Parsha Post: Nesivos Shalom

Exile and redemption hold a major place in the Torah and in the Jewish People's reality. it starts at the Brit Bein HaBetarim - The Covenant Between The Pieces. During the first moments of G-d's establishing that the Jewish People will be chosen, G-d tells Avraham that they will be strangers in a strangle land. Before this moment a darkness falls upon Avraham and tradition has it that in the darkness all of the future (4 major) exiles that Avraham's children would go through were revealed to him. But isn't exile a punishment? So how is it announced before the Jewish People exist to have done anything wrong? And could the positive purpose of the first exile of Egypt be, given that they entered holy, and left on a low level? And why doesn't Avraham pray for his children to not have to go through this exile? After all, he prayed for the wicked people of Sedom to not be destroyed, why didn't he pray for the annulment of this decree against his children? And why do w...

  Moshe asks G-d (Elokim) - I’m approaching the Jewish People, when I say to them the G-d of your fathers sent me to you.  What should I tell them? And He said, Tell them that E-ke-yeh (aleph - keh - yud - keh) sent me to you.  Hard to understand. They were told who was sending him - the G-d of their fathers, so why question this, asking his name. Why does the name matter? In their dire situation they’re concerned with the name? Further, why does Moshe himself ask what to tell them? What is the meaning of G-d’s answer and why does it put Moshe at eve?  Via Arizal - Moshe thought the redemption would come via the known 4 letter name of G-d (yud -keh - vav - keh).  If that were so the galus would be 260 years, which is ten times that name of G-d. Moshe thought redemption had not yet come because 210 years had passed. That’s a meaning behind it saying that G-d saw that he was SA”R lirot - samech-reish, which is 260, what Hashem saw that Moshe thought the number of ...

 The Rabbis in Pesachim 51b comment on Yaakov saying, "Gather and I will tell you what will happen in the end of days/" They explain, "Yaakov wanted to reveal the end of days and the Divine Presence was removed from him.  The Zohar asks why we are told that Yaakov set out to do something if in the end he didn't do it.  Rather it must be that his will was at least somewhat fulfilled, that he revealed what he needed to reveal and hid that which needed to be hidden  The Zohar says that the words of the Torah are never flawed, meaning that if the Torah tells us that Yaakov said the words,הֵאָֽסְפוּ֙ וְאַגִּ֣ידָה לָכֶ֔ם אֵ֛ת אֲשֶׁר־יִקְרָ֥א אֶתְכֶ֖ם בְּאַחֲרִ֥ית הַיָּמִֽים then these words were fulfilled and |Yaakov did reveal something, just that he also concealed something. We can explain this based on the Beis Avraham (may his merit protect us), citing R Shmuel of Kaminka (circa  1771-  1830): The words for I will tell you -  וְאַגִּ֣ידָה לָכֶ֔ם - ...

Well, three flocks around it, big rock on well’s top.  Medrash has different takes on the well. Key here, is the rule that the Torah doesn’t tell plain old stories, and from each part there’s what to learn for the path of a Jew.This applies to the well.   The world is a field.  We can grow beautiful fruits.  And also we can grow thorns and thistles.  So too with all creation. On the one hand we can reach high levels and on the other hand it is a lowly and physical world. When HK”BH - the Holy One Blessed Be He sends a Jew’s soul from the soul quarry to this low world, He prepares a well in the field, a place to take nourishment/nursing to fulfil our task and purpose in this world. And the field, the source of nourishment,  has several aspects: First of all is Shabbos.  It is THE well in the field, the source of nourishment for a Jew here.  Zohar :All blessings above and below depend on the seventh day.   The high blessing for the high ones,...

  The Nesivos Shalom cites the Medrash on the pasuk that reports Avraham saying to the young men that accompanied him to the Akeidah that he was going to bow and then come back: "All is in the merit of bowing. We are never told that Avraham actually bowed on the mountain of the Akeidah. The entire act of what he did was one big bow of self abnegation before G-d. Our purpose in life is to humble ourselves before G-d. And that's what Avraham did at the Akeidah. There are three times in the history of the Jewish People when bowing was key, in a metaphorical way, humbling ourselves before G-d. 1 - When we left Egypt. 2- When we got the Torah. 3 - For all future redemptions.

  This parsha mentions most of the ten tests of Avraham, we learn from Pirkei Avot - he faced ten tests and withstood them all… The Torah doesn’t just contain stories - but its stories are main parts of Torah. We are all tested with our ten life challenges as Avraham was. Like him, we’re all tested with ten tests (or categories of tests) repeatedly, to show how much G-d loves us, to make us aware.  Ramban: The test was great for Avraham, this - his passing the tests - made him stand out, more than keeping the Torah.  The key for all of us is how loyal and faithful we stay in the time of being challenged. Chazal: 3 things are present in a student of Avraham - positive/generous eye - seeing the good, humble spirit, nefesh shefeila, a lowered appetite for the physical- holding it down vs nastiness of the eye, haughtiness, strong physical appetite). One could also say that whoever passes his 10 tests is a student of Avraham Avinu, paralleling his major greatness.  And ...

We say this on the night of Rosh haShanah which teaches of the designation and purpose of the world and all that fills it - all for G-d, to bring a Jew closer to G-d.  Relates to this world being ike an antechamber before a hall, the point of this world is to go through it on your path to The Hal/Parlor/Place To Bel. This world is a pathway.  Yet it can seem that this world of desire does the reverse of bringing you to Heaven.  Also we need to understand the concept of Dirah BeTachtonim, the the Lower will be a place where the higher resides. How can that be?  Answer: Maggid of Mezirich - The world is filled with kinyanechah - not things G-d owns, but things through which we gain ownership of/connection to G-d. All the loves and lusts - arousals -  in the world are manufactured in a way, in essence, to bring us to acquire connection with G-d.  Fits w Baal Shem Tov’s statement that no bad descends from Heaven.When seemingly bad lust or love rises in a person...