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שבת שלום - פרשת וירא
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Video Shiur
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Click play to watch the video shiur by Rav Pesach Wolicki
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News and Notes
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On Sunday the Yeshiva traveled to Ptil Tekhelet for an exciting and educational afternoon.
First the students were shown the process of dyeing the blue tekhelet strings for tzitzit.
They were shown a film that explained how this special dye was rediscovered in recent times.
This was followed by a demonstration of shechita (kosher slaughter) of a chicken and a goat.
The students observed as the shochet skinned, cleaned, and inspected the goat. He explained
the various laws pertaining to each part of the animal.
On Monday, most of the yeshiva joined Rabbi Meir and Gila Arnold at the brit milah of
Mordechai. Mazal Tov once again to the Arnolds.
On Wednesday, the yeshiva was visited by Gift of Life: The Bone Marrow Foundation.
Next week, the entire yeshiva will embark on a three day tiyul to the south of Israel.
This trip should prove to be one of the highlights of the year.
Our Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Scott Kahn continues his recruiting trip in the New York area.
We wish him great success. He can be reached at 347-225-1791.
  
  
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The Blindness of Yishmael & Eliezer
By Rabbi Pesach Wolicki
This week's parashah includes the story of the Akeida - the binding of Yitzchak on the altar by his father Avraham.
The Midrash Pirke de Rabi Eliezer (chap. 31) tells of the journey to the place where this event occurred.
"Yitzchak was thirty-seven years old when he went to Mount Moriah (to be sacrificed). Yishmael was fifty years old. A competition began between Eliezer [Avraham's servant] and Yishmael. [Yishmael and Eliezer were traveling with them as attendants.] Yishmael said to Eliezer, 'Now that Avraham is offering his son Yitzchak as a burnt offering on the altar, I am the firstborn. I will inherit all that Avraham has.' Eliezer responded to Yishmael, 'He has already banished you and sent you out to the desert. But I am his servant, the attendant of his house day and night. I will inherit Avraham.'
The Holy Spirit responded and said, 'Neither of these will inherit.'
On the third day, they reached Tzofim [near Mount Moriah]. When they reached there, Avraham saw the Glory of the Divine Presence on the mountain. What [exactly] did he see? [He saw] a pillar of fire reaching from the earth to the heavens.
Avraham said to his Yitzchak, 'My son, do you see anything on one of the mountains?'
He said, 'Yes.'
He said to him, 'What do you see?'
He said, 'I see a pillar of fire standing from the earth to the heavens.'
Avraham understood that the lad was worthy of being offered.
Avraham said to Yishmael and to Eliezer, 'Do you see anything on one of these mountains?'
They said to him, 'No.'
Avraham thought of them as like the donkey. He said to them, 'Stay here with the donkey.' (22:5) Avraham said to them, 'Just as the donkey does not see anything, so too you do not see anything.'"
The Hebrew word for donkey is "chamor." The etymological root of this word - CHoMeR - is the same as the word for physicality or material.
In this Midrashic scene, Yishmael and Eliezer traveled with Avraham and Yitzchak to the scene of the binding - one of the penultimate spiritual encounters with G-d in all of history. Yet they were not truly with them in the experience. Yishmael and Eliezer were entirely immersed in the physical. They concerned themselves with the potential for material gain from this event. They were "with the donkey - chamor." They were "with the materialism."
For this reason, they could not see. They did not see that there is a pillar of fire that rises up from the earth to heaven; that obedient self sacrifice to G-d creates a powerful connection between heaven and earth. They did not see that service to G-d is a point of contact with Him.
It is interesting to note that the pillar of fire in this Midrash is described as "from the earth to the heavens" and not vice versa. No phrase is more apt as a description of self-sacrifice. Selfless obedience to G-d - epitomized by the binding of Yitzchak - is the vehicle to spiritualize the earth and raise it heavenward. The bestowing of G-d's blessings upon us is not the reason for of our service to Him. We serve Him because we must. We serve Him because we reach heavenward. G-d's material blessings are bestowed upon us as a generous reward for our obedience. This, Yishmael and Eliezer could not see. While they, too, stood before the point of contact between heaven and earth, rather than see the pillar of fire rising to heaven, all they saw was earth.
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