Parashas Vayishlach

Our Parsha this Shabbos is Parashas Vayishlach that Speaks of Yaakov and Eisav , beginning with a 'Vav' as 'Va,' which means 'And , ' showing as most Parshas in the Torah , that each Parsha continues from the Parsha before and that Torah continues eternally from Creation to the End of Days and beyond eternally .The Haftorah of this Parsha , is from Obadiah 1:1-21 and the Prophet Obadiah is Given By HaShem prophecies and talks of the future of Edom . Obadiah himself was originally from Edom and he became a very righteous proselyte to Judaism and a very holy man .
Our Parsha this Shabbos starts with Yaakov returning home and preparing to face Eisav his brother . Yaakov sends Malachim to Eisav his brother with a message saying that Yaakov had stayed with Lavan , a swindler and evil man filled with Tum'a Impurity , and had overcome him , as a message to Eisav that he , Yaakov could overpower Eisav .Also , that Yaakov is sending gifts to Eisav in peace . Yaakov was so holy that HaShem Had Given Yaakov power to command Malachim Angels . The Malachim returned to Yaakov to tell him that Eisav was headed to meet Yaakov with four hundred men , thus suggesting that Eisav was not intending peace . Yaakov prepared in three ways to meet the threat , which was, by Tefillah Prayer , Appeasement of the enemy and failing appeasement , Yaakov prepared for War . Yaakov leading in front , separated the droves , putting Bilhah and Zilpah and their children of his , in front , walking behind him , then Leah and her children with him , next and Rachel , shielded by Yosef last . Each carrying under their cloak a sword . He separated each drove , so should Eisav smite one drove Chas Ve Shalom , the others could escape .
They reached the ford of the Jabbok and Yaakov had his family go over , and then his animals and his possessions . When he returned back over the Jabbok to get the rest of his things , a man was there with flocks . The man asked Yaakov to help him with his things if the man helps Yaakov, even though there were just a few jugs left for Yaakov , but kind Yaakov offered help and took some of the man's things across . When Yaakov came back to help the man with the rest , those things that he had already carried over , had returned . And so , Yaakov carried on through the night carrying the man's things , just to have some of them return and more appear .
Yaakov asked the man if he was a magician or an evil spirit and a fight broke out . The man attacked Yaakov and they fought till dawn , with dust rising from Earth to Heaven . Yaakov being extremely strong , over-powered and beat the man , but Yaakov himself was injured on his hip-socket , and so today , we remove this part when eating basar , called the Gid Hanashe . This is indicative of our history , that through time , the nations try to harm us , but we will always survive , though we will be hurt and injured and suffer through this time .
The man , by dawn , was an Angel . The Angel Samael , the Angel of Eisav Amalek . Yaakov prevailed , as will we , at the End of Days . When dawn broke , it became one of the Time-Watches that Malachim Angels sing Shira to HaShem and it became this Angel's time and first opportunity to sing Shira and so asked Yaakov to let him go . Yaakov said he would only let him go if the Angel Blessed him , thus an acknowledgement of the Blessing to Yaakov over his brother Eisav . The Angel did so and so was Yaakov then called Yisrael . The Angel started to sing Shira from the Earth . Yaakov called the Place " Peniel . " HaShem Caused the " Sun to rise " as it says , which meant that HaShem Sent a Special Light from the Beginning of Creation , To Help Heal Yaakov .
Yaakov and his family continued on their way and so , met up with Eisav and his four hundred men . Yaakov hid his daughter Dinah , which our Rabbis say was wrong as she , being so holy , might have had an effect on Eisav and so , was one of the reasons for what happened with regards to her , in this Parsha . Yaakov bowed seven times to the ground , in actuality , bowing not directly to his brother , but to HaShem's Shechinah and allowed himself to call his brother master and " adoni , " and because of this , HaShem , Who Did Not Want us to humble ourselves to Edom , made sure that Eisav would have that many rulers in number to the amount of times Yaakov called his brother so , before Israel as a nation , had a king . The Midrash describes how Eisav tried to keep overcoming his brother , but the meeting between the two ended up peaceful . Yaakov said he would meet Eisav at a later date at Seir , and our Rabbonim take this as a future prophecy . Seir belongs to Eisav . The two separated . Yaakov arrived in Shechem and bought a parcel of land and set up an altar there . Yaakov had not tithed to HaShem yet , as he had said he would , and so is this one of the reasons for his trials and his record constantly being brought for scrutiny . So the next trial came upon the family .
The Parsha says that Dinah , " the daughter of Leah " went out to look at a market festival of the Shechemites . We note how Dinah is mentioned here specifically as " the daughter of Leah , " for she , as her Mother Leah , liked to " Go out " as we were told, when in Torah earlier , Leah had gone out in the incident of the Dudaim . This teaches us how our men and women must be modest and keep to ourselves and not display ourselves , but have Tznius . Shechem , the son of the king in the land where they were staying saw her when she ' went out ' from her family to look over the daughters of the land at the festival , desired her and took her by coercive force and raped her .He spoke to his father and asked his father Hamor to get her for him as a wife . When Yaakov's sons heard , they were outraged . They agreed on condition that Shechem has its men circumcised . Yaakov's sons reasoned that all Creation is to live by the Seven Noachide Laws , and that seeing as Shechem had broken them by robbery of stealing by force their sister and that the town had not set up a court to judge the crime , they were all guilty of breaking the Seven Noachide Laws .As Midrash Bereishis Says by Rabbi Weissman , a man called Chedkam and his sons were angry at the idea of the town having to be circumcised and they threatened murder to all those who went through with it . Members of the town persuaded them to wait and after they had been circumcised , they would rob and kill Yaakov and his family and take all that was theirs . Dinah managed to get word to Yaakov and the sons Shimon and Levi at the age of thirteen , on the third day after the Shechemites had circumcized themselves , the two sons of Yaakov , set upon the town and killed all the males and took back Dinah their sister , who by now was carrying within her a daughter , who later was born and called Asenath , who married Yosef in Egypt . Yaakov was angry at their anger and feared reprisals , which did take place , for the nations around them got together and attacked Yaakov and his family . HaShem Saved them with massive dust storms and Yaakov and his family escaped unharmed . We are also told how , after Yaakov and Eisav parted , they did attack Yaakov and his family , but ended up dispersing , as they were beaten and Eisav was injured . HaShem Appeared to Yaakov and Told him to go to Beth-El Luz and make an Altar there and fulfill his promise of tithes . Yaakov rid themselves of all the idols that were carried and only taken as spoils by the foreign people that followed them , from Shechem , and hid them under the Terebinth near Shechem .
Torah then tells us that Devorah , Rivka's wet-nurse passed away . She was very close to Rivka , Yaakov's Mother , and that she was buried in a place Yaakov called Allon-Bachus - Bachus meaning Weeping . This part is put in here to tell us that at that very moment , Rivka , Yaakov's Ima had also passed away , but it is not directly mentioned here , for no one was there at the time as a close family relative to bury Rivka , except Eisav , whom Rivka would not have wanted to bury her and that all would say she mothered such a Rasha and so , she was buried quietly , for Yitzchak was blind and Yaakov was still on his way to her . Thus after Yaakov left so many years ago , he never got to see his Ima again , and it was Devorah who had just come to meet them as they were on their way back to see Yitzchak and Rivka . HaShem Then Renames Yaakov Yisrael and Yaakov set up a pillar where HaShem Told him and called the place where HaShem Had Spoken To him " Beth - El , " which actually means , " House of G-D . "
They journeyed from there toward Ephrath and it was there that Rachel went into labor . It is at this time when a woman is in labor when Satan scrutinizes a woman's account and so , it was remembered Yaakov's words that whoever has the teraphim will die , and so , as she was giving birth to Binyamin , whom she actually called " Ben-Oni " - " Son of my Mourning , " that she passed away and Yaakov called him " Binyamin " - " Son of my right hand " so as to give him a positive name and destiny . And so was she buried on the road to Ephrath Beis-Lechem , not in the Cave of Machpelah as the Fore-Fathers and Fore-Mothers were , as she would in the future , when our exiles were going into Bavel under Nebuchadnezzar , she would pray for us to HaShem and He Would Listen to her prayer , for it would be there , that they would walk past on the way . HaShem Would Acknowledge her prayer because as she was prepared to stand aside and not be angry at her sister marrying Yaakov , so could HaShem Please put aside His Anger at some of us following Avodah Zorah Idols , that caused us to go into exile , as worthless idols . Yaakov set up a monument there at her burial place , which is still there to visit today .
Torah then tells us how Reuvein did an Aveirah . This has to be understood in its Hebrew depth . Not that Reuvein Chas Ve Shalom , lay with his Father's wife , but that in each of his Father's Wive's tents , was a Couch for the Shechinah of HaShem , so Yaakov would know which Tent to go into when conceiving the Twelve Tribes , and that when Rachel passed away , Yaakov moved his Couch into Bilhah's tent , and Reuvein , standing up for his Mother Leah , moved it out and into his Mother's tent , so that his Father should not slight his Mother . We know that Reuvein didn't commit a crime with his Father's wife , for the very next verse says , " The sons of Yaakov were twelve , suggesting that they were all worthy of being part of the Twelve Tribes and were all Torah Keeping not to break Torah Laws and so this is what really happened , but seeing as Reuvein , as all the others then were Tzaddikim , the punishment for even a slight Aveirah , is great and so Reuvein lost his first born right and so , spent every moment praying to HaShem day and night for forgiveness . Even at the end of Yaakov's life , Yaakov still Blessed Reuvein as holy , so Reuvein's action was never one of taking his Father's wife Chas Ve Shalom , but interfering with the Couch of The Shechinah and his Father's couch.
Torah then tells us that Yaakov finally came to Yitzchak his Father , not Rivka , for she had passed away . We are told that Yitzchak passed away at 180 , which was the same year ( according to Midrash Bereishis Says by Rabbi Weissman , that Yosef was released from prison in Egypt . Yaakov and Eisav buried their Father Yitzchak in the Cave of Machpelah Chevron near Mamre .
The Torah then goes into the line of Eisav and his wives . We note a lot of incest and intermarriage among Eisav's family . We also note how their arrogance had them calling themselves 'chiefs , ' and how the chiefs didn't live that long as chiefs , for murder is rampant in Eisav's line . Out of Eliphaz , son of Eisav , came Amalek , our enemy who tries to kill us through time , among others . Magdiel , that is mentioned came down to Rome . We are repeatedly told here how Eisav is the father of Edom . So the Parsha ends .
The Sedra is called " Vayishlach , " which means " Sent . " Where Yaakov sent Angels ahead of him to his brother . The whole idea of sending and being an Emissary for HaShem , Takes great holiness . It is not always an easy path to travel , as we note with Yaakov's life and trials . We often wonder what exactly is an Angel . If one looks closely at the phrasing of the first three words of this Parsha , " Vayishlach Yaakov Mal'achim , " and we read these words in another context , it can almost appear as if saying , ' And Yaakov was sent as an angel . ' The " Vayi " part of the word " Vayishlach , " can be put also as ' And He , HaShem , Sent , as if saying , ' And He HaShem Sent Yaakov , as an Emissary. ' So what is an Angel ? An Emissary of HaShem . So we all can be Emissaries of HaShem if we choose . If we keep HaShem's Commandments in Torah . We all can be like Angels , working for HaShem and not for ourselves . No doubt that real Angels are Spiritual Entities . Even their negative counterparts , are too . Even those , do a job to bring about faithfulness to HaShem , to test all our true following of HaShem Only , above our own wants and desires . So to be like an Angel , is to be an Emissary for HaShem , working solely for HaShem and not for ourselves , just as Yaakov did his whole entire life . HaShem Sends us all out as His Angels and Emissaries , to do His Bidding and make Creation a place of Holiness where HaShem Can Dwell Among us . To make Creation a place of Holiness as intended , so each of us are HaShem's Emmissaries , to use our lives in His Service to bring all around us to HaShem .
We are all HaShem's Shaliachs Shluchim , like Angels , working to make all things Holy . But how do we start ? With ourselves , for the best way to teach , is through being a holy example to others and all around us .
The Angel HaShem Sends , is not to be asked a name , for it is HaShem Who Is Important and the Sender of the Message , thus the messenger is the Hand of HaShem . The same with us . To link up and get close to HaShem , is to be of little consequence to ourselves and to only be a Messenger , an Emmisary Of The One Above . This is a way to be with HaShem . To be the Hand of HaShem's Sending . We are only His Emissaries . The World around us has forgotten this and so , goes its own wrong way . This is why the World is in such a bad shape and suffering so . The way to stop the suffering and change the World , is to change ourselves and do our tasks as Creations of HaShem , as HaShem's Emissaries , not working for our own way , but for HaShem , following Him and doing as He Tells us to do , starting with ourselves , and working outwards . This will bring the Creation to where it is supposed to be and the World will improve . So stand up right now , and say to HaShem that from now on , you will be His Emissary Angel , working only for Him , doing all HaShem Tells you to do in His Torah , and be His Emissary to all Creation around you . Let us all make this World , HaShem's Delight , as HaShem Created It , and be True and Faithful Shaliachs to HaShem .
I wish HaShem With Utmost Love and Faithfulness , A Truly Special and Beautiful Shabbos Kodesh With So Much Love , and to all of Creation , HaShem's Emissaries , A Truly Special and Beautiful Shabbos Kodesh with love .