Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan Parshat Vayishlach 2

so much so that he can fight with all Divine forces that's why we say that Jewish people are higher than the mazal we are higher than all the angels we only have one above us God himself everyone else is below us the soul of a Jew emanates from the Throne of Glory which which means it's the closest thing to God himself just like we know that God breathed into a human being part of himself a a Divine soul that means we the Jewish people possess it the nations of the world have a soul also which is a level lower the Jewish people's Souls come from the Throne of Glory that's means the the connection between God himself and the next lower world and that repres is represented in the name Isel you are the one who can overcome all spiritual forces and connect to God himself and that's another meaning of the name Isel which is yashar you can go straight to God by overcoming both physical enemies and all the spiritual enemies we connect straight to Hashem now this was not a uh change of name yet Hashem will change yakov's name this was just a prediction an acknowledgment that yakob deserves it the angel of Esa himself said said yes you deserve the name Israel because you are greater than all humans and all Angels so yob said what's your name and he said why are you asking and he blessed him now comes the blessing which means until now it was just a prediction and the angel said I can't tell you my name because our sages say an angel only has a name while he is fulfilling God's command once he's finished he doesn't have a name anymore because the word Mal an angel means messenger the mission is the name of the Angel the angel doesn't have his own name for example Hashem wants wind to blow he wants masses of air to move so he sends a an angel he sends sends a force a messenger to make that happen so we see it as wind blowing we call it a wind wind means the name of an angel that is fulfilling God's command we have an angel called gravity it's a force in the physical world the god appointed the God sent it's a God's Messenger to fulfill certain purpose it's a so Happ s that it's a constant force it's an angel that is constantly there we call it gravity and it's constantly fulfilling God's command and so we have all the events that happen in the physical world what really is happening is that God is um controlling everything he's sending his Messengers constantly and they are fulfilling his will uh so the angel said I don't have a name my name is my mission and he blessed him doesn't say what the blessing was now comes the first negative commandment for the Jewish people in the entire Torah first the prohibition of eating the the the sadic nerve of animals verse 31 so Yakov called the name of the place pel for I have seen the Divine face to face yet my life was spared the word pel panim means face and and the ending is is uh God's name the sun rose for him as he passed pel and he was limping on his hip yes he was limping as the son Rose but as soon as the sun rose the Rays of sun healed yob and he became healthy verse 33 therefore the children of Israel are not to eat the displaced senu now this stic nerve has a name in Hebrew G why because means the the the one that jumped the one that was displaced since it happened once with our forefather this uh sayic nerve now is always called by that name so the children of Israel are not to eat the displaced senu on the hip socket to this day because the angel struck yakov's hip socket on the displaced sen now we go to chapter 33 the encounter with esav yov raised his eyes and saw behold asav was coming with 400 men so he divided the children among Leia Rael and the two handmaids apparently he changed his mind and he brought the camp together could be that God reassured him that everything's going to be fine so he uh now greets asav with all his wives and Children First the handmaids the bilha and Zila and their children then Leia and her children and then Rael and ysf and then he himself went ahead and bowed towards the Earth seven times as he was walking towards asav he bowed down to the ground he got up walked another few steps bowed down to the ground slowly breaking as's hatred and his uh uh defense until he reached his brother this is a hint that he got to the his EST he got to Brotherly Love through his behavior so ASA couldn't contain him any himself anymore so he ran toward yov embraced him fell upon his neck and kissed him and they both wept they cried together and here if you look on the Hebrew side we have interesting phenomena we have dots little circles on top of every letter in the word v and he kissed him and the sages say that it could mean two things either it means that asav who is such a macho he's so strong he became like a little lamb he broke down and he C cried brotherly tears of love and and the the second meaning is that perhaps asav still had some hatred towards yob and asav tried to bite Yakov on his neck but God strengthened yakov's neck and the neck became stronger longer than teeth and asf's teeth broke and he was crying because it hurt so much and those little dots are a hint to asa's teeth falling out and they wept yov was crying because Asa didn't kill him and ASA was crying because his teeth were hurting either one of these explanations is is uh valid but let's take the explanation that asav was overcome with love because of yakov's humility and yakov's gifts now we we go to page 179 asov saw the women and children he asked who are these and Yakov humbly said the children whom God had graciously given your servant and and uh every mother came forth with her children and they bow down to asav and Rael and ysep came last and ysf stood in front of Rael and he bowed down together with Rael ysep protected his mother even though he was the youngest but he was the boldest and out of politeness ASA said I have plenty my brother let what what you have remain yours take back your gifts and Yakov said no I beg you if I have found favor in your eyes accept my tribute from me because I saw your face and for me it means a lot as if I saw God himself and plus I have everything Yakov has this uh character trait of uh being satisfied with his lot and he says I have everything therefore I'm not lacking anything please take and ASV accepted ASV offered Yakov to travel together in verse 12 let us go I will proceed alongside you but Yakov didn't accept his offer he said now ASA is in a good mood who knows what's going to happen tomorrow so he said ASV I have children I have uh animals I'm going to walk slowly please don't wait go go I'll catch up with you sometime later and our sages say yes yakob will catch up with him at the end of times by the war of go and Magog so they parted verse 16 asov went back that day on his way towards but yov J to sukot and he built himself a house and for his livestock he made shelters and he therefore called the name of the place sukot we're now on page 181 since the the the word shelter in Hebrew is sukot and he built these these HS for his animals that place be acquired name sukot from here we see that Yakov cared even for animals not only he built a house for himself he even built shelters for his animals so Yakov spends two years during his travels towards his father and when Yakov is 9y old Verse 18 Yakov arrived intact at the city of shen verse 19 he bought the parcel of land upon which he pitched his tent from the children of for 100 for 100 coins of local currency he set up an altar there and proclaimed God the god of Israel and uh just like Abraham bought uhon Yakov bought uh a field next to sh and just like Kon became a disputed and the the Muslims are claiming that it's theirs even though the Torah clearly says that Abraham bought it so to the the city of sh is disputed and the later in that field ysf was buried and now his burial plot is in the hands of Muslims and they're not letting us go there and not not only that they destroyed the grave site of ysf and the Torah specifically says that Yakov paid a lot of money for that field and still our enemies don't respect our title on the land now we go to uh chapter 34 page 181 a sad story of dena's abduction Dena is a 8 years old the daughter of Leia went out together with daughters of the land she became friendly with the local girls and she went where she wasn't supposed to she was supposed to stay in the Jewish Camp next to her mother next to her brothers and she went out so sh the son of hore the prince of the region saw her he took her by force lay with her and violated her and surprisingly he became deeply attached to Dena usually criminals get satisfaction and they drop their victim they might kill their victim or just run away but sh never saw such a thing a Jewish girl he desired her he became attached to her he loved the maiden and appealed to the maiden's emotions and he spoke to his father saying take me this girl for a wife I'm never going to find a girl like that among the local girls this girl is a jam I want her as my wife wherever Jewish people would go their girls were always haunted after they were always considered the best wives but the Torah tells us the Jewish boys are the best husbands the Jewish girls are the best wives and therefore keep the wealth in the family not allowed to marry out of um the Nation now Yakov heard that his daughter was defiled and his sons were in a field in the meantime so Yakov had to keep quiet until their arrival and's father came to Yakov to speak for shid and at that time yakov's Sons arrived from the field and when they heard they were distressed and they the the fire of indignation burned inside of them now we turn to page and spoke to them and the said that my son Longs deeply for your daughter please give her to him as a wife they thought it's going to be a dumb deal of course the prince wants to marry some traveling trib's daughter of course they'll be honored you will intermar with us we'll give you can give your daughters to us and take our daughters for yourself and you can trade and you'll be prosperous and shim himself said let me gain favor in your eyes whatever you tell me I will give you can inflate exceedingly upon me the marriage settlement and gifts and I will give whatever you tell me just give me this girl as a wife something something uh took over him and he couldn't control himself he wants to marry only Dena for any price however yakov's Sons answered sh cleverly because they said what is this not only he kidnapped our sister not only he violated her but he's not letting her go he's keeping her in his house so they said we have to get her out of there so they decided to trick and they said we can only this is verse 15 only on this condition will we acques to you if you become Like Us by letting every male among you become circumcised Verse 18 agrees their proposal seemed good in the view of hamor and the people of the town and they all became circumcised which is an amazing thing why would they do it adults Elders children go through an operation just because their leader desired to marry some woman and now all males have to circumcise very uh strange thing and yet they all said yes we're going to do it and as one they all circumcised themselves now we go to page 185 verse 24 all the people who depart through the gate of his City listen to and his son and all the males all those who depart through the gate of the city were circumcised now it came to pass on the third day when they were in pain because the third day is the hardest day after circumcision the two sons of Yakov Shimon and Levi dena's Brothers they come from the same mother from Leia each took his sword and they came upon the city confidently killing every male now how old were Shimon and Levi Shimon was 13 years old and Levy was somewhere between 12 and 13 years old they were both young teenagers two young teenagers 12 and 13 years old and they killed out the entire city and they killed and Sh as well and then they took Dina from sh's house and left now verse 30 yov said to shim you caused me to look bad among the inhabitants of the land I'm few in number should they band together and attack me I will be annihilated so he rebuked them but they answered should he treat our sister like a harlot now we turn to page 187 chapter 35 Yakov travels to B but in order to serve God but before that he prepares Hashem said to yob arise go up to beel and dwell there and make an altar for me who appeared to you when you fled from asav your brother which means just like Yakov promised on his way to Lavan that if he comes back safely he will serve God on the altar in beel so now Hashem reminds him you already came two years past you're traveling go and fulfill your vow so Yakov said to his H household let's prepare discard the alien gods that are in your midst cleanse yourself and change your clothing so they gave Yakov all the idols the servants may have had it and Rael had Idols of her father and they just took possession of all the things from sh among which they were for sure idolatrous objects and Yakov B buried them under a tree near sh and as they traveled to beel Hashem placed Terror on all the cities which were around them so they didn't pursue yakov's Sons Yakov came to lose which has another name beel and he built an altar there now verse eight dor the wet nurse of Rifka died and she would was bu married under B and I Sayes say that at that same time Rifka herself died Rifka was 122 years old and she got she died secretly because not that she died secretly she was buried secretly because um at that time everyone knew what kind of person ASA was and he caused bad reputation on the whole family so when they were burying her they didn't want to announce it so the people shouldn't speak extra about their bad son now we go to page 189 God appeared to Yakov again and he blessed him and he said verse 10 your name is Yakov your name shall not always be called Yakov but Israel shall be your permanent name so he called his name Israel and God said to him I am El sh be fruitful and multiply a nation which refers to beamin and a Congregation of Nations shall descend from you which refers to the true two tribes that came from ysph Mas Kings shall come out from you and that refers of course to the kings of um uh the tribe of bamin which is Sha and the kings that came from Yehuda um and other tribes the land that I gave to Abraham to I will give to you and to your Offspring verse 14 yob had set up a pillar at the place where God has spoken to him a pillar of stone and he poured a libation upon it and he poured oil upon it this is the Fulfillment of yakov's Promise many years earlier they journeyed verse 16 from B and there was still a stretch of land to go to eat when Rael went into labor and had difficulty in her child birth she was about to die and her and the her maid uh her Midwife tried to reassure her have no fear for this one too is a son for you and as the baby was born Rael was losing it she was departing as her soul was departing she called his name Ben Oni which means the son of my sorrow but his father called him bamin the son of my right hand the son of strength Rael died and she was buried on the road to a FR which is Bim and Yakov set up a monument over her grave it is the Monument of Ra's grave until today in the city of Bethlehem verse 21 on page 191 Israel journeyed on and he pitched his tent Beyond migdal Eder while Israel dwelt in that land ruven went and lay with bilha his father's concubine now I will say just say that all ruven did was he moved his father's bed into his mother's tent Leia while Yakov wanted to spend the night with bilha who was made servant of Rael because she reminded him of Rael and he still mourned for her and because ruen interfered in his father's marital life it it is considered as if he violated his wife Sons of yakob were 12 and now the Torah lists all of them now there's a complete set yakov's firstborn Ru then comes Shimon and then Y and thenali and G verse 27 finally Yakov and reunite yov came to his father at which Ison and's days were 180 years and Yak expired and died and he was gathered to his people old and fulfilled in of days his sons yakob and esav buried him now our sages say that it didn't happen right away when Yakov came it happened 21 years later but the Torah tells us about it now because we are going to concentrate on Yakov and his sons and is isak will not play a role anymore now we turn to page 193 and we have genealogy of asav and these are descendants of is he ad he had wives and basat and all the sons that were born to him are listed now we asav took his we verse six Isa took his wives and sons and daughters and all the members of the household and went to a land an unknown land which later we'll know it's called because of his brother Yakov asav said the land of Israel comes with responsibility Hashem said whoever uh continues the legacy of Abraham and Y will have to be slaves in the land not their own for 400 years and Isa said I I don't need the land because I don't want the price tag so he went to a different land verse 8 so ASA settled on Mount verse 12 timna was a concubine of elifas son of esav and she bore a Mal to elifas so uh here we learned the genealogy of Amal Amal was not a a a son of um of of a wife but rather he was a son of a concubine asav had a son alas elifas had a concubine timna and amalik came from her really we learn through the genealogy that H they were not loyal to their wives and there was a double uh adultery so am black is really a product of the