Esav: "I have plenty..."
Yaakov: "...I have everything." (33:9-11)

A buffet is not a Jewish invention.

Have you noticed whenever you eat at a buffet, you always end up eating about twice as much as if you'd been served a meal? The Torah says "And you will eat and you will be satisfied, and you will bless Hashem your G­d." Eat. Be satisfied, and then thank the One who provides food for the whole world.

What does a buffet say? "Don't look at what you've eaten. Look at what's left! How can you possibly walk away from this gorgeous spread, these tables groaning under their load of delights? Have you no conscience? Get over here and fill up another plate immediately! (Have you tried the smoked salmon yet?)"

Esav says "I have plenty." Yaakov says "I have everything."

What's the difference between someone who says they have plenty and someone who says they have everything?

Someone who says they have plenty is telling you that they could have a lot more! Their focus is not what's on their plate. It's on what's left on the tables of life's buffet.

Someone who says that he has everything is saying that he's happy with what he has, even though he may have but little. His focus is on the portion that the Creator has provided for him. For only He knows the exact size of the helping needed to preserve our individual spiritual health and fitness.

"Please save me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esav." (32:12)

"Then Yaakov looked up and saw Esav coming in the distance; immediately he looked heavenward, cried, and begged for mercy ... until G­d promised to save him from every tribulation by the merit of Yaakov." (Bereishis Rabba 75:13)

Can we ever erase from our minds the terrible frightened faces of the six million? Standing in lines on railway platforms. Dressed in drab European grays and browns.

We will never know how close we came to seeing those ranks of holy martyrs swelled by the gold kaftans of Yerushalmi Jews and the khaki shorts and blue hats of kibbutzniks.

In 1942, Rommel and a huge tank-force stood at the gates of Palestine. Nothing was between him and the yishuv (Jewish settlement). The British forces prepared to evacuate Palestine. They started to burn documents.

At this very moment, Rabbi Kahanaman purchased a lot near Tel Aviv and laid the cornerstone for a new Yeshiva. People thought he was crazy. He responded that G­d hadn't brought him to Israel to be murdered by the Nazis. (Rabbi Kahanaman went on to build the Ponevehz Yeshiva, one of the largest in Israel today.)

In the desert in 1942, the only thing holding the Germans back was a lack of drinking water. They discovered that the British had laid a water pipe through the desert. The British had just finished this pipeline and they were checking it for leaks. Instead of wasting valuable drinking water, they were pumping sea-water through they pipeline to check its integrity. The Germans guzzled the sea-water from the pipes and surrendered in terrible agony.

A miracle, or a coincidence?

We live in an era where it's very difficult to see Hashem's hand in the world. When you see a wall, you know that something is blocking your view. When there is no wall you can think that you see everything.

The Torah itself tells us that Hashem will "hide His face from us." That we won't see Him. The expression the Torah uses is "hasteir astir" - "I will surely hide My face." The verb is doubled. It is as though Hashem is telling us that He will hide even the fact that He is hiding.

The greatest concealment is that the concealment itself is concealed.

Yaakov Avinu saw our generation some three and a half thousand years ago. He saw "Esav coming in the distance." He saw Esav executing "the Final Solution." And he saw him fail.

He also saw the other face of Esav, when he pretends to be our brother. Yaakov Avinu saw that Esav would try to smother us with a brotherly embrace. A brotherly embrace that wants to tell the Jewish People that three thousand years of miraculous survival is merely coincidental; that there is no One behind the wall, because there really is no wall at all and we can see everything. We have the technology!

Yaakov Avinu saw this silent holocaust of Jewish souls "coming in the distance." He looked heavenward. He cried and begged Hashem for mercy for his children; that whether Esav would try to burn our bodies or our souls he would ultimately fail.

"And Yaakov was very frightened and distressed." (32:7)

Rashi comments that Yaakov was frightened lest he or members of his family be killed, and he was distressed, that he might be forced to kill others.

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein asks: Why was Yaakov distressed that he might be put in a position of having to kill Esav or one of his four hundred wicked companions? Wasn't this an opportunity to rid the world of evil - a reason to rejoice, and not to be distressed? Reb Moshe answers with the words of Beruria to her husband Rabbi Meir (Berachos 10a): "Better to pray that evildoers repent than to pray that the wicked die."

Yaakov was distressed that he might have to kill to remove evil from the world. There is an inherent danger in using undesirable methods to achieve desirable goals - that one can become tainted by the means.

Rabbi Chaim Brisker pointed out that there are two kinds of zealots in the world, comparable to a housewife and a cat. Both the housewife and the cat want to rid the house of mice. The only difference is that the housewife hopes that there will never be another mouse to eliminate, whereas the cat hopes there will be many more.

Before we are zealous to attack the evils of the world, let us make sure that we are acting as housewives and not cats.

The entire book of Ovadiah, the shortest in all of the Tanach, is this week's Haftorah. Ovadiah was a convert to Judaism from the nation of Edom.

Esav lived among two tzadikim, Yitzchak and Rivka, and failed to learn from them. Ovadiah lived among two of the wickedest people, Achav and Jezabel, yet he remained a tzadik. His prophecy follows Esav/Edom through various periods of history until its eventual downfall in the times of the Mashiach.

Our Sages understand ancient Rome as the personification of Edom. There is no historical information of any actual relationship by descent, but if we look into the inner kernel of Rome, we will see the most brilliant realization of the Esav/Edom principle.

Esav was a hunter - "trapping was in his mouth" (Bereishis 25:28). He was a hunter not just with a bow and arrow, but "with his mouth." He knew how to feign innocence to entrap others in his net. Esav's father Yitzchak saw prophetically that Esav would live by his sword (27:40). Rome was a society built on the sword, military bravery and strength. Ultimately Rome crumbled because it was rotten within: The twin pillars of its foundation - deception and might - can never form the basis of a lasting civilization.

Rome has always been the implacable enemy of Israel, and the instrument of Israel's Divinely decreed fate. And it is Israel who eternally stands in stark contrast to Rome. For Israel's mission is to carry the G­d given principles of justice, brotherly love and morality down through the ages.

Sources:

• Buring Soul - Devarim 31:18, Baal Shem Tov, Imrei Shefer, Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Goodman
• The Housewife And The Cat - Rabbi Zev Leff in Shiurei Binah
• The Rise And Fall Of The Roman Empire - Rabbi Mendel Hirsch