Parshas Vayeitzei: A Study of Resolute Decision Making

This is a big week here on the Weekly Partia podcast. Thank you for being here. And it's a big week because this is where Rabbi Ruchem gives over his famous Muser discourse about why Rachel Emenu named the child Naftali, which means twisted and crooked. His famous Muser Shmooz about abstinence and persistence in Yiddish, coming up with sacred schemes to see to it that your dreams become a reality. This is also the week when we see into the future, when Yaakov dreams this prophetic dream and Ha'ar Ha'am-i-riah of angels going up and down this holy ladder that clues us into growth in Yiddish guide. And it's also a big week for lesser reasons, but it was exciting On the Motivation Congregation podcast, one of the podcasts in this Motivation Congregation Weekly Partia Great Jewish Stories of Iconic Jewish Torah Giants podcast network, where we got to interview a brilliant person, somebody that brought new perspectives, views the world from a bird's eye view in a very cool way. So I encourage you to check out that interview on the Motivation Congregation podcast. If you are not subscribed, you can go over there. It was enlightening, it was different, and this week I want to try to bite off one little line in another rashi that also seems to draw a line in the sand, separate good from evil, clarify a spot that could feel. We just don't have the answer to it and hopefully, with Hashem's help, we'll see. It's why the Rambam was able to accomplish what he was able to accomplish, why the Chabetschahim was able to author the Mishnebura, why so many of the Rishaynim and great Achreinim were able to reach their titanic Torah brilliance. And hopefully, if we remember this two-word axiom, if we can summarize it down to that, we'll have something to remind ourselves every morning when we wake up. So, without further ado, vayetze Yakov Meba Er Sheva Vayelech Harona. Yakov is embarking on a self-imposed gullus in which he is traveling to flee from his revengeful, bloodthirsty brother, vayevka Bamaakoyim. He bumps into a spot. He sleeps there, an epic, prophetic dream. Behold a ladder. It's from the ground to all the way. Above there are angels, a promise from Hashem to Yakov about his future legacy and destiny. And then Vayashkim Yakov, babayker. And Yakov wakes up in the morning, makes sort of monument, park and continues on his way. Now Rashiin, picking up, like he always does, some of the nuances in the Pasek, clues us in that Vayevka is sort of in a non-expecting type of way, kind of bumped into this spot, not really expecting to be here or go here. And further, rashi a couple of Pseukim later points out that actually, when he arises to Daven or settles into Daven, as Yakov is now instituting the Mar of Tafila, he declares that this spot that I have Davened now slept in this spot, I shouldn't have slept here, but this is the portal to heaven, this is where all Tafilos fly to in order to enter into the holy heaven. Keyin base, elohim, this is the spot of the house of Hashem, is a Shahrashemim. And Rashi, like he always does, not, missing even a single nuance and word in a Pasek, tells us that there's a terrific backstory here. But Yakov, yeah, did Vayevka did bump into the place. Yes, he did Davenmar of at Har Har Mairea, but first Yakov walked right past Har Har Mairea. Yakov left Bear Sheva like a Harana. He arrived in Haran Sounds like if we were to say in a modern expression his flight landed, he got comfortable in his bed, he's back home, and only then did he remember, remember, oh, I forgot to Davenmar. So we put his shoes back on, gathered up his belongings and made the long and arduous trek back to Har Har Mairea. And Jacob didn't stop initially at Harahem-I-Riyah, for he didn't set his mind upon it, he didn't make up his mind to do that. But when he arrived at Chorin he said to himself is it possible that I didn't take a quick pick-stop to Da'van at Harahem-I-Riyah, the place that my father and my grandfather all da'vaned, the Mokrim of the Akheda? I went to Yerushalayim and I didn't da'van at Akheda. So Evshar shah avar-tiyal, mokrim shah spal-lu-wa, voice-sival-iyah spal-al-ti-boy, here comes the words that change everything, the words that gave the Jewish people a different root, a calling callered during exile. It was an action that Jacob did that made him Zochha to teleportation, the ground contracting beneath him, magical and prophetic dreams and everything that Jacob avinu and the Jewish people henceforth would be Zaykhatu Drashy. Here are the words Yehav daiteh, lemahader. He placed his mind to return and this is back to Harahem-I-Riyah, the chazar ad-bais-kail. He returned to base L, the kovtilei-a-arats, the ground contracting beneath him. But all because of this thought, this placing of his mind, this decision that Jacob made to say, oh, I really should go back. Was he Zaykhatu to everything? We have to understand this at a mature level, this decision, what it meant, what would be for the Jewish people in the future, this Yehav daiteh. What's remarkable to point out here is the fact that without a Yehav daiteh, without deciding to go back, without acknowledging base L, jacob walked right past it and with all the strength and determination to return bar-hashem. That's why we're here today. But Yehav daiteh deciding to go, undertaking the mission, initiating, committing to it, the Yehav daiteh is what changed everything. Rabbi Rukham tells us in Yiddish, we call Yehav daiteh, in the Lushen of Unter Nummig, to be an undertaker. Jacob Avivu was the original undertaker. Maybe he got into Messiah or Yerusha from his grandfather Undertaking. Rabbi Rukham points out that every Godel, before anything's accomplished, decides to accomplish. You don't buy happenstance or just chance upon becoming the father of the holiest nation and prophetic dreams, but you must be a Yehav daiteh. And how's it possible? There's kamavikama, stumbling blocks, mkhshulim, that we all face daily and I want to ask a very point-blank question. If you travel through all of the folios of the Talmud-Bavli, there are a couple tough gemaras, a lot of tough gemaras, hard to understand, wrap our minds around, but one of the most incomprehensible seemingly incomprehensible gemaras you'll find in Miss Akhtasoka. That tells us that Abayi concluded, after an interesting episode, that hol agadomei kavero, it's our gadol hai menu, that any fellow who's greater than his friend, and he's talking about Torah Yerushimaim. The bigger gadol that you are, the greater the yatsahara that you have. It's very hard to understand. Is it possible, hai yutachin, where Shmuel Kaminevsky, as a bigger yatsahara than I do, doesn't seem to add up? The gemara needs pshat, but we're not going to journey to answer this question today. I would like to use it for fuel to the fire. How is it possible that all these great people accomplish what they did If the greater the person is, the larger the mechsholam, the larger the stumbling blocks, the bigger the mechsholam and the larger the Yetzahara the person has? And how's it possible that the Rambam accomplished what he did? The Chavitzchahim accomplished what he did. How's it possible that Yachovavine accomplished what he did? Could you imagine the Yetzahara, the Nisjonos, the problems that every single second incessant Achsalim In arduous tasks that must be taken care of just to reach the places that they got? How Such a bureau him? It begins with a Yav Daiti. He proves it in one of the most epic midrashim you will ever come across. It happens when Yitzchak is going along with his father of Rome for the Akeda and the Sutton comes to Avramavine. You'll find this in Yalkachimani I Be. I apologize, it's measures tan Chuma. The Sutton comes in, kidmus Zakhine, yeah, exactly how the Gamar tells us that the greater the person is, the bigger. The Yetzahara, the Yetzahara here, has taken a real physical form. He's appearing to him like an old Dumbledorf style character, a long white beard saying where you going, you, your son, You're going to shacht Yitzchak. I'm our lawyer. No, no, no, no, no, no, let's follow. We're just going to pray. We're going to pray Because it seems odd, because there's a knife there and you have some wood. You sure back and forth Fighting, get out of my way. I'm going to do this. Why you're bringing your knife? I eventually the Yetzahara sees that no one's gonna listen to him here. But he's not done. The Yetzahar comes back and he shows himself in front of Yitzchak because he realized that, avram, it was no shot. So dissuade him from going, and tells Yitzchak you know where are you going. And to Yitzchak, this time he appears to him as a young bacher, a Pleasant fellow, a friend. Hey, bud, what's up? You going with your dad? You took seven gonna learn Torah? This isn't half base in my just Hanukkah. I'm a little bit Hi, I've been missed a key. You're gonna live or you're gonna die. How you gonna learn? You can't learn if you're dead and your dad's got a knife there. You're walking up a mountain on Marlovi, he is, she'll one me after me. So what are you talking about? No one learns after they're dead. Of course we're alive and we're going to learn to her up there. It's a hard fights back. Your dad's gone rogue. He's that of a wholichless Schatz, her. Your dad is needs to go to a mental asylum. He's gonna shaft you. Listen to you truck, listen to the response Omar Yitzchak said to him, to this Yatesahara, masquerading himself as an innocent little bacher Off, I'll peeking, even still, let it be. Even so, whatever you say, low, ever I'll dust your tree. I will not go against the will of my father, I'm sorry, the will of the creator, the out Tiva of you, or the Will of my father. This is what I shem was, this is what my father wants. That's it. Eventually, a Taha resorted to turning himself into a river. On it goes until they just would not be stopped. Proofs that the Yatesahara is actually, yes, in a very real way, remarkably and astonishingly powerful against the great ones. But I felt peaking Al-Minajkhin, it doesn't matter, they would not be stopped, it says Because Avromavinu and Yitzchakavinu, they were yoy of daite. They understood this is what needs to be done. They decided to do it. There's a lot of Kabbalah here, you see. There are individuals that they make up in their mind I'm manifesting a multi-million dollar company. They just decide it and they do it. There are people that decide they just wake up and they're done With whatever it is that they're involved in and they throw that harmful practice away Because they decided to. The decision is where success lies. The yoy of daite, the undertaking, initiator, deciding and committing to do something makes you unbreakable, unbeatable. The Eitzahar was coming and literally showing himself In all these different ways. Al-minajkhin, it doesn't matter, I've decided to do it, and when you decide to do it, you get it done. This is how the Ghadolam it became so big. I want to read you the introduction, a piece of the introduction from the Sefer Harambam. Now picture this, folks. The Gemara has been written. It's over 60 books back and forth where a person can get into the svaras of how to learn, how to think really by the splitting hairs approach of the Gemara. It trains a person to view the world and ask questions in the way he Hazal did. The entire Torah is baked into the Gemara, but it's a whole lot of information and it takes a real great deal of time and effort to amass that knowledge of the Gemara. So the Rambam set out to summarize it all, sprinkle in a little bit of all of the rest of the Torah, including the Midrashim, the Mishnias, the Toseftos, the Kabbalah, and summarize it down in a clean and easy way for any single person to learn. All of Torah Shabbat al-Pah. Quite the undertaking. And in the introduction to Rambam's Yadah Chazaka, to where these 14 books will have everything that you need to know about Torah Shabbat al-Pah, listen to how he introduces this great Torah divorce and the magnum opus of his. And because of this, coming off of what he wrote before. I am Moses, the son of my man, hasafard, from Spain, and I grew up here. This is where I'm from and I have seen fit to author a work that will clarify me. All of these writings, all of the Torah, all of the Torah, all of the Torah. I'm going to do it all in a very clear way and I'm going to summarize it and do it in a very short way ad until shittahe. Torah Shabbat al-Pah, until the entire Torah, shabbat al-Pah, all of it given to Moshe Rabbeinu at Harsina. And I Kula Sadura Befiqa Haqqol. It will be fluent in the mouths of everyone without even the slightest struggle and no troubles. And I miss read that. But this person won't say like this no more arguments. And I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. From the days of Rabbeinu Akadish until now, can you imagine writing that? Talk about an undertaking. Here I am in a knee. I'm Moses Rabbeinu and I'm ready to do this. Here I am. I'm Avrom Avinu and I'm ready to do this. Here I am. I'm Rabbeinu Akadish and I'm about to write the Mishnahis. Here I am. I'm Amor Moshe Ben Maimon. I'm from Safarad and I am now going to put all of the Tireshaba Alpeh on a couple pages. And the Rambam concludes, and it should be Kalo Shodovar, the point of Mayar Akhazaka. It's kideh sholo yeh Adem sarikh leh kheebor acha ba'ilum betin bideenu yisrael el yuhi borzeh mikabit leh Tireshaba Alpeh kula meh atakoniz ab minhaka zahkezeh naseh mihamsah Rabbeinu, everything, all you single need, there's only one safer for all of it, just my Svarm. Talk about an undertaking. The Ramam decided to do it, and so he did. He set out to do, he initiated it, and so he did. You can only imagine the Mekhshalim that he went through, the persecution, the troubles, inhumane troubles, but he decided to do it, so he did it. And the Chaphetzchayim, I bet you think that he lived a very simple, peaceful, humble and easy life. Well, right, as he set out, set out to go and author one of the world's greatest halachic works summarizing all of the different halachic sources, because in our Chayim, which we need to know the laws of daily living, there are so many different approaches, from the Chay-e-Odom to the Kittr-Shokhan-Aruch, to the Shokhan-Aruch-Arav, the tour, the base, yaisif, the Ramah, the Darche-Moshe, the Pri-Shah, the Dri-Shah, the Shach, the Taz. What are we to do? Well, here I am. I am Rabbi Strollmey, rako and Kagan, and I present to you the Mishnah-Bruhah, all of the teachings of halacha and clearly elucidated, annotated and delivered to you on a single platter. This is halacha. Here you go and you can buy it for $19.99. Yeah, that's an undertaking. You know what happened? A tremendous Nisayon happened. Birocha mentions it in regards to Naftali talk that he talks about a little bit later. He went through one of the worst possible traumas and disasters, tragedies known to mankind. He lost a family member, one that was so beloved, one that was supposed to be the future, one that was going to be his legacy, to be everything. I think his name was Ritzvihersh Levinson. He was everything, and you've never heard his name because he died on the day at the time that Mishah-Bruhah was set to begin. Pen in hand, here we go, boom, the news comes in the Yetzahara. But the Chavitzchahim stood up and said this ain't going to stop me. Was his life in shambles? Was his head fully there? I don't know. But the Chavitzchahim said Al-Minas-Kayn, af-a-p-kayn, I don't care, I move forward, I'm going to write the Mishah-Bruhah. This is the Yetzahara Low of our al-Dass, yoy-tsu al-Dassavi. And so he determined, he set out, he initiated, he decided to write the Mishah-Bruhah. And we have the Mishah-Bruhah. It takes a decision, it takes a real level of azus, of determination, of stults, but not, god forbid, a misplaced bashfulness, shying away from it or folding like a cheap lawn chair. And I want to say something that is, I think, a-kheedish, but really Abnasin Tsefi Finkel said it in one context. I heard it from a great speaker saying this line in a different way, in a different context. But this yoy-hive-dite, this deciding to do great things and not just doing them and just you know, one day I'll get there, day by day, piece by piece. But instead actually saying, here I am hen and knee, I'm ready to do it, boom, I've decided to do it. And now I've undertaken it. And now I'm initiating it. And now that I've committed to it, boom, when the struggle's come, it doesn't knock you out and you continue to do it. It's not only the sign that we can look to and great people, it's not the semen of sorts, but it seems it's really the seba, the cause for the great things. These people had no lack of distractions, but they kept taking more on their plates. They kept taking these huge achariyes and these massive responsibilities. But the secret to life is often told by our mustn'ts to be finkled off, and told by all these great people that when you commit to something, that's how you get the strength to do it. With the achrajes come to koiches, I believe, with the zog, with the acceptance of the responsibility, then does God grant the opportunity and the strength to fulfill the opportunity. But sometimes we think, well, I can only take a responsibility, that I can really have the potential, have the koches to do, but it's backwards. You take the responsibility and then you get the potential and the koches to do it. Perhaps the here I am, I'm Moshebem, I'm and I'm going to do it is what was the siba for the Rambam. Perhaps here I am, the Chavitzchayim to write this mission, and I'm anaskin and I'm going to do it. Could have been some part of the siba for the Chavitzchayim To be an unternumig, to be a yoevdite. When Yaakov Vino turned around and said I'm walking back to Beysel, he undertook to become an oev, one of the ovos, part of that trifecta, and all of the hardships that befell him zikr for sure came about because of that decision. I wonder if that played a role in Mordechai's logic when he told Esther when Esther was unsure if she's going to walk in to see Achacheveres and plead on behalf of her people that Achacheveres said Esther, why are you tearing Mi aideim, leis, kazois, jogat, lamachos, who knows? Maybe this is why you haven't been chosen to be the queen. It's not you, it'll be somebody else. But now that you're here, undertake to do it. And when you undertake to do something, you decide to do it. Crazy things happen. An azus, a brazeness, a beleague, vol. Type of azus, a cablonus, an accepting upon yourself, undertaking to do it. Decide instead of going back and forth, back and forth. But here I am, moshe ben Maiman, to write the Yanachazaka. Here I am, michal Brooke, ready to learn a lot of Torah and become a big Tom and Chacham and try to fear Hashem and be nice to everybody, but decide to do it. That's why it was Vayivka. He bumped into the place, he passed it without deciding to get there, did Yaakovovino. But then when he said, is it possible that I've made a mistake, that I should just walk right past the place that my grandfather and father davened so you'll have died? To Him a hazer, he decided to return. Be an undertaker and in the spot that you're in who knows if that's the spot that Hashem has put you for this great opportunity and know that that opportunity isn't just going to hang around forever Decide to be great. Decide to take the next step. Decide to forsake that bad behavior. Decide and not in a weak way, but in a cast iron, unbreakable, tenacious desire to accomplish great things, yovve deite. Decide to recalculate and decide to be great like Yaakovovino, like the Ramam, like the Chavetschayim, like Esther Amalka and like really anybody that has accomplished anything significant.