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THE WEEKLY PARSHA

VAYAITZAI

[ Dvar Torah ] [ Passages on Prayer ]
[ Stories of the Sages ] [ Education ]

(Taken from a weekly publication of Hammaayan Institutes.
Translated by Rabbi Shabtai Teicher)

THE WEEKLY PARSHA
"Ya'akov was angry and he quarreled with Lavan; and Ya'akov answered and said, `What is my sin, what is my transgression, that you have pursued after me? When you searched all my things, did you find anything from the vessels of your household...? That which was killed I did not bring to you.... In the daytime I was consumed by drought, and by frost at night.... For twenty years I have worked for you..., and you switched my wages ten times. Were it not for the G-d of my father... even now you would send me away empty handed.'

"And Lavan answered and said to Ya'akov, `The girls are my daughters, the children are my children, the sheep are my sheep...'" (Genesis 31:36-43).

Many have strained to find an explanation to the words of Lavan. What answer is he giving to this long list of devastating criticisms which Ya'akov flings at him? Anyone who studies the parsha sees that after these criticisms and remonstrances how Lavan repaid Ya'akov bad for good, the answer of Lavan does not address Ya'akov's severe complaints, and has nothing to do with them whatsover.

However, it seems that there is a simple explanation. Lavan really does not give any answer. He is like anyone else who resists hearing the truth. He is stuck on his own interests, desires and the secret inclinations of his heart. Some people run after improper gain, and some after other lusts. They don't feel or imagine that they do not hear, that their minds are closed, that their hearts are blocked. These type of people hear only what they want to hear. Anything else goes in one ear and out the other.

In every generation the tzadik has been oppressed, downtrodden and victimized by the wicked. While iniquity and injustice pile up to heaven, the heart of the wicked is expansive and untroubled. In his own eyes he is straight and righteous.

Lot wanted to warn his sons-in-law that G-d was going to destroy Sedom and they should run for their lives. "...In the eyes of his sons-in-law it was like a joke," (Gen.19:14) and this was after the amazing events of the previous night when a mob stormed the house of Lot and all the people, from young to old, were suddenly blinded. Nevertheless, his sons-in-law could not imagine that they were sinners. Why should G-d destroy the city which to their mind was the symbol of straightness and concern for humanity? As we have said, the wicked are correct and good in their own eyes.

Moreover, Achav, King of Israel, was a big sinner who worshipped idols. Chazal say that the famine which troubled Israel during his reign was because of his sins. It was a terrible famine which lasted for three years. The prophet Eliyahu, the holiest and most perfect person of the generation, was the source of the blessings of that generation. But when Achav met him, he said (I Kings 18:17), "...Is it you, the distorter of Israel?" Instead of considering his own fault, he immediately put the blame for all the suffering and for all those who died because of the famine unto Eliyahu.

In truth, it is impossible to understand these wicked people who do not want to hear. It is also useless to try to appease them. And that is the way of the world. Those who go in the way of G-d necessarily go in a separate way. Their language is different, their culture is different, and they live in another world. Their paths do not cross with the paths of the wicked and there is no connection between them. If they try to communicate, it is like the conversation of two deaf people, and any attempt to join the two together is doomed to failure.

THE PRAYERS OF OUR MOUTH

"Those who delight her inherit honor forever...."

These words from the Musaf (Additional) Prayer of the Sabbath are difficult. In the first place, what is the connection between delighting her (i.e., the Sabbath) and honor? The reward should be in equal measure to the mitzvah. It would seem that the reward for pleasing the Sabbath should be enjoying G-d's existence. Indeed, that is what is written in Isaiah (58:13-14), "If you make your feet to rest because of the Sabbath..., then you will delight yourself over G-d."

Secondly, why do we say in the prayer, "Those who delight her..."? We do not delight the Sabbath. Those things that we do which come into the category of "delight" are for our own pleasure. Therefore, it would seem more correct to say, "Those who delight themselves...."

From the words of the Rambam (Hilchot Shabbat 30:4-5) it seems that concern for oneg shabbat (delighting the Sabbath) is included in the mitzvah of kavod shabbat, i.e. honoring the Sabbath. "It is prohibited to sit down to a regular meal just before the Sabbath because of `honoring the Sabbath'. It is permitted to eat and drink until it becomes dark. Nevertheless, because it is an aspect of `honoring the sabbath,' a person should avoid sitting down to a regular meal in the late afternoon before the Sabbath from minchah onward, in order that he will enter the Sabbath with a desire to eat."

Furthermore, he writes, "A person should arrange his table before the Sabbath in order to honor the Sabbath when it comes."

It seems that when we talk about delighting the Sabbath, we have in mind honoring the Sabbath. That is why we do not say "Those who delight themselves...." The form which honoring the Sabbath takes is to enjoy it. However, the pleasure is not for ourselves. The point of it is honor; and honor is something that we give to someone else.

Those who honor the Sabbath by delighting her, therefore, inherit eternal honor, and their reward is in equal measure to the mitzvah.

STORIES OF OUR SAGES

"And behold, G-d stood above it and He said, `I am the L-rd, G-d of your father Avraham and G-d of Yitzchak...'" (Gen.28:13).

Rashi comments on the words "G-d of Yitzchak": "We do not find any place in Scripture where G-d calls His Name upon the righteous in their lifetime..., as it is written, `In His holy ones He does not trust...' (Job 15:15). Nevertheless, here He unites His Name to Yitzchak because he is already blind, closed up in the house... and the evil inclination has desisted from him."

Rabbi Hessman z"l in his sefer "Aur Yahel" learns from here the particular danger of looking at the wrong things and the general hazard when we must mix in the company of others.

Although our father Yitzchak was called a perfect offering, he was not trusted by G-d to unite His Name to him until he was blind, closed up in the house and the evil inclination had desisted from him.

We must learn from here how much a person must fear as soon as he has to step out from the house. He should pray that it be G-d's Will that he return to the house as he goes from it. It is said of the Vilna Gaon who once had to leave the house that beforehand he studied the chapter on Cautiousness in The Path of the Just (Messilat Yesharim, Ch.2) thirteen times! After that, what could we say?

Also, the following story is recorded in Lev Eliyahu (2:p.13). One of the young men who studied in the yeshivah once came to Rav Eliyahu Lopian z"l to ask permission to go to a relative's wedding. The Rav asked him, "Are you quite sure that there will not be any immodesty there?"

The young man did not know what to say because he knew that there would be immodesty there. He mumbled a few words and said, "But my father and mother and myself will be sitting at a separate table." He concluded, "It won't hurt me."

The holy Rav was shocked when he heard this, and he answered, "Please, listen. I am passed the age of eighty and blind in one eye. Nevertheless, when I walk in the street I am afraid that I might falter, G-d forbid, by seeing immodesty. And you, a young man with two meaty eyes tell me that it will not hurt you!"

EDUCATING OUR CHILDREN

Studying In Yeshivah In Our Days

"Ya'akov went from Be'er Sheva to go to Charan" (Gen.28:10).

The Bait Halevi analyzed the uprooting of a person from one place to another. He said that there are three possibilities. 1) The main purpose was to leave the place where he was. 2) The main purpose was to arrive at the place which he went to. 3) His leaving and arrival were equally important to him.

Ya'akov's journey from Be'er Sheva to Charan belongs to the third category. The catalyst to his journey was to honor father and mother who had both commanded him to do it, although for different reasons.

His mother said to him, "Arise, and escape to Lavan." Her main intention was that he should not stay in Be'er Sheva where Esau wanted to kill him. She did not reveal this to Yitzchak but remonstrated about the Canaanite girls. Thus, Yitzchak commanded Ya'akov, "Arise, go to Padan Aram, and take for yourself a wife from the daughters of Lavan." In other words the purpose was in the house of Lavan. Ya'akov obeyed both of them. Therefore, it is written here that he left from Be'er Sheva and went to Charan.

In his sefer Birchat Peretz, Maran Kinevsky z"l writes about young men who leave their home to go to yeshivah. Once, the homes of Israel were all founded on the way of Torah and the environment was imbued with love of Torah. At that time even those who did not travel to yeshivah but staid home to study a trade or work were destined to remain yirat shamayim and observant of Torah. Although everyone was obligated to study Torah, going to yeshivah was not an escape from a bad environment, but a journey to a place where there was an important rabbi. It was, therefore, in the category where the main purpose was arriving at the place.

In these days, however, the spiritual level of the people is much decreased. Many are the traps lying in wait for the souls of the children of Israel. A person who does not learn in yeshivah is in great danger that there will be nothing of Judaism left to him. Even if he would know that he could not succeed in yeshivah, it would still be obligatory upon him to spend his youth within the confines of the yeshivah just to save himself from the pitfalls lying in wait for his Judaism.

Furthermore, since his leaving an unhealthy environment already achieves an important purpose, he can succeed in the second goal as well, to absorb yirat shamayim and become a talmid chacham....

(Yalkut Lekach Tov)


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