5771 פרשת וישלח

 In this week’s Parsha the Torah describes to us how Yaakov returned to Eretz Yisroel and met up with his brother Eisav. The Torah continues to describe how Eisav instead of harming Yaakov showed him brotherly love. After his meeting with Eisav, the Torah tells us how on his way back to his father Yitzchak’s house, Yaakov stopped off just outside the city of Shechem. The Torah then tells us that Yaakov bought a piece of land and built a Mizbayach and called out in the name of God.

 The Siforno explains that the reason Yaakov bought the land and built the Mizbayach is that even though Yaakov Avinu did not yet reach his father’s house he wanted to begin to keep his promise to God that he made when he originally left Eretz Yisroel.

 If we look at this Siforno a little bit closer, we can ask the following question. It is true that Yaakov Avinu did get back to Eretz Yisroel but he did not reach his home and as we know he was just about to experience another very difficult situation when his daughter was taken by Shechem. Why would Yaakov feel the need to begin to keep his promise to God at this juncture before he returned home with the knowledge that what he had requested of God came true?

 Furthermore, we can ask on the Siforno that even if you want to claim that the reason Yaakov Avinu built the Mizbayach was to thank God for all the good he had already done for him, then why assume that this Mizbayach related to his original promise and wasn’t just a separate Mizbayach that he built for the purpose of showing his thanks to God for the miracles he just had received?

 If we look at the words of the Siforno a little more closely we might be able to answer our question. The Siforno said that “immediately after reaching Eretz Yisroel he wanted to begin to keep his promise to God  and did not want to wait until he reached his father’s house” If we look at the original communication God had with Yaakov Avinu when he left Eretz Yisroel to go to Charan there were 2 promises made. The first one was made by God which was that I will return you to Eretz Yisroel. The second one was made by Yaakov that if God would bring him back safely to his father’s house he would call out in the name of God. When Yaakov reached Shechem, the original promise that God made to Yaakov came true, event though Yaakov’s request of God to which he made his promise contingent had not yet come true.

 With this idea we might be able to answer our original questions. Let us answer our second question first. The reason the Siforno explained that the reason Yaakov built the Mizbayach related to the fact that he wanted to keep his promise and not just because he wanted to thank God for the miracles that occurred to him. as he specifically waited  until he arrived in Eretz Yisroel and didn’t build the Mizbayach at any other time.

 Now let us answer our first question. When Yaakov Avinu arrived in Eretz Yisroel and he saw that God had kept his promise to him even though he felt he wasn’t worthy he felt that God would certainly continue to help him and bring him safely back to his father’s house.

 This is a very important lesson for us also. There are many times that we experience difficulties in our lives and we don’t always see the light at the end of the tunnel and it could be easy to have feelings of hopelessness. However, if a person can look at his life and see how God has been helping him all along, he will be able to realize that God will continue to help him even when he is going through difficult times.

5770 פרשת וישלח

 In this week’s Parsha the Torah describes to us the events that occurred to Yaakov Avinu during his travels back to Eretz Yisroel after his sojourn with Lavan in Charan and during his travels within Eretz Yisroel. After his encounter with Eisav, the Torah tells us that Yaakov traveled to a place and he built for himself a house and Sukkos for his cattle. It is for this reason that he called the name of this place Sukkos.

 The Ohr Hachayim asks that the Pasuk seems to say that the reason Yaakov called the place Sukkos is because he built huts for his cattle. It would seem strange to name a place after something as mundane and commonplace as building huts for his cattle.

 The Ohr Hachayim answers that it could be that due to the pity that Yaakov had on his cattle, he was the first one to build huts for cattle and due to the fact that the concept of barns was initiated in this place Yaakov named the place after the innovation.

 However, we can still ask that the Torah does not have even one extra word, is it possible that the Torah would add six words to commemorate a technological advance made by Yaakov Avinu? Furthermore, Yaakov Avinu was the person who named the city after the technological feat; it is hard to understand that Yaakov Avinu who was the epitome of someone whose life was entirely grounded in Torah would find an innovation for shepherds to be something warranting commemoration. In fact, all the other places that Yaakov Avinu named related to a spiritual occurrence that occurred in those places.

 The answer can be found if we focus a little more closely on the words of the Ohr Hachayim. When he describes the fact that Yaakov Avinu innovated the barn he adds the words “due to his pity on the cattle.”

 The idea that Yaakov Avinu was telling us was that the reason he made the barn was not due to a need for efficiency but rather because he felt for the suffering of the animals. The idea that it is important to have pity on God’s creatures and the steps Yaakov Avinu took to minimize their being uncomfortable was important for Yaakov to impart to the people of his generation by naming a city after that idea and it is was also important enough of a lesson for the Torah to spend six extra words teaching it to us. 

 We can take this idea one step further. If the Torah felt having pity and recognizing the needs of an animal is so important, certainly we have to be super aware of the needs of the people around us and to do whatever we can to ensure that they are not suffering in any way and obviously to also strive to not cause any suffering to any of the people around us.

פרשת וישלח 5769

 In this week’s Parsha the Torah describes to us the confrontation between Yaakov and Eisav. The Torah continues and describes to us the emotions of Yaakov and how he went about preparing for this confrontation. The Torah tells us that Yaakov did three things in preparation for meeting Eisav which were sending him a gift, preparing for battle and Davening to God for assistance.

 The Torah tells us that when Yaakov was on his way to meet Eisav, he sent messengers to tell Eisav that he was coming and that he had lived with Lavan and he now has many possessions. When listing his possessions Yaakov told his messengers to say that I have oxen and donkeys and sheep. The Rabbainu Bechai is bothered by why Yaakov first listed the oxen and donkeys and then the sheep since in all other places the Torah mentions the sheep first since they are the most precious of the species. The Rabbeinu Bechai answers that Yaakov did not want to mention the sheep first since it was through the sheep that Yaakov took the Berachos from Eisav. This was in order not to anger Eisav further.

 The Torah then continues to tell us that Yaakov was afraid of Eisav. The commentaries including the Rabbeinu Bechai explains that Yaakov was afraid since he thought that maybe he had done a sin which would cause the promise that God made to Yaakov to protect him to be annulled.

 The Torah then describes to us the gift that Yaakov sent to Eisav. When Yaakov sent the gift to Eisav, he first sent goats which are a type of sheep. The Rabbeinu Bechai asks, if when Yaakov first sent his messengers he did not mention the sheep first because he knew that would inspire additional hate in Eisav and Yaakov was afraid of that, so why when he sent the gift did he put the goats (type of sheep) first?

 The Rabbeinu Bechai answers that when he first sent the messenger it was before he had prayed to God so he was afraid of instigating Eisav. However, when Yaakov sent the gift he had already prayed to God for salvation and he was therefore no longer afraid of Eisav. On the contrary, Yaakov now wanted to scare Eisav by mentioning the sheep first which showed that he was not afraid of Eisav.

 We can ask the following question on this Rabbeinu Bechai. We know that the reason Yaakov was afraid was that maybe he transgressed thereby annulling the promise that God had made with him to protect him from Eisav, so why would he suddenly be feeling so confident that God would protect him after praying. Did that somehow make this potential sin go away? The Pasuk does not say that Yaakov repented for a sin he had done, it just said that he prayed and it was the prayer that gave him confidence.

 The answer can be that the fear Yaakov had originally, was based on the fact that sin could have caused God’s promise to be annulled. However, he also understood that prayer works on a totally different track. A person who sins may lose the ability to receive special protections and other good things in this world based on their merits but someone who turns to God in true prayer can still be confident that his sins will not prevent his prayer from being accepted and answered by God. This is why Yaakov could have been confident that his prayer would be answered even though he was still afraid that he might have committed a sin that would prevent his merits from being enough to save him from Eisav.

 We can learn from here the incredible power that proper prayer has to impact our lives and it even works when we are not perfect Tzadikim.

 If prayer is so powerful, the question then becomes, why when we pray we don’t always get what we ask for. This can be for two reasons. The first is that when we daven we don’t always pray with the right kavanah and might not necessarily be completely putting our faith in God.  The second reason could be because sometimes what we ask for is not what is truly the best thing for us and only God knows that.

 If we can use this wonderful gift of prayer properly we should merit having God overlook our sins and bring the Geulah quickly in our lifetimes.     

פרשת וישלח 5768

 In this week’sParsha the Torah describes to us the confrontation that occurred between Yaakov and Eisav. Before meeting Eisav the Torah tells us the following:

And Yaakov was afraid (Vayitzer).

All the commentaries discuss what is the meaning of the word Vayitzer?

 The Baalei Tosfos explain the idea the following way:

 He was upset that he was afraid of Eisav after God promised him and said “I will be with you and I will watch over you wherever you will go”.

If we look at this explanation a question arises. We know there is a famous midrash and a gemara that tells us why Yaakov was afraid. The midrash says that Yaakov was afraid since Eisav had been doing the mitzvos of honoring his parents and living in Eretz Yisroel which Yaakov had not for the last 22 years. Yaakov felt that those merits would hold Eisav in good stead when he fought against Yaakov. The Gemara tells us that the reason Yaakov was afraid is that maybe he did a sin which would cause him not to be worthy of the promise God made to him.

Granting the above reasons being true why would Yaakov feel bad about being afraid of Eisav? He had a valid reason to believe that the promise God made to him would not be enough against Eisav.

The explanation of the Baalei Tosfos could be that on some miniscule level Yaakov was afraid.  He justified that fear by saying that there is a reason why the promise of God would not apply to him. However, if he did not have this leaning of this small amount of fear, he would have realized that he had nothing to fear due to the promise of God. This is why Yaakov was upset at himself for not trusting in the promise of God.

From this explanation of the Baalei Tosfos we can learn a very important lesson. Many times when we have decisions to make, we try to make them as honestly as possible based on the facts. However, we see from here that sometimes even logical arguments can be the result of some underlying emotion of which we may not even be aware. This can cause us to make incorrect decisions. It is very important for us before we make a decision to ensure that the only factors that are coming into play are the true facts and not ideas that come about through our leanings.

5767 פרשת וישלח

 There is a very interesting midrash that can teach us a very important lesson.

When Yaakov was preparing for battle the Pasuk says the following:

Yaakov was afraid.

The Pasuk uses 2 different words for fear. 

 It seems from the Pasuk that Yaakov Avinu was afraid of Eisav. The midrash gives 3 different interpretations of what Yaakov was afraid of. Let us examine just the first one.

 The first answer is also quoted by Rashi and that is as follows:

When Yaakov said the first language of fear  he meant he was afraid to kill Eisav. When he said the second language of fear – he meant he was afraid from being killed.

The question is why was Yaakov Avinu afraid to kill Eisav. We know the halacha is that if a person wants to kill you then he has a din of a rodeph and there is no prohibition of  killing him. Furthermore, we see from the fact that when Yaakov Avinu prepared for battle with Eisav  he divided his camps into two and gave the following reason:

If Eisav will come to one camp and kill them and the other camp can escape.

 We see from here that Yaakov Avinu thought that Eisav might want to kill even other members of his family and in that case we know there is an additional mitzvah of not standingidly by when someone is being hurt.

 Furthermore, we see that Yaakov was more afraid of killing Eisav than he was of dying himself since by the word describing the fear of killing Eisav the Pasuk uses the word very to describe the fear, however by the word meaning being afraid to die it doesn’t use the word very.

Based on the fact that there is a mitzvah to protect his family and definitely not a sin to kill Eisav since Eisav was a Rodeph so why was Yaakov so afraid of killing Eisav?

We can answer this question using an idea that is brought down by the Baalei Mussar. We know that our charachter traits are impacted by our actions. The more a person does a certain action it can impact a trait that relates to it. For example, the more a person does acts of kindness; the trait of kindness becomes more ingrained in them. This is true for all the different charachter traits. This is also true regarding bad character traits. The more a person does an action that relates to a bad character trait, the stronger that trait will become in him.

This is what Yaakov Avinu was afraid of. Even though killing Eisav would have been the correct thing to do, if it came to that, Yaakov Avinu still knew that the action of killing would have a detrimental effect on his charachter traits and his spirituality in general. This was even more of a fear to him than being killed.

Let us examine this midrash a little more closely. Yaakov Avinu lived with Lavan for 20 years. He lived in an environment of trickery and stealing and he stood up to all the outside pressures as we learn from Rashi who brings the famous line  I lived with Lavan and I still kept all 613 mitzvos. If this is the case, why was Yaakov avinu afraid that one action that was in fact a mitzvah; even though it used a bad trait was going to hurt his spirituality?

The answer is that even though he lived with Lavan for all those years he never actually did any actions  of trickery with his hands. Yaakov Avinu had no problem dealing with his evil surroundings as long as he wasn’t doing the actual actions he could stand up to the desires that were all around him. However, what Yaakov Avinu was afraid of is what would happen to his spirituality if he actually had to do with his hands an action that relates to a bad charachter traits. This is because actions that people take have much more of an impact on people than anything they can see or hear even in their immediate surroundings.

 We can learn a very important lesson from this which is how careful we must be with our actions. Every action we do can have a lasting positive or negative impact. If we try to be on top of our actions we can use one good action to lead to another and grow tremendously in our service of God.