Shelach - From Sodom to Sapphire: The Inner Meaning of Techeiles

3:01 Of insubordination Chedai Laomer And the armies of the other three kings traveled south to wage war against the five kings that had rebelled against him. It was an epic battle. And the five kings, led by Melchizedek They thought that they had an advantage because they outnumbered the four kings. But Hadarla Omer and the other three kings, the four kings, they wiped out the five kings. The Medrash speaks about how the Melach of Sodom really died and was brought back to life. He was miraculously saved. It's an unbelievable story. But when the four kings attacked the five kings They had a person they wanted to capture and take hostage. Because he was a very valuable asset. His name was Lote. And he was valuable because he was the nephew of Avram Avinu, and Avram Avinu was a very powerful man. And so Chedalah Omer took Lote captive. The Medrash says that it was Og that went to Avram Avinu to tell Avram Avinu that Lote was taken captive.

4:17 The Medrash says that Og did not have noble intentions. He was hoping that Avram Avinu would die in battle, and then he would be able to marry Sarai Menu. Avram Avinu, of course, the Medrash tells us, went to wage war. In a miraculous fashion, he threw dirt and straw at the enemy. And it turned into spears and arrows. And the spears and arrows of Chadar LaOmer and their army turned into dirt when they threw them at Avram Avinu and his small amount of soldiers. And a miraculous victory occurred, and Avram Avinu was able to rescue Lot. In rescuing Lot and in taking down Cheddar Laomer The Torah tells us that now Melchizedek, who had miraculously survived the battle against Cheddar Laomer Comes to Avram Avinu and he says, "Listen, Avram Avinu, you now have my wives, my subjects, and my possessions under your authority." And he says, "I'll tell you what."

5:24 Return to me back. My subjects return to me back my wives. You could take the possessions. You keep the money. And Avram Avinu responds. I raised my hand to the Lord, to the Most High God. Who possesses heaven and earth. The emekach mikol asherlach the low tomar ani hasharti. He says, "I will take neither a thread nor a shoelace from you." I will not take anything from you because I do not want you to say that it is you who made me rich. In fact, Rashi tells us, 'Shachadash baruchu v'tichani lashreini,' that Avram Avinu said to Melchizedek. 'It is not you who will make me rich. It is only Hashem who will make me rich.' The Gemara Darshans Gemara in Chulin, eighty nine A Amar Rava, Rava says Because Avraham Avinu rejected the offer of Sodom that would have made him wealthy, he said he was not interested in their money.

6:49 He said, I will not take a shoelace from you nor a strap. He says, because of that, zachu banav l'shtei mitzvos. We Klal Yisrael received two mitzvos. Luchut shel tchelis u'ritzua shel tefillin, Which is the pasuk in this week's parsha. The pasuk in this week's parsha tells us that we were given the mitzvah of tchelis. The pasuk says, 'd'abrel bnei Yisrael va'amarta aleiym va'asulem tzis akam fei b'de'em l'dorosam menasu al tzis hakanaf pasil tchelis.' The mitzvah of tchelis that we have in this week's parsha. Why were we zayichet to this mitzvah? Because our forefather Avram Avinu rejected the shoelace of Melchizedek. That's why we were zayichet to get tchelis, and of course the retsuos of tefillin. The Gemara continues, and the Gemara says, "The Tanya, Rav Meir Eimer" Manish tanat chelis mikolat zavanim. What's the difference between tchelas and all the other colors? Memnei shetchelas dome liyam Because the color of tchelas is similar to the sea.

8:02 V'yam dome lerekia And the color of the sea is similar to the color of the sky. Verekia dome leevin sapir And the sky is similar to a sapphire stone, the evin sapir dome lekiseh akvod. And the sapphire stone looks the same as the kisei akavod. This is the power of teles. When a person looks at teles, they see teles. They see the sea. They see the sky. They think of a sapphire stone and then they think of the kisei akavod. However We have several questions on this maimer chazal. First of all. Why wouldn't Avram Avinu take the rechush of Melech Sedom? If you'll say it's because he didn't want to take money from an evil person We know that Avram Avinu took the gifts of Parom. So why is it that Avram Avinu will not accept the gifts of Melech Sedom?

9:11 Moreover, it's a very interesting thing. We all know that muscle of a person who like the water is rising and he's on the top of his house and a boat comes by and he says get on my boat I'll save you and the guy goes God will save me and then a helicopter comes by and he goes get on the helicopter I'll save you the guy goes God will save me and then he drowns and he comes to Shamayim and our Kadosh Baruch Hu says why didn't you take the boat Why didn't you take the helicopter? So the guy says, "I thought you were going to save me." He goes, "Who do you think sent the boat? Who do you think sent the helicopter?" So Avraham Avinu says, 'God is going to make me rich.' Maybe God is going to make you rich by sending you the rechus of Melach Sedom.

10:02 Maybe Hakadosh Baruch Hu says Avraham Avinu, I give you a bracha. I'm confident you're going to get rich. How you're going to get rich because you're going to go to battle against Hadar Laomer and you're going to end up with all the ruchush of Melch Zedom. So how could Avraham Avinu say I'm not interested in it? And then it's very strange because he didn't take a shoelace or a strap from Melch Zedom for that reason. We're zochet to trelas. What does one have to do with the other? And finally Tchelas. I don't know about you whether you wear tchelas or you don't wear tchelas. When I look at tchelas, I don't naturally go through this process where I look at tchelas and I go, the sea The sea, the sky, sapphire stone is kiseh akavu. If I do it, it's only because I know this gemara in chulin.

10:57 And I don't know anybody else that, if they looked at that color, would naturally go, "See" Sky sapphire stones Kisei Akavod And it's such a complex process anyway. Why not just tell us tchelas equals the color of the kisei akavod? Why do I have to go through this whole process? We have a lot of questions. Chaver, since it's our last mishmer I want to talk tonight a little bit. I want to share with you. I think Arguably One of the biggest opportunities and the biggest challenges of our generation And that is the challenge of wealth. We live in extraordinarily wealthy times. Extraordinarily wealthy. I don't remember when I was growing up, and I grew up in the Five Towns. People have money. I don't remember people having this type of money. I don't remember it. There were people that were in business that did well for themselves. I don't remember knowing people who owned national nursing home chains. I didn't know about it.

12:14 I wasn't from Chicago. I didn't know about people that owned real estate forever. I got a little older. I met some people today. The wealth in our community, Baruch Hashem, abundant blessings. Along with those abundant blessings come two challenges. One is the challenge of materialism. Are we living in a society today in our community where we just have so much? And we're raising the expectations over and over again of what success looks like. Are we spoiling our children with things that not only do they not need, but things that are ultimately deleterious to their growth? That's one challenge. There's another challenge Perhaps an even greater challenge. What do I do with the money that I have? I want to help people. I want to help people with the money that I have. More than anything, our community is defined by the chesed that we do.

13:33 It's the single greatest thing that we do. To be a part of our community means that no matter what happens to you, we're going to be there for you. And with great wealth comes great responsibility, because the opportunity The opportunity you have is enormous. So what's our hashkafa on money? There's a mishnah in Avos Five ten And it goes like this: If you say what's mine is mine And what's yours is yours There's an opinion in the mishnah that says that's called midas sedom. That's not a positive thing. To say what's mine is mine and what's yours is yours, that's not a positive thing. What does a chassid say? A chassid says, "What's mine is yours, and what's yours is yours." This is a very strange mishnah Because I would have thought in today's psychological world that somebody would get up and say, "It's healthy boundaries: what's mine is mine, and what's yours is yours." And if somebody comes along and they say, "What's mine is yours, and what's yours is yours," they don't have healthy and appropriate boundaries.

14:47 But that's not what the mishnah says, and the baraita nura explains. That when a person says what's mine is mine and what's yours is yours, the reason why that's a midas dom It's because that's a hashkafa where you say my possessions belong to me. What's mine is mine. You keep your stuff. You know why? Because I don't want to have to. Even if I'm not going to lose from it, I don't want to share my stuff. If I have something, it belongs to me, and if you have something, it belongs to you. So you keep your stuff, and I'll keep my stuff. There's a concept of zeh nevezelo chasser. I can help you out, and it's not going to take away from me at all. I don't want to play that game. What's mine is mine, and what's yours is yours. We don't have to share.

15:39 That the baraita says is called midah sodom. What's the midah of a chassid? The midah of a chassid is not 'what's mine is yours' in the sense that what belongs to me just belongs to you. The midah of a chassid is whatever I have. It's for you. There's a word that we use in today's culture. In the name of healthy psychology, and I don't think it's healthy at all. We speak about this concept of self-love. Self-love, love is not meant to take for yourself. Love is meant to be given away. And paradoxically, the more you give it away, the more you receive. But this notion of "I'm learning to love myself" What are you talking about? Love is something you give away. We have a hashkafa in Yiddishkeit. If you have it It's not for consumption. Whatever we have, whatever gifts the Rebbeinu Shalom gives us, it's so I can help somebody else. If a dollar comes to my pocket, That's not a dollar that I'm using for myself. Our hashkafa around a dollar is givaldik. I got a dollar. How can I help Klal Yisroel with my dollar? Who needs my dollar? I have to use a little bit of the dollar for myself. That's why the Rebbeinu Sholom sent it to me.

16:59 But even the stuff that I'm using for myself, it's all a shame shemayu. That's our hashkafa. And if I have a dollar, and you want to know, am I really using it l'shem Shamayim? Then when somebody comes along and they say, 'Hey chevrat, could you help me out?' Of course. What do you think I got these dollars for? I got them to help you. So I'm easily sticking my hand into my pocket. I'm not a miser. I'm looking to help. There are people looking to help. There are people they know, not just their dollars. Whatever they were given in this world is to help out yidden. That's why we were given these talents And some people have a talent in chesed in an overt way, but everybody could do chesed in their way. You don't have to start a chesed organization to be a bal chesed. Chesed is everywhere you look.

17:49 A guy comes over to you in the dorms. He says, "Hey, guy, borrow something." " Sometimes our first reaction—not anybody here—but sometimes our first reaction might be like "I don't know. I don't want people borrowing my stuff." It's like, what's going to happen? But maybe he's going to break it. There's halachas that's what happens. There's halachas for these things. Why are we so possessive? Where does that come from? What's the psychology of Sodom? The psychology of Sodom is because they say, "I am the creator of my own wealth." That's where it comes down to. Because if you believe there's a God. And he put a dollar in your pocket. That he put a dollar in your pocket for use for godly purposes. But if you believe that you are the cause of your own wealth Then when you make that dollar, it's my dollar. It's my dollar, and you go make your dollar. Why are you coming and knocking on my door and asking me for my dollar? I made this dollar. You should have gone to college, and you should have made your dollar. But you didn't go to college, and now you can't make your dollar. But now you come knocking on my door and say, "Hey, can I have your dollar? It's my dollar."

18:58 This is the fundamental belief of Sodom. The fundamental belief of Sodom is that we make our own wealth. That's the belief. And that's why if somebody comes and they says, "Hey, brother, could you help me out?" You have to put in your own work. Avram Avinu can take money from Paro But he can't take money from Melchizedek. Because he smacks it a million miles away. That's a true tzaddik. A tzaddik knows how to smell. A tzaddik knows how to see it coming from a million miles away. He understands what's underneath the surface. Avram Avinu says, "I know Hakadosh Baruch Hu is going to give me my wealth. I'm not concerned about that. God promised me. I'm going to have what I need. I'm going to be fine. But there's no way that I could take it from you. You know why? Because then you're going to walk around going, 'We Sedom, we made Avram Avinu wealthy because it was our money that we made and we gave it to him when he conquered Chadar Laomer.'" We said Avram Avinu, you take the wealth.

20:01 And they're going to walk around and tell the whole world we made Avram Avinu wealthy. And Avram Avinu said, money like that I can't take because Avram Avinu's responsibility to the world is to say there's a rabbanu shalolim, and money comes from him. It's not the pshat that Avram Avinu can't take money from evil people. He took money from Parol. He can't take money from people that will then go out into the world and say, I make my money. We have a responsibility. We have a responsibility to make a kli. That's part of our avodas Hashem. We don't make a kli because that's the only way the Rebbeinu Shlom could fill up our cup. The Rebbeinu Shlom could get us money in a million ways. If we have a vessel for it, if we don't have a vessel for it, we make the vessel because making the vessel is a part of our avodas Hashem. But not for one second do we believe that the vessel is the cause of our money.

20:58 And there's an anxiety that exists in our community today. And let's call it out. Let's say it for what it is, because we have a responsibility to say the truth. From the time that we're very young Because Baruch Hashem we're so materialistically abundant There's an anxiety that exists in the air today. Will I have enough? But Rabbi, how do I know I need to get started? I don't want to go to college. I just want to be a CEO right away. I know for sure that by the time I'm 23, I'm going to own a major commercial real estate development company. What happened to just using these formative years to stieg and to grow? And Hashem, you'll have the rest of your life to make money. Where's this anxiety coming from? Because it does cost a lot to live in the Jewish community today, and so we're creating this like you got to make money, you got to make money, you got to make money. It's true, it's important, but why do you have to make money? Whatever dollar you have, that's avodas Hashem.

22:01 You're not getting dollars just stum. Last year, I've said this story before, but it bears repeating. Last year, I had the opportunity to go to New York with the Rosh Yeshiva on a fundraising trip for the scholarship campaign, so that kids who can't necessarily afford to come to yeshiva can afford to come to yeshiva. And we had a meeting with a very successful man in the city. And I said to him, because he's very generous, I said, "How do I teach the boys in Mevaseret about tzedakah?" Because he reaches into his pocket, this person, and he mamish gives. I said, "How do I teach them about tzedakah?" And he looked at me like I was from the moon, and he said, "It's not your money. The Rebbeinu Shlomo gave you this money. It's not yours. You're the steward of this money. You're the shimer on this money." He said, and he said again, he says we're not talking about a farfumpta guy. We're talking about a real from guy, not a farfumpta guy, a real from guy.

22:53 And he said to me, he goes, and you're gonna have to make a din v'cheshbon on every single penny. After 120, the Rebbeinu Sholom is going to say, 'New, what did you do with the money that I gave you?' And you're going to have to make a din v'cheshvan. If it's a Rebbe saying it, so it's like it's another Rebbe saying it. This is a real person. This is a real successful businessman. He's saying this. I want you to know, I davened. I won't say his name. For many years, when I was living in America, I davened next to a guy. I had no idea that he was the manager of one of the largest hedge funds in the entire world. I davened right next to him, a simple guy. He didn't wear fancy clothing. We used to walk out together to the parking lot after davening. The guy drove a Camry. He drove a Camry. Probably one of the wealthiest Jews in the five towns.

23:41 But he lived in a regular house and he drove a Camry. When my father told me, "You know who that is?" I said, "I have no idea who that is. He's just a guy who davenes next to me in shul." My father said, "That guy runs the whatever fund." I was shocked. As he drives a Camry, my father goes because he's sneis. That's the real definition of sneis. Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave him a dollar. He said, "Why do I have to buy a Corvette? I could buy a Camry. I could give it away. I could help yidden that need help. That's the hashkafa of a yid. It's not my dollar. It's the Rebbeinu Sholom's dollar." Avram Avinu says, "I'm not taking a shoelace from you." I'm not taking a thread from you. I ain't taking nothing. Because. Your money—it comes with the imprint of 'it's my money.' That's not Jewish money.

24:29 I don't want anything to do with that. Avraham Avinu says. And what's the gift he gets from that? Trellis—we get trellis. What's trellis got to do with anything? Trellis is what makes you God-conscious in this world. Trellis trains a person how to see. And if you're a thoughtful person. Listen to the four steps of how every one of us is obligated to see the world. You see, Sodom—they're dry land people. We're not dry land people. We're beach Jews. A beach yid—he goes to the beach and he enjoys. I love it. The Emma says I grew up on the beach. It's especially if you're a beach person. You're not a beach person. We're probably not going to understand each other this year. If you're from the beach, sunny Atlantic, if you're from the Five Towns, Vamei Benyamin. You grow up, you know what I mean. Beautiful beaches, Farakwe beaches. You can't walk because you'll step on a needle. You'll end up having to whatever.

25:28 Some of you went to Shmak Beach. Farakwe beaches are for different things. You go to the beach, you look at the water. You know the differences between the water and the dry land. The dry land, you look at it, and that's all there is. What's underneath the water? A mystery. A mystery is underneath the water. There's a whole world underneath the water. Do you know that even today we haven't plumbed the depths of the sea? It's amazing what's down there. If you ever see the videos, even if you go to a lot, you go scuba diving, ten feet down, and you see amazing things. You see these, and I'm not suggesting to go into a submersible. But if you see these videos of people that go very way down, there's unbelievable. There's a whole world down there. Animals that we've never discovered before—it's unbelievable what's going on down there. It's called the Alma de Escasia.

26:24 It's called in Kabbalah the world that's hidden. There's a whole world underneath the sea, and we love looking at the sea because the sea is a mystery. The sea says, 'Look deeper, look beneath. There's a whole world that you don't know about.' And then you know what happens? If you really start thinking deeply about the world and you look at everything and you start to look deeply at it, what's underneath the surface? Paradoxically, you know what happens. Your eyes are drawn upward. And now rather than just looking down, you say, 'Wait a second. Underneath everything is the Rebbeinu Shalom.' And now you look towards the sky. Wow, there's the Rebbeinu Shalom in this world. Everything that I have, every gashmiyushtikah thing that I have in this world, it's from the Rebbeinu Shalom. So you go through a process. First, you look down, then you look up. You're looking up. You're looking for the abundance in this world.

27:15 Next step, step three, sapphire stone. You know what a sapphire stone is? It's the beginning of this God consciousness as it crystallizes into reality. Because the job of a Jew, as the Medrash says, was popularized in Tanya. What does Hakadosh Baruch Hu desire from us? Bring me down Make me a home in this world. These are not ideas Rabbi. What you learned in yeshiva—they're not ideas. They're realities that are waiting to be born, that are waiting to become manifest. A yid who looks at something and he sees deeply, and then he looks up and he says, 'There's a bnei shalom' was under that thing. It starts to crystallize. It starts to become an activity. I have a dollar here. You take my dollar. You go use it. You need it. I'm happy to give it away to you. You know what happens? Slowly but surely, as you crystallize these ideas into the world and you make them real, you're bringing the kisei haKovod into this world. You're making Hakadosh Baruch Hu's presence felt in this world. You're making it a better place.

28:28 And it's real. It's not for the world of theory. It's not for the world of education. It's not for professors. It's for real Jews who sit with each other and help. A girl asked me tonight in seminary, and I think it's appropriate on the heels of your trip to Poland. A girl asked me tonight in seminary. She said How Kadosh Baruch Hu inflicts a lot of pain upon the world. A number of you guys came back from Poland. And had that sentiment. You could see the cruelty of this world. It's a complicated question how to respond to that. But the emphasis is that absence is created in order for us to fill the void. That there's pain in this world, so that a yid can step up and do a chesed, and by doing that chesed, he brings the Rebbeinu Sholom down into the world.

29:31 Hakadosh Baruch Hu did not make wealth to satisfy our urges. Hakadosh Baruch Hu created some people who lack wealth, so that we can help them. I don't know why Hakadosh Baruch Hu does anything in this world, but I know what a godly response looks like. If you need something, that's an opportunity for me to act like Hakadosh Baruch Hu and to fill the void. And in doing so, we make the world a godly place, not just a better place, a godly place. We fulfill the mission for which we were created. A yid who wears tchelis—I'm not talking about today, yes tchelis, no tchelis. I'm not getting involved in that argument. I'm talking about a tchelisnik, a yid. A yid who wears tchelis—he's walking around, he's deep. He's deep. He's a deep Jew. He's not just looking at the surface of the world. First, he looks down.

30:25 Then he looks up, then he makes it really crystallizes it. The tachlis of the world comes into play. How did we get the schos? We got the schos because Avram Avinu said, "I won't take money from people who say I made this money and I'm using it for myself." I get nervous. I do. I get nervous sometimes. Baruch Hashem, Klal Yisrael is amazing. Klal Yisrael is awesome. We're doing amazing things with the money that we have. But I get nervous. I get nervous about camps that are charging insane amounts of money to do crazy things that the kids didn't need. Camp Sternberg was founded. We spoke a little bit about this on Shavuos by a very special person. Everyone called him Ronnie. He didn't allow in camp amenities that weren't there to help the kids become better people. There was a time when they came to him in Sternberg and they said maybe we should bring go-karts onto campus. We should have a go-kart track. And he said go-karts.

31:34 How does go-karting make you a better person? Camp is there to build you up. That's a chosha b'hashkafa. Sometimes I wonder, if I'm being honest. Sometimes I wonder if I be careful how I say this. Let's say I don't know A miracle occurred, and let's say I gotta be so careful how I say this. I don't know how to do it. Let let's say. No. Let's just say some of the chavurah weren't here, and the entire dorm building over there was all of a sudden open for Mivasar Jews, and classrooms abound. Let's say the high school found an unbelievable campus to go to, and it's the best campus in the world for them. And then our yeshiva is going to have Amen. And then our yeshiva is going to have All the space, and we have a million bachrim here. And I wonder If somebody came along and he said, we're gonna buy the campus and we're gonna refurbish and we're gonna make the most beautiful dorms.

32:57 And we're we're really we're really you know like we're gonna make it a Shangri-La over here. We're gonna get first we're gonna get rid of the donkeys. I don't know. Maybe we should hold on to them, but you know, it's important to have a zoo here in yeshiva. We have maybe we'll make some real landscaping instead of whatever the chaver is doing over there. I wonder if we'd be a worse yeshiva for it. I wonder. I wonder if there's not something to again, Baruch Hashem, people, and there are people I want you to know as Hashem next week. On Wednesday, by the banquet, you're going to have the opportunity to say thank you to people that you don't even know exist. People that give their whole life to make sure the food and the dorms and the tayulim. We're going to have the opportunity to express our thanks. But I wonder, Baruch Hashem, our yeshiva is fine.

33:50 But it's not the Ritz It's not the David Citadel. It's not the Waldorf, and you know what? It shouldn't be, because if it would be, I think we'd be sending the wrong chinuch message. If we have a dollar to spend, we should spend it so that the yeshiva should be good, it should be comfortable, so that the boys can shteig. But if we could spend that dollar And we could give it to a rabbi in yeshiva so that he could support his family, or if we could spend that dollar on scholarship to help another guy get in. I think if we spend that dollar making the yeshiva into a fancy place, I think we're doing worse chinuch. I mean it. How we spend our money is real. There's a lot more to say on this subject, but the hour is very late and I don't want to spend any more time.

34:49 So I'll finish with this. You know what it means to be a Ben Torah. What it means to be a real Ben Yeshiva. What you guys became this year. Don't look at the surface. Dig deeper. You see something? Don't fall for the trap of thinking that's all there is. There's a rebbeinu shalom right behind. If you stare deeply enough at the alma deiskasio, if you look carefully underneath the water, you know there's a world there. It's like that with every one of us. Every one of us is an entire world. Look deeply into yourself. Look deeply into others. Look deeply at the material world. Look deeply at klal yisrael, and then look up. Look up. There's a rebbeinu shalom. And then make it real. Bez Hashem, we'll be zayich to bring the kisei akava down into this world.