When Ribka instructed Yaakob to disguise himself as Esav so he could receive Yishak's blessing, she told him, "Lech Na El Ha'son" – to go and bring two goats for her to prepare meat for Yishak (27:9).
The Midrash (Bereshit Rabba 65:14) finds in these words an allusion to Beneh Yisrael, her future descendants. Ribka was telling Yaakob, in the words of the Midrash, "Lech Ve'kadem Et Ha'uma She'meshula La'son" – "Go and precede the nation, which is likened to sheep."
Rav Solomon Breuer (Germany, 1850-1926), son-in-law of Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888), explains for us the meaning of the Midrash's comment. The Rabbis speak of the Jewish People as "a sheep among seventy wolves." To understand what this means, we need simply to hear what goes on during a typical session in the United Nations. The nations of the world get together and, ignoring all the problems and injustices being perpetrated throughout the globe, gang up on the one, tiny Jewish State that is waging a multifront war against countries many times its size who are trying to annihilate it. We are like a small, helpless sheep surrounding by vicious wolves. And we have been that way for some two thousand years, throughout our long, difficult exile.
This, Rav Breuer explains, was Ribka's message to Yaakob. What he was about to do would pave the way, and set the precedent, for how the "sheep" must deal with this troubling reality. Yaakob, who embodied the quality of "Emet," honesty and integrity, needed to resort to deception in order to defeat Esav. The prospect of Esav receiving the blessing needed to be avoided at all costs, and so Yaakob was forced to go against his nature, and to disguise himself as Esav. The same way, the Jewish People, who are expected to adhere to the strictest standards of integrity, and who, as the descendants of Yaakob, are to model to the world the attribute of "Emet," are sometimes compelled to resort to deception in order to survive. Ribka was telling Yaakob – and us – that he was deceiving his father only because our nation is like a "sheep" that needs to outsmart the seventy "wolves" that seek to destroy it.
The broader message of this insight is that every human attribute – including negative tendencies – can and must be used for good. In the first paragraph of Shema, the Torah (Debarim 6:5) commands us to serve Hashem "Be'chol Lebabecha" – "with all your heart." Rather than utilize the standard word for "heart" – "Libecha" – the Torah chooses instead the word "Lebabecha," which features an extra letter Bet. The Mishna (Berachot 54a) explains this word as a reference to "Sheneh Yesarecha" – our two instincts, our Yeser Tob (positive inclination) and Yeser Ha'ra (negative inclination). We are to serve Hashem not only with our positive instincts, but even with our negative, sinful instincts. The way we do this is by directing these impulses in the proper direction. Jealousy is normally a destructive trait which we should avoid, but it can be used as a motivator when we look admiringly at great people accomplishing great things. Pride and arrogance, as dangerous as they are, become critically important when a person needs the confidence to do what's right in the face of social pressure, and to protest wrongdoing. Anger is especially pernicious, but parents and educators must, at times, express some small degree of anger in the process of teaching.
May Hashem assist us to utilize all our natural tendencies and instincts – the good and the bad – for the right purposes, so we can faithfully serve Him with our all hearts, throughout our lives, Amen.