ב''ה

SERMON RESOURCE FOR SHLUCHIM

DISTRIBUTION DATE:

TUESDAY , OCTOBER 30TH 2018 – 21 CHESHVAN 5779 PARSHAS CHAYEI

SERMON TITLE: Seeing G-d’s Plans

Chayei Sarah Seeing G-‘ds Plans

Good Shabbos! In the annals of modern Chabad history, there was a famous Chasid who lived in Israel after WWII whose name was Zushe Vilmovsky—more popularly known by his nickname, Reb Zushe der Partizan. Reb Zushe was a who joined the partisans of his native Russia during , fighting against the Germany at their side. However, it was only after the war that he met Chabad Chasidim, became connected to the Rebbe, and became his devoted Chasid. Reb Zushe was a Jew filled with warmth, a Jew bubbling over with energy. He was optimistic. He constantly had a smile. Everyone loved him. Around the year 1970, there was a rabbi in Europe whose daughter was studying in Israel, and he was trying to find her a (match). Now, one of the only people in Israel that this European rabbi knew was Reb Zushe—and so he approached him and asked him to help him in the matter. Well, for Tishrei of that year, that rabbi also traveled to New York and visited the Rebbe. He related to the Rebbe that he had a daughter back in Israel for whom he was seeking a shidduch, and that he had already forged a connection with Reb Zushe about it. The Rebbe then advised that Reb Zushe invite his daughter to visit Kfar Chabad. So the rabbi immediately sent a letter to Reb Zushe in which he told him about the Rebbe’s instruction to invite his daughter to spend Shabbos in Kfar Chabad. Obviously, Reb Zushe did so—but when the rabbi would ask him if he had any Shidduch ideas, Reb Zushe would reply, “I’m not a shadchan.” A full year went by, and the rabbi again departed Europe to go visit the Rebbe. When he met with the Rebbe, he again asked for a brachah for a shidduch for his daughter. The Rebbe wondered out loud why Reb Zushe had not accomplished anything in the matter. The rabbi immediately dashed off an urgent letter to Reb Zushe that included the Rebbe’s words. Now, a word from the Rebbe was very precious to Reb Zushe. And so, when he read about the Rebbe’s reaction, he resolved at the very moment to become a shadchan. He told his household, “I’m stepping out on to the street and making a shidduch happen right now!” And he proceeded to do just that—he literally walked the streets until he saw one of Kfar Chabad’s young men that in his opinion was suitable for the girl in question. He knew them both. Well, they were introduced—and they got married and established an exemplary Chasidic household. (The Partisan, pg. 301.) Rabbi Zushe Vilmovsky acted exactly like , the servant of Avraham, did over 4,000 years ago—and that takes us straight to this week’s portion. In our Parshah (Bereishis 24), we are told at length how Avraham summoned his servant Eliezer and charged him with an oath to not take a Canaanite daughter as a wife for his son Yitzchak. Instead, “for to my land and my birthplace shall you go, and you shall take a wife for my son, for Yitzchak.”

2 Now, those were the only instructions that Avraham gave Eliezer—go to the land of my birth, to Ur Kasdim (which is somewhere in modern-day Iraq, or Turkey, according to other opinions), and there you shall find a shidduch for Yitzchak. And Avraham added, saying, “The L-rd, G-d of the heavens... shall send His angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there.” Even Avraham understood that, to find the right shidduch in his birth country, Eliezer would need the help of heavenly angels. So Eliezer sets out on his way. Well, he arrives (on a caravan of ten camels) in the city of Aram Naharayim, and the first thing he does when he pulls up at a public well is pray to G-d. Now, the well was used by all the local girls for water for themselves and their animals. So Eliezer prayed, “And it will be, [that] the maiden to whom I will say, ‘Lower your pitcher and I will drink,’ and she will say, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels,’ her have You designated for Your servant, for Yitzchak.” But why did Eliezer opt for such a test? So says, “‘Her have You designated’ [means that] she is worthy of him, for she will perform acts of kindness, and she is fit to enter the house of Avraham.” Now in general, when a man seeks out a shidduch, he tells the shadchan what qualities he is looking for—the young woman should be smart, or educated, or good-hearted, etc. But in contrast, Avraham did not tell Eliezer what kind of a shidduch he was looking for. On his own, Eliezer understood that for a girl to enter Avraham’s house, she would need to be good-hearted and kindness-doing. But then, Rivkah suddenly shows up—and after Eliezer asks her, “Please let me sip a little water from your pitcher,” she volunteers on her own to give water to his camels. Eliezer was so excited that this was the right shidduch that he immediately gave her a nose ring and bracelets as a gift. And only then did he ask her, “Whose daughter are you?” And when he discovered that she was Avraham’s great-niece, he immediately gathered what Avraham had intended when he had sent him to Ur Kasdim—Avraham had specifically sought a shidduch from the family. Now Avraham had indeed only said to Eliezer the words, “to my land and my birthplace shall you go”; he didn’t say a single word about “my family and my father’s house.” But when Eliezer discovered that the young woman who had agreed to provide water to his camels was from Avraham’s family, then he understood that this was the real meaning of the words, “to my land and my birthplace.” And so, when he told Lavan and Besuel what Avraham had ordered him, he stated that Avraham had actually said to him, “to the house of my father shall you go, and to my family, and you shall take a wife for my son from there”—and he repeated that again and again. So when Lavan and Besuel heard that, even they had to acknowledge that “from G-d has the matter come.” And there is another very similar story in Tanach to the story of the shidduch of Yitzchak and Rivkah.

3 In the Book of Shmuel (I:9), we are told about a Jew from the Tribe of Binyamin by the name of Kish, a “gibor chayil” (valiant warrior). Now, Kish was a wealthy man who had servants, cattle, and so on. It once happened that some of his donkeys got lost, and he ordered his son Shaul, “Please take one of the lads with you and go up and seek the donkeys.” So that’s what Shaul did. For the next three days, Shaul and the lad went from place to place seeking some missing donkeys, finding nothing. So Shaul turns to the lad with him and says, “Let’s go back; perhaps my father will stop worrying about the donkeys and worry about us!” But the servants says, “Look, the man of G-d is in this city... let us go there; perhaps he shall inform us of our path”— meaning, there’s a in town here; maybe he’ll tell us where to find the missing donkeys. So they go into town and, just like in the story of Eliezer, they encounter “girls going out to draw water; and they said to them, ‘Is the seer here?’” They asked them where the prophet lives, and the girls showed them the way to his house. “They were coming into the city and behold, Shmuel was coming out towards them”—at the very moment they were walking into town, none other than the legendary Prophet Shmuel was stepping out, and they bumped into one another. In those days, the Jewish Nation had been asking the Prophet Shmuel to appoint a king over them, and G-d had agreed with them. So the very day before this incident, G-d had revealed His plan to Shmuel: “At this time tomorrow, I shall send unto you a man from the land of Binyamin, and you shall anoint him as an advocate over My Nation Israel.” And when Shmuel saw Shaul, G-d said to him, “Here is the man about whom I said to you, ‘This one shall you stop for the sake of My Nation.’ ” And so, the Tanach continues, “Shaul approached Shmuel... and he said, ‘Please tell me which is the house of the seer.’” And Shmuel replied, “I am the seer!” He then invited him to an event to which he had been headed—and immediately hinted to him that he has a far more important mission in life than searching for lost donkeys. But it was only the next morning, when both of them were alone with each other, that Shmuel poured oil on Shaul’s head and informed him that he had just formally anointed him as the first King of Israel in . And so, my friends, what we learn from these two stories is that with the first shidduch in Jewish history, and with the first king in Jewish history, G-d openly revealed that it was He who had chosen them—to the point that even a shallow guy like Lavan had to admit that “from G-d has the matter come.” And perhaps we can say that G-d did this to teach us that every shidduch, and every job appointment etc, is all by hashgachah pratis (divine providence)—that it all happens when G-d “sends His angel before you,” when He send the right messenger to see to it that the shidduch or the appointment actually happens. Today, we call it “bashert”—Yiddish for “predestined.” But in truth, it’s true not just for shidduchim—rather, everything that happens to us in daily life is bashert. Good Shabbos!

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