Vayera: Hashem’s Problem

Reb Yosef Friedensohn, z’l, was a Jewish hero, Holocaust survivor, journalist, historian, and man of faith. Metaphorically speaking, he had earned the “seven diplomas” from the seven German “universities” of murder and atrocity, having survived seven concentration camps. Friedensohn, in effect, embodied the indestructibility of Klal Yisrael. As editor of “Dos Yiddishe Vort,” a publication of Agudas Yisroel, Reb Yosef represented Torah values and Yiddishkeit to the world for close to 70 years.

Reb Yosef recounted his memories as a young man in the Warsaw Ghetto, a harrowing description of suffering and hunger, with children roaming the streets, crying for food. He and his siblings also suffered privation, and knowing the cupboards were empty, wondered what they would eat in the morning. However, this was the context for a precious instruction in emunah and mesirus nefesh. “Oif morgen, vet Hashem zorgen,” his father would say, “Tomorrow is Hashem’s concern.” Within their cramped apartment looking down on the pitiful scene below, Reb Yosef’s father would sometimes take the family’s small ration of bread, cut it into pieces, wrap them individually in paper, and drop them from the window to starving Jews below

In this week’s sidrah, at the Akeidat Yitzchak, the test of all tests, the Ribbono Shel Olam continued to measure our forefather’s faith and mesirus nefesh, inner and outer sacrifice. Employing the same language as when Avraham embarked on his original journey, Avraham’s temimus, simplicity, and wholeheartedness is put to the test: “Lech lecha, go to the Land of Moriah, veha’alehu sham le’olah, and bring him up there as a burn offer, an olah, on one of the heights that I will show you” (Bereishis, 22:2).

Of all the korbanos, the offerings brought in the Beis HaMikdash, the olah was unique in that, when placed on the altar, it was fully consumed in the fire. Nothing was left. An olas tamim is a whole offering, a perfect, unblemished gift to Hashem where not a trace is left over. Reb Shlomo Carlebach, zy’a, explained in the name of the Beis Yaakov of Ishbitz, that for Avraham Avinu there was no difference between the first test, leaving his birthplace, and the last one, taking his son up to the altar. It was all one continuous lech lecha, a single process of cultivating temimus (wholeheartedness) with Hashem. When summoned to holiness, Avraham Avinu responded to each calling with his “lecha,” his entire self.

When Yitzchak asked, Ayeh ha-seh l’olah, “Where is the lamb for the Olah offering?” it is clear that the search for temimus had been transmitted, for vayelchu shneihem yachdav, “Avraham and Yitzchak walked together” with all their hearts, fully engaged, completely present. Together, Avraham and Yitzchak went all in on the altar of sacrifice without making cheshbonos, calculations, or letting their own feelings and opinions get in the way.

Rebbe Simcha Bunim of Peshischa imagines the internal debate of Avraham Avinu on the way to Akeidat Yitzchak, and paints a picture of the conversation between our forefather and his yetzer hara, evil inclination.

The yetzer hara appears to Avraham Avinu with the following claim: “Hashem promised that a great nation would arise from you through Yitzchak, your son. After years of waiting, the promise was fulfilled and Yitzchak was born by a miracle. If you go through with the Akeidah, and sacrifice Yitzchak, Hashem’s promise won’t be fulfilled, and then what will become of the Jewish story? What about tomorrow?”

Avraham answered the yetzer hara: “The Ribbono shel Olam told me to sacrifice my son, so that is what I will do. The fact that He made a promise that from Yitzchak there would arise a great nation is His problem, not mine.”

Rebbetzin Henny Machlis, a’h, was a modern Jewish hero, a tzaddekes renowned for her incredible emunah, boundless giving, and acts of chesed and hachnasas orchim, hosting guests. There were many Friday afternoons when the Rebbetzin knew that they would be hosting more than one hundred guests for Shabbos meals, yet they didn’t have the money to buy the food and cover expenses. But the Machlis family was “all in” and Hashem provided.

Over the years, I had the great privilege of spending time with the Rebbetzin, and yibadel l’chaim, the great teacher of Torah, Rav Mordechai Machlis, shlita. In our last conversation, I shared the feeling of being overwhelmed with balancing professional obligations with family commitments, the desire to give to others, and personal aspirations in avodas Hashem. It was becoming more difficult and unrealistic to keep up the pace of giving which he and the Rebbetzin had modelled, and which I had hoped to achieve.

“Emunah means that we believe Hashem is hakol yachol, He can do everything and anything,” replied Rebbetzin Machlis. “If you have done your best and reached your limit in every possible way, it is Hashem’s job to take care of the rest of the situation. He has infinite ways to get the job done.”

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Mesirus nefesh is in our national and spiritual DNA, and we all feel we have our part to do. We just need to remember that we are called upon simply to fulfill Hashem’s will as we understand it, to go “all in” with temimus, and do our best while knowing that the rest is “Hashem’s problem.” n

Excerpted from Baderech: Along the Path of the Torah, forthcoming (Mosaica Press, Elul 5786). 

Rabbi Judah Mischel is Executive Director of Camp HASC, and Mashpiah of OU-NCSY.