Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello my friends, and welcome back to this week's episode of the Practical Parsha Podcast. This is Rabbi Shlomo Cohen and I hope you are well.
This week's Parsha is Parshas Vayishlach.
And before we jump into this week's Parsha, which is jam packed with so much information, so much to learn from my usual spiel.
If you have any questions, comments, just would like to say hello.
I enjoy reading all your emails. Feel free to send me email at Rabbi Shlomokon kohnmail.com I'd love to hear from you.
This week's Parsha is Parshas Vayishlach. And just to give a real basic and quick overview of the parsha, because there's just so much here to discuss. The parsha begins with a continuation from last week's Torah portion and tells us how Yaakov sends messengers. He sends these angels as messengers to his brother Esav that Yaakov is informed. Jacob is informed that his brother Esav still harbors this hatred towards him, and now he's coming to kill him with 400 men. The parsha tells us how Yaakov prepares himself for an eventual meeting with Esav. And he prepares in three different ways.
He splits his family up, he prepares for a possible war. He davens to Hashem, and he prepares a tribute to bribe Esav in the hope that it'll cause him to reconcile.
[00:01:37] Speaker A: As the Parsha goes on, we learn of this encounter that Yaakovinu that Jacob has with the angel of Edom, which is the angel of Esav, which is also the Yetzer Hara, the evil inclination, which is also the Satan. It's interesting, there's a lot to talk about here, the significance of this meeting.
But basically, Yaakov forgets these small utensils or pots after his family is traveling, and he has to go back a little bit behind him to recoup some of his belongings that have been left behind in the last place where he camped out. And the Parsha tells us how he meets this angel who represents the nation of Esav. He's the ministering angel of Esav. And, uh, like I said before, it's also a connection because this angel is also representative of the Yetzer Hara, the evil inclination. And the Parasha tells us how he battles. He wrestles with this malakh with this angel.
And as they're wrestling, this angel cannot overpower Jacob, but yet strikes him in his thigh. And there's many significances to this whole battle. Maybe we'll get into it a little bit today.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: There's a lot of explanation and deep meanings to this meeting between Yaakov and the Malakh. The parasha continues with Yaakov's meeting with his brother.
And Esav has pity on his brother Yaakov, and at that moment, and he decides they make peace with the situation. And in fact, the Torah tells us how Esav tries to encourage Yaakov to stay together with him, that they should be together, and Yaakov politely refuses and goes on his way. The Torah also tells us this week about Yaakov journeying to Shechem and how the people of Shechem, they're living there together with Yaakov and his children. And the ruler of Shechem sees Yaakov's daughter Dina and desires her. He abducts her, rapes her. And the Torah tells us how the brothers of Dina, the sons of Yaakov, take vengeance for the violation of their sister and destroy the city of Shechem.
Um, finally, the Parsha finishes with the death of Rebekah, as well as the birth of Binyamin and the death of Rachel. The first idea I want to share with you today takes us to the beginning of the Parsha. The Parsha starts off.
Vayishlach, Yaakov, Malachim, Lefanov, El Eisav, Ochiv, Artza, uh, Seir steadom.
It says, then Jacob sent angels ahead of him to Esav, his brother, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom. And Yaakov tells these messengers, these angelic messengers, what to tell his brother, right? To tell them, you know, to send. You know, he sends them as intermediaries to try to make peace with Esav, to sort of appease him.
And actually, I saw it's brought down a very powerful idea. Rabbi Tursky brings down that. We see from the verses, um, that as the psukim continue, that these Malachim, these angels, they went to Esav, but what did they come back and tell Yaakov, right? He says they come back and tell him that Esav is coming towards you with 400 men.
Which means that when the Malachim, when the angels went to Esav as intermediaries to make peace, to appease his brother Esav, who hated him, who was in disagreement with Yaakov, they weren't successful in their mission of trying to calm down the tensions and to get rid of some of the hate, to dissipate the hate. It didn't work because we see they came back and they told Yaakov he's coming towards you with 400 men, full steam ahead. So we see it wasn't necessarily effective now. Now, Rabbi Twersky brings down, he says, we see a very powerful idea here.
And he actually, he prefaces it with a story about two great Hasidic masters. Now, just to give a little, obviously, when we're talking about the, you know, Avraham Yitzchak Yag, these are great people now. And also the. We talk about our Torah leaders and you know, different sages, they were. They're great people.
And he brings down that there were once two tzadikim, two righteous people, and he brings their names down. I guess it's not relevant right now. Two great Rebbes, two great Hasidic rebbes, and they had some type of disagreement with each other, whatever that means. Exactly.
And people went to try to appease them, but it wouldn't work.
And he says, actually, uh, bring it down. He says that Rabaruch of Mezhabez, who's one of the parties that was in this disagreement, and he said that if Yaakov Avinu of Jacob sent intermediaries, angelic intermediaries, Malachim, to go and to make peace with Esav, and they weren't effective. So all the more so if we send human intermediaries now between, you know, the people that are fighting, right.
It's not going to necessarily work. It's very challenging. And the idea here is, what he's trying to bring out is that sometimes direct communication between people solves problems.
And we see that here firsthand as the Parasha progresses, because we see that when Yaakov actually speaks directly to Esav, right.
The hatred dissipates. Right? Now, obviously, he did his part. We'll get into that. He dived into Hashem, um, and Hashem made the right words come out now. But on a practical level of us, how we act when we deal with people directly and communicate situations can be resolved as long as we have the wherewithal and the desire and drive to get to clarity. And I think that's a very powerful idea. We see from this week's Parasha.
We know that it says a person.
I saw homiletically, it's brought down in perkiyavas. It says, do not judge a person till you reach his place. And the simple understanding of that is that we shouldn't judge a person until we're actually in his shoes. We're in his place.
But the point, the another way of understanding it is that Robert Twiersky brings down is that we shouldn't judge a person till we're right there. Meaning to say, till we're in his place, till you've reached him personally, till you've, you know, till you've gone to him and you've tried to deal with the situation. And I think this is a very powerful tool that we should have. When we're dealing with others, how often do we have disagreements with people? But the disagreement is not really a disagreement because we're not. It's just because we're not communicating properly.
I would say that 80% of the arguments that people have is not because they're arguing. It's because they're not communicating properly. So when we remove the barriers and we speak directly to each other.
[00:09:07] Speaker A: It'S a vehicle. It's something that we can use to help bring about peace between each other. And just to bring out this idea a little bit more and take it one step further, we see in the psukim, in the verses that Yaakov Avinu Jacob prepared for this encounter with Esav in three different ways.
He prepared for battle. He sent these bribes or gifts to appease his brother, and he daven. And if you look in the verses in the Torah, what does it say when he was davening? He says, hatzilenimi.
It says.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: Yaakov says, rescue me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esav, for I fear him, lest he come and strike me down. Mother and children. And it's brought down from the megalomukis that the significance of Yaakov repeating the word miyad ochi, uh, miyad asav, this, that it said the hand of my brother, the hand of Esav, is signifying this idea that a brother who is an enemy is a much worse enemy than a regular enemy, that the brother has this capability to strike much harder than someone who doesn't know you. And he's against you, right? And he brings down Rabbi Plissken from a taisvis in the Talmud, in Tainus, it says that based on this, that just like a brother can be someone's worst enemy, so too someone who once was our enemy can be our best of, uh, friends.
Logically, that if somebody who was very close to us can be the worst type of enemy that we could have, so it comes out on the opposite side that if someone was our worst enemy, they could also be our closest of, uh, friends the opposite way. And I think this is a very important idea. You know, Talking about. We started off this Shir this podcast with this idea of direct communication, that when Yaakov had that direct communication, he was able to break the barriers down.
But there's another point, which I want to take a step further here, is that when we take that step and make that communication with people, that maybe we don't see eye to eye with people we're not so close with, we have to realize that we have the capability to make something very strong. And really, to help us understand this a little bit, I feel like when somebody hurts us who's close to us, it hurts much more. And I think the idea is when we have someone who we didn't get along with and we're able to overcome that, we're able to take the challenge that we went through and make the friendship even stronger. And I think that's why the people you're closest with are the people you've gone through things together with in your life.
So it just makes sense logically. This is obviously Taisvas is saying, this is the commentaries that they explain that if we're able, If a brother could be the worst enemy, so so too our enemy could be our best friend. Meaning to say, we have the capability to turn that hatred, to turn that, that, you know, that, you know, the rough edges into true love and closeness.
And, you know, if you look at the world that we live in, there were many countries that were bitter enemies with each other, that are now close allies.
So the point is, obviously that's, uh, on a bigger level, but the point is that we can take relationships that we have, and maybe it's not, uh, the great relationship, but we have obviously sometimes, and sometimes there's no one to talk to, to go forward and to change things around. But many times there is, and we're the ones holding things back.
So the point is, if we could, we can learn from this week's parsha that if we're willing to sometimes have that direct communication, we have the ability to change things around that people that were once, I don't want to say enemies is very strong, but against us, were harassing us, were, you know, maybe not working with us or very challenging for us.
We have the ability to change those relationships around and to make it that those people should be very close to us. And I think it's from the challenge and from working that through, which is communication and having that correct attitude, we're able to get there. Bezos Hashem, the next idea I want to share with you is still on this, you know, discussion. The preparations of Yaakov for meeting with his brother Esav.
Now, we described a little bit his preparations and the significances of that. But what I want to focus on now is some of the wording that Yaakov avinu that Jacob has and the prayers that he has when it comes to preparing for Esav. He's davening to Hashem, he's praying to God, and Yaakov Avinu, you know, first he makes a plan. He's saying, um, I'm going to plan. Posseh says he's splitting up his camp into two different camps so that if one camp is struck, the other one will escape. He's making some type of, uh, rescue plan, what to do and how to handle the situation. And then he davens.
And the wording that Yaakov uses is very interesting. He says as follows.
[00:14:55] Speaker A: I have been diminished by all the kindness and by all the truth that you have done your servant for. With my staff, I crossed this Jordan. And now I have become two camps.
And if you look at Rashi, Rashi explains, what does it mean, Katointi, that I have become diminished? Rashi explains that this means that Yaakov was saying that he was afraid that maybe through his actions, maybe he sinned. He used up his merit that he had that any merit that he had accrued, you know, in his quote, unquote bank account, he had used up now, and he would be delivered into the hands of Esav.
Now, there's another understanding here. There's a lot of depth here. Another understanding which I saw, which was very interesting, is brought down by the sesame the sevasemis brings down from the khuza of Lublin. A very powerful idea.
The nature of people is. Is such that when we don't have anything, you know, and we don't have so much, we have a better recognition of Hashem. Right? And, you know, even in the material world, a person who has nothing, he remembers who he is. It's not hard for him to remember. He sees he doesn't have much.
[00:16:17] Speaker A: It's harder for him to become haughty and to have this sense that he's better than anybody else because he's trying to scrounge around for his basic needs.
But sometimes you could take that same person.
Once he's become successful and has money and has a lot of things going for him, everything's going well, and he's having atzlacha, he's having success, and then it's the same person.
But he has a certain sense of haughtiness. He. He thinks he's better than the next person. Maybe he thinks he's entitled to things, and he maybe attributes his success and his wealth to himself. What is the test of man? What is, uh, our. You know, when we're here in this world, what's one of the challenges that we have is something we see from this week's Parasha. How we're supposed to act.
That when a person has a lot versus has nothing, he's still supposed to act in the same way that whether a person is successful or not successful, you still have to have that same level of humility and realization that all our successes and everything we have is all from Hashem.
It's all from him. And we have to. We can't forget that for one minute.
So when Yaakov Avinu, when Jacob was preparing for this encounter with Esav, and he's davening to Hashem, he's praying, he's saying, hashem.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: I've become diminished.
He's showing his smallness.
And it's very interesting because we know Yaakov of Enu, Jacob, when he left the house of Laban, of Laban, he was extremely rich, he was extremely successful.
And now he was so successful that he split his possessions into two camps. He had so much that it became necessary for him to split everyone up. That just in case Esav attacks this camp, this other camp will escape. Meaning he had a lot. But what does he say? He says katonti. He says, I have become diminished. I am small. And if you look in the verse further, it's very interesting. He says Yaakov Avinus says. He says, for with my staff, I have crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.
What is the significance of that? He's saying, I've become small.
And I crossed the Jordan with the staff.
And now I'm two camps.
And the sesame brings down from the choiz of Lublin that Yaakovinu had this Midah of Hachno. He had m. This trait of submissiveness that he was saying to Hashem, I'm still the same person. I'm still not worthy of everything you've given me. And. And he was thanking Hashem for everything good that had happened to him. That even though he. When he came across this river the first time, when he was going to Lavan's house, when he was running away from Esav, from the house of his parents, he just had this staff. He was signifying this in the posse when he. When he's davening to Hashem, he just had the staff and now when he's crossing back to meet his brother Esav, he has two camps. He has so much possessions, he has so much. But he's still Katointi. He's still the same person that crossed the yardein, that crossed the river to begin with. With just his staff, he was remembering who he was, who gave him his success, and, you know, where all his hatzlacha had come from. And I think this is a very powerful message for us when it comes to, you know, realization of the things that happen in our lives. We are not in control of the results.
We have to do our part, but we have to remember that when things go well for us, it's very easy for us to forget who's causing that success. Now, obviously we could feel good about the strengths that Hashem, uh, has given us. We should.
But it's very easy to blur it and to think it's me, I'm so great. And the successes I've had, it's all for me. And the money I've made is because of my genius. We have to remember Katointi, we have to remember we're small, that it's Hashem who's giving us that success.
And all the time we probably don't deserve what Hashem is giving to us. We have to realize it's all from the chesed of Hashem. And I think, uh, M, that was the prayer that Yaakovina was saying. He's saying, I'm still the same person. I haven't changed. And that's something we should try to take off from this week's parsha when we live our life, that we should not forget this idea to always be the same person, no matter what situation we're in, to remember where the success comes from and where we stand in the picture when it comes to our relationship with Hashem. Um, one last idea which I wanted to touch upon in this week's episode is this encounter between Yaakov and the Malach, this angel that wrestles with Yaakov. Now, the commentaries bring down that, uh, there's a lot of significances to this battle royale between Yaakov and the angel. And some of the previous year's episodes have dealt with it. But I wanted to talk about a little bit is this encounter. Now, the commentaries explain why it was necessary for this angel to attack Yaakov.
And the basic understanding is that this, the M ministering angel of Esav, which is also the Yetzer Hara, the evil inclination, which is also the Satan, right, Which is the angel of Death, it's all one person or being, not person, it's all one being, is that this malach, right, represents evil and getting people to turn from what's right. And Yaakov, Jacob, represents serving God and reaching for something higher. So therefore, it's his mission comes into direct conflict with the mission of Yaakov. And that's why the encounter happened. And I saw one question which was brought down, a small idea is that why did this angel only suddenly appear to Yaakov, to Jacob, right? You had Abraham, he was the first patriarch. You had Isaac, uh, our second patriarch, also a great person.
But he came to Yaakov, he came now to Jacob.
Why him?
And I think one understanding which gives us maybe insight is that Avram, Abraham excelled in chesed. He excelled in kindness, doing for others.
And Yitzchak, Isaac, excelled in avodah, which is divine service, which was davening, which is praying.
And the trait that defines Yaakov, Avinu, that defines Jacob, is Torah study.
And actually we see that out of those three, the most powerful, you know, tool that we have, the most powerful aspect is the Torah study.
And we actually see when it comes to the forefathers, Avraham, even though he had kindness, right? He had Yitzchak, he still had a, ah, Yishmal, right? So even though he. He did kindness, he. It still came out that he had a son that didn't follow his ways. Yitzchak, also great, he had the. He served hashem with, you know, in purity, and he excelled in davening. But he also had a son that Esav, who wasn't. Didn't follow in his ways. But Yaakov, who represents Torah, which is also emes, which is truth, all his twelve sons that became the twelve tribes of Israel, they were all righteous. It's referred to as mito e shlema, that his bed was complete, meaning to say, his line was complete. And from that is the Jewish nation.
So we see, uh, a very powerful idea that when it comes to chesed, this malak, who represent evil inclination, he'll let chesed happen. He'll let those things happen. When it comes to davening, he'll let that happen. But when it comes to Torah study, that's what he cannot stand, that's what he cannot let happen. And therefore, that's why he came to encounter Yaakov, because that's what we're here for in this world. We're here for in this world to study Torah, to perform the Torah and everything else. Chesed, davening, and everything else falls under that. So if we're able to do that right, to be a Yaakov avin and to live on his level, everything else falls into place and that's what the evil inclination cannot sit by and let happen. That's why he came to encounter with Yaakov. So with that vision for today's podcast, I hope you enjoyed. If you have any questions, comments, or would like to reach out, feel free to send me an email at rabbi shlomo kon koh nmail.com have a great day.
