STAM
TORAH
PARSHAS VAYISHLACH
5777
“NEVER DEFEATED”
King Louis XIV
of France
“What is
the Jew?...What kind of unique creature is this whom all the rulers of all the
nations of the world have disgraced and crushed and expelled and destroyed;
persecuted, burned and drowned, and who, despite their anger and their fury,
continues to live and to flourish. What is this Jew whom they have never
succeeded in enticing with all the enticements in the world, whose oppressors
and persecutors only suggested that he deny (and disown) his religion and cast
aside the faithfulness of his ancestors?!
The Jew -
is the symbol of eternity. ... He is the one who for so long had guarded the
prophetic message and transmitted it to all mankind. A people such as this can
never disappear.
The Jew is
eternal. He is the embodiment of eternity.”
- Leo
Tolstoy What is the Jew?
“The struggle for world domination
is between me and the Jews. All else is meaningless. The Jews have inflicted
two wounds on the world: Circumcision for the body and conscience for the soul.
I come to free mankind from their shackles.”
- Mein
Kampf, Adolph Hitler
“Some
people like the Jews, and some do not. But no thoughtful man can deny the
fact that they are, beyond any question, the most formidable and the most
remarkable race which has appeared in the world.”
- Winston Churchill - Prime Minister of
Great Britain
“I
will insist the Hebrews have [contributed] more to civilize men than any other
nation. If I was an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still
believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for
civilizing the nations ... They are the most glorious nation that ever
inhabited this Earth. The Romans and their empire were but a bubble in
comparison to the Jews. They have given religion to three-quarters of the globe
and have influenced the affairs of mankind more and more happily than any other
nation, ancient or modern.”
- John Adams, President of the United States
After over two decades in the home of
his father-in-law Lavan, Yaakov Avinu finally departed. Having arrived with
literally nothing but his walking stick, Yaakov leaves with a beautiful family,
tremendous wealth, and spiritual vibrancy. The time has finally come for the
great encounter with his insidious brother, Eisav.
As they set up camp for the night
Yaakov realized that he forgot some jugs on the other side of the river. When he
journeyed back alone to retrieve them he was confronted by the Angel of Eisav.
Their dynamic confrontation foreshadowed and symbolized the epic perennial
struggle between Yaakov’s descendants and Eisav’s descendants.
“Yaakov
was left alone and a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. When he
perceived that he could not overcome him, he struck the socket of his hip; so
Yaakov’s hip-socket was dislocated as he wrestled with him… Therefore the
Children of Israel do not eat the Gid Hanasheh (the displaced sinew) of the
hip-socket to this day, because he struck Yaakov’s hip-socket on the displaced
sinew.[1]”
Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch zt’l
explained that the word “nasheh” means a creditor. When one owes money, he is
subservient and indebted to his lender. In that sense the Gid Hanesheh is the
sinew of submission and lack of resistance. When the Angel dislodged that sinew
he robbed Yaakov of control over the muscle of the hip, which attaches to the
bone to control the leg. That caused Yaakov to lose some of his footing and
control, and forced him into a certain level of submission. The tendon was
still there, the muscle was still there, and the leg was still there, but its
use was hampered. But it was only for a moment. Yaakov immediately regained his
composure, and although injured he eventually persevered and defeated his
implacable opponent.
The Torah forbids us to eat that sinew
because of what it symbolizes. The dislocation of it represents the Angel
gaining the upper-hand over Yaakov, if even for a moment. A Jew must know that
the Spirit of Eisav can NEVER conquer Yaakov, or even cause him to falter. We
traverse the exile with all of its challenges with a certain measure of dignity
and fortitude. True, there have been many times in our long and painful history
when we have been subject to unspeakable pain and domination. However, we do
not view domination as Eisav’s physical superiority, but as our spiritual
inferiority.
“If Yaakov falls he falls not because he is
not equal to Eisav in material power. Rather, because he has not understood how
to retain the protection of G-d for himself. If Israel
A short time later Yaakov met up with
Eisav himself. Eisav was so overwhelmed by Yaakov and his family that
incredibly his relentless rage dissipated. Eisav then suggested to Yaakov that
they proceed together. Yaakov deferred, stating that his family would not be
able to keep up the pace. “So Eisav returned on that day to his way, to Seir.[2]”
Rabbi
Hirsch comments that this was the final time that Yaakov and Eisav appear
together. From that moment when they took leave of each other they would never
again be united. Eisav returned on his path, while Yaakov proceeded on his own
path, each towards their own divergent destinations.
One of the
reasons for the joy of the upsherin[3] is that at that first haircut the child’s
payos (edges, i.e. sideburns) are not cut[4],[5]. A Jewish
male’s payos are an external symbol of the separation we maintain from the rest
of the world. We are different and we are proud of what/who we are!
Someone
once asked the Brisker Rav why people say that at an upsherin “payos machin”
(we make payos). It would seem that not cutting the sideburns is merely
adhering to a prohibition. We do not ‘make payos’ we simply refrain from
cutting them.
The
Brisker Rav replied by quoting the vernacular of the Rambam[6] in his quotation
of this law: “We do not shave the corners of the head like the nations of the
world do…” The Rambam associates this law with our desire to differentiate ourselves
from the rest of the nations. Thus, by refraining from cutting the sideburns we
are actually “making payos”, fulfilling an active obligation to demonstrate our
separateness and uniqueness.[7]
The day when the boy receives his first haircut
there is an additional beautiful custom, for the father to bring his son –
wrapped in a tallis – to a rebbe who teaches young children. The father places
the child in the rebbe’s lap and the rebbe learns the letters of the Aleph Bais
with the child. The letters are read from a chart which is coated with honey.
Each time the child recites a letter he is given some honey to eat. This
inculcates in the child the feeling that Torah is sweet and delectable.
On the day the child is introduced to the study of
Torah he is also taught that we are special and different. We are not merely a
nation among nations. We are the Children of Yaakov, the Chosen Nation.
Rabbi
Moshe Wolfson shlita notes that the gematria of the words “Yaakov’s hip-socket[8] (was
dislocated)” is the same as the words “To kindle the Chanukah candles”.
During the period of Greek culture’s
influence the Greeks sought to foster a feeling of equality with the Jews. They
sought to destroy the notion that Jews were unique and elite, by inviting them
to take part in all of their activities.
The Medrash relates that the tyrannical
despot Antiochus passed an edict which obligated all Jews to write on the horns
of their oxen, “You do not have a portion in the G-d of Israel
Maharal offers a poignant explanation for
this bizarre edict. One of the darkest moments in Jewish history was the sin of
the golden calf. It was hardly five weeks since they had witnessed the
unparalleled revelation at Sinai when they committed the egregious sin, from
which we still suffer. But after Moshe implored the Almighty on our behalf, He
promised that He would not destroy us and that we would be forgiven.
The Greeks wanted to ingrain within us
that perhaps at one time we were indeed destined to be special and different.
But we had forfeited that position by the sin of the golden calf. An ox is a
mature and grown-up calf. The Greeks compelled every Jew to inscribe on the
horns of their oxen that they had no connection with the G-d of Israel
The
Greeks countered that with all of their sophistication and advancements in
medicine, engineering, mathematics, philosophy, drama, they had become the Chosen people. If the Jews wanted to be special they
would have to join with them.
The
Greeks loved wisdom and did not seek to impede the Jews from studying Torah,
albeit as long as they studied it as a subject of academia. Jews and Greeks
could even study Torah together. Their main battle was “to make them forget
Your Torah”, i.e. that the Torah was G-d’s and it was not merely another
subject of study.
The
Maccabean revolt was driven by those who fought for the purity of Torah. They
were consumed by a religious zeal fueled by the knowledge that we are indeed
special and different. It is for that reason that the miracle of Chanukah
involved the light of the Menorah, which symbolizes the spiritually pristine
light of Torah.
The
lights of Chanukah serve as the antithesis and the rectification of what the
Angel of Eisav tried to accomplish in his struggle with Yaakov. He tried to
demonstrate that Yaakov is subservient to Eisav. But the Chanukah candles
resplendently symbolize that we transcend Eisav and his pernicious efforts to
vanquish us – spiritually and physically.
Thus, on
the day when we begin to teach our son Torah we must also symbolize to him that
we – as a people – are different. It is through pure Torah study that we
maintain our uniqueness as a holy nation.
It is appropriate that we conclude with the
timeless words of the great Rabbi Yaakov Emden zt’l in the preface to
his commentary on the Siddur[9]:
“No nation has been as pursued as we
have. How great have been our difficulties, how overwhelming were our enemies.
From the very inception of our history, they have been bent upon utterly
destroying and eradicating us. This was due to the hatred that they had for us
because they were jealous of us…. (Despite) our many enemies, they were never successful in destroying or
eliminating us. (I swear) by my life that when I ponder these wonders, I deem them to be greater than all of
the miracles and wonders which Hashem did for our forefathers in Egypt
“Eisav returned on that day to his way,
to Seir”
“Therefore, the Children of Israel do
not eat the Gid Hanasheh”
Rabbi
Dani Staum, LMSW
Rabbi,
Kehillat New Hempstead
Rebbe/Guidance
Counselor – ASHAR
Principal
– Ohr Naftoli- New Windsor
[1] Bereishis 32:25-33
[2] 33:16
[3] First haircut given to a boy
when he becomes three years old.
[4] See Vayikra 19:27
[5] When this essay
was originally published in 5771, it was the week we celebrated the upsherin of
our son, Avi.
[6] Hil Akum 12:1
[7] Nitei Gavriel, Tiglachas
Hayilodim (hakdamah)
[8] 512
[9] "מי שמעיין בייחוד עניננו ומעמדנו
בעולם, אנחנו האומה הגולה, שה פזורה, אחרי כל מה שעבר עלינו מהצרות והתמורות אלפים
מהשנים... כל האומות הקדומות אבד זכרם... ואנו הדבקים בה' חיים היום, חי נפשי
כי בהתבונני בנפלאות אלה, גדלו אצלי יותר מכל ניסים ונפלאות שעשה ה' יתברך
לאבותינו במצרים ובמדבר ובארץ ישראל. וכל מה שארך הגלות יותר, נתאמת הנס יותר,
ונודע מעשה תקפו וגבורתו"
(בהקדמה
לסידור בית-יעקב).
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