Lech Lecha

                                   Make sales not excuses.

Chacham Grossman not only told me this Dvar Torah he showed it to me.

1. Last week we read about Noah and the flood. How many people did Noah convince to come with him on the ark, how many sales did he make? Zero, his family went with him and no one else. Your family is pretty much forced to go along with you on any of your crazy schemes.  

1. This week we are introduced to Abraham. Abraham is a man of faith and a natural leader. The text tells us he took the souls that he made in Charan with him. He already had a following. Abraham is one of the most popular and influential leaders of all time. Over 3 billion Muslims, Christians and Jews revere Abraham. If he had a TV show it would be titled,  Everyone loves Abraham.

2. Why was Abraham able to convince so many people? Monotheism has had a tremendous impact on the world, while Noah was not as influential.

3. Noah shared some of the responsibility for the flood. In the Prophets the flood is referred to as the waters of Noah. Noah waited for it to start raining before he went into the ark. He did not have full faith in G-D .  

3. Abraham is told to get up and leave his hometown and he does so with no questions. Abraham passed ten trials of his faith. He believed in G-D’s kindness. Noah lacked the conviction in his words an attitude which was Abraham’s greatest asset.

4. When you are exposed to a good teacher or a good salesman they are excited about the material or the product they are speaking about. You can see it in their eyes and hear it in their voice. The enthusiasm is infectious and it spreads to the students and clients. It is not something that can be faked. In order to be a great salesman you must truly believe in what you are selling.   

Berashis 5773

Happy Birthday to You!!!!

1.The Vilna Gaon states in this week’s parsha the creation of time takes place.

What is the shape of time?  The classic perspective is the linear view, time is shaped like a straight line. Time has a beginning and never repeats itself, similar to the apparent daily motion of the sun. A more modern approach is the cyclical view of  time, it  is in the shape of a circle. Time repeats itself and has no absolute beginning or end, similar to the cycles of the moon.  

When the Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi  was in prison, A guard asked him about Bereishit. G-D knows everything, why does G-D ask Adam “Where are you?” when he is in the garden after he sins? The Rebbe explained that the Torah is not just a written history of the past but a direct message to the present. It is timeless and eternal. The text is speaking to us directly asking all the descendents of Adam, Where are you?

2. Everything in the Torah is a direct message to us today about our personal life. What does the creation story tell us? What lesson can we learn today from it?

3. The ARI states that we should not look at creation as something that happened in the past, rather we should see it as something that is constantly being renewed each second.  Every morning we must thank G-D for creating us anew. We should never take our existence for granted, it is constantly being given to us every second.

4. A television is a great example of this.  At first glance we see a clear image of someone on a screen, however if we look closer at the monitor we would see it is just groups of pixels of the same color, then when we look even closer the pixels are just flashing for a brief second. The image is constantly being renewed. This is the picture that modern quantum physics has painted regarding the nature of the existence of matter.

4. Both perspectives on time are correct, simultaneously.  You have a birthday once a year and every day is your birthday.  The Jews use a hybrid solar/lunar calendar to demarcate the duel nature of time. The Lubavitcher Rebbe describes the shape of time as a spiral.