The double-sided coin

מאת ר' ש. קאפלין שליט"א

,"ויאמר ה' אל אברהם למה זה צחקה שרה?!" Hashem said to אברהם, “Why is it that שרה laughed saying: ‘Shall I in truth bear a child, though I have become old?’ Why did she laugh? What’s taka פשט? She didn’t believe the מלאכים? She didn’t believe the נבואה?

Wow! Wow!

Explains Brisker Rov זצ"ל: Of course, she knew without any doubt that it was going to happen, she believed every word of the מלאכים, there was no .ספק However, this news to שרה was a חידוש, it was a “wow!” "האף אמנם אלה ואני זקנתי", Shall I in truth bear a child, though I have become old?! Wow! This is major news! As the תרגום יונתן writes, "ותמהה שרה" – she wondered “wow!” This was the תביעה the רבש"ע had on her, because with the רבש"ע there is no such thing as “Wow!” The רבש"ע can do anything! When saying “wow” that implies that you look at הקב"ה with certain limitations, “Wow… הקב"ה can even do this…” She was surprised that הקב"ה can do such a thing. There’s no such thing, הקב"ה can do everything, there is nothing which can stop הקב"ה from doing something, He has no limits.

As חז"ל in תענית )כ"ה.( teaches us from ר' "מי שיאמר לשמן שידליק הוא ,חני נא בן דוסא "יאמר לחומץ שידליק , He who said oil shall burn, He is the One who can say vinegar should burn. הקב"ה has no limitations – He can do absolutely anything, nothings a חידוש.

Perhaps this can explain why אברהם אבינו made his coin "זקן וזקנה מצד אחד, בחור ובתולה מצד אחר", it symbolised: it makes no difference to the רבש"ע whether a person is old or young, just like a young person can have a child, so too an old person can have a child.

We’re not just speaking about שרה אמנו, the truth is we are speaking to ourselves. Often, we ask and question ourselves, “Can such a thing really happen?!” The reason we think in such a way is because we are trying to understand הקב''ה with our small minds.

I want share a similar theme we find later in the פרשה.

Giving up a child

Many ask: What was the great נסיון of the עקידה? Throughout our rich history, many, many times parents had to give up their children for the sake of הקב"ה and כבוד שמים.0F¹

ר' משה שטרנבוך שלי ט''א would explain with a פשט: The נסיון wasn’t whether he was going to do the עקידה or not, that wasn’t the big test, of course he was prepared to give up his child like many other people in our history. However, the נסיון was: Inside his heart is he going to have קושיות – is he going to have questions?

הקב"ה had already promised אברהם אבינו, "כי ביצחק יקרא לך זרע" – through יצחק you are going to have descendants. And now הקב"ה is telling him to offer up this very יצחק which is meant to bring about his descendants?! What’s פשט? Why is הקב"ה asking me to do this? אברהם אבינו knew that there is no תיקון in שמים from the offering of a human sacrifice? Why is הקב"ה asking me to sacrifice my dear child?

This was the נסיון, was אברהם אבינו going to start to question the ways and commandments of הקב"ה. Of course, he’s going to do it, but will there be any .הרהורי בלב

In fact, רש"י is מרמז to this. The תורה describes, "ויקח אברהם את עצי העלה... וילכו שניהם יחדו." )כ"ב, ו'(, and the two of them went together. רש"י is bothered with the extra word of "יחדו" which seems to be obvious. רש"י therefore explains that the תורה is teaching us, "אברהם שהיה יודע שהולך לשחוט את בנו היה הולך ברצון ושמחה, דבר" אברהם אבינו knew where he was going, יצחק didn’t yet know. Nevertheless, אברהם went with an equal heart – בשמחה רבה, he had the same שמחה בלב as יצחק, there were no questions, no קושיות; he passed the נסיון with flying colours. Nothing to question! The רבש"ע said to do it, so you do it without any questions, without thinking any further.

מרגיש

היה

שלא

.כיצחק

We find the same thing in Rashi by the test of the famine Rashi writes לנסותו אם יהרהר אחר דבריו של הקב''ה שאמר לו ללכת אל ארץ כנען ועכשיו משיאו לצאת ממנה.

This week here in Manchester we had a tragedy where the hospital disconnected the life support from this young girl – Alta Fixsler ע"ה. People are saying, “The judge!… the British government!… the אכזריות… how could they do it?!…” The family and Askonim did their השתדלות שלא כדרך הטבע, they did the best השתדלות they could possibly do, they tried everything they could, everyone who could do something did something. But we must look at this with one השקפה: the רבש"ע had פסקנד that this child must now leave this world. That’s the way we must look at it. We tried our best, everything else is from הקב"ה. We should not have any קושיות or תביעות or .טענות We shouldn’t ask any questions.²

No questions

ר' מענדל פוטופאס זצ"ל had a daughter living in London who was killed through a terrible car accident, a terrible calamity. He came to England to sit שבעה with the family – an אלמון with 11 children.

ר' מענדל sat there like normal with a smile on his face.

Somebody there spoke up and asked, “ ר' מענדל! How can you sit like this?!”

These are the words which ר' מענדל replied, “The רבש"ע is מלא רחמים, we cannot fathom the רחמנות of the רבש"ע, we Hashem’s רחמנות…and He watched it happen and caused it to happen how can I not keep my שמחה, the רבש"ע knows what He is doing… how can I not smile? He is מלא רחמים…”

The רחמים of הקב"ה is far beyond what we can possibly comprehend.

In פרשת אחרי מות when two of אהרן הכהן’s children were נפטר, the תורה tells us, אהרן"

are

too

limited

to

understand

,"וידם Oshtrovzeh זצ"ל would explain פשט: אהרן הכהן made himself like a דומם – like a piece of stone. When you smash a stone to pieces, it doesn’t change, besides for the size changing, it remains a stone. Whereas if you kill a צומח – you kill a plant or you kill a herb, you’ve killed it – it’s all over. A חי, if you try kill it, it will run away, perhaps fight back.

אהרן

silent.

Whereas, with regards to the דומם, there’s no חילוק before and after. This was אהרן הכהן, it was a "וידם אהרן" – there was no חילוק between before and after, there were no questions.

As the רמב"ן brings a story about a close תלמיד of his who was very ill, on the verge of death. The רמב"ן told him, “When you go up to שמים go to a certain היכל and there ask the question why you – a tremendous צדיק – had to die young.” A few weeks later, his תלמיד appeared to the רמב"ן and explained, “When I came up to שמים I remembered your request. However, when everything was so clear – there was nothing to ask about, there were no questions at all.”

I

reached

שמים

The young נער

At the עקידה a מלאך came out from שמים exclaiming, " "אל תשלח ידך על הנער – don’t do it – don’t shecht your son. The question is: Why did the מלאך call יצחק a נער – a young youth?! He was 37 years old at the time!?

Explains ר' משה שטרנבוך שלי ט''א : He behaved like a נער, like a little child who hasn’t got his own דעת or opinion or say, but rather simply only follows what his father tells him to do, he behaved as if he has none of his own שכל, he didn’t ask any questions on his father. When his father told him he was going to shecht him, he didn’t blink, he didn’t think, he didn’t question, he just carried on walking with his father. As רש"י again is מרמז to us, "וילכו שניהם יחדו" (פסוק ח'), meaning: "וילכו שניהם יחדו בלב שוה" – even after יצחק had found out where he was going, he went to the עקידה with the equal heart as his father, with the same חשק and the same שמחה. If a father says then we listen, there’s nothing to talk about.

חז"ל tell us, "מורא רבך כמורא שמים" – the fear one must have toward his Rebbe must be like with the fear one has toward הקב"ה. The גמרא in בבא מציעא (ל"ב) tells us that כיבוד אב ואם is הוקש to כבוד שמים. Just like we mustn’t question the ways of ,הקב"ה intructions of our parents or Rebbes, when they tell us what to do.

The Tatte said no

In ארץ ישראל - תשס"ג , the גדולי ישראל, including ר' אלישיב זצ"ל and many other גדולים, they all wanted ר' יצחק דוד גראסמאן שליט"א from מגדל עמק to become the chief rabbi of ארץ ישראל.

we

mustn’t

question

ר' יצחק דוד שליט"א asked his father for his advice, and the response he received was, “No…” He didn’t take up the job, his father didn’t let him.

Ten years later after his father was נפטר they asked him again to take up the offer. ר' אהרן לייב זצ"ל called him in to take up the job. “But my father didn’t let…” said ר' יצחק .דוד

ר' אהרן לייב wasn’t sure what to tell him. They came to the conclusion to ask the .פוסק הדור – ר' שמואל וואזנר זצ"ל He found out that ר' שמואל at the time was in Vienna, so he sent him a message that he was going to come to Vienna. ר' שמואל sent back a message, “…you don’t have to come all the way here… we can speak on the telephone…” The conversation lasted for half an hour on the telephone. The מסקנא of ר' שמואל was, “… the Tatte said no, so no is no… כיבוד אב ואם…”

This was national news at the time, backwards and forwards over all the radios everyone, all over the country was involved in this.

different

broadcasts,

There were many rumours which came out afterwards why his father didn’t let his son ר' יצחק דוד take up the offer. There were many צדדים and even צדדי צדדים which came out at the time.

Eventually, arrived in מגדל עמק to interview י' יצחק דוד – to finally get to the bottom of this. He opened his front door and there was the full עולם, the television crews, the radio broadcasts, the full lot of them. “Let us hear what’s going on… what exactly happened…” they said to him. “My Tatte said No! That’s all I can say!” replied ר' יצחק דוד. Listen to what happened next. The interviewer then asked, “But one second, what’s the reason why your father said no?!” “I have no idea…” was the response they received. “You didn’t ask him?!” asked the interviewer. “Ask him?!” exclaimed ר' יצחק דוד , “when a Tatte says something, that’s it, he’s said it, there’s nothing to ask him I don’t need to know why!”

an

army

of

journalists

This created a tremendous קידוש ה' in the world at the time.

This wasn’t a child at the age of six, ר' יצחק דוד was a man in his fifties at the time, a man with a long beard who had made many accomplishments in his life, he wasn’t a simple man out there. His father told him “No!” and he walked out! There was no debate, no discussions, no questions.

We can all learn from such a story, this didn’t happen 600 years ago, it happened not so long ago in our generation. His father said no, so no is no! That’s it! There’s nothing to talk about!

Do we behave like that?! everything is “Why?! Why?! Why this and why that?!!” The ראש ישיבה שליט"א says something,

שליט"א

משגיח

says something, and everything is always “Why?! Why?!” It’s ridiculous, we always must know why. There’s no such thing³. We don’t have to know the reason why.

This is what the תורה is teaching us over her, יצחק was like a נער – like a נער who doesn’t ask any questions.

We should all try to take this message with us, whether with our parents, הוקש כבודם לכבוד המקום, or whether with our leaders מורא רבך כמורא שמים, – the ones who are teaching us the way of life. Leave out the “why’s” – leave out the questions.

Let us remember these three points. Not to limit הקב"ה – nothings a חידוש by הקב"ה ,הקב"ה is the כל יכול , there’s nothing shouldn’t be ת מה – we shouldn’t wonder that הקב"ה can do something, הקב"ה can do anything, and when we need things to happen שלא כדרך הטבע, we shouldn’t ח"ו think הקב"ה is limited, all we have to do is go and to daven.

which

He

cannot

do,

we

Secondly, we mustn’t have questions, we shouldn’t have קושיות, this was the נסיון העקידה, to be מקבל and not to even think of the question, like a דומם – like a stone, וידם אהרן.

And lastly, it’s not just with the ways of הקב"ה. Remember the "נער", this is something we ourselves with and work on. We don’t ask why, however big the question is, however difficult the command is, and no is no. We have to learn to accept a no, no is no and yes is yes. The same applies to our elders, our Rebbes, not to ask questions on everything they tell us, not always do we have to understand everything they tell us.

should

be

מחזק

Transcribed by Avrohom Dov Kohn – אברהם דוב הכהן כהן

See 8 פרשת וירא תש"פ גליון where we spoke about this question in more length with giving a different answer. 2 See 38 פרשת חוקת תש"פ גליון where we spoke about this יסוד: not to have any questions on the ways of הקב"ה. 3 See 32 פרשת חוקת תשפ"א גליון where we spoke about listening to what our מנהיגים tell us without questioning their ways. 6