Hebron Fund Podcast

Shalom my friends, this is Simcha Hochabum of Hebron, standing outside the Maarat HaMachpela. Baruch Hashem, we’re coming off the great high of Shabbat Chayei Sarah last week. There was the most unbelievable energy here and davening and prayers and unity of the Jewish nation. At the same time this Shabbat, we’re back fighting against the world of Ishmael, fighting against the world of Esau.

And once again, our current events can all be found in this week's parsha. Remember Avraham Avinu made a treaty with Abimelech, King of Gerar and there, they promised each other to live in peace and harmony. Once again this Shabbat we see the Philistines breaking that treaty, closing up the very wells that Avraham had dug.

The passuk says, “וַיְסַתְּמ֣וּם” they closed them up עָפָֽר with dust. We know that Yitzchak Avinu has the attribute of strength. He didn’t turn the other cheek, but he went to fight on behalf of the wells of his forefather Avraham and there he tried to reopen them. And he eventually made new wells of Esek, Sitnah, Revovot in Beersheba.

Be’ezrat Hashem we have to know that the Plishtim are using the same psychological warfare. They pressure the world trying to close up our wells, “וַיְסַתְּמ֣וּם” saying everything is Stam, it’s for nothing. All your mesirat nefesh, all the fighting, all the sacrifice, all those who were displaced, at the end of the day, you're not going to be able to live in peace. We’re not going to let you finish the job. All of that work was Stam, filled with עָפָֽר dust, and we had no taste to it.

We should be privileged not to give up, not to despair. We should see that promise God told the prophet Yoel in the second chapter אַרְחִ֣יק מֵֽעֲלֵיכֶ֗ם וְֽאֶת־הַצְּפוֹנִ֞י “Those on the northern border I will distance from you.” They should have a safe buffer zone. They should draw strength from Yitzchak Avinu. Reopen the wells and God willing, received the great blessings that Isaac had to take up here in this very field from the dews of the heaven, from the fat of earth. Those of curse you will be cursed those who bless you will be blessed. Shabbat shalom.

Shalom my friends, this is Simcha Hochbaum of Hebron standing outside the Maarat Hamachpela. This Shabbat we are living with the times, living with the portion of the week. The excitement of thousands of people expected to be at this Shabbat to celebrate Shabbat Chayei Sarah, to be living witnesses of that purchase of the Cave of Machpela. At the same time, the question always is asked, what made Avraham specifically insist to bury Sarah in this double cave and to purchase the cave with the field? What was unique about this place? And Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach would teach, it was only after Avraham invited guests to his tent that he fulfilled that mitzvah, taking three strangers and bringing them in and making them feel welcome and comfortable did God revealed to him the specialness of this place and the specialness of this cave. The passuk tells us הַבָּקָ֖ר רָ֣ץ אַבְרָהָ֑ם Avraham ran to the cattle. The cattle ran away. Avraham is in hot pursuit of the calf. And he comes here to this field, he smells, the air, the fragrance, and he realizes there is something special and beyond in this place. And there a heavenly voice says, this is the birthplace of Adam and Chava, Adam and Eve, who are buried here at the entrance to Gan Eden. The Hebrew letters of the word HaBaKaR is the same as HaKever When Avraham chases the calf he discovers the kever of Adam and Chava. We’re hoping this Shabbat every guest that comes here in Hebron you should be able to feel at home, be able to feel welcome. You should feel how much we’re so happy that they came and when they leave how much we missed them and want them to come back. We should be able to fulfill that mitzvah of Hachnasat Orchim, welcoming guests.. God should reveal to us the secret depths of the double cave and all the great light emanating from this place and able to show us a little bit Gan Eden here in Eretz Yisrael. Enough of funerals, enough deaths. We should be able to taste a little taste of paradise. K'Yemei Hashamayim al Haaretz -- the days of heaven on earth. Looking forward to seeing all of us here this Shabbat here in Hebron.

This Shabbat is Parshat Vayeira in which we learn about the unbelievable faith and internal belief that every Jew has. There’s no nation like us, that we pray for things that seem so unattainable that sometimes seem unrealistic, unachievable. Avraham Avinu is 99 years old, and his wife Sarah is 89 years old and they don’t ever stop praying to have a child. And after all those prayers and tears to bring a child down to the world together, their privileged to bring their holy laughter, the soul of Isaac in this world. Later on in the parsha when Isaac is 37 years old, still not married, Avraham is told to take that son, the only son, the son he loves, and bring him up in the mountain which I will tell you. And Avraham bounds up Isaac and is about to slaughter him. It looks like God is contradicting Himself. God who had told Abraham that through Issac your seed will continue. God who had given him Isaac in such a miraculous way, is now telling him to offer his son up and yet Avraham doesn’t ever stop believing, doesn’t ever question God, but has complete, pure faith. He goes there for the will of Hashem until the angel says, don’t stretch forth your hand against this child. Life seems full of contradictions. After 2,000 years of praying we Jews never stop praying to come back to the land of Israel, but it seemed to be unattainable a dream far away. All of the sudden we were able to come back to Eretz Yisrael after 2,000 years. But it seems to be full of contradictions. So many sacrifices, so many parents sacrificing their children, so many wives sending off their husbands to battle not knowing the future. So many children who have lost their father in war. And yet it looks like Akeidat Yitzchack, full of contradictions. We have to draw on that faith and that strength of Avraham Avinu, that vision of Avraham — Vayar et Hamakom Me’rachok — he saw the place from afar. It looked like it was unattainable. We have to get the vision, the eyes of Avraham who saw Sodom about to be destroyed. And there Avraham was able to see the spark of Moshiach, the sparks of Geula, and not give up the faith and be able to see in Sodom would be the soul of Lot and from Lot would come out Ruth and from Ruth would come out King David. And God willing, from all the turmoil and from all the heaviness, we should see that spark of Moshiach this Shabbat. Shabbat shalom.

Shalom my friends, this is Simcha Hochbaum of Hebron standing outside the Maarat HaMachpela.

This Shabbat we’re introduced the personality of Avraham Avinu. And though we always portray Avraham Avinu as the pillar of chessed, of kindness, we also see Avraham Avinu, when necessary, uses this midda of gevura, of strength.

When he hears his nephew Lot was taken captive, while he’s dwelling here in Hebron, Avraham spares no measures. He takes 318 of his best disciples, pulls them out of the study hall, and he goes out to fight and to free his nephew Lot and to take on and battle the four kings.

After this great battle, God tells Abraham and He assures him and says, “al tira, Avraham” do not be afraid. “Anochi magen lach, I’ll be your shield.”

Don't be afraid that you will be killed, and don't be afraid  that you had to go out and kill. I will be a shield to you. I will protect you.

God makes a treaty with Avraham and a covenant where he takes him outside and tells him to count the stars of the sky. All the commentaries say God was telling Avraham to go outside, to know that you are outside the laws of nature. You are outside the laws of regular politics. You have a power and a strength that no other nation has. You are not governed by the normal laws of astrology, but you, the Jewish nation and your descendants will be able to survive against all odds.

Seven fronts attacking you, world nations condemning you. Veanochi magen lach, I will be you shield and therefore know that you'll be victorious over all.

With the help of the newly elected president, please God, we should be able with our allies and our friends defeat all our enemies. And please God will help to see that promise that God made in the covenant that all the land and we’ll be victorious over all ten enemies, and all ten nations. We’ll be able to see the Jewish nation settling all of Israel in peace and tranquility.

Shalom my friends, this is Simcha Hochbaum of Hebron standing inside the Maarat HaMachpela.

This Shabbat in Parshat Noach everything is in a state of total complete confusion. The world is going to the dogs. First the sin of Adam and Eve eating from the Tree of Knowledge, Cain and Abel, jealousy, the generation of the flood full of theft, immorality. And then the generation of the Tower of Babel. Everyone was looking for honor, to overpower God and take all the honor and kavod for themselves.

While all this is going on, on a deeper pnimiut level, there’s a different type of flood.

It could be a flood of violence a flood of death, orphans, widows that we've been experiencing throughout this past year.

But then there could be a flood the Arizal says that that generation of the Mabul came back and they got punished as the generation that were slaves in Egypt for 210 years.

But then they walk to Mount Sinai and those same 40 days that the world was destroyed, the world was rebuilt on Har Sinai. And those same souls came back ready to receive 40 days, a flood of Torah, a flood of holiness.

So we’re hoping that God will shower us down with a flood of kedusha, a flood of consolement and give strength -- Mashiv HaRuach -- bring back that spirit to the Jewish nation -- U'Morid HaGeshem -- and bless us all with lots of parnassa and sheffah and blessing to all of Israel.

Let’s hope that Teva Noach should save us. We should always know we have a place to run to a place of safety and security and spirituality  of whenever the geshem is getting too strong you find a comfort and consolement in the words of the Torah and the words of the tefillah. Shabbat Shalom.

Moving on from Yom Kippur the Day of Atonement to the time of joy, to the time of great, great simcha. The sukkah has many, many connotations and many meanings and many symbols. The most simple level, when we left Egypt, the succah was there for us as a place of protection, whether it was Clouds of Glory, whether it was actually an physical booth, the succah protected us from the elements, from the sun, from the rough weather conditions, and spiritually the succah always was there to protect us against all those forces trying to move us away from Hashem. The succah today more than ever has become a place of bitachon, a source of trust and faith in the One the only One. We know there's a passuk in the Book of Psalms Chapter 140, and there King David writes "סכותה לראשי ביום נשק" and the day when neshek, all types of weapons are flying all types of weapons are flying against Israel, I need you Hashem to protect me like a succah, to hover over me and to watch over me. When we sit in the succah and we leave our permanent homes, our protective homes, that which we’re so used to and uncomfortable with. We go out to our temporary dwelling place and we look up at the skach and we remember that our protection really comes from the One above. Hashem is there for us. In the day of distress I will run into the succah. During these challenging times, wars raging in every angle of Israel, terrorist attacks almost daily, we have to hope the succah this year will become not just a source of protection, but a source of peace as we pray ופרוס עלינו סכת שלומך סכת רחמים וחיים ושלום Hashem should spread over us that canopy of peace. We should be able to dwell in harmony in our personal succah and in the national succah of the Land of Israel and to see the fallen succah of King David raised up once again rebuilt in Yerushalayim.

We are just days before Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the day of internal cleansing. In preparation you have to go back a little bit to the first sin, and that was Adam HaRishon in the Garden of Eden. After Adam has eaten from the Tree of Knowledge, God turns to Adam as asks him “Ayekah? (where are you?)” Where has that inner voice gone? Where has your true essence gone? Where is that true Divine soul that I implanted in you? Where has it disappeared to? Many time we have a lot of voices that are raging inside of us. We have that voice of the snake that’s always trying to draw us out, to become people of the outside. Yom Kippur is all about going back to the inside of the inside. At the great services of Yom Kippur the High Priest would enter into the Holy of Holies dressed in all white, that purity as if it was before the sin of Adam and Eve. When the High Priest left the Kodesh HaKodashim he would stand in the heichal of the sanctuary. And there he would recite a short prayer. One of the things he asked for was that this be a year of life, of blessing, of financial prosperity. Let it be a year where the Jewish nation is strong & overpowers the enemy. And also let it be a year where we’re no longer dependent upon other nations. Where the Jewish people don't need any validation from America, from European countries where we could fight our wars the way we see fit and we can make our own decisions about when to strike and how strongly to strike back. We shouldn't be dependent upon any other nation, not financially and not militarily. God willing, we should see all our friends in the Book of Life and wipe out all the sins and God willing come out completely sinless and completely pure and holy have an easy, fast, a meaningful fast. I am looking forward to seeing all of us in the Holy of Holies.

We’re just days before Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, the day where God decides the fate of all of Israel and all of mankind.

On Rosh Hashanah it is written and on Yom Kippur it is signed and sealed.

This year more than ever, there’s so much tefillah, there’s so much prayer, there’s so much hope for a better year, for a year where we’ll be able to experience real real freedom for Am Yisrael, for the Land of Israel. This year when we blow the shofar, we know the shofar has a very unique sound. The Zohar Kadosh writes He under the feather. You sit right down. On one side of the coin there’s tears, there’s crying, there’s brokenness  on the other side of the coin there’s great simcha, there’s great joy. When we think about this year, all those who are still not at home, all those who are displaced, whether it's the Jews of the South, Otef Aza, the Jews of the North.

We want that shofar to emancipate and to free, bring everyone back everyone back to his ancestral homeland, the shofar is also freeing every person from his own personal bondage.

All those are in captivity right now, all those are being held hostage, the shofar should be that call of freedom to be able to reawaken that Dror, that freedom that exist in the Jubilee year.

The shofar is also that sound of the Tekiyah, that great joy, that great simcha, the simcha that we've experienced these last two weeks, the great victories and the successes of Tzahal against the terrorists in the North, in Lebanon and in Iran.

We should be able to thank Hashem for all the blessings, new beginnings, new starts, new coronations, and God willing together. With our tears with that joy, the Tekiyah, the Shevarim and the Teruah. We should be able to hear that great shofar the Tekiyah Gedolah. And that great, great sound of all of Israel coming back to the Holy Land, to the ancestral land, back to Yerushalyaim, to the Temple Mount all bow down, acknowledge God’s greatness in Yerushalayim to the Temple Mount, in Yerushalayim, the Holy Temple, Amen and Amen.

This Shabbat, the Jewish nation is about to enter the Land of Israel . And there Moshe Rabeinu teaches us a very important lesson on the attribute of both gratefulness, gratitude, but also the attribute of simcha.

The Torah starts off: And it will be when you come to the Land of Israel… One has to write the words of the Torah on Mount Gerizim and Mount Eval, all the blessings, all the curses.

Vehayah is an expression of joy. The greatest joy in the world is the Jewish nation could enter the Land of Israel. There is no headquarters as great as Israel to bring joy to the Jewish nation, to the Jewish people.

But there's another joy the Torah speaks about. The joy of working the land. Of taking that first grape, that first pomegranate and that first fig and bringing it up to Yerushlayaim.

And having a whole procession and rejoicing and giving thanks to Hashem for our history of once again getting that great land of Israel, a land flowing with milk and honey.

The Torah says if you don't go in my ways, God forbid you continue to defy me and look at life or by chance and coincidence, there will be terrible 53 verses of terrible punishments.

The Torah says, why are all these tragedies happening to you? Because it didn't serve Hashem with joy.

We always think the most important thing is to do the mitzvah, the performance of the good deed. Other people speak about the kavana, the intention when doing a good deed, that the machshava has to be pure and holy and do it for the right reasons for the sake of Hashem.

But there's even a higher ingredient in the performance of a mitzvah. Beyond the speech, beyond the thought, beyond the action. That is the meda of simcha, the meda of joy.

When we perform our mitzvot with great joy, we draw down infinite light into our life.

We'll be able to defeat all our enemies, and we'll be able to receive all the divine blessings in every aspect of our life.

We should try as hard as it is this year, with all the tragedy of this year, to enter the New Year with great joy and gratitude for the great gifts.

And as we saw this week, so much pain was inflicted upon our enemies, such brilliant tactics as Israel used to knock off so mangy of the terrorists trying to hurt us in the north.

We should be able, with great joy, to dance our way and sing our way to the book of life, and Be’ezrat Hashem, to be able to be a vessel to receive all the divine blessings.

Shabbat Shalom.

This Shabbat all of Israel is being called to the draft. The draft not only against the enemy from without but also from the enemy from within. כִּֽי־תֵצֵ֥א לַמִּלְחָמָ֖ה עַל־אֹֽיְבֶ֑יךָ “And God did battle against their enemy.” That known enemy, that internal enemy that's always tried to get us to sin. The Torah also tells us that it's not enough to be victorious over your own personal evil inclination. One has a national responsibility for each other to help each other spiritually get back on the right derech. The Torah tells us that if you see your brother who lost his donkey or maybe lost a sheep, and that donkey or sheep is running off the derech לֹ֥א תוּכַ֖ל לְהִתְעַלֵּֽם One cannot ignore this. But rather one has to get involved. Try to find a siman, some recognizable quality or trait of the lost object and be able to return it to his brother. So too spiritually we see so many young people who are lost and somehow or other been cast away, whether it's from the yeshiva, the day school, or just they themselves are falling under their own burden their own struggle. The Torah says הָשֵׁ֥ב תְּשִׁיבֵ֖ם לְאָחִֽיךָ you have to bring them back to their point of brotherliness. You have to take responsibility for each other. Just like this past year on a physical level all of Am Yisrael stepped up to the battle on the national level, fighting in Gaza, fighting against enemies in the north, fighting in Jenin and Tulkarem. So too we need to step up this Shabbat to reach out for each other until all Am Yisrael come back and return this Elul and returned to that great wedding between Hashem and the Jewish people. Be’ezrat Hashem we should have that national responsibility and see the teshuva of all of Am Yisrael returning back to the Creator. Amen, Shabbat Shalom