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This week's parsha, we have a famous story that all of us know. Yaakov Avinu came to the house of Lavan And he saw Rachel, and he immediately fell in love with Rachel. And the question is What was so attractive about Rachel? There's such a thing called love at first sight. But obviously, when we speak about Yaakov Avinu, we're not speaking about a superficial Hollywood version of love at first sight. If Yaakov Avinu loves Rachel It must mean that the Torah is communicating to us that there is something very deep about the relationship, about the connection between Yaakov and Rachel. Yaakov immediately recognizes that Rachel is his soulmate. That's our first question: What's the nature of the attraction of Yaakov and Rachel? The second question is. Why is Lavan so insistent that Leah marry Yaakov first? That seems to be a big part of the story, and we grow up hearing the idea. I know this is a sensitive subject that the younger one shouldn't go before the older one.
But on a deep level, what does that mean? Obviously, Lavan had something in mind. Something sinister. Because we know, Chazal tell us Bikesh Lavan Laker Esakol That Lavan wanted to uproot all of the tenants of Yerushalayim. Yaakov was a danger to Lavan; he was a threat to Lavan. If Yaakov is a threat to Lavan, and Lavan wants to uproot all of Yerushalayim First of all, where do we see that? As we look at the story of Yaakov and Lavan, we don't really see that Lavan is ever so dastardly that he ever does anything so terrible. But we do see that Lavan wants to marry Leah to Yaakov first. Why is that such a big deal to him? So those are our three questions for tonight. Question number one: What is the inner level of attraction, the inner nature of the attraction between Yaakov and Rachel?
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Question number two: Why is Lavan so insistent? That he marry Leah first. And question number three, the final question is where do we ever see that Lavan attacks Yaakov? Where do we ever see that Lavan wants to uproot Yaakov and uproot all of Yiddishkeit? So there's a very deep Torah that I want to share with you tonight And it's the Torah of Leah and Rachel. Leah and Rachel are not just people. Leah and Rachel are representative of two different eras and two different ways of being. So Leah is the bechina of Mashiach. Leah is the time when Gullus has come to an end When there's Binyan by Yeshlishi When all of Klal Yisrael is living in Eretz Yisrael under the dominion of David Malchus of Mashiach. Leia represents the idea of leading what we're going to call tonight a satisfied life. There's a big schmooze that's happening today in the world of psychology.
And it's the schmooze of being able to be comfortable in life, to be satisfied with where you are. It's called acceptance. You ever hear that term? Are you able to accept reality as it is and be comfortable with what's happening in your life? This is not a small thing. It's not a small thing for a person to be able to say "I'm comfortable in life." So many people are uncomfortable in life, and when I say so many people, I'm even willing to include myself in this. We have needs to numb out because we're not okay with life as it is. So we'll spend an enormous amount of time on our phones, will consume substances in order to numb out because where I am is not okay. I can't accept life as I know it. The bechina of Leah is to be able to say, 'I'm okay. This is okay. I have nowhere that I need to be. Everything that I am right now is okay.'
And that's ultimately that feeling of satisfaction. It is expressed in Olam Habo when everything actually is okay. But there is a bechina of Leah that right now As is, everything is okay, and that's a very beautiful mida. But there is another bechina. What's which one are they? Leah is to be satisfied. Leah is to feel comfortable and accept reality as it is. Of course, the ultimate reality that leads to our satisfaction, to our comfort. Is the era of Olam Habaz the era of Yemosamashiach? But even now, in our state of Gullus, there's value in being able to be present in Gullus and to be able to say, 'I'm okay and it's okay.' Imagine what it would be like for Klal Yisrael to go on a journey of Gullus. For how many years have we been in Gullus already? For two thousand years, for us to be in Gullus and the entire time to be going, 'This not okay. This not okay. This not okay.' That seems to be a very unhealthy way of living your life.
A person has to become accustomed to gullus. A person has to be able to get comfortable in gullus to be able to build and to serve Hashem. If there's a constant pressure and anxiety of this not being okay, then you're never going to be able to perform in your life. So there are times in your life when things are difficult, when things are broken, when things feel unmanageable, and to be able to find that spark, that nitzotz of leia imeno inside of us, and to be able to say and yet. I'm okay. That's a very big deal. It's no small matter. How many people are sitting there with struggling children? How many parents are sitting there going, "It's not okay. It's not okay. It's not okay." What type of energy does a person bring into their home when they're constantly saying, "It's not okay"? What do you think it's like to be the child of that parent who is constantly saying, "It's not okay."
It's not okay But you can't live like that. A person is ill, chas v'shalom. They need medical treatment, serious medical treatment. It's definitely nobody here is going to say that it's right. It's an uncomfortable situation. It's a painful situation. There's real agony. Somebody that I love is suffering. These are very, very painful experiences. And yet, if a person doesn't find an inner sense of calm and clarity in those moments, how are they supposed to operate? That's one side of the equation. There's another side of the equation. And this is the side that we're going to spend a lot of time talking about tonight. Which is the Racheli Menu. And Racheli Menu represents what's called yearning. Yearning is a very powerful word. I just want to sensitise you to the word 'yearning' for a moment and what yearning means. Yearning is a person's hopes. Yearning is a person's aspirations.
Very often we're cut off from yearning because we won't give ourselves permission to want. Want is an engine that drives every human being. This is super important to know. If you would actually want something, like if you would allow yourself to actually want something You would be an unstoppable machine. Ain adaver omei b'fenayaratzon. Nothing stands in the way of will. But many of us won't allow ourselves to actually want something because if I actually want it, then what could happen? It might not happen, or I could get it and I could lose it. To want something is to be vulnerable. Once you acknowledge that you want something, you're already in a position of vulnerability. I'll give you an example of what this looks like. I probably shouldn't give this example, but this is an example that will keep some of you on your toes and keep some of you with me.
Let's say I'm just making up a case. Let's say you're in Shiduchim. And there's someone that you notice. You ever notice somebody? You ever do that thing where you're working hard to notice, like I notice, but I don't want anyone to notice that I notice. Like someone walked by my field of vision, so I keep looking in the same way so that people won't see me do that. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. So for about the sixty percent of you that came with me, I want to share with you that I appreciate your vulnerability and letting me know that you're human beings. For the 40% that just went like this the entire time I admire your capacity to totally not pay attention. Or I'm not giving away any information right now. I don't know what Reifberg is talking about, and I'm not going to acknowledge that I'm that type of person. But for the 60% of the honest people in the room, I want you to know I appreciate your vulnerability.
Why is it so difficult to say to a friend and do it like you do it in a cute way? You do it like this. What's his deal? I think I might know someone for him. You're someone, right? Asking for a friend. I'm asking for a friend. Apparently, a lot of us have a lot of friends. What's his deal? What's so hard about acknowledging out loud? What's so hard about acknowledging out loud? This is something that I want. Right. There's vulnerability in wanting. The second that I want it, I could lose it. The second that I want it, he might not meet me back. That's a really hard place to be But if you want something, if you've met people that are driven people, what are they driven by? Assuming that it's a good thing that they're driven by. Whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, if you're driven by what you want, you're unstoppable.
When you meet people who are running a startup, you know the difference between startups that make it and startups that don't. It's just how badly you want it, because every single startup is going to face an enormous amount of obstacles. But the difference between the people that make it and the people that don't is that some people say it doesn't matter what the obstacle is. I'm going to make this happen. That's why if you ever look at the way people invest. What do they always want to know? How desperate are you? Are you willing to give up everything for this? Because if you are, now I know that you want it, and if you want it, the chances of success are through the roof. People who want something yearn for it. Yearning is not like. This passive, like if you think about the word yearning, is yearning is not like a passive thing. Like, I want it, but like if it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't. Yearning means that I'm in an active way, allowing myself to feel the full range of desire.
That's a huge thing. You know what yearning means? It's not okay the way that it is. So we live somewhere between Rachel and Leah. Leah says it's okay as it is. We can be okay when things are not okay. Rachel says things are not okay, and I yearn for them to be okay. If you're missing any one of these ingredients, if you're not living within that tension of it's okay and yet I yearn for more, then you're stagnant. If you say it's okay Then it's not like you're not going anywhere. If you're yearning and you're not willing to say it's okay, you're a mess. You're a freight train of disaster because your desires are going to be out of control. So you need to say it's okay, and you need to yearn for more at once. The dialectical tension of Rachel and Leah. Everyone understand that.
So if Leah represents Olam Habah Rachel represents Olam Hazeh. Rachel is the force that she's buried on the side of the road, and as we're passing by, as the Navi describes, she's crying and she's saying, 'This is not okay. Everyone has to return home.' If we're on our way out of Galus, we have to pass by Rachel Imenu because if we get comfortable in Galus as we have, if we say it's okay. How many times have I heard this question from guys in yeshiva, Rebbe? If I'm being honest, I don't really want Mashiach because my life is fine. And honestly, I actually one girl even said to me because she heard a class here in Talmud Devora. She said, "I heard that in times of Mashiach, and don't ask me if it's true. I'm not getting into it now. She said, "I heard that in the times of Mashiach," A person doesn't get married and have children. I want to get married and have children. I don't even want Mashiach to come.
And by the way, I totally hear what she's saying. She's saying I yearn for things, and if those things that I yearn for are not aligned with Mashiach, then I don't want Mashiach. Meaning, how many of us are really tzipisely Yeshua? How many of us are really in this room right now saying I yearn for Mashiach to come? It's not okay the way the world is right now. When things get bad, all of a sudden people go Mashiach. When COVID hit, everyone was like, "Yeah, we definitely need Mashiach now" "When a war breaks out, people like, 'We definitely need Mashiach now.' But as long as everything is okay, six months ago, how many people were sitting and talking about Mashiach? If you weren't Lubavitch, how many people were sitting and talking about Mashiach? I once sent to somebody. I said, "Mashiach is not a Labavitch concept."
No, because when you left 120, they asked you the question, "Oh, did you want?" Of course. I'm joking, but of course. The idea that we're walking around and we're not yearning is because we've fallen into. I hesitate to say this, but it's a true statement. We've fallen into a state of complacency because we're okay. And we're probably more than okay if we're being honest. Most of us are probably thriving. Calculate the amount of money Just of cars that exist in your driveway. The amount of clothing in your closets Here and in America. When we came for Shabbos, when we came for Shabbos, and this is not throwing shade on anybody, when we came for Shabbos, my daughters stayed in the dorms. My daughters came wide eyed downstairs to the meal. They're like Abba, we've never seen anything like this. Because they're growing up here in Eretz Yisrael, they didn't they didn't they've never seen that amount of shoes before, and they've never seen those brand names before. They're like, 'Abba, girls really have Gucci.'
It's every room. There's I totally understand why we fall into the state of complacency Because as long as they're not marching down the street with Nazi flags like they just were in Madison, Wisconsin So then most of us are sitting there and going, "It's fine." It's fine. Why should I do anything? I totally hear it. It makes sense to me. But when a person falls into the complacency of it's okay and they're not yearning for more, a fundamental part of themselves has been turned off. If you're a person who's going through life and you don't want It's like chaval. It's when you get to see girls who, unfortunately, are significantly older and not yet married. At some point, the rejection becomes so large that they'll turn off their desire to date. I'm just going to build for myself this other life. And I'm going to be working, and I'm going to be a balas chesed, and I'm going to be a balas tzedaka, and I have this whole life that I built for myself because I can't handle the rejection of wanting someone or wanting something for myself anymore.
When you see those people alone, you'll see that there's a certain spark that has gone out of them. Nobody wants to be that person. People don't want to be dull. People are meant to be illuminated. People are meant to be passionate. You can only be passionate when you want something. Passion comes from desire. If you're yearning, you're alive. If you're not yearning, you're dead. Imagine a couple. Imagine a couple that no longer yearns for each other. They have accepted. This is my marriage. Isn't that the saddest thing in the world? There are dark times. It hasn't always been easy. It hasn't always been good. But isn't there a part of you that yearns for more? If there's no part of you that yearns for more, what are we doing already? Why are we here? What are we building? The yearning is critical. The yearning is what keeps something alive. As one of the great Hasidic masters once said, that when we all arrive in the times of Mashiach We're going to miss Gullus.
We're going to miss Gullus. Because in Gullus, in Geula, we're going to be sitting and going, remember the yearning. In a certain way, yearning is even more powerful than arrival. Because when you want something. There's all that passion and all that excitement and all that enthusiasm when you arrive and you have it. It's beautiful, but in a certain way, the yearning can even be more powerful than the experience itself. Does that make sense? That's why in our heads sometimes we do this thing. We're like, especially for seminary girls, it's like marriage. And like you speak to the seminary girls and they're yearning for marriage, and then you speak to the married girls and they're yearning for seminary, right? There's like, what happened? The yearning could be even more profound than the actual arrival of the thing itself. So in the times of Mashiach, everything is actually going to be okay, but we're going to miss the times when it wasn't okay and we were yearning for geula.
Why is this attractive to Yaakov Avinu? Why is this midah of Rachli Menu attractive to Yaakov? And the answer is as follows: Yaakov Avinu is leaving Eretz Yisrael, and every bone in his body is saying, 'I must return.' Does he? Does Yaakov Avinu want to leave Eretz Yisrael? Let's start there. Does Yaakov Avinu want to leave Eretz Yisrael? He doesn't want to leave Eretz Yisrael. He has to leave Eretz Yisrael. And as he's leaving Eretz Yisrael, what accompanies him? Harah Moria is accompanying him outside of Eretz Yisrael. He doesn't want to be leaving. He's taking Eretz Yisrael with him for those girls that are shuna bed and are already in the space of starting to think about returning back to America. There are people that leave Eretz Yisrael, and then there are people that leave Eretz Yisrael, and the entire time that they leave, they're yearning for Eretz Yisrael. The entire time that they leave, they're like, "Libi baMizrah," I'm coming back.
The Rebbe Nachman says everybody is in a state of constantly coming back to Eretz Yisrael. So Yaakov Avinu is leaving Eretz Yisrael, and he's taking Harav Moriah with him, and everything about Yaakov Avinu is, 'I'm coming back.' As soon as Yosef Atzilik is born, what does Yaakov Avinu say? 'I'm ready to go back. Now I can confront Esav.' There's no vision of Yaakov Avinu that doesn't include Eretz Yisrael. So if you ask yourself, is Yaakov Avinu more like Leah or more like Rachel? The obvious answer is that Yaakov and Rachel share the same root vision of reality. The world is not okay as it is. And it's our job to yearn and to make it something more. So when Yaakov sees Rachel for the first time, it's not love at first sight in the superficial sense. It's I see in her a reflection of myself. We both have the same way of seeing the world, and that is an exceptionally attractive thing.
When you see in somebody else that they have desire and that you share that desire, you share that passion, that shiruch is good to go. If you have, I know a guy who's dating a girl right now, and this guy is gung ho on kiruv. He's like, 'This is my life. I'm passionate about kiruv. I want to be in kiruv.' And he met a girl. And she's passionate not about being in Kirav, but she loves the idea that he's passionate about being in Kirav. There's a certain sense of attraction. There's a dynamic there. There's a movement. There's a motion. There's an energy. It just works. It goes. Anything that comes up, they're going to make the shidduch work. Nobody has any doubt that this shidduch is going through. It's just a question of time at this point. Because they share that same root desire. And when they get married.
When Yaakov and Rachel get married, what type of children do they produce? They produce children who yearn. Let's look at the life of Yosef HaTzaddik for a second. What's the life of Yosef HaTzaddik? The life of Yosef HaTzaddik is a life of yearning. Let's start at the beginning of Yosef's life. Yosef has dreams. And he shares those dreams with his brother and with his father. What's a dream? My imagination when I'm asleep. What is it reflective of? The what you. If you ever want to know If you ever want to know what your values are, daydream. Ever do that where you daydream about yourself? You ever go back in your head and daydream about ninth grade? If only I would have been this in ninth grade, and I could have been this for four years. You ever daydream about what you want your life to look like? If you want to know what your yearnings are Look at your dreams. That's what dreams are. Dreams tell you what's important in my life. That's what a dream is.
Then Yosef Hatzade gets a little bit older. He's sold down to Mitsrayim. He's in the house of Ayesha Potifar. And he's about to be Nichshol in that Avera. What happens in that moment? What does he see? He sees his father in the window. What stops him from doing the Avera? Because he says to himself, "This is not the person that I want to be." Why is that so important? Because what is it reflective of Girls? Was Yaakov Vino in the window? Yaakov Vino wasn't in the window. Yosef HaTzaddik looks in the window and he sees his father. Meaning, my life is designed for me to live this vision. Mameila, he's able to avoid being in the depths of that avera. Even though he was in the middle of that avera, he was able to pull away from that avera. Take it another step. What is Yosef Atadik doing in the jail? The entire time that he's in the jail, what's he doing in the jail? He's interpreting dreams. He's a person that you can go to and share your desires with, and he can interpret them. He could say, "I see from this where your life is going."
Then he becomes the viceroy of Egypt. And the entire time, what's in his head? The last suddia that he learned with his father, the suddia of Eglarufa, he's constantly yearning to return to his father. So finally, when Yosef HaTzaddik has the right opportunity, after the brothers have been metaki in their avera by standing up for Binyamin, what's the first thing he does? He sends agalot, he sends wagons back to his father, and he says, "I was with you the entire time." What's the bechina of Yosef HaTzaddik? He's the child of Rachel and Jacob. He's a child of yearning. Anybody know? I doubt we're going to get this. Anybody know where you see Benjamin's yearning? You see Benjamin's yearning when it comes to the story of Purim. After Achashverosh calculates that seventy years have passed and now the Beis Hamikdash he sees won't be rebuilt, he makes a suda to celebrate the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash and that the Beis Hamikdash will not be rebuilt.
And all of Klal Yisrael participates in that suda. Why is that such a big avera? Because it demonstrates the lack of yearning. You understand? Kal Yisrael understood what Achashverosh's chesed was, but they said for political reasons we have to go. What is Achashverosh saying? He's saying the Beit Hamikdash won't be rebuilt. What is Kal Yisrael saying? We have to deal with the political reality. If Kal Yisrael was truly yearning, then what would have happened? They would never have gone to the party. So what happens? This is the way that the Bnei Esav work a Malak. This is the way that this whole story of Haman works. They try to knock out the yearning from you. So who is it that orchestrates the redemption? It's Mordechai and Esther, who of course descend from Binyamin. And the entire time that this is happening, what is Mordechai saying? I know how this story ends.
You Esther Amalke have a choice if you want to participate, but I know how the story ends because I know that we're constantly in a state of turning towards Olam Haba, and I'm yearning for it to happen. So ultimately, it's Yosef and Binyamin that end up defeating Amalek, of course, because when it comes to the fight of Esav versus Yaakov, Yaakov wins because Yaakov never gives up hope. Yaakov is always in a state of yearning. With this in mind, we can now understand something very powerful. When do we ever see that Lavan wanted to destroy Klal Yisrael? When did he do it? On the night that Yaakov married Leah and not Rachel Because there has to be an order. You can only be okay after you know that things are not okay. If you are okay, then you are never going to yearn. You have to yearn, and then you have to say it's okay. So Yaakov wants to marry Rachel, and maybe Yaakov will marry Leah, but he has to marry Rachel first.
Again, just want to make sure I didn't say the point clearly. Let me try again. I want to make sure everyone gets this. If you walk into a situation that's not okay and you go, "It's okay" But I yearn for something more. You are not going to do that. Why are you not going to do that? Because from the moment that you say it's okay, you've already said, 'I don't need this so much. I don't. It's not. It's not. I am not desperate for this. I don't yearn for this.' The moment that you said it was okay, you already turned the volume lower. But if you keep the volume up and you say it's not okay, this is not the way. This is not okay. It's not okay for Hamas to come across our borders and murder fifteen hundred of our people. It's not okay. It's not okay. And I yearn for a world where a Jew can live in Eretz Israel safely. Then afterwards, you can say and yet We have a baseline of being okay. You hear the difference? If you start off and say I'm okay, if you're okay, then you're not going to operate.
You have to be ready to operate and know that you're okay. That's the order it has to come in. Once you're acting, you have to operate from a place of okayness. But you have to not be okay to be okay. Does that make sense? I know it's. I didn't say it in the clearest way. It might be a little bit convoluted. Do you understand what I'm saying? Because Leah is the bechena of being satisfied. And Leah is the bichinah of acceptance, and Leah is the bichinah of olam haba, and to be able to recognize that even when things are not okay, I'm okay. So Yatlovan comes along, and Lovan says, "I'm going to marry Yaakov to Leah first, because even if Yaakov will marry Rachel afterwards, once he has Leah in his life, he's okay. He'll have no desire to return to Eretz Yisrael. He'll have no desire for geula. He doesn't have to bring Harimaria back with him."
I can uproot all of Yiddishkeit. Because I can turn off the yearning by saying you're okay. So you lose yearning in that sense. If he marries Rachel first, love and understands this yearning is going to be so powerful. The yearning of Rachel imenu of crying for all of her children to return to Eretz Yisrael, Hakadosh Baruch Hu has to say to Rachel, stop crying, because your crying is so powerful that I'll have no choice but to give in. Lavan has the ultimate secret of how to turn down the dial of desire. Just be okay. If you're okay, then you don't need it to be different than it is. So I'm gonna marry Yaakov to Leah first. If I marry Yaakov to Leah first, then I'm not gonna have a problem if he marries Rachel. So now Yaakov comes and he sees I married Leah. He says, 'You have to let me marry Rachel.' He goes, 'No, you can marry. You have to work a little bit harder. But now you can marry Rachel. You understand how devious Lavan's plan was now? His whole plan was to take away the desire of Yaakov Avinu to return to Eretz Yisrael.'
That's all of a Jew. You come. There are girls that come this year. There are girls in this room right now, and you could tell who yearns in this room and who doesn't yearn in this room. You could tell a girl shows up to class. There are girls that show up to class. They come. They're ready to work. I don't need girls to take notes, but there's such a thing as eye contact. You girls have a gift that you can give to every teacher that sits in front of you, which is paying attention, and paying attention means with your eyes, and so you can tell as this person who speaks in front of a lot of people. You can tell there are girls that look at you, and then there are girls that don't look at you, and then there are girls that are looking at someone else or looking at something else. It's a totally different experience. There are girls that come to sem, and what they yearn for is something outside of seminary. There are girls that come to sem, and what they're yearning for is something inside of seminary.
You can always tell what somebody wants based on how they live their life. You know exactly what people yearn for. Just look at what they do. Does that make sense? So when somebody comes to seminary and they go I'm okay. I like my Judaism just the way it is. I have no desire to grow. I don't need to work on different areas of my Judaism. I kind of like this is it. So when those girls come to sem, that's exactly what happens. There's no movement. There's no motion. There's no passion. It's I'm good. I'm not knocking it, by the way. There are people that are authentically like, look, I'm okay. That's fine. But there is a yearning that you get, and it's like this is why I love teaching public school kids. When I have the opportunity to teach the TJJ kids in the summer It's electric.
Unfortunately for me, it only gets to be my summer job. But you have these 15 year old guys and girls that come to Israel for the summer. They're coming from backgrounds that are completely different than the backgrounds that you and I come from. And they made the decision to come to Eretz Yisrael for the summer. The yearning is crazy. It could be two o'clock in the morning. I'll be like, I got to go to sleep. I just have five more questions to ask. And sometimes I'm like, when I'm teaching the kids who are from birth, who come from the Yeshiva Day School system, I'm looking at the clock, going, okay, I think these girls can handle about seven more minutes of this. The difference is in terms of the yearning. Because sometimes we're so okay. It's like I'm okay. I'm just waiting to go out. I gotta catch that bus. I'm meeting my friend there. I'm saying you're not. Baruch Hashem, you girls are great. You girls are wonderful. You're yearning for sure. You're here.
But you know what it looks like. You can pay attention. I'm not talking about in a judgmental sense. Even within yourself, just look at yourself. Am I yearning or am I okay? If you're okay, it's not going to be a place of yearning. And there's a good thing to be okay. But if you're satisfied, then that's what it is. If you want something more out of your marriage, then it has to be okay, but it also has to not be okay. I'm not satisfied with this. I want it to be more. I want it to be more passionate. I want to be more connected, more intimate. I want there to be more vulnerability, more seeing each other. I want to spend more time with each other. Fighting for your marriage is a good thing. It's devastating when a couple stops fighting for each other. Sometimes an argument in a marriage is a reflection of how much they care about each other. When a couple stops fighting, it can be a really terrible thing. I had a talmud who said that to me once. His parents had gotten divorced a year earlier. I said, "Did you see it coming?" He goes, "No way." I said, "Really?" He goes, "Yeah, they never fought."
Right? They had nothing to fight about. They had given up on each other over a decade earlier. There was nothing to fight about. A couple that fights, there's a couple that's passionate. There's yearning. I want more. So why didn't it work? Why wasn't Lavan successful? Lachor, Lavan had a great plan. If Yaakov is okay, so then he won't yearn. So how did it work? How did Yaakov marry Rachel, and he wasn't lacherasakol? So here's the secret. You ready for the secret? This is an amazing secret. The greatest yearning is when everything is okay. And yet something is still missing. That's the greatest possible yearning. Love on's cheshbon is if it's okay, there'll be no yearning. The secret of Racheli Menu, the secret of Yaakov Avinu, is okay. And yet something is missing. Our marriage is great. We're connected. We spend time with each other. We love each other. We're raising a beautiful family together. We share values. Everything is great.
We could still be more. So many people yearn from a place of deficit. The secret of Racheli Menu is that her yearning is so deep that even if everything were to be okay, she would still be yearning. That's the nature of Rachlimenu. So we always think of Rachlimenu as Klal Yisrael going out to Gullus, Rachlimenu is on the side of the road going. The secret of Rachlimenu is that when we're in Gullus and everything is okay, she still says, but it could be more. You could be living in a certain town, or five of them, and you could be living in a certain place. Just to wake your girls back up. Welcome back. You could be living in a certain place, and you have everything that you need. You have yeshivas and bais yakhovs, and you have cars, and you have houses, and you have kosher restaurants. You have every single thing that you need. I just saw a two hundred and fifty dollar hamburger, kosher. They said it was kosher, which means that a rabbi blessed it. It was kosher, covered in gold. The bun was covered in gold. The meat was covered in gold. It's a two hundred and fifty dollar burger, covered in gold, glatt kosher. The mishkiah was there. He watched the whole thing. It was unbelievably beautiful. Two. You have every. If girls, if we can spend two hundred fifty dollars on a burger I think we're pretty okay.
On the other hand, we're definitely not okay if somebody says "I think I could sell a two hundred fifty dollar burger," and people go, "I think I would buy a two hundred fifty dollar burger." We're definitely not okay. But obviously, we're okay. It's better than not being able to afford a two hundred fifty dollar burger. But it's not okay. Not yet, because I don't want to answer the question. I think you are going to ask. You asked me privately. You hear what I am saying? B'chaim. Even if Yaakov marries Leah first, and even if everything is okay, the Racheli Meno was so strong that she says we have to go back to Eretz Yisrael. And this is why, once Yaakov Avinu was born, once Yosef HaTzaddik is born, Yaakov Avinu says now we can return to Phaidesov because of the nature of Asov. Is that Esav says everything is okay And Yosef HaTzaddik, being the child of Rachel, once Yosef can team up with Yaakov, so now Yaakov Yenu says we have so much yearning that nothing will stand in the way, and that's why. How do we wipe out Amalek?
We have a mitzvah of zochor. We have to remember Amalek. If everything is okay, what do you forget? You forget what you want. That's what Amalek comes. How does Amalek cool us off? Amalek comes and says, 'You're okay.' Forget it. You were in seminary. It was cute. You were eighteen years old. You were in the seminary bubble. You were on fire. Forget that. That was like a cute tukuf in your life. You were a baby. You didn't know anything. You were under the influence. Sometimes you're under the influence out there. Sometimes you're under the influence in here. You're under the influence. You'll see. Cool down. No guy wants to date a girl that just got back from seminary because they still haven't landed. They have that lashon right. Still haven't landed. They're not normal again yet. Sometimes they're right. Sometimes a person needs to bring that back to reality. But very often, what they mean is I need her to cool down from actually wanting something out of her life.
There's something exceptionally beautiful about leading a passionate life and not forgetting what it is that set you on fire to begin with. So we have to remember in order to feed a malek And this is really what the yontov of Chanukah is about. Because the Yevanim more than anything, what do they want? They want us to assimilate. That's why so many Jews in the times of Chanukah assimilated. What does it mean to assimilate? For a Jew to assimilate means to forget the yearning that I'm not okay. If a Jew says I could be okay, I just have to be like my Christian neighbors. I just have to become secular. I just have to be an atheist. I don't have to go to shul anymore. I don't have to light Chanukah candles anymore. I don't do any of those things anymore. That's not where I am. That's not who I am. I just want to be like everybody else so I could be okay. That means they are turning off assimilation. It means I'm yearning. I'm turning off my yearning from returning to my source. Every single Jew naturally has in their heart that they want to return to their source.
So that's what we do on Hanukkah. On Hanukkah we light candles in the darkness. What's the nature of a candle? A candle is always yearning. A candle is always seeking to return to its source. A candle is always on fire. That I want to be something more than I am. I want to finish with one story. It's a Chasideh tale. It's a beautiful story. It's about the Rebbe, reb yisachar dov ber of radishitz Who was traveling And he stopped at a certain inn. And he stayed overnight in the inn. And in the morning, he woke up and he said, 'I need to speak to you right away.' In my room, there's a clock. And that clock that's hanging in my room, it's the most wonderful clock I've ever heard in my entire life. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't sleep every time the clock was ticking, one second after another, my heart was racing. I couldn't sleep. Whose clock is that?
So the innkeeper said, "It's nobody's clock." What do you mean? It's a regular clock. So the Radishitzer said, "No. It's not an ordinary clock. You have to find out the origin story of this clock." So the innkeeper said, 'he's a lunatic. Rebbe thinks it's a special clock, but I'm an innkeeper. What is the job of an innkeeper? The job of an innkeeper is to satisfy the customers.' So the innkeeper says, "I'll make some inquiries." So he finds out from his wife where she bought the clock. She says, "I bought it from a certain secondhand store." And he goes into the secondhand store, and the secondhand store says, "Oh, some but this guy came in to pawn the clock." And he finds that guy, and he says, "Where'd you get this clock from?" The Radishitzer says it's a special clock. Where'd you get the clock from? So the guy says, "I got this clock from the Chayza of Lublin."
The Chayza of Lublin was the great rebbe who was able to see. He's called the Chayza because he almost had prophetic powers. He had ruach hakodesh. He was able to see very far into the future. And because the chayzer from Lublin was very poor, he was forced to sell all of his possessions. This guy got that clock, then sold it to a pawn shop. The pawn shop's owner's wife bought it from the pawn shop, and he hung it up in his guest room at the inn. So he came back to the radishitzer, and he said, "That's the clock of the chayzer from Lublin," and the radishitzer started dancing, and he says, "This clock could only have belonged to the Chayza of Lublin. Why?" Because he said there's two types of clocks in this world. There's a clock that's counting down time, and time is going by, going into the past. And then there are other clocks.
One more second until Mashiach. Another second until Mashiach. Another second until Mashiach. Some clocks are counting backwards. Some clocks are counting forwards. It's the clock of the Chayza from Lublin. It kept me up all night because every time I saw that second hand move, we were one second closer to the coming of Mashiach. It was a clock that yearned. Girls, we need to have such clocks in our homes. There are people that are just killing time. And it's moving along. I just got to get through the year. I got to get through the class. It's already seven seventeen. What's Reburg doing already? I have places to go. And then there are people that have clocks in their lives that say. I'm yearning for something bigger. One more second until I become the person that I'm meant to become. One more second until I'm married. One more second until I have children. One more second until I'm a grandmother. One more second until I can marry off my kids. One more second until I can get my family together for Hanukkah. One more second. They're counting down the seconds until they could become the person that they want. We have to have clocks of yearning, girls. That's the only way to make life meaningful. Girls, have a wonderful Shabbos.
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