Parshas Vayeira: Akeidah, Prophetic Uncertainty, and the Strength of Faith

0:00 It was, without a doubt, the most unconditional act of self-sacrifice known to mankind, all of his life, all of his aspirations, all of his legacy rooted in his choice and cherished child Yitzchak. And here Avraham Avinu is told bind your son onto the perfectly manicured wood and organize into a pyre and sacrifice your future.

0:45 Bind your son into a carbon ola, an elevation offering, and prove your discipline, prove your subservientness and prove your obedience to my word, your obedience to my word. Avram Avinu succeeded in not only the first nine of his tests, but, with a cherry on top and a loud roar from the crowd, avram Avinu set the Jewish nation into motion, kicked it into gear, and our father instilled within our DNA to this day the ability to overcome Nisyonos and to follow the divine, no matter what is to be lost.

1:41 Here I am is Avram's response. I'd like to specifically direct your attention to where it was on the third day that Avram looked up and saw this place from afar, where the shindig, where the great episode was to happen. Avram turns to the two fellows that were following them and says Wait here with the donkey, we'll be back in the morrow, but Vahani Vahanar, I, me and the lad neilcha, we will go ad ko, neilcha ad ko, a weird word.

2:45 We will go to ko. What does that mean? We will go to ko Chav hei choi or koi, like a koi pond, k-o-i For those that have that sprach. Where is this destination of koi? Well, let me tell you all about what koi is about. It all comes by way of the great Rosh Hashiva, the eyes of the generation, and the Urim V'tumim, the great Rebbe Aaron Lopiansky, the Rosh Hashiva of Greater Washington, saying over this powerful idea from Rebbe Yosef Shlomo Kahanim and the Panovich Rav, the dynamic Torah giant.

3:36 The Rav, rosh Hashiva, rebbe Aaron, he said over this idea twice already in the last year. Tells you the significance that it had on him and how he actually shared it twice, just shows us how much value he believes that he has. And the first time I heard him say this idea was about explaining Kinna. Yod Gimel, the 13th Kinna of Tisha B'Avde. Yod Gimel, the 13th kinah of Tisha B'Av Day. The kinah goes and references this word Eikai, the paitan, the linguist, the great Rishon and the author of the kinah that you probably know as Lama Elohim Zonachtol Anetzach. It keeps referencing different sources that the word ko comes up in Tanakh Eikai.

4:22 How could it be, and with whatever context or pasuk that Koi is stated, it then gives it over to us. And how we've lost it in a very tragic manner. We have Koi. Yez Aracha, nelcha, adko, yitzchak went until ko. It keeps showing up in some sort of promise as some sort of territory and the Panovich Yerav explained. Let me tell you what ko is. It all comes from the very first Rashi of Parashas Matos. Look it up, it's in Perek, lamed Pesach, beis by Yadamber Moshe El Roshi, hamatos, the Bnei Yisrael, le'imor, zeh HaDovar, shartziva, hashem.

5:11 This is the matter that Hashem has commanded, says Rashi, that there are levels to prophecy and the subsequent clarity that is endowed to the prophet. There's a level of clarity of Moshe Nisnabe Bekoi, omar Hashem, kachatzos Halayla that so said God that we will go out at around midnight. V'hanevim Nisnabu Bekoi, omar Hashem, koi, omar Hashem. This koi is a status, a level of prophecy, some clarity. It is, it is, but there's still a bit of some fogginess.

5:53 But Moshe had a far more superior level of prophecy. He also got the level Moshe did of this is the matter, madraga level of prophecy. Shem Nisnabe, belushin, zehadover. He also got the level Moshe did of Zehadover. This is the matter, zeh, meaning pointing this thing explicitly HD, high definition, aspachlaria, hameira. It is totally crystal clear. The windshield wipers have wiped away all of the possible residue and Moshe Rabbeinu can see the entire picture without any fogginess of ko. So ko is a level of clarity in prophecy that is not entirely clear.

6:40 It is. It is Nisnabe B'Lashon, koyom HaRashem, great Panovich Arav that. Where were Avraham and Yitzchak going? They were going to attempt a Nisayun. It was not clear to them they were going up to a mountain to sacrifice the entire future of what is the opposite of what Hashem had said. This entire time, total ambiguity was had. Hashem had promised and all of a sudden, let us go up.

7:27 Let's go up there Because the great, rather astonishing and incredible nature of this tenth and final test is it's totally backwards from everything that had been done until now. And now Avram Avinu is still left with some uncertainty. The commentators discuss how it wasn't, how we think that there was this burning bush episode and there's this clear go save the Jews, like Moshe Rabbeinu had, but rather Rambam and Ramban, at the beginning of the Parsha, discuss about how clear the prophecy was.

8:09 Was it a vision that Avram got to go and do the Akedah? Was it some sort of dream? Did it really happen? Was there some sort of euphoric vision? Did others witness it? The Yalchut goes into detail how it really was unclear that different Nevi'im different not Nevi'im, but scholarly-looking individuals were showing up all studious, long beards and saying you know, it's usher to kill. You can't kill your son Yitzchak. Real tainas about why Abraham should not go to do this great sacrifice, with real weight behind what they were saying, creating real uncertainty and doubt.

8:51 That's what the Panovich Horeb calls show discipline, show Abrahamic faith and obedience to following what God commands, even though you can't answer every question. And that is the greatness of the Akedah that little nagging feeling in the back of our Ramavinu's head that said, wait, maybe this is not exactly what Hashem wanted. I mean, think about it. Hashem has just been promising me all of this and the future of generations. I mean it's going to be over, it's going to be.

9:33 There's no more Jews. It's not Yishmael Fogginess. And don't think it's just a coincidence that the mountain was topped with fog, a great layer of cirrus and cumulonimbus like whipped cream clouds around the top of Mount Myria. Don't think that that fog is just a coincidence. No, the entire godless and greatness of the entire event is all summarized and synonymous with a foggy mountain. Because ko, because the mountain, the place, is an ability to show total subjugation to what Hashem says, even if you're unsure about it, even if everything else tells you no, but if you know deep down this is what Hashem said, even if there's a million questions on it, to still go ahead and perform what needs to be done.

10:43 That's Emunah, that's what's referenced on Tisha B'Av, that's what goes through the kinah, this kai and that kai. It's a specific level of faith that the Avos had reached. It's the obvious level of faith that one is attempting to reach during our gullus, because people have this great error in what Emunah is. You hear people all the time and it bothers me that this happened to me and I missed my exit, but then I thought, because Hashem sent me, that the reason I missed it is I was able to give a hitch to somebody and then I found the money and I was able to return it.

11:35 It's a beautiful story, but that's not living in koi, when we attempt to understand in fataych, which means to go back and, with 20-20 vision and hindsight, and connect the dots as to what Hashem would have meant, must have meant it went like this because Hashem wanted me to do this. That's not. Emunah means a submission to a higher power, and Betachon is that I trust in it and I live by it practically and deliberately.

12:19 Avraham Avinu's entire life he went around shattering idolatry, and the highest form of idolatry is called molech, which is child sacrifice. And here the whole world is going to see him on full display. It seems like he's made this great return to the idolatrous movement of self-child sacrifice. Melech doesn't make any sense. What are they going to say on Fox News and CNN and all across the Mesopotamia during that year? It's going to look backwards, god commanded.

13:02 It doesn't matter what they're going to say, it doesn't matter if and or but, and it definitely doesn't matter if. After the fact, oh but Hashem went and saved me and he really told me that it was going to be like this. That's not what made Avram great and that's not what is the faith. Be like this. That's not what made Avram great and that's not what Neuchadkoi is. Koi is the makom. Faith, even with a million questions, faith in the sense of uncertainty, and faith even when you don't know that you really are choosing right. All you know is that that you really are choosing right.

13:44 All you know is that Hashem said to do it and we comply. That's nilcha ad koy. In the world we live in, we have results that are based on analytics and information. We make sense of things. That's what we do. But it's not as high of a level of faith as when you're pretty sure that it's what you should do and in fact you know it's what God wants of you. But hey, maybe it's not going to look good, maybe it's really not what Hashem wants. It could be this way, it could be that way.

14:28 Ne'elcha atkoi, it's what God said and even though I have questions and I can't explain it, that's an incredible level of faith. It doesn't feel like even the slightest secret as to why the Kabbalists want us to say it every day to remind ourselves of this lesson, and why it is that we actually record this episode and recall it during our Shemona Eshres on Rosh Hashanah, and why we mention it and read it out loud on Rosh Hashanah on the second day. The Akedah stands second to none about its level and lesson of faith, because surely you're aware that while it's impossible, nearly impossible to make that ultimate sacrifice giving up of your life, giving up of the one soul that you have to die, or Baruch Hashem Al Kiddush Hashem to die, the one soul that you have to die, or baruch Hashem al-kiddash Hashem to die, to make that sacrifice, to die because someone says, bow down to an idol and don't believe in God, but you're able to make that sacrifice.

15:32 Well, that's an incredible sacrifice. That's a sacrifice with clarity. You know that this is correct. You know that this is what Hashem wants and while it's next to impossible to take that leap, although it is commanded, it's an even higher level and you can't understand why it is that Hashem would want you to do this. You can't understand why it is that Hashem would want you to do this. You can't understand why this is happening. You don't know why good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. You don't know why innocent people struggle and suffer and you don't know why you missed the turn, and you don't know if this is the right way to be learning, and you don't know if this is the right way to be learning and you don't know if you should be moving there and you don't know if that's all.

16:26 Living in the world of koi, which is the most beautiful place of uncertainty, if you submit that you truly are following what you think god commands of you when god says, go to the Mount of Moriah, mount Moriah, and do what I say, even though it doesn't make sense to you. When you have that clarity, when you know what's been commanded, it's then our job, through the unsureness, the riskiness and unpredictability, to follow through, like Avram Avinu did. It's got to be why the Akedah resonates so strongly with us, because we do have so many questions of faith questions, painful questions, but true Emunah Pshuta, basic, honest Questions.

17:24 Painful questions, but true emunahpshuta, basic, honest, first grade-like, authentic faith. It isn't where you start getting out the calculators and analytics to figure out why it truly is the best and is the best and will end up and could be and like this, but rather who knows, who cares? And I can't answer all the questions, but V'ni V'hanar, nelcha Adkoi, me and my son, we're going to Koi, we're going to that place of uncertainty Because it truly is the ultimate place of bliss and the one place of clarity and peace.

18:05 That's my lesson to you and the lesson that I heard from the great Rosh Yeshiva in the name of the Panovich Arav, don't try to assess every single mishap and why it is good, but rather take what comes your way, like Avram Avino, take it and move forward through it, embrace it and all of its, whether vividness or chanceness, unsureness, behala and fogginess.

18:46 Go with peace to the destination. Nelcha, go Adkal, and, like that, you're following Avram's lead, which is the best possible way that you could go about your business.