Parshat Vayeira

Parshat Vayeira

This week we continue to live with Abraham, the father of Judaism. in an
action-packed portion.

One of the most bizarre episodes here is how G-d annihilates an evil cluster
of cities called "Sadom and Amora" through an Angel. But equally as strange;
before sending the Angel He says to Himself....

"Can I conceal from Abraham what I am about to do?" (18:17)

The Torah then tells us in length how Abraham unsuccessfully pleaded and
bargained with G-d for mercy on the cities with no results.

This apparently makes no sense.

First of all, why did G-d HAVE to tell Abraham? G-d is not a person that
HAS to do anything. But secondly, it had no purpose! In the end G-d
destroyed the cities anyway despite Abraham's arguments. And G-d certainly
must have known it was going to come out that way. So why did He have to
tell Abraham.

To understand this here is a recent story.

Three weeks ago Friday afternoon, less than one hour before Shabbat I was
driving back home to Kfar Chabad from Tel Aviv after a successful hour of
putting Tefillin on non-observant Jews in an popular outdoor artsy
marketplace.

It was late and, with no time to waste, I took a bit of a short-cut that was
definitely not a major move, involved absolutely NO danger to anyone, meant
I, and those in my car, would arrive home almost ten precious minutes
earlier. It just meant going over a solid white line.... So I did it!

The policeman jumped out into the street from behind a bush and motioned to
me to pull over.

The spider caught the fly.

I opened the window, admitted my guilt, requested that he dispense with me
as quickly as possible because of the approaching Shabbat and said a Psalm.

He told me to get out of the car, he wanted to check the computer if I had
other offences and by the time I got to his car he was already industriously
writing the ticket.

He looked at my driver's license, stopped writing for a second and said (in
Hebrew), "You are Tuvia Bolton, huh? That name is familiar. Where do I know
that name from?"

"Aha!! (I thought to myself A ray of hope!! He is a human being after all).
and answered as jovially as possible, "Maybe from jail?"

"Jail!?" He looked at me in wonder. "Yes" I replied "Heh heh" I've been
there to read Magilla and light Chanuka lights and put Tefillin on the
prisoners, not as a prisoner myself. Heh heh."

He just looked down and continued writing.

He finished the ticket and turned to get out of his car. "You are from
Chabad, right?"

'Yes, yes!" I said eagerly hoping he would tear up the ticket. But he
didn't.

He got out of his car, stood up and mechanically handed it to me and said,

"I had a big miracle from the Lubavitcher Rebbe. A big miracle."

"Nu" I said to him. "I already have to pay a fine, so at least give me
something to take home for my money."

I knew it would take precious time but I figured that, 1) maybe it would be
a good story and 2) while he was busy telling it he wouldn't be able to give
tickets to anyone else.

"It was twenty years ago, 1986" He began. "I was a motorcycle cop on my
way to save someone trapped in an overturned car when suddenly an Arab from
Gaza slammed into me from the side and flipped me and my bike over a
guardrail into a 14 foot-deep ravine.

"It was a miracle that they got to me in time but my spine and neck were
broken and they thought I'd be paralyzed for life. The doctors operated and
succeed in returning control to the left half of my body but my entire right
side was dead.

"I mean dead, dead. My leg and arm dangled up and wilted until they were
like sticks. The right side of my face with my eye and mouth drooped down
like some monster. And everyone kept telling me how lucky I was.

"This went on for four years. The doctors all said there was nothing more
that could be done so I went to all sorts of seers and fortune-tellers and
wasted a fortune.

"Then, after four years of this our family doctor called and said that he
had read about how there was a operation that might help me being developed
in Germany. It was still experimental but he said that because my situation
was deteriorating and something had to be done fast, that I should try my
luck.

"I contacted them and the operation was scheduled in two weeks.

"The date approached. I was nervous but kept telling myself that anything
would be better than being half-dead. anything.

"Then, a few days later on Friday a friend brought this young Chabad rabbi
to my house. He said that he told him my story and the Chabadnik suggested
that I write a fax to the Rebbe of Lubavitch.

"I told my friend to do me a favor and get him out of my sight immediately.
I had already spent enough money on charlatans, I hated religious people,
couldn't stand the site of them and as far as I was concerned he could jump
in the lake. I wasn't wasting another penny.

"But he explained that he didn't take money and he would even fax it for
free, I agreed. We talked for a few minutes, I got the general idea and
finally I wrote: 'I want health and livelihood, signed my name and faxed it
off from the fax in my house.

"That Saturday night some nine hours after Shabbat my fax rang and rattled,
it was an answer from the Rebbe's office. My wife took it and read aloud
word for word:

"Do not make the operation, it is not necessary. With G-d's help you will
return to work as before"

"I grabbed the letter with my good hand, read it again and saw red! 'This
is who they call a great man?' I yelled 'what a faker! I didn't say
anything about any operation! You know how he knew about the operation?!
It's simple. That young rabbi must have written and told him! That's how!!
It's so transparent! And, what?! He writes that I'll return to work?! It's
a stupid, cheap trick!! He writes it to everyone and if it happens to come
true once in a thousand he squeezes you for money!!!'

"I crumpled the fax and threw it angrily in the trash.

That was Saturday night. Two days later, early Monday morning at about six
a.m. my phone rang. I rolled over, still three-quarters asleep and picked
it up. "Nuuu, who is is?" I mumbled.

The voice on the other end said.... 'this is Eddy from the traffic police,
we're making a new group and we want you to be part of it."

"Just what I need" I said to myself, 'a practical joker first thing in the
morning! I just slammed the phone down and rolled back over to try to
sleep.

"But suddenly I realized that something was wrong!! I had picked up the
phone with my RIGHT hand - the one that had been paralyzed!!

I thought that maybe it was a dream, mabye I was going crazy, but after a
few seconds I realized that.... there was my right hand! I was holding it up
before my face and moving it!!

The phone rang again and I picked it up but this time it took a bit more
time because I watched my hand and couldn't believe what I was seeing.

"Hello! Did you just slam the phone down on me!" Said the angry voice on the
other end. I explained that I thought it was a joke but before I could
finish he told me that if I was interested I should appear in the station on
Wednesday and hung up.

"When I drove to the station it was the first time I drove a car in four
years. All the cops were new there and not one recognized me which probably
explains the confusion of how they called me.

"Anyway, they checked me up, took blood samples and x-rays and told me to
return on Sunday for the results and, to make it short, they accepted me.
That is why I'm standing here now.

"But when I showed the doctor my old x-rays and he asked, "wow, who is this
poor fellow?" I pointed to my name and to myself he almost fell over. He
exclaimed. "I see it but what I see is impossible - on this old picture
there are broken bones and scars from your operations. But on these new
pictures all this is gone! It seems that this Rebbe gave you a new body!

"If anyone asks me" the policeman concluded his story, "I say the
Lubavitcher Rebbe is alive today, this very moment! If he could give me a
new body for sure he's here in his."

The story was so inspiring, especially because I was actually seeing the
miracle standing before me, that I looked him in the eye and exclaimed. "And
just like it was with you, so The Rebbe will suddenly appear and EVERYONE
will come back!" and we hugged each other right there in public!

I stepped back and said. "My friend, I don't know how much this ticket is
but it's worth every penny!!" and he replied with a smile, "ticket? It's a
warning!! A warning!"

I wanted to shake his hand and say something like, 'wow another miracle!'
but when I looked up he was already back in the street with a furious look
on his face pulling someone else over.

Now we can understand why G-d had to tell Abraham about the approaching
destruction.

Abraham's purpose in the world was to 'open the channels' of Judaism and
reveal the Creator in the creation.

He was the first to serve G-d with self-sacrifice, the first to do a G-d
given commandment, the first to spread the ideas that G-d is one, that He
creates, enlivens, provides and cares for each creation constantly, that He
'wants' and even reacts to our prayers, praises and service etc.

But here G-d wanted something else. He wanted Abraham to open an entirely
new channel that would save the Jews throughout the generations and
eventually save even the entire world:

Namely that evil people could be saved in the merit of righteous ones.

It wasn't so important that his prayers weren't answered here. Here Abraham
opened the spiritual channels so that some five hundred years later Moses
could save the Jewish people in the desert despite their sins, the
Lubavitcher Rebbe could save Jews by his own merits and Moshiach will save
the entire world (Prov.10:28) and turn them to worship ONLY the Creator.

So the practical lesson here is twofold. First: it's not so difficult to
bring Moshiach; Abraham, Moses, the Rebbe and all the Tzadikim in between
have laid down the 'telephone lines' all we have to do is just dial. and
second: we can't fail. Every good deed, word or even thought at least opens
another channel to....

Moshiach NOW!

Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad, Israel

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