G-d Appeared to Him and Can Appear to You as Well! with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

[Music] bate midrash a warm welcome a truly truly warm welcome home to torah now i just want to remind everybody what we do here it doesn't stay here okay you gotta give it out right you gotta share whatever you can and uh one of the purposes of learning is to give it over right it's not just for selfish reasons yes we all want to grow we all want to grow but i just i want to invite everybody anybody who can come every morning sunday through wednesday we have a gamora shear right here so if you're listening to this and you live in usual and you want to come and join us i'm going to give a little bit of a plug later on in a few minutes i just want to mention that we use the clear car as the outline for the discussion that's the first thing i want to mention the second thing is that inside the description box below down below you go down to the description box and you can find a link for the source sheets i do want people to follow i'd love for people to learn hebrew right it keeps me going it's good for me it's good for you it's good for the world and i really truly believe the only way you can really really understand what's going on is if you have a slight the slightest thinking of what's going on is to know hebrew okay so we're going to start with the clia card but before we do i just want to give another a little bit of an introduction the baal hatturi interestingly enough on our parsha right let me just get a hummus sorry how can i start without the hamish here we go so impartial is the era and we go to chapter 18 as i mentioned in genesis and we're we're talking about that hashem appeared to avraham okay in a place called the orchard of mamre and what was avraham doing he was looking for guests three days after his circumcision it's very important to know that three days after his circumcision the most painful day hashem came to live holy to do beaker khalim to visit the sikh right it's a mitzvah one of the 6 13 myths 613 minutes is to follow the ways of god the whole torah is a book of khesid an instruction book how we should behave we should behave like god what does god do the first thing he does after he creates the world one of the first things he does is he close the naked right abra adam and eve were naked and what's the very one of the very last things that that that god does he buries moshe that's called right uh mace mitzvah right to bury the dead so everything in between is all about doing being like god who's full of kindness okay and what does he do in the middle well it's not the middle but he's visiting avraham who is not well after three days after circumcision but avraham still is looking for guests because he himself follows the ways of god in fact maybe he even leads the way we'll talk about that a little bit as well so what does he do he's looking for guests keeping that in mind i just want to quote a few things from the balatorium for those who are not familiar right the balatorium it's an unbelievable commentary uh on the on the homici on the tanakh and he goes through a lot of gematria's live hints we mentioned last week a lot of the um the midrashim a lot of what ghazal rashi has to say we can actually what's the worst re word reverse engineer try to understand where do we have these cust where do we have these traditions from we have them from our sinai we haven't from the revelation itself yet they're told in stories and parables and we just mentioned these ideas here so the the um the balatori mentions about the gematria gramachi is the value of the words when you come to the words el no ne mamre the orchard of mamre it's the same gemachio as bikrholim actually it's bibikor okay and also very interesting there were three men that came right it said shalom hashim they were really malachi and who are the malachim that came the who are the who are they so listen to this michael gabriel and raphael so the gematria of the now very interestingly enough so i mentioned to the guys learn with us in the morning when you're learning gemma gimmel meme who is there with you you're surrounded by the four angels so over here you have three angels where's the fourth one it's true uriel wasn't needed let's say for whatever his purpose each angel has a purpose and it seems as though nobody can find oriel so obviously he wasn't needed but when you really think about the gematria the name avraham is the same gamatra as oriel so not only did you have the three anasheem these three angels mikhail gabriel and raphael but you also had avraham who somehow sat in for let's say oreo um okay so i did i mentioned the gamachia so basically when you have the um it's the same kumar jason as that there were with him and raphael also the gemachi of the men stood over him an ashimitsavi malav is the same gamacher also as heim mikhail gavriel and raphael okay with that in mind now we're going to go into the yakar and we'll start with the top line the cl the clear car begins by telling us this verse 18 verse 1 that hashem appeared to him in the plains of mamre of the year eilav hashem elone mamre and he's bothered why does it not say god appeared to abraham his name is already abraham at this point now god did appear to avraham before he read he renamed him so to speak if you go to genesis chapter 12 verse 7. just you should know god did appear to avraham and his name is mentioned in our verse it's called third person a love god appeared to him it's very strange why is avraham's name not mentioned and the clear card wants to go into this but maybe i should read that one rashi let me just read the rashi on that verse at genesis 18 1 where we mentioned that god that avraham god appeared to avraham in the plains of monreal while he was sitting at the entrance of the tent when the day was hot rashi says what it means in the plains of mamre why does why does the torah tell me that that's what rashi's coming to give a shot the simple explanation but i want you to know rashi is very very deep he mentions that this person mamre was actually the one that counseled avraham about what about the circumcision what does that mean does it mean that he should do it now as opposed to later i mean what's going on what's this is god already told him to do it maybe before he told him not to do it until god tells him to do it perhaps but we're going to find out that he was the one who counseled him about where to do it meaning where on the body because there's nowhere in the entire written torah that it says that it's done on the member the male member where right it could have been so god finally tells him where you know that he should do it maybe he should do it on his ear maybe he should do it on the nose or on the tongue or on the heart perhaps so let's look at the the clear car again he mentions god says to him he doesn't say i'm sorry god appeared to him it doesn't say that god appeared to avraham but well guess what there's going to be a difference between what avraham's name is and what it represents and what avraham's actual essence his essence so here in hebrews life because his name and who is like let's say his spiritual constitution his essence hayyu they were i'm going to say completely opposite they were extremes they were opposites of each other now let's go through the name avraham itself everyone knows why he was called avraham so let's for example if you go to the number three on the english sheet that's genesis 17 5 right god says your name shall no longer be called avram but your name shall be abraham for i have made you a father of a multitude of nations now look at the hebrew it's because i'm giving you i'm making you a father of many of the multitude of nations of many nations so rashi tells us when it says hamon right because that's what the hebrew says avhamone it's actually an acrostic of his name of with the avraham okay what does that mean the race now the race is kept so it's with the race the race was not replaced the yud we'll talk about that in a second one second the race that was in his name was originally denoting that he was only the father of rama he was of he was of laram he was father to ram which is a place where he grew up it was his native place but now his whole persona has changed he's not just a father to rama and ram can mean the mighty and we're going to talk about that because he made many converts he took people and convinced them to give up their pagan ideas their idolatrous ways of life and accept the one true god okay but he came he became the father of the whole world and we do see at least for those with eyes that can see that he is the father of what they call the abrahamic faiths which is maybe two-thirds of the globe and perhaps if you even look further into eastern religions they also have hints and ramazim to i'll use the word nirvana which is actually an idea about avraham but anyway let's go on nevertheless the race that was there originally was not moved from its place what happened with the yud meaning the yod of sarah the yurt of sarah was replaced and it became a hay and that that yud somehow complained that it wanted a place in this world and god placed it into joshua's name yoshua okay his name was hoshaya and he became yahushua what would have happened if the reish was replaced for some reason there's an interesting medrash and discussion that the reish also would have complained and perhaps hashem didn't have a place for it so anyway he left the reish in and that's that for now um let's go back into the clear car all he mentioned was right away that the name avraham we know is because he's right his name was avram and it was changed to avraham the hay was added and you understand that it means the father of a multitude of nations which does what what does that do the name itself reflects what we call hasrara in other words acts a a symbolic authority and royalty this is what avraham being the father of all nations represents his name represents authority and royalty va'smutto but what about his spiritual constitution what about his essence what's anov is humility and how do we know one second because we have a pasik chapter 18 verse 27 you'll see that number four avraham answered and said behold now i have commenced to speak to the lord but what does he say and no he offered the afer he calls himself i am but dust and ashes okay so if someone considers themselves dust and ashes obviously this is a sense of humility kadesha yomru now this is going to go into the reason why hashem called to him and not to abraham obviously the same person but the text the narrative says god spoke to him not to the name of of authority not to the name of royalty not to the name of the elite but to who he is which is just dust and ashes kadesha lomiro so people don't say neglect so that every single human being from this time forward will not say god doesn't relate to me because i'm a nobody or i'm a peon or i'm just joe shmoe i don't have the last name of rockefeller or ross child or trump or something like that right mike's not my last name clinton right and that's not my last name god's not going to talk to me no he's going to talk to you because he's not talking to avraham as uh okay he's talking to abraham a love to his essence who's just offer of afar so every human being should know this this is unbelievable i'm going to read it this idea again um kade shalom yomru in order the people will not say that the blessed holy one is he he's more likely to reveal himself to great people or exceptional people because of their greatness no al cain lomar that's why it does not say that god appeared to abraham to teach you what lahoros shalom that god did not reveal himself to avraham because he is like this the one percent right the top of the top the cream of the cream near allah that's not why god appeared to him because he was the father of many nations but rather because of his humility because of his his essence kihana was meek and obedient you understand that was what he was and um like literally if you want to say he was not just humble but he was low of knee right he was low of knee meaning he was meek kamosha khazal listen to what ghazal saying uh shabbos sadiq bet 92 i have it here on the sheet somewhere don't i um okay well i think i think it appears somewhere else and i think i put it in the darium 38a so it appears more than one place so in in the darim 38a it mentions over there hashem does not reveal his presence except to one who is drum roll please let's get the drum roll going guys come on there we go come on i don't hear unless he's a gebor usher an anath now these are four big things so one second unless he's wise unless he's strong unless he's wealthy and unless he's humble now do you think that you have to have all four of these for god to reveal yourself or just any one of these listen we all feel very uh maybe we're gifted with one of these are we gifted with all them first of all they're not just gifts these are things that you can anybody can acquire what does it say in perky i vote chapter 4 verse 1. benzoma asked who is wise who is rich who is honored listen to what did they skip something yeah who is wise who is mighty who is rich all these things and who is honored we'll speak about that because i think that falls right in line with the with the humility part but who's why someone who learns from everyone who's if you're willing to learn from somebody else that shows an act of what firstly you want to be wise it's also humility but that's who's wise so you could be wise don't think if you were not endowed with a high iq that you're not considered wise you could be wise if you have that act of humility who's mighty someone who's over able to overcome their evil inclination every single one of us can be mighty so don't think if you don't have what you call a six-pack uh a bunch of muscles right or you can't do more than x amount of pull-ups or x amount of sit-ups or x amount of push-ups that you're not mighty it's if you can overcome your evil inclination which everybody can and who's rich someone who's satisfied with his lot so you don't have to have a huge bank account not at all you might actually have zero you might even i shouldn't say you somebody might even have minus and yet they can still be uh happy they can still be rich now this last one who's um who is rich who is he who's honored okay this is interesting who's honored in other words kavod kavod that's like that's unfortunate it's like the opposite of humility when people are looking for power they're looking for honor right here if you go the other way in fact what is the passage each one of these had pursued him first samuel chapter 2 verse 30. god himself says for i honor those that honor me but wait we're not talking about this is preface it with this who is going to be honored he who honors his fellow human beings why because we're created in the image of god if you can see the image of god in another human being and honor the other human being then god responds basically by saying those who honor me right i'm basically going to honor those i honor those who honor me think about even what abraham was doing avraham was in the middle of the conversation a d m c he was in a dmc with hashem a deep meaningful conversation and you know what he says one minute i have to attend to these what he thought were human beings would you have thought this is like the most grossest i don't know what other word to say it um how do you behave like that way too much towards hashem you're in the middle of a conversation excuse me a minute i have to tend to these people but that's what god wanted that's why avraham was so great because he he knew that people were creating the image of god and he was he would there's not like you're leaving god to tend to these people you're actually tending to god it fits really it fits in well and i'm glad i found that uh perky ah vote to discuss here going back into this idea that it mentions in i said nadarim or shabbos these four things now it says remember god appeared unto him because of not his name that's not why he appeared to him but because of his atsumuto because of his essence which what is the main part of his essence is another right an offer of the fair i am just dustin ashes below balboa and now on account of his name which is that whole idea of the name being the opposite of who he really is okay alternatively a little bit of a twist a little bit of an alternative way to explain this and that is like this from the very beginning hashem did appear to him at in the name of avraham as we mentioned i think it's in 17 1. let me just see um yeah go to number nine uh actually that's we know that god did appear to him right there avraham was 99 years old and god appeared to avraham okay and he also said walk before me and be perfect the hebrew is the he of rama bentis he was 99 the yera hashem el avram god appeared to avram and he said unto him ani walk before me and be perfect it's going to be very important here we're going to discuss this idea anyway at this point because his name was avraham he was of laram he was the father to the we're called he was the mighty father you could re you could interpret that way he was the father to the mighty laram now why was he nicknamed that why was he named avraham because listen to this he brought people in to the refuge into underneath the wings of the shrine of the divine presence he and we'll call converted people he converted them from paganism to monotheism to be true righteous nochides right ben nach people who were right right there wasn't judaism as we know it then but he brought them in as if he was their father he's the one that gave birth to them so someone who is mecca someone who brings people closer right to judaism to what we call judaism that includes the righteous gentiles includes people who convert that person is like he gave birth to these others from the aspect that he was the father likulam he was the father of all of them nigla allah of hashem that's why god appeared to him you want god to appear to you you have to work for it get out there and spread the message now this is saying because of his name god appeared to him then as avraham of ram but from his essence he had not yet he was not yet fit to see the divine presence why is that lefishaya arrail ubaom now this is a very difficult thing to explain for some that will have a hard time understanding this but the words basically come out because he was still uncircumcised at that time his name was avraham and he was still in circumcised and that's considered a blemish what does it mean a blemish it's a block it's something that's holding him back from his potential okay so i'm not trying to tell at all righteousness that they should be circumcised but i am telling you that there's another step there is a step and it's an interesting step okay it's called it's called conversion oh there's even a step called evid kanani and evid kanani is a step between a righteous knockhide and a full-fledged righteous convert okay i'm going to leave that for now i'm not going to go into it but i do believe that is the highest level a non-jew can actually achieve in this world onward the akshaf shinimo neera elam hashem by the way so basically evan cannon is circumcised anyway once he was circumcised hashem appeared to him a feeling even from the aspect of his own essence but that was going to be um that lesson there now aloha rice this all comes to teach us that the actual appearance of god to to avraham at this point was because he was now circumcised the nearer allah name ray and he in the pussic says the verse says that he appeared to him in the orchards in the orchard of a person named mom ray which we already said he was the one who gave him the advice of where on the body to do it remember according to rashi we did see that first rashi on 1 hirashi says mamrie was the one who counseled him about circumcision perhaps he was the one who said you know don't do it until you can until you're um you're commanded but at least where to do it on your body like a doctor who advised him well you'll see you'll see why he probably wasn't a doctor he was probably a metaphysician like me i'm a doctor in metaphysics no like all of us jews he used logic and wait till you hear the logic medicinal power of the local herbs maybe but let's let's see what he says here hoon shannon he's the one who gave him the advice again where to do the mila veneer and guess where he himself learned it from he himself learned it god appeared where in the alone mom ray god appeared where in the in the trees of mamre now the trees are language of plural okay a lay it was it should have been alon mare but it says uh um uh mamre it says alonnay loshan robbie bapam ahu bahar be elonim of course there must have been a lot of trees and if there wasn't hailalomar baelon mamre obviously it had to be a lot of trees otherwise it would have said alone singular ki afa pisha elonim harbaugh now yes let's give it a given the fact that there were a lot of trees that mom ray owned are you a halae avraham bakulam remember avraham had a lot of rohush a rehearsal he had a lot of converts that he made right he had a lot of property he had children look at the cattle look at number 12 on the english sheet it says over there if i'm not mistaken chapter 17 verse 23 and avraham took ishmael his son and all those born in his house and all those purchased with his money every male of the people of avraham's household he circumcised the flesh of their foreskin on the very day oh so there was a lot of people there um because that that's not the positive i was looking for i think go back to genesis 12 5. and avram took sarai his wife and load his brother's son and all their possessions that they had acquired and the souls they had acquired in the quran and they went to the land of kanan they came to land of qur'an so avraham had a huge entourage he was not alone you can see that from there and by the way rashi mentions over there what does it mean in the souls they acquired in quran look at the hebrew it says rashi says whom he had brought under the wings of the sheena avraham would convert the men sorrow would convert the women as the scribes ascribe to them merit as if they made them you're considered their their parents okay so we see that he had a lot of things a lot of people a lot of tents okay so now we're going further mikhail makom hayadai kashinit pashet zohar zievskin ilan like hello the posix says that god appeared through all of the trees of mamre wouldn't have been enough just to appear in the one tree that avraham was sitting under or sitting by or you know sitting near and that would have been enough okay elevated rather what did we learn that mamre the owner of the field must have had some merit some credit for this the admits the samila and a portion in the actual mitzvah even though he was not jewish even though he didn't do the meal himself but he was a support system for for avraham he was his friend he was his student and he was he supported him and therefore he gets great merit also in the advice that he gave that's why god appeared in all of the trees of mamre omitam zen nimragam kane and that's for this very reason it it says here ye ra olav that god appeared to him appeared to him kadesha lo tamar so people will not say shema called yali they based remember his household was also circumcised the same day so everybody was circumcised so maybe the it lit up because everyone's circumcised all of his children have such merit and it wasn't going to be attributed just to avraham no remember all of them were nimulo al kane yizrach or hashem akulam remember this people should not say that therefore that's why god appeared to all of them veloba of or mommy then you're cutting out mom ray all together but knows specifically that god appeared to him lamar called yeliday baso so now you exclude god did not appear to all of the household of avraham but yet he did it he still appeared in all of the trees of mamre and now you understand that mom ray is getting the credit that that is due to him so to exclude col yola day beethoven cospo to exclude all of the children of his household and all the acquisitions he acquired gamra there's no doubt this is how we learn out that mom ray gets the credit now the next page the attache lomar it's very likely to say very possible to say the following that the word alone which we already translated ourselves as orchard it should not be translated as a plane a plane is like a plateau a plane means a it's not a valley it's not a mountain it's a flat area that you can see for a while since that's not the case do not translate it as me sure we have to translate it as the trees of mamre and that's the proper way to translate we are and as proof for this if he gives a text proof you know in verse four if i'm not mistaken right when he tells when he grant when he gets the um when he gets the uh i hear this he gets the um the angels to come and he wants to wash their feet from all the dirt and sand remember the nomads the arabs the people lived in the arabian peninsula they worshipped the sand i mean they so he says please let a little water be taken and bathe your feet and recline under the tree so the the tree the word tree is used which is singular there's no doubt okay what do you mean under the tree weren't didn't we already established the word alone is plural and there were a lot of trees so that's where hazal are able to darshan out and this is in your more shabbos 108-a minayan lamila shiba otamakum remember we said that it was a it was mamre that gave the advice where it would be on the body he says from where did he know the mila was in that place so it says willa orla by trees we'd have a halacha there's such a thing as the first three years of fruit tree nurse israel you shall not use that fruit only in the fourth year after you make redemption right to revoir you make a certain redemption the fourth year and then you can benefit from the fruit so it's called orla the first three years are called orla orla means that it's not usable you're not allowed to use it it's like covered with a clipper it's um it has a foreskin let's say whatever oil it means we do translate this foreskin it has some kind of clip means a shell that you can it's a metaphysical shell that you cannot use this fruits from the trees and it also says here by brismila we all know that means uncircumcised again oral means the foreskin so you have by fruits and you have by the circumcision the same word is used so he figured it out mala holla and malcolm show so payroll just like there the place is the place meaning the orchard the fruit trees make fruits peyrose peros means it could be progeny right peru review be fruitful multiply peru is the idea of multiplication being fruitful i.e also related to procreation so just like over there the word peros is used by trees off mila so too when it comes to the circumcision peris it must be in the place that gives off produce that makes fruit that makes dividends that makes progeny correct so too we find in the measures that avraham himself was in doubt where to do the circumcision where meaning where on the body maybe it was from the mouth omino ozin or from the ear or minha lathe or perhaps from the heart al kane negla or hashem akola illanos therefore you had the the shine of the divine presence over all the trees kamari malcolm as if to show the place by saying ilanos look at these trees look at them the tumor mayhem and you should learn from them that the prime place of the shine of the spark of the sh the the the shining of the honor and glory of hashem is on the place that makes fruit it's just amazing to think like who would have thought of such a thing no human being could have said okay you're going to make covenant with god you're going to have the brit mila what we call circumcision on that particular limb i mean come on take my thumbnail take my earlobe take something but that this is a very holy place um and from here we have a connection a holy connection that we actually can see god in the flesh meaning in our flesh we look at a human being and we understand that he's creating the image of god in your fl i can see god in your being illa knows especially in that particular place i mean you think about the immune system we were talking about the immune system it's just amazing we say i share you sure to go to the bathroom every part of our body is like it's miraculous it's absolutely miraculous you can watch your skin heal right if you get like a small paper cut right obviously it can be worse and you can see it he'll too but i'm just trying to make you know make a small thing out of a you know but it's amazing that we can go to the bathroom right it's just everything about the whole human body the way the heart works and the everything's pumping through but people are becoming educated about their immune system these days it's just it's amazing okay so you can see what is true by these trees my coma come nevertheless it would still be left as a difficulty we're still stuck why would there be any mention in the verse that these trees belong to a man named mom ray furthermore avraham called them allah what did avraham do before that god shone himself through this light with all the glory of god ella vaday it has to be exactly like he mentioned vada shimano actually it has to be that uh the way we just described it that monterey understood through svara see avraham actually knew from gezera shava but we're not going to get into that nekazer shava's orla okay but but mommy knew from the paris appears themselves so mom knew that it was from svara and so that's interesting pasvara means logic so even the gentiles they are obligated to keep those mitzvahs not just seven many mitzvahs any one of the 613 mitzvahs that are derived through logic they are obligated to keep avraham actually had what we say the 13 harmonical principles this was a direct revelation from god on what to do so that's a limu that's through oiseko torah and he knew from from that aspect from the gazer shaving so he said the history of you though that god agreed with mamre ayadeshinirolav shemba elony because of god's shone like he appeared in the trees so then then then would it be hashem that god agreed obviously god knew where the brush meal was going to be but god agreed that mom raised aza was good and he gave it to uh to avraham who besem the yusuf ako and the clear car ends with these ideas that this resolves all these issues key perish your car this is a very uh dear and precious explanation that's really it i just want you to mention like just to go back on this idea that humility it's it's it does it doesn't come easy right we all have an ego we were created with the eights of hurrah but this is what is going to make or break this is going to separate the men from the boys okay the ability to be honest with yourself to know that when you make mistakes to own up to it to know you can do a better job right the next time you have a you know any in any relationship that you have how you can handle a situation and in learning you know if you really have a good harusa you're able to open up you don't hold back and you tell them how you feel and you tell them what you think and he's able to handle it you're able to handle it it takes a lot of maturity takes it's a long time in coming but a lot of people who are bali chuva who are converts unfortunately never had a yeshiva real yeshiva experience of learning with a haruta and battling it out but it's it's more engaging than even marriage but it will prepare you for marriage and marriage is also very not just engaging it's uh you know it's like man and woman they they shouldn't even they almost don't belong together in the same room and yet barak hashem with with proper meadow with you know work you have to be honest with yourself and working on yourself you can advance so we look to avraham avinu man did he treat his wife like a queen and he certainly was the top of the cream of the crop right so bazrat hashem we all have we all have good good role models whether it's our own parents or our teachers or our rabbis or people in our community and we should choose them wisely so we learned a lot from avraham today and bizarre to show we should just continue to grow and grow so i'll see you all next week if anybody wants to learn gomorrah in the bay measures with me lives locally get in touch with me the contact number is on our website so that is also uh that is a link below and i'm wishing everyone a shabbat shalom [Music] you is [Music]