A vort from the Rebbe on this week's פרשה, פרשת לך לך. In פרשת לך לך, we learn about the war that took place between the four kings and the five kings. And the four kings head headed by Kedorlaomer won. Not only did they capture Sedom, Amorah, etc., etc., they also captured Lot, who lived there, the nephew of Avraham. And the pasuk says ויבא הפליט, the survivor came, ויגד לאברם העברי, he told Avraham that his nephew was captured. And Avraham went to fight, and he saved Lot, etc., etc. The Midrash says, who was this פליט, who was the survivor? It was Og. And the Midrash says ולמה נקרא שמו עוג, why was he called Og? Because שבא ומצא את אברהם יושב ועוסק במצות עוגות. Og comes from the word עוגה. עוגה is an expression that is written by matzot. It says matzot have to be עוגות מצות. עוגה means a circle, but עוגות מצות goes on matzah. And his name was called Og, because when he came to tell Avraham the news, he saw Avraham eating matzot, which are called עוגות. And he said, \"You know what? I'm going to tell him that his nephew got captured, so he's going to go to war, he definitely will get killed, and then I'll take his wife, Sarah, as a wife.\" So the Rebbe asked peshat in Midrash: why is it important that when Og came to tell Avraham the news, he was eating matzah? What difference does it make that he was involved in the mitzvah of עוגות, the mitzvah of eating matzah? There must be some reason that the Midrash is telling us that this has to do with this story that we're talking about.

So the Rebbe explains like this: by doing this, the Midrash is answering a question. The question is, why did Og think that Avraham is going to go and fight with these four kings? The four kings were very strong. That's why they won over the five kings. And Rashi says that they were very, very strong. So why would he think that Avraham is going to go put his life in danger with such a small army or whatever little he had, in order to save Lot? He probably wouldn't even do it. So what made Lot, or made Og think that Avraham is going to do it? That's why the Midrash adds: he came and he saw Avraham sitting and involved in the mitzvah of matzah, saw him eating matzah. It says in Zohar that matzah is מיכלא דמהימנותא. Matzah is a food of emunah. If you eat matzah at the right time, on Pesach, it strengthens your emunah. So he saw that Avraham is eating matzah, that means Avraham is strong in his emunah, and it's emunah which is beyond seichel. So logically, taka it makes no sense for Avraham to go and fight Kedorlaomer when they are so strong and so large, etc., etc. But with emunah higher than seichel, and if you have the real emunah in the Aibershter, you could do anything. So when he saw him eating matzah, then he understood that probably he's going to go fight, beyond the logic, beyond the cheshbonot, the calculation you make in your seichel. He's going to go with mesirut nefesh to save Lot. And he, since he didn't have emunah, Og, so he thought he'll come and he'll get killed in the war, and he'll take his wife. But the reason he assumed that he's going to fight this war, even though it's dangerous, because he saw the emunah that he had. Where did he see it? In the fact that he was eating matzah.