For an Hour, He Didn’t Answer the Call of the Wealthy Man

THE DAILY SHIUR OF MOREINU HARAV ELIEZER BERLAND SHLIT”A, FROM THURSDAY, THE NIGHT OF 23 SHEVAT, PARSHAT YITRO, AFTER MAARIV:

Today is the Yahrzeit of Rabbi Simcha Aryeh Halprin, father of the entire Halprin family, who would say Birchat HaMazon for a full hour.  At the wedding of Yitzchak, who married Gol, at his wedding, there was a very wealthy man who wanted to give a hundred dollars, maybe a thousand.  He [the wealthy man] called him, and he didn’t answer; he calls, and he doesn’t answer.  He asks, “Why doesn’t he answer?”  [They tell him:] “He’s in the middle of Birchat HaMazon.”  And so it was that five times he called, and they told him just “Birchat HaMazon.”  [The wealthy man said:] “A full hour for Birchat HaMazon?!  If that’s how it is, he receives the whole wedding [for free].”  He gave him the whole wedding, in the merit of Birchat HaMazon, because this brings the bounty.

Now we are in the parashah of the hostages, like Achinoam the Jezreelite, and Avigail the Carmelite [who] were among the hostages.  David turned to Biden, to Macron.   They said that they would make all the efforts to free them; in the end, they said that there is major progress.  David waited for a month or two, and nothing moved [forward].   We went to Qatar and they told him to return Jerusalem, free 10,000 terrorists.  David didn’t agree to anything, went into the 10,000 -- 10,000 “innocents” “uninvolved [i.e. ‘non-combatants’]”.  They only found their DNA.  They already [couldn’t] find bodies, nor ashes.  Only according to the DNA did they see [that there was] 10,000.  Today, there is a trial in the Hague; everyone is invited to come to the trial.