Parashat Toldot

Heyyyyy guys okay so here's my Dvar Torah this week. Props to Rav Berglas for helping me 😄

Usually we know that Esav is the בכור and Yaakov was born after. Let's look at what Rashi has to say about this... Okay so picture a tube. If you put 2 mables in and then turn it over, the one you put in first will come out second and the one you put in second will come out first. This is how the Midrash explains what's going on here. Apparently Yaakov was conceived first so Esav was born first. Interesting no?

Okay here's another idea in the Parasha.  

Let's say a king is going to the bathhouse (think olden days) . So first the cleaner goes in and makes sure it's ready for the king to use. So even though the cleaner was in there first the king is still more important than him.         

So above in pasuk כה or 25 it says הראשון. Why can't is just say ראשון?  Let's look at גמרא פסחים. Why is חמץ not allowed on ערב פסח? Shouldn't is start at nightfall? It says "אך מיום הראשון שתביא החמץ מביתם״ 

So why not ראשון? Because that would mean first day of holiday. So הראשון means ערב. Its a day of preparation. Sooooo ראשון means first and הראשון means pre. Set things up, get it ready. The bathroom cleaner gets the bathhouse ready for the king. 

Let's explain further. In pasuk כו or 26 it says ואחרי-כן. Why can't it just say אחריו? ואחרי-כן means "after everything that happened" - then comes the king. Everything was set up. It's not referring to the person. 

It's clear from the pasuk that Yaakov was supposed to be the בכור. Not just the oldest. It's an honor. It's a responsibility to lead the Jewish people following in the footsteps of אברהם ויצחק. 

Esav was "איש יודע ציד, איש שדה״. Why does it say איש twice? According to Midrash, he was two faced. He was a רמאי, a fake, a phony. But Yaakov was an איש תם- his inside and outside were the same. He did what he said and he said what he did. 

Yitzchak loves Esav. He benefitted from his steaks. How can we believe that Yitzchak is influenced from a good BBQ? 

And Rivka loved Yaakov...

Yaakov was making lentil soup and Esav walks in tired from the field. Esav asks for some soup and Yitzchak tells him he'll only give him some if he sells him his birthright. They argue for a moment and then Esav SELLS HIS BIRTHRIGHT FOR SOUP. Come onnnnnnnnn

If Esav really wanted the birthright he would not of sold it. You know you don't picture him as a pushover. It wouldn't make sense. Oh Yitzchak can you please pass the lentil soup? Please, Esav could of taken it himself. He felt better after he ate it. He could of punched Yitzchak out and said hey sorry I changed my mind. Sue me! What you gonna do about it?? Yaakov would run away scared. Well not only did Esav not do anything before and after this event, we see that he didn't even want the בכורה. He had no use of it. "ויבז עשו את הבכורה. ״ 

Here's another question. 

Why was Yaakov standing around cooking Ades soup? There's an opinion that says this was the day אברהם died and the whole world came out for his funeral. The whole world except for Esac that is... He came in from the field. Yaakov was making Shivah food (round food representing the circle of life) Yaakovs like Esav where were you today? You didn't come to grandpas funeral? 

Yitzchak saw that the next guy after h would have to be a fighter and withstand other nations. Not just spiritual. He's gotta be ready, willing, and able to fight. Who does Yitzchak pick? Both sons have some and some qualities but brother have he whole package. He knows Esav isn't spiritual. He didn't even go to his grandpas funeral!!!! He just needed a hunter. If he keeps his son close, maybe he'll come around.

Rivka loved Yaakov because she felt that you can make Yaakov who already had Torah and all- a fighter if need be. Esav was a fighter but he will never have יראת ה׳ like his brother. So it's not love, it's leadership qualifications. Yitzchak and Rivka didn't pick favorites. 

Ok so the end of the Parasha. (Congrats on reading this far. Shout out to my sister Sara! Can't believe you read all the way to here. 🎉)

How do you steal a ברכה? It's coming from ה׳ no? You can't steal it. Poor Yitzchak didn't know what was going on. Behind the scenes, Rivka and Yitzchak were negotiating who should get the בכור and Rivka wanted Yaakov to get it. 

(This is perek כז) 

Maybe dad will find out who I am?? 

Well the Vilna Gaon says פן has a negative connotation. It means maybe to something that you don't want happening. However, אולי, as it appears in the passuk has a rather positive connotation. Something you do want happening so 

BAM!!!🎉🎉🔫🔫🎉🎉🔫🔫🎉🔥🔥🔥🔥

(My mind was blown when I figured this out)

He WANTS his dad to feel his hands and know who he is. 

The famous passuk and the namesake of our siddur Kol Yaakov. 

Yitzchak knows exactly what's going on!! He's declaring what's right. He had the voice of the Yaakov and the hands of Esav. He's already spiritual and he can become a fighter. He's good to go. Esav will never come around spiritually. 

Today in עם ישראל, we have no choice, our backs are against the wall. We have to be militarily ready and strong. ברוךה׳ today so many young men and women are in Israel learning תורה, מצוות and in Ulpan. What you see going on here is that famous pasuk 22.

Chevron

Going into a weekend with 0 expectations is probably the best way to do it. All I knew is that Frieda set us up to sleep by some rabbi in Chevron for Shabbat. 

Every year on Parashat חיי שרה, Jews flood to חברון in order to pray at מערת המכפלה. There were Israelis, Ethiopians, Phillipinos, and TONS of Yeshivah and Seminary kids. Such a social scene. The Yeshiva and seminary kids all either camp out that Friday night or sleep on the floor in a school. Literally on the floor. 

So anyways, I took a bus with Frieda and Rebecca which was arranged by some girls in AMIT. When we got to Chevron (really Kiriyat Arbah- the next town over and a bit more safe) we were told that we were getting picked up. Who picks us up? Rebecca's consuegro! He brought us to Rabbi Shanis house, who was involved with Barkai Yeshiva in Brooklyn. He gave us some snacks and water and told us to chill here until the other girls staying with us arrived.  We had no idea who it would be. His wife also gave us some cute little slips with the information we need for our accommodations and meals. Meanwhile, my friend Ezra Tawil who lives in Jerusalem walks in which was so weirdly a coincidence and so did some boys from LA that we knew. This was totally unplanned. All of a sudden who walks in next?! Jen Weitzman and Tamar Grazi! Those are the girls staying with us. Two of our good Flatbush friends. What the heck is this. Totally not planned! 

So the rabbis son walks us to the apartment were staying at. Were all ready to walk in with our cookies for the host when the rabbis son gives us the key.

What?

We have our own apartment! More cookies for us. The second we left we started screaming and jumping. This was too good to be true. Our other friends are in tents and a gym floor while were in a nice cozy apartment with sick beds. I appreciated this moment so much!

So when Shabbat started we went to  מערת המכפלה for shul which is in חברון. The second you cross that barbed wire fence there were soldiers lined up literally every few meters. It was nuts. Tons of people were there walking the same route.  מערת המכפלה was so special to look at. (Aside for the crazy social scene)

This is the outside (this pic is from last time I was there)

This place was built by Herod the great. Somewhere under it our Matriarchs and Patriarchs are buried. Yitzchaks area inside is a mosque except for ten days of the year, one of them being this Shabbat. Were so lucky to be here for this. Praying was actually insane.

So we get to dinner which was in a shul, and were eating with a bunch of Flatbush boys. We had no clue this was going to happen. Basically anyone that has a tie to Barkai was there. It was a reunion basically. Alllll unplanned - let me stress it some more. Also we ate with the Mayor which was cool. Aparently Rabbi Shani helped with his campaign so that's cool. 

I loved how shul for us this week was the tomb of the mothers and fathers of our religion. It was really sooooo special. So holy, so holy. 

We really milked it by praying our hearts out because realistically, when's the next time I'll be in Chevron on Parashat Chayey Sarah?? It was such an experience.

Also, Saturday morning on our way to shul we gave out our cookies to soldiers as we walked down the path to  מערת המכפלה. They were super appreciative. I loved seeing the smiles on their faces for this unexpected treat. Also they were so cute. Uch. 😍☺️😊😊🍪🍪🍪 I love when they try to make small talk in broken English and then we flirt back in proper- ish Hebrew. Classic.....

Don't worry mom I won't come home with one 😉

Have a great week errrrebody

חיי שרה

While reading through the Parasha, I realized how Shaatra Rivka was and how much we can learn from her.

So Avraham sent his trustworthy servant Eliezer to go out and find a suitable wife for his son Isaac. 

When Eliezer  got to ארם נהרים with his camels, he made them kneel down outside near a well. He then asked ה׳ to arrange a favor for him. He wants the girls to come draw water while he was there so that he can pick one out for Isaac. He asked ה׳ to work it out as for the first woman he asks for water will be the one. He will know because she will tell him that she will also water his camels.  Eliezer went out of his way to only see the girls for their character. He wanted to see how the girls behaved away from their home atmospheres so that he would have a better perspective of their personalities. 

So as the story goes, while  Eliezer is still thinking about all of this, Rivka just pops out of nowhere with a jug on her shoulder. As she was filling it with water   Eliezer ran to her and asked for a sip. Rivka encouraged him to drink and then... Wait for it.... She told him she would also draw some water for his camels! Not only did she go the extra mile, but she also went the extra mile by running back and forth with the jug, watering the camels until they were done drinking. She ran eagerly when she performed an act of kindness- as Avraham did for his guests. (This is a sign that she's suitable to join his family) HaRav Feinstein explained that it was second nature to Rivka that another's needs should be provided for. Her kindness was so great. She didn't even have to think about it. It came naturally to her. Such good midot (midos here at Midmo 😐 ps don't even get me started with Ashkenaz pronunciations)   Imagine how astonished  Eliezer was!!!!

Rivka was equal to the test he put out infront of her. I read an Or HaChaim that Rivka acted in the most respectful, or exalted, manner. She lowered her jug herself to save Eliezer the effort, and ותשקהו , she actually brought the jug near his mouth so he wouldn't have to hold it. 

Eliezer was amazed that his prayer was answered so quickly and it really did surpass his expectations. 

Now,  Eliezer needs somewhere to sleep and of course Rivka tells him to stay by her. She has camel food yay.

Did he really say yes to a stranger? Yeah. He did. Even before asking her about her family's identity. Apparently he was so impressed with her that he wanted to go see what her house was like because he knew he'd enjoy it. 

And on and on the story goes and  Eliezer drops the bomb on Rivkas dad בתואל that he has a shidduch for her and ends up taking Rivka home for his master to marry off his son. 

So yeah. Rivka. Learn from her. And by the way this is just one encounter. Syked to read the next Parshiot in depth with a focus on Rivkas midot 

Shabbat shalom!

I'll be in חברון this weekend בעזרת-ה׳.... Sarah passed away at the very beginning of this Parasha in חברון- it's gonna be an experience so stay tuned 

😁

Tiyul Lech Lecha

So it all started at 2:30 am on Tuesday morning when we woke up to pack up 2 full coach busses. Picture a bunch of seminary girls in hiking clothes in the middle of the night sleep walking outside of Shaare Zedek hospital. We got to Ben Gurion's grave in Sedei Boker at about 5:30 where we had a little opening ceremony for what was going to be a week of transformation. This five day trip was organized down to the rocks. Each day had its own central theme. Day one was "ahi veatzmi" - me and myself. We hiked (or scaled!) up AND DOWN some crazy mountains.

We did Chod Aked which let to Nachal Tzin.

 Our tour guide Brian was awesome

So cute no? He has a British accent to top it all off. 

The hike was STUNNING. So scenic.

Pictures NEVER capture the beauty. 

One of my favorite parts of the hike was התבודדות. We were all given a letter to read that had various questions about life to ponder in isolation. We all scattered and lay down alone. They were mostly issues I think about regularly but the answers always change. The reason why I liked this activity so much was because when you're alone in the desert, you're able to think with more clarity. There's dead silence and no distractions. It was one of the more spiritual parts of the trip. 

12 hours from the time we started hiking, we got to our tents

We then had to make our own dinner with the ingredients provided. Funnest ever. We made a huge salad, burgers, tehineh, noodles, and marinara sauce. When we ate we were all in a circle around a fire with one of the other tour guides playing guitar. I live for food and music so you can imagine how happy I was with this. 

(By the way I'm totally not being descriptive, gotta admit I'm writing this late entry in a rush)

The next morning we hiked Ein Evdat. SHOUTOUT to the Marcus clan, we did this 

Even got the same picture. Someone show Nathan J. 

We went to Eilat for some water sports and then chilled by the boardwalk at night 

The beach there is top notch 👌

Oh and by the way, Marcuses again! Look where I was across the street from 

Such a tease! Bereshit hotel 😄

We were doing some group games across the street in a field. Theme of the day was אני והקבוצה. Or me and the group. 

The next day was me and the land. אני והארץ

We woke up at 5 am to hike a mountain in order to pray during sunrise

Success! (Took this pic before I prayed so what you see here is the risen sun over Jordan. We were still waiting for it to rise over Israel at this point)

After that we crawled through the Bar Kochba caves which was sick. I was literally crawling on my belly through tunnels that people used to live in. 

Like sixty after the Destruction of the Beit Hamikdash, the Jews began to prepare for a new revolt. Bar Kochva and his people spent yearsssss preparing an underground network of caves connected by tunnels. They stocked up on food and weapons to last hem for a while. They even carved little boxes into the walls of the caves to keep pigeons to eat. Bar Kochba and his army managed to hold off the hugeeee Roman army for almost 4 years but in the end we weren't  ready to defeat the Romans and rebuild the Beit HaMikdash. But we the Jews survived and in recently archaeologists have uncovered much of Bar Kokhba’s secret tunnels and caves- which is what I crawled through. 

That night we went to a kibbutz. We had some rikiddim which IS MY LIFE. Great night. Got me excited to dance at everyone's weddings hahahaha. We also watched a movie about Michael Levin (z"l) a soldier who served in the IDF. I reccomend you google him. Amazing story. 

Friday (finally!) was אני והמדינה , the state and I. We went to the Kever of Shemuel HaNavi

And then Har Hertzel. This is where fallen IDF soliders are buried. It's actually down the block from my school and it's absolutely breath taking. There are so many things I love about it and so many things I took away from it. 

Theodore Hertzel was brought to Jerusalem to lie forever

Michael Levin. A hero in heaven. 

We saw a lot of greats this day. I left with a sense of pride. I come from a nation full with people who risk their lives to help our country stay safe. 

Sidenote- I could write loads on all of this but I don't have the time to get it all down (that's for my diary) and you don't have the time to read it anyways. So sorry if it's a bit vague!!!!!! 

This Shabbat was amazing. The theme was  אני והעם- the nation and I.  After a hard long week like what we had, I needed time to just take it all in. I really appreciated Shabbat this week, more than usual. We heard a lot of eye opening  Divrei Torah, had some great sessions, made up some funny skits to wrap it all up, and we all formed a tighter bond as a school. I got to sit with some teachers family's for the meals which I loved. 

All in all, great week. I'm sorry I can't get it all down but you have the main picture 

Love y'all and stay tuned! 

"Shibbat"

So I went to my "Em bayit" for Shabbat. Shelby is basically our mother figure in school. She chills in our common areas (with her adorable baby) throughout the day when we have breaks and makes sure everyone is doing okay. She took care of me when I was under the weather so yeah that's a bonding experience. (Nothin like throwing up gluten free noodles in the afternoon!) 

So anyways her husband is the chilliest guy ever. He's a Baal Teshuvah but he's so modest about it. He said he's a "chozer beteshuva" and not a Baal because he's "not a tzaddik." He was a pro soccer player in college which is amazing. He gave up such tremendous opportunities for Judaism. It's really something to admire and appreciate. 

Friday night dinner was so cute. We ate by Shelby and Chaim Tzvi's (her husband) friends. Such a crew. The women were all madrichot in Tiferet (a seminary) together a couple of years ago and they all married baaleh Teshuvah so their husbands were the coolest guys. They were also particularly spiritual which isn't so common in guys that I'm normally surrounded by. We had really stimulating conversations about so many different topics. I won't get into that now- I'd be typing for hours. 

Saturday lunch was also great. Chaim Tzvi made chulent with quinoa instead of barley which was amazeeeeeeeeeing

I read a bit and we hung around and talked all afternoon. I stayed for Melalveh Malka after Shabbat before I went out with my friends

I gained a lot of inspiration from my stay here. 

Peace out 

Mind blown

Mind blown

One of the teachers here, Rav Jason Knapel actually blew my mind away in class recently. We have to understand the world.

It's crazy to think that I'm in Israel for the year. If my ancestors saw a picture of me that said Jerusalem, 2013 they would think I'm living in the time of Mashiach. 65 Years ago people thought our state was dead. They didn't even think we were worth resuscitating. We need to have the clarity of vision to see what's going on. This was impossible a couple hundred years ago. 

Another thing we need to be more open minded about (don't kill me if it sounds too frum) is the major power of our יצר הרע. The whole thing is that it wants to mess with our heads and mess up our train of thought. At the end of the day, our יצר הרע is us. We don't realize the power of our spirituality. Hashem made us and specifically determined us to be here so aren't we something big???? We have to look at it like that and see our potential. יצר הרע sticks its claws into our head and mixes us up. 

For example, הר סיני when our nation was receiving the Torah. בני ישראל was said to be so spiritual that we HEARD lightening and SAW thunder. Sounds like something too deep to comprehend doesn't it? But in reality, we can see from this that instead of looking at the שמים that opened up for us, we were looking at the pretty light show on the side. 

We can't be narrow minded.

When you're close minded we lose holy moments. 

Absorb that. 

Lech Lecha

So this weeks Parasha, Lech Lecha, was easy to relate to since I'm here in Israel for the year. It was my own personal Lech Lecha. I left my land, my home, my family, friends, everything, to come here. I learned so many different lessons from the Parasha but I didn't have time to write my own dvar Torah so here are some ideas I discussed (WITH MY AWESOME BRITISH FRIEND- hi Ariella!) 

I give her total credit for this---->>>>>

The first question we were asked was "Why was Avraham picked?" 
This parsha is the first major intro about Avraham. We aren't told anything about Avraham's character or traits. This seems a little strange as we must wonder how come G-d speaks to Avraham and not anyone else. The שפט אמת says, Avraham wasn't picked. G-d sent out a message to the entire world saying He needed a few shelichim and the only man that answered was Avraham. This doesn't mean that he was picked, it's that he volunteered. This is a beautiful pshat as it teaches us two lessons, 
1) G-d was looking for anyone to do the job (not a particular person or character)
2) Anyone could've done the job, by just volunteering, it was all up to the individual.
This is such a powerful lesson to us today as ה׳ is always looking for good people in every generation. We have to listen out to hear the call and then pick up on it.  

Here is a short mashal spoken by my Rav to illustrate this point. 
A husband comes home to his wife, and she asks him "why do you love me?" He thinks oh dear the dreaded question! He responds, "because you're beautiful." She starts crying, and the husband has no idea what he said wrong! She says "so if I wasn't beautiful you wouldn't love me?" The husband quickly says, "I love you because you're intelligent" she starts crying even more!! He knows he's really making it worse so he says, "I love you because you're such a great cook!"  Now she starts hysterically crying so he realizes he's saying something wrong and says to her, "I love you because I love you." We learn that if you love something because of something else, when it goes away you'll stop loving. There was no particular reason Avraham was "picked",  and this is why there was no context to Avraham or his personality. ה׳  was giving love to the entire Jewish people, not dependent on the quality of the person. ה׳ says I love you because of you. We are the children of G-d and He loves us no matter what we do. 
We then ask why does Avraham go from place to place to build a mizbeyach? Try to imagine the scene...Avraham, an old man walking into a random city, carrying  rocks and literally, standing there and physically building a mizbeyach? People came from all over wondering what this guy was doing. They must've wondered at the time, what gods did this guy believe in.... 
Avraham then calls out in the name of ה׳ and gets other people to also call out to ה׳ 
What's he doing? He's explaining to people that G-d is monotheism. Thinking about the parsha and Avraham's character and life we see that everything Avraham does is in order to bring the entire world closer to G-d, and we learn that this is the job of the Jewish people. We learn that the first part of Judaism is monotheism, shown by Avraham's belief in One G-d. The second part we learn is ethics. Avraham, lives the ethics. He does ethical acts all the time. For example, the war against the 4 kings and the 5 kings later on in the parsha, shows Avraham going and saving the entire population. He saved Sodom which was the completely utter opposite of what Avraham believed in. The people in Sodom didn't believe in ה׳ and the extent of their awfulness was that they weren't even allowed to have guests in Sodom. What was Avraham's crowning quality? That he had guests!! This taught the world, and us now as we read the parsha that the job of a Jew is ethical monotheism. 
An extremely beautiful link can be made by looking into the differences between Avraham and Hagar. Hagar was asked "where have you come from and where are you going?" טו :ח 

She answers, "I am fleeing from Sarah." She doesn't say where she is going, only where she came from. Abraham however always knew the direction he was going in. At first he comes to eretz yisrael, and then continues to Egypt later on in this parsha, he always knows the path he's taking. This idea is really incredible, it is so important we have direction in our life. Everyone knows where they just came from, yet we must ensure that every step of the way and of our journey in life, we, like Avraham Avenui have a strong direction and path. 

Shabbat shalom and may we always have a straight journey and direction in our life. 
Ariella :)