Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan Parshat Vayishlach 1

good evening we're learning we're using the art scr we're on page 171 in last week's para Yakov met Angels twice once in his dream when he was going to lavan's house to get married and the second time in real life when he was coming back from lavan's house this time he was married with 12 children 11 boys and one girl and our sages point out to the the difference uh and they say that the reason why Yakov is now meriting to see angels in real life is because he's now married with Children person who is married is on more complete and a person who has children he has worked on himself so much with the spouse and now with the children that he becomes a perfect human being and he can even be on the same level with angels and now yov in this week's para actually interacts with these angels as it says then Yakov sent Angels ahead of him to asav his brother to the land of the field of adom yakob is going soon he is is is going to meet asav and he's not sure what mood asav is in maybe asav is still angry maybe asav forgot about it maybe asav is preparing for war so he sent angels as um reconnaissance mission as spies to find out what's going on with Isa so Yakov sent Angels ahead of him to esav his brother and he commanded them saying thus shall you say to my Lord to esav so said your servant Yakov I lived with Lavan and I was delayed until now and I acquired oxen and Donkey flock servants made servants and I'm sending to tell my Lord to find favor in your eyes so the angels went on a mission to greet asav to give him a positive message from Yakov uh dear asav Yakov misses you he's coming back he is uh viewing you as his Lord as his master he's humble he hopes you will accept him he wants to find favor in your eyes and in verse S Angels returned to Yakov saying we came to your brother to ASA and we gave him the message moreover he's heading toward you and 400 men are with him now that's a a news that Yakov didn't want to hear if ASA was coming himself with a few servants if ASA was was coming with his children or his wives so then there is a chance now ASA is coming with 400 men now in cabala the number 400 represents evil and uh represents Satan so asav chose 400 men as a sign that he doesn't want peace he wants to fight till death asav is showing that he did not forget forget forgave Yakov he didn't forgive Yakov and not only that he is planning to fight him he is bringing an army now at this point we have to keep in mind how old were yakob and ASA we may imagine them as young men in their 30s fores who are hot blooded hot headed but as we know um Yakov last Saw ASV when he was 63 they were both 63 Yakov left uh his parents' home he went to the academy of Shem and ever to the Yeshiva and he spent 14 years when he was 77 he came to the house of Lavan he worked for S years for Rael then because he was tricked he worked for an additional 7 years and then he worked for another 6 years because Lavan begged him to stay longer so 7 + 7 + 6 gives us 20 years in lavan's house if Yakov came to lavan's house when he was 77 he left lavan's house when he was 97 that means yov and asav at this juncture are 97 years old they are two sages two grandpas that are meeting each other Yakov is not a grandpa yet but ASV is because ASV got married when he was 40 Yakov got married when he was um 84 so uh Yakov got married 44 years after ASA so now this 97 year old man asav is bringing 400 Soldiers with him to fight now we turn to page 173 yov prepares in three ways number one he prepares militarily verse 8 yakob became very frightened and it distressed him he didn't know what to expect he might be killed or he might kill his brother so he divided the people with him and the flocks cattle and camels into two camps and he said if ASA comes to one camp and Strikes it down then the remaining Camp has a chance to survive but he doesn't say has a chance rather he says shall survive will for sure survive how does Yakov know that the second Camp will for sure survive and that is because Rifka gave Yakov a prophecy Rifka said to Yakov why should I lose both of you on the same day that means that Rifka told y yakob that both he and asav are going to be buried on the same day so Yakov decided and that's what the the para says that he put the two camps one day distance apart it would take a um a man on a horse these soldiers on horses one day to travel to get to the second camp and his reasoning was that in case asav will kill yov asav will have to die within 24 hours and then if it takes ASA 24 hours to get to the second Camp by the time he gets he's going to be dead so this way yov guaranteed that half of his family will survive now that's the first preparation the second preparation is prayer in verse 10 then yob said God of My Father Abraham and God of my father Yak Hashem who said to me return to your land and to your and to your relatives and I will do good with you Hashem you told me to leave laan and come to my father you are the one who told me to go towards asav you have to protect me I have been diminished by all the kindnesses and by all the truth that you have done your servant yov is now thanking Hashem for all the good that he did for with my staff I crossed this Jordan and now I have become two camps when I came to Lavan I was alone I didn't have any possessions except for a staff for my staff and now not only I'm alive and healthy 20 years later and even 34 years later if we count the years in Yeshiva but now I have have enough people and animals to make two camps Hashem you gave me so much that I feel humbled I feel diminished by so much kindness verse 12 rescue me please from the hand of my brother from the hand of asav for I fear Him lest he come and strike me down mother and children and unfortunately this is something that we had to be afraid of because this is something that happened time and again throughout our long difficult history that the children of asav and children of our other enemies did come and they did strike us and mothers and children so yakob is praying for himself and for future generation and verse 13 and you God said I will surely do good with you and I will make your Offspring like the sand of the sea which is too numerous to count just like Abraham Yakov has a dilemma Hashem said to Abraham you will have many children and he said you will have all those children from your son isak but then Hashem himself told Abraham take kak and bring him as an offering so Abraham didn't understand Hashem I have two contradictory predictions one is that isak will produce a lot of children for me on the other hand you're telling me to kill him how's that possible but nevertheless Abraham listened to Hashem his command the second time and he brought his son on an altar as an offering and then Hashem showed him how to rec reconcile both by stopping him and telling him it was a test he didn't mean that he should Slaughter him just bring it up and then bring him down Yakov is in the same Dilemma on one hand he has a promise from Hashem himself that his children will be too numerous to count but now he's in a situation that is very dangerous he might die and part of his family might die but at the same time he has and he trusts Hashem that everything will be fine and even though he trusts he still has to pray he still has to prepare militarily because we have a rule as they say in Russia Russ that means you have to trust but at the same time you cannot sit idly and wait for Hashem to do everything you have to put in effort whatever is up to you you have to do and the rest is up to Hashem so that's what yob is doing he prepared by separate ing the camps he is praying and now this the third way to prepare for battle is to try to appease the enemy to try to avoid the battle alt together the as they teach us in martial arts the first rule is don't fight if you can avoid the fight by giving away your money by not standing on your ground he wants to pass let him pass even though you're first be smart don't be right if you need to bribe bribe if you need to praise praise but it's not uh the right thing to prove that you are stronger your life is too precious to play games with and therefore yov says I would rather avoid the conflict at all so verse 14 he spent the night there and he took from that which had come in his hand which means from his possessions a tribute to asav his brother a gift for asav and the gift is enormous a huge expensive gift what did he give him he gave him 200 female goats and 20 male goats 200 female sheep and 20 Rams 30 camels and with their babies so together 60 camels 40 cows and 10 Bulls 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys all together if you count there are 580 animals and if you count 30 um male camels because in the count the male camels are not uh listed but our our sages say that in addition to female camels and babies he also gave them him 30 male camels it comes to uh 610 animals and according to some 640 animals imagine 600 animals among them sheep goats cows donkeys camels a huge gift and he did it in a smart way he put his servants uh separately each group at a distance and he told his servants go ahead of me and leave a space between each group so that ASA sees one group coming and he's impressed and he asks who is it from oh it's from your brother he's giving you a gift okay maybe he's not going to be so happy yet and then he sees far away another group is coming and he's patiently waiting expecting another gift and he sees a huge gift again first the Sheep then an hour later comes another group with goats and another hour later comes another group with cows and an hour later comes the group with donkeys and an hour later comes the group with camels and his heart is becoming softer and softer his greed is being fed his Hess is being fed and therefore his anger is subsiding and he instructed them when my brother asav meets you and asks you saying now we turn to page 175 who's are you where are you going and who are these that are before you you shall say your servant yakov's it's your brothers but he's your servant it is a gift sent to my Lord my master to isav and he himself is behind us he instructed each one like that and imagine not only asav is getting a gift but asav is also getting a positive message a message of Peace a message of humility a message of Good Will a good of Good Will so we can learn a lot of psychology and a lot of U Insight how to deal with difficult people and in fact our sages throughout the Millennia have studied this chapter before they had to encounter their enemies whether it was Battle or negotiation before they had to go to Roman officials to negotiate um on the behalf of the Jewish people they studied it and they followed it they brought a lot of gifts and good words to those in in in charge and very often it worked just like it worked over here as we shall see now we're in verse 21 he further said to them that the message should include the following words Behold your servant yov is behind us for he said yakob said to himself I will appease him with this gift that precedes me and afterwards I will face him perhaps he will forgive him before you speak about something difficult you have to appease a person you have to speak politely you have to speak with respect you have to praise them make them feel good and only then State your request in uh the relationship between husband and wife this is also very important don't break the news don't start talking about a sensitive issue right away first make the person feel good praise them give them something nice calm them down and then little by little present the issue so verse 22 the tribute passed on before him while he spent that night in the camp now in the middle of the night he got up and he took his two wives and two handmaids and his 11 sons and crossed the Ford the shallow part of the river yabok he felt unsafe to stay on that side of the river so he transferred them onto the other side of the river in case ASA encounters him they will be saved and when he took them and had them cross over the stream he sent over his possessions yakob was left alone on the other side of the river at night darkness and a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn surprising where did this man come from who is he why is Yakov alone and and this man who appeared like a human being was an angel this was a guardian angel of esav he was the representation of evil itself the Satan because Yakov and asov represent two opposite realities Yakov represents the truth and the goodness and ASV represents evil and their corresponding guardian angels are also opposite uh Concepts the concept of spiritual good and the concept of spiritual negativity so since yakob represents the good in this world so the spiritual for for came down to this world to fight with him and the fight was not a physical fight it was a a fight of two spiritual Giants this was an intellectual fight a spiritual fight um and uh although we don't see angels in a physical world in a physical form but our forefathers did and in fact an angel can appear in a physical world world in physical form unlike God we say that God himself cannot appear in a human form why that's simple because God encompasses everything Hashem is creating the universe every moment that we speak we are in his mind the entire universe is just a concept in God's mind and therefore it is impossible for God himself to come into the physical world because if that would be possible and he would enter the physical world then there is no more God who is thinking there's no more universe so God being beyond the universe cannot constrict himself and fit himself into his own mind into the universe that he created uh this is unlike the Christian concept and that is why we disagree with Christians on the concept of what God is according to them a God is some spiritual being he can come into this world um and he can he can uh as a human being we say God cannot appear as a human being God can send an angel to represent him and to communicate with people on his behalf but Hashem himself does not appear in the physical form um now if if anyone has a question you can ask in the chat or if it's urgent you can unmute yourself and ask now the angel of asav is fighting with yov until the break of dawn when he per perceived that he could not overcome him when the angel saw that yov is strong he's committed to God and he has God in his mind and no matter what the angel of Asa does he cannot break yob this is a prediction that no matter how much the nations of the world will try to influence us to abandon our religion to abandon Hashem we the Jewish people will be strong and we will always choose death rather than conversion so he decided to do a trick he struck the socket of his hip he struck him on a hip and he dislocated his hip so yacob's hip socket was dislocated as he wrestled with him and Yakov still didn't let him go even though Yakov is injured and that's again a prediction that in the future there will come a time that the Jewish Nation will be injured but they will still not give up and it happened many times the last time it happened was in the Holocaust the Jewish people were very much injured but we didn't give up and then the angel of asav begged let me go for the dawn has broken it's light it's getting light I don't have power light represents the truth in the world of Truth falsehood doesn't have power cannot survive as soon as the light of dawn appears the angel of ASAP says I lost my power I cannot survive Let Me Go please and Yakov answered I will not let you go unless you bless me now that Yakov sees that he has power over asav he takes advantage of it and says admit your defeat and bless meav so far did not accept that Yakov is the firstborn that yakob bought the right of the firstborn that Yakov got the blessings and his father agreed that he should keep the blessings so yakob says to the angel of isav you admit that I'm the firstborn and bless me so angel had no choice he said what's your name as if he doesn't know and he answered yov so the angel said no longer will it be said that your name is yob because yob represents lowly stature the heel but rather Isel your name will be for you have fought with the Divine and with man and have overcome you fought against Lavan and you won and now you fought against Divine being an angel the messenger of God and you warn again so now he has the name Isel from the word SAR SAR means a minister a leader but also it means the one that fought and the word l means divine being that you fought with a Divine being so the name Israel means someone who has a lot of spiritual strength