Lech Lecha: Rav Tzadok HaKohen on How to Overcome Despondency

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Rabbi Daniel Glatstein’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

yasi, they are sitting in a stolen Sukkah and guess where they got it from? They stole it from me. It's mine, give it back. Savcha v'lo ashgach ba'Rav Nachman, she screams, she shouts, Rav Nachman ignores her. Now she's indignant. She says Itza d'hava lei Avuha tlas me'ah v'tamnei asrei avdei Savcha k'ma d'lo ashgach kisu ba She says, you know who I am? You know who you're speaking to? My father had 318 slaves and you're ignoring me. What a disgrace. My father had 318 slaves. How dare you do this to me? Give it back, it's my wood. It's my Sukkah. This is the story brought down Maseches Sukkah daf lamed aleph. And the question is, what is this woman talking about? What's all this chatter about her father having 318 slaves? Who cares? And who's her father anyway? Well, Rashi in Maseches Sukkah explains that she is referring to her great ancestor Avraham Avinu about whom the pasuk says in our parsha perek yad aleph pasuk yad aleph Vayarek es chanichav y'lidei beiso shmona asar u'shlosh me'os that Avraham Avinu had 318 and 18 slaves. In other words, the woman is saying, you know who I am? I'm a descendant of Avraham Avinu. But still her choice of expression is very puzzling. This is how you describe Avraham Avinu, the paragon, ba'al chesed, the man who passed the ten nisyonos or caused them Akeidas Yitzchak, Yitzchak, the Rambam says he had tens of thousands of talmidim. And this is how the woman describes him? He had 318 slaves? Rav boy sai are we missing something? There's a challenge in life that everybody faces

Jump to a moment

1. 0:32yasi, they are sitting in a stolen Sukkah and guess where they got it from? They…
2. 1:36Well, Rashi in Maseches Sukkah explains that she is referring to her great ancestor Avraham Avinu…
3. 3:12the area of shidduchim health our marriage sometimes an issue could seem so bleak that we…
4. 4:21Eliezer says Rashi, is 318. So when the pasuk says he took 318 men, what it…
5. 5:56Aleph is one. Vav is six. Shin is 300. 317. Ye'ush is 317. Avraham said, I'm…
6. 7:31ye'ush. How do you overcome ye'ush? When you recognize that Hashem is at your side. Sometimes…
7. 8:38lost. That's what gives us the strength not to be meya'esh. Ki Elokei avi b'ezri. Ye'ush…
8. 10:16He has a flashback to when he was a young man in the death camp. And…
9. 11:17va'aretz. Yush is not part of the makeup of our people. In one of the death…
10. 12:54the Torah? Did you ever give up hope?" My grandfather responded, "Did I ever lose faith?…

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