Petr Chamor

Dec 29, 2023

· Megilla 17b asks why the 9^th Brocha on the Shemonah Esray of Birchat Hashanim precedes the 10^th Brocha of Kibbutz Galiot.

· It answers that when the Jews come back to Eretz Yisroel, there has to be a vibrant economy awaiting them.

· Then it quotes Yecheskel in chapter 30 that says, ‘Mountains of Israel, let your trees bring forth their branches and fruit because my people are coming home’.

· However, in the end of days when the Jews come back to Israel, they will have to contend with the Arabs.

· Rambam to Breishis 16:12 – ‘He is a wild man, at home in the wilderness.  At the break of dawn, he goes out to his chosen work: aggression: He attacks everything, and all attack him.  This is manifest in his descendants, who are at war with all nations.’

· Rabbi Chaim Vital in Eitz Hadass Tov: ‘At the End of Days, Israel is destined to experience the Ishmaelite exile.  This fifth and last exile will be the most difficult of all.  It is the exile of Ishmael, who is called pere adam, a wild man.

· I’d like to say a joke that’s relevant regarding our conflict with the Arabs.

· What brocha do we make that asks Hashem to confuse the Arabs?

· We say it every night.

· Baruch Atah Hashem, Maariv Aravim.

· I would like to share with you two chiddushim of my wife Miriam.

· First why are Arabs called Arabs?

· And second, what mitzvah do we do that contains a message to the Arabs that do not have a claim to Eretz Yisroel and to the line descending from Avraham to Yitzchak and Yaakov?

· The Koran describes the Akaida saying that it was Yishmael that Avraham bound to the Altar, not Yitzchak, implying that the chain flows through Yishmael not Yitzchak.

· What mitzvah tells the Arabs, the line flows through Yitzchak and not Yishmael?

· The November 7, 2023 issue of Mishpacha magazine had a great article by Rabbi Chaim Aryeh Zev Ginzberg the Rav of the Chofetz Chaim Torah Center of Cedarhurst, called An Exile Like no Other.

· He tells a fascinating story.

· In Elul of 1970, Arab terrorists hijacked a plane that included Rav Ytizhak Hunter, the rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Chaim Berlin.

· The head of Agudah Rabbi Moshe Sherer asked Rabbi Shalom Rubin, a childhood friend of Rabbi Ginzberg, to go to Washington to reach out to everyone to arrange for Rav Hutner to be freed, among other reasons, because he wasn’t in good health.

· After several weeks, the negotiations were successful, and Rav Hutner was scheduled to arrive in Kennedy airport.

· Here is a quote from the article:

· Due to his integral role in this effort, Rabbi Rubin was given permission to go onto the tarmac to be one of the first to meet the Rosh Yeshivah. Rabbi Rubin called his son Moshe, who was in my home at the time, and told him to get ready as he would be picking him up to come with him to greet the Rosh Yeshivah — and he invited me to come along.

· As we were waiting for the plane to come to a stop at the gate, we saw the door to the terminal open and watched as the gadol hador, Rav Moshe Feinstein ztz”l, took his place as the first to greet Rav Hutner upon his arrival.

· From my vantage point, I watched the Rosh Yeshivah emerge from the plane in very weakened condition, and I saw Rav Moshe literally run to him. They hugged each other while crying with much emotion and relief. I saw Rav Hutner whisper something to Rav Moshe, who nodded his head in agreement, and then Rav Hutner was escorted to the waiting ambulance.

· On the way back home, I asked Rabbi Rubin what Rav Hutner had told Rav Moshe. He answered that Rav Hutner said, “I looked into the eyes of the captors and saw in them the burning anger at the fact that ‘lo yirash ha’am hazeh,’ they will never inherit the Land.”

· https://mishpacha.com/an-exile-like-no-other/

· Rabbi Ginzberg mentions what several people suggest is the source of Yishmal’s merit, zchus.

· Rashi and Ramban focus on a tefillah that Avraham Avinu offered on behalf of Yishmael, the request, “Lu Yishmael yichyeh lefanecha — Would that Yishmael will live before You.”

· The Zohar (parshas Vayeira, no. 188) suggests that Yishmael’s power stems from his willingly undergoing a bris milah at the age of 13.

· I googled this, and it seems that almost all Arabs undergo a bris, though it’s not a full bris, as it doesn’t include Pri’a.

· The Nesivos in his sefer on Aggadah, Nachlas Yaakov, says that when Hagar abandoned Yishmael, because she couldn’t bear to watch him die, Yishmael cried and did teshuvah. In the merit of that teshuvah, the malach came and blessed him that he would become a goy gadol, a great nation. This cry of teshuvah earned Yishmael a claim to Eretz Yisrael that would last until Redemption.

· As we’ve seen, Yishmael is a formidable enemy.

· Psalm 120 says, “ I have dwelled among the tents of Kedar.  My soul has long dwelled with those who hate peace.  I am peace, but when I speak, they are for war. “

·  (Kedar is one of the son’s of Ishamel) 

· The Rambam says in Iggeres Teiman that Muhammed descends from Kedar.

· He says, “We are burdened with the subjugation, their perfidy, and their lies beyond the limits of our endurance.  It is as our sages have taught: to suffer the lies and falsehoods of Ishmael in silence.”

· Chofetz Chaim: “The Torah’s description of Ishmael as a ‘wild man’ is eternal.  Even if we find Ishamaelites who are well educated professionals, they never shed this basic trait.  Who knows what this wild one is destined to do to the Jewish people.”

· One way that we see that Hashem has given power to Yishmal is that just as the Jews are returning to Eretz Yisroel, the car and the internal combustion engine were invented, giving rise to an almost insatiable need for oil, that just happened to be found in enormous quantities under Arab land.

· As I’ve mentioned before, it says in Brochos 58b that two ideas must be mentioned in the 2^nd paragraph of benching that deals with Eretz Yisroel – Milah and Limud Hatorah.

· Rashi gives the 2 psukim that explains this.

· Since Yishmael has a form of Milah, of our greatest weapons in this struggle is Limud Hatorah, and Rashi adds, also Mitzvot.

· Now for my wife’s two chiddushim about the Arabs.

· First, why are Arabs called Arabs.  Ishmael’s father is Avraham from Shem, and his mother is Hagar from Cham – from 2 lines from the sons of Noach.

· From Avraham and Shem he gets Kedushah, and from Hagar and Cham he gets heat. 

· So he has this weird amalgam of hot and crazy kedushah.  He’s a mixture of these conflicting components.

· He is Meurav – mixed up – thus the name Arab – he’s a mixture of Kedushah and emotional heat.

· Next, what Mitzvah in the Torah contains a message to Yishmael that he will not get Eretz Yisroel, and that the covenantal promise from Avraham – Zarecha Acherecha – runs through Yizchak, not Yishmael.

· It’s the Petr Chamor – where we take a first born donkey, and shift its status onto a sheep. If we don’t do this transfer, we have to chop off the head of the donkey.

· Who is the Am Demoh Le Chamor, as explained in Kiddushin?

· It’s Yishmael.

· Not only that, Yishmael was a first born donkey.

· When we do Petr Chamor, we are re-enacting what Hashem did with Yishmael.

· Hashem took the status of Yishamel and transferred it onto Yizchak – and the Jewish people are often compared to sheep among wolves.

· And the main message is to Yishmael.

· Hashem didn’t regard Yishmael as worthy of the covenential lineage – this had to be transferred onto Yitzchak.

· And the message is to Yishmael – he shouldn’t feel bad that he lost this premier status – Hashem is telling him the message, that if Hashem hadn’t done this, Hashem would have had to chop his head off.

· I mentioned this incredible chiddush to Ami Kohen, a friend from Monsey who is the son of Rav Dovid Cohen.

· Ami Cohen spent many days looking in Otzar Hachachma trying to find anyone who ever thought of this amazing Chiddush, and he concluded that Miriam is the first one.

· It’s a Chiddish that I hope that Yishmael digests and accepts.