All right, listen to this very, very carefully. It's a chiddush that's homemade. I didn't see it anywhere, but it's a question that's very, very strong. And you have to know the answer to this question.
We see that Yaakov fights a malach (angel) in this week's parasha. And guess what? He defeats him. And if you tell me it's not physical, it's spiritual and physical at the same time. Because you see that he hit him by the Gid HaNasheh (sciatic nerve). And we can't eat the Gid HaNasheh. The Gemara brings down that the dust of the fight went up to the Kisei HaKavod (Throne of Glory). So there are inyanim (matters) that make it sound like a real fight is going on.
If that's the case, we know I told you about Lavan. Lavan tricked Yaakov a hundred times. It says a hundred times, right? And there's a story even wrote down that Alshich was saying all hundred times. It's a true story. Alshich was sitting down being doresh (expounding) to the kahal (congregation). And this is what Lavan did. This is one trick and the third trick and the thing. And the 99 trick and the 100 trick. And all of a sudden, you see Arizal laughing. So I said, “Arizal, what's going on? Arizal was laughing. What's going on?” So I'll tell you what happened. Lavan came down from shamayim (heaven) to hear all the tricks that you were doresh. And one of the tricks he said, “Ah, I should have done that. That I didn't do. I should have done that.” So Arizal started laughing.
So you see, he tricked him so many times. If he tricked him so many times, how is it possible that he got tricked by Lavan so many times? If he could beat, if he could beat, if he could beat, if he could beat. He was so strong. He was so strong.
You know what the answer is? The answer is like this. He didn't want to go down. Yaakov didn't want to go down to a level of thinking like a swindler. He didn't want to go down a level and think, “How can I trick him? Oh, he's going to do this, and I'm going to do this. And I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this.” He didn't want to go in that mindset of a crook. You know what's going on? He'd rather get tricked a hundred times than stoop down to a different, lesser level. You know what I'm saying? It's an amazing point because sometimes, when you're doing business, right, a guy might have messed up your order, cheated you, this, that. “Oh yeah, I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do that.” Don't stoop, don't stoop to his level. You know how you level? Be an aristocrat. Be a man. Be, “I'm not gonna stoop to your level.” You did it. What, what? “I'm gonna go down to your level now. I'm gonna do that your level. I'm not on your level.” Yeah, yeah, you're the guy's a low life. “I'm gonna go down, there's a low life level.” No, you know what's going on over here? It's a very big lesson in life: how a person has to keep his stature. He has to keep his cool. He has to keep his dignity in his life. Yeah, so Yaakov didn't want to go down any level in his dignity. He didn't want to do like that. He didn't want to think like a crook or a swindler.