VAYISHLACH
By Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum
Torah reading:
Gen. 32.4-36.43. Haftara: Obadiah 1.1-21 (Optional substitution: Hosea
11.7-12.12).
THE
ENCOUNTER WITH ESAU
At the end of the
previous parshah, VAYEITZEI, we saw Jacob at
In the present parshah,
VAYISHLACH, we see Jacob struggling with the evil husk in its material
manifestation, the "fallen" GEVUROS, worldly power and strength, as
embodied in Esau, man of the FIELD. Thus at the beginning of the parshah,
Jacob, who is about to enter the Promised Land, sends emissaries ahead to his
brother Esau in the land of Seir, the FIELD of Edom
(Gen. 32:4).
Esau was called the
"man of the field" (Gen. 25:27), having received the trait of
GEVURAH, power and strength, from Isaac, who, as the embodiment of holy
GEVURAH, self-discipline, "went out to the field" (Gen. 24:63).
However, the aspect of GEVURAH which Esau received from Isaac was the excess,
unholy aspect: Esau's "field" was the wild outdoors. Thus later on,
the Torah writes: "And if IN THE FIELD the man finds the engaged girl and
the man takes hold of her and lies with her, that man that lay with her shall
die, he alone... for as a man rises up against his neighbor and murders him, so
is this matter" (Deut. 22:25). This FIELD of rape and murder is the field
of idolatrous slaughter: "the sacrifices that they slaughter on the face
of the FIELD... their sacrifices to the GOAT-demons (SE'IRIM) that they lust
after them..." (Leviticus 17:5-7). According to the Rabbis, on the day
when Esau came in "from the field" (Gen. 25:29) and sold his
birth-right to Jacob, Esau was "tired" from the three cardinal sins
of idolatry, sexual immorality and murder.
In order for Jacob to
complete his acquisition of the birth-right and enter and acquire the Promised
Land, he had to demonstrate that together with the CHESSED he had inherited
from his grandfather Abraham, he had also made a complete acquisition of the
trait of holy GEVURAH embodied in his father Isaac. Jacob demonstrated this in
his struggle with Esau, where he prevailed through applying his consummate
wisdom and humility. Thus we find in our parshah that Jacob also made a treaty
of boundaries and separation with Esau. This boundary will prevail "...
until I will come to my lord to Seir" (Gen.
33:14) -- "And when will he go? In the days of Mashiach, as it says, And the saviors will go up on
Jacob was first
characterized as "a dweller of tents" (Gen. 25:27) -- the
"tent" of Abraham (CHESSED) and the "tent" of Isaac
(GEVURAH). "Planting" tents in a field turns the FIELD into a place
of residence. Jacob's mission was to join and synthesize the holy traits of his
fathers and teachers, CHESSED and GEVURAH, in order to build TIFERES, truth,
beauty and balance. This is the HOUSE, the House of Jacob -- the HOUSE, family
and people of Israel, and also the archetypal, model physical HOUSE that is to
serve to guide all mankind to return to G-d, the "House of Prayer for all
the Nations", the "HOME" of G-d: the HOLY TEMPLE. In the course
of our parshah, we see Jacob busy building houses. He travels to Succos, "TABERNACLES" -- temporary homes. There
Jacob built himself a HOUSE while making booths for his livestock.
Jacob then came
"COMPLETE" to SheCheM (Gen. 33:18). The
Hebrew word for "complete" is ShaLeM --
made up of the letters Shin, signifying fire, GEVUROS, Mem
signifying water, CHASADIM, and the transcendent center-column Lamed, that
shoots upwards exactly like the Vav on top of the Kaf
from which the Lamed is formed. SheKheM signifies
SHAFEL, the lowly material world, KOCHAVIM, the stars and constellations that
direct what happens here, and the MALACHIM, the angels or the spiritual forces
which "drive" the stars and planets (Likutey
Moharan I:9). In Shechem,
Jacob "acquired the lot of the FIELD in which he PLANTED HIS TENT..."
(Gen. 33:17-19). Finally, at the climax of our
parshah, "And Jacob said to his HOUSE and to all that were with him, remove the strange gods that are in you and purify
yourselves and change your garments. And let us arise and go up to the HOUSE of
G-d..." (Gen. 35:2-3). And then the House of
Jacob was complete: "And the sons of Jacob were twelve" (Gen. 35:22).
Jacob could only succeed
in building this HOUSE, the House of Israel and its center HOUSE, the
* * *
A GIFT,
A PRAYER... AND/OR WAR
Esau came against Jacob
with the implacable envy and enmity of the serpent towards Adam, for "he
will stamp on you on the head and you will bite him at the heel (AKEV)"
(Gen. 3:15). Even when Esau kissed, he really came to bite (see Baal HaTurim on "and he kissed him" Gen. 33:4 --
"in gematria, 'and he came to bite him'").
Jacob, YaAKOV, was so named because he "gripped
the heel (AKEV)" of Esau (Gen. 25:26). This was how Jacob reclaimed Adam's
greatness, the REISHIS, "head" or "birth-right", thereby
stamping on and crushing the serpent's head.
Esau came with 400 men,
the legions of death. 400 corresponds to the Hebrew letter Tav,
last letter of the Aleph Beis, the ultimate in
multiplicity. 400 signifies a complete array of
numbers -- 10 x 10 -- on all four sides: number, measurement and limitation
everywhere. This multiplicity stands counter to G-d's unity, represented by
Jacob and his twelve sons (the twelve constellations and twelve hours, time and
space), arranged in order in a square (= perfect balance) around the House, the
Sanctuary, the BAYIS (from BereishYS), which ends in
the letter TAV. The House of Jacob comes to overcome death, MAVES, which also
ends with the letter TAV. For "her feet go down to
death" (Proverbs 5:5) -- plurality, the worship of many gods.
Esau's GEVURAH was BRAWN,
the power of physical force. ("I have abundance" Gen. 33:9). But
Jacob overcame Esau's brawn through BRAIN, ROSH, ("kopf"),
the wisdom gained from Jacob's synthesis: this is the TIFERES-DAAS
center-column, the faculty of "putting things together" (CHOCHMAH and
BINAH, CHESSED and GEVURAH). This is achieved through GIVE AND TAKE. Thus Jacob
is the ultimate in humility: "I am too SMALL for all Your
kindnesses" (Gen. 32:11). "Say they belong to YOUR SERVANT Jacob, a
gift sent to MY LORD Esau" (ibid. v. 19). "And he PROSTRATED to the
ground seven times until he approached his brother..." (33:3).
For Jacob is Ya-AKOV, the one who grasps the heel, and "the HEEL
(AKEV) of humility is FEAR OF G-D" (Proverbs 22:4) -- "how AWESOME is
this Place" (Gen. 28:17). The fear of G-d is the "beginning" of
wisdom, the REISHIS, the birth-right (the Hebrew letters of the word REISHIS
include the letters of the word YA-RE, "he is in awe"). For "the
BEGINNING of wisdom, CHOCHMAH, is FEAR OF G-D" (Psalms 111:10) and
"what wisdom made her crown, humility made the sandle
on her heel (AKEV)" (Midrash).
Jacob knows that this
world is but the heel of an entire system of worlds, and this is what gives him
his mastery over this world. He is able to use this world to serve G-d by
configuring and ordering the world properly. Jacob understands that there has
to be give and take with Esau. He understands that Esau has chosen This World.
Jacob thus "bribes" Esau with the "goat for Azazel",
the gift of material wealth, which Jacob, as the source of all blessings, has
the power to draw down and channel to the world.
The abundant gifts of
livestock that Jacob sends to Esau contain a message. Rashi on Gen. 32:15
brings a midrash showing how
the varying ratio of males to females among the different kinds of live-stock
alludes to the appropriate ONAH or time of conjugal union for people in
different walks of life (see Rashi there). In other words, the same Jacob who
sent messages to Isaac in the "lentil soup" is now teaching the
sexually wild Esau a lesson in how to tame and direct animal lust for the sake
of good breeding. In this way, Jacob's material "gift" to Esau brings
order and rectification to the world of ASIYAH.
Jacob offers peace and
gifts (CHESED), but he is prepared for war to the very end (GEVURAH). Yet in
his humility, Jacob knows that all the gifts and all the might of ASIYAH will
not prevail against Esau without the help of G-d. "He prepared himself for
three things: for a gift, for PRAYER and for war" (Rashi on Gen. 32:9).
Prayer is at the center, in between CHESSED (gifts) and GEVURAH (war).
"And Jacob said: G-d of my father Abraham and G-d of my father
Isaac...." (Gen. 32:10).
Jacob struggled with
Esau's root -- his SAR ("guardian angel") -- and it was his success
against the angel that enabled him to prevail over Esau himself. Jacob's
success was WIN/WIN, for even Esau gained what he really wanted: the material
glory of this world. While Esau takes the material wealth, Jacob struggles to
find the inner "face", the roots and inner meaning of the wealth and
glory of this world. Thus Jacob calls the place of his struggle with the angel
PENI-EL, "for I saw G-d FACE TO FACE" (Gen. 32:31). Yet in order for
the world to continue to exist after we uncover the inner face, there has to be
give and take. Jacob gets injured "in the leg" -- HOD. In this world,
KULO OMER KAVOD, "everything cries out glory". In the very outcry of
worldly glory, G-d's glory becomes concealed! As a result, Jacob's children --
"the legs" -- "do not eat from the slipped tendon" (GID
HANASHEH). The Children of Israel are unable to eat all the material blessings
of this world because of the blemished glory. In this world the glory is taken
by Esau, for if Jacob's glory, the glory of
* * *
THE SIN
OF THE MEN OF SHECHEM
The integrity of the
House -- the family -- of Jacob depends upon family PURITY, observance of the
laws of sexual decency and restraint. "Shall our sister be treated like a
prostitute?" (Gen. 34:31). Moral purity is the very foundation of the
Covenant of Abraham, which is sealed in the flesh of the male Children of
Israel on the organ of procreation, indicating the need to restrain animal lust
and elevate it in the service of G-d in order to breed righteous children to
"guard the way of HaShem" (Gen. 18:19).
The rape of Dinah was a
violation of this integrity by Shechem the son of Hamor (= donkey, physical animality)
the Chivi (Chivia in
Aramaic is "serpent" see Targum on Gen.
3:1). Shechem is the opposite of Joseph "the
Tzaddik", the archetype of sexual discipline, who restrains himself with Potiphar's wife and eventually receives SheKheM
(the three worlds, the lowly world, that of the stars and that of the angels,
as discussed above) as well as -- according to the midrash -- marrying Dinah = Osnath.
Dinah's urge to go out
and about "to see the daughters of the land" (a trait unbefitting the
daughter of Jacob) exposed her to danger in a world that was still untamed.
Abraham and Isaac had both faced trials because of the fallen morality of the
Egyptians and the Philistines. Now Jacob's own daughter is raped by Shechem the Hittite, descendant of the accursed
According to Torah law,
Dinah, as a PENUYAH, "unmarried", was not forbidden to Shechem. What was forbidden was the manner in which he
"saw her... and he TOOK her and lay with her": Shechem
kidnapped Dinah. His crime was the violation of the Noachide Law against
stealing, which prohibits the unlawful taking not only of goods but of people.
The crime of the men of Shechem who were sitting
"in the gate of their city" (Gen. 34:20) -- i.e. they were the judges
of the city -- was that they watched this violation of Noachide law and did
nothing.
In the words of Rambam
(Maimonides) Laws of Kings 9:14: "In what way are they (the Children of
Noah) commanded with regard to the rule of law? They are obliged to establish
judges and magistrates in every region to judge cases relating to the other six
commandments, and to warn the population. And any of the Children of Noah who
violates one of these seven commandments is to be killed by the sword. AND FOR
THIS REASON THE RULERS OF SHECHEM WERE LIABLE TO EXECUTION, for Shechem STOLE and they saw and they knew and they did not
bring him to justice..."
The zeal of Levy and
Shimon in perpetrating justice did not escape Jacob's censure, both in our
parshah (Gen. 34:30) and in his blessings to his sons before his death (Gen.
49:5, "Shimon and Levi are brothers, weapons of might are their swords...
Accursed is their anger... I will divide them among Jacob and scatter them
among
* * *
LET US
GO UP TO THE HOUSE OF G-D
The significance of the
section of the parshah describing Jacob's "pilgrimage" with his
family to Beth El, the HOUSE of G-d, has been
discussed above. At Beth El, Jacob's acquisition of the birthright and the
Promised Land was sealed, and he attained his name of greatness --
The House of Jacob was
completed by the birth of Benjamin, who was the only one of Jacob's twelve sons
to be born in the Land of Israel and who founded the tribe that was to
contribute the first king of Israel, Saul, who was "head and shoulders
above all the men of Israel" in his outstanding modesty and righteousness.
Shamai, the Mishnaic Tanna
and Av Beis Din ("father of the court") in
the time of Hillel the Elder, was a descendant of King Saul, while Hillel, who
was the Nasi or Prince (and as such, the highest in
rank) was a descendant of King David. Thus the MACHLOKES (controversy)
throughout the SHAS (6 orders of Mishneh), between
BEIS SHAMAI and BEIS HILLEL is bound up with the struggle between Judah (son of
Leah) and Benjamin (son of Rachel). This struggle is resolved through the
process of clarifying the halachah, which practically
always follows the opinion of Beis Hillel.
Conflict and its
resolution is the theme of all the remaining parshiyos in the book of Genesis
from next week (VAYESHEV) until the end of Genesis (VAYECHI). This is the story
of the rectification of the world, which comes about through Mashiach son of
David (who is from the tribe of Judah, son of Leah) and Mashiach son of Joseph (son
of Rachel). In order to clear the way for the story of rectification, namely
the story of Joseph and his brothers (in which the bond between Judah and
Benjamin plays a central part), the Torah concludes our parshah of VAYISHLACH
with an account of the generations of Esau. The theme of sexual immorality
recurs in this account, for several of Esau's children and grandchildren were
MAMZERIM (bastards -- see Rashi on Gen. 36:2 and 36:12 etc.)
This account ends with
the account of the Seven Kings who ruled over
This throws light on the
meaning of Rashi's first comment on next week's
parshah (on Gen. 37:1): "After the Torah writes for you the dwellings of
Esau and his generations in brief, since they were not sufficiently important
to tell in detail... the Torah now comes to the dwellings of Jacob and his
generations at length and all the cycles (GILGULIM) of causes, for they are
important before G-d... It can be compared to a jewel that fell in the sand. A
person feels through and sieves all the sand until he finds the jewel. And when
he finds the jewel, he throws away the pebbles and takes the jewel."
Shabbat Shalom!
Avraham Yehushua Greenbaum