The Weekly Sedra – Parshas Vayeitzei

The Rebbe says:

1. The Torah is not a history book. Every story mentioned in the Torah is written for us to learn from. As we know that from one letter in the Torah our Sages learn out many Halachas (laws)!

This is why the Torah has the name “Torah” and not for example “Chochmah – Wisdom”. Seemingly, since Torah is the wisdom of Hashem it should be called “Chochmah – Wisdom”!? Instead Hashem named it “Torah” from the word Hora’ah meaning lesson. Hashem named the Torah “Torah – Lesson” because every detail in the Torah applies to every Jew in every generation to take a lesson from.

Therefore every Parshah in the Torah has its’ special lessons for each and every one of us.

2. Besides for the “regular” connection that each Parshah has to us in our daily lives, this weeks Parshah has an additional special connection to each and every one of us!

Q: What does this week’s Parshah have in it that connects to every Jew so specially?

A: Our Parshah this week is all about our father Ya’akov.

The Gemara says (in Tractate Babba Metzia, Page 84, Side 1) that “the beauty of Ya’akov was like the beauty of Adam”. Adam, who was the first man on earth, had a general soul which included in it all the souls of people who would later come down to this world. The Gemara is telling us that our Father Ya’akov also had all the souls of all future generations included in his soul. (Why did the Gemara chose to use the word “beauty” to bring out this point? Because beauty is when you have all different kinds, not just one kind. For example, a painting with one color in it is not comparable to the beauty of a painting with many different colors in it. Therefore the Gemara says “beauty” because it is discussing the unity of all the different kinds of souls).

When Adam sinned by eating from the “Tree of Knowledge” every single person in every generation was affected (look in Chumash Bereishis, Chapter 3, Verses 17-20). Adam’s actions affected us so much because we were all included in Adam’s soul.

Just like Adam’s actions affected every single person because he was a general soul, so-too every action of our father Ya’akov- who was also a general soul- affects every single person in every generation.

Therefore, since our Parshah is all about our father Ya’akov who included all of our souls in his soul, the Parshah has a special connection to each and every one of us.

3. Q: What lesson can we learn from Ya’akov Avinu who is discussed in this weeks Parshah?

4. A: A summary of this weeks Parshah:

Ya’akov Avinu (our father) leaves Eretz Yisroel (the Land of Israel) and travels to his Uncle Lavan in Charan. Right away Ya’akov Avinu stops and Prays to Hashem that He should be with him. He arrives at his Uncle Lavan’s house and works for him for twenty years as a shepherd. He marries the daughters of Lavan- our matriarchs Rochel and Leah and their maidservants Bilhah and Zilpah and has eleven of the twelve tribes there. Ya’akov Avinu leaves Charan to go back to Eretz Yisroel. On Ya’akov Avinu’s way back to Eretz Yisroel Hashem and His angels meet him.

The Zohar points out that on the journey from Eretz Yisroel to Charan Ya’akov Avinu had to look for Hashem and pray to him in order for Hashem to reveal Himself to him (see Rashi on Verse 11, Chapter 28). And even when Hashem did reveal Himself to Ya’akov Avinu, it was only in a dream (see Verses 12-17, Chapter 28). However on the way back from Charan to Eretz Yisroel Hashem came looking for Ya’akov (see Chapter 32, Verse 2)! And not only that but he revealed Himself to Ya’akov while he was conscious (see Chapter 32, Verse 2)!

The Zohar asks: What changed? How come on the way to Charan Ya’akov Avinu had to look for Hashem and receive a revelation in a dream, but on his way back from Charan Hashem appeared to Ya’akov without him even looking and this revelation was while he was conscious???

The Zohar answers: Even though Ya’akov Avinu had learnt Torah in Eretz Yisroel by the house of Ever for fourteen years before going to Charan (see Rashi to Verse 9, Chapter 28), he had not fulfilled his mission. Only by going down to Charan and working with the land and elevating the holy sparks hidden there did he fulfill his mission. This is why Hashem revealed Himself to Ya’akov on his way from Charan to Eretz Yisroel.

The obvious lesson for us to learn from our father Ya’akov:

As long as we concentrate only on ourselves and our own spiritual development we can never achieve the higher level that we can attain through cleansing the world and bringing other Jews closer. Only through elevating the holy sparks hidden in the world do we ultimately merit to the revelation of Hashem with Moshiach as it says by Ya’akov “Hashem revealed Himself to Ya’akov”.

When we bring other Jews closer to their Father in Heaven and make sure the world is a proper dwelling place for Hashem we also receive great blessings for success for ourselves physically and spiritually, as it says (Chapter 30, Verse 43) “The man became exceedingly wealthy. He had extremely fertile flocks, maids, servants, camels and donkeys”.

Taken from Likutei Sichos Chelek Gimmel. Translated and adapted by Shalom Goldberg. This Parasha article was sent to CrownHeights.info as part of a weekly mailer from the author.