Let's Get Ready to Rumble!

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And Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. When he saw that he could not prevail against him, he touched the socket of his hip, and the socket of Jacob's hip became dislocated as he wrestled with him. And he (the angel) said, "Let me go, for dawn is breaking," but he (Jacob) said, "I will not let you go unless you have blessed me." So he said to him, "What is your name?" and he said, "Jacob." And he said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, because you have commanding power with [an angel of] God and with men, and you have prevailed.
(Genesis 32: 25-29)


Jacob bumps into an angel with an anger problem! Just his luck. Our Sages teach us that this angel was the guardian angel of Esav, Jacob's brother, and all of his descendants. And that this wrestling match was not by coincidence, but signified something much greater. Let's gain deeper insight into one aspect of this story. In order to do so, we must examine its significance in the wisdom of Jewish Mysticism.

The teachings of Jewish mysticism, the inner dimension of the Torah, relates all of life - from the vast expanse of the universe to the minute fingernail of a child - to a G-dly source, and therefore of deep significance in what it symbolizes. For every physical thing we see, is a lower manifestation of a higher spiritual level that precedes it. A major foundation of Jewish Mystical teaching, is the 10 Sefirot: The 10 ways in which G-d Decided to Reveal His Will in the higher and lower worlds, and ultimately in our souls. These are (loosely translated): The Intellect - Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge. And the Emotions - Kindness, Severity, Compassion, Endurance, Humility, Connection, and Sovereignty. These Sefirot correspond to the limbs of the human body as well: Kindness - Right arm, Severity - the left, Compassion - the mid-section. Endurance - the Right thigh/leg, Humility - the left, etc. The Jewish leaders that exemplified these Divine emotions as found in this world, in order, are: Avraham (kindness), Issac, Jacob, Moshe, Aaron, Yoseph, King David.

So what connection does all of this have with Jacob wrestling with an angel in this week's Torah Portion?

There have been 4 exiles in the history of the Jewish People: The Egyptian, the Babylonian, the Persian, and the Roman - which we are still in today. This 4th & final exile, caused by the Roman destruction of the 2nd temple in Jerusalem, will last until Mashiach comes & the temple is rebuilt. It's taught that the Romans were descendants of Esav. When Esav's guardian angel was wrestling with Jacob throughout the night, it wasn't just a UFC styled fight. This encounter symbolized the long and arduous exile that we find ourselves in for the last 2,000 years, caused by Esav's descendants. Life for a Jew in exile is a struggle. We will ultimately vanquish the evil in the world, and have been quite successful so far. But what is the final action that must be done to fully vanquish Esav's guardian angel and free ourselves of the Roman exile? We see that Jacob, right before dawn and his victory, is struck by the angel in his hip and is hurt.

As we learned in Kabbalah earlier, each part of the body represents a Jewish leader, as well as a spiritual attribute. The lower side where Jacob was hit was the left, symbolizing Aaron, the brother of Moses. What was Aaron most known for in the Torah? Besides for humility, Aaron was the ultimate lover of the Jewish people. It is known that he would seek peace between each man and his fellow, between husband and wife. We are told that Aaron was mourned for after his death by all men and women, while Moses was mourned less so. Why? Because Aaron brought peace between everybody. Out of his great love for each person, he strove to avoid all conflict between them. Perhaps the lesson here is this: As we near the end of exile, the end of the battle with our spiritual and physical enemy, the hardest test, the one which will try and stop us most from reaching redemption, is the love and sensitivity to our fellow Jew.
Like Aaron, we must strive to make peace between those in our community, in our household, with those around us, and focus on the good in our fellow man and woman.
And with that, may we merit the ultimate redemption, where we will see only the good in each person, their soul, speedily in our days!

Shabbat Shalom!

-Daniel
{To learn more about the Sefirot in depth, click on: 10 Sefirot}

The Impenetrable Stones

'And Yaakov left Be'er Sheva, and went towards Charan. He came across the place and spent the night there because
the sun had set. He took some of the stones of the place and placed them around his head, and he lay down in that place.'

This week's Torah portion is Vayeitzei - And he departed. After Jacob is blessed by his father Issac (instead of his brother Esav), Esav is furious and vows to kill his brother. Rivkah, their mother, tells Jacob to run away to her brother Lavan's home, until it is safe to return. Before heading to his uncle's home, however, the Midrash tells us that Jacob learned in the famous yeshiva (house of study) of Shem & Ever, for 14 years. Only then did he "depart" - as we find in the beginning of this portion. On his journey, Jacob stops to sleep at a certain place. The Midrash tells us that this was the holiest place in the world - Mount Moriah - where the temple would later be built in Jerusalem. Here the Torah says, "He took some of the stones of the place and placed them around his head." Why? Rashi explains: "Jacob was fearful of the wild animals."

Now let's ask ourselves a simple question. If you were camping in safari country, where lions roamed, would you put a few stones around you for protection?? I think these animals are rather athletic and have the ability to jump 4 inches off the ground! And better yet, would you try and protect only your head? I know it's an important part of one's anatomy, but I'd like to keep the rest of my body intact if I can help it! So what in the world was Jacob thinking exactly when he decided to surround only his head with some measly stones!?

The holy Zohar teaches us, that if one reads any single story of the Torah and takes it only at face value, he or she is missing out on everything. Of course Jacob literally surrounded his head with stones, but of what significance, of what symbolism is the Torah teaching me in my life? The Chassidic Masters explained this event as follows: Jacob knew that he was leaving the comfortable, holy presence of his father and mother in Israel, to wander into the unknown, corrupt territory of his uncle Lavan in a foreign land. There he would work day and night, trying to survive and still keep his moral character together, his trust and devotion to G-d intact. That's why he prepared himself with an additional time secluded in learning about G-d and instilling these values internally. But even so, once he would enter the world of the conniving Lavan, how could he possibly keep his moral character strong? This is why Jacob surrounded only his head. Jacob was saying: "I'm not scared of the physical wild animals, but the spiritual ones! My spiritual integrity and beliefs will be attacked at every moment, and therefore I must always keep what's in my head - what I have learned and what I believe now - intact.

Like our forefather Jacob, we too live in the world of Lavan. A foreign one; one which may feel comfortable, but that is foreign to our souls, which only want holy and good things. We deal with the world, we study, we work. Society may be asking us on a daily basis to conform to its desires for us to be what it would like us to be. The Jewish people, throughout history, have resisted that desire. While involving ourselves completely with the world, G-d asks us to refine and uplift, rather than be dragged down with it. And how do we do that? By keeping what's in our heads, the values we have learned and the Judaism we have internalized, intact and untouchable; unchanging. And through every prayer, every mitzvah, every Torah class learned, we additionally fortify our heads and protect ourselves with immovable stones.

Shabbat Shalom!

-Daniel

A Jewish Thanksgiving

Jewish People growing up today in America experience a wide array of holidays and memorial events. One such event is Thanksgiving. Unlike Easter (Christian) or even Halloween (Pagan), the roots of thanksgiving and its focus seem very positive (also for Jews) - being thankful for what we have. Specifically for the free country we live in, one whose declaration of independence states: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Often I am asked what the B"H (that I write on the top of my emails) means. It means "B'ezrat Hashem", Hebrew for "With the help of G-d." It's a custom, rooted in the desire to remind oneself that every moment I have alive is a gift, to remember that I cannot accomplish something as simple as writing a letter, without the life and capabilities given to me by G-d. This idea is an all pervasive one in Judaism. The word for "thanks" or "acknowledgement"
is hoda'ah. Upon awakening in the morning, the 1st prayer said is Modeh ani - I offer thanks before you, living and eternal King, for You have mercifully restored my soul within me; Your faithfulness is great. Morning prayers officially start with Hodu la'Hashem, and the only bowing of the holiest prayer of the day (the Amidah) is Modim, both meaning thanks/acknowledgement.

Feeling thankful, as most of us can attest, is something easy to forget. Much easier is the ability to recall what we don't have. A physical body feels what it lacks - warmth, immediate joy and feeling, hunger, etc. Only once we are missing something, do we come to appreciate it. It's sad that G-d Made it that way, but that's the way it is. When I'm healthy, it's nothing special. The day or two after I recover from sickness, all of a sudden I'm smiling and grateful. This is probably why refugees and immigrants from oppressive or low standard of living countries truly appreciate living in America, while born and bred Americans often take the freedoms and overall kindness of this nation for granted. Perhaps this is a lesson we can learn from Thanksgiving: To remind ourselves to be thankful for everything that we have. Maybe we can make a resolution, that once a day, at a certain time, I will stop and think about some of the things I am lucky to have (health, loving people behind me, peace). Often, this meditation helps with one's overall feeling of joy and serenity.

Sadness often stems from thinking of what I don't have. Judaism teaches: What I'm meant to have RIGHT NOW - I have. It's meant for my soul to be in this situation and set of life circumstances for a specific reason, for a role of rectification that I need to do in this life. Thank you G-d for whatever I have. It's all a gift.

A Jew who lived at any other time period in any other country in history, probably had a tougher time living freely and happily as an open and proud Jew. We in America today can. Ironically, the challenge today is to want to live differently in the 1st place! To live as a unique, proud Jew in today's accepting society is our challenge; not avoiding arrest or death like in Europe of old. Let's be thankful and proud. To end with the words of Abraham Lincoln, said on Thanksgiving day in 1863: “To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.”

Shabbat Shalom!

-Daniel