Vayetze5775

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast recorded with hm's never- ending assistance in ra Israel 5775 2014 this we para is par and at the beginning of the par we have yobu Jacob is leaving his home he's leaving his family he's running away from Asa from Esau his brother who wants to kill him and he goes off not just because he's running away from ASA but also because he needs to find a wife he needs to find a woman or the women who are going to be the mothers the matriarch of the Jewish people he's going to meet there ra and Leia B and Zila and there he's going to birth he's going to have the 11 out of the 12 tribes of the Jewish people now I'd like to share with you really an amazing beautiful piece as always Nas in the words that he says are so touching and so uh you know they they always say something that speaks to me and I hope that they say something that speaks to you as well the uh what what rnas does is he gives us an ongoing commentary on the par at the beginning of the paraa on this this vob as Jacob leaves so the Torah tells us he leaves Bea he leaves from the place where he was living from from Beba as it's called in English and he goes to a place called K which is the place where his family his uh his mother grew up it's a place where AR ainu was originally from he goes back there to find a wife from his own family now I'd like to read this ins so the way that understands the para he doesn't necessarily take it literally but he what he what he does is he takes yobu Jacob is a sem is a symbol of the Jewish people he's a symbol of every single Jew in his struggle for spirituality in his struggle to attain a relationship with Hashem he says the fact that yov Jacob is leaving his place and he's going from one place to another represents the path of a Jew who is going out from one level to another level he's going from one place to another yakobo is going now to build the Jewish people he's going from one place he was studying he was busy building his inner spiritual life but now he's going to expand that have children start bringing up the next generation of the Jewish people so he's going from one level to another and what happens as a person goes from one level to another as he's about to ascend to a higher spiritual level what happens is that a person is immediately faced with new challenges the imagination goes wild the forces of evil come and they want to stop him they're the aspect of which means anger so so we see in the PK and he's going to say this explicitly but we see in the PK that he leaves Bea which is the place where he was and he goes to the place the name of the place where he's going is which is similar to the word for which means anger all these aspects are the forces of evil the forces of judgment this is the meaning of the idea of that which it says that yob yob represents the Jew the Israelite he leaves from what's which means The Well of cheva which can either mean The Well of seven or The Well of the oath he's leaving the holy uh level that he was on before which is referred to as because every single level of Holiness what's the concept of which means The Well of seven so it corresponds to the aspect of seven which is the aspect of Holiness because all Holiness includes seven aspects the seven lower spheres is what he's referring to which also correspond to the seven days of hashem's creation which are included in every single level meaning when a person is in a certain level when a person is in a certain spiritual space a certain spiritual state so that spiritual State he he's climbing on a ladder so to speak and there are seven rungs on this ladder on this on this particular level and so he needs to climb up through those seven levels but each of the levels contains Seven Levels so this is what's represented by the fact that he left he leaves the place where he is and he's moving on to the next place and when Jacob who represents the Israelite person is leaving from there he wants to get to a higher level he wants to get to a higher spiritual State a higher spiritual Plateau what happens is he goes towards what is that the person who wants to strive he wants to attain a higher spiritual level the only way to do that is to go through to pass through the anger so to speak to pass through judgments to pass through the CIP the side of challenge which is the side of evil all of the imaginations and the desires and the confusions those things that come out to greet him every single time he's got to pass through that he has to face that challenge says n that since the the Israelite person the Jewish person the aspect of Jacob when he walks through there when he's moving on to the next level and he is strong in his resolve he passes through the challenges he faces off with these challenges and he doesn't let himself get down on himself because he has to go through these difficulties spiritual challenges we're talking about he falls and as he falls he sees himself as doing something wrong he seems to he's done something wrong indeed but he doesn't allow himself to fall in his mind he doesn't let himself fall into the Trap of thinking that oh I've fallen and I can't get up he knows that this is the path towards spirituality he strengthens himself to get up again what happens after this so we find that y he leaves from the place of he goes towards what's the first thing that happens the verse tells us in in in chapter 28: 11 it's the second PK in the paraa it says he reaches the place and he sleeps there what is the m what is the place that he reaches it's the place of the bikash it's the Temple Mount it's the place of the foundation stone he comes to that place from which Hashem created the entire world our sages tell us that hasem created this foundation stone it's called the the the EV because from that foundation stone is what Hashem created the entire world the world was drawn out so to speak from that that space that place because he was willing to walk through the he was willing to go through the challenge to move on to the next level he merited to understand the truth that all the challenges that come up as a result of this why is it coming so much to him he's in the dangers that he's facing the spiritual dangers the things that he has seems to that a that a Jewish person seems to give into it's not considered a fall the the challenges are coming now because he's moving on to the higher level There's an opportunity to come closer to that's why they're they're facing off with him right now so much now this is what it means that he touched the place what does it mean that he touched the place that within the darkness within the danger the spiritual danger which is which is the forces of evil which are coming now to to stop him in his tracks that is precisely where he merits to touch the place the source the root of the entire world to touch Hashem so to speak Hashem is referred to as M he's referred to as the place has referred to as the place because he is so to speak the the the world is contained within him as as kazal says the sages say the world is contained within him but the world does not contain himm is is a Transcendent reality we exist within him so to speak and so he was able to find the space the place to touch the Transcendent Reality by walking into the darkness because the more a person tries to rise up to a higher level a higher spiritual level to attain greater spirituality so he comes closer to who's the place of the world what does it mean that is the place of the world it means that all of the aspects all the spiritual aspects all the levels that we've been speaking about are included in Hashem as it were as we said is called the place of the world and the world is not his place meaning Hashem contains all of the the physical reality within him and the world can't contain him hasm is transcendent now what comes out of this is an amazing KES and this is AIC idea which is unbelievably deep and Powerful you know it's so easy to look at the world and to say you know where's Hashem in this place people pass away they're killed in a a crazy way where's Hashem in this place a holocaust where's Hashem in this place the challenges that a person faces it seems it seems like Hashem is not there with him where is Hashem in this place but even more so in a certain sense a person doesn't a he does a sin he he he does something which takes him away from hm disconnects him from hasem can Hashem be contained within that as well and the depth of this teaching is that somehow Hashem is there inside of everything even the things that look like Hashem is not there Hashem is transcended hashm is beyond and hashm is contained within every aspect of reality and sometimes a person needs to go into that place of darkness in order to reveal the light so now continues and he says yob Jacob is the aspect he represents as we've said a few times the Jewish person the Israelite because of his strengthening of himself his commitment his resolve he merited to understand the truth he has to run away from his family he has to run away from his father the place of his Torah learning his spirituality he has to leave all that it looks like he's falling it looks like he's distanced heaven forbid that's not the truth that's not the depth specifically as he's walking away from his spiritual world that's where he finds God he understood that it's there through the darkness in the darkness then he needs to get to an even higher level a deeper level a deeper relationship with hem to come close to and that was the very reason why the forces of evil are standing up and trying to block him now because he's about to enter into a higher level a deeper level a greater level of revelation and relationship that's what it continues and says it says that the sun had set so he decided to sleep in that place which means what does it mean that he decided to sleep in that place he accepted you know in our musall in our analogy what's this coming to teach us in along the lines of what we're saying that he accepted upon himself he was willing to endure the pain of the darkness which is the aspect of night and he slept there in his pain the Jew he's he gets exhausted by his desires and by the imagination and all these the the pullings of his of his his evil inclination he gets extinguished his his life force seems to go out which are the aspect as we said of this anger this aspect of the evil forces that are coming to stop him because he's moving on to a higher level but he doesn't give up he he realizes that he's got to go through this this is what it means that the sun had set the sun setting represents the fact that when a person goes to this place he enters into a place of Darkness so he loses his mind in a certain sense he loses his intellect there are certain aspects of his connection that seem to have disappeared when the forces of evil come upon a person and try to prevent him from doing good and and they overtake a person and draw him towards evil so his mind is not complete he's not completely his his intellect is not in control because the power of imagination which is in this in this respect the power of imagination is his is what draws him into his desires it's the counter Force for his intellect it's the it's the negative force in a certain sense like explains in tah 25th Torah see over there this is the idea of that which it says that the sun set tell us our sages tell us that the sun set early wasn't supposed to set yet which means that certainly the sun setting which represents that a person loses his intellect in a certain sense he lost that connection that he had before it was unusual it was out of character was untimely it didn't make sense that he should lose his mind so to speak he should lose his spiritual connection his intellect his control they should have such power you we look around in the world and it seems like it's it's doesn't make sense why are they so negative about Israel this is a democracy why are they so negative about the Jewish State and the in the media why it seems like all these forces of evil are so strong so but unreasonably strong but but this represents the fact that when it's unusual when it's strange when it comes at a person in such a way it wasn't really because had fallen he had done something wrong the forces of evil that was that were drawing him into a place of Darkness Drew him that Drew that draw the Israelite person the Jew to do something wrong those are happening it's clear that it's happening in a way which is weird which is strange which is not normal and this signifies the fact that he's supposed to move on to a new level so in the darkness itself in the very fact that the Sun is setting early and the Very fact that a person is drawn towards tyus in a way he's drawn towards these Desires in a way which is unnatural unusual doesn't it's not befitting of him it doesn't seem right doesn't seem appropriate doesn't seem like something that he would do but it happens why to signal to the person that he's about to go up to a higher level don't be tricked don't be fooled by the forces of evil don't be fooled by the media by by the by the by all of the negativity that surrounds the person don't be fooled by that this is the opportunity for growth to stand up to state that who we are what our kavana is where our where our direction is what we want what's important in life the spiritual world is important in life we are a Jewish State this is a Jewish country the homeland of the Jewish people people this is an opportunity to state that and then what happens what does he dreams and he sees this ladder he sees this ladder that it's sitting on the ground the the bottom of the ladder is sitting on the ground but the top goes all the way up to the heavens at that time they showed him that the entire the the the work of a person the service of God that a person has in this world his his purpose for being here is in this aspect that he's he's like a ladder which is sitting on the ground and the head is the top of it is going towards the heavens that he has to go from one level to another just like a person who's who's climbing up a ladder he goes from one level to another to another to another and this was the reason why yob understood the dream that it represented the fact that that the forces of evil are facing off with him are challenging him every time because of the fact that he's rising up he's going from one level to another and this is what it means when it says that the Angels were going up and down they were they were rising up and coming down who are the Angels who do they represent these are those who serve hasem who are involved in their spiritual life who are compared to Angels they were going up and down on this very [Music] ladder because all their rising and falling is in the aspect of this latter a person who is wise and believes the words of the righteous ones the teachers of the Jew people teaches us that when a person falls it's not really falling it's the opportunity for him to rise and it's it's really his he's it's because he's going up that he's falling so a person who believes that because it sounds counterintuitive and he strengthens himself and he and he works hard to overcome he rises up to a higher level and now the other side of it is person who doesn't strengthen himself doesn't believe the truth of this he can lose he can fall as a result of his fall he can fall further he can say to himself oh that's who I am oh that a that sin that I did that's who I am but that's wrong because that's not that's that's exactly the idea here is it's not really who the person is it's happening because he's moving up to a higher level and really it's an opportunity for growth now this piece keeps going I want to skip a little piece and I want to read you just one last thing from it because it's really powerful and it's the sum up of what we've been saying now this is what it means when it says aob awoke Jacob wakes up from his sleep he says God is really in this place I didn't realize it what does this mean when he awoke from his sleep and his pain right the sleeping represents the pain the danger the spiritual danger that a person faces off with that pain that he had when he awoke from it from the pain of of the forces of evil trying to overcome him that's what he said when he passed through to the other side and he regained his intellect so to speak his mind he got his wits about him he says he says yes God is in this place I didn't realize it because it seemed to me says in explaining what yob was saying it seemed to me is not there because the imaginings the force of evil wanted to confuse me as if is not here in the darkness they wanted to throw me down to make me fall further but how great is the kindness ofm who helped me to be able to stand up to be able to become a man until I was able to understand really is found in this place it wasn't really a fall they had only come the forces of evil came threw me down only why because I was moving up to a higher level and there was a chance for me to come even closer to God now the bottom line of this is that we Face challenges sometimes the challenges are saying a tremendous tremendous novelty that sometimes the challenge it seems like we have done something that we've done in a but is saying is saying a tremendous that sometimes it's not true it's not us of course we have a responsibility to make sure we don't do an AA but sometimes it's necessary to realize that that's not me it wasn't me I didn't do that thing it happened it came suddenly whatever however it happened but it's an opportunity for me to grow higher in my relationship with hasem to do chuva to repent to move on to realize that this is part of growing part of growing is that there's cyclings you know it says tell us the verse says seven times the person falls a sadic the righteous person falls seven times and he gets up this is all part the falling and the getting up the falling the getting up this is all part of our Hem of our cycle of of serving Hashem of coming into a relationship with with him should help us Hashem should help you please bless me that hasm should help me that we should all all we all Merit to be able to recognize that life is a ladder we're climbing up that ladder we're going from one level to the next and as we climb higher there's always darkness and the Darkness is there for us to walk through to strengthen ourselves to maintain our resolve in our commitment to Hashem and our commitment to our relationship with God and when we walk through it and we get to the other side we don't get down we don't allow ourselves to fall into depression darkness dark thoughts but hm should help us to be able to get to the other side of that cloud of Darkness to where we see the light and we see that it looked like we were falling but in in fact when we came out on the other side we had climbed up all the way to the top of the ladder thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabus this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.wag.com or search on iTunes Ari goldwag [Music]