Parshat Toldot with Reb Chaim Kramer

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in BRI Breslov: The Breslov Research Institute’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

Shalom Aleichem. Welcome to the Breslov Parshah. This week is Toldos - very interesting Parshah in many ways. It starts off, "These are the children of Yitzchak." Who are the children? Rashi says, Yaakov and Esav. Right? Even the best of families - Yitzchak - could have a child Esav. It happens. It’s called "off the derech" - they’re off the path of recognizing HaShem. So, the Torah begins that Yitzchak was 60 years old, Rivka was 23, and they had no children. Rivka was barren. So, they went to Shem and Ever. Shem was the leading tzaddik at that time, the son of Noach. And he said, "You will have two different tribes, two different people, come from you. One is Yaakov, and one is Esav." And this tells us that no matter how great a tzaddik you are, no matter how righteous you are, there are times when your children could turn out excellent, like Yaakov. And unfortunately, they can turn out like Esav too. It doesn’t depend on your mitzvos. It doesn’t depend on your merits. It depends on the makeup of the child - the soul that they have. Now Esav was considered very great. Very great because, well, in him were all the souls of the converts that were going to come to Israel - become Jews. And yet, he decided he wants only this world. He wants all the power and the desires, the foolishness that takes place in this world. Now later on in the Parshah, Yitzchak tells Esav, "Go out

Jump to a moment

1. 0:03Shalom Aleichem. Welcome to the Breslov Parshah. This week is Toldos - very interesting Parshah in…
2. 0:42called "off the derech" - they’re off the path of recognizing HaShem. So, the Torah begins…
3. 1:47like Yaakov. And unfortunately, they can turn out like Esav too. It doesn’t depend on your…
4. 2:21the souls of the converts that were going to come to Israel - become Jews. And…
5. 3:22with Esav’s desires. Esav wanted this world. But Yitzchak, who was not really fooled by Esav…
6. 3:59that if he blesses Esav, Esav will have the wealth and the possibility to support Yaakov,…
7. 5:07so on and so forth - he’s going to need material wealth too. So that’s why…
8. 5:44in this world. And that’s what happened to Esav. He has this world. It may not…
9. 6:52a person sheds for spirituality, to come close to HaShem, to experience HaShem, to feel HaShem…
10. 7:30the coming of Moshiach, the building of the Temple, and the eternal life, Amen VeAmen. Thank…

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