Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: Alone in the Middle of the Night

[Music] okay okay hi good evening everyone and we're doing Park just finish luck this week together with a little bit of the haftorah and purchase for Yeats a it's a very neat division purchase PSA starts off with Yaakov leaving Erica threal and spending 20 years in Levin's house purchase fresh LOX is his return to Eretz Israel and he's finally returning after such a long absence and he gets word that ace of his brother has not forgotten the injustice the apparent injustice that was done to him and he's there to greet him so to speak with an army of 400 people and Yaakov was very frightened Yaakov was frightened that perhaps while the plastic says again by ear are you Cove my odds of a Yates are low Yaakov is very frightened and he is distressed note the double language and Rashi says a very fascinating idea Yaakov is afraid that perhaps he will be killed okay Yaakov is afraid or distressed that perhaps he will have to kill very very fascinating for a Jew the problem of war is not only maybe I'll get killed a Jew gets no pleasure in killing other people either we do what we have to do we are not pacifists because I'll say have all the hard gotta someone who's coming to kill you kill them first we don't simply say I don't fight but there's always going to be a little bit of sadness remember that even when the Egyptians are drowning in the Red Sea and the Malacca shrubberies wanted to say Hallel to wash em Hashem said my see are they terrible young these are my creatures they're also drowning at mmm Shira is that the time to be happy now Hashem didn't say oh they're my creatures so I'll let them live they have to die but there's going to be sadness and this is reflected in Yaakov avi no he's not only afraid that perhaps Aesop will kill him he's afraid and distressed that perhaps he'll have to be the mur as well because that diminishes a person and therefore a person tries to avoid it whenever possible but be it as it may the Gemara tells us that whenever the sages the herkiman particularly reviewed the Hinault see the author of the Mishnah had to meet with the roman government to negotiate the situation for the Jewish people they always studied sparsh us by yesh lux before the meeting because that gave them had raka that gave them guidance that gave them instruction how do you interact with the you Mota alum that are ruling over you and they looked at Yaakov strategy in dealing with Asaph for lessons as to how they should deal with the Roman Empire which actually is a descendants a vase of Rome is considered to be a sub and because I'll say that Yaakov Aveeno employed three strategies first he sent gifts I want to be on your good side I want to make peace I want to butter you up I want to make you feel that I respect you second plan B is war if necessary but then there's a Plan C which is really necessary for both a and B and that is prayer to our Kurdish burger because without prayer to our Kadesh Barco neither strategy is going to be successful so some forum understands that this idea of the three strategies of Yaakov is really a remiz for how we deal with the outside world generally not only in time of war but how does a religious Jew I would see mr. he or she meet EFS to secular wisdom secular culture right there is a culture out there and the culture may contain wisdom it may contain that which is degenerate that which is depraved but that which is noble and uplifting and in effect the same three strategies that Yaakov Aveeno employed in dealing with ace of the enemy it's how we deal with secular culture in a general way and that is the following you know we tend to see in the Jewish world two different extremes there is one extreme that tries to reject everything that is outside of the narrow confines of Torah everything is traif history psychology poetry literature traif I don't want it it stomach I will get everything I need from the learning of the Torah itself that is one extreme there is another extreme that says I'm going to embrace everything everything is wonderful in reality we see from Yaakov that both of those extremes are a mistake because strategy one Yaakov employs his door own gift giving gift giving is welcoming something meaning there is a certain measure of acceptance that we have to have for the wisdom of the world Erica Haim say that if a person says hokhmah bag I am there is wisdom among the nations Tom in we believe them there is wisdom there is insight whether a redemption for us created a movement or Ishita called Torah named Eric Harris in which you integrate the wisdom of the world and you bring it into your toe real life so karma bug Anjum Tom Ian and he points out at the very beginning of safer braces in partial snow already after the flood so God if you remember when Noah was drunk and Noah was naked and come his son made fun of his father's nakedness and calls shame and y FS to view it and shame and Yepez walked backwards with area blanket to cover up Noah and when Noah got out of his drunkenness Noah gave EFS a bracha and he said he offed ello kimly FS now this is a pun yeah may God give beauty to llevas the Colin and may FS dwell be all a shame in the tents of Shem now in English that sounds bad but in Hebrew it's good Shem is no ox son Shem is the ancestor of Avram and the hill of people that's the word semi comes from a descendent of Shem so we're first explains the following the FS and Shem were given two different missions in the world he FS is the ancestor of Greece the FS was given the mission of bringing Beauty into the world the beauty could be in the form of art literature poetry it could also be the beauty of philosophy the elegance of mathematics even athleticism even athletics so y FS was entrusted with the mission of bringing beauty and what you might call secular wisdom and knowledge into the world shame was given a more significant mission to bring godliness kedusha what we would call ethical monotheism into the world now many people think there's this chasm between them in which the two worlds can never be united so this is no expression may the beauty of ef-s find its dwelling place in the tents of Shem meaning the FSS wisdom is beautiful as long as it is subordinated to serving God but when that wisdom is my new talk when that wisdom is severed from the serving of God it then becomes destructive it then becomes evil remember that the Holocaust originated from the one country in Europe that was by far the most civilized the most advanced in philosophy in science and music in literature precisely where the greatest shock Maya von it existed came the greatest destruction the greatest hell yeah I understand that technically most of the executioner's were not German they were the more or less they opposed Ukrainians and Aryans there's a whole bunch of countries that are implicated but the master plan came out of Germany and that is a very sobering reminder that you can have the greatest wisdom the greatest knowledge the greatest literature the greatest science and be capable of the greatest evil when it's not connected to the worship of God so if sumption revilers says that in one and the Terr is making two claims here on one end the fs has a role in the world that's very significant the role of beauty of knowledge of culture of understanding it is good it is not something that's traif that's point number one God has given him beauty but point number two is only when it dwells in the tent of shame and not when it's separated from serving God and subordination to morality so in a sense this dichotomy can be seen in Yaakov you know going back to my issue of giving gifts is welcoming that culture into my life because giving gifts is a bond of friendship so there are parts of the culture that I accept that I validate that I bring in that I consider useful and even spiritually uplifting now the second part of yaakov strategy is mil comma but there's part of that culture that I must reject I must wage war against I cannot allow that infiltration into my home into my mishpocha into my heart so in a sense just as Judaism normally rejects either-or solutions you know people say well secular culture good or a secular culture bad answer it's both and the door own the gift-giving is the part of welcoming it's some of it in and the Milka ma is the part of pushing away some of it so the question obviously becomes how do you know what to accept and what to reject that is where you need Fela you must turn to God for wisdom and guidance because in many many ways when you have binary choices either/or life is a lot easier if my attitude is I reject everything although that's actually impossible but ok that's my schita I reject I accept everything I accept I don't grapple with the complexities of discrimination but when you understand that there's good that's mixed with evil and you have to figure out how to extract the good from the evil and even how to define what is good and what is evil that requires a great deal of wisdom understanding and ultimately sea otter - my divine assistance from heaven and therefore Yaakov Aveeno is not simply describing his encounter with a particular enemy in a particular time but this is kind of a prototype for the struggle that the Jew faces as we look at the secular world and we understand that there's good and valuable insight to be drawn now obviously in the narrow area of Technology putting aside the challenges of the agenda obviously the Jewish world uses technology most people have phones even if it's not a smartphone even if it's a dump but it's a phone most people have computers certainly outside of the ultra ultra karate in Eretz Israel so we are certainly willing to benefit from the inventions of non-jewish society but in a deeper way there are also insights from non-jewish society that can benefit a person as well if bulba saur Colonel abraha they're very very great bond mustard the expert in in Jewish ethical development had the really good fortune of being able to be in Switzerland during World War Two he escaped from Germany and he spent the war years as a young man in neutral Switzerland and in Switzerland was the very very famous child psychologist Piaget and a guy not a Jew at all and rabbi revolver who was very interested in personality development and the development of moral consciousness actually apprenticed with Piaget because he wanted to understand from piaces pioneering research how personalities grow and develop and how moral decisions are made so he was willing to go to a totally non-jewish source in order to gather hokhmah that he could then incorporate in Torah and that's an important lesson now of course the danger is of course that once you open the floodgates who knows what you're letting in so one might make the argument that maybe a rejectionist stance is a safer lesser of two evils and I respect that I can understand that type of position if you had to make a choice between total rejection rejection of the outside world and total acceptance total rejection is probably the safer course but one has to understand that that is the lesser of two evils that is not an optimal situation but sometimes a person makes a decision because simply they're worried about the consequences of opening things up let me remind you of a Gemara that I've mentioned a number of times mostly Shabbat we recite in the Amidah of our wits a paragraph about the token antonova sham separates between Kadesh holy and profane so in which bracha of the Shmona ezra is that half dollar paragraph put into it's put into the broker asking a sham for wisdom and knowledge and the Gemara explains the massacres brokers that why is half dollar in the bracha dealing with wisdom so the goomar's language is amend us if you don't have wisdom abdullah mean ayan how will you able power you will you be able to discriminate between what is holy and what is profane the very essence of wisdom is the ability to make discriminations and distinctions so an all-or-nothing approach by definition is an approach that lacks wisdom because wisdom is the capacity to make those differentiations and that is why Yaakov needed Fela to determine when will the strategy be war rejection and when will the strategy be gift-giving which is acceptance and bringing it into your life so that's one hora now this is actually very very relevant to this time of year because we're approaching Chanukah and again I'll talk about chronic and more as we get closer to it's coming up but Chanukah is always seen as the struggle of Israel the Jewish people against the Greek culture by Judaism stands for Torah for mitzvahs for worship of God for subordination of your desires to the divine plan Yavin represents the epitome of human endeavor whether it's science philosophy and it is said that the victory of the Maccabees over the Greeks we say in the album ISM is the victory of light over darkness it is the victory of purity over impurity it is the victory of the righteous over the evil so this is the time of year in which we knock Yvonne alas the oven is knock denigrated godless not connecting to a higher morality and and the like and all of that is true but one has to remember a first that the FS that is the ancestor of Yavin can also be very very beautiful when it is subordinated to shame and that's causal statements Karabakh I am Tom in if they tell you there is wisdom among the gyeom believe it there is indeed wisdom but the wisdom is moot love it is mixed with decadence it is mixed with even evil it is mixed with coarseness as all of us know in modern culture and it takes a great deal of wisdom to be able to separate out and of course in Kabbalah I'm not going to get into the Kabbalah obviously the whole imagery of the universe is the reclaiming of sparks of holiness from the shattered vessels in which those sparks are dispersed throughout the creation and the job of a Jew is to gather those sparks from their source and bring them back to kedusha so the whole metaphor of Srivatsa calum the breaking of the vessels the shattering of the sparks is predicated on the fact that holiness can be found in very unlikely areas but it's imprisoned and you have to take it out in fact Ref cook writes again is a bit of a daring idea that many many movements that in many ways are antagonistic to Torah actually have a have a spark of holiness within them that got perverted or imprisoned just as we have an expression in English about a wolf in sheep's clothing sometimes there's the opposite there is a sheep in wolf's clothing meaning to say there's a legitimate even holy idea that is imprisoned in the shell of something bad he looked at this for example in Semin ISM the owner of kooks de feminism did not advance or regress depending how you wanted to find it as much as it did later but the idea of women striving for equality now one can look at that and one could identify all sorts of whole logic problems all you want women rabbi you want women judges you know can't do those things and with Cook was makeer that the external form may have been nine halakha but at its root was the striving for dignity and respect that every human being is entitled to because they are in the image of God so even within movements that on sin some ways can even be anti Toa in some ways if that group that the rebellion of Jews which are the defection of Jews from Torah which were of kook experience year young people not being attached to mitzvahs on one hand that's a tragedy very very bad and the other man's had indicated the idea that they were rebelling against superficiality they were rebelling against people who were doing myths votes out of roads so we have to look at the Renegades and we have to look at the rebellious people and ask yourself the question and not only what's wrong with them but what's wrong with us that these are the occasions where we have to re-examine our Yiddish gate and therefore have cook said even from apparent evil there are seeds of goods okay I don't want to get into too much trouble here but this is one of her of cooks most interesting innovative creative ideas and parallel to of cook this was also an idea that was developed by web Southwark of Lublin and that some of these were such that such explosive ideas that's one of seduction works were published after his death some of these passages were censored the family removed it from the safer because they thought it would cause too much of a firestorm but as usual somebody managed to publish an unexpurgated edition so you can find these things and the more recent edition series so Hanukkah is a time indeed where we we contemplate what is our relationship to secular culture what can i reclaim from it what sparks can I get out of it and at the same time what I have to reject and that takes wisdom that takes Fela that IATI - Maya okay now going on into the sequence of the parsha Yaakov is ready and he's going to be encountering ace of the next morning and he's already moved his family to a safe haven but that night he goes back to where he was he crosses the river yeah book and it doesn't say why he crossed the river yeah book but kasalavu strange interpretation he had forgotten some small jars he went back in the middle of the night to retrieve popped him Catania now that's kind of a foolish thing to do it's pretty dangerous to kind of hang around after midnight all by yourself in these desolate areas so because I'll say an amazing thing tsadikim I've even lehem ammonium yessir me goof on their property their money is more beloved to them than even the safety of their bodies so he went back for little jars paper clips pens pencils what's going on hey Sonic cares more about his money than his body well why would it started care so much about properties the other way around we look at its attic as a spiritual person who only cares about serving God but the answer is actually very patient a Saavik understands that every single material resource God has given him can and must be used for about that's a Shem so for most of us if I have five pens in my pocket or five pens in my house and I left one pen behind I'm not going to go bother and get it because I say okay I had five pence now I have four pence a Yaakov understands hmm if God gave me five pens there must be a reason now that doesn't mean I keep it maybe I give it to stuck maybe I lent it out whatever it is but there's a reason so for Yaakov to simply give up even on a small jar that he was not going to do if I Shem gave me that jar there's a way I serve God with that so it's not a question of the SAVAK being stingy god forbid but the SAVAK understanding that every resource has a purpose and that is why it's interesting when Yaakov describes his wealth daysif Yaakov uses the phrase Ashley called I have everything when a sub describes as well Asaph says Ashley Rove I have an abundance I have more than I need a sub ik never has more than he needs it Sadiq understands God has given him what he needs if he's extraordinarily poor he understands this is what God has determined I need and if it's extraordinarily rich he understands there's a reason God made me a multimillionaire it's only a person who lives for the body rather than the spirit that can say oh I have more than I need because if you use your resources for your physical gratification yeah there is a limit barbra streisand once said you can only eat one pastrami sandwich at a time I live for the body there's a limit what I mean what do I need after the first 5 billion you know there's not going to be an additional comfort level then I'm gonna get so person you think I have more than I need but for a Yaakov Aveeno it's not possible to say I have more than I need because everything has a purpose and that's why he goes back but it's interesting that there's a messiah that's brought down and sifrin casitas and i don't think there's a mockery and Hazael this almost seems to be an oral tradition would be interesting to trace down the marker that the particular jar that Yaakov went back for is quite an amazing jar a magic charm you remember when Noah after the flood wanted to determine if the ground was dry enough was it safe enough for human beings to leave the table so he sent birds out to check things out and come back and his last juliek was a dove and the Dove came back with an olive branch and when the Dove came back with an olive branch Noah knew that trees were already growing and it was time to rebuild the world once again according to this miss aura the bird did not just come back with a leaf the tourist has a leaf but they came back with a whole branch including olives and Noah took the olives and he pressed the olives olive oil from the olives that were the divine sign that God has made the world good again and that jar of oil was lovingly preserved generation to generation as a sign of God's love and God's forgiveness it was passed down to shame and from shames descendants eventually to Avram it's like the language the tamari uses for the little jar of oil of the Hanukkah story puck and what is the language of the Gemara well Jakov went back four packs in catania so it actually says that the jar that Yaka went back for eventually became the jar that was discovered in the base of mikdash for the miracle of Hanukkah the oil that Noah had expressed and Yaakov understood that how holy that oil was and what it signified and that is why he made a special effort to go back for it again I don't I mean it's a beautiful story I don't know if there's a marker in Kazan but the Citrix Receiver spring this is a tradition that the park in Catania was the I shed men that survived for the Hanukkah story and that is why Yaakov went back for it okay but when yet whatever the reason when Yaakov goes back all of a sudden he finds himself wrestling with what is it's described as a mysterious man turns out that man is an angel it's the guardian angel of Asaph somehow the night before Yaakov meets Asaph in the flesh he has to struggle with the spiritual power of Asaph and he struggles all night and there are times that Yaakov was on top and he's winning and there are times that this mysterious man is on top and he's winning and only towards the morning does Yaakov pin him down and he asks the person I will not send you away until you bless me and at the crack of dawn the angel says let me go let me go I have to sing my song - hm since resting I once heard from it an old European Talmud hakama just acute there you know when give him a blocker sorry gotta go that's that's the darest when it comes to abraca don't have time when it comes to hurting Yakko that he has all the time in the world but ok but B does it make the angel says I have to go Yakko says I'm not gonna let you go unless you bless me and the angel said to him you're on your name shall no longer be Yakko which is the heel your name shall be Israel which means you have been victorious with God God has granted you victory over your foes now we know that Yaakov actually has both names in the remaining of the tourists sometimes he's called Yaakov sometimes he's called youth RAL but what is the significance of the change of name here Yaakov is he'll the Israel is triumph tsurara prints print prints hood if there is such a word so here let's go back a little bit the Gemara nakulan has an interesting discussion what did this angel man look like so according to one view he looked like an axe murderer he looked like a violent evil person Yaakov is being confronted by someone who wants to murder him ok according to another view he looked like a saintly Thomas Holcomb long white beard a luminous countenance so it's a little strange why would the angel evasive come in the guise of a righteous Thomas Holcomb that's not how we would describe ASA so one interpretation is that this precisely refers to the idea that we face to Nishio knows in the world we have the GAR you wants to destroy our body and then we have the non-jewish culture that says be one of us will welcome you we're also righteous that might be one thing but some commentaries offer a very intriguing explanation that when Yakov is wrestling with the angel of Asaph he is actually wrestling with the ace of that is within himself because here it's Yaakov of e-news dilemma Yaakov is coming back to Eretz Israel and Yaakov gets news that ace of his evil brother wants to kill him but Yaakov is a man of truth although he's used deception quite a lot and Yaakov knows that before he's able to confront that physical Asaph he must examine himself is he worthy is he no better than ASA ASA was achieved ASA was a liar well Yaakov too has engaged in deceit and line and therefore the concept of the axe murderer and the Talmud Sock'em our two faces within Yaakov zone personality and the fact that the scene is described as middle of the night all alone has a deep symbolic significance that when we struggle with the integrity of our own personality you know sometimes within our family at least if they're supportive we express the hesitations we have we express our fears we express our weaknesses so people might tell us you're great you're fine you're fine don't be hard on yourself and that's good we all we all need that emotional support I'm all in favor of that but there are times that we have to confront the difficult harsh truths and that's kind of alone in the middle of the night and therefore the wrestling that Jakub is going through is the wrestling of am i worthy to be God's representative of the Jewish nation on earth or am I just another ace of with a different type of tactic and the like so therefore the Thomas Karume is actually a reflection of Yaakov and that is the meaning of the two names Yaakov and Israel Yaakov is the heel the heel is the part of your body that's in the mud Israel is transcending elevation victory Hashem is telling Yaakov because you were willing to struggle and work on yourself because you were in the mud that is what gives you triumph you don't live in a world of denial you don't live in a world of just making yourself feel good you're willing to confront those difficult truths and that itself will be the source of your hats laka in the world so this is very very intriguing the eighth of that he's fighting is not the ace of that he will meet the next day it is the ace of within himself that he must identify and then he must vanquish and that's why Yaakov and Israel both names are preserved sometimes he's called Yaakov sometimes he's called ul because Yaakov is the word of struggle I'm willing to put myself in the mud the Israel is the triumph but there is no triumph without honesty there is no triumph without struggle there is no triumph without acknowledging our shortcomings and striving to improve ourselves and work on them so let's go further in the narrative so the harvest time has a very nice observation we find this idea of the angel evasive trying to destroy Yaakov we don't really find a similar development in the case of a Bremen yet Scott averin of course had trials the akkada but we don't find an angel trying to destroy him and we only find that by Yaakov why is that so so the prophets times answer is Pirkei avos tells us our slow Devorah ol mo made the world stands on three pillars on torah the study of Torah Rhoda divine service prayer and corbino's and Camilla's asatyam acts of loving kindness caring about others these are three fundamental pillars the world cannot stand unless you have all three pillars it is a well-known idea that each of our vows represents a specialization in one of those pillars of Rama V News primary way of serving God was loving kindness yet struck who was a Corbyn sacrificed and the akkada represents the pinnacle of avodah divine service Yaakov who spent 14 uninterrupted years of learning Torah in the yeshiva of shame and a bear represents Torah so its reverse order instead of Torah avodah camila Sodom in the in the order of the others it's Camila's a Sodom avodah Torah so here's what the cafetorium says in a broader metaphorical way the angel evasive represents the powers of evil in the world that tried to destroy the Jew and prevent him from keepeth from fulfilling his mission now the eighth Sahara is a strategic thinker the eighth Sahara is willing to let Jews do things that are good if that's only a short-term benefit and in the long term it's going to fall apart Julie emits us today because I know you're going to drop them tomorrow so this is what the coverage shyam says everyone represents cus it the HRA is perfectly willing to let us do cus it yeah Duke uh sir dude stocker be nice to each other because without TOA eventually it's all going to fall apart so Abram is not harassed because Abrams Aveda is not going to have intergenerational continuity so the HRA lets people do mitzvahs in the short term if it is confident that things are going to fall apart same thing with avodah build your magnificent synagogues get your husband him get your governing that's going to be fine do it do it do it the next generation is going to drop it anyway but once you have a Yaakov Aveeno says the toughest I am that represents the cowork of Torah Torah has this intergenerational capacity which keeps on going at that point there is what is called mitzvah ethnicity as is eternity that the HR has to stop and that is why the harvest time says the 8th Sahara is especially powerful to take Jews away from Torah because when you take Jews away from LaMotta Torah eventually the other two pillars collapse as well so yes you need three pillars but Torah will bring you to the other two pillars in a way that the other two pillars are not going to bring you to Torah now in truth again I'm most familiar with obviously the American Jewish community you can see how prophetic the happy times words were with respect to the history of the American Jewish community you know in the early 19th century the Messiah the mid 19th century you had immigration primarily from Germany the Jewish immigration and they were fairly wealthy fairly prosperous and what they did was they started social welfare institutions whether it was free loan societies Jewish hospitals I mean there's no real need for a Jewish hospital today in Hutzler it's at least Jewish hospitals are no more culture than non-jewish hospitals it's not like Sheree said ik or whatever it is but in the days when Jews could not get into hospitals there were Jewish hospitals even Jewish country clubs burial societies free loan societies so the initial emphasis of the immigrants was on social welfare institutions Camille discussing most of their children intermarry totally lost then you had a second great wave of immigrants after the Russian pogroms in the 1890s and well after World War One etc where many of them were religious and they built magnificent synagogues I remember these synagogues from my own youth stained-glass cathedrals which were shells beautiful beautiful synagogues what happened to those synagogues well go to any big inner city area of the United States and you will see these synagogues functioning unfortunately as churches and you can see the original Hebrew of the ten commandments engraved in the masonry of those churches and that also was largely a lost generation it's really really tragic that people who came to America as religious Jews their children largely dropped everything it is only yeah again there were some exceptions I don't mean to suggest that we're not any religious Jews from the next generation but they were a real real tiny minority it was heroic to be a shomers about the young usual movement started without that group of people and the like but if we talk about a significant growth of the religious community in the United States it only came after world war ii when visionary people like rush raga 5-element lovage reverend cutler understood the need for Jewish education day schools were established tolaram Sora OMA Sora established a Jewish day school in every community in the United States that had 5,000 or more juice every single minute in a school and then we had yeshiva high schools and then but they medrash and then community : which came later which had a real real transformative effect on the Jewish community and the coverage times words he doesn't need my house , but the coverage times prediction is right when there is Torah learning there will be mitzvahs that will be said there will be Fela there will be minion when there's no Torah learning even if you have your minion on your show and and you have your Crescent Societies eventually it falls apart eventually it becomes sentimentalized gastronomic Judaism if that you know I love to come into Brooklyn every Sunday because they get bagels and lox and it reminds me of the old home as people sometimes say so that is why the angel evasive attacks only Yaakov and now God forum and yet ska our forums I said let him do it yet structure boda let him do it Yaakov Stoller intergenerational continuity we've got to stop that but the angel of Asaph tried to destroy Yaakov but the angel evasive was unsuccessful the angel evasive however did have a partial victory he smoked Yaakov under thigh and the next morning Yaakov is limping although he eventually got cured and because the sciatic nerve was dislocated and Yaakov was limping that is why to this very day we do not eat the sciatic nerve that's called the guid inertia to commemorate that encounter but what is the significance of Yaakov limping on his thigh so here is what the Zohar says and the harvest time brings this as well the Zohar says the thigh supports the body at the thigh you know your body is resting on your thigh so the angel evasive tried to destroy Yaakov but the angel of ASA will never be successful in taking Torah away from the Jewish people there will always be somebody somewhere that will learn Torah no matter how poor no matter how poverty-stricken no matter how deprived they are but what was the victory of the angel of Asaph that the supports of Torah will always be precarious thirds he had a partial victory that support of Torah will always be limping just as the thigh supports the body and Jakob was limping the support of Torah will be shocked will be weak odka de Kock that the carpet I am said any Shiva or kollel that does not have financial problems one must question its authenticity because it was a divine curse so to speak in the partial victory of Asaph that the supportive tour is going to be limping along which is pretty amazing because if you look that's all the money the billions trillions of dollars that are devoted to entertainment many of creators of whom happen to be Jewish or even in the academic world the money that is devoted to hieroglyphics or ancient Chinese literature plenty of money out there but somehow it just doesn't get it doesn't trickle down to the most dose of Torah learning where people live in poverty and as the puppet time says there will be Jews who will remain faithful to the Torah no matter what their poverty the angel of Asaph could not destroy Torah from mummys realm but it will weaken the support of course this gives rise to an interesting philosophical question so when I'm asked to contribute towards Torah whether he binary Shiva whatever it would be may be my answer sorry you're supposed to suffer you're supposed to be limping I'm not supposed to help you well this is reminiscent of something very similar in the 19th century when surgeons when doctors developed anesthesia for childbirth so there were some Christian theologians all of whom were men who said women are not allowed to take anesthesia for childbirth because since Eve was cursed you shall suffer in the labor of your children so your contravening gods decree by trying to alleviate pain and suffering therefore you must suffer now that's not the Jewish position so what does Judaism say I mean if God said you know Kaaba is supposed to suffer how can we alleviate the pain and the short answer is we differentiate between what you might call the curse and what you might call the Mitzvah God did not command thou shalt suffer God is creating a certain nature in the world the nature of childbirth is it shall because of the sin of other men hava it shall be painful it will hurt that is the nature that I put into the world but at the same time we have the permission to try to alleviate the pain just as we go to a doctor for sickness and the like so the angel evasive situation is exactly the same Hashem created through the victory of the angel of Asaph eight ever a nature that the financial support of Torah is going to be precarious and weak but it's not a commandment God is not saying thou shalt suffer this is the nature of things and the HEPA we are given a commandment to try to improve the situation just as we go to a doctor for sickness and a woman is permitted if she's not doing natural childbirth to take some anesthesia for childbirth so - we are commanded to support Torah okay there is one final point about this encounter that I want to share with you and that is after Yaakov gets the blessing from the angel that his name shall be changed from Yaakov in the mud to Israel triumph and royalty he then asks the angel what is your name Haga Julie Masha Masha tell me what is your name and the angel says la maza Tish elvish me why are you asking me my name don't bother me don't ask me that question Rashi explains that the angel is simply saying I have many names because my name depends on my mission when I'm sent to do a my name will reflect a when I'm sent to do B my name reflects B I don't have a fixed name because my name changes with every task the Almighty gives me that's Rocky's interpretation but Roble classman who was a great mush gearson covering a great ball would sir says that the angel is actually giving his name mine you want to know my name my name is don't ask my name those of you with a good memory may remember Abbott and Costello who's on first it's all discussion that that who's on first is who is the name of there's a whole joke based on who is the name so when I say who's on first I say yeah who is it who's on first again it goes out another on for around fifteen minutes it's a very classic comedy sketch well this is a very similar idea Yaakov says what is your name and the angel says don't ask my name and Yaakov again would say what is your name I told you already you know don't ask my name that's my name so what type of name is it don't ask my name sir Oh Blake craftsman says the following Marshall there was a Polish peasant who had never been to the big city before and he comes to the big city during a fair and he is told if he buys a ticket and goes into a room it's a movie theater he will see coming out of the wall animals and people and it's the most amazing thing so he doesn't understand he buys a ticket he walked into a room it's totally dark and all of a sudden animals horses donkeys people coming out of the wall and the farmer was totally confused because when he had walked into the room he didn't notice any doors and he hidden entrances he couldn't figure this out he had never seen any motion picture before so finally what he does was he takes out his big flashlight and he shines it on the wall to get a better picture of where these things came from but of course if you shine a flashlight at least on the old-fashioned movie screen you lose the picture so people yelled at him and they said to him shut off your light we can only see the movie when it is dark relates Minh said this is a martial four o la maza when you live in darkness all sorts of things look real to you that really don't count wealth power egotism materialism the grudges and different fights and quarrels we have with people we think it's so real we think it's so important it's like the movie in which he thought it was real but why did he see it was real because he was sitting in the dark so when we sit in the dark we think all sorts of things are real that really don't matter and lappa the opposite when you're sitting in the dark there might be a bag of diamonds on the seat next to you and you're not going to notice so darkness means you don't see that which is important and the other way around you see all sorts of things as real which are not really significant when you turn on the lights what happens that which is not real vanishes and that which is real you can see in that bus all of the polish peasants about turning on the lights now when Yakov asks the angel tell me your name a name particularly in Kabbalah is actually a source of a person's spiritual power it is the root of their soul that's why the I resell rights the name that parents give a child at the time of a bris is a prophecy from God regarding the spiritual nature of that child now we don't really know what's the difference opera music Moshe we're not so knowledgeable about this but it actually reflects an inner dynamic a shame a name is your power your essence your mission your target that's why although Holika does permit changing a name but you do so only with great great hesitation you're in because your name is kind of your destiny although we don't really understand in what way that's the case so when Yaakov is asking the angel tell me your name this is what Yaakov is asking symbolically what is your power over people you represent the 8th Sahara how do you trick people how do you fool people how do you get people to focus on the inconsequential the trivial the negative the insignificance isn't sin just stupid because what do you get out of it whatever benefit you get out of it is obviously many times less than the harm that it's going to create and the benefit you would get for doing the mitzvot so what is your power the angels response is my name ie my power is nobody bothers to ask my name meaning to say nobody turns on the lights nobody turns on the lights I can fool them with all sorts of things making it look like a real good thing to do when in fact it's destructive and that's the muscle of the movie theater again this ties into Chanukah quite beautifully because what is Chanukah about but lighting the light that dispels the darkness turning on the lights when you turn on the lights you look at life in a very very different way turning on the lights thinking focusing prioritizing you know asking yourself is this advancing me in my goals in life firstly you have to have a sense of what are your goals and then everything you do you ask yourself is this moving me forward is this taking me backwards now I don't mean to suggest that in a well-balanced life there's no room for vacation and amusement so that's a whole other discussion but even then if a person needs to recharge their batteries that becomes part of the process that's advancing but you also you have to have what again if I may use the title of a book by a Christian pastor I'm not validating the whole book requiring or the famous book called The Purpose Driven Life and that's a very evocative phrase I give them credit for a good phrase The Purpose Driven Life means that every decision you make in life has to be measured against the purposes that you have defined for your life is this moving me forward is it taking me backwards if it's moving me forward it's good if it's taking me backwards it's no good but the problem is when you're sitting in the darkness and you're not thinking about it all sorts of laws can fool us in different ways you sit in darkness you don't see the reality in front of you and you see all sorts of illusions as being more significant and this is what the angel says theokoles my power over people is people don't bother to think about what I so be as Ratish em as we move closer and closer to the great holiday of light may all of us bazooka to turn on the lights in our own lives dispel the darkness and have a sense of true reality and in that way we will find joy and fulfillment in being connected to our cottage bar [Music]