Parshas Chayei Sarah: Botulinum Toxins and Pestilential Sins

It's a very relatable and kind of routine Shidduch story, love story, if you'll forgive me. In Parts of Chayesara, the story of Avromavino sending Eliezer to go find a Shidduch for his son, yitzchak. The instructions travel go find from my own land, my homeland, but definitely not from the land of Kenaan. It's got to be the right Shidduch. So after some teleportation, the ground folding itself beneath the traveling feet of Eliezer, some magical water that seems to follow the orders or at least raise itself up to ease the labor for Rivka, the kind of creepy and overbearing Bessuel and Lovan, only to be capped off by an uneventful travel back to introduce the couple. So where are? Rivka sees her new chasen instituting a Tfilah yes, yitzchak is La Suach Basada and hence we got our new Tfilah Menchah. And then Rivka seems to fall off the camel and after that the couple lives happily ever after. And it's interesting if Destler points out that this story, while it is of course very important, but it's told in a very elongated fashion, two, three columns inside of the safer tire. If you look inside and this is again the safer tire that we are taught bevvies of halachos and myriads of laws and orders from the crowns of letters, from the word s we learn halachos. So we're forced to come to the conclusion that there's a lot to learn here. And from every little batting of an eyelash, every little nuance of these great individuals, it holds for us a valuable lesson. And in jumping right in right at the beginning of the entire story, that Avromavino is now, he's old, he's satisfied, he's been blessed with all of the goodness for Mashaem, and now he turns to his trusty attendant, eliezer, and says go and find a shiddah for my little Yitzchakal. The Torah gives some interesting, interestingly placed at least, honorifics to Eliezer, this servant. It says from the Apostle that Avrom told his evid, who is old, who is the elder of his house, who is in charge of everything, that's his, his main man, his secretary, his CEO, of everything that he's got. He knows all of the passwords and account numbers to his bank account, his phone password, every single one of his secrets. It seems he trusts him with everything. But when it comes to the shiddah, put your hand on a devar mitzvah, as she explains to us underneath the thigh. Grab onto a mitzvah, ashtbiya chah, touch this brismila and make the highest level shivu or the highest level oath bahashem to Hashem, the God of the heavens and the God of this earth that you are going to take the right shiddah. It's not going to be from the bennoi's canan, it's going to be somebody who comes from the right group, the right family, the right background. Swear to me, and everybody wants to know what's with the shivua here. You trust Elias, or with everything, but when it comes to this, all of a sudden you force him to swear on it. There's more questions. Number one what's with the timing of the honorifics Interesting? Number two it doesn't really seem to matter, according to Halacha, if Eleazar swears or not. Because Halacha, the mis-ach-the-kidush-in, we are told and it's brought down in Avi-Ezri, that one, if he is sent as an emissary to go and give a kidush-in to do the betraval of the woman, a-ideh shliach, I say go to Mississippi and find a girl and the shliach, the emissary, should travel to North Dakota. Even if he tries over and over a hundred times to give the ring to this girl, it will not be a kidush-in, it will not work because he did not follow the guidelines. So why is everyone making him swear? It doesn't seem to make any sort of halachic difference, the Rembrandt tells us. The answer also clarifies that perhaps we're missing a fundamental perspective in our Yiddish guide. The Tzadikim have a unique and original custom that they like to make shivuos on their Eitzahara. They like to make very strict and rigid guidelines, so they make oaths. When the Eitzahara comes and says stay in bed, they jump right up and they make a shivua that I will not get back in that bed. And it helps them, it seems, in their fight against the evil Yitzahara. So here, if your rachim applies the same idea that everyone was making this shivua in this situation, giving it over to make sure that it was done right, that no matter what type of thing the Eitzahara may throw Eliyazar's way or his way, there's a shivua. It's going to make the Giddarim, the walls, that much more rigid. That success will be had, the right shivu will be found. But there's a little kicker here. If your own points out that the shivua here also the great Rabbi Reisman spoke about this it's a shivua really on Eliyazar. But Eliyazar who was going to do the shiduch, he really couldn't have married any girl. That wasn't the right area as we spoke before. It just won't work, lahalacha. But it was really from the point of view that Avraham, he wanted this shivua on himself between him and Eliyazar, because he himself didn't trust himself, it seems. It seems he needed that extra motivation to make sure that it's really going to be the right one. But even if Eliyazar should come back with the wrong one and maybe Avraham Avino was okay with that one he didn't even want that little space, that little gap for the Yates of Har to get in. So the shivua was really not for Eliyazar at all, it was really for Avraham Avino and he wanted this on himself. And it all comes back because, even though he was so trusted, the evad it was the Zalkein base of Hamoishah beholashayelo, but still of Ramon and these strict Qadarrim. And the idea is very, very clear, at least it seems. The righteous, they seem to weirdly not trust themselves in ways that were very oddly confident. The righteous run away from certain things and, as Mishle says, but the fool is confident and marches forward. And Rome, he wanted to make sure that the right sheduch was had here. He wanted the ratzinashem, so he made the shavuah on himself, friends, the gedarim, the rigid walls that have Rome set for himself. It's something that probably should be cultivated and internalized in our own lives, not necessarily harsh shavuahs, but the sense of gedarim, the sense of walls, to fight back against the Yehzahara. I was thinking that the main difference, why is it? Why that little me any, hopefully, moishi Yankee or shloymi, you know, your Tom Dicker, harry, can be confident in the fight against the Yehzahara, but it's the tzadikim that are afraid. I remember talking with a friend who will not be named, and it's a part of the conversation with Rabbi Lefkowitz, and we were talking about whether or not this friend was going to go away for the offshabas to a place that would have been less than fitting for a Ben Tyra, for a young, blossoming Talmud HaChacham to be there. There would probably be some inappropriately dressed individuals not befitting for his holy soul, even his holy guv. And this Bukher said Rabbi, it's fine, because I'm going to take off my glasses. Of course, rabbi Lefkowitz, he laughed. He encouraged the Bukher not to take that chance. I don't even imagine Rabbi Lefkowitz would have gone to that such place. And why is it? Well, it definitely seems in this same idea that the ones that actually saw the most the Sanhedrin when they set up so many of these different Ghidarim in our Ghidish guide. You know, maybe sometimes it bothered you, but sometimes I had some questions. Why is it that there's an extra Gheder upon a Gheder? Because don't go near this, avera. You may come to do this, so don't do that. You may come to this and it can't touch a tree. It may be muxa, because you may break off a stick. You can't ride a bike because it may end up. You're going to fix the bike Because they see far fetched. It's the same question. What don't I see? That the brilliant ones, that the Tamidei Chachamen with prophecy, they do see, the Hilchos, yechud, those Ghidarim that keep a person so far away from any sort of immorality. How come they see it so differently in some of these Ghidre Halachos that are supposed to distance us don't necessarily make sense to us that we're more confident than they are. Well, friends, it's because that we don't know what Batulinum, batulinum toxins are. I don't know if I said that right, but what the Batulinum toxin is is the most deadly and toxic bacteria product on all of planet Earth. The smallest amount can kill someone. It's produced by the anarobic bacteria, something like that. But it seems, chazar, they understand that sin, that the opposite of Razzon Hashem being fulfilled is like being exposed to Batulinum toxins. But it's so small, maybe, that we don't see it, we don't notice how toxic it is, we don't notice how dangerous it is. So the Chachomim that know just how corrupting sins are, even the slightest bit can be so harmful to the spiritual soul and cause cancerous growth on the pure and white holy soul that we've been given. So they distance us. But we don't necessarily see that innocent Avrum goes ahead and makes the Shvua. I don't want any slight exposure to this cancerous Batulinum toxin that comes from the anacrobic bacteria. But we seem to be less sensitive about it because we just don't understand just how toxic and dangerous the substance is. But if we compare it to other situations that we recognize just how dangerous it is, maybe it'll come to light this idea. My daughter was playing on the floor Six month old baby, very cute, you have to be careful of choking hazards. So there was a little ball that could have been a choking hazard. So I moved it away and I was thinking, okay, I moved it far enough, it's just right out of her reach, right. But then of course the baby, kind of twisted over, was reaching for it and I noticed that when I really wanted to move it I kicked it out of the way many feet, nowhere near the girl, nowhere near my daughter. You don't want anything that could hurt her, you wouldn't just put it like a step away, like the slightest inch out of her reach. It's just dangerous. And when something's dangerous and you recognize just how toxic it is and how dangerous it can be, you distance yourself by a significant margin, a significant distance. You can't drive within 500 feet of certain trucks, frequent stops. You can't cross certain lines because it's all about Gidarim. But the Gidarim come based on when one realizes how dangerous something is. You can't get near any nuclear power plant. What do you mean? I'll go right up next to it. No, we realize the danger. Avramavinu had the minhug Set the tone. That's sadhikim. They realize, they recognize how dangerous avarice can be. But we're confident, it seems, I'd like to suggest, because we don't realize how catastrophic and toxic sins are for us. And thank God that we have the aynayim, we have the eyes of the nation, our Tamii Dikhachamim, that have set this up to protect us. So a takona can be an institutional practice. Maybe we can accept upon ourselves, can be in the areas of nothing new. Just take one small step further away from something that you know you may be struggling with or wish to overcome. Push yourself a little bit more, not in a new area, but just a step further away, and when you do this you've kind of put caution tape around it and you recognize how dangerous it is. You become closer to the ways of Avramavinu. So yeah, ashbiachamik, deshvua, eliezer, and yes, I trust you, you're in charge of everything for me. Avram wanted to see to it that the right priorities would not become lax, even in the slightest bit. The Ratanashya must be kept, and I'm making a shvua for myself Because I'm scared of the opposite of God's will coming out. The God forbid exposure to butulinum toxins from the anachrolic bacteria. So learn from Avram. Learn from Avram. See the dangers of possible sins. Embrace the ghadar of that the great ones have showed us Fiercen. Make the special enactments in your life. Follow in the ways of Avramavinu and staying safe out there, away from any of the possible toxic waste that could harm your spiritual health.