Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
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- Chemdat Yamim
- Parashat Hashavua
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Bereshit
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Avraham was promised two main things. Hashem promised him that he would be the father of a multitude of nations and kings (ibid. 17:4-6). He was also promised that his offspring would receive the land in which he lived, C’na’an (ibid. 8). While many nations are traced to Avraham, only one was given the Land promised to him as its own.
The fact that Yaakov bought the status of firstborn from the red Eisav for the red lentil soup ensured that Eisav became Edom and that Eretz C’na’an/Yisrael would go only to Yaakov’s family. Eisav would painfully be separated from the legacy of the family of Yitzchak the son of Avraham. In that way, he was like Yishmael (see similarities in Bereishit 21:20 and ibid. 25:27) upon whom it was decreed that he would not inherit along with his brother Yitzchak. It was a bigger chiddush in regard to Eisav, because unlike Yishmael, Eisav came from the same mother, in addition to father, that Yaakov came from. It also was not originally clear which brother would be separated, as Yitzchak preferred Eisav, while Rivka preferred Yaakov.
Another part of the Yitzchak story in the parasha relates that Yitzchak stayed in C’na’an even during a famine, when he would have been expected to go to the more stable Egypt. Hashem told him that staying in the Land made him worthy of the promise of the Land made to Avraham for his offspring (ibid. 26:1-3). Similarly, among Yitzchak’s sons, the one who was chosen to continue the special legacy of Avraham and inherit the Land was Yaakov, the one who stayed in C’na’an, whereas Eisav moved to Edom. However, at the end of this parasha, we see that matters became very complex, as it is Yaakov who left C’na’an first. (We will discuss that more next time.)
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Hosha'ana Rabba FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
"Ani vaHu Hoshia Na", "I and Him, Save Us". We don't just pray to Him, but we also pray to and for ourselves that we should emulate and educate our children to have that instinctive altruism with which He created the world. President Trump seemed amused about Yaniv Hayon, our PLUMBER who confidently worked with G-d like Superman (he learned from a pilot on a TV show!) to save 174 lives on the Dubai hijacking, but we in Israel are totally accustomed already 78 years to our plumbers, teachers, garbage-men, rabbis, farmers & doctors being Hashem's shlichim! This is what Zionism is about.
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
