Parshas Hashavua – Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld · Lesson 44 · 15 Kislev 5783
Vayishlach: 5783 - Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld from Nachlah with a wonderful insight for the weekly parsha: why do we say in davening 'the G-d of Avraham, the G-d of Yitzchok, and the G-d of Yaakov.' Why don't we say…
Guest: Shimon Zonnenfeld
Episode description
5783 - Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld from Nachlah with a wonderful idea for the weekly parsha: Why do we say in our prayers "the G-d of Avraham, the G-d of Yitzchok, and the G-d of Yaakov"? Why don't we say "the G-d of Yisrael"? And also a story from his great-grandfather, Rabbi Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld. Watch:
Machine translation into English of the automatic Hebrew transcript.
00:01 Speaker 1 On that same subject, I once heard something from Reb Levi Pressman, a"h. Every day in Tehillim we say, “Were it not for Hashem, Who was with us, let Israel now say.” On a simple level, that sentence is hard to understand. “Were it not for Hashem, Who was with us, let Israel now say.” So he used it to explain another question: Why do we say in davening, “the G-d of Avraham, the G-d of Yitzchak, and the G-d of Yaakov”? Why not “the G-d of Israel”? After all, that name appears in the Torah, in the weekly parsha. He explained: If you count the letters, “the G-d of Avraham, the G-d of Yitzchak, and the G-d of Yaakov” comes to exactly twenty-six letters. If it said “Israel,” it would be twenty-seven. That is the meaning of the verse: “Were it not for Hashem, Who was with us”—Hashem’s Name, the name Havayah—“let Israel now say”: we would have to say “Israel.”
00:53 Speaker 2 Beautiful.
00:53 Speaker 1 And since yesterday was the Rebbe’s wedding anniversary, I’ll share something about marriage that I heard from my grandfather, who was the rabbi of Jerusalem. He explained: It says that a groom “is forgiven all his sins.” Why? It’s wonderful that he got married, and it’s a great joy. But why is he forgiven all his sins? The same is true of the bride: she is forgiven all her sins. So he explained that it’s the same idea as with a sotah. Hakadosh Boruch Hu says: Let My Name be erased, yes, but for the sake of making peace—
01:25 Speaker 2 Between a husband and wife.
01:26 Speaker 1 Between a husband and wife. Along the same lines, he says that sometimes after the wedding, all kinds of problems come up between the wife and the husband, and they start blaming each other. “This is because of your good deeds,” and “this is because of what you did”—all sorts of things. Hakadosh Boruch Hu says: I forgive all his sins. Don’t start fighting and saying it’s because of this or because of that. I forgive all his sins. There are no more sins.
01:51 Speaker 2 Beautiful. So, there you have it.