Against All Odds
By Rabbi Shimon Raichik
This week’s parsha Vayeira tells us about the great feast that Avraham made “bayom higamel es Yitzchok”, the day he weaned Yitzchok. The word “higmal” can mean to wean or it can mean to fully develop. There is a discussion about which milestone in Yitzchok’s life was being celebrated. Most say it was the day he reached 24 months, the day he was weaned from his mother’s milk. Another opinion says that it was the day of his Bar Mitzvah when he became fully developed as a man and weaned from his yetzer hara.
The Medrash says that Og had earlier proclaimed that Avraham could not give birth to a child, “Avraham eino molid”. At this celebration some told Og that today we see that what you proclaimed, is not true. Og replied that it doesn’t matter either way because with nothing more than his smallest finger he can squash Yizchok. Hashem said that Og would live a long life. He will live to see 600,000 of Avraham’s children and then they will kill him (by the sword).
The Rebbe explains the context of this Medrash. Og already realized that the success Avraham achieved against all odds in his battle against the 4 kings was due to his emunah. Og was convinced that Avraham’s emunah and its impact was an anomaly, was not transferrable to the next generation and would therefore simply fade away.
Some took notice of Avraham’s success in his education of Yitzchok and told Og to recognize that indeed there would be a continuation into the next generation with Yitzchok following in his ways. Og replied; impossible! He said; “Avraham eino molid” meaning that Avraham does not have the capacity to pass on his emunah in a concrete way to the next generation. Therefore according to the opinion that the celebration was Yitzchok’s Bar Mitzvah they said back to Og, we see clearly that you were wrong and that his emunah is alive and well and impacts this physical world as well!
At that time Og had an all-star image in the culture and represented conventional wisdom. Everyone would look up to his physical might and prowess and believed in his approach as the best way to achieve success in the world. He represented success though might and with force. In the worldview of Og gashmius always trumps ruchnius. Og proud reply to his naysayers was that with my smallest finger, meaning with the weakest of my responses I am able to crush Yitzchok together with his emunah in Hashem, and his silly and unsustainable belief in the preeminence of ruchnius over gashmius.
Hashem said that he was sorely mistaken and that 600,000 physical children after breaking out of Mitzrayim the global force of the time would be travelling through the desert to capture Eretz Yisroel and there he would be killed (by a physical sword). He would not go like the city of Yericho with the sounds of the shofar or like the army of Sancheriv that died when they heard the shira of the malachim by the walls of Yerushalayim. Rather he would go by the physical sword in order to show the power and the tangibility emunah has in everything, including the physical.
We are the descendants of Avraharm Yitzchok and Yaakov, we are the inheritors this emunah. We should never fear the Og’s of this world and with our emunah we will be able to physically live in this world with all of it’s naysayers and make this world a dwelling place for Hashem against all odds. This is what the Rebbe shows us; it’s by being connected to the Rebbe, this gives us the strength to move forward and to win all the battles of galus and reveal Moshiach.