Parshat Vayishlach: The Love of Esav by Rabbi Ari Kahn

again Rabbi tal is here we have to behave so that uh we end on time so what we're going to talk about today is uh and this is very predictable we're going to talk about [Music] yakob and Yakov after he hurt his hip was okay we're gonna we're g to talk we're going to talk about Yakov today and we're going to talk about asov today and it's it's the things that I'm going to say about ASV that are going to probably get you more upset especially if you're from Brooklyn or queens or so and I I understand that so let's let's begin so we we need perhaps a drop of background to remind us where we're up to and then that will help us also you know build the emotional part of the scene Yakov has run away at least 20 years ago I know I I know the various computations that perhaps there's more there's Missing Years once again whenever there's Missing Years then we put them in yiva that's what that's how we uh that's like the best that's the best Alibi right where were you I was learning where in the mirror okay how how in the what do you do that I mean again best Alibi ever unless they speak yish and the Mir means in the mirror I was right anyway the at least 20 years years quick math seven years for Leia seven years for raal actually seven years for raal twice and then another six years until he leaves so that gets you up to 20 years the last time we had seen asov asov was mumbling to himself actually internally doesn't even necessarily verbalize it was that he was going to kill Yakov Rifka takes it quite seriously and tells him run away and uh Escape go and uh you know give him a little bit of time and she stresses a little bit of time and as will Cal down and he'll forget about this I love that he'll forget about this you know right there when she says forget about it it's at that moment that you realize that that Rifka and love are brother and sister because it's uh I'm not going to explain again I don't I don't get upset of me also about what I say about Rifka but um we understand that it's not necessarily that he's going to calm down he's not necessarily going to forget about it and she says and I'll send it for you now the once again the thing which is haunting about where we are right now is that as far as we can tell Rifka has never sent for him which either means Rifka is not alive or it means that he has never calm down so we'll ju we'll just say it or both but we have no reason to believe that Asa has calm down even though many years have gone by and the one who apparently senses that is Yakov and everything about yakov's attitude facing this upcoming rendevu with his brother points to the fact that he is terrified points to the fact that he thinks that he's going to die it points the fact that the only question really will be how much collateral damage will there be and yet that apparently again that that I don't want to do I have to say apparently I'll say it just to make you happy there's any lawyers over here consumi what do you mean how can you prove this and so on apparently Yakov is uh incredibly concerned that he may not survive this although he does have something and he and he articulates that and that is that God has guaranteed and that everything's going to be okay and and he says that to God you guaranteed me everything's going to be okay but he even says maybe I'm not worthy of God's blessing maybe I'm not worthy of God's protection maybe something has changed over time so that that essentially is you know where we are at the beginning of the paraa and I'm going to now point out some things which maybe you have or maybe you haven't noticed and maybe you've thought about maybe you haven't thought about and if you haven't thought about it so that's why you paid money to come to the shear today because these things need to be pointed out and by the way full disclosure I don't see any of this money I don't know where it goes I think it goes I think it goes I think goes to the cookies so if you want better cookies you know anyway we're going to stop halfway through the p and yov sends emissaries you want to say Angels I'm fine Rashi stresses angels and Yo's life is full of angels there's Angels when he left there's Angels the middle of the par last week at the end of the parure there are angels there angels all over the place so if yakob was chilling with the angels so why not sell send an angel and again when he when he left the Angels going up and going down so he could have yo come here a second can you just do me a favor and go and talk to ASA for a minute it's a good idea to send an angel to asov because why not but he says someone to but but there was one other word there which I like a lot and it's not here every time it's used and it's something you need to pay attention to and maybe maybe even the most important word there and that is a to as his brother and after everything else is said and done that's part of what we need to remember they're not just brothers by marriage that they happen to have the same parents and their parents are married they're they're there is a complex relationship between the two of them but yakob sends messages to as of his brother now when you say as of his brother maybe even there's a hope there that this is my brother and there's something and he's going to respond as a brother and there's going to be some kind of some tenderness involved in all of this but I want to go to the second half of the P because it's easy for us to ignore this and we'll go we'll do take it from the top St ad and he sends the emissaries to the land and a place which called Edom you can start looking at the various commentaries midashim they say his name is adom his land is at Dome his food is at Dome and uh he how about this what was asa's favorite color okay so apparently it's and and that's what the midash says the midash also goes into some other detail on how he's going to fall but that's not that's not for us now now now now now this is so natural for us that of course ASV is a dome so he lives by a dome and ASV also and this also comes up again and again and therefore we're lulled into a lack of critical thinking when we look at all of this because now there's only one question that needs to be asked and that is where did Yakov run away from it's okay I'll remind you he ran away from be where is it that ASV was when he left left answer ASV was in Beva so how in the world does Yakov know that asov is no longer in beeva and as of now is in in so just full stop because that is something which is interesting and of course if you don't think critically instead of saying oh look how natural it is for him to be in this place you can say yeah that's very natural for him to be there except for one problem and that is that the geography is somewhat challenging because we have no idea when he went there we have no idea what he's doing there right now as of this point again Le let's let's recognize that at some point he's going to go there but we're not at that point yet so the and on top of all of that does Yakov despite everything that I just now said in the introduction does Yakov perhaps have any kind of information is there some kind of flow of information no no just hold on to all of that because we're not answering any questions right now and Yakov is interesting by saying my master as Yakov strategy apparently is such that that which he took from ASA which got ASA so upset was the BR which among other things says that you will be the master of your brother so yov apparently is trying to undo the sting of that or the opposite by the way because ASF can just oh you're calling me the master you're Mak him believe he didn't steal this and uh this could have gotten again if ASA is mad at you when somebody's really mad at you and wants to kill you there's nothing you can really do to calm them down because anything that you do is going to enrage them because people that want to kill you are generally very combustible and very easy to enrage so Yakov by doing this again I understand why he's doing that but nonetheless I'm just going to point out that it could just as easily backfire as it can work but nonetheless he says so now you see of course that he doubles down on this strategy in terms of again he's absolutely dealing with the point of contention and that point of contention is that BR that Yakov somehow kind of took sciously even though was designed for as and then he says as follows I was with Lan and I kind of got held back a bit now think a second and and I know lamarti and that's one of our favorite rashis I did see an article once that that was not in the original Rashi that somebody added it in at some point and I I I if you're interested you Google you can Google as well as I can but I do recall seeing that was not that was not part of the original authentic Rashi and somehow it entered at some point I don't know when or why as I said you can go looking for that and I was delayed till this point I want to go back to the to the narrative in the family and of course being our complex dysfunctional family we have multiple narratives but as far as the narrative which ASF would have heard from his father is that where's Yakov oh he went off to find a girl now generally dating does not necessarily take all that much time right so um I mean 20 years have gone by and again at least 20 years have gone by maybe the next 14 years or so but 20 years have gone by and you haven't heard from Yakov so therefore again has there been a flow of information going back and forth or not either way asov would should suspect at this point is that Yakov as a Yakov okay I'm going to make it sound happy a happy ending Yakov was yiva so what's the dream of every Yesa he founds a wealthy father-in-law and now he doesn't have to go to Yeshiva anymore no I'm sorry and now he can learn as much as he wants and uh and yakob is living with his father-in-law and uh and of course jakob's life was complex at home and now was equally complex where he goes to yakov's life is always complex but asa's perspective of yakov's Life which maybe you never think about that much where is he all of this time so again does he know that he ran away because he knows what ASA was thinking about killing him or is it that again the open way that it was stated in the family that Yakov went and to places known in order to find himself a wife and now Yakov has just not returned yet so apparently Yakov is staying there now that may be important far far more important than I think that's that we realize yet that asf's perspective of Yakov is that Yakov went and followed his wife's family and is staying there now there's another thing which is be behind all of this that maybe needs to be added and then this would become a little bit more intriguing and that is is that when it came for their father to find a wife then of course we recall that a would not let y go rather he sent his Evan to go and he said absolutely Yu cannot leave right you don't I don't want my son to go to this place and I'm not dealing with the larger issue could y leave Israel or not he doesn't want him to go back and to reverse the process and he wants y to stay here so the fact that Yakov goes and doesn't just send someone is itself interesting of course Yakov has to go because we know that there's other narrative in that is he's running away from asov but on the other hand there seems to be this other value which should have begun with and what's that value and that is that living in the land of Kanan a land that will one time become known as the land of Israel so therefore Yakov not living in Israel over all of these years that should be somewhat problematic so uh again if you were to ask ASA hold it where's your brother he's a ID right he left he's you know he filed the money he's living the good life which means again I'm going back to asa's perspective of yob so who's not feeling who is not following the values of the family is it ASA or is at Yakov so now now you can look at asa's mind you know Yakov is the one who supposedly was the good kid and always did the right thing although ASF may not believe that for a second because he knows Yakov again this is a complex relationship and where's Yakov so Yakov went and he's living someplace else now so now I want to come back again Yakov sends messages to ASV and stay ad down how in the world does he know that he's there okay he sends a message saying to him that you know your servant and so on my master and then by the way I've got a great deal of money now which by the way so now if you're if you're ASA again and you're listening to this are you more likely to say wow he married good and now he's got a lot of money or you more likely to say damn it he stole my Braha and now he has all of my stuff so by the way sending him a little bit amount of the stuff may not plate asov who thinks that all of it's belonging to him I'm going to say it again by somebody who's combustible and mad at you and wants to kill you anything that you do may do the opposite of what you think it may do and all of that is nothing because of the next either the Angels the emissaries whatever you prefer I you do realize okay I'm not gonna say I mean it makes more sense that it's uh well actually it all depends on how you see Yakov if you really look at that whole subtext of Angels in yakov's life could be Angels but if you think of things in terms of shot that it sounds much more that it's emissaries but either way they came back and they say B you like that it goes back to what yov had said in the beginning go to my brother so it's it's also it's really interesting that they're both stated because you only really need one of them exactly you only need one of them to say either your brother or as your brother as and he's also on the way to see you and he has 400 men with him which um I I don't I don't have to go any further right now to make some observations I mean if you want we could read one more P which then could tell you how Yakov understands this Yakov was absolutely terrified so let me remind you of something I know that some of you think that you're old but you don't remember World War I how many soldiers won World War I 38 I'm talking about the Four Kings against the five kings that was World War I and and uh and it was and it was and it was won by Abraham with 318 men they won that war how many people were there all together I have no idea by the way neither do you but I have no idea but asov just again just for comparison asov has more people with him right now he has 400 people that's more people than W World War I me people like useless statistics so why can't so h so that's that now we're getting to the next part of it so but there were two possibilities you see you skipped over and you turned it right into a question there would there were two possibilities but correct that's what you were supposed to ask there there are actually two possibilities one possibility is that ASV was already on the way and then you essentially have two parallel problems how does Yakov know where ASV is and how does as of know where Yakov is and essentially you maybe you'll come back to spy versus spy over here if you unfortunately know the reference so so then you know each each one has been keeping an eye on the other one and getting information whenever there's movement let me know when there's movement they all the movement and need again parallel situations which itself is interesting I uh I believe a year or two ago I brought you some late bizarre midash that claimed that lovan who had God told him you better not do anything bad to Yakov don't even say anything so Lovin sends a message to ASA and says listen I can't do anything but I thought you may be interested in knowing that Yakov is on the way and again that's that is there in order to explain this movement which is taking place on ASO the other possibility is and again I want you to read the words more carefully because I'm not convinced of this and maybe you can help me again I'm really I'm not convinced maybe that ASA doesn't start moving and collecting the 400 people until the messengers show up and they say yov sent this yakob sent this and then and then he mobilizes and then he starts moving so again read the words again because I'm really I'm not sure I I I always understood it the same way that you did before that he's ready on the Move I'm just not convinced you want to read it again yes so he's also on the way but again is that because of what happened just now because he got the message or was that something independent for isim the so yeah yob is completely terrified by all of this and um let's uh let's pause again as far as the the potential problem with as of being in this particular place in Source number two we move over to the next paric the next chapter and we have uh a couple of things which are really which we don't know what to do with and I I know that there are really okay we we have to back up a second part of the problem of my talking about ASA today is is that we have somewhat of a jist view of Asa and everything that he's going to do we're going to interpret this in a negative way why because apparently that's Jewish tradition and we like to look at ASV in a negative way and I've said in the past the reasons for this are multiple sometimes it's because of understanding of the biblical story sometimes because of ASV will later be identified with with Edom later it's because Edom is identified with Rome and later it's because and Rome is identified with Christianity and sometimes when the rabbis are speaking they're kind of putting all of this together and you have therefore collected thousands of years of difficulty with this particular identification and I'm not saying it's a hard identification we have difficulty with this character or characters or the way that it works out at the end so on the other hand when you read the verses themselves do you necessarily get to the same conclusion so I'm going to warn you now right just so prepare yourself for it maybe I should have put in the source yesterday already told you go to Mikvah beforehand purify your minds and bodies and souls I'm GNA say some nice things about ASV and most of the nice things I'm going to say about ASV I'm going to take I'm gonna you can accuse me of being guilty of cherry picking and uh and and taking them from commentaries who are going to read some of the things that we said in a positive way and and that's going to be somewhat perplexing for some of us uh on what on why we're being so positive of why we're being so positive over here about asov but the reason we're going to be positive is a very simple reason and that is because Asa said does some things how nice should we be that aren't necessarily bad certainly based on what we're expecting are therefore unexpected and let and let's read therefore Source number two when we finally get to the point of the of the confrontation notice till he comes to his brother again we keep pointing and as goes running towards him and he falls on his shoulder and he kisses him and he cries so so ju just stop right there for a second I know you're going to have a hard time with this and and I'll I'll say it again some of you were brought up in the midashim that ASA was trying to bite him and and so on if you look at the last source that I gave you the last source is from uh Mida which is which is the source that maybe even you'll see something interesting there Source 32 there's a certain type of Nik which is on top of those letters in the Torah R shim Bazar by the way shazar is's grandson right Rish shimun and his son El Lazar and then his grandson Rim Alazar the whole family father son and Grandson had interesting things to say about non-jews I'm just going to say this generally R Shimon okay we just again keep that in mind R Shimon I believe is the one who said that it's it's that as of yov as of hates yob so I said somewhat factiously that uh that's why is so nice because he heard of shim say it's a so he wants to go against the and that's why he's nice to him you can save that for po if you need to ums are there more letters or more dots what a nice I'm sorry I told you we're cherry-picking what a nice beautiful sentiment at that moment Ace of Sorry's brother his long lost brother his brother who he hasn't seen in many many years I'm not talking just the 20 years his brother who there's been all kinds of difficulty and when it comes down to it you know what family is family and this is his brother and buy guns and let's just forget everything else at that moment at that moment what does it say and again some of you some of you could be disappointed because you you were rooting for for the hunter you were rooting for the guy who's going to rip him apart and kill him and bite his neck and Blood and Guts and Gore and and those of you who like Dracula and so on could have gotten all excited from this and what ASF is doing instead according to this first opinion is it's it's total authentic and and it's beautiful whether you like it or not it continues and it says he goes yeah that's great then why do we need any there I hope you love the the way that they flip that around turn the K into a cuff he didn't come to kiss him he came to bite him say Rani what are you doing if the words want you to say he came to to bite him you know what the Torah could have done it could have written that he came to bite him which means he's essentially saying I don't trust ASV or for that matter I don't trust Roman I don't trust any of them I don't trust right if you're from Brooklyn right there's two kinds of non-jews those that are nice to you and those are not nice to you and you don't know who to be more afraid of right right the ones that not nice to you at least okay you know exactly what the score is the ones were nice to you that's Much More Much More frightening yes for a can't trust I don't trust who knows what's in the cane you you want me to get political you TR you trust all the uh all the evangelists that are uh supporting Israel I mean I could I I could say that my understanding of theology which they can say that I should only know Jewish theology but they've been claiming for a while they want to help Israel we should come and we should fight a war and we should bring Armageddon we should destroy one another and then Jesus will come back and everyone lives happily ever after I mean I don't necessarily trust them when they like us anyway I've said what I've said and I know there are lots of people who are on the payroll who do like them maybe if they paid me I'd like them I don't know anyway I still wouldn't trust them El so say no he came to bite him sh and miraculously his neck turned into marble the I hope you love what it just now said it just now turned as into the rash from the ha his teeth were blunted sh rash again you you almost can't miss this I sent this to somebody yesterday he goes how did all of my hag with all the commentaries miss this so I said I don't know how they missed it but but that's exactly what it's doing it's tur by the way you can say Yakov is the Tom right I told you a couple weeks ago somebody the same guy and he liked that I said okay okay you want yob to be the Tom here you have here you have as as the Russia why do they both cry yakob was crying because somebody bit his neck and that one was crying because his teeth were broken so and if you again if you love this med show P says more about you than it says about what happened in the so I'm going to say it again is that we have a we have a reunion which is actually a pretty tender reunion and now you really have to ask yourself another question as of is out of character or or because again I'm not going to White watch this as ASF does things which are not right when is ASF out of character are we going to build our whole understanding of ASO for the next you know till kingdom come we're already if we're already there are we going to are we going to base our understanding of Asa based on that one moment where he said to himself he didn't even articulate it that when my father is dead I'm going to kill my brother and by the way even think about that for a second when my father is dead I'm going to kill my brother there's even something respectful about that because by the way just a comparison the B ysf never sorry the B Yakov when they were dealing with Yosef never said when our father is dead we're going to take care of him rather let's kill him and let's see what we'll be with the dreams so it's interesting that uh that asov is actually in his inner mind in his now do you want to call this a fantasy is this is is this a plan or is this a fantasy his fantasy is when my father's dead I'm got to kill my brother and and again during the days of mourning for my father it's even nicer he even says it a nicer way that I'm letting on during the days of mourning for my father do you realize that in this articulation this actually it's a doubled aspect of K well I'm mourning for my father right then I'm going to kill I mean the the Jokers say that he doesn't want to sit shiver twice so when he's already sitting shiver for his father then he's going to kill Yakov doesn't want to because he doesn't want to sit shiver for for Yakov independently sitting for his father but that again you all realize that there are certain things which are serious and that's not that serious um excuse me when did we know yes he's still alive yeah because we're told how old he is he's still alive right now so know my my point is is that when Asa says this when my father when I'm warning for my father then yakob there's something respectful about that but he doesn't say that that's his inner thoughts come on I know you some of you have had worse inner thoughts no uh We're not gonna we're not we're not going to point fingers right now I'm just saying when you talk about somebody's inner thoughts and Fantasies and so on and so I'm going to and a phone right anyway so do I judge ASF on that thought of that moment and that's it that colors his entire life yeah ASF is basically a murderer that's all he is he just wants to murder people or say no at one point he had that thought and I know you don't like my question I know that you prefer him to always just to because we need bad people because we want to be the good people and the world of course is black and white so going back to SP vers is sp now right so so we we understand all of this and nonetheless as of's response is is not necessarily understandable two more things in this section um ASF say yakob tries to give him gifts and says I got a lot of you know I don't need this I don't you know you keep what's yours and I'll keep what's mine which means if we're wondering or worrying that ASV was all upset because of the BR and the stuff that yob has he says no he says can you all admit that there's something really tender about that uh about that as well my brother right you're noticing it the you keep you keep what's yours I got I got I I don't need I don't need the it's fine and then essentially ASV is coming and saying come let's let's go together let's go March off together and now again you have no idea what to do now again it's going to be very easy those of you who are paranoid can come up with a new you can write a new commentary to the Torah the paranoid individual's understanding of the Torah so part of it this will part of this will right just Channel all of your paranoia and the paranoia FIS Ju Just Channel all of your paranoia Now read it in say ah ASA wants to get him on the road come on ASA already his forign it's ASF is actually being tender in all of this which I think is why you're having a hard time with him the first indication was where he kisses him doesn't bite him he kisses him and he hugs and he cries and and the second one he goes no no my brother bro keep what's yours and then going a little bit further when he tells him uh come let's go together and then [Music] and yob then says no no I'll come to see you by I mean the AR the AR here saying know we look through the whole T we never found where yob actually kept his word on this particular uh thing you know no you go ahead I'll catch up everything slowing me down I'll catch up and Yakov then makes a right turn and actually from there yeah makes a right turn and ASF goes left um so we don't know to do either because he says come let's go together and then and as then returns he goes back to S and now I go back to my question from before um why isn't he why isn't he s at this point and again that doesn't bother you at all I know it doesn't bother you at all and then we get to Source number three Source number is that really Source yes Source number three you need to know first what's immediately prior to this this is per who Edom right asov is Edam and asov and he has various now I could have spent a lot more time in this chapter because it's not as easy as it sounds and kazal also go go to town on the relationships within the ASA family reading certain things between the lines essentially they find a lot of sorted behavior and a lot of illicit relations and a lot of nice not nice things to say about all of them but I'm interested actually in uh in one thing and that is where ASV is living at this particular point so let's just look through this quickly these are the generations of Asam and he says as so we knew he married local girls which was not supposed to do it gives you some names of them and he also married and so on and there's an emphasis on the the children from Canan the people who were Canan because I'm going to say it again part of the subtext is where are they supposed to be and all of this is still in Canan but meaning ASA is in the right place but the wrong women yakob is with the right women but in the wrong place so you just realize now that there really is something much more interesting taking place and by the way there there is there is the same verse by Yakov and these are the children born to Yakov in padanaram so you have an absolutely identical inverse can you have a verse which is an inverse of what it states over here and he leaves yov come back and he now goes and by the way again there is that emphasis in terms of again it didn't every you're going to have this every time say brother say say the name Yakov he goes because of yakov's brother now I know I'm gonna say it again I know that you're gonna have a hard time with me being nice but it sounds as if ASA is actually no thinking through you know as was cynically said I think it was Robert Frost and it wasn't a nice thing that good fences make good neighbors and uh over here Yak you know we're going to get along maybe we need a little bit of space between us but but there's something respectful and and and if I have to go back y gave the land of Israel to yob so therefore you know let me let me move away but that it's just so interesting there's no war there's no 400 people there's nothing else in t of goes they just had too much too much possessions to live together and they had so much flock that there was not a room for both of them which is absolutely amazing I mean how much flock but still as who ad so that's when we hear that ASV goes to Har but this is after Yakov comes back which means why was Yakov looking for him already in so that's what I'm saying is that the whole geography or Geographic subtext to this is not necessarily as easy as you think it is and then notice there was one and this was the ER Canan part of the story and then it tells a new story and it says and this is the told of asov in har ear so two different asov stories now are being told two different perspectives of geneal of the G genealogy of the family of the larger ASA family and the things which happen along the way in one place versus the other place and I'm going to say it again um it is so easy when you get to things like this in the Torah when you get to the lists of names and so on to completely ignore and just like read it over quick and just okay what did it say he had a couple kids okay and and just move on but no there's there's a lot more to that and again I just now pointed out a little of it that there's really two different stories there's as of being where he's may be supposed to be or maybe not supposed to be and that's where it gets complex is he a son of yuk maybe he should stay in in again the relationship is complex but there's something else which I which I skipped out over here and that is really the verse that comes immediately prior to this let me see if I can quickly find this look at source number nine K AR and you realize right there we have the same problem again what's that that when he left he left from so again how does he know that is there so we've had too many of these questions along the way okay so yob seems to know exactly where to find his father and he goes there a lot because he was 60 years old when yov and ASV were born which means they're 120 now so a couple years have gone byov bury him so that is the end of peram what's the bu beginning of peram source number three where it says that asov leaves which means when I going to go back to this fantasy of asov in terms of oh my father is dead I'm going to so what does he really do when his father's dead he leaves so so as as much as oh my father's dead I'm gonna kill yov but no during the time of mourning for his father he picks up and he leaves and now you have to just think about again asov again right what I just now said was very clear and of course you should be saying I should have thought about that right but but again we we we ignore the these sections of the Torah we don't pay attention at all it was a new chapter so who supposed to pay attention to a new chapter but none nonetheless there was something very really interesting and that is that asov stays in the land until Y is gone but on the other hand we know that he's already not there so apparently and if you want now we can Nuance this one way the other apparently ASA already started going to se so was his business there did he have a house there was one of his wives living there again you can everything I just now said you're going to find a commentary who's going to say that because essentially we have a problem we need to solve and what's he doing there because he didn't move there yet he didn't move there but he has Holdings over there he has interests over there he has some real estate over there and and and that itself is interesting that there's a process there's actually some battles that take place over there where asce of goes and captures and takes some things which there are those who want to read the 400 men within that context the 400 of okay now we're going to have to go back to have anything to do with yov but more so something to do with because I'm just trying to point out that we have a problem and our problem is is why is as of being so nice when that is not necessarily the as of that we love and respect I'm going to say it again we we can easily find those who are going to interpret everything that ASV does as the opposite of what it says or give really a terrible intention in everything that he does and again didn't come to kiss he came to bite that was the most again that was perfect in terms of uh of getting an example of this but on the other hand the the the evidence of the Yakov as of relationship is not as negative as some of us think that they are and I'll even go one step further asab is supposed to be this tough guy this Hunter and he goes out to the field and when he talks to Yakov he's able to be very vulnerable to Yakov and there I need you I need I need you to help me I can't do everything which means is Asa able to to be vulnerable to other people or not which again even that early early scene with the and then yov turns around and says okay so give me the Bor but it's I'm not talking about yakov's action yakov's Behavior Justified not is that's part of what his mother told him or not I'm going to one point and that is asov is vulnerable when he is speaking to Yakov and against that sense of vulnerability we never see in any other conversation and asov and yakob again from asa's perspective the relationship is a lot more tender than any of us ever imagined and I said I know I can I'm G to upset people when I say this but you know what do you want me to do let's look at the let's look at some of the evidence over here so Le let's try to look at a couple of commentaries and then there are some things that I hopefully can point out and we can get to some kind of uh conclusion look at look at going back Source number four that gives you everything is read about him and so on and then also talks about the fall of as of in the future he's trying to figure out the geography hold it a second where exactly is this place and where did he go to I'm going to leave it because a number of people try to figure out the geography of this and that's of less concern SCE six the r again yob sends messes ear so theak what you realize Rak he learned the whole para okay good the Rak knows everything that I just now showed you and he knows he doesn't live there yet so what's he doing there yov heard that he's there that he goes there a little bit only later is he going to move there completely but he's got some interests in this place but again you realize now that theak is dealing with a problem that didn't bother us at all till we realize that there's actually a problem over here Source number seven same as we saw in the red do that he says that he heard he heard a rumor that he must be there but we know he didn't move there yet the ramban in Source number eight is good it's important but we're not going to read it he also has some khaka messages at the end so you can you you you should feel free to look at that whenever you want he also goes into some of the geography Source number 10 is that verse that I cited before where it says that as ASA hated Yakov Al brother it doesn't say hated but so you have to be careful because we can just decide especially course the rest of it yov by the way even there yov and that should be much more disturbing I'm going to kill my brother yob but but again how many how many of you ever said to your siblings don't tell me the answer how many you ever said to you even better how many of you have thought this about your siblings I'm going to kill him and uh and again should we color the entire relationship based upon that but again even there you have that emphasis Yakov and I'm going to say it again if you were all really sure about the relationship before we started today I hope you're not as sure now as you were you were as you were before in s 11 and there are other of the go in this direction as well and that's part of the and that's part of the complication here says that he actually he married well and he married somebody who had real estate out out outside and therefore what is as of doing there he's going to collect some of his real estate by the way that then now makes Yakov and asov a little bit more parallel and a little bit more interesting but nonetheless we know that what Yakov did so we let's let's continue the the MOs canum and again various BOS would go in the same in the same kind of Direction um look at the end of the mosum 12 two lines from the bottom so he went to war which means why does he have the 400 men because he just now went to war to capture these places because again there is some kind of an interest in the real estate on that side and that's why this and that's why this war people which is fascinating he's not reading the 400 people oh in order to threaten yakob why not because we always read it as a threat to yakob Yakov reads it as a threat to yakob why doesn't he read it that way because he knows that when he gets there he starts hugging and kissing him so now either Asa has a change of heart which I think is the way that all of us read it before we got here and he's saiding what change of heart the forign have nothing to do with Yakov now by the way it's going to get worse some of the commentar and they start telling us what is going on over here now what he that the forance because no he he went to war to capture the the capture C ear this why they going okay so so we didn't tell you he goes that's why they're with him but this has nothing to do one second it's going to get better in a moment Rashi now this is Rashi 14 I'm gonna go with you now this could either be as equals now I say it's equals I could be accused of overstating this and I am what as yov says as say walk together as these throw me down so I'll go with you I'm going to go the same speed as you what whatever you need I'm there for you which means I don't have to really say as equals and overstated but ASA is saying I'm there for you that's what he's saying you're going slow so I'll go slow I'm not I'm not in a rush because say add on which you won't like because that's how you treat families go to 16 back to the radak the radak already you know taken us halfway before he went again he used to go there occasionally before yov came now he moves so he's actually saying that why does leave the one thing we know about asov even before I started to what's that he has what was the BR that that the father gave toov now you that of the land of Israel land of Canan now you have every reason in the world if you're ASAP to say do I care what my father BR he gave he stole my BR I'm gonna honor his BR and that's why the radak is fascinating says yeah yeah asov honors respects his father even after his father passes away his father passes away and therefore he goes then he goes in we're told don't go and attack asov right because I gave ASV har ear so it just now suggested that maybe his father told him I'll go to Hara ear that's where he that's your place or it said did you see what it just now said that maybe God said prophetically to asov this is where you should live come on that's that's just absolutely great that now now now ASA is getting new now again and now again I I've previously played with the idea that just like ABI melik gets a warning at night and just like and just Lovin gets a warning at night maybe the reason why ASA is so nice because he gets a warning at night but that's not the same as calling this as Ana and it's not the same thinging don't do anything to Yakov that's saying this is the place that you should be but you just see the radak is again willing to go in all kinds of ways to explain this the rush B in 17 is justifying himself why was I away all of this time because I was following my mother and father's commands so I hope that the rajam just blew you away do you realize what he said and where he's saying it you didn't because I did it too fast so I'll do it a little slower this is when he sent the very beginning where we started he sent the malim and they come back and say ASA is on the way the 400 men and yov was completely terrified how did he explain it we sent the 400 men told him you're coming and he was overjoyed to find out that you're coming home and because he's so happy that you're coming because you're coming and he loves you he's bringing the whole marching band he's bringing all these people in order to rent in order to honor you on your returning to the land of Israel to make this so you say and and by the way it's not enough that R bam says that what does he say he goes That's Pat now what convinced to sayat and and I say this all the time what ISAT is a contextual understanding of the Torah what is sometimes the question how broad your canvas is the rashbam Apparently is reading the entire chapter together and what happens next is ASF comes over Droid so rather than saying oh miraculously at that moment he's overjoyed and goes running to kiss him not to bite him you say no already immediately he hears yakov's coming back he's good he's happy and so on but on the other hand what about yob whooh me he didn't believe it yob again now all the amateur psychologists can say that yakov's got some guilt and yakob can't believe it and yakov's still afraid but the the rash bom is great Ram just now said that there's a again like all the time there's this lack of communication between the two to and asov loves Yakov good those words you were never thinking you'd see or hear asov loves Yakov and Yakov is afraid of as so the rasham says this you look at the ran in [Music] 18 that his again same approach as the rashan that as says I'm going to go with you because he wanted to honor Yakov upon his return to Israel give him a proper honorable what do you want to call this this this whole Entourage ISM go out and honor yakob as he comes back in um in Source 19 that was there I'm B just now Source 19 is one of our favorite especially growing up in Brooklyn and Bensonhurst this is rakov sili rakov sili is generally translated as rakov the Sicilian right he's from sic right and he's a student of the Raja who's a student of the raban so what we just now read in the ramban it's the same tradition he went to gather people together because out of love and admiration and concern that ASA is coming to yob and again that's what he saying is that what's theot he goes the continuation story tells you this why so instead of saying that there was a change of heart along the way what is he saying that no this is the this is the same story and he and he continues going along in the same direction again how many more people do you want me to show you who say this in Source number 20 you have says it and uh and we we have we we have a lot more um Source 20 you have what's is that I'm going to be there for you and I'm going to be somebody what does it say so again I apologize for all of the positive but they're saying read what it says over here read what's going on and there seems to be this incred now there's something here that I still need to explain give me a couple seconds and I will still explain it in Source 21 he also goes he goes no they should go together like as old friends want to travel together and we're g to tell over stories and we're going to recall the past and we're going to have again we're going to have a great time together and this is not I'm going say what what you expecting and therefore the traveling is not g to be so difficult that old friends traveling together we you know just takes away some of the angst of of travel and that's what he's he's suggesting again yakob actually had a couple of wives over here he had other people but he's saying still the intent over here was one of this type of friendship and love and admiration that I think we kind of uh never suspect it was going to be the case the the says this in 22 as well he wanted to show him all the honor in the world so now yakob is still worried and ASV is just ASV just completely melts why because is home and uh and and and he and he's missed him and is that enough for now that's enough for now now are there other ways to read everything I've read today yes are there other midashim yes I think you probably were surprised at the Quality and the quantity of the commentators that I brought just now F if only wor one Sicilian you wouldn't have trusted him anyway but but but come on the radak and the rashbam and the ran and so on come on it's it really and even Rashi as well and the and and the NV now I I want to now try to explain what happened because Yakov rebuffs this and Yakov says no you go ahead I'll catch up and as I said we never see them catching up and I want to explain what happened and so the question is I reading the other sources Source 2425 should we keep on going source 24 26 27 28 29 all say the same thing they all say the same thing and what's interesting is none of them quote the other and they all make it sound like they just now discovered America and it's interesting but they all say the same thing it goes down to this something we've seen before and that is what exactly was yit thinking and I'm going to explain why I'm saying this what was y thinking again he knows as is as he knows yov is yov so I told you where do we want you want to start with theat no notice is 1847 to 1905 so he's relatively later in terms of the commentaries over here and he says that rather these two brot is what he's thinking of is that they're supposed to end up being like Y and Zan that the two of them are supposed to work together and that's what and that's exactly what it is that if right where it gets bold in the middle there that was the idea and that phrase of understanding that there is a there is an there is a so I said the says that's what y was thinking if you look at rars in Source 25 you'll find that he says the exact same thing at some point and I and I cut this down there's a lot more which is which is interesting in uh in but again I just want to get that particular line sorry too many pages here yeah where he says the again he says the exact same thing about that they were supposed to be like so as I said he says the same thing he also adds maybe it's supposed to be like sh so he uses two different models but he goes in that same direction the S by the way we're going backwards now one second we 25 did I skip somebody there where did I have the 26 26 was the yeah sorry that was the malum saying that I just now quoted the malum says that malum 189 1879 which is really the same as R her H so of Hersh also uses the same I just have to quickly scan but he uses the same formulation as well he also says that they would be like that they would be like andan and that's exactly what he was thinking so we got past the Mal is a little bit earlier if you look in the second par so you look 28 we've gone back again it's hard to say depends this is rebi Nan from brass love the students so if he got it from then it goes back even further and he and he says the same thing over here that they were supposed to be and so on same thing he reads it as yov and as he says a little bit more which takes it into theic realm um I don't know who the first one who said it as I said a whole bunch of people going from the in the 1800s 1900s it's like everybody is saying but nobody's quoting anybody else which I think it once it was out there everybody sees it as obvious I don't know how early I can go looking for and find it now full stop I assume this is correct I assume that all these commentaries are correct and therefore asov who honors his father internalizes this message that this is the way things are supposed to be that that the two of us are supposed to work together and therefore he says come let's go together but Yakov has internalized something else and what was that that was the message you got from the mother and what was the dream that you got at the very beginning of the story that these are going to be two separate Nations right they two separate Nations and if they're two separate Nations then we don't do this together we do this separately so therefore Yakov even though ASA comes with all the love in the world and then says come let's join forces Yakov knows that's not the way that the story ends that's not the way that it works out and they says no I'll catch up with you which by the way the midashim do take that as end of days one day we're going to work one day we'll work this out and even the like to say that Y is he will laugh the future y sees the future he sees the way there will be at the end of days yeah Christianity will come Rome will come back Edam will come back and try to uh take yakov's hands and walk together that's the nicer way of reading uh of reading all of that on the on on the other hand ASV seems to only hold on to his father's dream as long his father's alive and once his father's alive then I think the pressure comes off him and they no longer has to adopt this and then the fantasy of the momentary fantasy perhaps of when my father's dead I'll kill my brother changes to my father's dead no I can leave and he already started building his business there he already started doing things there he's already inse year beforehand but now with his father no longer alive and again I can see that as even having a positive side to it well this is also my father's dream my father also said L is to yakob I'm going to respect yakob but it's convenient when the prophecy has you do something which you want to do anyway because we see long before this before Yakov got there asov was already trying to leave so therefore we may even have that asov finds license in yakov's Behavior if yakob lives with his father-in-law all these years and goes outside land and so on so then ASF can also do the same thing especially since the land was given and so on at the end of the day I think that the relation Yakov and ASA is a little more complicated than it was before we started today okay I think that that's that's what's interesting and I think that as of and everything we saw today there is an ability of reading it in a positive way not that there was some secret plan over here to do something terrible quite the opposite and by doing this in essence what Yakov is doing sorry in essence what ASA is doing he's doing exactly what all these commentaries senses what y believed is that he's supposed to be the one who's working together with and providing with and taking care of his brother which means we could perhaps from asf's behavior in this week's paraa understand exactly what it was that y had wanted from asov because now he's trying to live up to it something that we had never seen before and rather than questioning his motives or questioning his behavior no this is y's pulling the strings and Ace of Behaving the way that he always believed but there's one stronger point that we all forgot and what's that and that is that Rifka had a prophecy and that's not the way that this works out the way that it works out is that not one nation and y's dream of them working together does not actually come to fruition and rather the BR that gives to yov that this land will be yours and the BR of ABR is yours that's the part from Y which survives and therefore we receive this Prophecy from Rifka and this blessing from Y and that takes us to the end of this partion