Toldos: 5784 - 'Rav Saren Shmu'ati': Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld of Nachlah, with a timely idea from our parsha, how careful one must be about "rumors" • The idea was delivered at the conclusion of…

00:00 Speaker 1 Please.

00:03 Speaker 2 There is a well-known saying of the Alter Rebbe that we must “live with the times.” Our Rebbeim explained that this means living with the weekly parsha. We are reading Parshas Toldos. It begins: “These are the generations of Yitzchak, the son of Avraham. Avraham fathered Yitzchak.” The question is: Why the repetition? If Yitzchak is Avraham’s son, then obviously Avraham fathered Yitzchak. Why does the Torah repeat it? Rashi explains there that the scoffers of the generation would say, “Sarah conceived from Avimelech.” So what did Hakadosh Boruch Hu do? He performed a special miracle: He made Yitzchak’s face resemble Avraham’s. Immediately, everyone said, “Avraham fathered Yitzchak—he looks exactly like him.” First of all, who are these “scoffers of the generation”? We know of the great people of a generation, its sages and its tzaddikim. What are “scoffers of the generation”? Is that a category? I think that if we want to put it in today’s terms, the scoffers of the generation are parts of the media that try to shape people’s perceptions. They put a rumor into circulation. For example, “settlers are violent.” As soon as you say “settler,” it means “violent.” Or “religious people are parasites.” So any religious Jew with a beard and peyos is a parasite—even if he works and serves in the army. It’s a way of shaping how people think. Parts of the media do this. By the way, these are also the scoffers of the generation. They put some rumor into circulation, and it spreads, until everyone says, “What, you don’t know? The whole world knows.” I once heard Reb Motl Kozliner say: A few scoffers say, “Sarah conceived from Avimelech,” and because of a few scoffers, the Torah has to add a verse saying, “Avraham fathered Yitzchak”? He said, “Yes, that’s how it is

02:34 Speaker 2 in the world.” Someone puts a rumor into circulation: “You know, Sarah conceived from Avimelech.” People tell him, “Are you out of your mind? How can you talk that way about Sarah? She’s a prophetess, Sarah our matriarch, and you’re saying ‘from Avimelech’?” “Oh, come on, I was just joking with you.” It was a joke, but afterward the rumor spreads, grows wings, and everyone says, “What, you don’t know? Everybody knows that Sarah conceived from Avimelech.” So the Torah has to say explicitly, “Avraham fathered Yitzchak.” That’s what shaping people’s perceptions can do, and we’re living with it today as well. That’s why we have to be as careful as we can. When someone starts a rumor, when all kinds of rumors are spread—how careful we have to be. We don’t know how far it will go, what people will read into it, how they’ll interpret it, or what will happen afterward. This is one of the lessons we learn from the weekly parsha: “And these are the generations of Yitzchak, the son of Avraham. Avraham fathered Yitzchak.” It has to say explicitly, “Avraham fathered Yitzchak,” so that such rumors won’t lead people to interpret things incorrectly. How careful we must be with our words and not spread baseless rumors. May Hakadosh Boruch Hu help us hear good rumors and good news.

03:45 Speaker 3 Amen.

03:46 Speaker 2 With Hashem’s help, have a peaceful Shabbos.