Vayeira: 5784 - Speaking their language: Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld of Nachlah, with a wonderful idea that the Rebbe told his father in yechidus, why did the angels eat from the food that Avraham Avinu served them?…

00:00 Speaker 1 Please.

00:05 Speaker 2 “It is a time of trouble for Yaakov, and from it will come healing.” Out of the trouble will come a very great salvation. The Rebbe’s explanation of the difference between Rabbi Akiva and Nachum Ish Gamzu is well known. Whenever something bad happened to Rabbi Akiva, he would say, “Everything the Merciful One does is for the good.” By contrast, when something happened to Nachum Ish Gamzu, he would say, “This, too, is for the good.” The Rebbe explains the difference: Rabbi Akiva meant that something good would come of it in the future. It is true that right now it is something bad, but in the future something good will come of it. Nachum Ish Gamzu, on the other hand, was not speaking about the future. “This, too”—what is happening right now—“is for the good.” So even when we cannot see it, this, too, is for the good. We need to daven and ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu to let us see it as open and revealed good. And of course, this has a bearing on our situation now. A personal story: This was just after the Yom Kippur War, around the time I got married. My parents traveled abroad, to America. The wedding was there, and they traveled for it. They both came from long-established Jerusalem families, people of the Old Yishuv. For them, traveling abroad was something very unusual. Before my father, of blessed memory, traveled, he wrote a letter to the Rebbe asking for a blessing for his trip to his son’s wedding. He also added: “The custom in Jerusalem is that the honor of officiating at the wedding belongs to the groom’s side.” In other words, he could decide who would officiate. So he asked the Rebbe and offered him the honor of officiating. He added, “It is written in the holy seforim that at the time of a wedding

02:33 Speaker 2 even the parents of earlier generations who are already in the World of Truth come and take part in the joy of the wedding.” So he wrote to the Rebbe, “My grandfather will be there at the chuppah—he was the rabbi of Jerusalem. It would be a great honor for the Rebbe to officiate.” That was the letter he sent, with his request to the Rebbe. Two weeks later, he received a reply. The Rebbe answered as he always did to wedding announcements, writing that the wedding should take place at a good and auspicious time, that they should build an everlasting home on the foundations of Torah and mitzvos, and wishing them “Mazel tov, mazel tov.” He wrote nothing about the request. My parents traveled and attended the wedding, and afterward they went in to the Rebbe for yechidus. The Rebbe received my father warmly. My father, of blessed memory, was an open, outgoing, very sociable person. When he went in, he introduced himself to the Rebbe: “I’m Reuven Dunin’s father-in-law and Shimon Sonnenfeld’s father.” The Rebbe smiled broadly and said, “We hear reports here that over there in Haifa they’re turning worlds upside down.” That was the Rebbe’s response, with a very broad smile. Then the Rebbe said something else to him, from the weekly parsha. The Rebbe said: “It says of Avraham that when the angels came to him, ‘He placed it before them, and he stood over them, and they ate.’ What does eating have to do with angels? Do angels eat?” Rashi says there that they made it appear as though they were eating. But why mention that the angels ate? Angels have nothing to do with eating. Rather, when you come to a place, follow its customs. That was the answer to my father’s request. Since it was the custom that the Rebbe no longer went out to officiate at weddings, he was

04:56 Speaker 2 telling him to follow the custom of the place. The angels, too, when they came into this world, made it appear as though they were eating. And that answer also relates to our situation today. We live here in the Middle East: when you come to a place, follow its customs. You have to speak Arabic. You have to speak Arabic; that is the language they understand. Our whole problem is that we are not speaking their language. We need to start speaking their language. When you come to a place, follow its customs. And with Hashem’s help, salvation will come out of this. There will be a great salvation from all the troubles we are facing now. There will be a great salvation, with Hashem’s help. Good Shabbos.