* TORAH WEEKLY * Highlights of the Weekly Torah Portion Parshas Vayetzei For the week ending 9 Kislev 5755 11 & 12 November 1994 =========================================================================== This issue is dedicated in the memory of Nachshon Mordechai ben Yehudah Waxman z''l =========================================================================== This issue is being sent out to -> 987 <- Internet subscribers =========================================================================== Attention all subscribers that re-publish Torah Weekly: We are very EXCITED that so many of you are including Torah Weekly in your various local publications. We would LOVE to see your creations, and would greatly appreciate it if you could please send us one copy to our main offices in Israel (see the end of the file for the address). Please include your E-Mail address so we can write back! =========================================================================== Summary Fleeing from Esav, Yaakov leaves Beersheva and sets out towards Haran, the home of his mother's family. After a fourteen year stopover in the Yeshiva of Shem and Ever, he resumes his journey and comes to Mount Moriah, the place where his father Yitzhak was brought as an oferring, and the future site of the Beis Hamikdash. He lays down to sleep and has a prophetic dream of angels ascending and descending on a ladder between heaven and earth. Hashem promises him the Land of Israel; that he will father a great nation; and he will be guarded by Divine protection everywhere. Yaakov awakes and vows to build an altar there and tithe all that he will receive. Then he travels to Haran and meets his cousin Rachel at the well. He arranges with her father, Lavan, to work seven years for her hand in marriage, but Lavan deceives Yaakov, and substitutes Rachel's elder sister, Leah. He then commits himself to work another seven years in order to also marry Rachel. Leah bears him four sons -- Reuven, Shimon, Levi and Yehuda -- the first of the Tribes of Israel. Rachel is jealous that she cannot conceive, and gives her handmaiden Bilhah to Yaakov. Bilhah bears Dan and Naftali. Leah also gives Yaakov her handmaiden Zilpah, and she bears Gad and Asher. Leah now gives birth to Yissachar, Zevulun, and a daughter, Dina. Hashem finally blesses Rachel with a son, Yosef. Yaakov decides to leave Lavan, but Lavan, aware of how much wealth Yaakov has made for him, is reluctant to let him go, and concludes a contract of employment with him. Lavan tries again to swindle Yaakov, but is unsuccessful, and Yaakov becomes extremely wealthy. Twenty years later, Yaakov, aware that Lavan has become resentful of his wealth, takes advantage of his father-in-law's temporary absence, and flees with his family. Lavan pursues them but is warned by Hashem not to harm them. A covenant is agreed upon by Yaakov and Lavan, and Lavan returns home. Yaakov continues on his way to face his brother Esav. =========================================================================== Commentaries "And behold a ladder with its feet fixed on the ground and its head reaching heavenward; and behold! angels of G-d ascending and descending on it" (28:12). Man is like a ladder -- even though his feet are necessarily "fixed on the ground," in the physical world, and he is obliged to involve himself in a material existence, nevertheless if whatever he does is for the sake of Heaven, his "head reaches the heavens." A person's actions in this world directly influence the way the spiritual realm interacts with the creation, and tips the balance either to the positive or the negative -- "the angels of G-d ascend and descend on it." Even the angels depend on the ladder that man creates by his actions in this world. Man is the dominant force and the focus of the entire creation -- he even has the power to lower and elevate the angels. (Mayana shel Torah) "And Lavan had two daughters; the name of the elder was Leah and the name of the younger, Rachel. And Leah's eyes were weak" (29:16,17). When all other gates of Heaven are closed, the gate of tears is forever open. Our Sages teach us that Leah's eyes were weak from constant weeping at the thought that, as Lavan's elder daughter, she would be married to Yitzhak's elder son, the evil Esav. But, in spite of Yaakov loving Rachel and working seven years for her, and in spite of all the precautions Yaakov took against Lavan tricking him into marrying Leah instead of Rachel, it was Leah's tearful prayers for Divine assistance that succeeded not only in reversing the decree that she should marry Esav, but even that she should be Yaakov's first wife. "So Yaakov worked seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him a few days because of his love for her" (29:20). A man enters a restaurant and asks the waiter "What's good today?" When the waiter replies "The fish is excellent!," the man smiles and says "Great! I love fish!" Really, all this man is saying is that he loves himself, because if he really loved fish he would be walking up and down outside the restaurant with a placard saying "THIS RESTAURANT MURDERS FISH!" When the Torah says that Yaakov loved Rachel, we are talking about a love elevated to a sublime plane, and that is unimaginably far above the natural selfishness of this world. For this reason the seven years that Yaakov worked for Rachel "seemed to him a few days because of his love for her." Compare this to the "True Life Romance" hero protesting to his `beloved': "Darling, every minute since I saw you last has been an eternity! The minutes have been like years, the hours like centuries...." How different are the soap-opera sentiments of self-gratifying infatuation to the timeless love of Yaakov for Rachel! A selfish love expands time, but a real love compresses it.... (Adapted from Rav Eliya Lopian) =========================================================================== Haftorah: Hoshea 12:13 - 14:10 "For the ways of Hashem are just - the righteous will walk in them, but the evil will stumble on them" (14:10). A non-spiritual person says that Hashem hates people and therefore weighs them down with the burdensome yoke of mitzvos, that He creates only obstacles to a life of freedom and pleasure. This is a colossal error. The tzadik not only sees himself as enriched and ennobled by keeping mitzvos, but he derives his very sustenance and life-force from them, as this parable illustrates: There was once an outstandingly generous man who stinted neither money nor effort in welcoming guests into his home. He made a large banquet for all his guests and laid before them the most sumptuous and expensive foods. There was a guest there with a fragile constitution and a weak body who nevertheless set about gorging himself on all the delights, with the result that he became seriously ill. The man then complained bitterly to the host that he was ruining people's health. The host replied to him, "Please go and ask the other guests if the food has upset their health. Unfortunately, your health is frail and that is why the food upset you." That is what the Prophet is telling us here "The ways of Hashem are just," and therefore "the righteous will walk in them," -- the righteous will thrive on them. But, if one looks upon them as a heavy burden then "the evil will stumble on them" -- the materialistically- minded see mitzvos as nothing more than a killjoy -- but the radiance of the tzadikim testifies to the quality of the `diet'. (Kochav m'Yaakov) =========================================================================== Ani Ma'amin The Rambam's 13 principles of faith Principle #5: "I believe with complete faith that the Creator, may His Name be blessed, to Him alone is it proper to pray and it is not proper to pray to any other." A common feeling is that praying is very difficult -- that when one stands in front of The Creator, and tries to give expression to one's feeling, the mind drifts off and wanders to the most banal topics -- Do I have enough time to wash my clothes? What's for breakfast? Will the bank clear my check? This can lead to great frustration and sometimes even despair. The root of the problem is that one assumes that davening should be easy. The reverse is really the case. Davening is not an easy thing. Would you expect to sit down at a Steinway concert grand piano and play a Rachmaninoff concerto without a single lesson? Would you be frustrated by your failure to eke out of this impressive instrument more than your two- finger version of "Chopsticks"? And, yet, we approach prayer, an activity which requires a lifetime of dedicated, concentrated, hard work, as though we should already be virtuosos performing in Carnegie Hall! We have a "dialogue" with Hashem: When we learn Torah, Hashem is speaking to us. When we pray, we are speaking to Hashem. =========================================================================== THERE'S STILL TIME TO ENROLL FOR THE JLE ISRAEL SEMINAR `94-'95 3 weeks of study and touring, optional Ulpan, and structured encounters with Israeli Dignitaries Departure December 22 Optional free week Jan 8-15 For Jewish men between the ages of 19 and 30 with demonstrated academic achievment and a sincere motivation to explore their roots. Minimum scholarship price: $599 Covers round trip ticket, room, board, tuition and tours For information: o send E-Mail to Rabbi Zalman Corlin o in the U.S. call toll-free 800-431-2272 (212-344-2000) o outside N. America, send E-Mail to: newman@jerusalem1.datasrv.co.il =========================================================================== This publication is available via FAX within Israel. 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