Toldos

"Rivka took the garments of Eisav, her older son, the fine ones which were with her in the house, and she dressed Yaakov, her younger son" (Bereishis 27: 15).

It's a nice feeling when you're learning the parsha and something sticks out, and you find a nice reason for it.

Why in the world does the pasuk need to state that Eisav was the older son and Yaakov was the younger son?  We know that already.  Why does it need to be stated, so clearly, once again, when Rivka is dressing Yaakov so he can pose as Eisav to receive the brachos from Yitzchok?

Rav Shlomo HaKohen answers, in the name of his father, that this pasuk was to teach us of the hidden miracle that was made for Yaakov.  Eisav, a professional "outdoorsman" was physically bigger and stronger, than his younger, and smaller, brother, Yaakov.  When Rivka gave Yaakov, Eisav's clothing, it miraculously fit Yaakov's smaller frame.

Separately, the Malbim writes, "It is well known that worldly wealth and delights are symbolically referred to in the holy writings by ‘garments.’ For these things are merely external garments, not directly attached to the person and of secondary importance. The characteristics of the soul, on the other hand, are man’s essence, not departing from him as does the body. Hence, the external garments — worldly wealth and delights — were fit for Eisav, and were called the garments of Eisav, while the voice, the power to speak which emerges from the soul, was fit for Yaakov. Rivkah, who wanted Yaakov to acquire the garments of Eisav, material wealth, instructed this act to be symbolically performed. She alluded to this by having Yaakov put on the clothes of Eisav, so that his inner voice would be of Yaakov, while his external garments, the good of this world, would be that of Eisav."

Perhaps, with both Rav Shlomo HaKohen and the Malbim, we see that Hashem not only approves material wealth for those who use it properly, but is showing that it is proper that such people should have it and use it well.

Money is a very fickle thing.  There are those who speak badly of it and encourage people to not care of "such things."  They like to bring as proof, that those who have wealth are constantly thinking about money.  Yet, we all know that when a person has no money, he too is constantly thinking about money.  And it's true, that when a person DOES have a lot of money, he IS thinking about it as well.  It's natural and it's really not so simple.

A friend of mine told me that his grandmother always davened that she should be healthy enough to take care of herself throughout her life (which she merited), and that Hashem should always give her what she needs, and a little more.  She knew that if she just had enough to cover each month, she would be worried about the next, so she davened for "a little more," so she would not have to worry too much about her material needs.

So, I guess our lesson is to follow that of my friend's grandmother.  We should daven for our material needs, enough to be comfortable with, and enough that will not only NOT distract us from our spiritual missions, but rather enhance our ability to accomplish our spiritual missions.  This is what we saw when Eisav's physical blessings miraculously "fit" Yaakov, and this should be our goal with physical wealth.

Have a wonderful Shabbos!

Well, for the first time in 14 months, we'll be "boom"-free.  No more random explosions.  No more rocket attacks. No more sirens.  For now, at least.

Thankfully, UNIFIL and the Lebanese army will once again resume their positions to make sure Hezbollah does not return within 20 miles of the border fully armed, as successfully as they have in the past.  And just to make sure that they do their job properly, some American general and a Cheese-Eating Surrender-Monkey French general will oversee them.  Joy. The French.

Naturally, many of us living in the north are livid.

I assume it will be quiet for a bit (like 61 days), then Hezbollah will do something small, like prime a rocket launcher to fire, Israel will attack it, Lebanon will complain that the Israelis have broken the ceasefire, the world will warn Israel from "escalating" the situation, Hezbollah will fire "in defense," the world will again warn Israel from "escalating," and we'll be right back at it.

In the meantime, I have to work with my nine-year-old son and his fear of going out after sunset (he admitted to having rocket-on-the-head-phobia) and my three-year-old daughter who jumps and worries every time she hears a boom or an alarm/siren.  I'm hearing more and more that these are normal now for many kids in the north.  Thank G-d, that's all the "damage" we've been affected by.

How those who have had their homes and towns practically destroyed and who have been living out of their homes for over a year will return to normal … sigh.

Last year, when my oldest was in 12th grade, there was a girl in her class who did not do so well in school.  From what I understood, she's a good girl, but not very strong when it comes to academics.  Throughout the year, while all her friends were being accepted into schools for the upcoming year, she was being rejected from all those that she applied to.

I don't know all the details of what her parents did, but they, along with some teachers, and even some friends, put in a lot of effort to find her a place.  We're talking month after month of disappointment.  In the end, they finally found a place for her.  Just the other night, my wife and I ran into her mother and my wife asked how she was doing (we already knew from my daughter, but she didn't know that), and she gave such a sigh, smiled, and said, "Great!  She's in such a perfect place for her and she's doing so well!"

In this week's parsha, I caught something strange.  When Yitzchok asks Eisav to make him a meal so he can give him his brachos, he tells Eisav to go out and trap an animal to make it.  When Rivkah wanted Yaakov to receive the brachos, she told him to get two goats from their herd.

If they had a herd, why did Yitzchok ask Eisav to go out and trap an animal?  Why didn't he simply ask him to take from their herd as Rivka did?

The Netziv M'vlozhin asks the same question (thankfully) and gives a very simple answer: Yitzchok wanted Eisav to do some "extra steps" in order to be more worthy of receiving the brachos.  The more work he had to do to fulfill the mitzvah, the more reward he gets.

Sometimes, Hashem does the same things to us, albeit for a variety of reasons.  Sometimes we have to go through multiple steps to accomplish something that could easily have been accomplished by one step.

As in the case of the parents finding a school for their daughter, we have an obligation to make sure our children get a proper Jewish education, and sometimes that comes through our money and sometimes it comes through our hard work in finding the right places for them.  Perhaps the reason each of us had to go through what we went through was to give us more merit?

In the end, Hashem takes care of things, but we have to do our jobs to make it happen "naturally."  But sometimes our jobs are dragged out for seemingly no good reason. We should keep in mind that while we might not understand all the calculations that Hashem has, in the end, the longer and harder we work on our mitzvos, even if they are dragged out beyond our control, we will get more and more merit for it.

Have a wonderful Shabbos!

Last week, as I walked out of the house close to sunset, the sky was completely empty, except for in the east, where there was a small puff of a cloud.  However, the cloud looked a tad strange.  I noticed that it also had a trail that started from the ground and went up to the ground.  Of course, "cool" was the first thing that came into my mind.

The air raid sirens only go off in places where the trajectory of the rocket is supposed to carry it.  While I could see it, I was not in any danger thankfully, and we did not hear any sirens.  When I went in to tell my wife, she told me that my oldest son just called.  He was coming home from yeshiva on the bus, when the sirens went off and they were forced to run off into a ditch on the side of the road.  He couldn't help but watch the Iron Dome at work, and of course his reaction was, "cool".

I told him that he is such an important person in this world that Hezbollah is doing their best to kill him personally!  What an honour!  However, now that I think about it, perhaps it's better for my sake then, that he returns to yeshiva as soon as possible….

We all know that Yaakov and Eisav represent two completely different aspects in the world.  Eisav is the symbol of impurity, chasing after one's desires, "living the life," while Yaakov represents holiness and purity.

However, the Torah seems to "play it down" a little bit.  It describes Eisav as a "man of the fields" and Yaakov as a "man who sits in the tents."  Rav Shimshon Pincus asked, I would have thought that the Torah would have added a bit more description into both of them to give us a better understanding of who they are.  Describe Eisav's wickedness!  Describe Yaakov's saintliness!  Seemingly, even Rashi doesn't help us, translating "a man of the fields" as a man who wastes his life or without direction (not a direct translation).

However, Rav Pincus answers, Rashi DOES give us a deeper insight.  He explains the core difference between Eisav and Yaakov, and the results that occur when you follow one or the other.

Eisav is without direction.  He has no "focus" and seemingly has all the time in the world.  He lives life "in the now." And when a person has no spiritual goals, his life can easily lead to simply living a life chasing after luxury and desire and false ideas.

I might add that, perhaps, we see why certain elements of Yishmoel (today's Muslim world) happen to enjoy a level of success, comparatively.  Let's take Iran for example.  Their leadership has a spiritual goal: the elimination of Jews.  A pretty straightforward goal.  And quite frankly, you see in many aspects, they are successful.  After all, look at today's supposedly neutral parties of the world: you know, the United Nations, Red Cross, etc., all of them blatantly anti-Jewish. Why?  Because these Muslim groups have a focus and a goal, and they are putting all they have into it.  And nobody can accuse them of being short-term thinkers.  They are certainly able to think in the long-term and are able to maintain their focus and vision for decades.

And who are they able to convince to join them?  People who have no focus in life.  People who have plenty of time, with little responsibility: university students, socialists, communists, Europe. Oh, and don't forget Canada.

Again, that's just my take.  I could be wrong.

However, Yaakov is the opposite of that.  We DO have a job.  We DO have a focus.  And when we follow that focus, we are successful.  However, when we negate our mission, we are not.

This is not only true regarding our national mission in life as Jews, but it is equally true regarding our personal mission as Jews.  By taking an additional three seconds to make a bracha with concentration before we eat something, we are fulfilling our mission.  When we take five minutes to learn Torah, we are fulfilling our mission.  When we spend a little extra money to buy something special for Shabbos, we are fulfilling our mission.  And all this does not require us to have some lofty, spiritual experience.

Our national and personal mission is to use as much of our life as possible to bring holiness into the world via the blueprints of the Torah.  And that means using our time properly as much as possible.  The more we remain focused on being Hashem's presence in the world, the more He remains focused on being with us in the world.

"And he (Yitzchok) said, 'The voice is the voice of Yaakov, and the hands are the hands of Eisav'" (Bereishis 27:22).

They say, (and if it's true or not, I don't know, but it IS something he would say) that when the Israeli government was finalizing the official language of the state, there were several options that they had.  What type of pronunciation should it be?  Like the European Ashkanazim or the Middle eastern Sfardim.  Similarly, what type of written "cursive" should it be?  There's "Rashi script," which was being used by the Sfardim or the script that was used by the Ashkanazim.

In the end, it was decided to use the Sfardi pronunciation and the Ashkanazi writing.  To which Rav Ovadia Yosef (a major Sfardi rav who was known for poking fun at the Ashkanzim) responded: "The voice is the voice of Yaakov, and the hands are the hands of Eisav."

Again, if the story is true, I have no idea, but it's certainly something he would have said.

Speaking of that pasuk.

When Yaakov approaches Yitzchok, in disguise, to receive the brachos, Yitzchok is taken back.  He's ready to give the bracha to Eisav, his first born.  And being blind, he was unable to see that it was Yaakov in front of him.  However, when Yaakov started to speak, Yitzchok became confused.  On one hand, it seems that it's Eisav.  This person feels like Eisav (Yaakov disguised himself), yet it sounds like how Yaakov speaks!  Yitzchok stalls a little bit, but quickly recovers and continues to give the brachos.

I believe it's a Midrash that says that at the time there is a "voice" of Yaakov (through prayer and learning) the hands of Eisav have no power.  When there is no "voice" of Yaakov, then the hands of Eisav have power.

Yet, here, right in the Torah, we see both the voice of Yaakov and the hands of Eisav at the same time!

Answers Rav Yehoshua Mehoradna, that when Yitzchok felt this discrepancy in the person in front of him, he was indeed confused, because such a contradiction doesn't exist.  However, he understood, that as long as there is a "voice of Yaakov" at the time of the "hands of Eisav," the "voice of Yaakov" will ultimately win and negate the "hands of Eisav."

Personally, I would like to add that generally this pasuk is used to describe our national qualities, between Yisroel and Eisav.  However, it's possible to take this lesson and apply it to one's personal situation.  When a person sins and falls into depression, the "hands of Eisav" take strength, pushing him further and further down.  However, a person should not give up.  He should do small things to keep the "voice of Yaakov" alive.  There is no need to look for huge mitzvahs to compensate for the downfall, since that's not what will do the trick.  Only by keeping the "voice of Yaakov" alive, in any way, through small tefillos, some learning, some mitzvos, easy things, will the "voice of Yaakov" eventually overtake the "hands of Eisav."

Have a wonderful Shabbos!

I just had a small operation on my toe.  Right now, the shots I got before is starting to wear off and the pain is coming in.  I can't get my foot in my shoe without extreme discomfort, and I have to go to some school event to listen to people speak for hours on end, while I writher in physical and emotional pain.  Yet … there IS a silver lining!

I get to walk around the house with a huge, bloody bandage on my big toes, grossing everybody out!

 It’s worth the pain.

I hope.

 "And Yitzchok loved Eisav … and Rivka loved Yaakov" (Bereishis 25:28).

From this pasuk, says Rav Pincus, it seems that Yitzchok has a lot of love for Eisav, yet seemingly had only a little love for Yaakov.  If anything, one would think that it would be the opposite, given the nature of each child.

We learn that before Yaakov goes to live with Lavan, he stops at the Yeshiva of Shem and Eiver (Noach's son and great-grandson) to learn Torah from them.  This behavior is a bit strange.  After all, did he not learn all his Torah from Yitzchok?  And was not Yitzchok the spiritual heir of Avraham?  If so, what need did Yaakov have to go to that yeshivah?  What was he missing that he did not receive from his own father?

Rav Pincus answers that each of the forefathers had their own individual spiritual paths.  Just as Yitzchok was not like Avraham, Yaakov was not like Yitzchok.  And all of Yaakov's children had their own paths, which were different from Yaakov's.

When a person feels that he has an influence on another, a natural love flows between them.  This can be between a parent and child, husband and wife, or two friends.  Yitzchok (thought he) had that connection with Eisav.  He knew Eisav's natural weaknesses, and he worked hard to influence him in his way to overcome them.  Yaakov, on the other hand, did not follow in Yitzchok's way.  Yaakov had a different path of Torah which he needed to get from another source.  So, naturally, the love between the two is not going to be as strong, since at a certain point, Yitzchok's influence was no longer what Yaakov needed.

I know somebody here in our community who's a Breslov chassid.  Crazy individual.  Extremely witty and entertaining, with an unlimited source of energy.  He's also a well-respected rebbe in one of the boys schools.  His parents live in Yerushaliyim and are pure Lithuanian.  Very straight and no nonsense.  Two completely different personalities.  He could not follow that path, since it did not fit his personality, and obviously he felt he needed a different path to realize his true potential.

 It's hard to believe, but in cases like this, there could be tension between the parents and the son.  Yes, we would think that there should be no issues, because, after all, he's just as frum as he was before.  So what if he should take a different path?

 The answer lies in what Rav Pincus said.  When two people have an influence on each other, love will grow.  But when that influence wanes, it is natural that the love will, to an extent, wane as well.

 It's important for parents to remember this.  It's very easy for many to think "he's still frum, what's the problem?" when they themselves are not in the same position.  But, when they are put in the same position, they too might feel something there they cannot explain.

 Perhaps one way of overcoming that "lower-level" love, in such a case, is for the parents to start to learn from the child.  Obviously, the child is taking a different path which they never took, and perhaps they themselves can learn a little bit from this path.  Through learning through their children, there is still a connection, and an influence, except this time they are receiving and not giving.  I don't know … just an idea.

Either way, it's a natural tendency that people have and that we should always be aware of, so we don't mistake these "lower-level-love" feelings for something else and ruin the relationship.

Have a wonderful Shabbos!

This past week Rav Hershel Schecter from Neve Yaakov in Yerushaliyim passed away.  Now, nobody on this list knows who he is (with one exception, maybe).  He was not a public figure.  Nor was he a great and popular rav.  He was, according to everybody whom he met, a tzaddik.  Not a hidden tzaddik, but a revealed one.  I'm close with his son, who I'm happy to be able to call one of my rabbeim, and when I lived in Yerushaliyim, I had a relationship with him as well.  In fact, my wife once said to me, "When we grow old, I want to be like them."  I cannot put words to writing on who he was, but without exaggeration, he was beyond this world.  A friend of mine said, "People like this only become who they are later in life, when they have worked on themselves throughout their youth."  He was not normal.  Not real.  And it's a tremendous loss, not only to his family, but to his neighborhood, and the Jewish world.

A few weeks ago, was the yartzeit of Dr. Yerachmiel Kramer, originally from Chicago.  We were neighbors in Chicago and he and his family have a share in my being in Israel today.  He was not a revealed tzaddik, and I certainly don't mean that in a negative way.  He was a "normal" person, working as a psychologist during the day, and learning whenever he could, including late at nights and early in the morning (like 4 a.m.).  However, as I said, he was "normal," not normal.   His wife told me after the shiva, that she had no idea that he knew so many people.  Her house was packed throughout the week with people coming and going, telling stories of how Dr. Kramer helped them with this or with that.  How he helped start this minyan or strengthen that one.  How he was working with Hatzalah to start a new program nationwide for those needing help dealing with trauma.  He impacted many more people than even his family knew of.

Rabbi Schecter was a revealed tzaddik.  Dr. Kramer was a "normal" man.

As I was thinking of these two individuals, I couldn't help but think, "When my time comes, they will not be speaking like this about me. Heck, I'll be lucky to have a minyan at my grave."  It's not an attack on myself (okay, it is), but I think many people think like this when such people leave this world.  Of course, what they say at our funerals is not the important thing in life and has no correlation whatsoever to our reward in the Next World.  However, nobody likes the idea of leaving this world thinking, "What have I done with myself?"

This week's parsha contains something I never really noticed.  There are three "forefathers" of the Jewish nation.  Out of the three, Yitzchok seems to be the least noticed.  In all stories, he's connected to either Avraham or to Yaakov.  In this week's parsha however, there is the only section where he himself is the sole subject.  And what happens?  It's a practical repeat of Avraham's story.  There is a famine, he's about to go to Egypt (and then is stopped by Hashem), he lives amongst the Plishtim, he says his wife is his sister, etc., and that's it!

From a simple reading of the Torah, Yitzchok is 1) Avraham's son, 2) Yaakov's father, 3) was willing to be sacrificed, and 4) lived the same life as his father.

Not very exciting.

Perhaps there is something to learn from here.  There are people, who, on the cover, are not the greatest people in the world.  They don't live exciting lives.  They don't raise large, successful families.  In fact, like Yitzchok, some of their children do not turn out so well.  They seem to go through life similar to how their fathers did.  They don't stand out.

Yitzchok, however, did do something.  He was willing to sacrifice himself on Hashem's command.  And there is no doubt he lived with that same self-sacrifice he was willing to die for.  And THAT was a big part of his greatness.

Perhaps we're not all supposed to be the revealed tzaddik or the "normal" one.  Perhaps we won't leave this world leaving some huge (physical) mark on it.  Instead, maybe we're supposed to simply lead our lives with as much "self-sacrifice" as we could, in order to do whatever our individual missions are in this world.  Yitzchok lived a life without fanfare. Maybe that's a trait that we can follow as well.

We have received, since the beginning of the rainy season, around 10 minutes total of rain.  The air is dry, along with everybody’s skin, mouth, and noses, not a rain cloud in sight, and every time they predict rain…that prediction turns sour.   A few months ago, the weather forecasters were saying that Israel is due for an amazing winter this year, full of record-breaking rain, but I guess they forgot Who exactly is running the show.

And what’s even worse is my wife is hearing people in the street, religious people(!), saying how beautiful the weather has been.  This is called a CURSE, and a very, VERY bad sign.  Those same people who are enjoying this, will be complaining in a few months when the prices of fruits and vegetables will be super-high for terrible produce.

I guess this serves as a reminder that we need to pay a tad more attention when we say Shema every day.  If we did, we would be a bit more worried.

“Yaakov was and ‘ish tam’ who remained in the tents” (Bereishis 25:27). 

I was looking in my latest acquisition, a sefer called “Seder HaDoros," which is an excellent two-volume work I would recommend.  The first volume deals with the history of the world, and the second is an index of practically everybody mentioned in the Gemara, which is why I bought it.

I was reading what was written of Rabbeinu Tarfon.  I was previously under the impression that he was a contemporary of Rebbe Akiva.  But it turns out that there are several references in the Talmud that shows that he was Rebbe Akiva’s rav.  And in other places, it seems that they were friends.  “So what?” you might ask.  Well, there is a rule that when there is a disagreement between Rebbe Akiva and his contemporaries, the halachah follows Rebbe Akiva.  So, what do you do when there is a disagreement between Rebbe Tarfon and Rebbe Akiva?  It all depends on their relationship! And to know their relationship, you have to pay very close attention to the gemaras that speak about them.

What does any of this have to do with the above pasuk?

What is this "ish Tam"?  As we know, the word "ish" is man.  But what exactly is "Tam"? It is commonly translated as "simple" or "pure." However, Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch translates the word "tam" to mean "single-minded," which is an interesting translation.

In regard to learning and understanding your Torah, a person needs to be an "ish tam" according to Rav Hirsch’s definition.  He must have a single, focused mind on his learning, not allowing any detail, however small it may seem, to slip through.  He must constantly work and review his learning, just as an investor is constantly keeping up to date with the latest financial news.

Jewish law and Jewish thought is not something that can simply be deduced by reading a book here or there.  A person who truly wishes to understand them must be as focused and dedicated as much as possible.  The more focused you are, the more subtleties you pick up and understand.  And those small subtleties can make a difference whether something is forbidden or allowed.

Have a wonderful Shabbos!

Finally, the municipality elections are over.  The religious party received only two seats, however, there was one big win for us.  The person we supported for mayor, who’s completely non-religious, won, and he knows that it was the religious community’s vote that got him in.  The Shabbos following the elections, he came to shul, and asked to speak for two minutes, something which I’ve never seen.  In his talk, he had a small dvar Torah, and then thanked the community for their support, promising us that he plans to work together with us (compared to some of his competitors who openly planned to work against us—including one who wears a kippa himself).  He also made one of our folks his deputy mayor, which is a big thing.  This specific individual has served on the city council for a while and is qualified, but, obviously, that could come in useful for the religious community as a whole.  Perhaps we can finally get a bigger school building for our boys.  Well . . . thankfully, it’s all over.

“Pour into me, now, some of that very red stuff for I am exhausted . . . . He therefore called his name Edom [i.e. red]” (Bereishis 25:30).

The Midrash says that Eisav came back exhausted, since he was very busy involving himself in some major sins.  Five very serious sins specifically.  Yet, the Torah names him Edom, after the red stew that he ate.  You would think that there would be another name attached to him, Adulterer, Killer, etc. Instead, the Torah names him after a pot of stew.

Rav Yitzchok Zilberstein gives an answer to this question.  Yes, he was an adulterer, and a killer, and this, and that, but there was one trait which served as a base for all of his sins.  Eisav had an issue—he was unable to calm himself down and think rationally.  “Pour into me, NOW, some of that very red stuff!”  Instant gratification.  That’s what was the base of all of Eisav’s issues.

When a person feels the "heat of the moment," he can either follow through with his desires, or take control of himself and remove himself from the situation until he can come back and think clearly. Rav Pincus, once when speaking about following into depression (I believe it was depression—it’s been a while since I last heard the talk) said that the best thing to do was to go to bed.  Don’t do anything.  Don’t go anywhere.  Who knows where you will end up.  Just go to bed, and at least stay in a neutral position.

Eisav was not like this.  When he wanted something, he went out to get it.  And from that inability to control that aspect of his nature, he went from one sin to another without stop.

So, the next time we are in a situation where we feel the “heat is on,” the best thing to do is to step out of the ring for a while and let yourself think coolly and logically.

Have a great Shabbos!

Michael Winner

My friend has a neighbor, who’s married with children and who’s still living with their parents.  He goes off to work, she stays home and watches television or goes out shopping, and the grandparents are stuck playing the role of parents.  It’s a stress on the grandparents, but they simply cannot say "no."  The other day, my friend was conversing with this neighbor, and they asked him if he’s planning to send his sons into the army.  When my friend said "no," he received a chilly look, “So, they’re planning on becoming parasites?!”

My friend worked very hard to keep his mouth shut given the irony of the situation.

Okay, on to more important things!

“Hashem allowed Himself to be entreated by him” (Bereishis 25:21).

Rashi explains that while both Yitzchok and Rivka davened hard for children, Hashem answered Yitzchok’s prayers over Rivka’s, because the prayers of a tzaddik ben tzaddik (a tzaddik whose father is a tzaddik) are not like those of a tzaddik ben rasha (a tzaddik whose father is evil).

The Taz (a commentator on the Shulchan Oruch) (Orach Chaim 53:103), cites the Maharshal, who says that if a community has a choice of two people to be the chazzan, and they are identical in every way, we appoint the one who has better lineage than the other.  However, the Taz himself disagrees with the Maharshal.  He maintains that the person who comes from the less illustrious lineage, should be the chazzan.  He finds proof for this from the pasuk, “’Peace, peace, for the far and for the near’, says Hashem, ‘and I will heal him’” (Yeshayahu 57:19). The “far” is mentioned before “the near," and therefore, somebody who comes from “afar” seems to have a more powerful prayer.

So, now we seem to have a small argument here.  Who takes precedence?

The Torah Temimah, thankfully, has an answer.  When a tzaddik ben tzaddik is praying for his own needs, and not for the needs of the public, he can benefit in the merit of his ancestors.  However, when somebody is praying on behalf of others, and certainly for the needs of the Jewish people, then the prayers of the tzaddik ben rasha are more powerful.  Why?  Because he has abandoned the ways of his forefathers and changed his life around.   While the merit of one's ancestors can help an individual, the merit of a person who does tshuvah, can help the entire world.

Have a great Shabbos!

Michael Winner

There is nothing more entertaining than learning the news from your son in cheder. During the week of the fires in Haifa, my son would come back and report on “what’s going on.” We “knew” exactly when the largest “fire-truck plane” (got to love his translations into English) was going to be in Israel. And of course, some boys even saw an Arab, with a donkey and a horse (important pieces of information), trying to light a fire in the nearby valley. And thanks to some small nearby fires, the kids got a free airshow last Friday of a whole collection of different “fire-truck planes.”

It’s good to be a kid during times of national disaster (that don’t affect you, of course).

Okay, on to Torah!
Rav Avigdor Miller learns out a very important lesson from this week’s parsha and those of the next few weeks.

We have a lot to thank Eisav for. For without him, where would Bnei Yisroel be? Had Eisav behaved himself, there wouldn’t be a Jewish people. We would be davening to Elokei Avraham, Elokei Yitzchok, v’Elokei Eisav. However, Eisav’s hatred for Yaakov forced Yaakov to flee to Lavan, his uncle. Had he not fled, Yitzchok would have sent someone to Lavan to bring a wife back for Yaakov. Naturally, Lavan would have sent his oldest daughter Leah to marry him. However, Hashem had other plans. Because he had to flee himself, Yaakov ended up marrying both Leah and Rochel.

Who came from Rochel? Yosef. Yosef ended up being the king of the Jews and second-in-command of all of Egypt. “Rochel was a fiery girl who gave birth to a fiery son,” says Rav Miller. That son, who commanded more power and respect than Moshe himself, who set up the Jewish people to spiritually survive in Egypt for hundreds of years, was born because of Eisav.

“The deeds of the Avos (forefathers) are an indication of what will happen to their children in the future” (Ramban, Bereishis 12:6)

We have always been attacked by our enemies and always scolded. During those terrible times, there were hidden brachos: assimilation was practically nil, nobody intermarried, the Jewish community continued to flourish. As a friend pointed out, if you look at some of the major commentaries we have, many of them were written while “on the run.”

The opposite is also true. After the walls of the ghettos fell and we were given more rights, assimilation grew, intermarriage is at an all-time high . . . and it’s hard to know who is halachically Jewish!

“According to the difficulty is the reward” (Avos 5:26)

The harder the times, the more the reward. We must realize that when things are getting tough for the nation as a whole, and for individuals, there is always hidden brachos around. If the nation or individual approaches their trials and tribulations with this in mind, they can grow to newer heights.

Have a great Shabbos!

Michael Winner

My wife told me that the Israeli press is having a heyday with a report that the University of Chicago put out declaring that secular children are “kinder and more altruistic than those raised with religion.” For the Israeli press, they take it as a “big win” since the left has, for decades, been attempting to take over the religious education system and bring it in line with their core values (forget the fact that the Israeli public school system has been ranked on the LOWER half of the world’s educational systems). Ever since the beginning of the State, the battle over children’s education has been fought, and despite all the financial pressures, the religious world has held out.

It’s extra ironic, since the Israeli public school system is known for problems with drugs and violence, while the Chareidi school system is most certainly not.

However, the press will take whatever straws it can grasp.

Oh right . . . one other thing that people failed to mention about the study (among its many other faults): 43% of the children studied . . . were Muslim.

On to Torah!
“The boys grew up…” (Bereishis 25:27)

My Rosh Yeshiva brought in Rav Shimshon Hirsch on this pasuk, where Yitzchok was given blame for how Eisav turned out. The boys “grew up,” he said, means that they grew up “on their own,” without their father's pushing them in the proper direction.

He (my Rosh Yeshiva) explained that the Jewish nation has three “fathers” and four “mothers.” However, it really should have been four “fathers.” Eisav himself was supposed to be one of the pillars of the Jewish nation.

He gave an example of two gardeners. One was given the job of working on a very difficult field, while the other was given a very easy field. Each gardener would be paid according to the difficulty of the work. This was Yaakov and Eisav. Yaakov had innate abilities to sit and learn without distraction. He was born with internal holiness. Eisav on the other hand was born with character traits that “needed work on.” However, HIS potential, if fulfilled, would have propelled him to heights greater than that of Yaakov.

Yitzchok knew this. He knew that Eisav had greater potential than Yaakov, and that’s why he wanted to give him the brocha.

However, for each child to reach their potential, they need direction. No child is born “complete” as Eisav seemingly was. When we drive down the street and see new trees being planted, we can see that for the first several years, they are loosely tied to a metal stick. That stick helps them grow in one direction, yet is loose enough to allow the tree to grow “on its own.” Similarly with children. They need direction. They need to be pushed. They certainly cannot be tied down completely, however they must be tied in some way.

Each child also needs to be taught according to his character, and how to use his “positive” and “negative” traits for only positive. One should never think, “Ah, he’s doing well in his school/environment; that’s all he really needs.”

My Rosh Yeshiva once had a “black sheep” in his family. One of the children wasn’t following in the footsteps of his older siblings. He was certainly not doing anything wrong, but he wasn’t tapping into his potential. My Rosh Yeshiva took him to the Gerrer Rebbe (so my friend says. I thought it was another Rebbe), who created a new learning program for him, based on his personality. Today, he has gone through all of Shas (Talmud) and is a respected Ben Torah and a very close student of Rav Shmuel Auerbach.

Each child has his or her own unique mission in life. To allow them to grow up “on their own” would mean that their uniqueness in the Jewish world could be squandered. But by investing our time and energy wisely (and lots of davening), we can give our children the best gifts possible: their potential.

Have a great Shabbos!

Michael Winner

Well… it’s been a rather emotional week. It was a tad harder, since my wife knew one of the people killed in the attack. It then gets harder when you start hearing of more attempted attacks than I’m sure the news is not reporting. Heck, all around our city the Druzim and the Arabs are going at it, putting each other in the hospitals, and you just don’t know when some Arab is going to attempt to run you down, stab you, shoot you, etc.

There is a pasuk in Yeshaya (Isaiah) which describes what to do when things are getting dangerous, specifically in these times:

“Go, my people, enter your rooms and close your door behind you; hide for a brief moment until the wrath has passed” (Yeshaya 26:20)

Rashi explains that “rooms” means the shuls and batei medrashos (study halls).

So . . . this made me wonder . . . what do you do when THOSE are no longer safe?

Obviously, nobody knows exactly why Hashem does things, but we are obligated to look inwards and ask what the possible lessons are that need to be learned. Why specifically was an Ultra-Orthodox shul in Har Nof targeted? Why specifically this particular minyan? Why were these particular people killed and wounded? We’re not talking about a shul in a settlement (which “makes sense” from an Arab point of view), we’re talking about a shul which is not Zionistic. The minyan itself was not full of people who were standing outside and talking; it was a well-known minyan comprised of very serious bnei Torah. And the people themselves who were killed and wounded are/were known for their yearning for growth. What could possibly be the message?

In the beginning of this week’s parsha, Yaakov is described a “man who dwells in tents.” It’s interesting to note that the Torah uses the plural, “tents,” rather than just, “tent.”

My Rosh Yeshiva would note that the tent he lived and learned in was “double-wrapped.” Just as food which is double-wrapped, can be heated in a non-kosher oven and does not become non-kosher, so too did Yaakov “double-wrap” his tent to keep it from being exposed to the outside world.

Rav Pincus, on the pasuk from Yeshaya, teaches a very similar lesson. In times of great danger, our job is not only to run to the beis medresh, but ALSO to close the door behind us.

People become so wrapped up with the news and everybody’s great ideas on how to solve this huge problem or that huge problem. But people fail to look and see what Hashem has “suggested.” It’s very easy to pound one’s chest and demand that we stop supporting stores that hire Arabs, or that we need to launch this military operation, or we need to . . .

None of those will do anything, because it’s not addressing the core problems that we need to fix.

So, what do we do? Enter your room and close the door behind you.

Cut down on spending time watching and talking about the news. Cut down on keeping up with the latest trends or topics that the world is fixated upon. Cut down on listening to the radio. Cut down on focusing on things that are REALLY not important.

Then, increase the amount of time you spend in the beis medresh. Increase your concentration and time spent on prayer. Increase your mitzvah observance.

My wife just told me something she heard in a shiur, I believe in the name of Rav Ovadia Yosef. It used to be that we would bring korbonos (sacrifices) in the Beis HaMikdash. In it's place, we have davening. However, if we are not fulfilling our duty to daven, then Hashem chooses His own korbonos.

Why was a well-known shul, and why were well respected bnei Torah, targeted? Perhaps to teach us that we are failing in this aspect, in which they worked so hard to perfect. While we are “entering our rooms” to daven and to learn, we are failing to close the door behind us.

When we go to shul, we need to shut off our phones and not talk about the outside world. We need to focus on the only two entities currently residing in the room, Hashem and ourselves.