On Monday of this week, 15 Kislev, a shiur was held in the home of Moreinu HaRav Eliezer Berland shlit”a for English speakers and for Yeshivat Noam Hashem, a yeshiva especially for young English-speaking men.

Below is a summary of the shiur:

The Rav shlit”a began the shiur on the subject of how Rabbi Shimon cried and said that because of the four words of Avraham [in Hebrew], “If only Yishmael will live before You,” we are suffering to this day.  Afterwards, the Rav shlit”a spoke about the blessings which Yishmael received, “And I will cause him to be very, very fruitful,” that the Muslims received a blessing to be billionaires, but only Yitzchak received the true blessing – the covenant!  After this, he spoke about how the city of Hebron didn’t consent to Avraham performing Britot, but Avraham insisted on it. The Rav shlit”a concluded the shiur after forty minutes on the topic of the match which Eliezer searched for, and the conundrums which he had about Avraham – how he sent him to take the daughter of the biggest sorcerer in the world – something which the Rav shlit”a compared to taking the daughter of Saddam Hussein – while he, Eliezer himself, had a righteous daughter who grew up according to the path of Avraham and Sarah.  This was Eliezer’s test, to know that Avraham knows what he is doing, and in the merit of this he merited to see in Rivka both Yaakov and Esav.