Thought of the Week - Vayeitzei

B”H

Thought Of The Week




In this weeks Parshah it starts off with the story of how Yaakov ran away from Esav. It talks about how he came to sleep at night on Mount Moriah, and then arrived the next day in Aram Naharayim.

Two questions come up.
Firstly, why didn’t G-d make a Miracle just as He had done for Eliezer, that Yaakov would arrive on the same day?
Secondly, if G-d had to make it to be longer, in order that Yaakov should stay the Night on the Mountain, let the whole journey take it’s proper time, and don’t remember suddenly the next day and make miracles!

Both questions are answered as one. Truthfully, Yaakov did arrive the same day he left. What happened was that G-d made a miracle. When Yaakov arrived on Mount Moriah it suddenly got dark, Yaakov felt tired, and fell asleep. This was because G-d wanted to talk to Yaakov and show him the Ladder etc. (for more information on this, feel free as always to email me.)

The Torah then goes on, and says how Yaakov rolled the stone off the well with one hand while all the shepherds combined just about could do it. How he met Rachel, the Love of his life, whom he worked for 14 years, and how Lavan would always cheat Yaakov and use him out. Finally Yaakov wins over Rachel and had 10 kids with all the other wives. Rachel is barren and finally G-d remembers Rachel and gives her a child. (G-d remembered that Rachel gave the secret password that Yaakov gave her before the wedding night to Leah in order that she shouldn’t be embarrassed. This was a major thing because Yaakov knew that Lavan would cheat him, and give him Leah instead.
Yaakov got angry with Leah and asked her why did she act as though she was Rachel. Leah answered that she was no different than he was. He stole Esav’s blessing from his father by saying he was Esav, and this was respecting his mothers command. She was doing the same by respecting her father’s command. The second reason was that she knew she had to give birth to part of the 12 tribes.
As soon as Yosef was born to Rachel, Yaakov wanted to leave Lavan, but Lavan wouldn’t let him. Finally Yaakov had to run away from him, only to be caught up by Lavan 7 days later. Rachel stole her father’s gods and that was the main reason why he ran after them. G-d made Lavan promise to him in a dream, that he wont harm Yaakov’s family. Therefore Lavan and Yaakov made an oath and a sign (which consisted of a pile of stones) to be a neutral zone. This was a place where no war is allowed to happen. The place was called Aram Naharayim. Yaakov didn’t give a proper oath (as in swearing on G-d’s name,) but rather he swore on his fathers fear or dread. This was that of the sacrifice his father was offered because it was the scariest moment in Isaacs’s life. Yaakov saw in divine inclination that King David would wage war there.

There is a story that shows us the power of an oath. A teenaged girl fell into a pit on her way home, a young man saw her fall in and offered to save her on the condition she’d promise to marry him. She agreed, when he got her out he said since there is no witnesses as to us promising each other to marry one another, let the pit and a weasel, as one was just passing by, serve as our witnesses. She accepted and they both went on their ways. Some time passed yet the girl kept her promise, however the guy forgot and got married to another woman. They had a healthy beautiful son who lived to a certain age, but got bitten by a weasel killing him. They then had a second son that lived a bit longer than the first, but died whilst playing in the yard and falling into a pit. The wife of the guy was freaking out to what was wrong. Suddenly after much thought, the guy remembered the oath he made. His wife old him that he must keep his promise. She wouldn’t be able to continue this way, so they decided to divorce. The guy went and found the girl he saved and got married to her.
This shows us how careful we must be with our words. Let this week be a time where we are careful not to swear in vain, not to promise something we can’t keep, and if we promise not to forget to keep it always say bli-neder. without an oath before something you’re about to do because this might cause problems later on. Remember your mouth is a powerful tool. It can pray for the strongest things and it will happen.
Try talking only good things, use positive sentences rather than negative the Torah adds a whole bunch of words in the Torah portion of Noah. This was when G-d tells Noah to summon all the non-pure animals. The torah is known to write in the briefest manner possible, no word is extra.
The Rebbe Menachem Mendle Schneerson used to talk the same way in his discourses. He always emphasized never to say anything in a negative or not so good way. The Rebbe never called a non-observant Jew a bad Jew, or “fry” or non-religious. The Rebbe referred them to being ‘not so observant,’ for the Rebbe believed that every Jew is a precious and rare gem, that every Jew must be doing something right such as, honesty, not stealing, not killing, being nice to another, giving charity, praying to G-d, and respecting his parents and elders. We see that in our every day life we are doing good deeds.
I once heard a story from my good friend Rabbi Yisroel Barnath (Youth Director at The Chai Center of Montreal.) One time he visited a Jew who was sitting in prison on death row. The Jew was very depressed as anyone can imagine and asked the Rabbi “what good am I in front of G-d, I can’t do anything good! I did no mitzvoth in my past…” and so on he wept. The Rabbi answered him, “what can you do here? Can you do anything good or bad?” “Rabbi,” the Jew replied, “what can I do here? I’m stuck here behind bars. There is no chance whatsoever that I could do anything!” He cried out in despair. The rabbi then replied to him, “you see, you’re better off than us in this case. We have everything. All the temptations in front of us, and we sometimes stumble and give in. We have many opportunities to sin. But you! You are lucky in this way. You don’t have that test by the fact that you cant do anything. Therefore you cant sin and therefore you are doing a Mitzvah. This is because a man who doesn’t sin is in fact rewarded with many mitzvoth. For there is a Mitzvah not to sin.”
Remember you make the difference.
© Yermi Kurkus – Thought of the week

Derived from Me’am Loez – Talmud – code of Jewish Law and from the teachings of the Rebbe Menachem Mendle Schneerson.