Sunday, 19 November 2023

The Shabbos Parsha is Parashas Vayeitzei . In this Sedra , Yaakov is on his way to bring in the next generation of our Jewish people and this Parsha's Haftorah is in Hosea 11 : 7 - 14 : 10 , which also refers to the progeny of Yaakov . Yaakov , leaving his family , is now on his way to find a wife and become the Father of the Twelve Tribes of Israel . His brother Eisav wanted to kill him and so Eisav sent his son Elifaz , who ended up becoming the father of Amalek ( our greatest enemy ) , to kill Yaakov . Elifaz , very unlike his father Eisav , had learned Torah with Yitzchak , his Holy Grand-Father . Elifaz was one of the men that had come to visit Iyov Job , when Iyov was being tested and it was Elifaz who tried to remind Iyov To Trust In HaShem . Before Elifaz left to go after Yaakov , his Mother Adah advised him not to attack Yaakov , for Yaakov was much stronger than him and so , when Elifaz caught up with Yaakov , not wanting to totally disobey his father Eisav , all Elifaz did was to rob Yaakov of his things and clothes . This was why , when Yaakov arrived at Lavan , he arrived penniless looking so poor . This Parsha mentions that Yaakov departed from Beer-sheba and went ' toward ' Haran . The word ' toward ' suggests that Yaakov did not go straight there , but ' toward ' there thus only arriving there much later . The reason for this was that before Yaakov went to Haran , Yaakov stopped to learn in the Yeshiva of Shem and Eiver , so as to prepare himself spiritually for the evil of Lavan and Yaakov also knew that Eisav would be after him and so a Yeshiva was the safest place . Yaakov had another reason , for on the way , after being robbed by Elifaz and being left without clothes , as he got to the river , a man came and sadly had an accident riding and fell in and miraculously , the clothes appeared outside the river bank and the man disappeared . Yaakov had no choice but to dress in these clothes and continue on his journey . Not fully knowing the meaning of this incident , Yaakov feared that he may be blamed for this man's accident and so , the Yeshiva was to him like a City of Refuge , from the point of Law ( Bamidbar Numbers 35 : 22 - 28 ) of the " Go'el HaDam " - " Redeemer of the Blood " ( the relative of the one killed who can avenge his murdered relative ) , even though he had not done anything wrong , for Yaakov had a very holy and heightened Sense of Conscience and Inbuilt Moral Standing of Right and Wrong and so he felt more anguish at this incident than he needed to . After Yaakov's stay at the Yeshiva , he then headed toward his destination and when he had almost reached it , he realized that he had passed Har Moriah where the Akeidah Revelation had taken place with his Father and Grand-Father at the Akeidah and Yaakov realized that he had passed by there without praying at this Very Holy Site ( which is our Religious Custom to say a Prayer Tefillah At The Site Of A Miracle From HaShem Or Saving By HaShem ) , so he returned all the way back there And So Did HaShem Rewarded him for returning , with a Most Special Vision . So he did not go straight to Charan . This Most Special Vision From HaShem Was The Dream of Yaakov with the Ladder . When Yaakov arrived back at Har Moriah , it suddenly got dark , forcing him to spend the night there . He heard The Sound And Song Of Holy Spiritual Malachim Angels and knew That This Was A Most Holy Place . Yaakov took the 12 Stones that Avraham had used to make the Altar previously for the Akeidah and put them around his head , putting his head as a cushion on one of them , thinking if he is worthy to become the Father of the Twelve Tribes , then all these stones will merge into one and that is exactly what happened , for when he awoke , Torah Tells us in Bereishis 28 : 18 that it was one stone , thus all the stones wanted to be under this Very Holy Tzaddik's head and so they became one and Yaakov knew he would be the Father of the Twelve Tribes of Holy Israel . Yaakov dreamed of a " Sulam " - " Ladder " reaching up to Shamayim Heaven , with its bottom part Earthward with Malachim going up and down upon it . This is the journey of a holy man , who starts on Earth and makes his way Up Toward Shamayim Heaven . Yaakov was thus Given foreknowledge By HaShem of the Kingdoms that will come and attack us , the Babylonian , Persian - Median , Greek and Roman Empires and as he climbed the Ladder in his dream , each rung was akin to a year that we Jews would be in or under these nation's exile . Thus for Babylon , he climbed 70 rungs and then the Angel Sar ( for each nation has its own Sar - or Angel representing them in the Heavenly Court ) of that nation fell and for each other nation , the same thing was shown to him . Yaakov continued to climb higher and noticed that our present exile seemed never ending And HaShem Informed him That it would be a very long present exile , but this exile and it's Sar Angel would also have an end , for each nation has its protecting Angel and only when that ' Sar ' - ' Nation's Angel ' is defeated , can the nation no longer be . Yaakov also saw the Malachim Angels of Eretz Yisroel and the Melachim Angels of Chutz La' Aretz ( outside of the Holy Land ) coming and going . Yaakov as we know was accompanied during his travel and stay in the Holy Land by one set of Malachim Angels which would escort him while there and another set of Malachim Angels that took over and escorted him in Chutz La' Aretz outside the Holy Land . Yaakov also saw some of the workings of the Malachim here on Earth and also going up towards Heaven . HaShem Renewed The Covenant With Yaakov and his progeny And Again Promised us Jews the Land of Eretz Yisroel . The whole idea of the " Sulam " - " Ladder " is as the Hebrew Word also suggests , for "Sulam " also means a ' scale , ' as if to teach us that each and every thing we do , is on a scale , to build ourselves to be more and more Holy every day and as on a scale , everything we do is weighed like on a scale and so , counts for or against us , a means for us to raise our level Of Holiness Toward HaShem , if we grow Holier And Do As HaShem Commands us To Do . Yaakov awoke , realizing The Holiness Of This Place and the 12 Stones had become one ( As Torah Says ) . This Stone , he set up as a pillar and poured oil on its top and named the place " Beit El " - " The House Of G-D . " Yaakov vowed That If HaShem Would Be With him , Guard him On his way , Give him bread to eat and clothes to wear and if Yaakov returns to his Father in peace And That HaShem Will Be G-D To him , then Yaakov would make this pillar A House Of G-D ( And It became so , for this was the site of the First and Second Beis HaMikdashim Temples and is to be the site of the Third Beis HaMikdash Temple to come in Moshiach's time ) and that Yaakov would repeatedly Tithe To HaShem . So Yaakov got up and went on to the destination of his journey . He ended up at a well where three flocks of sheep lay waiting to drink at the Well , covered by a large stone over the mouth of the Well . The Shepherds said , after letting him know that this was the town of his relative Lavan and Rachel his daughter was also coming to the well , that they could not roll the stone away till all the flocks had come . When Yaakov saw Rachel , he alone rolled away the stone that needed many men together to move it . This was the meeting of Yaakov and Rachel . Yaakov kissed Rachel on the forehead and Torah Tells us that he wept , for he foresaw this beloved of his , passing away early . Yaakov told her who he was and that he was a relative and she ran to tell her Father . It had already been decided long ago , that Leah and her sister Rachel would be wives to Eisav and Yaakov and Leah , knowing what kind of person Eisav was , Leah had sadly spent many days crying , which caused her eyes to be pained and inflamed around her eyelids . It was decided then and there , knowing Lavan was a swindler as his name suggests , that Rachel would give Yaakov a sign so he would know he is marrying Rachel . This sign , say our Rabbis , was the three Mitzvos Of Lighting Shabbos Candles , Taking Challah and Niddah Family Purity , that are incumbent on a Jewish Woman . Yaakov was brought to Lavan and when he heard Yaakov had come and remembered that long ago , Eliezer had come with great jewels , Lavan ran out to meet Yaakov and was shocked at the poverty of him and his dress and so Lavan kept trying to feel through his clothes if he might be hiding jewels underneath , but he was not . Yaakov stayed a month and then payment was discussed , for looking after the sheep . Yaakov asked only to marry Rachel and for her he would work seven years . And so Yaakov did work seven years and when the time came , asked for her . Lavan , seeing that while Yaakov arrived and stayed there , Lavan had prospered and had also bore sons , so Lavan did not want Yaakov to leave . So Lavan the swindler , asked the whole town to back him up and they would make a scheme to replace Leah for Rachel . The town's people agreed not to say anything at the wedding , even though they did try to warn Yaakov by singing ' Oy Lay Oy Lay , ' which meant ' Oh this is Leah Oh this is Leah , ' not because they cared for Yaakov , but just so they could say afterwards that they had tried to warn Yaakov . Lavan managed to extract money from the townspeople to keep them silent , which he never returned . At the wedding Lavan replaced Rachel with Leah . Rachel felt sorry for her sister and so , taught her sister the signs and put Leah in her place . Lavan also gave Zilpah when he gave Leah , who was actually Lavan's daughter through a concubine and in the morning , Yaakov realized what had happened . When he asked Leah why she had deceived him , she said to Yaakov that Yaakov too had once , for a good reason , also pretended to be his brother and she did the same ( so what we do , has a return ) . Yaakov was upset with Lavan and asked him why he had done this and Lavan said it is not done in their place to give the younger before the elder and that if Yaakov works another seven years , then he will give Rachel to Yaakov , within the week ( the word 'week' is in Torah - Bereishis 29 : 27 - 28 ) and so Yaakov worked another seven years and just after the Sheva Brochas within the week of marrying Leah , Lavan gave him Rachel and also Bilhah , who was also Lavan's daughter with a concubine . Yaakov , faithful as he was , still worked another seven years for Rachel , even though he married her within the first week after marrying Leah . Leah , Because HaShem Saw that she was unloved , Gave her the first four children Reuvein , Simeon , Levi and Yehudah . Rachel saw that she had no children and told Yaakov to give her children . Yaakov reprimanded her And HaShem Was Upset At Yaakov for this reprimand . Rachel knew of how Sarah had given Avraham her handmaid and so Rachel did the same and gave Bilhah to Yaakov and two more sons were born - Dan and Naphtali . Leah did the same thing with Zilpah and two more sons were born - Gad and Asher . Reuvein went out in the days of the wheat harvest and brought Dudaim to his Mother Leah and Rachel wanted them but Leah said no . Leah bore to Yaakov two more sons Yissaschar and Zevulun , so now Leah had borne to Yaakov half the amount of the Twelve Tribes and so , when Leah conceived the next child , HaShem Judged that the last two tribes must come from Rachel and so , this child of Leah's came out a girl called Dinah ( Din referring to Judgement ) , who ended up to be the Mother of Asenath , who married Yosef . Rachel conceived and bore Yosef and prophetically named him as she did , knowing that there would still be by Rachel another son . It was after Yosef was born , whose progeny have power over Eisav and Amalek , that Yaakov knew that he must return home and face Eisav . So Yaakov asked Lavan permission to go but Lavan , knowing that Yaakov had brought From HaShem Blessings , tried to keep Yaakov there , making one false deal after another with sheep , trying to cheat Yaakov a hundred times . But HaShem Protected Yaakov . Yaakov heard Lavan's sons and Lavan jealous at how wealthy Yaakov had become And HaShem Ordered Yaakov to return home to his family . Yaakov told Rachel and Leah that he wanted to go and they agreed . So Yaakov took his children and wives and livestock and started his return home without telling Lavan . Rachel stole her Father's teraphim ,which were the skulls of dead children to which rituals were done to get these skulls to talk . When Lavan heard that Yaakov had left , Lavan took his men and sons ( who were only actually born in Yaakov's merit Via Blessings From HaShem and it was from one of these sons that the evil Bilaam got born that hated and tried to curse the Jewish people in Moshe's time ) and Lavan hotly pursued Yaakov . HaShem Appeared To Lavan In a dream And Warned Lavan not to do any harm to Yaakov . Lavan caught up with Yaakov and aggressively blamed Yaakov for leaving and asked who stole his teraphim . Yaakov once and for all answered Lavan how he had worked for Lavan for fourteen years for his daughters and six years for the livestock , for which not a single full night did Yaakov sleep , for he cared and watched constantly over Lavan's flocks . It was Yaakov who wrote some of the Psalms that came down to Dovid prophetically for their souls were linked and like one . Yaakov said that with whomever the teraphim are , they shall not live , not knowing that Rachel had taken them . Rachel's time of the month was upon her and so she hid them in the camel packsaddle and sat on it and when Lavan who suspected her , came into her tent to check for his rotten teraphim , she said that she could not get up for the reason that it was her time of the month . Yaakov answered Lavan and even so , Lavan still thought everything and everyone was his , such is the mindset of those that shun G-D or of those that believe in idol worship . For all things Really Belong To G-D . Yaakov and Lavan made a covenant agreement with a stone and Yaakov's brethren took other stones and made a mound and this became a witness that neither was to go over this mound against each other and that Yaakov would not take wives in addition to Lavan's daughters . How deceitful then was Lavan's grandson Bilaam in Moshe's time , for Bilaam took no notice of the agreement between us and them , when he was on his way to curse and hurt us and his donkey took him past here and banged his leg on this very mound so as to remind him of this very covenant agreement between Yaakov's family and Lavan's , a covenant that Bilaam showed openly he shuns and so did the events to Bilaam happen as Torah tells us in Moshe's time in Bamidbar 22 : 25 and the rest of the Chapters around it . The next morning Lavan left and returned to his place , which also means that even though he was in the presence of holy Yaakov , Lavan was a man of evil and negativity and his time with holy Yaakov never made an impression on his negative character to change for the better and become more holy . One cannot even imagine to be in the holy presence of holy Yaakov . Yaakov too went on his way and seeing that he was coming to the Holy Land , the Angels Malachim that had accompanied Yaakov outside the Holy Land left Yaakov to be replaced with Malachim Angels from the Holy Land , that would now accompany Yaakov in Eretz Yisroel . He named this place Machanaim , which means ' two camps ' in reference to the two Camps of Malachim Angels , referring to the Camp of Malachim Angels from Eretz Yisroel and the Camp of Malachim Angels in Chutz La ' Aretz . So ends the Parsha . This Parsha is called Parashas Vayeitzei , where the word " Vayeitzei " means " Departed " for Yaakov is leaving the Holy Land , to continue his destiny toward holiness . It is interesting that in order for Yaakov to grow In Holiness, he was leaving a Holy Place to go to a place much less Holy . Should it not it be the other way around to gain in Holiness . This is similar to Adam Ve Chava , who left Gan Eiden , to come down here to a place more physical and less Holy , in order to work their way back there to Holiness . It shows how sometimes in order to grow , we at times need to go through physical trials and tests in a place less holy , in order to grow above that , In Holiness . We find how in Pirkei Avos , the Mishna says that we are to prepare ourselves in the antechamber ( Earth ) so that we can enter the banquet hall ( Gan Eiden Shamayim ) . No place that we have to be or experience that we have to go through , is ever wasted . All things have a deeper reason . We may not know the reason for the hardships and tests and trials we face or have to go through or overcome , but there is a reason . The whole idea of a Ladder is the same , where the Ladder starts Earthbound and works its way up toward Shamayim - Heaven . Every step that we take is an opportunity to grow Spiritually . We need to sometimes depart from what we know , as Avraham did when he was Told To " Lech Lecha , " for as we said then , the ' Going , ' was for his benefit . Everything That HaShem Does For us , though it may not appear so at the time , is for our benefit . We need to sometimes leave or " Vayeitzei " - " Depart " from our comfort zone , in order to move forward . Heaven is not gained on a silver platter . We need to work toward it all the time , every day , every hour , every moment , to earn it's Beautiful And Special Holiness . Every day for us is a trip up the rungs of the Ladder , Leading To HaShem , if only we overcome the physical Earth-bound World around us and climb above it and our Yetzer Horahs , in order to overcome anything and everything negative and work Toward HaShem , then we will accomplish Gan Eiden . For each step toward Holiness we take , is a step toward Olam Habah , The World To Come , That Comes just after Moshiach will come . The word Moshiach has the Gematrical value of 7 and the period after that into the Spiritual , is the number 8 . Within our Parsha , the word " Vayeitzei , " has a Gematrical value of 6 + 10 + 90 + 1 = 107 and 1 + 0 + 7 = 8 . The very " Vayeitzei " - " Departing " on the journey of growing , leads to Olam Habah . Like holy Yaakov , we are always headed toward our destination . If we are called upon to make certain detours along the way toward our destination , we must not be disheartened , For HaShem Knows All And Knows what we need along the way and that we must hold ever close to Torah along the way as our Mode Of Travel . For that is the depth of the Test . To Stay And Stand By HaShem's Commandments And HaShem's Holy Torah , no matter what , in whatever situation we find ourselves . The physical appearance around us is just that , a physical appearance . The True Truth , Is The Destination Of HaShem And HaShem's Holy Torah . That Alone Is The Only True Reality . So walk out of your Earth-bound physicality and " Vayeitzei " - " Depart , " By Following HaShem And HaShem's Holy Torah Always , Toward your Only True Destination , HaShem Ha Kadosh Baruch Hu HaShem The Holy One Blessed Be He . I wish Ever Most Eternally Beloved HaShem with Deep And Beautiful And Most Eternal And Forever Love , A Very Sweet And Beautiful Shabbos Kodesh With Sweetest And Deepest Love and to all of my fellow Jews and to all of Creation , A Very Sweet and Beautiful Shabbos Kodesh with love .

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