7 Kislev, 5766 – VaYetzeh
December 8, 2005
Beer Sheba is the world of atzilute - intimacy - Shabbos. This is the world that Yaakov’s (Jacob’s) father, Yitzak (Isaac), ascended to. Yitzak began in fear. How do we know this? He would pretend that his wife was his sister in order to protect himself from men who used violence to obtain beautiful women. After digging four wells, deeper understanding, truth, Torah, he was able to stand up to Avimelech and state his truth. This is the place which Yaakov is leaving.
Yitzak was not physically blind - he was blind to Aisav’s problem. Yitzak’s anger at being offered as a sacrifice was not expressed directly, but was sublimated into his older son’s behavior. Yitzak was the lamb, Aisav (Esau) was the lion. Yitzak was passive, Aisav was aggressive. Yitzak manifested Gevurah, and Aisav’s Chesed overflowed all reasonable boundaries. Aisav was everything which Yitzak was not, and Yitzak loved him for this.
Aisav thought that if he pleased his father he would please G*d. Our fathers were given to us to represent G*d to us, but not to be a substitute. Because of this wrong way of thinking, Aisav would give free reign to his bestial side when out in the field, but would show off when he was with his father, strutting his stuff, his Torah learning and hunting skills. However, because he never tried to apply his Torah knowledge to his own life and understanding (why would he? He was just trying to obtain his father’s love), he never really integrated this learning, and did not engrave Torah upon his heart. It remained in his head.
For 63 years, Yaakov’s main work, aside from studying Torah, was to refrain from competing with Aisav for their father’s attention and approval.
Rivka (Rebecca), who was more worldly than her husband, knew that Yaakov was going to have to deal with Aisav at some point, and he needed to learn street smarts to do this, some apprenticeship in the outside world, away from the safe cocoon of his parents’ tents. She sent him to her brother, Laban, a trickster. However, in order to survive his sojourn with his uncle, Yaakov needed to pick up some survival skills, so he tarried for 14 years at Shem’s school. On the way to Laban’s, Yaakov was robbed of all his possessions, even the clothes off his back. It was in this condition that he spent the night at Har Moria, where his father had been offered as a sacrifice to HaShem. Imagine his state of mind as he evaluated his position. His father and grandfather had both been public, respected figures who consorted with kings; both had been wealthy. He was homeless, a fugitive, and bereft of all material possessions. He didn’t even have a family support–his father was angry at him and his twin brother wanted him dead. And even the angels were leaving him.
Yaakov’s job was to synthesize the issues which his father, Yitzak, and grandfather, Avraham, had been dealing with, to balance fear and love and fear and desire.
Yaakov had a strong enough self-concept to risk being poor.
What are the similarities between the Aish Kodesh and Yaakov?
1. Both had no money.
2. Aisav was trying to kill them.
"O yea who read these words: every day cry with Leah! HaShem, do not allow me to fall into the same pit as Aisav! We live in a world of do-ers! Crying like Leah creates a soft heart.
Rachel saw she was barren: There are two ways of seeing:
1. Lifting up your eyes and seeing from afar.
2. Seeing your toes. This is a projective reality.
Yaakov was the first to write down his dreams.
My thoughts: When Yaakov was returning to Beer Sheva, he was between the rock and the hard place. Behind him, Laban, the cunning trickster (who truly loved his children and grandchildren). Ahead of him, Aisav, the raging beast (who truly loved his father). Caught between the cunning evil man (intellectual) and raging evil child (physical? Emotional?) Yaakov crossed the river and wrestled with the angel.
Laban’s thoughts are pretty dissociated. He loves his daughters and grandchildren, but seeks to rob them. He has a face-to-face chat with HaShem, and a couple of hours later demands his idols back. Like Aisav, he isn’t what you’d call a pro at integrating his thoughts into his actions.
Aish Kodesh, November 18, 1939:
“...G*d first says ‘I am G*d,’ using the Hebrew word Ani for ‘I.’ Then afterwards, G*d says, ‘I am with you,’ using the Hebrew word Anochi for ‘I,’ Why does G*d use two different words, both meaning ‘I’? The difference between these two is the Hebrew letter kaf, which appears in Anochi but not in Ani. We learn in the Talmud ... that the Hebrew word Anochi is a notarikon, an aramaic acrostic meaning, ‘I myself have written, have given.’ The word Ani is lacking only the letter kaf, which in the acrostic refers to the word ‘written.’ So the difference between Anochi and Ani is the difference between script and speech. In the world Anochi, G*d has spoken and given Himself. The obvious difference is that when something is written, it exists even after the action of writing is completed, while the spoken word exists only while it is being spoken.
“...G*d is saying, ‘Work to etch Me (Ani) indelibly within you, and then I (Anochi) will be with you always.’”
T. Frieder