Today’s
class has been dedicated in memory of Sarah Sophia Bat Salcha by David Braha
& Family.
There is a well-known rule, מעשי אבות סימן לבנים
The actions of the fathers are a sign for the future generations;
Whatever happened to Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov will happen to the Jewish people in the
future.
This week’s Parasha
discusses the event where Yaakov Avinu went
back, alone, to retrieve
some jugs that were mistakenly left
behind. Then Esav’s Angel came and had a wrestling match with Yaakov,
which lasted through
the entire night, until the morning. Yaakov Avinu was victorious,
and wouldn’t let the Angel of Esav free until the Angel gave him a blessing.
But Yaakov’s hip was damaged in the fight, specifically the gid hanasheh (
the sinew was displaced) and therefore, when we eat beef, there is a certain part,
(the gid hanasheh)
that has to be removed, in order to remind us of this wrestling
match.
This was obviously an important event, if there is a commemoration
of it, built into our kashrut laws. But when was the last time you went into a
restaurant, asked for
this cut of steak and were told, “Sorry that’s not available, because we
can’t eat it.”
I’m not sure anyone even thinks
about this Mitzvah But now is the time to think about it. So, let’s think so about it. We
are supposed to remember this event.
What is the lesson of this event?
The Sefer HaHinuch, who gives reasons for the mitzvot, says that the message of this Mitzvah is that even though we
are going to suffer many difficulties and challenges doing our years of exile,
in the hands of the Goyim, and specifically of Esav, we have to be בטוח, confident and
guaranteed that we won’t be lost. לְעוֹלָם יַעֲמֹד זַרְעָם וּשְׁמָם
Our children and our name will last forever. In the end the redeemer will come. This will give us hizzuk to survive the Galut. Just like Yaakov Avinu had his
wrestling match, and the Angel of Esav wanted to uproot Yaakov, so too Esav to the generation will try
to uproot us, and we will be saved. And just like the sun shined for
Yaakov Avinu, and healed him, and he was saved from all suffering, so too the
son of Mashiach will shine upon the Jewish people and heal us from our
suffering, and redeem us speedily in our days. That is one of the important lessons
of Gid HaNasheh: do not give up hope of the geula/ redemption. Even though it will
be a long and stretched out Galut/ exile, Hashem will redeem us.
That is another important bitachon lesson from the wrestling match.
There is another important lesson, that the Brisker Rav shares with us: Yaakov Avinu had two meetings with Esav. The first
meeting he had was a spiritual wrestling match. The second meeting was when he actually met
face-to-face with
Esav, the real man. The main war was not
the meeting with Esav- that was an afterthought. The main war was the war
fought with the Angel of Esav, with whatever spiritual power Yaakov Avinu had to use. We don’t know what went on, or what he did. How do you wrestle with an angel? What spiritual prowess must you
show? Do you pray?
Do you say tehilim?
Do you constantly learn? I don’t know what Yaakov Avinu did. But whatever he did, he did the
right thing and he won the war. The Brisker Rav says that in life, we have to
know the same thing. There are challenges all over, whether it’s a physical
enemy, a pandemic, whatever it may be. There are challenges. But we have to
realize that the main war that we fight is in the spiritual realm. The main we
fight is in Shul, not in the office or in a business meeting or at the doctor. The main fight is in your Amidah. That is where the fight is
happening. The fight is happening in the spiritual realm. Everything that
happens afterward has been pre-programmed. The programming is what’s important, not what
shows up on the screen. If you want to make changes on the (non-touch) screen,
you have to make changes on the keyboard. You can’t just start touching the
screen.
That’s lesson number two.
Yaakov Avinu won the war on the level of the
Angel of Esav, and then afterward, it showed up when he actually met his brother Esav. So too, in our lives, we have
to know where to fight the war. Not on the screen, not after it’s been
programmed. We have to be the programmers.
Have a Shabbat Shalom.
