The Secret Connection Between Leah and Eisav - By Rabbi YY Jacobson

The Yeshiva.net Today, we're going to uh look at Vayishlach, the first ma'amar of Vayishlach, which is page 47 of Chaf Daled Amud Alef. Chaf Daled column one, page 47. Vayishlach Yaakov malachim lefanav el Eisav achiv. Now, the truth is that this discourse, sicha of Daled Amud Alef, the column on the bottom, the the first column closer to the bottom. The truth is that this uh this ma'amar is a very deeply connected to the one that we learned in Toldos, Re'eh Re'ay achiv ben Yitzchak Re'ay. Sod Asher Berach Yaakov There he discussed Eisav getting the brachos or trying to get the brachos and then Yaakov taking them. And here, the story continues after 20 years of Yaakov's separation from his brother, he now comes back and he wants to reconcile with his brother and he sends messengers and he says, "I want to in your eyes." And the messengers come back and say, "Your brother is advancing with 400 troops to to fight." Yaakov is frightened, he's afraid. Rashi says he's afraid to be killed. He's also afraid to kill. And war is never simple. Even if you win, it's not simple. Golda Meir said, "Yummy." I think Jews took it to a an extreme that was unhealthy. But uh but uh the the idea is a sensitive one. The idea is that even if you win, you won the war, but it's not simple. It's not There's a celebration for victory, but there's also sadness that this is what victory means. Cuz Jews went to the other extreme because, you know, we're Jews. That answers it, right? You're right. So, Yaakov is frightened and he does three things, right? He splits up the camp in strategy to prepare for war. He prays to Hashem. And he also does what what you got to do, he sends a lavish bribe to his brother to appease him. At the end, of course, we know the confrontation he expected never never happens. When Eisav sees him, he actually unexpectedly, without even the bribe, he hugs him, he kisses him, he falls on his neck, they both cry. And it's a moment of tender uh of tender reconciliation between two brothers who have been estranged for so long. That's in the p'shat of the story. And then Eisav wants to even live together with Yaakov and Yaakov says, "Thank you, but no thank you." And they part ways. So, the Alter Rebbe, the Baal HaTanya, who starts with Vayishlach Yaakov malachim lefanav el Eisav achiv, and he says, "Hinei Yadua she'Yaakov shorsho hu mibchinat Shem Mah de'Olam HaTikkun ve'shorsho shel Eisav mibchinat Olam HaTohu. He right away directs it to the spiritual energies of Yaakov and Eisav, what they represent, which, of course, it's not only about the figures, the two brothers, it's it's a timeless It's a timeless energy that lives on in the world. There's Yaakov today and there's Eisav today and as they were always. The source of Yaakov is what we call the name of Mem Hey of the world of Tikkun and the source of Eisav is Olam HaTohu. So, just for uh you know, clarification of terminology, Shem Mah in Kabbalistic literature is very well known. It means the name of 45. What's the name of 45? The name of 45 is basically the name of Hashem. When you take Hashem's name, Yud Can you should If you could remember this, it would be helpful. Yud Kay Vav Kay. So, this We write it a Yud and a Hey and a Vav and a Hey, but really when you say it, you have to spell out every word every letter. Yud. Yud here is this It's not like how you write it. I just write a Yud. Just the letter. When I say Yud, I have to say Yud. I just said Yud Vav Daled. Yud. Hey. Hey is Hey Alef. Vav. Vav is Vav Vav. And Hey again is Hey Alef. This is called the milui of Shem Havaya, the filling, the filler, which in writing you lose cuz in writing you just have a Yud, but when you pronounce it, I cannot say I could say Ya, I could say Ha, I could say Ve, but if I want to explain pronounce the letter, I have to say Yud and Hey and then Vav and then finally the last Hey. If you put that together, you'll have 45. Yud Vav Daled will end up to be 20. Right? Cuz Yud Vav Daled is 20. Hey Alef will be six. Right? Vav Vav will be 12. So, what do we have? We have 20 and 12 is 32 and six would be 38. And then you have the last six. So, you have Vav Vav Alef Vav. Vav Vav Alef Vav. Right? So, you have 13, six and 20. So, you have 39. And then you have the last Hey is another six. So, you have Mem Hey you have 45. That's called Shem Mah. So, this is the classic name of Hashem, Yud Kay Vav Kay. If you remember, we learned before that Rivka said to Yaakov, "Your father wants to bless Yaakov Eisav lifnei Hashem. Va'avarechacha lifnei Hashem." And he explained lifnei Hashem means we got to go before Yud Kay Vav Kay. So, he says, "Because Yaakov comes from Olam HaTikkun, Eisav comes from Olam HaTohu." Olam HaTikkun and Olam HaTohu literally mean the world of fixing, the world of uh of I would say of wholesomeness. And Olam HaTohu is the world of chaos. Tohu means Eretz Hayesa Tohu, it was chaos. Now, when you look at Eisav and Yaakov, you can't compare the two. Yaakov we call the tzaddik and Eisav we call the rasha. Yaakov is the good boy and Eisav is the rotten apple. But here he says, "You have to remember how ohr is de'Tohu heim gedolim me'od. The lights of Tohu are enormously powerful. And therefore, they couldn't become manifested in their containers. Not because there was no light, too much light. V'nistalku me'ha'keilim. So, these ohris left their vessels. They cannot be contained by vessels. Ve'hein b'chinat makifin. What happens to these lights? They have no choice but to remain in a state of makif, which means they makif, they circumference, they hover over the vessel, but they can't be contained by the vessel. They refuse containment. They can't be established. So, they are makif. Makif literally means surrounds. So, in spatial terms, it means I can't get into the cup, so I remain over the cup, right? I remain a makif. In spiritual terms, of course, he doesn't mean it in spatial terms. He means the concept that it remains in a state that is far, far above what the keilim could contain, which in spiritual terms doesn't mean physically I have too much water to put into a 7-oz cup. So, when I pour, the water just goes all over the place. What it What it would mean spiritually, you always have to understand things with subtlety. What it would mean is my keili can't grasp it. That means my consciousness cannot be aware of it. Because if my consciousness is aware of it, then it's not it. It will not tailor itself to my state of consciousness. It will always remain far above my consciousness. But it's an energy and it's very real, so it impacts me. Makif impacts you. It just impacts you in a way that you can't fully integrate it and make sense of it and define it and articulate it cuz it's not easily articulated in keilim. Keilim is always articulation. Keilim means there's a container, there's a vessel. Ohris and keilim is the energy and the containment of the energy. Ve'hein b'chinat makifin. Now, what happened to the keilim? Here's the second effect. Ve'ha'keilim nishberu. And the keilim broke. Why did they break? From the contact with the ohr. The contact with the ohr was such that the keilim broke because, again, the vessel was too uh delicate for such intense light. So, when the light comes into the vessel, not only does the vessel not contain it, the vessel can't contain it, the vessel actually smashes and splinters. V'naflu le'mata. And all the vessels fell down because they That's what it means, they broke, they fell. Lachein haya Eisav she'le'mata rasha. So, that's why Eisav below, if you look at him, he's a rasha. But if you could see Eisav from the source of his source, it doesn't just say shoresh, shoresh, shoresh, you have to go back. You have to go up a few roots, you have to go to the roots. The root of the tree. So, the root of the tree is called the shoresh ha'ilan. Now, the shoreshim by the trees are at the bottom, it's it's in the earth. I'm saying above, again, comes conceptually, I mean above in the terms that it's, so to speak, closer to his original essence. So, you could look at the shoresh of the shoresh of Eisav in makifin de'Tohu. What's makifin de'Tohu? We now understand what it means. It's the light of Eisav, which had to remain makif because it departed from the keilim, it's not in the keilim. The keilim broke, but the ohr left to makif, it didn't break. Harei ha'ohris de'Tohu heim le'ma'ala me'ohris de'Tikkun. The ohr of Tohu is higher than the ohr of Tikkun, it means the ohr of Eisav, as hard as it sounds, is higher than the ohr of Yaakov. U'k'mo she'yesh be'er le'kaman be'ezrat Hashem, al pasuk va'yikach min haba b'yado mincha, that's why why Yaakov wants to give this gift to Esau. Over there he didn't articulate it so clearly. I mean I said it in the sheer that the market is higher than the earth beneath me. Which is why Yitzchak is so enamored by Esau. Esau couldn't grasp his own light. because it wasn't contained. Right. It's It's market. It's always greater. The tragedy is it's not translated in Kaylum at all. On the contrary, the Kaylum they're smashed. They break. They break. Now they have the sparks of those lights, but the sparks of those lights in the Kaylum are very absorbed. That was the first level he discussed, the number 10, where it's in galus. The tohu is the number 11. The market, which is actually the link to gusha. That's the levona zakav of the toyris. And that's why Yitzchak spoke about the smell of his son, the aroma, the rayach. Rayach, as he said, is something that is always market. It envelops the person. It's not like food that you digest. So what are our Kaylum? What would be for us? Is all because I know they say in Kabbalah the Kaylum are broken, but do we have Kaylum which we could contain? Right. So that's what we're going to see here. So Yaakov and and and Esau really represent two cosmic I two cosmic forces that play themselves out through history. And those are known as the world of tohu and the world of tikkun. So let's let's understand. I mean this was this theme was mentioned a few times in Shisha Shiyum Tiychu Matzos about why we eat food from animals and and tzemach why the human is superior and yet also inferior. Animals would do very well without us. In fact, they would appreciate if if our species was endangered so that their species don't have to be endangered. And uh many of the bot the you know the the world of botany, the world of tzemach has done very well without uh without humanity, especially if we want to destroy all of the forests, etc. We're not going to get into global warming discussion at the moment, even though it's important. And uh so but yeah, we can't live without any of them, right? We can't live without doimem, we can't live without water, we can't live without tzemach, we can't live without without chai on in one way or another. Whether you're a vegetarian, you're not a vegetarian, we need the earth. And we need the produce of the earth and we can't survive. So he spoke over there at length that it has to do with tikkun olam. That was one area and a few times that he mentions it. Here he mentions it in terms of Yaakov Yaakov and Esau. Yaakov and Esau represent two paradigms here. And that is that Kabbalah teaches it's a very famous doctrine in the writings of the Ariza. So in Shisha Shiyum Tiychu Matzos, you're just talking about the six days of creation and Kabbalah's talking about two worlds. There was a world that ultimately is called Olam HaTohu, the world of chaos. The world of chaos was built and it got destroyed and that's why it's called chaos. It's a world of chaos. And the destruction happened not because there was no energy there. There was divine energy and the divine energy was too powerful to be married into a vessel. It would be like a genius whose light is so powerful and the vessels cannot contain the light and he has a breakdown. It would be like too much electricity, too much voltage that infuses the wire and the wires cannot contain and what happens to them? They don't say, "Oh, let me readjust." They they melt. They literally melt. And the machine that's attached to them is I don't know if you're ever lucky it happened to you, right? Computer or tape recorder or whatever. Today they already adjusted it, but I remember when it happened to me once. And boom, you hear that you know, the spark goes off and like, "Oh, you're excited." But that's it. It's all over. It's done. And the reason is not because there was no electricity. There was too much electricity and you didn't have the Kaylum for it. Everything in the world is a marriage between Ohr and Kaylum as we've spoken numerous times. What do you think? What is the question? Time's going. Constantly dancing. Since you've said that it wasn't a matter of time before in time but in concept, there's no reason to think that it's not a continuous Right. It's a mistake or is it a factual thing? No, obviously it's not a mistake. It's not a mistake. In fact, in halacha you have what's called soisur amonus livnus. In halacha, the only you're not allowed to demolish on Shabbos, but when is it biblically prohibited to demolish on Shabbos? If the demolishing is with the intent of construction, rebuilding. Spiritually it means is because the first demolition in history was with the intent of rebuilding. The first demolition of history was what's known as the shviras hakaylum of Olam HaTohu. Over there, the divine light was so powerful and so intense that the vessels could not contain them. So two things happened. Number one, the vessels smashed and broke because the weight was too heavy. Number two, the vessels crashed with each other because each one had too much light and therefore was not limited and not limiting like what we learned about the world of nekudim versus the world of brudim. For chesed and gevurah to coexist, they both have to mitigate themselves. They have to dilute their intensity. Like a husband and a wife, if everyone allows their nature to take on its full splendor to an extreme without compromise, there's no way you can coexist. In the world of tohu where the light, the energy was so infinite and it senses its infinity, there's no room for anything else. So they crash against each other, what we would call a head-on head collision, plus they crash in themselves because the Kaylum can't contain them. So therefore, huh? It's like a person who has dreams and creative forces and they have nobody to contain it. And sometimes they go crazy in their own mind because there's so much going on. They're like a Chofetz Chaim once said that Shabbos is the hardest day for him in the week. Why? Because he can't write. He can't write. He used to write and write and write and write and write. He said he can't write. He would sometimes write hundreds of letters a day. He can't write on Shabbos, obviously, cuz it's Shabbos. So what is he what is he doing with all of the ideas? He didn't have anybody to say it to. So when he wrote it, the paper is always a good Kaylum, you know? At least the journal understands you. But uh the Chofetz Chaim didn't have somebody to talk to on his level. And therefore he said it's the hardest day for him because his head was uh you know, like exploding. You know sometimes you feel your head is exploding. There's so much Ohr and there's no Kaylum. So in Olam HaTohu, there was an explosion. There was shviras hakaylum. The Kaylum broke. What happened to these Kaylum? The Kaylum so to speak fell. What do we mean fell again? We don't mean physically they fell down. Fell means you don't recognize who they really are. They don't recognize who they are anymore. When you say you had an nefela, nefela doesn't mean you fell down physically. I mean that's also one nefela. Nefela means you fall down spiritually. You don't recognize who you are, but you're still that same person. The Kaylum still have the sparks of that Ohr, but they don't recognize them anymore. They can't put them in context. So they have the energy, but it's completely manipulated and misused and the real energy remains market, remains above. So he says that's Esau. On one level, in terms of morality and ethics, Esau is broken. He's fragmented. He's fragmented from himself. He's broken from himself. On another level, his real Ohr is higher than Yaakov's Ohr. But it remains market because the Ohr was too heavy, not too little. It was too much. And since it was too much, it didn't it did doesn't have the Kaylum. Now this is a very profound idea cuz sometimes you'll have it in certain people. Right? Sometimes there are artists, artists who are very very deep people and the structures the structures that we created for them could not contain their light. Not because they didn't want to fit in. They couldn't fit in and remain true to themselves. Sometimes you can't fit in and remain true to yourself. You can't. So if if you want to sell your soul, you can do that. But some people don't want to sell their soul. So you almost force the light to leave. And what happens to the Kaylum? The Kaylum now, from the intensity of the light, the Kaylum becomes very convoluted and sometimes fragmented. But the Kaylum still has those sparks, but those sparks are not recognizable anymore. And the light remains on a level in the person's life which may not even be so conscious. Or it may be conscious, but they're not conscious of what it is. Or it may be and it's usually driving very deep forces in them and that's what it's driving is very holy. The driving force, the fuel may be very holy, but the way it's processed, it has no connection with godliness because it's not in Kaylum. I cannot translate. I don't even know what it is. So sometimes I'm completely confused myself what it is. But we we we don't like to live with cognitive dissonance. We don't like to live with fragmentation. So I make up new stories to explain what my idealism is about. Diluted. Diluted to fit in. Or I don't dilute it, but I may I create a story, a narrative that so it should make sense. So you'll hear people say things and it's like it's intense stuff, yeah? Isn't it Esau had a abundant amount of or more than Jacob had and that he chose not to really accept it or is it he had a normal amount but since he kept on pushing it out became a bigger amount? No, no, his shyness was different. It's a different neshama. It's more in more than So it's his choice really to make it a mark was yearning for that to create integration for Esau. But it was yearning it was he who decided to make it a mark of him because of his actions because of what he is mindset. So to speak. Cuz what how does one person be take as a mark of another person would actually make his or was higher. The or was higher. wasn't possible to put it in. So that's did that drive him to become now. So Jacob and Esau are opposites. But really Jacob and Esau desperately need each other. So the fact it was a mark of made him Esau a rasha or he he could have still been a tzaddik but he decided different. The problem is you're thinking about this in terms of a regular shiyur. You're asking questions. You understand? You're You're trying to fit this into a shul shul this type. It's not. Right. That's to sit with you. It's not Don't try to figure everything. Yeah. You said Jacob and Esau need each other. Like you said with Rachel and Leah with the contrasting each other. Need each other what for each one to be able to show the other what he's really all about? Is that what you mean? Number one, number two, Esau needs Jacob for integration, for healing, for sublimation. But Jacob needs Esau for a certain intensity. For a certain depth, for a certain the sense of infinity that Esau has. Right? And that Esau can give Jacob. That's why they're two brothers. They're twin brothers. There's a beautiful vort in the Vilna Gaon that Cook brings it from the Vilna Gaon even though I didn't see it in the writings of the Vilna Gaon. It says in Malachi we say in Haftarah Haftarah told us "How ach Esau and Jacob?" But I have this Jacob, right? But Esau I hate. Jacob is a brother to Esau and I love Jacob and I hate Esau. So we just read it, okay? So God makes two brothers and he hates one and he loves one. What do you say about such a mother? Or such a father? It's something is off, like you hate him, don't make him. And what what's this? Like you make someone and you hate him. It's like almost like I have two kids and I always know from day one am I like am I hate? You have families like that. A mother just anybody, right? They cast their eyes on one child, a boy named it, a boy called it. Huh? This whole story about that. But he was called it, right? And the mother is just like you're you're you're you're you're you're you're the horrible one. And you just play and just plays itself out. So the Vilna Gaon says the Esau I hate, not Esau, Esau. The Gemara often discusses that Esau whenever it says Esau like Esau sorry by my Esau a tofful of sorry. It's a what? It's a regular word. Yeah. Esau includes that which is subservient. So you should bathe, you should put into the mikveh for your flesh. Esau sorry, what about my hair? Could my hair be out of the mikveh? No. Esau sorry, even that which is subservient to my flesh also has to go into the water. Copy Esau the rabbi said but even the derivative of my father, which is my older brother, it's not my father. Esau, right? Esau and Esau it's Rashi says not heaven and earth, even that which is connected to heaven. The galaxies, the stars, Esau that which is connected to earth. Esau is the tofful. So he says but I have but Esau I hate. Esau has two dimensions. There's Esau in his core and then there's the tofful to Esau. There's what Esau grows into. He says the Esau of Esau I despise. By Jacob the kiddush is that even the Esau is part of him. By Esau there's a fragmentation between the two. So the Esau of Esau I hate. So therefore in the world of tohu the light is very very powerful. So sometimes you'll have it in a person. You'll have generally it's it's true with young versus older people. But the Rebbe writes somewhere that young older people are more meyushev. Younger people are very idealistic. Right? There's an old joke that a conservative is a liberal who was mugged many times. You know, in the 1960s America was was you know, the youth revolut were revolutionizing America, you know, anti-war and free intimacy and un-inhibition. Hey, huh? Anti-establishment. Anti-establishment. So on one level you looked at it and you said here are young chutzpahnyaks who just want to destroy society and and their fathers would say just go graduate high school and stay off drugs for 10 years and and get your doctorate get your doctorate. So it was one year Purim the year of Woodstock was what the 1969. Yes. So I think the next Purim or that Purim so the Rebbe should have been at Purim for bringing and was analyzing the situation. So he said that the parents don't realize that really they're searching for infinity in life, for meaning in life. And then they're asking their father why what why do you do what you do? And the only reason the father gives is cuz if you graduate, he said that you'll graduate, you'll be able to buy a house, you'll be able to have a three car a three a three car garage, then it was a Cadillac, you'll be able to have a Cadillac, you'll have a Hollywood kitchen, a wall-to-wall carpet, you'll be able to retire in dignity, and you'll be able to be an honoree at dinner. And he says and for their soul that means nothing. It means absolutely nothing. So you could look at them and say they're destroying everything including themselves. And that may be true. Sometimes people do that. But if you just say that, you missed the point. You missed the point and that it is an or that you're not containing. Your your structure has nothing to say for this light. Absolutely nothing to say for this light. And this is true also in your disk light today for example. Sometimes a father and a son will have a discussion in front of a rabbi or a therapist or whoever and the son will turn to the father and say what motivates you? Why do you wake up 6:00 in the morning? Why do you learn daf yomi? Why do you don't miss a mincha and ma'ariv? What motivates you? I want to know. I mean I've seen this intimately. What motivates you? And the father looks first of all he thinks his son is crazy. Who asks such stupid questions? But finally what motivates you? What? What gets you out of bed? I want to know. You're telling me to get out of bed. I shouldn't sleep till 3:00 in the afternoon. Right? Which is a good thing not to sleep till 3:00 in the night. But what motivates you? And the answer the father will give may be a zoy This is this is the mesorah. What do you mean? This is This is This is the This is the tradition. Or sometimes he'll say "Siddur gehenim. You know, siddur gehenim. I want to have olam haba." Right? And and and the son looks and he he doesn't argue. It's just like I don't know what this guy is about. Like your life is not my life. And what happens here is they don't understand each other. Because what's the issue? The issue is what's the structure you're creating to house my light, to house my energy. So you're telling me I should be afraid of a future world where there is punishment that I don't see and I don't know about. So first of all he may not understand what that is or may not even know that it is, may not believe. But maybe even if he does he may be saying something much more and that is is that all there is? That's the reason it is. Why doesn't it resonate? Maybe he needs a much deeper relationship. What if he feels a urge in himself to change the world? What if he feels a deep urge in himself to make a real difference? What if he has to be challenged to be as creative as possible and he doesn't see in the construct here an ability for his infinite creativity? So what happens now? So often the kaylim smash, they break. There's no kaylim anymore. There's no structure. And the or is there but it departs and the person can't live with the or in an integrated way cuz they don't have kaylim for it. So this is a very difficult and painful situation. I can't answer that question. He's been doing it for so long. It's already in him. You can't answer that question. Maybe the Moshe Zev wants to answer that question. Culturally it's doctrine. He's not The guy's not thinking anymore. Maybe he's just become a robot. He's been doing it for so long. He wants to be a thinking person. Now what happens is that sometimes these kids become fathers and zaydes and then when their kids come to them, they look at them like they're crazy even though they did the same thing to their parents. That's another situation. So therefore you have here a maiseh that Jacob is is now going to meet up with Esau. Now Jacob and Esau parted ways and after 20 years Jacob asks himself can now can I come back to Esau? That's the plot here. Now this also highlights a whole other brings us into a whole other point that I want to mention and that is you all know the Rashi in Vayeitzei that Leah used to cry a lot. Einei Leah rakos. Why? Cuz everybody said that she's going to marry Esau and Rachel is going to marry Jacob. So Leah used to cry. And because she used to cry, her eyes became weak. And the question is they used to say they used to say what it was it's called mikvah night. So people in the mikvah used to say I have a shidduch for Leah. People met Leah and then people do it always. They meet somebody and say oh I have a shidduch for you. It's usually not a nice thing to do if you don't mean it especially to other people, but fine that's what people do. Yentas or male yentas or female yentas, it's a Jewish thing to do I have a shidduch for you. So they said there's a Gemara in Sinas Isha L'Mi Da'atei only marry a woman who she wants to marry. What's Leah worried about? Is that the pshat that Leah understood something very deep? And that is he said to my mother Rachel when he was in Toldos Vayeitzei the Lavan Shnei Banos and here's Vayishlach. Leah and Esau had a very deep kinship. They both understood and had a relationship with Makif in a very profound way. Because Leah as we learned really had this similarity. Leah's light was much higher than Rachel's light. Much higher. In fact, it says V'Esau Soneisi. God says I hate Esau and on Leah it says exactly the same words. Vayar Hashem Ki Snu'ah Leah. She Ki Snu'ah Leah. So one second, Esau is hated and Leah is hated. Exactly. We hate what we don't understand as he said in the Ma'amar of Tof Kof Yud Beis. We don't understand Leah, we hate her. She's not familiar, she's not my familiar wife. She's not the wife that fits into my package. She's not the wife that I was supposed to marry. She's not the wife of the resume. Right? She's a different wife. Esau I also hate. Esau I also don't understand. Esau also challenges me. Esau also doesn't fit into my box and Esau is also rebellious and Esau also defies all systems. So who could actually understand Esau? Leah. Leah can understand Esau. So when they were saying that Leah is a shidduch for Esau, it wasn't stupidity, it was profound ideas. To put it in to put it in the Isis of the Ma'amar Leah understood Makif. She understood energy that is not integrated. She understood subconscious energy. She understood that it would be Makif. Makif by definition the person doesn't understand. Right. The word I shouldn't say understands Leah had to make peace with it. Leah had to learn to live with it. That was Leah's greatness. That was Leah's greatness. Where did Leah and Esau go apart? They went apart particularly in this issue. Leah did not break. On the contrary, Leah's Makif became a source of very deep wholesomeness on a different level of alma d'iskasya. But in a way Leah and Esau have a very deep common denominator because their deep common denominator is that Esau's Makif could be experienced and understood only by somebody who understands Makif, not by somebody who doesn't understand Makif. So in in in an ideal world Leah and Esau would have been a very good shidduch just like Jacob and Rachel would have been a very good shidduch. Because Rachel is alma d'isgalya, Rachel is Yefas To'ar, Yefas Mar'eh. Yefas To'ar, Yefas Mar'eh is the world of Tikkun. Tikkun the Ohr and the Keili are married in a perfect marriage. The energy and the vessel complement each other. The energy is more limited, but the vessel facilitates the energy. Of course it didn't work out that way because Esau went in a different direction and Leah went in a different direction. And ultimately Leah has a whole different path than Esau ultimately. We don't say we say Esau L'Matah is a rasha. Leah L'Matah was a tzadekes. She was not like Esau. But you have here the tension of the two the two dimensions very powerfully. So when he goes off to Rachel and Leah in the next Ma'amar Vayeitzei, it's not disconnected from the story of Toldos with Jacob and Esau. It's just a different story. Now here I'll tell you a vort from the Kotsker Rebbe Tzemach Tzedek and the Sfas Emes and it's all the same vort, but they they didn't articulate they they articulate the way they used to articulate it. The Kotsker Rebbe Tzemach Tzedek writes the Kotsker Rebbe Tzemach Tzedek has a sefer called Avodas Yisrael. Kotsker Rebbe Tzemach Tzedek was a contemporary and a colleague of the Baal Shem Tov. They were both students of the Maggid of Mezritch. Kotsker Rebbe Tzemach Tzedek passed away two years after him Tof Kof Yud Hey 1815. And in Kotsk is a city in Poland. He has a sefer Avodas Yisrael one sefer. He says over there there's a Midrash actually Midrash Rabbah in Parshas Vayeitzei. It's also brought in Targum Yonasan ben Uziel that when Leah married Jacob and Jacob was deceived, so it says Vayarba Boker in the morning Jacob woke up and he sees Leah V'Hinei Leah and he goes running to Lavan and he says Lavan Emi Soni why did you deceive me? So what happens is the question is did Jacob say anything to Leah or he just went straight to Lavan? Pasuk doesn't say he said anything to Leah, but you and I I think would guess that he probably said something to Leah when he saw what happened. What did he say? You got to figure it out on your own. Torah Shebiksav is full of gaps and it leaves it up to your imagination. And it wants it that way. It wants you to you your creative imagination. Torah Sheba'al Peh sometimes fills in the gap, sometimes not. Here it happens to fill in the gap. So the Midrash Rabbah says and the Targum Yonasan ben Uziel brings it, so this is a very ancient tradition that Jacob actually looked at Leah and he said as we would say in English the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Your father is a quintessential crook and you're also. Why did you lie to me? Leah as a good Jewish wife would do does not remain quiet. She responds. And her response is also the response of a real Jewish wife. She says to Jacob every trade in the world requires mentorship. You can't become a doctor without a teacher. You can't become even a barber without a teacher. There's no sapper, there's no barber who doesn't have a teacher. To be a lawyer, you also need a teacher. My father and I had a great mentor. I'm going to tell you about him. There was an old man who couldn't see. He summoned his oldest son to give him the blessings. The younger boy dressed up like the older boy, lied to his father said I am the older brother and stole the blessings. He is the one who taught us how to lie. This is before COVID. Still in the media. This is a Midrash Rabbah Targum Yonasan Midrash Rabbah says Bereishis Rabbah Parsha Ayin says this story. Okay? Now you understand why Jacob went running to Lavan. Yeah. So on one level this is like a classic Jewish marriage, right? You said I said he says something to Leah and Leah says you want to you want to go that direction? My mouth is a little better than yours. And she gives it to him and his kishkes turn over and he learns his lesson. Behave. In this house you're going to behave. Okay? On one level. But on another level it's incomprehensible. What does what does Leah say? I lied to you lied to me in a business deal and I ask you why do you lie? So you tell me because I lied to somebody else. Let's say to my father. One second. So if somebody lied in the world whenever I deal with them I'm allowed to lie because he lied to somebody else. Jacob asked the good question. Why do you lie? Why do you say you're Rachel you're not? So Leah said oh you lied to your father. It's not a mature response. It's not a worked out it's not an ethical response. It's more of an anger response. IT'S LIKE OH REALLY? I'M THE LIAR YOU'RE THE LIAR AND I BRING UP A STORY FROM your childhood or from your youth. What? So anyone in a therapy session you understand that they're they're they're in a certain space. They're not talking to each other. They're not having a conversation with each other. They're in a space. They're in a zone. A zone of anger, a zone of of of hate, a zone of fear, whatever it is. There's no communication here. It's just who's going to give a better shtech in Yiddish. You know what a shtech is, yeah? You give a better stab. That's what it's about. And it happens to be in this case Leah won. The Kotsker Rebbe Tzemach Tzedek writes Avodas Yisrael he says this quote. He says I'll tell you the pshat. It's very deep he says. Leah was not running away from the question. She was answering the question. What was the answer to the question? Answer was this. Jacob said why did you lie? Why do you say you're Rachel? So Leah said you told your father you're Esau. My shidduch is Esau. The moment you told your father that you're Esau, automatically you turned me into Rachel. Automatically you made me your wife. That's all. Sfas Emes who lives 100 years later second Gerer Rebbe writes Kotsker Rebbe Tzemach Tzedek concealed what he wanted to say. Or the writer didn't hear it right. So Sfas Emes says he calls says either he he stirred up the water he didn't say what he wanted to say or the writer didn't get it. So Sfas Emes says I'm going to tell you what he wanted to say. Actually he says the pshat and then he says that maybe this is what he wanted to say cuz he concealed what he wanted to say or the writer didn't get it. What does Sfas Emes say? Sfas Emes says Leah is connected to Esau. Jacob is connected to Rachel. When Jacob got dressed up in the garments of Esau, it wasn't just external. He was taking in the soul of Esau. The moment he was taking in the soul of Esau, part of him became Esau. The part of him BECAME ESAU, THAT PART of him now had to get married to Leah. So, Yaakov of Yaakov had to marry Rachel, and the Leah of Yaakov had to marry and the Esau of Yaakov had to marry Leah. And the Sfas Emes is very short, very brief, very cryptic, very concise, as many of the Chassidic works. Now, you read this Kuntres you read this Sfas Emes, quite interesting, quite original, quite creative. Fascinating explanation to the Medrash. Leah was actually saying something very profound. Yaakov, you're the one who established this entire issue. Destiny created me for Esau, and therefore when you became Esau, I come I am your shidduch. But I don't find So, it's all interesting, but what does it mean? What's the point? So, generally in the world of Chassidus, there were two streams of Chassidus, as we once discussed at length, and that is what's known as the various students of the Mezritcher Maggid, who all wrote one or two books at most, and they everything were pointers, powerful, inspiring pointers, whether it's about stories of Chomer and Ruach, about a Neshamah, about Hashem and a Jew. But the Tanya's shittah was that things have to be explained and explained elaborately, which is why he named it Chabad, which is Chochmah, Binah, Daas. That's why you see, for example, he himself has around 40 works, most of his colleagues have one or two. And his Maamar are very long and explained and everything. So, when you learn this, these Maamarim, and then you read that, you understand here that there's really a profound story being conveyed. Esau belongs to Leah, Leah belongs to Esau, not stamps of mazal, it's because Esau and Leah's Neshamahs are deeply connected. In fact, Leah comes from a similar source, a concealed world, a higher world, a sublime and they're both hated, both cannot be understood. Leah is the shidduch for Esau, not Rachel. You put Rachel with Esau, it's not happening. You put Yaakov with with with Leah. What Rivkah was telling Yaakov was, it would be awesome, but your brother your brother's Keilim broke. Your father wants to bring down the Makif, but his Keilim broke. So, either the energy of your father, Yitzchak, is going to be swallowed up, or there won't be an Esau anymore, he'll become a a zombie, a robot, it'll just burn him up, the light will burn him up, there won't be an Esau. So, therefore you have to take the blessings for Esau. So, in other words, you have to find your own Esau. If you cannot find your own Esau, you will not be able to take his blessings, you won't be able to help him. That's why you have to get dressed up like him. It's not a costume, it's not a Purim costume. A costume, generally in this context, is a costume means a way of expressing yourself. To put on the Levushim of Esau means to relate to Esau. It doesn't mean you become Esau completely, but it means there's something in you that's relatable to Esau. I can put on your garments means I could see things from your perspective. I could put on your glasses, I can I can wear your shoes, I could put on your pants, I could wear your shirt, I could walk your life somewhat. So, in other words, Yaakov has to have a shtickel Esau, he will ultimately have to be mevarer tohu. So, if that happens, Leah says, "Okay, Yaakov, so now you have two wives. The Yaakov in you has Rachel, and the Leah the Esau in you has Leah. But after 20 years, Yaakov now wonders whether his brother is ready to give the to give him over what he was holding on to. It's really his brother's, so let him give it over. So, that's the context of this Maamar Vayishlach, that after this whole story, okay, I took it. But now, let me tell you where I've been, and let's let's come back together. I worked very hard for 20 years. What were you doing for 20 years, Esau? That's the question that he poses here. Okay, so we'll be This class is brought to you by the Yeshiva.net. Please help us continue the classes. Make even a small contribution at www.theyeshiva.net/donate.