Dvar Torah for Parshat Chayei Sarah

"The life of Sarah was a hundred years and twenty years and seven years..." (Genesis 23:1).

How did Sarah Imeinu (Sarah our Matriarch) die? Satan came to her and told her where her husband and her son, Avraham Avinu (Abraham our Patriarch) and Yitzchak Avinu (Isaac), had gone and for what purpose. "Then Avraham took the knife to slaughter Yitzchak, put it to his throat and then...." Before he could say, "God called out to Avraham to stop," Sarah had a heart attack and died (Midrash Tanchuma, VaYeira 23).

Sometimes a person dies suddenly, of fright or something else. Believe that this was his time.
The Aleph-Bet Book, Sweetening Judgement A:105

Having heard from a number of friends in the USA that people are on edge due to the anthrax scare, I have included this to provide an encouraging word, even though it's not based on any of Rebbe Nachman's writings.

When Eliezer first sat down to dinner to propose the match between Yitzchak Avinu and Rivkah (Rebecca) Imeinu, he sat with her father Betuel and brother Lavan. The next morning, after the match had been agreed to, Betuel did not participate in sending Rivkah Imeinu off. Why? For a very good reason. He was dead. How did he die?

When Eliezer came, Betuel and Lavan saw how much jewelry he had. They wanted to kill Eliezer and take it all, but saw that they could not physically overpower him. So they put poison in his food. In Avraham Avinu's merit the plates got switched so that Betuel ate the poisoned food and died (Yalkut Shimoni #109).

May God protect us from anthrax and all poisons. The poisoners will surely get their just desserts.

In plain English sichat chaveirim means to shmooze with a friend. (A drasha is a long, complex sermon, with a real Yiddish flavor.) One of the tools that Rebbe Nachman recommends for growing in awareness of Hashem (God) is to shmooze about faith, the greatness of the Torah, of the genuine tzaddikim or whatever particular topic in Judaism that strikes their fancy as they speak. Heading north to Meron for Shabbat, my good friend Shlomo L. and I shmoozed about our respective spiritual report cards. In the course of things, the following question came up: Are we really doing as poorly as we think we are? Perhaps we're doing all we're capable of doing and no more is expected of us.

At the Friday night seudah (meal), Reb Noson Libermensh gave the drasha which answered our question. His topic was bitul to the tzaddik. He spoke about Eliezer, who was the slave of Avraham Avinu. The Midrash (Bereishis Rabbah 59:9) tells us that Eliezer was none other than Kanaan, Noach's son, who, because of his mistreatment of his father (Genesis 9:22; Sanhedrin 70a), had been cursed to be a slave.

Even though he was accursed, even though he was a slave, Eliezer succeeded in gaining total control of his yetzer hara (evil urge; Bereishis Rabbah 59:8). What was the secret of his success? He totally sublimated his ego to his master Avraham Avinu (bitul).

Rebbe Nachman told us that if we want, he can make us tzaddikim "like me" (Rabbi Nachman's Wisdom #163, Tzaddik #230). This means, said Reb Libermensh, not that our spiritual insights and spiritual prowess will be as great as Rebbe Nachman's, but that we will always be able to conquer our yetzer hara as Rebbe Nachman did his.

In order to achieve such success we have to be able to honestly identify ourselves as Eliezer did: "I am Avraham's slave" (Genesis 24:34). Are we ready? It's gut-wrenching to sacrifice one's identity and to admit that someone else, another flesh-and-blood human being, has more daat (God awareness) than I. Yes, I know that it is to my eternal advantage to submit myself to such a teacher, to give away my entire daat to him, to be able to say, "I know only what my teacher told me." But am I ready to do it?

Reb Libermensh said the only way to achieve such bitul is to daven (pray) for it again and again and again.

Shortly before he passed away Reb Noson (Rebbe Nachman's disciple) sighed. Why, he was asked. Did he not learn enough? Did he not daven enough? No, he answered. In terms of doing, I'm certain I did all I could. What I'm not sure of is, did I do what I did because the Rebbe told me to do it, or because I thought it was the right thing to do? (Oral Tradition)

agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!