VaYishlach | myDvar.com

The Talmud tells us in three places “All is in the hands of Heaven, except the fear of Heaven” (Brachot 33b, Megilla 25a, Niddah 16b). One frequent interpretation of this is that while a person’s characteristics, aptitudes, skills, etc are predestined, one can choose to use this for good or for ill. An agile person who can climb walls could choose to be a catburglar or a fireman. So what does this have to do with our parsha?

In Parshat Vayishlach, Shimon and Levi decide to take revenge on Shechem for what he did to Dinah. The two of them killed all of the Shechemites and plundered the city. For this behavior, Jacob rebukes them there in Parshat Vayishlach and again in Parshat Vayihi. But we see later on that the tribe of Shimon is viewed very differently from the tribe of Levi, who is honored to serve in the Temple, and carry the Mishkan. Neither tribe is given land in Israel, but the Levites are given special cities to live in for rotations of serving in the Mishkan and then eventually the Temple. The Levites are also given tithes by all farmers in Israel. The Shimonites do not receive these special privileges, nor do they receive land like the other “regular” tribes. Why? And again, what does this have to do with our parsha?

The trait of being an angry or vengeful person is normally a bad one. In most circumstances, taking vengeance is frowned upon. However, when Moses descend from Mount Sinai and sees the Golden Calf being worshipped, he calls out “Whoever is for G-d, to me!” (Shemot 32:26). Who gathers to Moses? The Levites. It is the same characteristic that led their ancestor to kill Shechem and his city that led the Levites of Moses’ time to kill those worshipping the Calf. It is for this correct use of character that the Levites are rewarded to serve G-d in the Mishkan, and to receive tithes, and so on.

May we all find productive ways to use our G-d given characteristics in Avodat Hashem.

Parshat VaYishlach contains the tragic story of how Yaakov’s daughter Dina is kidnapped and raped by Shechem. After committing his heinous act, Shechem asks his father, Chamor, to ask Yaakov for Dina’s hand in marriage. Yaakov’s sons hear what happened and respond to Shechem’s request by saying that they cannot allow their families to intermarry unless Shechem and Chamor and all their citizens are circumcised. Shechem and Chamor convince their people that if they all get circumcised they will do very well financially as they will be able to take over (through marriage) all that Yaakov owns. After the circumcision, as retribution for what happened to Dina, Shimon and Levi kill Shechem, Chamor his father, and all the male inhabitants of the city. The rest of Yaakov’s sons then come and take the women, cattle, and possessions of the city as booty.

Many commentators ask the obvious question, “What did the inhabitants of the city do to deserve to be killed?”

Sforno suggests that they deserved to die since they didn’t circumcise themselves for the right reason. Instead of having righteous motives of self-perfection, they just wanted to get hold of Yaakov’s money.

The Rambam, however, suggests that they were at fault for not creating a court system to prosecute Shechem for his kidnapping of Dina.

The Abarbanel combines these two ideas very nicely. He agrees with the Rambam, that the entire population was at fault for not doing anything to prevent or punish Shechem for what he did to Dina. He notes though, that in general it is not the Jewish way to plunder cities. We see this from the Megillah where it says “ובבזה לא שלהו את ידם” (and they didn’t take any spoils). Why then did the brothers take the spoils here? The Abarbanel answers like the Sforno, that since they had done their circumcision solely to acquire the property of Yaakov, they ended up losing all their property to Yaakov.

The Or haChaim cites another reason (among many) why everyone was killed. He says that initially Shimon and Levi had no desire to kill everyone and only wanted to exact revenge on Shechem and Chamor. But, since they all stood up to defend Shechem and Chamor (their king), Shimon and Levi had no choice but to fight everyone in order to exact true justice.

What is amazing to me about this story though, is that ALL of the inhabitants were killed? Was there not one person who did the circumcision for the right reason? Did no one even try to speak out about the wrong-doing of Shechem? How could it be that every single male in the city felt the need to take arms to defend Shechem from Shimon and Levi after what they had done to Dina?

We see here how powerful communal pressure can be. There is a famous idea in Chazal “אוי לרשע ואוי לשכנו” (Woe to the evildoer and woe to his neighbor). In general, this idea is taken to mean that sometimes people can be punished solely for associating themselves with an evil person, even without doing anything specifically bad themselves, due to the unavoidable negative influences of peer pressure. From this story though, I think you see a different explanation. Each individual person has the ability to choose between right and wrong and can always make a stand for that which is true and good. Doing so can make a person stand out and be saved, even from a collective punishment. That is why I think Chazal went out of their way to come up with explanations for why the entire population had to be killed.

This ability to buck the tide is one of the characteristics that made Yaakov Avinu the impressive person that he was. As Yaakov said to Esav at the beginning of the Parsha “עִם לָבָן גַּרְתִּי” (I have lived with Lavan) to which Rashi famously cites “עם לבן הרשע גרתי ותרי”ג מצות שמרתי ולא למדתי ממעשיו הרעים” (I lived with the wicked Laban, but I kept the 613 commandments, and I did not learn from his evil deeds.)

May we all find the courage to stand up for what is right and good.

Have a spiritual Shabbat!

VaYishlach 5770

“Jacob became very frightened, and it distressed him. So he divided the people with him, and the flocks, cattle, and camels, into two camps. For he said, ‘If Eisav comes to the one camp and strikes it down, then the remaining camp shall survive’” (Bereishis 32:8-9).

The Ramban explains based on a Midrash, that this episode is a herald of similar events that will occur to the Jewish people throughout the generations; a concept known as ma’aseih avos siman l’banim. He says that descendants of Eisav in single locations will place upon us harsh decrees – sometimes on our property and sometimes on our lives – but the evil decrees will never directly affect the entirety of the Jewish people. One king will act brutally in his own land, nevertheless in another land a king will act with mercy and save the remnant.

We pray to the King of Kings that all of the Jewish people in all of their dwelling places be blessed with peace.

Good Shabbos!

The Pasuk says “ה. וַיִּשָּׂא אֶת עֵינָיו וַיַּרְא אֶת הַנָּשִׁים וְאֶת הַיְלָדִים וַיֹּאמֶר מִי אֵלֶּה לָּךְ וַיֹּאמַר הַיְלָדִים אֲשֶׁר חָנַן אֱ־לֹהִים אֶת עַבְדֶּךָ - And he (Esau) lifted his eyes and saw the women and the children, and he said, “Who are these to you?” And he (Yakov) said, “The children with whom God has favored your servant.” (33:5)

Esau wasn’t a fool, he knew Yakov had his family and entourage with him. This is obvious, as he brought a small army with him to kill them all. So why then, does this conversation take the form of a chance meeting, as if it weren’t apparent who they were and what their connection to Yakov – the head of the family, was?

Clearly, there is something else afoot. The Chafetz Chaim says that Esau saw something different in these children, and he was correct for identifying this difference. They were the first Jewish children – we are Bnei Yisrael, and Yakov’s children were the first of the lot! He saw a difference in them from other children he’d encountered, and we need only look at Yishmael and Esau themselves to see how children behaved in that society, so naturally Yakov’s children would act differently.

The Chafetz Chaim explains that the answer to what made them different is in Yakov’s answer. He answered “אֲשֶׁר חָנַן אֱ־לֹהִים אֶת עַבְדֶּךָ – with whom God has favored your servant”. Why did it not say the normal word for giving – נתן, instead it says חָנַן. The Chafetz Chaim teaches us that there is something else to be learned here that what made these children different was the merit of חָנַן- the Roshei Teivos of the 3 Mitzvos only women can perform – חלה ,נר , נידה – the laws regarding the seperation of Challah, lighting Shabbos candles, and family purity. Yakov said within his reply to his brother what made his children special, that his wives observed these laws.

There are other interpretations of the נר part of observance, which just translates as light. The Sforno explains it to mean the light of Torah – it is a mother’s obligation to ensure her children know Torah – “v’al titosh Toras imecha”. How do we see this? There is a Gemara in Niddah which says that every baby in it’s mother’s womb has 2 things – an angel that teaches the baby the whole Torah, which it forgets at birth when the angel taps it’s lip, and a light above it’s head. We don’t see babies born with lights above their heads, so what does this mean? This means that the mother provided the circumstances through which the light of Torah shone on the child before it’s birth, and this is meant to continue throughout the child’s life.

There is a short story told about R’ Yaakov Galinski and the Chazon Ish circa 1953, that explains us what the light or Torah does. They were walking together in the street at night, and were walking under streetlights. The Chazon Ish said “Wow!” every time he walked under a light, and his student, R’ Yaakov asked what was going on. The Chazon Ish obliged; we are not meant to be arrogant people, but how does one work on this character trait if it is innate? The further away from the streetlight/light of Torah we are, the bigger your shadow appears. The closer we get to the streetlight/the light of Torah, the smaller we realize we actually are.

Geshmack !

By N of http://geshmacktorah.blogspot.com/

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