Vayishlach - Space Within Constriction

you're listening to the weekly para podcast recorded with hashem's never ending assistance in 2014 this week's para is and we find in this week's para the face off between yob between Jacob his brother asov Esau isov was coming out with 400 people in order to attack yob to attack Jacob and yobu responds with a number of different tactics and from these tactics there's much to learn i' like to share with you a beautiful piece two actually two pieces from from Ras where he uses the ideas that we see from yobu in order to teach us a very powerful lesson one of the things that yobu did was that he sent this D he sent this gift to ASV and here I I'll read you the P inside the verse says in ch 32: number of different types of animals that were sent goats and sheep Etc all these different animals he gives it over to the hands of his servants each one guests his own group of animals what you should do is you should go in front of me you should pass before me and there should be space between the different groups of animals so each group had its slave or its person who was connected to it and Y was sending it in such a way there was space between them and this way it would seem like an even larger gift nowas speaks and tells us what is the teaching here of this space between what does that teach us so I'd like to read it for you inside sometimes says sometimes a person goes through difficulties goes through pain so his mind becomes confused forbid and it seems to him as if the whole world has fallen upon him and it seems to him as if all of the difficulties and the challenges have gathered and come upon him at once heaven forbid without any space and as a result of this type of thinking so his heart becomes bent away pushed away from hem and he'll find it difficult to properly D and to pray to call out to God and ask for help and the result of this can be that indeed heaven forbid the the difficulties can get worse and they can call because the more that a person is drawn after his pain so then that pain is drawn after him meaning it's it's a cycle person allows it to get to him so then it gets worse it's so important for a person to place to give himself space to find the place of breath of of of largess within the difficulty within the constriction to find the expansion and to give thanks to God for for the good that he has at all times even when it's challenging every single constricted place also has an expanded place every difficulty also has something where shows kindness in the aspect of the verse which say in the constriction you made an expansion it's a verse in King David says this this is the concept of that which we just read in the verse which says that there's there was necessary for yakob to place a space between these groups of animals neverov that it says by Jacob that our sages say that this entire story of Jakob of Jacob it's all a a a hint an analogy besides for the simple the simple understanding of the verse but it's also all an analogy for the Jewish people for the for the the challenges the Exiles by placing a space between the animals between these groups of animals so Jacob was coming to to hint to the fact that it was necessary and important and that there would be he was setting a precedent so to speak that there would be space between the challenges and the Exiles now what happens is through this by giving oneself Space by looking for the good within the challenge and every person experiences challenges but every person is also able to find within the challenge that Hashem is hand hashem's hand is there within that so when it comes when it comes to this idea when we do this thing so it serves to to cause the kip the forces of evil which are called which are the of which are a reference to the aspect of the negative forces of Esau and to be subdued they represent in a general way all of the constrictions all the challenges all of the exil and they want to cause a person's heart to become Twisted as a time of constriction a time of challenge as if there's no hope forbid that this is an even greater constriction an even greater challenge an even greater difficulty more than the difficulty itself is the is the statement of the the statement of the forces of evil that there's no hope this is the aspect of what it says in the verse also it's this continuation of the verse which we quoted earlier from from from Psalms that there's this death there's this killing within a person I'm getting I'm getting constantly uh these negative statements are going on inside of my head where these force of evil are saying all day long where is your god and the verse says every single day my embarrassment is in front of me Etc but Jacob he started off this rectification by placing the space between these encampments these groups of animals such that even at a time of challenge of difficulty forbid that there would be a chance for a person to step back and to be able to look at the expansion and and the space that's between the challenges has done before before this difficulty before this Challenge and even in the challenge itself hasem is helping that person so so there's the past and there's the present even within this difficulty itself and through this by doing this by recognizing the good that he has experienced in the past by recognizing the good that exists even within the challenging situation that he faces so then he will enable himself to be able to call out indeed to be able to to dve and to pray and the result will be by using this Focus focusing in on the good focusing in on the expansion even within the constriction by doing so so then indeed it brings that expansion more into his life to the point where the challenge will be completely it will completely disappear so that's the first idea is this rev this space between Ador Jacob is facing off with asov he's facing this great Challenge and nevertheless he gives himself space he finds the r he finds the space he finds he finds the expansion within the construction now that's one point now a second point is that the verse says and it's in chapter 32: 22 sorry 23 and 24 it says who Jacob gets up in the middle of the night he takes his wives he takes his 11 children he goes over he passes over this passageway he goes over the river and he takes them he brings them over the river and carries all of his stuff from one side of the river to the other now what's the idea of this passing over the river so points out that Rashi says something interesting that Jacob made himself like a bridge says what is the main aspect of a bridge to pass over in this world who EMS what is the gisher what is the bridge in this world is the aspect of Truth as we find that says that a person needs in order to get through this world he has to pass through a very narrow bridge the main thing is that a person not be afraid at all in order to Merit being able to pass over the bridge of this world it's through the concept of Truth like people say that if a person has truth person is honest so he can pass through this entire world because the main thing is truths because the signature of God as it were is ms's truth and God sealed Heaven and Earth with the aspect of Truth gracious in the beginning God created so those three words braim if you look at the last the the last letters of each of these three words it's the letters Al which are Ms truth so it represents the fact that is signature is the aspect of Truth this is the foundation of the entire world all the conf iions and all those that all those things that prevent a person from serving which the main aspect the main thing that a person finds as a challenge to his ability to serve Hashem is being overly intellectual the main way of overcoming that is through the concept of truth that the concept of Truth gives a person the proper direction to be able to pass through everything the verse says in Psalms in chapter 43 that King David asks of God send your light and your truth and they will guide me like the verse says it's also in in Psalms chapter 86 I will go in your truth because truth is the bridge of Holiness in the aspect of that which it says about Jacob it's the aspect of truth that he made himself like a g like a bridge it hints to the fact that the truth is a bridge it's that which gets a person through the bridge of construction of this world think about a bridge it's a narrow place that a person needs to pass from one side to the other in order to get from one side to the other you need to pass over let's say a river so in order to pass over this River this dangerous place he needs a guess or something to get him through that and that is saying is the concept of Ms the concept of Truth Jacob made himself like a bridge in order to save all of his things and in order to save it from this fear of night meaning the fear of the forces of evil and from the fear of Who coming out to greet him this is a general analogy to the concept of any challenges and fears difficulties those things that prevent him from serving hem a person has from those who hate him those who wish to prevent him within which the evil inclination encl himself is the aspect of as therefore Jacob gave a sign for his children the only way to get through all of this is through the attribute of Truth yob Jacob is the aspect the attribute of Truth so a person needs to access focus on what's really true what's really real which is the aspect of Jacob who MSS and he made himself like a bridge that with this power so person has the ability to get through this world all of his life pass through this very narrow bridge person can get through that without too much fear like we said so it comes out there are two concepts here that Ras is saying that we learn here from yov from Jacob the first is the aspect of giving oneself space of finding expansion within the challenge so one of the ways that he says to do that is by looking for the good looking at the good that a person has noticing that in the past Hashem has done so much good for me noticing that even within this challenge there are there are still aspects of expansion hashm is still showing himself to me even though it seems like Hashem is not here but I can see that Hashem is really here as well that's the first idea and the second idea is Ms that when a person wants to get through this world he wants to get through the challenges those things that want to prevent him from succeeding in the world from succeeding in from succeeding in his spiritual Quest so the way to do that is by accessing truth being honest what's it all really about what's life really about what do I really want what is my heart really say focusing in on the truth hasem should bless you and Hashem should bless me hashm should help us to be able to use these these tools able to recognize the good to see it in the past to see it in the present to see it no matter what our situation is hasm should help us to be able to access truth to be really real with ourselves and to be able to use this tool to be able to pass through the gisher the the very narrow bridge which is this world Hashem should help us to be able to get to the other side successfully to find our spiritual path and to be able to succeed in our relationship with Hashem thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabas 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