Parashat Lech Lecha: Business Partner From Hell

0:14In the name of G-d, let's begin. Dear friends, we did not have Shilin this week, but we have Parashat Lech Lecha. I want to give you a short Chiddush. on the parashah, a short d'var Torah more likely, on the parashah, where you've seen parashat Lech Lecha, Hashem says to Avraham Avinu, v'yomer Hashem el Avram lech lecha me'artzecha u'mimoladetecha u'mibeit avicha el ha'aretz asher ar'eka, Hashem says to Avraham, go for yourself from the land, from your relatives, and from your father's house to the land that I will show you. Hashem, in essence, tells Avraham to make the sacrifice, to go to a place he doesn't know, without knowing what's really going to happen there. And this is the commandment of Hashem. This is the way that a person needs to operate their life, really ideally, it's just simply to trust Hashem fully without...

1:27asking too many questions. You could ask questions about Hashem, you could ask questions about what happened here, what happened there, but in essence, why is Hashem doing this and why is Hashem doing that? Really, the best answer is because He decided to for reasons that are beyond our comprehension. But needless to say, the parasha continues, and you see that Avraham Avinu goes through a journey that's not... Not easy at all. So much so that when he arrives, he realizes there's a famine over there. There's no food, so he has to leave. He has to go to Egypt. Over there, there's the big test where Pharaoh takes Sarah Imeinu and thinks to make her a wife because he didn't know that she's the wife of Avraham already. But Hashem does not let that happen and punishes Pharaoh by shutting down all of the holes of his body, his eyes, his ears, everything, and, you know, and... Paul understands that even the women who were in labor were not able to give birth because of what happened, and he understands this is because of Avraham Avinu. And to get Avraham out of his hair and to make sure that Avraham doesn't make matters worse, he gives them an enormous amount of money. So it says in chapter 13,

2:48that in verse number 2, now Avraham was very laden with livestock, silver, and gold. He proceeded on his journeys from the south to Beit El, to the place where his tent had been at first, between Beit El and Ai, to the site of the altar which he had erected there at first. And there Avraham invoked Hashem by name. So Avraham now left Egypt, a multimillionaire, and he went back to the hotels from which he borrowed money and stayed there for free in order to make sure to give them back, which is a Kiddush Hashem. They didn't know if he was ever going to come back and pay them back, but Avraham made sure to do it. The moment that he had the opportunity to pay back a loan, he did it. He didn't say, "Oh, let me save a little bit more." He paid right away, showing that Avraham was a very honest business person. On the other hand, Lot... In verse number 5, it says that Lot, who went with Avraham, had flocks, cattle, and tents. And the land could not support them dwelling together, for their possessions were abundant, and they were unable to dwell together.

3:55So it says that Lot also benefited from this whole situation. He's been following Avraham throughout this entire journey, through the famine, through the difficulties with Pharaoh, and so on and so forth. But he also gained some wealth as a result of it. He also became rich because of it. But what changed here? When it was really difficult, they could both sleep in a tiny little room with all the families, no problem. But suddenly, when Lot has money... The verse says that the land couldn't support them dwelling together. They couldn't live in the same place. Why? Lot's eyes were big. As the Gemara in Masechet Sukkah says, someone that loves money will never have enough money. And Lot loved money, and now all of a sudden he didn't want anyone telling him what to do. Why? He's like, oh, I'm the big shot. And that's what I always tell people: If you ever want to get to know somebody, put some money in front of them, and they'll mutate into who they really are. It's just that many times they're nice in the beginning because they don't have anything. Lot's eyes were big. As the Gemara in Masechet Sukkah says, someone who loves money will never have enough money. And Lot loved money, and now all of a sudden he didn't want anyone telling him what to do. Why? He's like, oh, I'm the big shot. And that's what I always tell people. If you ever want to get to know someone, put some money in front of them, and they'll mutate into who they really are. It's just that many times they're nice in the beginning because they don't have anything.

4:55So we see that the problems with Lot only started after money came into the picture. And suddenly, he wants to leave not only his business partner, but also his Rabbi, Avraham Avinu, the best Rabbi in history. He wants to leave him. He wants to go call the shots somewhere else. This is to teach us, Rabotai HaYekarim, that before we get into any type of partnership, whether it be a marriage or it be a business partnership, You have to make sure that you know who the person that you're dealing with before you get into that partnership. And I don't mean you know what they like to do on weekends, and what's their favorite type of coffee, and if they like to see the moonlight once or twice a month. No. What I mean is, do they have Yirat Shamayim? Do they fear Hashem? Why? Avraham teaches us later on, where he says to Avimelech, "I saw that there's no fear of Hashem here, and they'll kill me over my wife." Meaning that the Gemara tells us, if somebody doesn't have Yirat Shamayim and doesn't fear Hashem, you have to always be scared because they may kill you. I saw that there's no fear of Hashem here and they'll kill me over my wife. Meaning that the Gemara tells us, if somebody doesn't have Yirat Shamayim and doesn't fear Hashem, you have to always be scared because they may kill you. Yeah, but he didn't kill me so far. Does that mean he has Yirat Shamayim? Not necessarily. Maybe he didn't kill you because he didn't have the opportunity to or the reason to.

6:13The point being here is that when you get into a partnership with somebody, if you don't know if they have Yirat Shamayim, then you're putting yourself at risk. You're putting yourself in danger. Why? Because right now, when you first sign a partnership and you're starting a little rinky-dink company that you think is going to be the next Google, everybody's excited, and there are high fives, and yeah, we're gonna make it, we're gonna make millions, and so on and so forth. And everyone's friendly, and everyone works overtime, and everyone's happy, right? Because no one has anything to lose most of the time, when does the problem really begin? When you start making money. When you start succeeding. That's where you see the vast majority, and literally the overwhelming majority of partnerships, when they succeed, they break. Because suddenly, no one wants to be that same old person that they were when they first started. Suddenly, they want to call the shots. They want to do what they want. They don't want anyone else to tell them something else. But that problem didn't start because they made money. That problem was already there when they first started because they had no yirat Shamayim; they had no fear of Hashem. They didn't want anyone telling them what to do, but they had no choice. But now that they have money, they feel like they have a choice. You see,

7:29In the world of Torah, we don't look at things from the perspective of what makes sense to us and what doesn't make sense to us. We look at things based on what makes sense to Hashem. What is the halacha? And when it comes to money, more than anything else, many people that do not use halacha, and they use what makes sense to them, make mistakes time and time again. destroying businesses, destroying marriages, and destroying all types of things because they used their common sense, which was valid at the time, at best. But when you use halacha, when you use the rules of the Torah, when you use the right ideology of the Torah, then you're guaranteed that you're going in the way of Hashem, meaning that whatever journey you go on, that's the journey that Hashem wants you to go on, which means that the outcome of that journey is also the will of Hashem. It's not due to your mistake. Now, if a person walks that way, there are going to be times when he'll need to ask a big question to a rabbi, a big question to a talmid chacham to double-check that he's right. Why? Because if he uses his logic, he's bound to make mistakes. journey you go on, that's the journey that Hashem wants you to go on, which means that the outcome of that journey, that's the will of Hashem as well. It's not because, it's not due to your mistake. Now, if a person walks that way, there are going to be some times that he's going to have to have a big question to a rabbi. A big question to a Talmid Chacham to double-check that he's right. Why? Because if he uses his logic, he's bound to make mistakes. And I'll give you a couple of examples.

8:50There was one time a big successful CEO that wanted to go around his factory to see how his employees were doing. He walked around, walked around, and saw that everybody was working, building stuff, breaking stuff, operating—all types of things. But there was one guy just standing around, smiling while whistling. And I can tell you, I had a company. The last thing you ever want to do is see somebody wasting time on your dime. It's the worst thing in the world. Why? It's essentially stealing, but they're stealing right in front of your face, which is even worse. When you have an employee that doesn't listen to you, an employee that doesn't do the work, an employee that doesn't produce, not because he's simply terrible at his job, but because he's just not doing the job the way you told him to, it's very, very annoying, to say the least. Now, to see a guy that's whistling while everybody else is working, obviously, the boss wasn't happy. So, he didn't want to get upset because he had some people next to him. So, he figured, you know what, let me just keep going, see some more people in the factory. It was a big building. He continued walking, continued walking. And then eventually, he got back to that same point and he saw that already 40 minutes had passed. And the guy is still there watching with a big grin on his face, whistling.

10:14Big boss man didn't like it. He got really upset. He went up to the guy and started tearing him apart, yelling and screaming at him. "What are you doing here? You're wasting my money. You're wasting this," embarrassing him in front of everybody. And then he says to him, "What's your name?" He says, "Yaakov." He says, "How much do you make?" "2,000 bucks a month." The guy was a multimillionaire. goes into his pocket, takes out $2,000, gives it to him, pushes it into his hand on his chest, and tells him, "Get the hell out of here, you're fired," and pushes him out of the factory. This little Yaakov went to his rabbi. He said, "Rabbi, something terrible happened to me today." He said, "What happened?" He said, Today, I went to a factory. This, this, this. The boss insulted me. And the question I have, Rabbi, is whether I'm allowed to keep the money. And the Rabbi says, what's the problem? He says, the problem is that the boss was upset because he was saying I was wasting his time and he can't believe that he's wasting money on me. But I don't work for him. I was just delivering pizza. It was my last delivery. So the question is, am I allowed to keep the money? Because technically, he did embarrass me.

11:41Now, between you and me, our logic will tell us, yeah, of course, keep the money. What the heck with that guy? It's his loss. He should have asked you. He should have been nicer. He should have been patient. He should have done this. He should have done that. And logically, you're right. Halachically, wrong. Why? It doesn't work that way. Although, at the time of the Gemara, the Beit Din would say that someone who embarrasses another person actually has to pay for it—money. But we don't have the same type of Beit Din today as we had in the past. So we can't just decide to take the money. So what is a person to do? The Rav tells him, listen, he gave you the money under the notion that he thought you were his employee. Obviously, you're not his employee, so you don't deserve the money. On the other hand, he did embarrass you, and he even was aggressive with you. He pushed you, which in itself is actually worth something. But you can't decide how much it's worth yourself. You have to go to a beit din, You have to go to a Beit Din, and that Beit Din has to determine how much your embarrassment is worth. They'll give you that part of the money, and then you have to refund him the rest of that money. Now, you may say, okay, okay, Ben, what's the big deal? What's the big deal? Okay, so let me explain to you what's the big deal. To arrive at such a conclusion seems easy after the fact, but there are many things that are not as easy. There was another time where Reuven,

13:07was driving around, he saw his friend Shimon, and Shimon was carrying a bunch of bags. So he pulled over next to him and told him, "Listen, Shimon, what are you doing? Come, come in my car. I'll give you a ride to your house, and you don't have to carry all these bags." Shimon was very happy, put the bags in the back seat, and off they went. They got to the house, and he dropped him off. Reuven went back home, parked his car, said "Shabbat Shalom," and Shabbat started. He enjoyed Shabbat with the family, songs, and food. What's better than that? As the Gemara says, Shabbat is a small example of Olam Haba. That all depends on how your Shabbat is. If your Shabbat talks about business, what kind of Olam Haba do you want? If your Shabbat is talking about Kedusha, about Torah, good stories, surely your Shabbat is a small piece of Olam Haba. Anyway, after Shabbat was over, everything was good, but Reuven didn't need his car, so he didn't use his car until Sunday night. By the time he got to Sunday night, he wanted to go somewhere, and he went to his car. As soon as he got close to the car, he smelled something disgusting. As soon as he opened the car, he nearly vomited. It smelled like someone died in his car. Why?

14:23His friend Shimon forgot a chicken inside the car. You know, the chicken was dead, but that didn't help so much. The chicken was already slaughtered when he bought it, but that didn't help so much. Why? Because the chicken rotted over the next couple of days in the nice 100-degree weather in Israel. It didn't work out so well. Now, Reuven didn't want to bother his friend right away, even though he was upset. Anyway, he took it to the car wash. The car wash couldn't do anything. The stench from the chicken had already seeped into the car, and there's nothing you can do. You have to change the upholstery. This is fabric. You have to change it. How much is it going to cost? 2,000 shekels. Okay, so he comes to Shimon and says, Listen, Shimon, I'm sorry to tell you, but you owe me 2,000 shekels. He goes, Why do I owe you 2,000 shekels? For what? He said, "Listen," and he tells him the whole story. "You left the chicken." He says, "Listen, I'm sorry I left the chicken, but it was an accident. I mean, I don't have to pay for an accident." I said, "What do you mean I have to pay for an accident?" He said, "You did it. You did it. You did it. I didn't mean it." Back and forth. Now, between us, we could argue both ways. Logically, we could argue both ways. We could say, "Listen, he didn't mean it. I mean, the guy said he left you a $10 chicken in your car. Now he has to pay $2,000? That's a little ridiculous."

15:39On the other hand, you can say the other way. Listen, it's not my problem how much this and how much that. It was your problem. You left it. I didn't want you to leave the chicken there. Now, the Gemara says that if a person wasn't careful with an ox that he had and he allowed it to wander off, and that ox fell into some water pit and it ended up ruining the water, If it ruined the water immediately, this falls under the category of keren, which means that the damages that the animal causes are unlikely. And the owner has to protect anyway, meaning the owner has to pay half the damages for the first three times such a thing happens, but the full damage only for the fourth time. Now, This only applies if the animal ruined the water when it fell in right away. But if the water got ruined only later, after the animal died and it rotted inside, then the damage falls under something passive, which again, the Gemara says, in that case, it's not the owner of the animal's fault. So,

17:07The command continues, goes back and forth, and you could argue this way, you could argue that way. You could say, listen, technically, the chicken didn't ruin the car right away. It took a while. It took two days. Who told you to leave the chicken in the car for two days? It's not my problem. I left it for a minute. Okay, I forgot. But you could have gone to the car, and it's your problem. So technically, the damage was done after only a couple of days. So therefore, I don't have to pay you. On the other hand, you can go to a Chacham. And that's what they did. They went to Rabbi Elyashiv. Rabbi Elyashiv, peace be upon him, was an Ish Kodesh who gave his answers for the Torah on the spot as if the entire Torah was structured perfectly in his mind like a CD. Any question you had, on the spot he gave you an answer. What a source, another source, another source, another source.

18:08And anything you want. He said, listen, you are looking at it the wrong way. You're looking at it based on this halacha, based on this learning that we have from the Gemara in Bava Kamma about whether the chicken caused the damage right away or later on. You're looking at it the wrong way. Why are you looking at it the wrong way? Because The whole key is that when Reuven picked up Shimon, it was only under the condition that Shimon was not going to ruin his car with his chicken. He didn't pick him up with that. Now the reality is, the second that Shimon entered the car, the chicken entered with him. And the second the chicken entered with him, it already began ruining the car from the first second. The fact that it wouldn't ruin it very much after, let's say, only a 10-minute ride is irrelevant. It's still ruining it. It's still ruining it. And Shimon was fully responsible and should have been conscious of the fact that

19:17that the chicken is ruining the car, meaning that I best take it out with me when I leave because that's the agreement that Reuven made with me when he decided to give me a ride. Meaning that it's not what the Gemara is talking about, whether the ox fell into the hole and ruined the water right away or not. No, no, no. This is something that Shimon did with his own hands. The second he entered the car with the chicken, he already started ruining the car, and that already was putting the agreement in jeopardy if he wouldn't follow through with the agreement by taking his chicken out, meaning that he does not have the same case as what the Gemara says where the bull ran off and damaged somebody else's property. No, in this case, he ruined the property with his own hands. Now, to arrive at such a conclusion, only a genius, someone who has the entire Torah in his mind... in jeopardy if he wouldn't follow with the agreement by taking his chicken out, meaning that he does not have the same case as what the Gemara says, where the bull ran off and damaged somebody else's property. No, no, in this case, he ruined the property with his own hands. Now, to arrive at such a conclusion, only a genius—someone that has the entire Torah in his mind—

20:27and knows what the answer is, could give you. You see, Rabotai, when a person has a Rav that has Yirat Shamayim, he doesn't only have a Rav that is going to tell you about punishment, about a risk, no, no. He also has someone that's gonna give him answers, whether that answer is going to please you or not. Why? Because his fear of Hashem comes before his fear of you. When Lot left Avram, he didn't understand that he's not only losing a business partner, he's losing his rabbi. But he's not only losing his rabbi, he's losing... His source of teaching was what Yirat Shamayim is. Because we know that later on, HaKadosh Baruch Hu told Avraham, "Now I know that you fear Hashem." This means that Avraham Avinu reached the highest level of fear of Hashem. It signifies that Avraham would not make a single move without asking, "What does Hashem want?"

21:42Not what I want, what I feel like, what I think is right, or what makes sense to me. No, what does Hashem want? What does Hashem say here? Allowed, not allowed. When Lot lost, or better said, when Lot gave up his partnership with Avraham, he also gave up his future, his understanding, his connection to Hashem, and put himself on a path to destruction. to destruction. And that's why he became a key member, a judge in Sodom and Gomorrah, one of the worst places that planet Earth ever had. On that, we'll talk more about next week. Be'ezrat Hashem, this will give you a little bit of clarity of what it means to have a Chacham, what does it mean to have a Rav that has Yirat Shamayim, how to pick friends, and most importantly, how to pick partners. But best of all, that it's worth it to continue toiling and toiling over Torah, not just during the weekdays, but on Shabbat also. Why? Because that's the greatest peace of Olam Haba. Shabbat Shalom, Shabbat Mevorach. B'Shem Hashem, we are very excited to offer you the new Be'ezrat Hashem app 3.0. It's a newer, faster app, full of Torah, lots of Kedusha, with the shiurim that we do, myself, Rabbi Efraim, Rabbi Chaim,

23:10where you'll also have newer features, enabling you to use the app while you're engaged with other applications on your phone. You'll be able to share the shiurim directly from the app. You'll be able to donate online and support our kehillah and our Torah work that we're doing. And the most exciting feature is that you'll be able to actually ask questions directly on the app and get answers from the rabbis directly from the app. This is something unprecedented, and Baruch Hashem, we will be able to offer it. Thank you again for all of your support. Check it out. Make sure you have the Kosher Torah that will re-energize your neshama each and every single day. Call to b'chavod tzara.