Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] 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.
[00:00:08] Before we begin today, I'm very excited because we are going to be talking about the weekly parsha, but not just that, I'm also going to be sharing two ideas on the same verse with maybe two opposite understandings of the same verse, which is fun, which is enjoyable. And this is the beauty of Torah, that we could have the same verse with two different ideas which maybe even are contradictory to each other. I shouldn't say contradictory, but maybe, you know, they don't fit in the same space necessarily, but they can both be true. And that's the beauty of the Torah. Elu ve' elu divre elu chem chayim.
[00:00:53] These words and these words are both words of the living God.
[00:00:57] That's our job on this world, to get an understanding, to delve into the Torah. And when we use, you know, we follow the rules, the guidelines that the sages have set. So when we come out at that conclusion, even if me and you come out a different conclusion, it can be correct. And obviously it has its. We have limits in halacha. Uh, we can't just decide what we want to do. And. That's right. It doesn't work like that. But. But when we're getting to idea with clarity, and we do follow all the rules and regulations of how we get to a final point, and we both have a different idea, um, it's both correct. And that's the beauty of the Torah.
[00:01:38] So this week's parsha is Parasha zvayishlach. And before we begin, as always, if you have any questions, comments, would just like to say hello, really, just reach out to me. Rabbi shlomo hakon kohnmail.com I'd love to hear from you. This week's parsha is parshas vayishlach. And just to give a quick overview of this parsha, which is so much information, the parsha begins with Yaakov being told that his brother Esav is coming to kill him. And Yaakov prepares to meet his brother Esav in three different ways. He prepares militarily, he prays, he davens to Hashem to protect him. And he also gets a present, a tribute ready to give to his brother Esav to bribe him, to appease him so that he shouldn't harm him.
[00:02:29] The Torah continues with Yaakov journeying on and forgetting these pachem kitanem, these small vessels. And Yaakov goes back alone to get these small vessels. And he has an encounter with the guardian angel of Esav. And the Torah relates for us this struggle that Yaakov has with this angel, which signifies the eternal struggle that the descendants of Yaakov and the descendants of Esav have with each other.
[00:03:03] And as they're wrestling with each other, as the parasha tells us, the angel of Esav is not able to overcome Yaakov, but he instead hits him in his thigh.
[00:03:15] And the commentary tells us the significance of the angel of Esav hitting Yaakov in his thigh represents the support for Torah, that there's always this struggle to support the Torah, support mitzvah, support good causes. That's what that represents.
[00:03:32] The parsha continues with the prohibition against eating the um gidha nasha, the sciatic nerve, that since Yaakov was hit in this gidhanasha by the sciatic nerve. So therefore we don't eat any, we don't eat that, we don't eat anything from the sciatic nerve. The Torah continues with the encounter between Yaakov and Esav. That Esav, after seeing Yaakov, he's swayed to treat him nicely, to treat him kindly.
[00:04:03] And he asks Yaakov to travel together. And Yaakov does not want to do that. He wants to get away from Esav. And he says to him that it's not going to work. My family is very large and we're going to take a long time. And he separates from Esav. The parsha continues with Dinah, the daughter of Yaakov, being abducted and raped by Shechem and Shim' on and Levi, the sons of Yaakov, devise a plan to save their sister and destroy the city of Shechem. The parsha finishes with Hashem, blessing Yaakov, renaming him Yisrael Israel to give him another name. And finally, the birth of Binyamin and the death of Rachel, as well as Reuven's error of switching his father's bed from the tent of Rachel, who just passed on to the tent of Leah. The first idea I want to share with you today takes us to the beginning of the parsha.
[00:05:10] So the parsha tells us that when Yaakov heard that Esav was coming to attack him, he became very frightened. And the possehq reads as follows.
[00:05:20] Vayira Yaakov um me' od vayetzer vayichat tzeh sasaam asher uh ito ve' satzon ve's vah uh bokor vaagmolem lushnei machanos. Jacob became very frightened and it distressed him. So he divided the people with him and the cattle and the herds and the camels into two camps. That he split everyone up so that if g d forbid, one encampment would be hit, the other one would survive.
[00:05:44] The Midrash points out to us that the, uh, Tapasik says vayira Yaakov me' od vayetzer lo.
[00:05:51] Jacob became very frightened. And it distressed him that when Esav's coming, he was extremely scared and it bothered him.
[00:06:03] Now it's interesting you think about Yaakov. Jacob, he's one of the forefathers.
[00:06:09] He was righteous in his own merit and he was doing what g d wanted of him, right? We know that he spent many years in Laban's house. His father in law, who was evil.
[00:06:22] And he didn't change, he stayed who he was.
[00:06:25] He always followed the mitzvahs. He didn't deviate from the path.
[00:06:30] The influence of love, uh, never affected him. So what was Yaakov so scared about, always so nervous about? From his brother Esav. And the Midrash tells us that he was scared that maybe his brother Esav had mitzvos, had merits that could outweigh anything that he had and he would be successful if he attacked him, that the good deeds of Esav would be so powerful that they would knock off Yaakov. That was the distress that he had. That was the fear that he had.
[00:07:04] Now, if you think about this for a second, Yaakov we just said how great he was.
[00:07:09] And he always was an Ishtam. He was someone who studied and did the right thing all the time. And Esav was someone who didn't exactly do everything good all the time.
[00:07:20] He killed, he stealed, he committed adultery. He was not someone you wanted anyone to look up to necessarily.
[00:07:30] And yet Yaakov was scared that his brother had merits that, oh, could overpower him and allow him, to conquer him, to destroy him, so on and so forth.
[00:07:40] So the Midrash tells us that the two things that Yaakov feared, that Esav had these two mitzvahs that he had was that number one, Esav lived in Eretz Yisrael. He lived in the land of Israel, while Yaakov did not live in Eretz Israel, he lived in Mesopotamia. He left the land of Israel after he took the blessings and went to his father in law's house.
[00:08:04] So he wasn't living in the land of Israel, but Esav had the merit of staying and living in the land of Israel.
[00:08:12] And the second merit that Yaakov feared that Esav had was the merit of kibot avayim was the mitzvah of giving honor to one's parents. And we know actually that Yaakov was taken to task. He was punished for the years that he was away from his parents.
[00:08:35] And corresponding to the years that he was away from his parents, that was the amount of years that Yosef was separated from him.
[00:08:44] So we see that he was lacking in this kiber avayim to a certain degree. He was held accountable for it that. That he should have served his parents during those years.
[00:08:54] But Esav had that merit. He had that mitzvah. He did it. And even the Talmud tells us that the great rabbis and the Talmud say that they didn't even get up to the toenails to even a small fraction of the level of kibir havaim, the level of honoring one's parents that Esav did, which is hard for us to understand. A wicked person like Esav, how was he able to get such a level? But he did it. He did these two things. He was in the land of Israel, which in itself is a special merit, just to live there when he's not even doing anything necessarily, he's just living in the land. That is a merit. And number two is this merit of kiber avayim, of honoring one's parents.
[00:09:35] Now, we could talk for a while about the special mitzvah of living in the land of Israel, just living there, just being there, the specialness of that. And we could also talk for a while about the significance of kiber avayim, of honoring one's parents, that this is one of the most important mitzvahs. It's one of the ten commandments to honor thy mother and thy father.
[00:10:00] And we could see from the parasha the power of those specific mitzvahs.
[00:10:06] But what I want to bring out is not necessarily those specific mitzvahs, how powerful they are, but rather the power of a mitzvah.
[00:10:17] Think about this for a second. Esav was wicked.
[00:10:22] He lived his life, you know, doing whatever he wanted, killing people, not living in the proper way.
[00:10:29] And contrast that with Yaakov, who did everything right. He was doing what he's supposed to be doing.
[00:10:34] He was going to have the 12 tribes. He was learning Torah. He was doing mitzvahs.
[00:10:38] But yet the power of these two mitzvahs, Yaakov had a fear they could knock everything else off.
[00:10:48] So it shows to us the significance of the mitzvahs that we do, you know, if this is the, uh, power of someone who is a wicked person, Esav his mitzvahs, there's two mitzvahs. They could be so powerful. So think about the actions that we do, right, that they also are powerful. The mitzvahs we do have effects. And, you know, there's a concept the butterfly effect, and I've talked about this before, that when a butterfly flaps its wings somewhere in the Amazon rainforest, it causes a tsunami, uh, in the Indian Ocean. You know, the wind from that flap, that butterfly picks up and picks up and picks up till it causes tsunami somewhere else. And I think we have to recognize in this parasha, we see the significance of a, uh, mitzvah. You know, when we do something, we shouldn't think of it, oh, we're just doing it. We're doing something. Road. Maybe, Maybe we don't even feel it so much. And we think that our mitzvahs are not worth anything. We have to know that the mitzvahs that we do are very powerful. They're very precious to Hashem.
[00:11:52] And I think if we have that realization and remember that, so then we'll appreciate the mitzvahs that we do. We'll take them more seriously. We'll, you know, we'll believe in ourselves more about the power of our actions. And I think that's a very powerful idea from this week's Parasha. Second idea I want to share with you today takes us to Yaakov's battle with the angel of Esav. Now, this is where it's going to be fun.
[00:12:17] First, we're going to take this verse, look at it one direction, and then we're going to flip it around and look at another direction, and they're both going to be great.
[00:12:27] So the verse says as Vayevaser, Yaakov, Levado Veyovik Ishimo, ada los Hashachah.
[00:12:35] And Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn.
[00:12:41] And the commentaries tell us that Yaakov went back. What happened was he left his camping place where he was camped, and he had forgotten these small utensils, these pachem ketanem, small vessels. And he turned back to get them. And when he was going back by himself, he encountered this angel.
[00:13:05] And that's where this wrestling match happened.
[00:13:08] And the sages tell us that if you look at the verse, it tells us, vaye, vasir, Yaakov levado, that Yaakov was alone, that he got into this Battle, because he was by himself.
[00:13:23] He was by himself.
[00:13:24] And that's why the angel was able to get him, to sort of get him in this position, to have this confrontation with him.
[00:13:35] And the commentaries also tell us that this angel, aside from being the guardian angel of Esav, also represents the yetzer hara, the evil inclination.
[00:13:45] And our battle with the yetzer hara that we have throughout our life, the battle that we have with the evil inclination throughout our lives.
[00:13:53] And if you look at the verse Vayevasar Yaakov levado, that Yaakov was alone, he was detached. And the word that Rabbi Twersky used is that he was superfluous.
[00:14:08] He felt detached and alone.
[00:14:12] And that's when this confrontation happened.
[00:14:15] And we know that this world, oylam chesed yibana hashem, made this world for us to do chesed, to do acts of. Of kindness. And it's not just that our mission in life is to mirror God, to resemble God, just that, like he is merciful, we need to be merciful. Just like, you know, just like he is compassionate, we need to be compassionate. We have to mirror him. And obviously the way we do that is by fulfilling the mitzvos and learning Torah.
[00:14:49] But I think there's a very big component when you think about chesed. As Rabbi Twersky brings down, chesed is not something that can be done by yourself, that you need to do it to others. And we know that it is not good for man to be alone, that we're meant to be with other people, to be together with others, to be together with other people.
[00:15:14] And when we're together with other people, we have a. We have a way of doing chesed for each other, doing kindness for each other. And I think the bigger idea that we get from this is that when a person has a sense of community, a sense of belonging, a sense of being part of something, so then they're much less at risk for becoming engulfed, for having this confrontation with the yetzer hara, to be at risk of falling to the yetzera, falling to the evil inclination, because you're part of something larger. You know, there's strength in numbers. When a person is by themselves, they're much more vulnerable. They're much more, you know, be able to be. To be, to fall down and no one will notice and have a harder time getting back up. And that's the significance over here with Yaakov. Yaakov went back to get those pachem kitanah, to get those small utensils.
[00:16:11] And he was alone. He felt detached. He Felt like he wasn't part of anything. And right when that happened, he has this encounter with the Yetzer Hara, with evil inclination, the guardian angel of Esav.
[00:16:25] So I think the lesson that we could take out of this is that we need to be part of something, to be part of a community, to be part of, you know, to have good friends, a good support circle, you know. And I think nowadays, unfortunately, people are in their own bubbles. And we maybe we don't spend enough time as we should to be part of a shul, to be part of a synagogue, a congregation, a community.
[00:16:50] It's something which is very important to being able to succeed spiritually in our lives.
[00:16:57] Because when we have that sense of belonging, you know, our mission, our life becomes easier. The things we want to do, the spiritual goals we want to accomplish become much more within our reach because we're with other people. But when we're by ourselves, everything seems overwhelming, Everything seems too hard to accomplish. And I think this is a special idea that we see from Yaakov, from Jacob. Now, just to flip this idea for one moment, like I've been talking about, there's another way of understanding this, that when the verse says Vayevasa, Yaakov, Levado, and Yaakov remained alone.
[00:17:36] It's a positive thing. It's something which is good. And the Midrash Rabba states that just like Hashem is alone, Levado, just like God is by himself, so too Yaakov was alone. Yaakov, Jacob was Levado. He was by himself.
[00:17:57] And it's because of that trait, Levado, because he was able to be alone, he was able to be victorious over the guardian angel of Esav, the Yetzer Hara, the evil inclination.
[00:18:13] Now, it's interesting, what does this mean exactly? He was God is alone.
[00:18:18] And so too Yaakov is alone. How do we understand this midrash?
[00:18:24] And I think, uh, a very important idea that we need to internalize. And I think this actually thinking about it as we're talking, could go together with the first understanding of this verse.
[00:18:38] That true, you need to be part of a community.
[00:18:41] You need to be connected to be part of something.
[00:18:45] But a person also has to realize you have to have a sense of self, a sense of you could act on your own as well. And especially true. This is especially true when it comes to standing up for what's right.
[00:18:59] That just like Avraham, Avinu, Abraham had this trait, that he was able to be by himself and still do the correct thing.
[00:19:07] So too Yaakov had that ability as well, that he was able to stand up by himself, to do what was right, even if he was alone. You know, and we think about it for a second, you know, how many times when we're by ourselves and everyone else is doing something and we just go along with the flow, it's so hard to do something different than everyone else is different.
[00:19:29] It's so hard to do something different than everyone else. And this is a very powerful trait that we see from Yaakov. And it's not just in Yaakov. It's in all his descendants. It's in you. It's in me.
[00:19:40] And I think, to take this one step further, that's as Rabbi Plissken brings down from Rabbi Rukhim Lubavitz, that we see from here that a person has the ability to sort of create their own reality. We know in Perk Yavas, it states, ezu chacham Haleymi Koladam, who is the wise man, one who learns from everyone. Ezu gibor hakaivish es yisroy. Someone who is the strong person, someone who conquers his negative impulses.
[00:20:13] Esu asher, who is the wealthy one? Hasameach ah pecholkoy, Someone who is happy with what he has.
[00:20:21] Ezu Mukhubid says, um, someone who honors. Who's an honorable person, someone who honors others.
[00:20:29] And we see from this Mishnah that when it comes to all these traits which would lead to happiness, it's not dependent on anyone else.
[00:20:40] You know, to be wealthy, to be wise, to be an honored person, you don't need to be listed in the Forbes 500.
[00:20:49] You don't need to be the 100 wisest people or, uh, the time person of the year to be the wisest person. It's all dependent in you.
[00:21:01] And I think that idea as well. We see in this week's Parsha this aspect of Levado that we have the ability to create our own reality. Now, sure, we have challenges in our life, and it's not easy, and it's sometimes very challenging to be happy in certain circumstances.
[00:21:21] We have to recognize that we have the ability to change that reality by focusing on what we have by, you know, by appreciating others, by just, you know, focusing on the good things that are going for us in our lives and this realization that we have the ability to do all these things. No one else can control our happiness, and no one else can control how we feel. That's something which is in our hands. And there's. This is the aspect of Levado, of Yaakov Inu being able to be by himself, uh, which the Midrash tells us that just like Hashem is by himself, that everything is all encompassing. So too we have to have this aspect of Levado, to be by ourselves, to realize that our success in life and our happiness, which is what we ultimately all want, is not dependent on anyone else as well. So with that, I'm finished 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 Shlomokon Kohn at gmail com. Have a great day.
