Vayishlach 5775
"And Yaakov was very afraid, and
he was in distress; and he divided
the people who were with him, the
sheep, the cattle and the camels into
two camps." (Bereishis 32:8)
This passage is a guideline for all
generations, because everything that
happened to Yaakov Avinu with his
brother Esav happens to us continually
with Esav's descendants. We must
therefore adopt the righteous Yaakov's
approach, to prepare ourselves in
three ways: tefillah, gifts, and saving
And he said, "If Esav comes and
attacks one camp, the remaining
camp will escape." (Bereishis 32:9)
This passage foretells that Esav
will never completely wipe us out;
rather they will do evil to some of us
in some of their lands. One of their
kings will make a decree against us or
our property in his land, while another
king will have mercy on us and save the
refugees. (Ramban)
ourselves by way
of war – to flee to
safety. (Ramban)
We must follow
in the footsteps of the
Avos and prepare ourselves to approach
the gentiles with gifts, with soft speech
and with prayer before Hashem. But
war is impossible, for it is written (Shir
Hashirim 2:7), "I adjured you, daughters
of Jerusalem…" Hashem made the
Jewish people swear not to wage wars
against the nations. (Rabbeinu Bachya)
The Holy One,
blessed is He, did
kindness with the
Jewish people when
He scattered them
among the nations. Once a gentile said
to Rabbi Chanina, "We are better people
than you. For in your days of power,
King David's general Yoav wiped out the
Edomites. But now you are living under
our empire for many years, and we
have done nothing to harm you." Rabbi
Chanina said, "One of my students will
Just as Yaakov used prayer, gifts
and war, so do we approach Esav's
descendants in our times. Our power
is only through our mouth, to pray to
Hashem in difficult times. But war – to
fight with the nations – does not apply
to us. Our "war" with them means
activism – that Jewish activists must
boldly face kings and leaders and work
for the good of the Jewish people. Even
if the leaders throw them out angrily,
they must keep coming back; this is
our pillar of existence in exile, until
Moshiach comes. (Shelah)
…
give you a reply." Rabbi Oshaya told
him, "You want to kill us, but you don't
know how to do it. You can't kill us all,
because not all Jews live under your
empire. And if you kill only the Jews in
your domain, the rest will make you
famous as a murderous kingdom." He
said, "By the wall of Rome, these are our
thoughts always." (Pesachim 87b)
Once there was a wicked man who
wanted to take revenge on his enemy by
burning down his house and property,
and he hired a clever criminal to carry
out the plan. The criminal came to the
man's house one night, pretending to
be a wayfarer seeking a place to stay.
The kind-hearted man gave him a room
to sleep in. In the middle of the night,
when he was sure that the family was
asleep, he set the house on fire and then
went back to his bed. When the flames
began to consume the house, the host
and his family woke up and tried to save
whatever they could. But they were
in such a panic that they didn't know
what to do first. The criminal pretended
to wake up, and rushed to help the
family save their property. Since he was
not in a panic – everything was going
according to plans – he was able to do
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a better job saving property than the
host himself. The next morning the host
told his friends about his great loss,
and added, "But thanks to my mitzvah
of taking in a guest, some things were
saved." They asked him who the guest
was, and when he described him, the
friends said, "That man is a criminal! If
not for him, you would not have had
any fire at all! Beware of him, don't let
him near you again, or it may cost you
your life next time!"
This parable depicts the role of
the Zionists in the safety of the Jewish
people. Yaakov Avinu promised us that
if we spread out among the nations,
some of us will always be safe. But the
‫לע"נ מרים לאה צפורה‬
)‫בת ר' שמואל ע"ה (קאהן‬
‫נפטרה ג' תשרי תשע"ג‬
‫לע"נ הרה"ח ר' מנשה ב"ר‬
)‫ישעי' יעקב ע"ה (בירנבוים‬
‫נפטר כ' סיון תשע"ב‬
‫לע"נ ר' חיים ב"ר מתתי' ע"ה‬
‫נפטר ערב יוה"ק תשס"ט‬ )‫(ראטה‬
Zionists made sure that Jews around the
world have no rest. Countries expelled
their Jews and closed their doors to
Jews, saying that the Jews already
have their own state to live in. Then
the Zionists took in those Jews, saying
that they were "saving" them. In Eretz
Yisroel itself in the pre-war years, many
more Jews would have been granted
refuge, were it not for the Zionists. The
Arabs saw that the Zionists were planing
to take over their country, so they
exerted pressure on the British to limit
immigration. If the Jews had had no
political aspirations, the British would
have allowed much more immigration.
(Vayoel Moshe 1:111)
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