Thursday, October 29, 2015
Parshas Vaera: This is where the Messiah Comes from?
11:25 PM | 
Posted by
Rabbi Chaim Coffman |
"And the first born said to younger: "Our father is old, and thee is not a an in the earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth: come let us make our fahter drink wine and we will lie with him that we may preserve seed of our father". (Genesis 19:31-32).
After the destruction of Sedom the daughters of Lot thought that everything was destroyed and there were no men left. Knowing that neither of them had children, they decide to sleep with their father so that the world would continue. We could ask, why didn't they just travel and see if there were other inhabitants? Not only that but one of the children is called Moav whereby Ruth comes out from him many generations later and she is the harbinger of king David five generations later! This absolutely boggles the mind that this is where kingship and the future messiah will come from!
The lack of foresight and understanding of the daughters is incredible. It seems from here that instead of traveling and seeing what the truth of the matter was they would rather get their father drunk, sleep with him and have kids that way. We could look at it though that they truly thought that the world had been destroyed and it was their obligation to have children so the world would be populated even if that meant that they had to sleep with their father.
It could be for this selfless act they merited that the future king of the Jewish people and the messiah who would redeem the Jewish people from their exile! Normally we would think that any discussion of a future king or redeemer would come from the best stock, richest family...but lo and behold he is descended from an incestuous relationship. How can we understand this better?
When the Torah speaks about the people who helped form the Jewish people, it makes clear that even at their high spiritual level, they are somewhat flawed and not perfect. We do see how a person certainly can raise themselves to a higher spiritual level regardless of who their family is!
At the same time time, the ways of G-d are hidden and we humans cannot fathom how He runs the world. It does not mean we have to sit back and just take things as they are but we have to delve into them and try and understand them to the best of our ability.
This can lead us to a tremendous amount of humility knowing that there are things that are beyond our comprehension. At the same time there is an obligation to believe in Him, not just with a leap of faith but through knowledge. This is a major thing that distinguishes the Jewish people from other so called religions!
The difficult part is seeing the chaos in the world and trying to make sense of it. As my rebbe told me if you are happy with the way G-d runs the world 95% of the time the 5% you don't understand you won't understand in 10 lifetimes. You still have an obligation to serve Him even if we don't understand His ways.
In these days before the messiah comes, let us work on our belief in Him and let Him run the world the way He needs to while we serve Him still!
Shabbat Shalom
After the destruction of Sedom the daughters of Lot thought that everything was destroyed and there were no men left. Knowing that neither of them had children, they decide to sleep with their father so that the world would continue. We could ask, why didn't they just travel and see if there were other inhabitants? Not only that but one of the children is called Moav whereby Ruth comes out from him many generations later and she is the harbinger of king David five generations later! This absolutely boggles the mind that this is where kingship and the future messiah will come from!
The lack of foresight and understanding of the daughters is incredible. It seems from here that instead of traveling and seeing what the truth of the matter was they would rather get their father drunk, sleep with him and have kids that way. We could look at it though that they truly thought that the world had been destroyed and it was their obligation to have children so the world would be populated even if that meant that they had to sleep with their father.
It could be for this selfless act they merited that the future king of the Jewish people and the messiah who would redeem the Jewish people from their exile! Normally we would think that any discussion of a future king or redeemer would come from the best stock, richest family...but lo and behold he is descended from an incestuous relationship. How can we understand this better?
When the Torah speaks about the people who helped form the Jewish people, it makes clear that even at their high spiritual level, they are somewhat flawed and not perfect. We do see how a person certainly can raise themselves to a higher spiritual level regardless of who their family is!
At the same time time, the ways of G-d are hidden and we humans cannot fathom how He runs the world. It does not mean we have to sit back and just take things as they are but we have to delve into them and try and understand them to the best of our ability.
This can lead us to a tremendous amount of humility knowing that there are things that are beyond our comprehension. At the same time there is an obligation to believe in Him, not just with a leap of faith but through knowledge. This is a major thing that distinguishes the Jewish people from other so called religions!
The difficult part is seeing the chaos in the world and trying to make sense of it. As my rebbe told me if you are happy with the way G-d runs the world 95% of the time the 5% you don't understand you won't understand in 10 lifetimes. You still have an obligation to serve Him even if we don't understand His ways.
In these days before the messiah comes, let us work on our belief in Him and let Him run the world the way He needs to while we serve Him still!
Shabbat Shalom
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