Torah Teasers
Parshas Vayeira
1. We all understand Akeidas Yitzchok to be a test for Avrohom that was called off at the last moment. So where was the mesiras nefesh? Ans… Rav Elyashiv explains that the Akeida actually happened. True, he says, Yitzchok’s neck was not cut, however, he already forfeited his life and the Mesiras Nefesh was complete. Rav Elyashiv proves this delicate point from the words of the pasuk (Vayeira 22:16) where the Malach tells Avrohom that he will be blessed, “Yaan Asher Asisa Es HaDavar HaZeh,” because you “did” the Akeida and not because you were “ready” to do it. Also, it says that Avrohom lifted his head and saw, ‘Ayil Acher Neechaz BaSvach; another ram in the bushes.” Rav Elyashiv says that this means in addition to his son whom he just slaughtered. “Therefore,” says Rav Elyashiv,”when Yitzchok left the Akeida he was no longer the old Yitzchok, rather he was a newborn person.” Rav Elyashiv proves this from the words of the Malach who tells Avrohom, “Al Tishlach Yadcha El HaNaar; Do not touch the child.” In this case we see the Malach did not call him Yitzchok, but used the word child, as he was newly reborn and had no name yet.
2. Was Sodom such a bad place to live? Ans…. Immediately after the destruction of Sidom, the Torah tells us the story of how Lot’s daughters got him drunk and had children with him. The Chasam Sofer says that the Torah does this to give us a taste of the immorality of the people of Sidom. For those who may feel that the punishment of the people of Sidom was too harsh, the Torah shows us what terribly immoral acts Lot and his daughters, who were the “tzaddikim” of Sidom, were capable of plotting. We can only imagine what the reshaim of Sidom were capable of.
3. Three Arabs travelers show up at Avrohom and Sara’s tent on a very hot sunny day. Avrohom gives them the royal treatment. They are fed fresh delicacies. The service is top notch as the 99 year old man, his wife, and their staff run around to supply everything they could ask for. After resting and eating, one of the Arabs says to Avrohom, whose wife has not had a child and is 89 years old, “You know, next year I guarantee you that your wife will have a baby son.” This is pretty funny. Why was Sara taken to task for laughing at this very laughable scene? Ans…. The Ramban asks this question and answers that the pasuk says that Sara laughed “Bikirba” – deep inside. Meaning she mocked the entire notion that such a thing was possible. She rejected, not the Arab’s prophesy which would have been acceptable, rather she rejected the possibility that such a thing could happen. “What she should have done,” says the Ramban, “was believe that it could happen and raise a tefila to Hashem by saying, ‘Amein Kein Yehi Ratzon.'” The Baalei Mussar say that everything you see and every word you hear is meant to be seen and heard by you, and it’s all for a reason. The messenger is not the main part – the message is. One’s response should reflect that concept.
4. The pasuk says that the three visitors, who we know were Malachim, came to Avrohom, and they ate (Vayeira 18:8). Did they really eat or did they pretend to eat? Did they digest it or burn it? Does burning it justify the word, “Vayocheilu” — “and they ate”? Ans…. The Malbim says that what they did with the food is irrelevant. The words, “They ate,” are justified in this case. Eating, says the Malbim, does not necessarily refer to food. When something sustains itself on another thing it is called eating. For example, fire eats wood. Every mitzva that a person does creates a Malach. “The three Malachim that came to visit Avrohom, says the Malbim, were Malachim of Chesed that were created through Avrohom’s abundance of Chesed. In the zchus of this Mitzva, Avrohom was healed, and Lot was saved. So when Avrohom gave them food when they came to visit, their continued existence was a product of Avrohom’s continued Chesed. In that sense, the Malachim ‘ate’ the food that Avrohom served.
5. After the Akeida, the Torah starts to tell us the story of Nachor’s family. More troubling than the juxtaposition of the parshios, asks Rav Yehonoson Eibushitz, are the words, ‘Vayehi Achar Hadevarim Ha’Eilah,’ as if there were some great connection between the Akeida and Nachor’s family tree.” Was there a connection? Ans…. He answers that the mefarshim say that at the end of Terach’s life he did teshuva. However, he still needed a “Tikun”. The tikun for his neshama was Akeidas Yitzchok. However, he still needed a tikun for his “Guf”, his body. This came via another one of his other grandsons, Iyov whose physical suffering knew no bounds. Who was Iyov? He was none other than Utz the son of Nachor. Therefore, the Torah tells us after Terach’s neshama received its tikun at the akeida, Utz or Iyov was born, and Terach’s tikun was completed with Iyov’s suffering.
6. When the Malachim came to Avrohom, he asked them to clean their feet since he suspected they may have bowed down to the dust of their feet. Rashi says that Lot was not concerned with Avodah Zara, so he let them eat first and then wash their feet. Why? Ans…. The Chasam Sofer says that we need not accuse Lot of being lax on Avodah Zara. Lot had a good reason not to suspect that this was Avoda Zara. Everybody who ate at Avrohom’s house was taught that there is a Rebono Shel Olam who they need to thank for the food. Since the Malachim came from Avrohom’s house, Lot knew that the dirt was just plain dirt and not something more devious.

Rav Yaakov Neiman, zt’l, the Rosh Yehsiva of Petach Tikva once related to his students how he acquired an appreciation for the importance of learning Torah. When he was a child, his parents used to host yeshiva bochurim once a week for “essen teg”, the system in which bochurim would eat their meals at different families every day in the community. Most yeshivos at that time did not provide food for their bochurim..

Rav Neiman described the Yom Tov atmosphere which would envelop the house on Sundays, the day his family hosted the bochurim. His mother would spread a white tablecloth on the table, and the whole family would wait for the bochurim to arrive with great anticipation and excitement.
Rav Neiman commented that he believes that his mother was repaid for the great respect and kindness she showed the bochurim. When Rav Neiman went away to yeshivah, he also went to different families every day for meals. Not all the families were as kind and generous as his mother was to yeshiva bochurim, but invariably he was always treated well on Sundays (Sefer Hazikaron)
********************
A Sefer Torah was once stolen from a shul in Eretz Yisrael. This Sefer Torah had been dedicated to the shul only a few days earlier, and was a particularly mehudar Sefer Torah. The donor, who had dedicated the Sefer Torah in memory of his parents, was devastated. He had invested so much effort and emotion, and spent a large financial sum on the Sefer Torah. He decided he was going to make every possible effort to locate it, and he made inquiries about possible ways of finding it. One man he consulted advised him to speak to a renowned baal teshuvah who himself had been part of the criminal world before his transformation not so long ago. The baal teshuva utilized his connections, and shortly later informed the donor that in a few days, the thief himself will come to return the Sefer Torah.
Sure enough, one morning a man wearing a yarmulke knocked on the door of the donor, and in his hand was a Sefer Torah covered with a tallis. “I’m the thief,” he said, “And I came to return the Sefer Torah.”
The donor was overjoyed to see the Sefer Torah, but he didn’t believe for a minute that this man was the actual thief. How could it be that a religious man, wearing a yarmulke, could have stooped so low as to steal a Sefer Torah? He was sure that this man was a messenger whom the thief had sent to return the Sefer Torah. In any event, he had no intention of turning in the thief to the police, but he was curious about the actual identity of this man.
The man did not leave him in doubt for long. “I’m the thief,” he repeated, “and don’t be surprised by the yarmulke on my head. I decided to return in complete teshuva and to improve my ways, and it’s all in the zechus of this Sefer Torah which I had in my house for several days. Every time I looked at it, I felt my soul crying inside and I couldn’t stop shaking. I couln’t believe it but my children suddenly behaved with respect and my wife stopped arguing with me. My home was suddenly tranquil. This Sefer Torah opened up a hole in my nefesh, and removed the barriers from my heart and changed my family, so it wasn’t difficult for me to fulfill the mitzvah of returning what I stole. I came here to return the Sefer Torah and to request your forgiveness for what I did.” (Aleinu Leshabeach)
**********************
The Chofetz Chaim once traveled from his hometown of Radin to Warsaw, when he was already quite old, and walked only with considerable difficulty. When he was ready to return home to Radin, his talmidim brought him to the train station. There was no direct train from Warsaw to Radin; the group boarded a train to Otovestzk, and from there they would catch a train to Radin. When the train reached Ostovetzk, the talmidim were eager to begin escorting the Chofetz Chaim to the other station where they could catch a train to Radin. The station was a lengthy walk through a tunnel, the Chofetz Chaim walked very slowly, and the train was due to leave the station within five minutes. The talmidim began walking slowly together with the Chofetz Chaim, but they soon gave up hope that they would make it to the next station in time.
One of the talmidim looked up, and suddenly saw a train standing on the opposite platform of the station they had just left behind. To his surprise, the train bore a sign that it was headed for Radin. Thankfully, they slowly boarded the train, wondering how it was possible that a train headed for Radin was leaving from this station. The train was completely empty except for the Chofetz Chaim and his students. It began to move, and it quickly reached its next designated station, where people were waiting for it to stop. However, to everyone’s surprise, the train passed by the stop without stopping and continued to Radin.
A few days later, an ad of apology appeared in the local papers from the administration of the train station. The ad explained that due to an error, the Radin-bound train stopped at the wrong station, which caused the people waiting at the proper station to miss the train. The students of the Chofetz Chaim had no doubt about the reason for this “error”. They were aware that Hashem will manipulate trains for the needs of a tzaddik! (Rav Shmuel Greinemann in Shaal Avicha Veyegadcha)

Who Knows One
Q. Please fill in the missing 5 numbers in the following sequence: 15, 16, 115, 116, 215, 216,___, ___, ___, ___, ___, 315, 316. Answer: 270, 272, 275, 304 and 309. Here’s why. Numbers in Hebrew are written by combining the letters. For example aleph=1, beis=2, yud=10, kuf=100, etc. So, 11 would be yud-aleph. However, some numbers are not written in the normal form. 15 would normally be written yud and hey, but because this spells a name of Hashem, it is customarily written tes-vav (as in Tu B’Shvat). The same is true of tes-zayin, 16, instead of yud and vav. All the given numbers in the question are written in reverse order. The numbers 270, 272, 275, 304 and 309 are also numbers which are not written in the normal pattern, because the normal pattern would spell a word with negative connotations. 270 and 275 would normally be spelled raysh ayin and raysh ayin hey. These spell ra and ra’ah, both of which mean “bad”. 272 would normally be spelled resh ayin beis which spells ra’av meaning “famine.” 304 would normally be spelled shin dalet which spells shaid meaning “demon.” 309 would normally be spelled shin tes which spells shat meaning “to go astray.” Since the normal way to write these numbers spells words with negative connotations, these numbers are written in reverse order.
Q. Did Esav get nachas from any of his children?
Answer: Yes. Nachas, son of Reuel, was the name of one of Esav’s grandchildren (Bereshes 36:17). Hence, Esav got “Nachas” from his son Reuel. For this reason, some people bless each other with the phrase “You should have ‘yiddishe’ nachas, as opposed to ‘Esav-type’ nachas.
Q. What is the shortest word in the Torah?
Answer: The word is “Ha.” It is one letter, and appears in Devarim 32:6. In most texts of the Chumash, the masoretic note in the margin reads “Hey rabosi, v’hee teiva l’atzmoh” – “large hey, and it is a word unto itself.”

Know Your Gedolim…
Who Is This?

Talk the Talk — Walk the Walk
Four old men were sitting together:
#1: “Oy!”
#2: (after a long pause) “Oy vey!”
#3: (after an even longer pause) “Nu?”
#4: “Look, if you guys von’t stop discussing politics, I’m leaving!”
The Geula — What to Expect
Yerushlayim, The City Of Perfection
“Yerushalayim built up, like a city which is knit together” (Tehillim 122:2). The very name Yerushalayim alludes to the dual aspects of the city because as the Rabbeinu Bachaye explains, Yerushalayim is plural, like einayim or oznayim.

Yerushalayim received it name through Avraham Avinu and Shem ben Noach. The history behind the name of Yerushalayim alludes to its significance. “Avraham called it [the place] ‘Yir’eh,’ as it is written, ‘Avraham called the name of that place Hashem Yir’eh.’ Shem called it ‘Shalem,’ as it is written, ‘Malki-Tzedek, King of Shalem.’ The Holy One said: If I call the place ‘Yir’eh,’ as Avraham called it, then Shem — a righteous man — will be offended. If I call it ‘Shalem,’ then Avraham — a righteous man — will be offended. So I shall call it “Yerushalayim,” as both of them called it: Yir’eh – Shalem —Yerushalayim.”

The Meshech Chochmah elaborates on this and says that Shem had survived the Dor Hamabul, which was a generation so corrupt that it was utterly destroyed. Shem was in the Teivah where he helped sustain all the animals. By doing this, he was helping to repair the corruption and negative characteristics which had pervaded the world. His main challenge was the perfection and completion of the character. Shem sensed this aspect of completion in Yerushalayim and therefore called it Shalem.

Avraham Avinu was the one who independently discovered Hashem by exploring all of the knowledge available to him, rejecting what was false, and then concluding through his own intellect that Hashem exists. His main challenge was clarifying and perfecting his mind through the knowledge of Hashem. He called Yerushalayim, Hashem Yir’eh because it is the place where all of mankind will recognize Hashem as he first did. Hashem combined these two names because the two concepts, the perfection of the mind and the character (or heart), are both essential to Bnei Yisrael, and thus, named the city of Yerushalayim, where true perfection can be achieved.
A Reason Not To Come To Eretz Yisroel?
Many people dream about moving to Eretz Yisroel but not everyone makes it. What is holding them back? The Alshich HaKadosh in Parshas Lech Licha (11:31) shares with us one of the fundamental factors that can torpedo our chances of getting there. In the episode of Terach leaving Ur Kasdim with his family, there are number of peculiarities. Why does it say in the pasuk that when they left Ur Kasdim they planned to go to Eretz Yisroel, yet ended up in Charan? Why does it say they left Ur Kasdim, if it is obvious, since that is where they lived? Why does it mention Terach’s death before telling us that Avrohom went to Eretz Yisroel? Avrohom left 60 years before his father’s death.
He answers that the Torah is teaching us that you will only be zocheh to make it to Eretz Yisroel if your reason for wanting to be there is your immense love of the land, Chibas HaAretz (what exactly that means is another important discussion.) Terach was running away from Ur Kasdim after the incident with Avrohom. Eretz K’na’an was the place where he would seek refuge. That is why the Torah tells us he left Ur Kasdim and makes sure to point out that although his destination of choice was Eretz Yisroel, he never made it and ended up in Charan. The ending of this particular lesson is that Terach died in Charan, which is why it mentions this fact in parsha even before we start to discuss Avrohom’s personal journey. Avrohom on the other hand travelled to Eretz Yisroel because of Chibas Ha’Aretz, like it says in the pasuk (12:1) “VaYeitzu Lalaches Artza Kna’an”, he went out with only one mission, to go to Eretz Yisroel the land of his dreams. The end of his story, unlike Terach’s, “VaYavo’u Artza Kna’an”, he made it there.
Eretz Yisroel (like Moshiach) is not an escape from the Tzorus facing us wherever we may be. It is a place to come close to Hashem. It is a place we should yearn and strive to get to, no matter how comfortable our situation is where we are now and no matter how the difficult situation is in Eretz Yisroel. Only then, do you stand a chance of ever getting there.
Armchair Critic From Thousands of Miles Away
The pasuk in parshas Re’eh lists all the unkosher birds. Among them are the Ra’a, Aaya, and Dayah. Rashi says, “The Ra’ah, Aayah, and Dayah are one and the same. Why is it called “Ra’ah” Because its vision is exceedingly powerful. The gemara in Chulin adds that the Ra’ah can stand in Bavel and see a Nevailah in Eretz Yisroel. Why would a bird with such a gift of vision be considered a non-kosher bird? Oznaim L’Torah explains, one who stands in Bavel – Chutz L’Aretz – and sees a Nevailah in Eretz Yisroel – which means that it sees the faults of Eretz Yisroel, is considered a Tamei!
Many of us live in countries far away from Eretz Yisroel. Surely, each and every one of us has a good justification for being where we are. It is important not to forget where our true homeland is. Certainly we should not try to ease our pain, of being sentenced to life so far away, by criticizing life and happenings in Eretz Yisroel. Even if we had bird’s eye vision to accurately see across continents and oceans, still the Torah considers this unkosher. We don’t, so we really shouldn’t. Let’s look at our own nest and see how we can perfect it. B’Ezras Hashem, very soon we will be zocheh to transplant our beautiful nest to our true homeland, to adorn the palace of Hashem, B’Bi’as Go’el Tzedek Bimheira BiYameinu Amein. Im Kol Zeh Achakeh Lo B’Chol Yom SheYavo!

This week’s Torah is B’Zchus: the election of the next President, whoever it may be, and the knowledge that he will only be following the will of Hashem who is the true and only leader — the Melech Malchei Hamlochim.
Distributed by the Chevre Marbitz Torah D’NMB

Created By Rov Allen Sherman