VAYISHLACH - THE MEETING BETWEEN YAAKOV AND EISAV

Yaakov Avinu had been forced to leave his parents home at the age of 63 after he had received the brochos from Yitzchok for which Eisav did not forgive him. In fact, the Torah tells us that Eisav hated Yaakov because of this and Yaakov then went into hiding for 14 years learning day and night in the Yeshiva of Eiver, the great grandson of Shem. He then made his way to Choron as instructed, but Elifaz, the son of Eisav, ambushed him and all the valuables that he had with him, given to him by his parents, were handed over as ransom for his life.

As the medrash tells us, Elifaz stated that he had been sent to kill Yaakov but Yaakov told him עני חשוב כמת a poor person is counted as dead.

Yaakov then spent 20 years with Lovon amassing a family and wealth.

On his way back to Eretz Yisroel, he was confronted by Lovon and successfully made a pact with his father-in-law.

As we are told by Rashi, quoting the medrash, Yaakov Avinu was still very apprehensive about this brother’s attitude to Yaakov. He, therefore, sent מלאכים ממש , namely angels who were with him, as mentioned right at the end of the sedra Vayeitzei, to find out whether Eisav had by now calmed down and whether his hatred had become diminished.

The sedra of Vayishlach commences with the story from that point onwards. We are told that the angels came back and reported to Yaakov that “We had come to your brother but he was still the same Eisav”, in a very nasty frame of mind. Not only that, but he is coming towards you and your family with 400 men. Yaakov Avinu was terribly afraid. He split his family and belongings into two separate camps and he prayed to Hashem. He also sent lots of presents to Eisav in the hope that this would satisfy him but he then had a further problem.

Overnight, after he had transferred his family and belongings to the other side of the small river יבק, Yabok, he was confronted by a man. Our חז''ל tell us that he was none less than the שרי של עשו, the angel who looked after and represented Eisav. Whilst it is true that Yaakov bested the angel, he, nevertheless, suffered a serious injury, ותקע כף ירך יעקב, and Yaakov’s hip became dislocated.

The next morning, before Yaakov could take precautions, when he was in a bad physical state, all of a sudden Eisav appeared. Yaakov tried to separate out the various wives and children into three separate groups and the stage was set for the two brothers to meet for the first time in 34 years.

Let us examine in detail what happened, Yaakov bowed down to the ground seven times when he reached Eisav. Eisav ran towards him, embraced him, fell on his neck, kissed him and cried. He then proceeded to speak to Yaakov very civilly as the Torah continues to tell us.

Truly extraordinary!!

We are told only a day or two before this, that the malochim had reported back to Yaakov that Eisav was still in a terribly ugly mood and out for revenge. Surely the presents that Yaakov had given didn’t change the position so dramatically?

I think that the answer to the point raised lies in the fact that Yaakov bowed down to the ground seven times and got up again.

Remember Yaakov was limping badly, having a dislocated hip. I once asked my dear friend Dr A S Levy, whether it was possible for somebody with a dislocated hip to actually bow down flat onto the ground. After consideration, he said that he thought that it was possible. How about him then getting up onto his feet? I enquired. That would be a virtual impossibility unless he was an extremely strong person both physically and mentally, was the answer. I continued with my enquiries. To be able to do this seven times?, I asked. He just shook his head in disbelief.

I believe that the same thing happened when Eisav watched Yaakov coming towards him.

Eisav’s ethos was, כחי ועוצם ידי, my physical strength is what beings me all my greatness.

He watched in disbelief when his brother, תם ויושב אהלים, the simple man used to sitting in the houses of study suddenly turned out to be a very, very strong person physically. The one thing that Eisav respected was brute strength.

(The Torah revealed to us previously that Yaakov was very strong. This was when he removed the large stone from the well outside Choron. All the shepherds were needed each day to perform that task together. Yaakov did it himself with ease. Eisav, however, did not know about that incident.)

When he saw this display of strength and courage by Yaakov, Eisav’s resolve melted and he decided that discretion was the better part of valour. That is why, I would suggest, he ran towards Yaakov embraced him, kissed him and cried, because he was afraid that if he tried any strong arm tactics, he would be defeated.

No doubt, Yaakov’s tefillos to Hashem had a strong effect, but the crunch was seeing Yaakov bow down seven times and then him raise himself up without assistance.

יב כסלו תשס''ט

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VEYEITZEI

Yaakov Avinu wished to marry Rochel. His future father-in-law, Lovon, duped him into taking Leah first and the net result was that he ended up with both Rochel and Leah, as well as their handmaidens, Bilhah and Zilpah as wives.

He also had to agree to serve Lovon not just for seven years, as he had suggested for Rochel, but a further seven years as a sort of payment for dowry.

Not only that, there was a further six years that Yaakov worked very hard trying to build up his own flocks of sheep and capital.

As we find towards the end of the sedra, Yaakov himself declared that he hardly had any time to sleep as he was so busy looking after Lovon’s sheep etc.

Children born to Leah and Bilhah and Zilpah came very quickly indeed and in the space of only six or seven years, Yaakov had, in fact twelve children including one daughter, Dina, and Yosef was finally born to Rochel after much trial and tribulation.

One interesting fact that I have not seen discussed, is that the children’s names were give by the two main wives of Yaakov, namely Leah and Rochel. Why did not Yaakov give them names at all, at least of some of them?

The only time we find that Yaakov himself gave a name, was when the family finally returned to Eretz Yisroel and Rochel was expecting her second son, and she had great difficulties. Just before she died, she named him בן אוני, the son of my anguish. Yaakov then renamed him בנימין.

Why was it that the two אמהות named the children.

I believe that the answer lies in the whole set up of the family relationship and Lovon being the father-in-law. Yaakov had a major problem with regard to the chinuch of his children. He was preoccupied day and night and could not give them very much attention. It is true that Rochel and Leah were both צדקניות, very righteous people and also נביאות but even so, they were in the same town as Lovon and the whole atmosphere of Aram Naharaim was not conducive to bringing up children in the way that Yaakov had, himself, been brought up in the home of Yitzchok and Rivka, and Avrohom as well. It was going to have to be the ladies who were going to take the whole brunt of bringing up the children correctly. In order to give them even more incentive to care for each child, to ensure that they adhered to the correct path, Yaakov gave them the task and pleasure of naming the children one by one. This, no doubt, gave them even more reason to look after each child very carefully and deal with the responsibility in a very mature manner.

The one exception to the rule was in the case of Levi, where, although Leah had said, הפעם ילוה אישי אלי, “this time my husband will accompany me more”. The verse continues על כן קרא שמו לוי. It does not say that she called him לוי but that He called him לוי. Rashi quotes our Chazal that Hashem sent the Malach Gavriel to bring him before Hashem and He called him that name.

Why was it that just in this case, Leah did not give the actual name.

May I suggest that this was because after having named both ראובן and שמעון in each case mentioning the name of Hashem, in the case of לוי she did not mention Hashem at all. In order that לוי should have that extra spiritual level, Hashem himself gave the name and, therefore, as Rashi adds, Hashem gave him the 24 special מתנות כהונה, special presents which a Kohen receives.

In respect of the fourth son, born shortly afterwards, namely יהודה, Leah reverted to mentioning Hashem, הפעם אודה את יהו' , this time I will thank Hashem. Because she actually did this, rather than just mentioning Hashem having seen her affliction, in the case of ראובן and seen that she was “hated” in the case of שמעון. In the case of יהודה, she thanked Hashem. Because of this positive thanking, one can understand why the eventual Malchus, the kingship of all of Israel comes from the tribe of יהודה. It is particularly epitomised by Dovid Hamelech.

Turning to the youngest son, בנימין, whom I mentioned above, we know that prophecy only comes through simcha. Obviously, in the case of Rochel when she was in death throes and gave the name בן אוני, this was not with prophecy. Therefore, Yaakov named his son בנימין. Rashi explains that this means the son who was born in the south of Eretz Yisroel or alternatively, who was born in Yaakov’s old age. The Ramban suggests that “the son of my strength” is a sensible explanation of the name.

At that time, Yaakov had no further bad influences such as Lovon and Aram Naharaim to worry about as he was already in Eretz Yisroel and on the way back to his father’s house. He, therefore, himself named his youngest son with the name by which he is still known to this day.

When the Bais Hamikdosh was erected the greater portion of this was in the land of tribe of יהודה. This obviously went with the malchus.

However, the holiest part, the מזבח and קודש קדשים were built on the land of בנימין. I would suggest that this was not only because בנימין was the one child who was born in Eretz Yisroel, furthermore, he was the one son who had not bowed down to Eisav but in addition to this, his name was given by his father Yaakov. Yaakov had a famous dream mentioned at the beginning of the sedra and he laid down on the stones which appear to have been of that very place, namely the Holiest part of the Bais Hamikdosh the קודש קדשים or alternatively the מזבח. In any event, it is fitting that as he, himself, given the name to his youngest son, that son’s portion in Eretz Yisroel should be the one designated for the מזבח and the קודש קדשים.


PLEASE ALSO READ MY EARLIER POST ON THIS BLOG "YAAKOV'S SHEEP"

ה כסלו תשס''ט

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YAAKOV’S SHEEP

The Sedra Veyiteizei contains the whole story of Yaakov’s sojourn in Haran. We are told that he wished to marry Lovon’s younger daughter Rochel and was duped by Lovon who switched Rochel with Leah. Yaakov did finally marry both plus, of course, two further hand maidens, Bilhah and Zilpah. From these good ladies came the twelve sons of Yaakov known as the shevotim and, of course, Dinah. In order to marry Rochel, Yaakov worked for seven years, as a shepherd, for Lovon and then worked a further seven years after he was given Leah before Rochel. At the end of the 14 years he approached Lovon with a request that he be allowed to earn as an independent person rather than employee and so build up some capital himself. Interestingly enough, Yaakov did not request money or chattels in payment.

We then have the extraordinary suggestion made by Yaakov as follows; there were sheep of all colours, plain white, speckled, striped etc, other than white. Yaakov suggested that all the animals that were not pure white should be separated out and kept completely separate from the ones that were with white wool.

He, Yaakov, would retain the ones that were pure white and only the off spring of those white sheep which were striped, speckled and otherwise coloured in some way would be Yaakov’s property to retain.

Lovon jumped at this suggestion because it meant that he did not have to actually physically pay any money but he also did something which had not been agreed, namely, Yaakov, suggested that he himself would separate out the pure white from the others but Lovon and his sons went and did it the same day, obviously because they were scared that some sheep would not be separated properly.

The posek carries on והכשבים הפריד יעקב, Yaakov separated the lambs. The Seforim HaKedoshim state that this alludes to the souls, 600,000 plus males over 20 years of age who stood at Har Sinai and accepted the Torah. Yaakov then proceeded to use a number of objects including dark coloured ones to put in the troughs where the sheep came to drink and subsequently all sheep born were not white, but speckled, striped etc.

It is related about R’ Moshe Teitlebaum, the Yismach Moshe, that he said that he could remember being one of the sheep concerned and even showed a mark on his back where Yaakov had once hit him to get him into line. Indeed, remarkable!!

Yaakov’s flocks increased rapidly and he became rich. The Medrash states that Yaakov’s sheep were measured in the millions. This, of course, could tie in with the males, females and children of Bnei Yisroel who, no doubt, exceeded 3 million at the time of יציאת מצרים .

The Sepher גלי רזיא states that we find a verse as follows דבר צוה לאלף דור Hashem gave the Torah (at the end of) a thousand generations. The Gemora says that we only received the Torah 26 generations after בריאת העולם, and there were 974 generations previously. Those generations were not actually brought down in this world. What the גלי רזיא says is that the souls of those generations were מתגלגל reincarnated (?) into the pure white sheep set aside by Yaakov.

The גלי רזיא also states that this accounts for the great and rapid increase in the numbers of the Bnei Yisroel during their 210 years sojourn in Egypt. They had to achieve over 600,000 males alone after having gone down to Egypt with only 70.

We, therefore, can understand why Yaakov wanted to have as his reward, lambs that had been separated in the particular way. The question occurs to me as to why Yaakov suggested the separation that particular way round, namely that he should retain the white sheep and all the others should be taken away by Lovon. Subsequently, all the ones that were striped, speckled etc. were Yaakov’s reward. He could have done it the other way round, namely that he should retain all the spotted, speckled etc. sheep and Lovon should take the white ones. In fact, it would have made sense because of the name, Lovon, meaning white.

I would suggest that Yaakov wanted to produce the souls of the Jewish nation who accepted the Torah from a completely pure source, namely, those which had not been utilised, being from the 974 generations before the world was created. However, Yaakov realised that however pure these souls were, because we have a verse which states כי אדם אין צדיק בארץ אשר יעשה טוב ולא יחטא , there is no righteous person on this world who does only good and has never sinned, that is was incumbent on him to prepare these souls himself, for use. Therefore, although they would become somewhat “soiled” over later generations, because of Yaakov’s involvement, it would be possible to purify the souls once again subsequently לתקן אותם

Because of this, he retained the pure white ones, and then proceeded to make the offspring speckled, striped, etc.

As I stated earlier on, the souls of the Bnei Yisroel stood at Har Sinai and accepted the Torah. We find at the beginning of Bamidbar that Moshe was told to count them and the total count then was 603,550. The word לגולגלתם is mentioned twice, it is usually translated as a head count but I am suggesting that this refers back to the original souls of the 974 generations which via the intercession of Yaakov had passed over to the members of Bnei Yisroel.

We also find that Hashem instructed Moshe to tell the Bnei Yisroel to set aside two sheep each day, one to be sacrificed in the morning and one in the afternoon
את הכבש האחד תעשה בבוקר – ואת הכבש השני תעשה בין הערבים. The lambs had to be perfect תמימם. This is known as the קרבן תמיד.

If one bears in mind that the Jewish year is based on the lunar calendar but 7 in every 19 years had a leap month, an extra Adar, to bring it in line with the solar calendar this would mean that there were be 365 times 2 equals 730 sheep sacrificed each year, as the קרבן תמיד. The first temple stood for 410 years. The second stood for 420 years, totalling 830 years. If one multiplies 730 by 830 this comes to 605,900 sheep in total for the two Temples.

However, we know that for three years before the Chashmonaim recaptured Yerushalayim and the nes of Chanukah is celebrated the קרבן תמיד was not sacrificed.

Antiochus had decreed that the bringing of קרבנות should be stopped and it took three years until this was restored. (See History of the Jewish People, The Second Temple Era, pages 64 and 72.)

This would, therefore, amount to 3 x 720 = 2,160 sheep not having been brought as a קרבן תמיד during that period. This would, therefore, leave only 603,740 sheep during the 830 years that the two בתי מקדש stood.

Furthermore, the Gemora tells us in three places (Sotah 49b etc.) that two descendents of the Hasmonean, named Hyrkonus and Astrobolus, were fighting one another. There was a power struggle to rule the country. Whoever controlled Yerushalayim would control the whole country. Hyrkonus was outside Yerushalayim and Astrobolus inside. There was a shortage of lambs for קרבנות. The people inside sent money over the walls and lambs were hauled up. Hyrkonus was supported by the Hellenists who spoke Greek and tried to adopt the Hellenistic culture. One elderly person who understood this, told them that as long as the service in the Temple continued, i.e. sacrificing the קרבן תמיד, etc., those outside would not defeat the ones inside. Therefore, the next day, when money was sent over the wall they sent an unclean animal, a pig, and when it reached halfway up the wall it put its nails into the wall and the whole of Eretz Yisroel was shaken by this.

From this we see that there were times when the קרבן תמיד was suspended and not sacrificed. Furthermore when the Romans besieged Yerushalayim some time before the destruction of the second Temple, it would appear that there was nothing to eat in the city and therefore, there was very unlikely to have been any animals to sacrifice, as they would have, otherwise, been used to give people food to eat.

We even find this in respect of the first Temple where, before its destruction, Nebuchadnezar besieged the city and once again there was hunger. It would therefore be fair to assume that the lambs needed for the קרבן תמיד were just not available. Therefore the total figure of 605,900 needs to be reduced somewhat.

The number of Jewish People, who were counted at the beginning of Bamidbar, amounted to 603,550 as I mentioned above. Would it be too fanciful to suggest that the amount of sheep sacrificed in total at the time of the two temples was the same as the amount of Jewish people counted as mentioned above. These, in turn, had the souls of the sheep that Yaakov had set aside 250 years earlier and these souls themselves had come from the 974 generations before בריאת העולם.

The verse I quoted earlier on was והכשבים הפריד יעקב, the gemmatria of כשבים is 372. Remarkably all the other lambs which were brought as קרבנות in a year, other than the קרבן תמיד twice daily, add up to 372, this is arrived at as follows:-

Every Shabbos 2 x 52 104
Every Rosh Chodosh 7 x 12 84
7 days of Pesach 7 x 7 49
2nd Day of Pesach extra 7 7
Shavous 9
Rosh Hashanah 7
Yom Kippur 7
Sukkos 7 x 14 98
Shiminei Atzeres 7
372

You will, perhaps have noticed that the original verse I quoted והכשבים הפריד יעקב refers to the lambs as being כשב. When I quoted the verses concerning קרבן תמיד, it is called כבש. Whilst the first letter remains the same the ש and the ב are inverted. In most every place in Torah where “lamb” is mentioned, it is written כבש. Perhaps we can understand why when Yaakov separated the lambs the order of the letters is inversed and we have כשב.

There is a very famous Medrash about the letters of the alef bais appearing before Hashem and requesting that the whole of Torah be commenced with that particular letter and it starts from ת and works backwards. Finally, Hashem says to the ב yes I am going to chose you because you represent ברכה a blessing. That is why the first letter in the Sefer Torah is a ב. Bearing in mind that I mentioned above the pure unsullied souls that Yaakov utilised in respect of the lambs came from the 974 generations before creation of the world, prior to בראשית, by writing the word כשב with the ב as the last letter, there is an allusion to the fact that this all came from prior to the ב.

However, later on when the קרבן תמיד was sacrificed and other korbonos were brought from lambs normally the expression used is כבש because these were sacrificed subsequently to the Torah having been given.

חז''ל tell us מעשה אבות סימן לבנים the actions of our forefathers, Avrohom, Yitzchok and Yaakov, have a bearing on, and influence how, future generations behave and what transpires in future generations. I believe that Yaakov’s sheep are a prime example.

ב טבת תשס''ח

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