Chayei Sarah Excerpts

חיי שרה

Shabbat Shalom

Our hearts go out to the Pittsburgh Jewish community...We are going to be holding a memorial service on Wednesday...Nobody showed up to shul on time today...Yes. It is when the day school is having it's first basketball game. Some things in life are more important than watching your second grader shoot miss foul shots, Benjamin. Even Bernie isn't arguing...Your generation is wrong. Your lineage is wrong...

(24:17-19) Eliezer asks Rivka for some water she draws and she gives him water and says she will make sure his camels finish drinking, drawing for them too. She didn't say, 'I have to run for me,' 'I have stuff to do.' That is why she is fit to be the mother of our people. She cares about others. She notices others. She takes care of her kin, but more importantly, people in need. Benjamin, wake up. Hear this...Even your sleep is selfish, with your snoring... Your kid doesn't care. Show up late. He won't notice. Brandon is running around the children's services like a mad man right now.

Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (10:2) says that the earliest time to put on Tefillin is when you can see a friend 4 Amot away. In day light, people don't even see me. They don't say 'hi.' They are afraid I will ask them for something. They are probably never putting on Tefilllin. They don't see anybody outside of their 4 Amot. Their life is them. Me. 'What are you doing for me.' Me day. How much Tyra Banks are you watching? How many spa days do you need, before you say 'hi' to other people'? How many days of Brandon, who is right now running around junior congregation yelling 'Me.'

You have no right to practice Mitzvot, to put on Tefillin, until you recognize there are other people. You first recognize that there are others...Your connection to Gd offends me. Yes.

Charlie Sheen's girlfriend shot herself. I don't know the whole story. Just that when it is about you, there is no room in the relationship for anybody else... That is how people die.

Yes we are Jewish. But we make room for others.

Care is important. We go through Yishamel's genealogy (25:12-18). It is important to not just think about yourself. Yes. The Torah mainly focuses on development of the Jewish people. However, it is also important to respect the Yishmael. He has a place in this world. A messed up one. But he has a place.

It even says where they lived. In cities and strongholds...I have no idea what a stronghold is. Maybe it was held up by somebody strong. Strong people built it? Maybe. They lived from (25:18) 'Havilah to Shur.' No place that Yitzchak should take a wife from. Which is why we should not be intermarrying with Yishamel's descendants...If they convert, then OK. But that is not the case with Jack... Your wife is not Jewish. She has her place from Havilah to Shur. 

Respecting doesn't mean marrying. It means acknowledging their place.

'On all of their brothers, they dwelt.' Rashi says that Yishmael would need to expand past their boarders. Yishmael's descendants shall be great too.

Yishamel is everywhere. Sometimes even drawing us to play basketball. They are others and they have their place, but we can't just jump at the opportunity... Because when that happens, they are not just expanding, they are 'on us.' And that is where we lose our sense of truth and purpose and start to think that basketball is life...Yes it is a part of life and an am amazing sport and great way for kids to spend time and get injured...

Time for prayer isn't till you can see your friend, but you can't say 'hello' to them until you pray...You have to join with others, but you have to join in a purpose. See them and serve Gd together...Not your little child who is crazy...Your raising a real tyrant, you know.

You join together in care. In a purpose for the people. And that is why you are all showing up on Wednesday. And you are not talking in the middle of the service. There are other people, and we care for them.
Your 4 Amot are killing the community. They are killing kiddush. Your kid is crazy.