Parsha Minute

By Rabbi Avi Pollack, Valley Village Community Kollel

In this week’s Parsha, Parshas Vayetzei, we find when Leah gave birth to Yehuda, her fourth son, she says, “‘ה את אודה הפעם”. The Gemara in Brachos, Daf Zayin Amud Bais says, “From the day Hashem created the world, there was no man that praised Hashem, until Leah said this praise”.

The obvious question is no one praised Hashem before Leah came around? Didn’t the Avos praise Hashem? What was so special about Leah’s tribute that the Gemara can say no one praised Hashem like her?

Perhaps we can answer this question with a famous concept. It takes 3 times for something to become a Chazakah. For example, the first 3 times an animal gores, the owner only has to pay half the damage since his animal is not considered wild. (If one’s animal is wild and does damage, the owner is required to compensate fully.) After 3 times if the animal gores again, it becomes a wild animal and it’s owner has to pay the full amount for the damage.

We see from here that after 3 times a person becomes a muchzak in something.

With this concept in mind, we can learn something amazing from Leah.

The first few times one has good coming his way, he would have a natural feeling of gratitude and thanks to Hashem. He might not of expected the gift and therefor appreciates it so much. After the third time, his attitude might’ve changed and besides for not appreciating it as much, he might even feel entitled to it.

Leah’s Hodaah teaches us that everything is from Hashem and we should never feel entitled.  After having her fourth child, she still felt the same appreciation and thanked Hashem once again saying, “This time I will thank Hashem!”

Now we can understand what the Gemara is referring to when it says from the day Hashem created the world, no one gave such thanks. The uniqueness of Leah’s praise was that by the birth of her fourth child, she still was thanking Hashem fully with her whole heart.

By Rabbi Eliyahu Heller of Valley Village, CA

The Ramchal and many others have written that, as far as the human mind can comprehend, Hashem created the world because He is the ultimate goodness and the nature of good is to do good. Therefore, Hashem created a world upon which he could bestow His goodness. The question that follows is why then does Hashem love strict judgement? Why did Hashem originally wish to create the world with the most exacting standards of din without any mercy? Why is there so much pain, suffering, and evil in the world?

The answer must be that the midda of din and all of its subdivisions exist only for the ultimate purpose of Hashem bestowing the greatest kindness unto mankind. An integral part of our faith is that everything that happens is ultimately for the good. Even if we cannot understand this in our current state of exile, when Moshiach comes we will see how everything was really all kindness and we will make the same bracha of hatov vihameitiv on the “bad” as on the good. The above reality is used to explain the seemingly superfluous words in the beginning of the Parsha, “Avraham holeid es Yitzchak.” Why does the Torah speak out the obvious fact that Avraham gave birth to Yitzchak?  Avraham was the one who championed the middah of Hashem’s kindness and goodness whereas Yitzcahak lived with the constant fear of Hashem’s judgement and retribution. These two middos seem to be polar opposite ways of living and understanding Hashem that do not flow organically one from the other. To dispel this notion the Torah teaches us that Avraham, the midda of chessed, holeid, gives birth to Yitzchak, the midda of din. Din is born out of chessed. All pain, suffering, evil and punishment ultimately are a byproduct of Hashem’s chessed and their singular purpose is to serve as a necessary medium to enable us to ultimately experience the greatest chessed of Hashem.

In this week’s Parsha the Torah goes through length to describe the shidduch that transpired between Yitzchok and Rivka.  Reb Elya Boruch Finkel Z”L the great Maggid Shiur from the Mir Yeshiva in Yerushayim, posed a question.  He wondered why is it that the Torah describes the entire process of the shidduch between Rivka and Yitzchok, the Torah also will develop the shidduch of Yakov between Leah and Rochel.  However the Torah does not describe the shidduch between Avraham and Sarah. He explains that the stories of the Avos are written to teach us that Maseh Avos Siman Labonim, they are supposed to teach us valuable lessons, and for us to model our lives after.  He says that a critical component in shidduchim is the guidance one receives from ones parents.  It is of utmost importance to listen to their advice and hadracha. The shidduch of Avraham and Sarah was not with the guidance and advice of their parents, therefore in terms of a significant lesson for future generations their shidduch is omitted.  It is the shidduch of Yitzchak and Rivka that we learn the valuable lesson of the advice and guidance one must receive from ones parents and mentors.