We continue with chapter three of sefer Madregat HaAdam, where he quotes the Midrash on the pasuk that says
ויאמר אלי מלאך אלקים בחלום יעקב ....
The Angel of G-d came in a dream, to speak to Yaakov....
(Although we are in Avraham Avinu territory in our weekly Parasha, we are going to delve more into Yaakov at this time. You may want to print this out and save it for Parashat Vayetzeh.)
The Midrash says that the message of this angel was not just for Yaakov, but for all of his future generations, because (and this key), there is no generation that doesn’t have in it, “Yaakovs.”
What does this mean, and what is the message?
Let’s refresh our memory on the story:
Yaakov Avinu had been in the house of Lavan for many years. Lavan switched the deal they had made (for which sheep Yaakov could keep) 100 times. Originally, Lavan took all the good ones, and left the weak ones behind. He then told Yaakov that he could keep any speckled lambs that were born of those sheep (which would normally be a rare occurrence). Sure enough, all the sheep were born speckled, so Lavan decided to switch the deal. And he did this 100 times. But no matter how Lavan switched the deal, it turned out in Yaakov ‘s favor each time. How did that happen? The Torah tells us that Yaakov Avinu had a trick of putting up certain sticks (spotted, speckled etc.) near the mating area, in order to encourage the sheep to come out his way. But that could not be what did it, because Lavan would change the deal after the sheep were conceived. So, what was Yaakov Avinu doing with all the sticks? The sticks didn’t do anything. It was G-d making a miracle.
The angel told Yaakov the secret- that he had come in the middle of the night, taken all of the designated sheep from Lavan’s side, and carried them over the fence to Yaakov’s side. At the time, Yaakov had no idea what the angel was doing. He was just relying on Hashem while dealing with this trickster. But Yaakov worked with 100% solid Bitachon.
And because of Yaakov’s solid Bitachon, G-d dealt with him above nature, and broke all the rules of nature for him.
Whatever the deal was, it came out in Yaakov’s favor.
I once heard Rav Wolbe tell the following story:
The great Rav Moshe Alshech was a great darshan, who was able to extrapolate beautiful thoughts from the pesukim. He lived in Sfat, at the same time as the Arizal. One Shabbat (Parashat Vayetzeh), the Alshech was explaining, based on nuances he’d found in the pesukim, all 100 changes that were made, which the pesukim don’t explicitly tell us.
He used gematria, rashei tevot, safei tevot...etc to find all 100 deals: spotted, brown, half brown/half spotted, and every other possible deal.
The Arizal was in the crowd, listening to the Alshech’s speech. When the Alshech got up to about #89, the Arizal smiled. Further in, at about #93, the Arizal began to laugh.
Then at #99, the Arizal left.
When he was asked why he left, he explained that the Alshech was giving such an unbelievable derasha that the angels brought Lavan down to listen. Every time the Alshech made a derasha, Lavan would agree...”Yes, I did that,” and so the Arizal smiled.
The Arizal then explained that he had laughed at one point, because Lavan said, “Wow, that was a good one! I didn’t think of that!”
As he got higher in the numbers though, the Alshech began to get a little ga’ava/haughty that he had almost reached 100 secrets in the Torah. At that point, explained the Arizal, the angels left, because they can’t bear to be near arrogance. So, the Arizal, not wanting to be left alone with Lavan, left as well.
So we see that those changes of the deal all happened, and they were all due to Yaakov’s Bitachon.
We say in our prayers
ישגבך שם אלקי יעקוב
You should be saved by the G-d of Yaakov ( not by the G-d of Avraham or Yitzhak). Who is the G-d of Yaakov?
It says that Yaakov had no one to rely on. He had no sibbot/ intermediaries. He left the house of his father, Yitzhak, a wealthy man. Eliphaz chased him, and wanted to kill him, but Yaakov pleaded with him, and was able to convince him that a poor man is like a dead man. Eliphaz took everything from Yaakov- his money, his clothing, everything. He didn’t even have clothing to wear.
He had to hide behind a rock. Just then, a horseman came along and went swimming in a river near where Yaakov was hiding. The horseman drowned, and Yaakov was able to get dressed in his clothes, take the horse, and continue on his way.
He had nothing when he came to the trickster, Lavan.
But 22 years later, he walked out with four wives and a tremendous amount of cattle.
The cause of all of this was nothing but his bitachon.
Every Jewish person has inherited this from Yaakov, says the Elder of Novardok.
Whatever the Avot have, we have.
We have Yaakov Avinu’s power of bitachon, and B’ezrat Hashem, we will use it and see the success of Yaakov.