TheYeshiva.net - Rabbi YY Jacobson

Akeida Vs. Al Qaeda

What Triggered Hitler?

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Class Summary:

This class was presented on Thursday Parshas Ki Sisa, 16 Adar I, 5779, February 21, 2019 at the Ohr Chaim Shul, Monsey, NY

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Anonymous -5 years ago
Thank you for all the Maamarim classes.

So , practically mesiras nefesh beyond understanding is not sacrificing anything, but the practice of suspension (mesir) of ego resistances to allow the flow of Divine Energy.

Obviously this Divine system cannot be grasped by human finite understanding.

It's the Oved "work out" of blending in to the Divine operating system in a daily basis, by going beyond the comfort zone, the one time that would make the difference.

As you mentioned by Avraham, he was the embodiement fo Nefesh Elolis, which was not common at all in his generation, he might have been the only one with that selfless purposefull Energy, so I guess the Nefesh Elokis "selfesness" was put thru tests to see if it can survive.

Your thoughts?
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NW
Noach Weg -5 years ago
Dear Rabbi Jacobson

Thank you so much for the wonderful shiurim based on Likuttei Torah, Vayikach Homon, especially the one titled ‘difference between the akeido and al-queida’.

Allow me to make a few points, I would be grateful for your feedback.

The Gemoro in Sanhedrin 89b brings the moshol of a king asking his general to lead one more battle. So to Hashem asks Avrohom ‘please pass this test’, otherwise the soton will say, the previous 9 – futile! I had a problem with this moshol. With the king and the general it is imperative that the general leads and wins this battle. Otherwise truly it will be that the first 9 were futile. Why? Because when looking back in history, who remembers the battles that the leading powers won?? If they lost the last battle, then that’s it, there history and we move on to the next dynasty. So truly the king can say, if you don’t win this 10th battle, then the first 9 were of no use because the kingdom is over!! But with Avrohom, who can say that the first 9 tests were futile? They were incredible and everyone will remember them for eternity. Ok, what can you do, he simply did not have the guts to slaughter his son!! But not that the other 9 were futile!!? What’s the moshol and nimshol..?

With the Baal Hatania, its wonderful. The 10th test was the ONLY test that was truly lemailo metaam vodaas. Go through all the other 9 and you see that they all had an element of either furthering Avrohoms cause, or knowing that there is good at the end of it, or it being done publicly etc. So if Avrohom cannot do this last test which is the only one lemailo metaam vodaas, then YES, the first 9 ‘ein bohem mamash’ – FUTILE, why? Because you will have relegated Judaism to being like any other religion or cause, ie, acts of performance to G-d only when there is something in it that you can rationally understand. But Judaism has to be more than that – serving Hashem for the purpose of fulfilling rotzoin Hashem, irrelevant of whether we understand it or not, whether we can rationalize it or not.

Please read the following – an email I sent just the other day to my chavruso as we had been discussing this point of serving Hashem simply to fulfil rotzoin Hashem.

Subject: Am Keshei Oiref – stiff necked people. Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan translates this as – unbending

We discussed some weeks ago the difference between men and women. Men make the brocho ‘sheloi osani isho’ and this is taken to mean by many commentators that men have extra mitzvos, hence we are grateful for this. Women on the other hand say ‘sheosani kirtzoino’. This can be explained as follows – a womans natural tenadancy is to always look at the bigger picture and take an holistic and far reaching view when acting. We see this with the daughters of Loit, Rachel and Leah ‘fighting’ over Yaakov, the women at the time of the making of the eigel, the wife of Oin ben Peles amongst many examples that can be brought from T’nach. Men, on the other hand are more rash, hot-headed and often short-sighted. Men use their intellect and act based on their understanding. This is detrimental to the true service of Hashem where we must negate our own intellect and defer completely to the will of Hashem. See Malbim, Beraishis 20:11 – Only, I see no fear of G-d in this place.

Therefore, Hashem gave men extra mitzvos and when done unflinchingly, this so to speak bends the man to the will of Hashem. He performs the mitzvo for no other reason other than it is a commandment from Hashem. In this way, he negates his intellect to Hashem’s rotzoin.

A woman was made kirtzoinoi, meaning she is anyway much more aligned to the way Hashem desired a human to act and think and therefore does not need these extra mitzvos – does not need this act of bending her rotzoin.

Based on this, perhaps we can suggest that the translation of Rabbi Kaplan fits absolutely beautifully. Hashem calls the Yidden a stiff necked people, UNBENDING says Rabbi Kaplan. We can assume Hashem is mainly referring to the men as the woman abstained from partaking in the sin of the golden calf. So Hashem is telling Moshe, I just gave you the Torah in order to bend your rotzoin to my rotzoin, so that you should negate your intellect and obey my word blindly. Yet this is not happening. In order to achieve closeness to me, you are negating my word and you ARE using methods you think correct. But I have not commanded this action from you, in which case why are you doing it? Because you refuse to bend your will to my will. You want to take the shortcut to closeness but what I want is blind obedience to the rules and regulations that I have set out.

I can now add this to it. Straight after Hashem tells Moshe that the people have made the golden calf, Hashem calls them am keshie oiref. Moshe counters – zechor le’avrohom etc… says Rashi – remember the 10 tests. Maharal in Gur Ayreh (attached) explains Rashi as to why the Possuk wants to mainly bring out the zechus of Avrohom, more than Yitzchok and Yaakov.

Based on what has been elaborated, Hashems accusations of ‘am keshei oiref’ is that they are unbending – they are not bending their rotzoin to my rotzoin, they are still inputting their intellect to their decision making process. So Moshe says, REMEMBER AVROHOM!!!! And Rashi says davka Avrohom, why? Because he completely nullified his rotzoin to that of Hashem’s. When?? By the Akeido – which is the culmination of all the 10 tests. THE ONLY ONE WHICH WAS LEMAILO METAAM VODAAS!! And the possuk says… Vayinochem Hashem..

This is the ultimate way of serving Hashem. Comes out that the amazing Ohr Hachaim describing the death of Nodov and Avihu is telling us, yes they were desperate for that closeness even prepared to die for it. BUT THEY DID IT FOR THEMSELVES!!! And Hashem tells Moshe after that, yes they are wonderful, bikroivai ekodesh, but…. It was wrong. IT WAS WRONG!! Because ultimate closeness is to do what Avrohom did - LEMAILO METAAM VODAAS.

Regards

Noach Weg

Salford, UK.

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