Welcome to
our daily bitachon. We are talking about Sha'ar HaBechinah and
the responsibility for those people that recognize God to share with those that
don't, because we're supposed to make God beloved upon others. That's what all
people try to do. As we said, if you love someone, you want the rest of the
world to love them as well.
In the
source for this, said the Rambam, was Avraham Avinu, who's called
Avraham ohavi, Avraham the one that loves me. There's a beautiful
Rashi that brings this out and something beautiful that you could think
about every day in your amidah three times a day.
בראשית כד ג,
Avraham is talking to Eliezer and he says, v'ashbiacha, I
want to make you swear by השם אלקי השמים ואלקי הארץ, the God of the heavens and
the God of the earth…... So who is the God that he makes them swear by? The God
of the heavens and the God of the earth.
A few pesukim
later, pasuk zayin, Avraham says, Hashem Elokei hashamayim,
Hashem, the God of the heavens, that took me out of my father's house.
So why now is God referred to only as the God of the heavens, not God of the
earth? Rashi explains that originally when Avraham was born, when
he was taken out of his father's house, he was only Elokei hashamayim.
He was the God of the heavens; nobody knew him down here. So, when he's going
back in history and telling Eliezer, the God that took me out of my
father's house, that was the God of the heavens.
When he's
talking to him now in real time, when Avraham already made his change in
the world, he now became the God of the heavens and the God of the earth. Why,
says Rashi?
שהרגלתיו בפי
הבריות. I made him common in the mouth of people. I made him known.
The world
knew of God because of Avraham. But beforehand, his name was not known
in the world. So our father, Avraham, was the first one that made God
the God of the earth.
Based on
this, the Da'at Zekeinim on this spot adds a beautiful thought. He's
bothered by a question that everybody asks, which is, the first, let me give
you a minute of introduction. In order for a bracha to be classified as
a bracha, it has to have the words Hashem,
Elokeinu, Melech ha'olam, three things: God, who is the one in
charge, and he is the king of the world. If you don't have that, it's not a
blessing.
Now,
sometimes, I can have a blessing like אלקי נשמה שנתת בי doesn't start with
that, but it's next to asher yatzar. That's why we want to put those two
blessings next to each other. When you have a blessing next to another
blessing, it doesn't have to have that. Now, ata kadosh in the amidah
or ata gibor in the amidah doesn't start.
Well, it's
next to the first bracha. But hold on. The first bracha of the amidah
is Elokeinu v'Elokei avoteinu. We have Hashem, we have Elokeinu,
but where's Melech ha'olam? Answers Tosafot, that by saying Elokei
Avraham, by saying the God of Avraham, that's the equivalent of Melech
ha'olam, because Avraham made God Melech ha'olam.
He made him
king of the world. So therefore I don't have to say king of the world. God of Avraham
is the equivalent of king of the world. Very nice.
The question
is, but why not say Melech ha'olam? Just say Melech ha'olam. Does
it hurt? I have to say Elokei Avraham? Says the Da'at Zekeinim an
unbelievable answer. He says that we want you to know that at the beginning
when Avraham came onto the picture, there was no Melech ha'olam.
He wasn't known by the world.
There was no
recognition in the world of God. And therefore, the only way to express is Elokei
Avraham. It's the God of Avraham, because through Avraham,
the world knew what God was.
Rav Yeruchem
Levovitz applies this to a Midrash Rabbah in Devarim, parsha
three, section three, which tells the following story.
About Rav Shimon
ben Shetach, he bought a donkey from an Arab, and his students noticed that
there was a precious stone around the neck of the donkey. So, the students were
all excited and they said to him, ברכת ה' היא תעשיר, the blessing of God makes
one wealthy. So look, God blessed you. Rav Shimon ben Shetach says, חמור
לקחתי, אבן טובה לא לקחתי.
I bought a
donkey. I didn't buy a jewel. Go and return it to the Arab. They brought it
back to the Arab, and the Arab says, ברוך השם אלקי שמעון בן שטח.
Blessed is
the the God of Shimon ben Shetach. That means this Arab, through the way
of Shimon ben Shetach acted, he appreciated God. And that's something
that we all can do. We can all make people say, wow, this is the God of this
person.
That
reflects on who God is if this person acts this way and that's his God. And
that's what Avraham Avinu did. He made the world say Elohei Avraham.
And we too could do that in a certain sense.
And the way
we act and the way we talk, make God beloved upon the world and known.
