Parshas Vayikrah 5785
- Torah Tavlin
- Apr 3
- 3 min read
סנהדרין קד.
"ברא מזכי אבא"
The Gemara says that ברא מזכי אבא, a (righteous) son can be a merit for the father, but אבא לא מזכי ברא, a (righteous) father cannot be a זכות to save a son. The Gemara expounds from a pasuk that אברהם can’t save ישמעאל and יצחק can’t save עשו. The מהרש"א explains: even if the father is a רשע, usually the parent wants better for his son. So, if the בן turns out to be a צדיק it is because the father wasמחנך him, so he is rewarded. However, if a father is a צדיק, but the son is a רשע, the father’s זכות can’t help the son, אדרבה! The son had a צדיק as a role model yet still chose to be a רשע. The [ב'עין יעקב] עץ יוסף asks: why does ישמעאל need saving? The Gemara [ב"ב טז:] tells us that he did תשובה? He answers אה"נ, the Gemara means that א"א can’t save the children of ישמעאל. This is what is meant [משלי יג'] "עטרת זקנים בני בנים ותפארת בנים אבותם". The גר"א explains: עטרת זקנים בני בנים means that a בן can be מגין on his אב all the way up to his father’s father, עד אברהם אבינו. But ותפארת בנים אבותם means a father is not מגין on his בן and is not an עטרת for them, rather the בן is only מתפאר in his אבותיו.
The עיון יעקב explains the reason a father is not מזכה ברא is because if a son would know that his father passed away as a צדיק, he would not be inclined to do טוב, but rather rely on this father’s זכות. In contrast, since the norm is that a father dies before his son, he won’t rely on his son remaining a צדיק, so he will continue to do his own מעשים טובים. Another reason, is that a father is usually מוכיח his son, so he shares in his זכותים, but a son is not מוכיח a father. [שאלה תי"ב] שו"ת תורה לשמה was asked by someone who lost both his parents within the same year and wanted to know if his saying קדיש can be a זכות for both, or should he say קדיש which would be for one parent and hire a stranger to also say קדיש and that would be for the other parent. He answers that since we say ברא מזכה אבא there would be no תועלת for a stranger to say it. He brings the מגן אברהם that if there are no children available to say קדיש it would be better for the children to pay someone to say קדיש rather than have someone say it for free. Because being paid by the children could be considered as if they said it themselves.
The [כי תבוא] חתם סופר says: when a person completes his תפקיד in life, his days are complete. If he now has more children, since he is needed to be מחנך them, he will remain alive longer. Some say this explains why the pasuk that’s said after Hallel, "ואברהם בא בימים וה' ברך את אברהם בכל", is a סגולה לאריכת ימים. Since "בכל" was another son, so even though א"א was now בא בימים and had fulfilled his תפקיד, since he was blessed with "בכל", a new son, he was granted longer life to complete his new mission.