affected, which nearly destroyed all his family. It began that there was insufficient pasture for his flocks which gave Lot’s shepherds, with his support, a convenient rationalization to resort to thievery. The Rabbis comment, the land was surely spacious enough to accommodate 2 families. Rahter, the source of the problem was quarelling between the shepherds. When the people cannot get along, even the shepherds and the lambs cannoit get along. Where there is greed, there is not enough to feed the needs. Greed has no limitation. A person klusting for more and more and more – chazal say, a person who has one wants 2, if he has 2 he wants 4, 4 he wants 8, 8 he wants 16 ad bli dei. As they say ironically in America, the first million is the most difficult to earn. After a prson earns a million dollars he should reflect on what he wants in this world. Does he want to retire and learn Torah full time or donate that money to charity? What a joke – what a loser, as they say. The one with the most toys wins. Winning isn’t everything, it is the only thing, they say. Lots choice was money over morality. The two could not continue together. Avraham gave lot the first choice of where he would live. Lot chose the richest part of the country. Even though it was the cruelest and most corrupt. He thought, as many Jews did throughout world history, that he could enjoy the wealth of the sodomites without being influenced and affected by their evil values. As we see, he was wrong. He became a by product of the environment. Miraculously, he brought up two daughters that were virgins. Ironically, when people came to attack and rape the 2 male strangers that came to rescue Lot and his family, the people in Sodom and Amora said that they were going to rape the two strangers and moreso they were going to do the same to him. When it came to his daughters that were virgins, incredibly, it wasn’t interesting to them. So we learn from this the concept of Sodom and immorality, that emanated and started off in those communities. Wealth is responsible for immense leading astray if a person isn’t full of focus and emuna in H’. Lot seized the opportunity to leave the morality that constricted him to Avraham and settled in a rich part of the land. He raised his eyes and let himself be led by his own desires. From a higher level, Lot inspected the whole area. His gaze rested on the fertile valley near Sodom, where today you have the dead sea. It was the most lush place in the world, which at the time was as fertile as the Garden of Eden. It was the most well irrigated land. Asa resulkt of the destruction of Sodom and Amora, these places became desolate, impossible places which the dead sea reaches as we know it today. After Moshiach, when H splits har HaZeiim, the Mount of Olives, into 4, the water will flow into the dead sea region and once again it will become like the garden of eden. Not only that, but all the leaves that grow on the trees that is today the dead sea, will be a cure for all the curses and afflictions that exist in the world.

What I want to explore is an idea in perek 14 posuk 22. After Avaraham returned from saving Lot and defeating Kedar LeOmer and the Kings that were with him, The King od Sodom came out to meet him and malchiztedek the King of Shalem, Yerusahalyim, brought out bread and wine. “He was a priest of H the most High. He blessed Avraham saying, blessed is Avraham of H, the Most High, the Maker of heaven and earth. And blessed be H the Most High, who has delivered your foes into your hands. And he gave hima tenath of everythting”.

So we see from this, that people who recognise the miracles of h praise him for his goodness.

Avraham said to the King of Sodom, give me the people, and keep the possessions for yourselves. Give the people back their freedom but keep the possessions for yourself. He said “I lift up my hand to H’, G-d the most high, maker of heaven and earth, if so much as a thread or a shoe strap, I shall not take for you shall not say it is I that made Avraham rich. Far be it. Only what the young men have eaten, those who accompanied me – Aner, Eshcol and Mamre. They will take their possessions. There is an incredible secret here. If there is so much as a thread, or a shoe strap that I take from the bounty of war, to keep from myself. Eventually, how did H bless Avraham Avinu. He blessed his descendants measure for measure with a thread, the pesil techeles of the tzitzis, an infinteie mitzvah which by concentrating on the thread, you remember the 613 mitzvos of the Torah. Back then the shoe strap was wound around the leg like the ancient Greeks and Romans. In the zchus of that, H gave us the tefillin straps that we wind 7 times around our arm and say VeErastich Li LeHashem. I am eternally married to H’, in a spiritual sense. A bar Mitva is in a sense a chuppa. Not in a physical sense. Marriage in a physical sense, one has to go through the chuppa to be married and to accomplish the mitzvo of pru urevu. So we see that through the merit and the incredible tzeddek, justice, of Avraham Avinu, not a thread, that today we are blessed with tzitzis and tefillin.

Now I want to say a beautiful idea from perek 15, posuk alef. This is an incredible insight into world history. After these events, the word of h came to Avrham Avinu, to say, hear now Avraham, I am a shield to you. Your reward is very great. If H says very great, we’ve got to understand its very great. We look today, and all the 3 so called monotheistic faiths are all part of Avraham’s descendants. The Brahmins and far eastern beliefs are also from the 7 sons of Avrham Aviinu that he had after Sarah passed away, whom he sent to the east. Avraham said to H, My Lord, what can you give me seeing that I go childless. The steward of my house is the Damascan Eliezer. Avraham said, See, to me you have given no offspring and the steward of my house will inherit me. Suddenly, the word of H came to saying, that one will not inherit you. Only that one that comes forth from within you, shall inherit you. H took him outside, and said ‘Gaze towards the heavens. Count the stars if you are able to count them. Then H said to Avraham, so shall your offspring be. Avraham trusted in H. He reckoned it to Avraham as righteousness. H said to Avraham, I am H who will give you this Land to inherit it. Avrham says, whereby shall I know that I am to inherit it? First he heard the voice of H, now H is showing him.He questioned it. Just as Rashi says. The Shmitta year was coming. Will I find enough from my field to support me through the Shmitta year? A person who asks that, h will bless him with 3 years of produce, the 6^th, 7^th and 8^th. If a person doesn’t ask that, h will bless him even more, according to Rashi. H said to him take three heifers, three goats, three rams, a turtledove and a young dove. He took all these to him. He cut them through the centre and put each piece opposite its other half. The bird he did not cut up. Birds descended on the carcasses but Avraham drove them away. It happened as the sun was about to set, a deep sleep fell upon Avraham. Behold, a dread of great darkness fell upon him. H said to Avraham, know with certainty that your offspring will be aliens in a land not their own and they will serve them and they will oppress them 400 years. Also the nation that they shall serve, afterwards I shall judge and for you, you shall come to your ancestors in peace. You shall be buried in a good old age and the fourth generation shall return here. For the inquity of the Amorite shall not yet be full until then. So it happened, the sun set, it was very dark and behold, there was a smoky furnace and a torch of fire which passed between the pieces. On that day Avraham made a covenant with Avram, saying ‘ to your descendants I have given this land, fro the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates. The Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the hitties, the Perizzites and the Rephaim, the Amonite, Canaanite, Gighashite and Jebusite. This is world history.

I would like to explore a few quick points on this to some it up. According to the simple understanding this covenant. Avraham was 70 years old at the time. It precluded the prophetic vision to leave for Israel, which occurred when he was 75. H had him go to Cannan where he showed him according to the Gemoro in Borochus 7b, the Egyptian enslavement, the mergence of his offspring into freedom and their being granted Eretz Yisrael as an eternal heritage. Avaraham said Bemah Edah, how will I know? Avraham asked through what promise, condition or righteousness would he and his offspring merit this reward. As if he did not deserve it, or the people would not follow the correct path and would not be worthy. By telling him to seal the covenant, H was answering him. You and your descendents will be zoche through the temple offerings which I will institute as a kaporo for you children. Avraham persisted that the Temple would one day be destroyed/. What merit would then save Israel? H answered, when Israel, the Jewish people, recite the order of the sacrificial offerings, contained in the daily prayers, H will consider it as though they had actually brought the offerings for that day – Shacharis and Mincha sanctified offerings (Megilla 38b). H commanded Avraham to seal the Covenant. It was irrevocable as a covenant between H and all the descendants of Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov Avinu. Even though the merit of the patriarchs might have dissipated over the generations, a covenant is irrevocable.

What I want to reflect on, in conclusion, is the choice of Avraham. Behold a oven full of smoke and a burning torch passed between these pieces (Bereishis 15, 17). The Medrash commenting on this posuk says that h showed Avraham Avinu Gehenom, an oven full of smoke. His children were subservient, slaves to the other nations, that is the torch of fire. H asked him to pick which of the two punishments he would pick for his children to be subjected to if would rebel, heaven forbid, against H’. Avraham replied that my children should not go to Gehenom (r”l) but should suffer at the hands of the nations, in this world, where you will have mercy on them when they cry out you, for the sake of your great name which would be heaven forbid be desecrated amongst the other nations in which they will be sent. The Daas Zekeinim add that H showed Avraham the Torah and the Sacrifices – as long as his children would busy themselves with the sacrifices and learning Torah, they would be spared from the other 2. Gehenom and slavery and abuse at the hands of the other nations. There would come a time where the Beis Hamikdash would be destroyed, where the sacrifices would stop. At that point H asked Avraham to choose between these two frightening evils. The Rosh explains, in Parshas ahazinu, how is it possible for one to chase 1000, were it not for the fact that H had sold them, H had handed them over. The rock, he explained, was Avraham. Look at the rock from where you were carved. Just as Avraham had requested that they be sold, I will deliver them into their hands, up to a point, and then H’s mercy comes in, and H redeems us, as is happening in our days, Boruch H’.

How can the reshaim be taken out of Gehenom? The Rosh cites the Gemora in Eruvin 19a, which describes how Avrham takes the sinners out of Gehenom, at the end of 12 months, with the exception of those who have had relations with non-jewish women. They destroy the covenant of Avraham, the bris mila. Based on the above, it is little wonder that Avraham does that, based on the idea that he was the one that reached agreement with H that H’s nation would suffer at the hands of the hostile nation, not in gehennom, for eternity. This was the covenant that allowed Avraham Avinu to rescue the sinners from gehenom for eternity. By experiencing the difficulties of this world, H allowed Avraham to save us from pain and anguish in the next world.

May we all, please G-d, soon in our days, know the great divide, separate ourselves from that which is Tumah, according to H’s Torah, know the Havdel bein Kodesh le chol, the Kedusha of Am Yisrael, be a light unto the nations. May we go forward blazing a trail, lighting up the world with the Torah of H and showing the rest of the world the 7 mitzvos bnei noach so that they can also have their helek be’olam haba. Their portion in heaven, not in hell. May we all soon be zoche to Olam haba in olam Haze, Moshiach Tzidkeinu, the Geula Shleima, and the Beis Hamikdash Bimheira Veyameinu, and may we all dwell in the sanctity and delights of Shabbos, bimheira veyameinu. A Good Shabbos to the whole world.