Shaaalooomm swwweeeetest friends!!!
A huuuge mazel tov to R' and Mrs. Eliezer Slomnicki on their wedding!! May they build a beautiful home [first in Lakewood but soon in Yerushalayim!] filled with the Torah of the great budding scholar R' Eliezer and may all the families shep limitless nachas!!
This dvar Torah should be a zchus for Rav Chaim Aharon ben Gila, Sora Leah bas Rivka, R' Meir Simcha ben Leah, Leah Esther bas Frimet, R' Moshe Mordechai ben Chana, R' Noach ben Chaya Leiba, R' Yehoshua Meir ben Rochel Soroh, R' Moshe Yehuda ben Pesha Dina, R' Shmuel Binyamin ben Tishna Rochel Leah, R' Yehuda Yaakov ben Dina Chasha, R' Avraham Yitzchak ben Esther, R' Yosef Ezra ben Esther, R' Doniel Yaakov ben Sora Leba and R' Chaim Yehoshua ben Ephraim Hakohen, Avshalom ben Simcha - them and all of their families!!
NU - The elections are behind us and I think that Hillary's most ardent supporters and even Hillary herself will agree that the better "man" won. So whomever you voted for you can be secure in the knowledge - that in four years there will be another election... But for now we don't have to witness mud slinging, prying into other people's business, grandiose promises, often empty and non-binding, hype and fanfare and all that America represents - freedom and the right to elect a President who was the star of a reality TV show because what is politics if not reality TV [I don't have a TV and have never actually seen a show but I can imagine...]. Rumors have it that the White House is being renamed "The White Trump Presidential Residence", [we hope that Obama isn't offended by the racial intimation], 80 floors are being added, there will be a shopping mall on the first floor, a shul with three minyanim a day for when mishpocho comes, a fully staffed kollel [the gemara says that a goy who learns his mitzvos is greater than a kohen gadol!], a kosher kitchen staffed by some of the Mexican immigrants that Donny offended, a treif kitchen because he is not ready to give up lobster, a hair stylist for those who want to get a perfectly coiffed "dew" like has and lots of glitz and lights.
הודו לה' כי טוב!!
To Hillary I repeat the refrain of Rebbe Nachman - אין שום יאוש בעולם כלל. You win some, you lose some... Bill made it into the [formerly named] White House but it was no bed of roses for either of them. והמבין יבין.
Now to real life:-)!
In this weeks parsha we read about Avram's "complaint" to Hashem that he is barren "ואנכי הולך ערירי" and his servant Eliezer will receive his inheritance. Avram wanted his own child. Hashem promises him a child and the pasuk says ויחשבה לו צדקה - It was considered an act of excessive righteousness.
The questions begs - how can Avram complain that he has no son when EARLIER in the parsha Hashem promised him numerous times - ואעשך לגוי גדול, I will make you a great nation. ושמתי זרעך כעפר הארץ - I will make your seed like the dust of the earth??
And what is the great "tzedaka" of Avram that he believed in Hashem. We ALL believe in Hashem!
Avram wasn't concerned with his material inheritance. That comes and goes. Money is fleeting. [Poor Donald - he lost 916 MILLION dollars in 1995. It would take most of us many many lifetimes to lose that type of money. Please send donations to "President-elect Donny, Trump Tower, Manhattan" and mark "to help you through the rough times - with love" and sign your name]. Avram was worried about his SPIRITUAL INHERITANCE. Of course he KNEW that he was destined to have a son but was concerned that in the meantime all of his spiritual gems are being passed on to Eliezer. That is what he meant when he said ואנכי הולך ערירי. He could have said ואנכי ערירי - I am barren but rather said "הולך" I am going barren. Meaning, I am constantly "going" "advancing" and "growing" and my son is not witnessing this. It is not enough to TELL your children what to do [they often don't listen anyway] but one must show by personal example. Avram was bothered that his son was missing out in the meantime on his personal example of constant growth.
Hashem then promised him a child who would inherit his DEEPEST and most profound spiritual legacy. This would happen after his Bris Milah when he achieves heights he never achieved before. This means that he had to continue living knowing that the time wasn't yet ripe and all he was doing was really just a preparation for a greater future.
Hashem considered this faith a tzedaka because it is NOT EASY to wait - especially for us in our society [and the Torah is as relevant today than it was 3000 years ago] of "instant" where gratification must be immediate. Lunch must be warmed up in a minute [it used to take many hours - getting the wood from the forest, hunting down the animal etc. etc. cooking etc.] and mail must arrive to any destination in seconds [in the olden days it would take WEEKS - if it actually got there], photos are instantaneously ready [remember the olden days in pre-historic times when we had to go to the shop to "develop the film"] etc. etc.
It is a great tzedaka to believe even when it means waiting a long time after having already waited and knowing that the time is not ripe yet for what you really want in life and when it seems so irrational. How can it be that all of his true inheritance will go to his son when he already gave so much to his servant Eliezer??! But he believed that this was so.
[Based on Sfas Emes 5646]
[Based on Sfas Emes 5646]
Beloved friends!!! We all have hopes and dreams but always have to remember that Hashem is not bound to our time frame. He has His own time for doing things but when they happen it is always the most auspicious time. Yes "we want Moshiach now" but as long as he is not here that means that Hashem wants Moshiach "later"... But when it happens - it'll be a doozer!! That applies to everything in our lives. We live, learn accomplish and patiently wait for things to materialize as they should. "The evolution of the species" if you will. Things evolve at a steady, Divinely decreed pace, and our job is to believe and feel the reality of a better tomorrow.
May Hashem fulfill all the desires of our hearts li-tova and all of those things in life which cause us pain and anguish should disappear like smoke.
Bi-ahava,
Me
