A vort from the Rebbe on this week's parshah, Parshas Lech Lecha. Parshas Lech Lecha we learn about the war that was between the five kings and the four kings, and the four kings won, and they captured Sedom. Lot lived in Sedom, so they captured Lot and every all his belongings. And then the pasuk says ויבא הפליט ויגד לאברם העברי, that the palit, which is Og, came and told Avram what happened, that they captured his nephew, and Avram went to war with the four kings, and he saved Lot. And the Midrash says that when Og came to tell Avram that his nephew was captured, he saw Avram eating matzah. Connected to the word Og, Og comes from the word עוגות, עוגות מצה. By matzah it says the word עוגות, so he came and saw Avram eating matzah. And what he did was, he told Avram, the reason he told Avram that this happened, so the Midrash says, he said, I know if I tell him, he's going to go to war, and he'll definitely get killed, so I'll be able to marry his wife, Sarah. So the Rebbe asks a she'eilah in the Reshimot: Why is it important to know that when Og came to tell this to Avram, he saw that he was eating matzah? What difference does it make what he was eating at that time? How does that What does that explain? Why does the Midrash say that?

And the Rebbe explains it like this: He was going, as it says in the Midrash, to tell Avram in order to have Avram go to war and get killed. So he assumed Avram is going to go to war. Why do we think that Why did he assume that Avram is going to go fight? Avram, such him, just him with a few people, whatever how many there was according to the different opinions, but l'foal he was a small crowd against the four mighty kings. Why did Og think that Avram is going to go and fight a war when it's a great danger? Makes no sense. So when he came to tell Avram, what made him think that Avram is going to listen to him and go? So the Rebbe says that's why the Midrash tells us that he saw Avram eating matzah. It says in Zohar that matzah is מיכלא דמהימנותא, מצה is food of emunah. And Chassidus explains, what does it mean food of emunah? How do you eat emunah? So it says that you could have אמונה בדרך מקיף, you could have emunah in a superficial way, that it's not really real in your mind. You believe, you believe, but after all, when it comes push comes to shove, it's not real to you. Like the Gemara says you could have a גנבא אפום מחתרתא רחמנא קריא, you can have a ganav when he's stealing, when he's breaking into someone's house, he's asking the Aibershter that he should be successful. So here he believes in the Aibershter, but he nevertheless steals because the belief, the emunah is not real in his mind. So what you have to do is you have to get the the emunah in a pnimiyus. It has to be like food that you eat. Like food that you eat becomes part of you, the emunah has to become part of you. And that's what happens when you eat matzah, it says in the Zohar. When you eat matzah on Pesach, it's a food of emunah, that it strengthens your emunah and it makes your emunah become real. So when Og came to Avram to tell him, he wasn't sure whether Avram is really going to go to war, so is it worth telling him? When he came and he saw Avraham Avinu eating matzah, and he knew that matzah is מיכלא דמהימנותא, that means Avram is now absorbing this concept of emunah in the Aibershter beyond logic. It became part of his life that there is an Aibershter, and when you believe really in the Aibershter there is no logic what naturally could win and could not win. You do what's right. That's what made him decide to tell Avram that Lot was captured, and he was sure that Avram is going to go to save him. And then he didn't have the belief in it, so he was sure that Avram is going to die. But he was sure that Avram from his side is going to have such a strong emunah that he's going to go and do it. And that's the reason why the Midrash says that when he came he saw Avram eating matzah, and that gave him the courage to tell Avram, hoping, being sure that Avram is going to go to war. And then he himself, not believing, was sure that Avram will get killed, and he'll be able to marry Sarah his wife.

But what it shows here is that even Og Melech HaBashan understood that by a Yid there is emunah. He didn't have the emunah, but he understood that by a Yid, through eating matzah and bichlal, there is such a strong emunah that anything that you have to do, if it's the right thing to do that you have to do it, there's nothing that will stop you. Even though logically it doesn't make any sense, a Yid has emunah, and he does what he's supposed to. And the truth is, as we see by Avram, Hashem made it that he takeh was successful, even though it didn't make any sense in דרך הטבע. By a regular Yid, by every Yid like that, that when you know something that the Eibershter wants you to do, even though it doesn't make sense in your mind, you'll still do it, and the Eibershter helps that you're matzliach in accomplishing your mission.