The Complete Bible Crash Course: Book of Genesis
00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, director of TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.
00:13 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Welcome back everybody to the complete Bible Crash Course and today, hopefully, we will have the privilege of covering the entire book of Genesis. The book of Genesis is the first book of the Torah. Now, last week we did an introduction to the Torah. We talked about many of the foundations, the principles upon which the Torah is founded on. It's important for us to have that understanding prior to approaching Genesis and Exodus, and Leviticus, and Numbers and Deuteronomy, so we understand the framework upon which everything stands. Now we're going to hopefully be able to see God's messages through the Torah that they're not just, like we mentioned last week. It's not just a book of history, it's not a book of laws, it's not a book of stories or tales or fantasies. It is actually, or a nonfiction. It is a book of guidance. It's a book which is giving us guidance. So now what we're going to try to cover today is hopefully, number one understand the basic framework of the book of Genesis. Additionally, we're going to talk about the seven days of creation, the main characters in the book of Genesis, that's, adam and Eve, noah, abraham, isaac, jacob, the tribes. We're going to talk about the main stories of Genesis, which is creation, the tree of knowledge, cain and Abel. Noah, the flood, the rainbow, the tower of Babel. Abraham, his covenant with God, his purchase of the land. Abraham has tentests, he has these trials. We have Isaac and the binding of Isaac. We have Jacob and his sons, the birthright, the blessings, the dreams, the descent to Egypt, the slavery all begins. So we're going to have a big picture here of what's going on, hopefully by the time we're done today. So the book of Beraeus, the book of Genesis, the book of Genesis is very important for us to know from the onset that we're talking about the family of Israel, the family. We're talking about the creation of the family of Israel, and these are the fundamentals of Judaism.
02:40
There are 12 portions in the book of Genesis and the first two portions deal with the first 2,023 years from the creation of Adam and Eve. Just for frame of reference, so everyone understands what we're talking about. Today we're at year 5,784 from the creation of Adam. We start counting our years, our calendar, our world. We begin to count from Adam and Eve. Scientists say that the world is around for billions of years. That may be true, but not since Adam and Eve. It could be that each of the seven days of creation was a billion years, a million years, who knows how long each day was? Because you didn't have yet a 24-hour cycle till the sun and the moon were around, the sun taking care of the day, the moon taking care of the evening, and each one representing its time period. You didn't have that till the end of Wednesday, the fourth day of creation. But either way, even if you did have, we still do not count our world till Adam and Eve come around, because Adam and Eve mankind is the purpose of creation. God created a world so that mankind can thrive, so that we can overcome our challenges and so that we can become, hopefully, great people who emulate God. So we have 12 portions in this book of the Torah. We have B'raishis, nahuach, lechluchah, vayera, chayesara, toldos, vayetze, vayishlach, vayeshev, miketze, vayigash and finally Vayechi. So the first two portions deal with 20 generations and 2,023 years.
04:48
So the Torah begins with the six days of creation. Day one the heaven and earth. Light is separated between the separation between the light and the dark. Day number two God fixed the skies, the firmaments, split the waters. Day number three the grass, the trees, the vegetation. Day number four sun, moon, stars, galaxies. Day number five the fish and the birds, and then finally, in all the sea creatures and finally, day six, the animals and Adam and Eve, male and female, god created them. The Torah tells us there's male and female. It's an irony, because I've been teaching this class over the past 20 years or so and I've never felt the need to inform people that God created two genders, male and female. Those are the only two genders that God created. What happened on the seventh day?
05:47
Day seven, shabbos, a day of rest. Then Adam and Eve are created in the garden, either placed in the garden of Eden, and they have the challenge of the Tree of Knowledge. God tells them. First commandment, by the way, given to mankind, is that you can eat from everything, eat from everything, enjoy from everything. Second commandment, except for one thing the Tree of Knowledge.
06:21
I just want to stop for a second and discuss why is it important for the Torah to begin with the creation of the world? The world was chaos, there was nothing, it was an abyss and God put it into order. Because the same God who creates everything has the right, because it's his world, to declare who gets what. Rashi, the great commentator Rashi, states that the reason why God begins the Torah from creation is to inform the nations of the world that God has the right to decide who gets the land of Israel. Already, at the first verse of the Torah, we're already dealing with the modern-day conflict of who does the land belong to?
07:16
They're not occupiers in a land. It's not the West Bank. You know why they call it the West Bank Because it's the West of the whole Arabian Peninsula. We have all the way you take from Iran, iraq, syria, jordan and now the West Bank of all that is Israel. No, no, no. It's Judea and Samaria. My dear friends, it's Judea and Samaria. It's our homeland, it belongs to us, it's given to us and we're unapologetic about it. You know why? Because God, the Creator of heaven and earth, he said it's ours and we'll see it multiple times tonight. We'll see it throughout the study, where God promises Abraham and he promises Isaac and he promises Jacob this land will be for you and for your descendants and therefore we're not ashamed of it. Okay, that's the first reason why we have the Six Days of Creation, but I want to point out something else.
08:15
The seventh day, the day of Shabbos, our say just tell us that when you have a very, very special guest that you invite to your house. There are many, many things that you do before they arrive. You make sure all the other guests are all there, you make sure that the table is set. You make sure that all the food is ready. You make sure that everything is ready so that when, if it's a president, if it's a king, whoever it is that's coming to visit that everything is set for them. So when they arrive, it's all. It's all. They're already. God created this world for the final product of creation, which was Adam and Eve, and the product after that that was created was Shabbos. God wants us to celebrate Shabbos. This is a day of unity with the Almighty God, creator of Heaven and Earth, where God says stop everything that you're doing and now just be Stop doing, just be Be here with me.
09:24
You can imagine that I'll tell you by way of a story, a true story. A friend of mine told me that he was in school for psychology and the other psychologist with him went on a cruise and he came back from the cruise. My friend asked him so how was your cruise? He says actually it was eye-opening. The first day of the cruise, everything went well. The second day of the cruise, it became exponentially better. This is what happened between the first day and the second day, he says well, the first day I was busy doing my work on my phone. The second day, my wife said that's it. She stood up next to me, she grabbed my phone out of my hand and threw it into the ocean and now I had no more phone. I had no more distraction, I just had a pleasant time with my wife.
10:20
For the next six days of that cruise, what the Almighty wants us to do is the exact same thing Take your distractions and throw them into the ocean. Now it's just me and you. Hashem wants to spend that time with us. Don't do Be. Spend this time investing in the relationship with the Almighty. The most important day of the year is Shabbos. We have that 52 times a year to invest in our relationship with the Almighty.
10:57
Now just a quick, a couple of pointers. If you see, some of these items on this handout are bolded, there's a reason why I bold them, because it is some things I want to emphasize. Now, adam and Eve what were they lacking that they decided to eat from the tree of knowledge? I mean, they were sitting there in the Garden of Eden. I mean, when we talk about paradise, when we talk about oh, things are so great, we say it's like I'm in the Garden of Eden. Everything is just perfect, unbelievable, perfect bliss in the Garden of Eden. So why did Adam and Eve have to mess this up? Why did they have to ruin the goodness they had? I say just tell us they were lacking gratitude and appreciation.
11:54
Sometimes, when you have so much good, you don't know how good you have it and you lack appreciation. I'll tell you, anybody here ever said about a lottery ticket. You hear all the stories of the people who win the lottery and you're like I can't believe. They all lose their money within two years. They're all done. They owe the $550 million they won in the lottery. All down the tubes, wasted, gone. They talk about one after another, after another. It's like the statistics are over 90% and what do we all say? Just let me have that opportunity. I won't do that, right? You know what people would say to us today oh, you have electricity in your house and you just leave the lights on. I wish I had 10 minutes of electricity in my house. I wish I had fruit sitting in my fruit drawer in my refrigerator. Oh, I wish I had a refrigerator.
13:00
We take it for granted, all the good things that we have, and this is what Adam and Eve failed at in the Garden of Eden gratitude, appreciation. What we need to do to fix that is to constantly thank God, which is why every morning, we begin our prayers with Maudet Ani Hashem. I give thanks to you, I give you thanks for the soul that you've placed within me, for the blessings, the countless blessings that we thank God for every single day. And one more point is that what God also gave Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is free will. Free will is the greatest gift we have.
13:54
God could have made it that they just don't touch the tree of knowledge. They just won't touch it. Oh, they won't desire it. No, you have it there and you have the ability to choose right from wrong. That's a tremendous power that each and every one of us possess. We have the ability to choose, and when we choose, we get the most incredible reward for doing the right thing. It's not that we're forced. It's like for our children. Give them a choice, give them the option, because then, when they choose the right thing, they choose it because it's real. To me. It's because this is my decision, not because my parents coerced me to do something. Okay, now we have the serpent's enticement and we also see the great fundamental principle of reward and punishment Reward for doing good, punishment for doing no good.
14:54
This is a theme you will see throughout the entire Torah, throughout this entire book of Genesis. You will see people who did good got good, people who did no good got no good. That's the way it works. Now we may think how is it possible? Look at this guy he's a criminal, he lives the best life. Look at this guy he's a righteous person, he has a miserable life. How is that fear? It's an age-old question. You know who asked this question. Moses asked this question. Rabbi Akiva asked this question.
15:31
That's not for us to understand what seemingly, of course, there are many answers, given what seems to be good is not always good because we're looking at it in a two-dimension, not in a four-dimension. We're looking at here, in this world. In this world it seems like it's good, but there's another world and that other world is a completely different part of the picture. So Cain and Abel are the first children born to mankind. Cain kills Abel. Cain is cursed and protected. Ten generations pass from Adam to Noah, the wickedness and sin fill the land and God says Hashem regrets what he created and wants to destroy all of his creation. So we mentioned this previously.
16:28
I think it's worthwhile repeating this one point, and that is we know the fundamental principle that you cannot punish someone if you don't warn them. If you don't warn a child that if they run into the street they can be punished by their parent. If you don't warn them, they'll never know. If you don't warn them, they won't know. So how can you punish the people of Noah's generation, the people of the tower of Babel, of the dispersion, the people of Yishmael, of Asav? How can you punish all these people? Till the Torah is given and, by the way, this week's Torah portion, parshash Yisro, which is in the middle of the book of Exodus, we'll get there next week but till 17 portions into the Torah, the Torah wasn't given yet. So how can you punish all of these people for something they were never warned about, they were never told that they shouldn't act in this way? The Torah wasn't given yet.
17:42
The answer is there's something called common sense. The Torah doesn't need to tell you common sense. Common sense is something that God gave you, in innate wisdom, a gift within your mind to understand, right from wrong, the basics of common sense. You don't need a Torah to teach you. The Torah never tells us things that are common sense. Even that which the Torah tells us not to murder or say just teach us. If you look in the commentaries they'll say well, that doesn't really mean don't take a knife and stab someone. That means don't murder someone with words, don't embarrass them in public. Don't steal means don't kidnap or steal someone's thought, intellectual property. That's not so common sense. I'll give you an example of stealing someone's thought. It's called Gnevat Dat.
18:50
So imagine you're a shopkeeper. Your livelihood comes by people walking into your shop and buying gifts. Now you're in San Antonio and you're walking along the beautiful river walk and it's very, very hot and you just want to cool off. So you go into one of the nearby shops and because it's air conditioned, you're just going to cool off a little bit. You're not allowed to do that, because what happens when you walk into that shop? The shopkeeper is very excited to have a new customer. They'll come running over to you and say there's something I can help you with. You'll be like no, I'm just going to look around. You're not really looking around. You don't have any intention to buy anything, you just want to cool off in the air conditioned. That is stealing someone's thought, and it's not so simple. It could be actual theft of their intellect. You're leading them on to something that isn't real, that isn't truthful, that common sense doesn't necessarily teach us that.
20:06
Okay, then we go into the second portion of the Torah, the portion of Noah. Noah was righteous. He contributed morality to the world. He had one flaw, and that flaw was that he didn't do outreach. He didn't go to the people of his generation and tell them you know, you should correct your ways. God isn't happy with what you're doing. God wants to destroy this world. God wants to bring about a flood. He just went about his way, did his own thing, and we'll see soon a contrast between him, noah, and Abraham. Abraham was someone who took the responsibility of his generation and didn't keep it to himself, but rather he ensured that his generation changed as a result of his inspiration. So he built an ark.
21:04
An ark also represents a spiritual world, which is an isolation of an external world. You see, why did he have to be in an ark? God could have figured out a different method for Noah to be saved. Why did he have to be in an ark? Because it's also a parable for our world. Sometimes around us there's a flood of indecency, there's a flood of negativity, there's a flood of negative influences, of immorality, of immodesty, and we have to stay inside and protect ourselves, like that ark of Noah, and not be influenced from the outside influences. He gathered one set of all non-kosher animals seven sets of kosher animals and seven sets meaning male and female and the great flood begins. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights. It took one year for the water to recede and Noach brings an offering to God as thanks for saving his family. And then Noach is commanded with the seven Noachide laws.
22:27
These seven Noachide laws are not only for the Jewish people. They are an obligation for every human being on planet Earth and every human being, as we learned in our Thinking Tomatous Podcast just this Friday. The world will all have to answer whether or not they fulfilled the seven Noachide laws, and they are number one it's in your outline sheet Do not eat a limb removed from a living animal. So an animal needs to be slaughtered before you can eat from that animal. Number two do not curse God. Number three do not steal. Number four do not be sexually immoral. Number five do not murder. Number six set up courts and bring offenders to justice. And number seven do not worship false gods. These are the seven Noachide laws. No one who is not Jewish has to observe all 613 commandments of the Torah. Someone is not Jewish? They're not obligated to the 613 commandments. Only Jews are. However, they are obligated to the seven Noachide laws. And these are the seven Noachide laws that are taught to Noach right after the flood to maintain a level of morality, to maintain a level of minimum status, for the world to not be destroyed again. Now God signs an agreement, makes a covenant with mankind with a rainbow that he will not bring about a flood again.
24:15
Beginning of the 70 nations. Happens why? Because they were unified against God. In the valley of Shinar they built a huge tower to fight against God. God confuses them with 70 languages. The 70 languages of the world today were created then. Imagine they were all building this tower together and they're talking one language. Suddenly the guy turns to the person passing him the bricks. He says to him in a different language pass me the bricks. He says what's gone into? You Just talk like a normal person. And then another person responds in a different language. They're like this is chaos, I'm out of here. And this guy moves to China, and this one moves to Russia, and this one moves to Mexico, and this one moves to…. Everyone moves to a different part of the world where they can live with people who can speak like them. Imagine you're suddenly dropped in middle of Italy and they're speaking Italian. You're like what's going on here? Why does anyone speak a normal language like English, and the same thing with a Russian who will fall into China? They don't speak the same language. And that was the beginning of the 70 languages.
25:33
Ten more generations passed from Noah to Abraham, and then Abraham is the man who discovers God. Abraham was the man who discovers God, monotheism, one God, and he destroys the idols. The Midrash tells us that Abraham's father went to the big, big idolatry show in Vegas. No, not really Vegas, but he went to the modern day in his generation, the ancient day show for idolatry, where they can have all of these different figures and forms that people can purchase and put in their front lawn and they can put all these flowers around them and people can bow down to them. People really served idolatry. So Abraham's dad, Tera, was a big developer in this arena and he went to this show, to the expo, and he tells Abraham do me a favor, if you can, please just watch over all of the idols. And Abraham takes his baseball bat and beats all of these idols, breaks them all to smithereens and leaves the bat with one idol standing holding the bat.
26:59
When Abraham's father comes back, he's like what in heaven's name happened here? What happened here? He says what do you mean? They all got into a fight. Everyone said that they're the God. And he says what are you talking about? They're all God. They're nothing. They're just stones. What are you talking about? They're all stones. You're the one who says that these are gods and you sell them to people. You mean these inanimate objects. They're your God, the ones who can't move, the ones who can't talk, the ones who can't do anything.
27:30
So with that we begin the three portions that deal with Abraham's life Lech, lechah Vayera and Chai Yisara. We deal with the life of Abraham. Abraham discovers God, monotheism, and God calls to Abraham at 75 years old and he makes a promise to Abraham that those who bless you will be blessed and those who curse you will be cursed. And there was a famine in the land and Abraham and Sarai Abraham I was trying to be careful in my notes here that it be Abraham, because the Torah tells us his name was Abraham Till. At the end of this portion, when he had a circumcision, god changed his name to Abraham and Sarai became Sarai. There was a famine in the land that Abraham and Sarai traveled to Egypt with his nephew, lot, sarai is barren. They returned to the promised land that God promised them, that they will inherit this land.
28:32
Abraham and Lot part ways. He didn't like the way Lot was living his life, so he says I want to. This is an actualization of what Noach and the flood and the ark taught us is you stay away from negative influences. He didn't like the way Lot was interacting. So he says Lot, let's just part ways, stay away from negative influences. Lot goes to stone, to Sodom and Gomorrah We'll see that soon. And God repeats his promise of the land that you will inherit. Abraham, you will inherit this land.
29:10
The war of kings Abraham. The four kings win the five kings. God reassures Abraham. Yishma'el is born. The brisk covenant is established that they will circumcise an eight-day-old child and God changes the name of Abraham Abraham to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah. And Abraham has a circumcision at 99 years old and Yishma'el at 13 years old. And this is the reason that Yishma'elites, muslims at least the majority of them give their boys a brisk at 13 years old. They have the circumcision at 13 years old, like their ancestor, yishma'el. There are some who say that that's why you have many terrorists from them. You know if someone did that to you and you at 13. Okay, the promise to Abraham and Sarah that she will have offspring.
30:13
In Parshah's Vayera, the fourth portion in Genesis, abraham is tested ten times. Now if you look in your handout, you'll see the ten tests that Abraham had. Number one Abraham hid underground for 13 years from King Nimrod who wanted to kill him. That was one test. Nimrod threw Abraham into a burning furnace. Abraham is commanded to leave his family in his homeland. Upon arrival, a famine hits the land of Canaan and is forced to leave. Imagine if I tell you to go someplace and then, when you go there, you're meeting just left. Really, come on Right. Avimelech abducts his wife Sarah, the kings capture Lot and Abraham is forced into war to rescue him. Hashem told Abraham that his offspring will suffer under four monarchies, and that's the we're in the fourth. We're the fourth one right now, at an advanced age.
31:15
Avraham is commanded to circumcise himself and his son. Abraham is commanded to drive away Hagar and Yishma'el, which we'll see in this coming week's Torah portion. And then we have Abraham is commanded to sacrifice Isaac at the Akheta. And that's, in this week's Parsha, the 10 trials that Abraham has. Why is it important for God to test Abraham with 10 trials? Our sages tell us Abraham wasn't just a person. Abraham is the founder of monotheism. He is establishing the Hebrews, which became the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. Abraham, where every religion comes from. Abraham, you can't just be the founder of something and not be tested, and you're going to have to show your true colors. You're gonna have to show your commitment, you're gonna have to show your dedication, you're gonna have to show how this is real to you. And therefore, abraham is tested 10 times to show that he is indeed for real in his relationship with God.
32:30
God visits the sick. Abraham just had a circumcision, if you remember, on the third day after circumcision is the most painful day, it's the most challenging day of recovery and God brings out the son from its wrapping and makes it extremely hot. Why so that Abraham not look for guests, that he not look to do more acts of kindness? Now, what did Abraham do acts of kindness for, say? Just tell us that Abraham wanted to emulate God. He says look at God.
33:07
God is benevolent, he's kind, he's giving, constantly giving, even to those who sin against God. He doesn't turn off the faucet of kindness. He says you know what? One day he'll repent, one day he'll do good deeds, one day he'll come back to me. He continues to bestow kindness upon them. Abraham says I need to do the same.
33:30
But Abraham added a little twist to it. The people would get up after they finished a lovely meal at Abraham's kitchen and Abraham would say would you like to pay for that? They're like pay. I didn't know I had to pay. How much is it? He says no, no, no, not to me. I have to pay to the Creator of heaven and earth. He has to give thanks. He fed you, he sustained you, he maintains your fulfillment Like tell me more about this God. I want to know more. And that's how he was able to successfully convert his generation. He got a generation of followers where they were like in awe of Abraham. They saw his kindness. And then Abraham didn't take the kindness oh, I'm such a great guy, give me thanks. No, give thanks to the Creator of heaven and earth. Everything is his.
34:26
So God visits the sick, he visits Abraham, abraham's hospitality for the pastors by the three angels who come. One comes. Why were the three? Each one came for a different mission. One was to heal Abraham, one was to reveal to Sarah, to Sarah, that she was going to have a baby by that time next year. And the third came to destroy Saddam. So the promise is revealed to Sarah that she's going to have a child. Now again, Abraham was promised that he was going to have offspring from Sarah last week, but Sarah didn't have it revealed yet. She didn't know.
35:01
Yet Abraham negotiates for Saddam. He says if there are 10 righteous that's what it comes down to 50 is 45, 40, 30, 20, 10. If there's less than 10, less than a quorum which is why we have a minion in our synagogues we pray with a quorum of 10 adults, because that's the amount of people that's overwhelmingly influential in the eyes of God, of righteousness. On the side of righteousness, saddam is destroyed. Lot, however, is saved and Sarah is abducted later by King Avimelech. Avimelech appeases Abraham and gives him a tremendous amount of wealth. Isaac is then born. Haggar and Yishmah are sent away because, again, sarah is concerned about a negative influence. We see that Abraham distanced himself from Lot, who was a bad influence. He now distanced Haggar and Yishmah, who were a bad influence on their son, isaac, the Akheda.
36:11
Then the binding of Isaac happens, and this is a human sacrifice. The idea, the concept of being ready to let go of our flesh and blood for our commitment and dedication to the Almighty God, tells them to stop. Don't actually sacrifice a human being, but the idea is for there to be an equivalent of a self-sacrifice, which is why we give charity as an atonement. We give an offering that would be brought to the temple would be an atonement, instead of this being me being sacrificed on the altar. It is my animal, my possessions, being brought on the altar.
36:53
The fifth portion is Partius Chai Esara. It begins with the passing of Sarah. She was at 127 years old. Abraham eulogizes her and buries her in his newly purchased land. He buys this land at a very exorbitant price of 600 silver coins. Abraham directs Eliezer, his servant, to search for Isaac's wife. Rebecca appears. Rebecca's laban's sister. The kindness that he sees at the well demonstrates that she is the right wife for Isaac. Isaac marries Rebecca.
37:36
Three miracles return to the home of Sarah Number one, the challah, number two, the candles, and number three, the cloud. What was it? The challah stayed fresh from week to week, the candle stayed lit from Shabbos to Shabbos and the clouds of the Almighty was resting above their tent all the time. Abraham has six more children from Hagar, who now became Ketura. She changed her name. This is an important thing for us to know. Names mean something. Names don't just happen. When you call someone a name, that name has power, which is why the Talmud says don't call your friend with a nickname Nicknames you have to be very careful. It can change their spiritual DNA, so to speak, because their name is their DNA. And Abraham dies at 175 years old and is buried next to his wife Sarah.
38:41
The six portions Parishas told us, and the sixth portion talks about the life of Isaac Rebecca is barren and becomes pregnant. She has two boys in her belly, jacob and Esau, and this is the battle of the two worlds. We mentioned this previously that God created the heaven and the earth, the light and the dark. We have the ark inside the ark and outside the ark. We also have the battle of the two worlds, the world of Jacob and the world of Esau. The world of Jacob is the world of we talk. The world of Esau is we fight Jacob, we talk, we use our words. Esau, we use our hands. These are the two worlds the physical world versus the spiritual world. Jacob and Esau are very, very different.
39:52
Esau sells his birthright for lentil soup, Jacob gets Isaac's blessings and Esau's hatred for Jacob is instilled for generations. We are say just teach us that it is the nature of this world, it's a law in the nature of this world that Esau of Sone, esiachov, esau, hates Jacob. And these are the nations of the world that despise the Jewish people. You wonder what goes on in people's mind in the Hague, what's going on in people's mind around the world where they're saying from the river to the sea, in free, free Palestine. You know, it's very ironic because they don't know that Jews like free. It's like free, free Palestine. Oh, we'll take a couple of them right. And it's like the Ten Commandments, like God says who wants my Ten Commandments? You're just like, how much is it? It's free. Okay, I'll take ten of them. I know it's not a good slogan for them, I don't get it Either way. The hatred is instilled forever. Rebecca tells Jacob to flee to Lovins house and the admonition to marrying a Canaanite is in Parishas Taldos and Isaac is then blind.
41:11
The seventh portion talks. Seventh and eighth portion talk about the life of Jacob and again, from Lech Lecha to the end of the book of Genesis is a total of 286 years, and these are four generations Abraham, isaac, jacob and then the tribes, the twelve tribes. So now we're talking about the Yates and the Yishlach, which is dealing with the life of Jacob. Jacob travels, the first fundamental principle you need to know. We say Vayet, yachov, and he left. Where did he leave? To when is he going to Say? Just tell us. There are no vacations as a Jew. That doesn't mean we can't enjoy a good break, but the idea is even. The break is meant for a purpose. We're always on a mission. We're always needing to focus on what and how are we getting closer to the Almighty? Jacob has a dream. Jacob right, we know that he was traveling. And he, he Vayivka, bamakom, vayol and Shum. He arrives at the place. What's that place? That's the place of the Holy Temple, known today as the Temple Mount. That's where two of our temples stood, where the third will very soon be rebuilt. And we know that Jacob had a dream where there was a ladder that went all the way up to bear Sheva and there were angels going up and down. We'll remember that story. That's in this week's partial partial, the Yatesi.
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Jacob meets Rachel. Jacob contracts to marry Rachel, but it's deceived. Leah is substituted for Rachel. Rachel gives the codes and One of the greatest things ever in the history of this world is that selfless, that selflessness that Rachel demonstrated for her sister Leah. She knew that Leah would be walking down the aisle instead of her and Leah would get down to the hopa, to the canopy, and Jacob would lean over and say what are the codes? And she was Gonna say I don't know what you're talking about. And late Jacob would say you see, I knew, laban, you're a monster. I knew you would trick me and you would try to swap my wives, right, and what happens? Rachel avoided Leah having that embarrassment and that shame. Or say, just say that all of our Ancestors were crying and saying that the Messiah should come in their merit. And God says to Rachel mean he call a Chmibachi. You can stop crying, rachel. You know why. Kiyeesh Sahar lipilo below the pool of safe. There is a great reward for what you've done, the reward that you didn't allow your sister To be embarrassed and ashamed in public. You saved her of that humiliation. The reward for that is that the merit of Messiah will be for your actions. So Rachel gives the codes and Jacob works another seven years for Rachel's hand in marriage and Then they leave Laban. After 20 years he marries the concubines Bill and Zilpa, and he has 12 sons, the 12 tribes. We're ovein, shimon levy, you who'd a, you saw her. Zavulun of Leah Don and aftali from billah God and usher from Zilpa and Yo safe and soon to be Benjamin. Benjamin wasn't born yet from Rachel.
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The next portion is partial space. Oh, and we have. Jacob appears for war with military and prayer. He's about to meet asaf and Before he meets with a soft, he struggles with an angel. It says that he meets this angel and it's at the time of it's at the time of dawn. So you can't see so clearly yet. It's not yet light outside. What happens when you have light? It's easy to see, you have clarity. But there are times in our lives where it's a little bit dark, it's a little bit cloudy, we're not able to see clearly, and that's the time when the angel tries to entice us with negativity. He tries to To harm us when we're weak. And that's one of the things we need to learn from Jacob, where he fought the angel with all his might. He meets with a soft and then they part ways. Don't forget he gave him gifts, he prayed and he prepared for war, which is what we always need to do. We need to prepare gifts, try to appease our enemy. If that doesn't work, you pray, you always pray, but then if there's no more last resort other than war, then that's what we do.
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They arrive at shechem, dina is abducted, and then shimon and levy make a false treaty with the people of shechem and After three days they say you know, because they, in their agreement they told the men Circumcised so that your men can marry our daughters, our daughters can marry your men, etc. Etc. And our men can marry your daughters, but first you have to circumcise. On the third day, shimon and levy go out and kill the entire city of shechem, today known as Nablus, and then Rebecca dies. As Benjamin is born, rachel dies and Then Isaac dies. A lot of things happen at the end of parishes. For ishla, isaac dies at 180 years old.
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Rachel chooses not to be buried in the cave of the doubles. The doubles were Adam and Eve, abraham and Sarah, now Isaac and Rebecca. But Rachel says I want to be buried along the way Derek base lachem. Why? Because she says, when the Jewish people are going to be exiled and head to Babylon, they're gonna pass right by this road. I want my tombstone to be a place for their prayers so that they always know their mother is there for them At their lowest, most difficult time. I'll always be here as a place for prayer. Very interestingly, when I went to the tomb of Rachel, I try to go every time I go to Israel. I try to go because our mother, it's the only place that was created for prayer. You see, there are many places that are holy and very auspicious for prayer, very powerful, but there's no place that was created just for prayer, except for Rachel's tomb. She says I want to be buried here so that they have a place to pray, and it's an exceptional privilege and an opportunity to go and visit our patriarch, our mother Rachel.
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Then we begin the final four portions of the book of Genesis and we talk about Joseph and the brothers. Joseph has the dreams Excuse me, joseph has dreams. He dreams about the stars, that the stars bow down. 11 stars bow down to one and the 11 sheaves of wheat bow down to the 12th. He's the favorite son of Jacob. He's the first born to the favored wife, rachel. Joseph gets a beautiful coat, a tunic, and the brothers hatred to Joseph intensifies. Joseph is thrown into the pit, joseph is sold to the Egyptians, to the pastors by.
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And then we have the sudden story of Judah and Tamar, where Judah ends up being with his former daughter-in-law, tamar. His son died and she was left a widow. So the next son, er, was married to her and Er died. So Onon married her and Onon died. So now she was just a widow and she went back to her father's home. She heard that Jacob was, that Judah was coming to town. So she had a prophecy that her descendant would be the Messiah and would come from a descendant of Judah. So she found it right to be with Judah, to seduce him. And she was. And then Judah found out that, but she didn't disclose her identity. So then Judah found out that she was pregnant and Judah held a court case, that she had an affair, and she didn't correct him and say, oh, that was actually you. She had his staff and she said, whoever staff, this is, my pregnancy is from him. And Judah, to his credit in the Torah, admits, admits his guilt. He admits his guilt and part of the greatness of Judah is that he was able to admit his guilt. He didn't hide it and say no, no, that wasn't me, never happened. No, no, no, that was actually me. And it's actually shown in the Torah as a sign of greatness.
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Joseph is then in Egypt. Joseph is is then dealt a story with the wife of Potiphar. She tries to seduce him and he says, no, so she. So he is then imprisoned and then he starts interpreting the dreams for the cup beer and the baker. Remember that Joseph tells the cup beer the butler, when you go back to the king's palace, remember me says those two words remember me. And therefore he was punished to two more years in prison for not having the proper faith and trust in the Almighty to redeem him and to save him. He instead was putting his faith in the butler.
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The next portion, precious Me Cates begins with Pharaoh's dreams. And no one can interpret Pharaoh's dreams properly. So then, two years later, that butler says oh Pharaoh, I remember there was this Jewish boy in the prison. He was able to interpret our dreams, he might be able to interpret yours. And Joseph interprets the dreams that they were going to be seven years of total prosperity and seven years of famine. And this is my proof that every person should invest in a savings account, because Joseph taught them, you're going to have seven good years and then you're going to have some seven difficult years, seven years of famine, and if you don't save up during the seven good years for the seven bad years with your savings account, it could be difficult. So it's an important lesson. He's taken out of prison, joseph becomes the vice Roy of Egypt overnight and there is a massive famine in the land and Jacob sends his sons down to Egypt.
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The brothers bow to Jacob, fulfilling the first dream, and then Joseph gives them a tough time. He asks them you guys are spies, what are you doing here? Why are you in this land? Why have you come? Mainly giving them a hard time of why they were in. Why were they coming in ten different doors of Egypt, ten different entrance ways, or say, just tell us, they were looking in the marketplace. Maybe our brother is there in the marketplace someplace, not realizing that Joseph.
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And that's why they couldn't recognize Joseph. When they see they're standing in front of Joseph and they couldn't recognize him, what do you mean? They couldn't Because he had a beard. Now, come on, give me a break. You can show me anybody who has a beard at the age of 50. You show me a picture when they're 20, even though they'd never be bearded, they still look alike. They still look the same. What do you mean? They couldn't tell that they didn't believe in him. They didn't believe in his greatness and what he was capable of. They were looking in the marketplace. He's probably some loser, some beggar, some schlepper in the marketplace. That's what they were looking for. They didn't realize the greatness of Joseph.
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And then they return home to pick up Benjamin. Joseph tells them I want to see your youngest brother, go get your youngest brother. They try explaining. Well, you got on this stand. We're already missing one of our brothers. They're talking to him. We're already missing one of our brothers. Now you're asking us to get us our last one, which is from the favored wife of our father. It's going to be a very difficult task. He says go get him. He sends them with a tremendous amount of food and the message to bring his brother, benjamin. Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers then and Pharaoh joins the welcome and Joseph sends gifts to his father and Jacob journeys down to Egypt. Now again, for Jacob this is a great festive moment, but it's also the beginning of the enslavement of the Jewish people in Egypt, what's going to be a very long and bumpy 210 years of slavery in Egypt. A total of 70 descendants went down to Egypt. Jacob meets Joseph and he meets with Pharaoh.
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Jacob becomes blind and then there is no space at the end of the portion. You know, every portion is separated by a bunch of spaces, empty spaces, so that it can separate between each portion. Between each book of the Torah there's four lines, but between the portion of Vayigash and Vaychih there's no space. It just goes right into the next portion. Our sages tell us that. Those spaces, what are they there for? They represent the time that Moses took when he was dictating. God was dictating to Moses every word of the Torah.
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Moses was writing it down when he got to the end of a portion, moses would take a break and say I just need to think this over and understand it and comprehend what I'm writing here. But when the Jewish people descended to Egypt, moses said there's nothing to think about here, there's no way they can ever get out on their own. Nothing for me to think. It's only emunah, it's only trust in Hashem that can get them out. And therefore it's not the thing. Let's continue. An important lesson for us to understand that sometimes we're in a jam and a pickle. You're like you know something, hashem, there's no way for me to get myself out of this. It's only you. Let's just move on, let's just understand. Let's just go further and continue to serve Hashem.
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And now we begin the final portion in the book of Genesis, and the final portion deals with Jacob. On his last day of his life, jacob requests a burial in the land of Israel. He wants to be buried with his father Isaac and with his grandfather Abraham, with his mother Rebecca and his grandmother Sarah, and soon his wife Leah, who's going to be buried there as well. Jacob gives blessings to all of his children. Interestingly, he says Bechah, yivorach, yisrael, through you, the children will bless their children. He's referring to Ephraim and Manasseh.
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Ephraim and Manasseh were the two sons of Joseph. When he blesses them, we know he crosses his hands, he puts his right hand on the younger brother, yisim Cholochim Ke Ephraim Bechim Manasseh. God should bless you like Ephraim and Manasseh. But Manasseh was older. So why did Ephraim get precedence? He got the right hand and he got the name first. And Joseph starts to correct his father. He says I know what I'm doing. He's going to be bigger. He's going to be greater and therefore I'm giving him precedence over his older brother. But every time we bless our children, we bless our children. They should be like Ephraim and Manasseh.
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Let me ask you a question. We did Ephraim and Manasseh grow up? They grew up in Egypt. Joseph was in Egypt. So what in the world are we blessing our children to be like the children of Joseph who grew up in Egypt? Shouldn't they be like the righteous people who lived in the land of Israel, the people who grew up in the house of Jacob, learning Torah, studying all day? No, they should be like Ephraim and Manasseh, who grew up in Egypt. Say just tell us that we're also going to be a people who are going to be in exile throughout the Jewish history. It's a minority of years that the Jewish people are actually in our homeland. The majority of the time we're out and about wandering Jews around the world. We're going to have a lot more similarities to Ephraim and Manasseh, who were like travelers around and yet they maintained their Judaism, they maintained their Jewishness, they maintained their Jewish pride and the Jewish customs and the Jewish laws, notwithstanding the influences that were around them.
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That Jacob says. I want my children, my descendants, to be blessed through them. Why? Because they represented what it means to stand up to trials, to challenges. That is what we're about. We're not about smooth sailing. Let's just live in our little stettle in Israel and we don't have to worry about anything we're out and about in the world. It's going to be a challenge for us to observe. It's going to be a challenge for us to keep kosher. It's going to be a challenge for us to pay tuition for our children to go to Jewish day school. But we're blessed by Jacob to be like Ephraim and Manasseh that, even though they grew up in Egypt with all of the Egyptian culture, with all of the Egyptian idolatry and all of the Egyptian wealth, they didn't get carried away by that and they maintained their Jewishness.
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Jacob dies and is mourned by all of Egypt. Of course we know that Jacob blessed all his children prior to dying, not only to his grandchildren Ephraim and Manasseh. Joseph receives permission for burial to bring his father to the land of Israel and the tribes bury Jacob in the land of Canaan. Joseph reassures his brother and makes them promise to bury his bones back in the land of Israel and Joseph dies. That concludes the first book of the Torah, the book of Genesis. We have, in summary, the first two portions dealing with the first 20 generations, from Adam and Eve all the way till Abraham, and then we have the next one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten portions dealing with only 286 years, four generations from Abraham till the end of the tribes, till Joseph passes away.
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Next week, god willing, we will continue on to the next portion, next book of the Torah, the book of Exodus, the book of Shamos, where we see the Jewish family now becoming a nation. It's not just the 70 descendants of Jacob that go into the land of Egypt, but now they become a nation of Israel, they become a people, they get their Torah, they have commandments. They have ups and downs, like we will see as the theme of the Torah, that we're always going to be challenged. Hashem should bless the soul that. It's not enough to just know the Torah. It's not enough to just come to a Bible crash course and learn one of the books of the Torah. That's great.
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I commend each and every one of you for being here tonight online in person, watching this, listening to the podcast. It's much more than that. We have to make the Torah hours by hours. I don't only mean reading it, which should be the first level Read through the Torah, read it, own it but then to integrate it and make it part of our lives. That the challenges of Abraham, isaac and Jacob, sarah, rebecca, rachel and Leah, joseph and the tribes and Moses and Aaron. That's our challenges too, and we should learn from what they went through to perfect our lives the best we can possibly do it Every single day. Hashem should guide us. Hashem should succeed our way. God willing, fulfill the entire Torah every day of our lives. Amen, any questions?
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The reason they went back to Egypt after burying Jacob and Israel in the land of Canaan is because Pharaoh said I give you permission to go and come back. Also, they felt a responsibility for the rest of the Jews that were there. We have to understand that there are already many aside for 70 that descended, there are already many, many more that were born and living now in Egypt and if they wouldn't go back, you would have half the people there. Half the people there would be a mess. The Jewish people need to be united and unified in one place. Any other questions online.
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But they didn't crystallize that as being there's one God, monotheistic, one God creator of heaven and earth. They're like there are many forces, there's also God, there's many powers, but no one who is ready to clear outright there's only one God in this world, and everything other than that is idolatry. Everybody knew it in concept. Abraham actualized it. We see that even in the laws of finance what nobody knows, what Morgan Stanley knows, but he actualized it. He actually built a company. Everyone knows the concepts. He did it. Elon Musk is the modern day the only guy who can make a rocket that goes to outer space? No, nasa has billions and billions and billions and billions and billions and billions of dollars since 1960 that they're investing $5 billion a year at least. He, with $25 million, beat all of NASA, how Everyone talks he does.
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Abraham was a doer. I'm not comparing, god forbid. Yes, oh, it's an excellent question. Excellent question how did Noah know what the kosher animals were versus the non-kosher animals? How did he know the Torah wasn't given yet? The answer is as follows the Torah is the blueprint of the world. Torah wasn't only the document given to the Jewish people in the 17th portion of the Torah, it precedes the world. The wisdom of Judaism is not just the wisdom Just by the way. I've showed this before. I'll tell you one of my favorite things about Judaism is the hidden secrets that most people don't know about. I'll tell you something amazing about kosher versus non-kosher.
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Here in this book they have illustrations to show us about this. So a kosher animal we know it has split hooves and chews its cud right, very nice. What does that mean? Just a random animal that God decided to have split hooves and chews its cud. What is that Like? What's so unique about that?
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So they found, they did studies and I can show you here some. They found that kosher animals are slaughtered on the bottom of its neck and that the main arteries that go deliver oxygen to the brain of the animal by a kosher animal are at the bottom of the neck. By a non-kosher animal they're split, some in the middle of the neck and some at the top of the neck. So if you were to take a non-kosher animal and slaughter it the way the Allah says to slaughter it, it would suffer a miserable death. Because where is the? It has the images right here, so amazing. But when a kosher animal is being slaughtered at the moment, it is being here we go, here we go. He brings all of the shows over here. A kosher animal like a cow in a bull, and it has the arteries right here in the front of the neck. Here's a pig it has up here and up here and over here. You see that. So the suffering that the animal suffers a non-kosher animal is excruciating pain. A kosher animal doesn't feel any pain whatsoever. It's slaughtered and boom, it's down, done. It never got the message of pain. That's the incredible, incredible gift.
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But now to answer your question sure, sure, sure, the name of the book is the Coming Revolution. Science discovers the truths of the Bible. So to answer your question is that it's embedded into mankind, into the world the Torah. If you didn't have a Torah, you could still learn the Torah, the Talmud. We're actually going to do this soon in our Thinking Talmudist series. What would we know if the Torah wasn't given to us? It says you would learn modesty from a cat. You would learn hard work from an ant. You'd learn meidos, characteristics, character traits from all the animals. Excellent question Not proselytizing.
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We're not going to proselytize and we're not going to frighten people convert to Judaism or else. But we're trying to do exactly to give people a sense of belonging, to give people a sense of hope, to give people an understanding that God loves us and God wants us close to Him. That's what it's all about. Absolutely yeah. The Ram Bam says that anybody who wants to be a noachai. It's not enough for them to just say that I'm going to observe the seven noachai laws. They also have to stand in front of a court and denounce all idolatry and accept the laws publicly. So it's not enough to just say, well, I'm just going to do this with my own family. They have to publicly denounce all idolatry and accept upon themselves the performance of the seven mitzvahs. All right, my dear friends, drive safely, have a great evening. Thank you so much for coming. God willing, next week on Tuesday night at 7.30, we continue with the book of Exodus.
