Parshas Vayeira: Part Angel Part Scorpion

Let's just set things up and get the scene here. So the dome has been turned over quite literally. Everyone has been destroyed, except for Lot and his daughters. Even his wife didn't make it out alive. In fact it was quite a salty situation and now some rumors are swirling. The magazines are talking about how Lot is quite the sinner and odd fellow, is engaged in some controversial and repulsive behavior. So Avrohaum wants to distance himself from that company, along with the fact that the current area and its lack of humans isn't conducive for having guests. So Avrohaum, who wants to fulfill the mitzvah of Achnosos Orchem and do more kindness, decides to leave this area, travel to a new land and set up shop. The Pasek tells us right at the beginning of Parachoff Avrohaum left this area and he went and dwelled in Ghuror. And sure enough, as we turn the page to Avrohaum's next chapter, another test comes to this place and people are immediately inquiring about his wife. Almost feels as if you're reading the psochem like here we go again and sure enough, she's taken captive, abducted. Avrohaum says that this is not my wife, it's my sister, because otherwise they're just going to murder everyone in sight. God intervenes, comes to Avimelch in a dream, tells him you're messing up. This is a married woman, this is an asius-ish, don't touch her. All the people are frightened. And then the next morning, after not a finger is even laid on Sarah, imenu Avimelch calls Avrohaum. He says why'd you do this to me? Why didn't you tell me this was and is your wife? Avimelch Avrohaum Maro-i-soh, what did you see? Why was it fit Kyo-si-soh, sa-dov-var-az-zeh for this to happen? And the big, bold, powerful, all-encompassing words from Avrohaum of Inu in response to Avimelch, avrohaum responded back Kyo-marti, because I said in my heart I thought rak-en-yiras-elokim-bamokim-hazeh-vahar-guni-al-dev-var-ishti. I did this because there's just no fear of Hashem in this place, and they will slay me over the matter of my wife. Avrohaum's response is immediately you seem to be asking about my wife. I would have told you you would have just killed everyone and everything. You don't have any sort of fear of heaven in this place. So, therefore, I had to make a quick adjustment in my plans. This is what I said Hashem protected us and it worked out. And the deal is here and it's part and parcel of one of the most famous divi-ray-tay-rah ever given by the great rebel Hanan Wasserman and his Kheivitz Parasheos. He's Medaic, the Pasek. He finds an inference in this Pasek that Avrohaum says the reason that I did this was because there was no fear of heaven. But he says an extra word it is rak, it is only. It is just. It is only because of that there is no fear of heaven that I did this. And the truth is that maybe we could ask there are other things that will hinder a person from doing averos, from abducting one's friend's wife. But Abraham tells us that it is only because I noticed there was no fear of heaven. And Rebekah points out that the measure of a man is based on how much fear of heaven he has. He brings a Pothic at the very end of Koh-Hela that we all know, and the Pothic says that. So the Kimi-O-Reveth meets Vesah of Shamar. At the end we are told Ki Zek-Kol-H-O-O-Dom, fear of heaven is all of man. And the way to read that Pothic is that a person could have all of the other Milos in the world, beautiful morals and principles about what's right and what's wrong, but if he doesn't have fear of heaven, then he lacks the status of man, for that is all of man, it is just fear of heaven. And if a person doesn't have Yeras Elohim, yeras Hashem, then there's no telling where he will end up or what he will do. Or history has already proven itself that morals are great Principles, our values, our moral code will protect us at some level. But when there's a powerful taiva, a lust, a wanting, a craving for something, whether it's to kill, pillage, attack, for whatever reason sometimes morals and principles, it doesn't stop you and it doesn't protect. It is Raq, aene, yeras Elohim, and it is only that I saw you just don't have fear of heaven here. So if I gave you the wrong response, there's no telling what would happen. And every step that a person takes in his Yeras Shemayim, it makes him more of a man, more of a person and less of an instinct driven Balei Chaim animal. There's a different understanding to one of the most famous Psochem in the Tyra. Right at the beginning of the book of Genesis, we are told that Naase-Udham, that God says let us make man, this is at the creation of Udham, humans. Pusk is a bit cryptic and sounds heretical because it sounds like there's multiple people making Udham Raq. She explains to us that God was acting with humility and asking the advice of the angels, including them, and that's a powerful lesson in humility. It seems we put even suspect or maybe a suffix heretical problem on the line to teach the value of humility. But the Zohar gives a different understanding of why the verse seems to be including more than just Asha. And the Zohar says, because I call this Baruch, who was talking to all the creations of the world, to the animals, to the lion, to the bear, to the snake, to the scorpion, he was saying NASA, adam, let's go and make man Everyone go ahead and put in your peace to the following creation. We're going to make the ultimate being. Every animal, give your instinct. We're Tchuna. The shore gives it the shore Tchuna. The Ari gives the Ari Tchuna and the Nakhash gives the snake Tchuna. And what comes out is that the human being, when he opens his eyes, is this amalgamation, this big chalant of every single one of the animals, including all of the different angelic angels, did their part. That's a Bria too, including that inside of a human being and this ultimate supreme being called Adam. But talk about quite the hybrid, quite the duality or the dual nature of this Bria. We have something that's angelic, yet part scorpion, part angel, part snake. And just think what type of habitat, structure and protection a lion needs when it's in, maybe the zoo, or how much protection it needs not to attack humans, or how dangerous the scorpion is, or the Tchuna of a snake, and how every single one of those Tchunos is inside of a human being. The human being is the ultimate Mashchis. It's capable of destroying and accomplishing such terrible horrors and vice versa, diametrically opposed to this. It's also capable of bringing to fruition the most glorious of accomplishments. How great is the Shalshela Shalbarzel? How great is the iron chain needed to subdue the evil parts of a human? How great is the protection and the yoke that the human should bear in order to reign himself in and control himself? And what is that Shalshela Shalbarzel For? If Hashem gave all of these Tchunos to us, certainly Hashem gave us a way to harness our Kochos and see to it that we use all of these Tchunos and Arteva for the right reason. So what is the iron chain? What makes us an Adam? It is rock. You're ass, Elohim. It is just the awe and fear of Hashem For all other morals and DNAs. It won't last, it won't stand. It is only Yeras Elohim that will help to control a person in his raging hormone states or in his passionate cravings for something that is prohibited To protect yourself. It takes Yerashimaim, and even with all of the Kachma of Aristotle, all of the brilliance of Plato and Socrates, descartes, it will do nothing to help you to assuage and calm your desires for sin and lust if that's what your brain and your body and your DNA and your snake-like tendencies are telling you to do. It only takes an iron chain of Yerashimaim, and that, and only that, will save us. For Rakh Ayn Yeras, elohim Bama, kem Azeh, the Arguni, el Debar Ishti, you would have killed me because I sense that there is no fear of heaven here. The most important thing that we can do to become humans is to build awe, reverence, trepidation of Hashem Yerashanah. A person needs to win over his Yatesahara in order to succeed in life In antiquity. In the past, it was a battle that seemed to be ferocious, but it does feel like the battle is more frequent in our generation, with the quickness and the ease that which we live life with as Manhazan America. The battles against the Yatesahara happen frequent and fast, maybe a hundred times a day, if not more. A person needs to wage war and win against his Yatesahara. And how can we do this? How can we emerge triumphant? Is it with Chahma? No, chahma doesn't work, we are told. It is only with developing concrete, corporeal, tangible, touchable, authentic Yeras Shomaim Rakh and Yeras alakim. But makumazevi, arguni, alt devaar ishti. That's what Avramavino tells us. It was pointed out by the Chafetzchaim and Rabokhanan. The horrible other reality, the other side of the coin, of what Germany was like before the Holocaust, how cultured and how Victorian and talented and upper class. They were, the champions of literature and poetry, the brilliant scientists ahead of their times. In psychology, inventions was the center of the world and in a few short years no, in a few short months everything flipped. They turned brute, beastial, like feral cats now totally okay, and accepting of ushering millions of people into rooms filled with Ziklan B, killing babies, beheading infants Is there anything more wild and animalistic than that? Yet this was done by the most upper echelon, high class nation in society as raq. Ayn yiras, elekim, bmokimazevi, arguni, alt devaar ishti. If it's not Yirashamaim, then your morals and your principles will do absolutely nothing. If you have a passionate drive for something, research will show you in this generation how, yes, cultured Hamas is. They're very talented in many areas, they're very forward thinking, and some of their inventions and some of their writings. We just know that our side of the story, where of course they are murdering innocent civilians but there are talented Hamas people I'm sure someone maybe has morals, but of course it is absolutely pointless. It will not stop them from murdering 1500 innocent civilians. And if you saw one of these interviews with one of these terrorists, he said that one of the captive, abducted Jewish infants that they took was crying. They couldn't take it anymore so they murdered the infant. If you don't think that that is an absolute fulfillment of Raq and Yeresel Oikimba Mokemaze, then I don't know what else will prove it to you. No matter how cultured or high class A person is, you love the arts, you love literature, you tuck your shirt in, you wear a collar Nothing will stop you If it isn't Eres Oikim, fear of heaven. How do we grow in our Ereshemim? What is the answer? This is the age old question, this is the crux of the Suggia. We know that really, the whole tochlas of our Torah study is to become penitents and do good acts, to reach a status where we are gezekol hadam of real, tangible, corporeal, factual, stout, ereshemim filled people. So I would like to give just one approach, and I think it's powerful. I think there's some truth to it and hopefully we will then be able to have this iron chain really protect us from plague and illness and egregious sins. I'd like to suggest that Ereshemim may have some root in the word Yira, which means to see. Now I know that that's hotly debated and there is some proofs against this, but just breaking the word down in my own head, it seems to me Yira is very closely connected to see After the Achaeda. This is the place that Hashem was seen, bahari-era-e-yira-e. It definitely feels like those two concepts are easily able to be intermingled. And Yira-shemaim definitely means to see the heavens, which is unseeable. So to me it sounds like to see the invisible. Is what Yira-shemaim is all about. Yira-shemaim see heavens. It sounds like Yira-shemaim happens when the unseeable, invisible, haqad-ash-baruchu becomes very visible and very real in your life. It brings to mind how the stapler said about the laws of Muxa, that the laws of Shabbos. You're a Shemayim to be afraid of touching something that's Muxa, let's say a phone, an iPhone, on Shabbos. And if we would have our Jewish glasses on and we would really see the invisible and see the Ruchnius world to be a reality, well then that phone, if touched on Shabbos is a cancerous causing object, it will cause cancer of the soul. That's what Muxa is, because it makes the invisible world real. When a Shem says something to you, when you hear something in a halacha, when you learn Tyra and you hear something, you see something. When you don't make it just abstract and in potential but you make it into kinetic energy and you make it a reality that this is prohibited and it is something that is in my reality and I see the unseeable. I see Hashem, I see how he's talking to me, I see why that's prohibited and it makes a serious impact on you. That's Yerashemayim. I'm seeing the unseeable. I was thinking a proof to this concept could be right before the splitting of the waters by Oz-Yashir, when we were saved from the Egyptians, the Jewish people, they saw Hashem by Yeru Yisrael, by Yer Yisrael as a Yad HaGadolosh or Osbim Yitraim, by Yeru Om, and the seeing led to fear, and then by Aminu Baashem, vamosha Avdo, and then that all led to faith. But it all started with a real seeing, a type of seeing that was so undeniable, that made seeing really be believing. So if we can do the first step of trying to make real the Rukhnius world, hopefully that will increase our fear of heaven. The Yira will lead to Yira. It will make us awestruck. We won't have to rely on our culture and meadows and values. But if I do that sin, heaven and hell is very real, perhaps not like in the olden times when the philosophy was to dwell on the scariness of hell, but in a very moderate but serious way that this is prohibited and if I touch it I will burn my hand. If I do that sin, god forbid, a horrible disease will afflict my soul. People were calling her Moshe Feinstein once. They needed him and it was in the middle of Davening, but it was an emergency and he wasn't coming for some reason. But this was like something that really needed to be done. And afterwards, when Davening was over and they called him and he came, they said why weren't you coming? He said well, there was a person who was Davening Shimonah Esrae, and you're not allowed to walk in front of him. Shchina's K'nagdo, and therefore I couldn't. There was a wall there. Halachah is avant, halachah is avant. Halachah is a wall, meaning it's real. Rebarh Bair saw when there were no animals walking past the walls of the Sokka, even though there was a little bit of a gap, but there was a halachalamai shemisenai that there was using lovehood, that these walls were extending and touching in the worlds of Ruchnius, of the halachalamai shemisenai. He said, of course there's no animals coming in the Sokka because there's a spiritual wall there. It's a wall, it's lovehood. The spiritual world becomes very real for the G'daylan. They see religion as reality. Maybe Yira is very closely connected to Yira, fear connected to see. So let's strive to make halachah real, let's strive to make Torah real, to make Ruchnius substantial, to become bonafide servants of Hashem and not just cultured, victorian, high class individuals, because it seems it won't protect us from ourselves. We see how low the human being can sink. So my rum's response you know why I told you she was my sister. You know why you got into all this mess Avimelech? Because Rakh Ain Yiraas Elohim Bama Mokim HaZeh Vaharguni Aldevar Ishti. If there is no fear of heaven, then there is no telling what you will do and you're hardly even a human being at all. So see Hashem, see His Torah, make it a reality and let us all increase our fear of heaven.