Unwanted Blessings (Vayeitzei & Vayishlach) - Tehila Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

hi guys hi everyone can you hear me good yeah absolutely okay so so great to see everybody uh so this week we're coming upon Vish and we're kind of finishing up this episode of The Cosmic uh showdowns between Yakov and ASV so I want to kind of tie together and take a step back we've been looking at this in the past couple weeks from all different angles I want to kind of take a step back and try to understand understand sort of what this whole story is about kind of what do we walk away with at the end of this at the end of this sort of uh Bight and then reconciliation between yakob and ASV so you know there's so much that we talked about about the blessings and stealing the blessings and who's the firstborn and who's going to get which blessing um there there there's blessings and then there's like consolation prize blessings what's what's actually going on here so when you go back and you read the portion of too carefully you see there are actually two distinct mini story lines that are tied together each one of them could conceptually actually stand alone like imagine this the story could have been easily ASA was out hunting he got hungry traded his soup now he's not the firstborn anymore his parents hate his wives and then they send Yakov to get married in Khan and they give him a blessing and he lives happily ever after right that story just standing alone would have worked just fine now um you know you don't you don't need even the story of the stealing the blessings to explain anything the story would have been fine then you could tell a totally different story you could have told a story like this Rifka loved yob Yak loved asov she hears that Y is gonna bless asov yakob steals the blessings asov gets so mad Rifka sends him away and he leaves that would have also been a totally sensible story that would have all made sense and then yakob ends up in in kharan and with Lavan and that the whole story would have worked it's like there are two parallel stories taking place what are the it's like two distinct lines of blessing that each one of them has its own characteristics so if we actually break it down I think that when we read carefully what we see is that there's a real distinction between the blessing which is called the braa and the first born ship which is called the Bor the Bor the first born ship is the spiritual mantle that is the lineage of Abraham going down through the generations now there there's another blessing here that it's called throughout the par of the braa the blessing which is primarily of physical abundance now how do I know this because when ASA takes the soup he says I'm going to die why do I need this firstborn friend ship now if that was referring to some sort of blessing of physical abundance then of course ASA would have wanted it do you know how much soup you could buy with physical abundance but obviously he's saying I want soup I want physical things what do I need this spiritual thing that I don't really understand I'm gonna die it doesn't mean he's gonna die at that moment I'm just a physical being I'm going to die why do I need spiritual Promises of things I'm not ever going to even live to see or ever enjoy and secondly later when he's crying after he realizes that his father blessed Yakov and not him he says he's crying and he goes Yakov tricked me twice first he took my B my first born ship and now he's taking my braa my blessing meaning asov himself sees that there are two distinct things that are being taken from him now the real tragedy is perhaps there was just a misunderstand standing here and we spoke about this last week between Rifka and yit that just tears everything apart um you know he he Yak himself doesn't actually seem to be confused he seems to see each son for his strengths and weaknesses it doesn't seem in the story that he was actually ever planning on giving the spiritual lineage of Abraham to ASAP he says I want to bless you before I die and the blessing that he gives to Jacob thinking that he's ASA was really the blessing of abundance he recognized that that was what asov that was his strength that was his interest in the world that's where he would he he would do well to flourish in physical existence in physical abundance now it could be that right after that he was planning on calling Yakov right in and giving him the blessing that works to his strength the spiritual lineage of Abraham but Rifka jumped the gun she was so scared that the wrong blessing would be given to the wrong person that she takes matters into her own hands she doesn't actually open it up with Yu and talks to him she sends Yakov to steal the blessing and now it's so tragic because that causes this massive anger which leads to this Cascade of betrayal in the family having such a you know such a such a difficult Journey so what ends up happening is that Yakov ends up doubling down on blessings that yak didn't actually intend to give him now when we jump forward to our portion of Vish and they're coming to have this meeting as Yakov is coming back to the land we see this ceremonial giving of these gifts and marching all of the children to Bow seven times what is that about so what I want to suggest is that Yakov is actually doing something that's very profound perhaps he's actually trying to roll back the stealing of the blessings because if we look at the blessings that Yakov took the ones that were intended to go to asov the blessing really only has two elements if we look at it carefully he says God is going to give you the de of the heavens and the fat of the land and an abundance of grain and wine and people are going to serve you nations are going to bow down to you there are two main elements one is having physical abundance and one is having domination domination over everyone else now when we look at the blessing intended for yov the blessing that y gives him when he leaves the one that can be referred to as the B the first born ship it's also really specific it's almost identical and reminiscent of the Covenant that Hashem made with Abraham at the time of the circumcision what was the blessing that Hashem gave Abraham at the time of the circumcision it's the exact same thing almost that yak says to yakob it has essentially only three elements it says I'm going to make you fruit F have Nations and kings that come from okay so you're going to be fruitful there's going to be a covenant an Everlasting Covenant to be your God and I will give you the entire land of Canan there are three elements now what is glaringly missing what's glaringly missing it's really noticeable that there's no promise of wealth and abundance and there's no promise that you're always going to dominate other people on the contrary right when Hashem gives makes the Covenant between the parts the Bim Hashem says hey guess what Abraham some bad news your children are going to be slaves meaning Hashem deliberately does not promise Abraham abundance or that he will dominate everyone else and it says it also doesn't say that any of these blessings are unconditional they're covenantal Hashem promised Abraham these three blessings but he also said you have to do things you know for me you have to walk before me you have to be perfect and I'll bless you but it's not obvious that these two blessings that yak wanted to give his sons are compatible with each other Hashem deliberately did not include material blessing and domination in the abrahamic blessing that was passed down to yok and then to yakob now yok understood that these two blessings are not necessarily able to kind of be together in in one person he knew which one was most appropriate for each son but Yakov ends up taking it all not necessarily on purpose that's why ASA is so devastated because he says you took everything you took everything now the fact that Yakov gets both of these blessings led to so much ra rage and sorrow and breakdown in the family and now when they're finally meeting up what happens Yakov first of all gives him a whole bunch of his stuff that he's amassed he's given he's giving him his a pretty dramatic chunk of wealth like he's symbolically handing back over to him the first element of his father's blessing which was you're going to be really wealthy and have this uh this tremendous physical abundance and then what is the second thing that they do they have this cere monial bowing again and again all these bowings what are these bowings supposed to be about well if we go back to the blessing what was the Bowing the Bowing is so like hyper emphasized that the midash actually says that for each bow there's gonna be another subjugation to Rome because it's so strange that there's so much bowing why is it saying couldn't it just say they bowed why does each group individually have to be described as bowing well it only seems strange until you think back to the blessing because the first part was material abundance and the second part of the blessing was that you'll have domination that everyone will bow down to you the other descendants of of your this says your mother's children all the other descendants of your parents are going to bow down to you you the receiver of the blessing that was the blessing that was given to Yakov instead of Asa you even see it in the wordings when you look at these gifts throughout the time that Yakov is preparing these gifts to give to ASV they're always called a a gift but when ASV says don't worry brother I don't need it I have plenty yes Ro I have plenty he says please take he doesn't say please take my gifts look carefully he says please take my blessing please take my blessing there's nowhere else where these gifts are called a blessing until they're actually in this conversation and ASA says please take my blessing it's like don't think I'm trying to give you just a gift that's a you know a a sweet little like you know hi Jester I'm giving it to you as a relinquishing of the blessing in case you didn't notice what I was doing and this conversation that they have at that moment in time is so profound because what does ASA say he says yes Ro I have much much is a word that we would use when we're referring to something physical that can be counted Yakov says in response to that yes Co I have everything what does it mean to have everything I have The Blessing of Abraham the only other person in the Torah who is described as being blessed with everything is aaham so it's like if you haven't picked it up until now he's saying yes I have all of this material abundance I have much Yakov says it's okay you keep your much because I have Co I have everything I have Abraham's blessing and everybody ends up getting exactly what they need Abraham and yakob experience this blessing of everything what is this blessing of everything what's the difference between having much and having everything well when you have everything everything includes the blessings and the hardships in their lives they're integrated they're integrated you have everything they live to live in an abrahamic Covenant in an in an in an Isaac and a Jacob Covenant is to integrate into your personality into your relationship with Hashem this holistic existence that accepts the good and the bad as a part of this wholeness of life and then if we look historically like the reality of this speaks for itself his even in their old lives if you look before this meeting Yakov actually was generating unbelievable wealth when he was living in L on as long as he was bearing this original blessing that was meant for asov his flock just grows and grows and the Sheep are having unreasonable amount of speckled Little Speckled little guys for him to take and he's doing amazing look what happens after the encounter with Asa we just see that doesn't actually have that much after that when he sends the brothers down to Egypt twice it says go down to Egypt to get food from who they didn't know was Joseph but from you know from from from Egypt he says so we don't die of starvation forget about abundance they're just trying to stay alive now on the other hand at the end of the paraa of Vish our coming paraa this week is this long long list of kings and kingdoms that spring forth from asov it says that before there was even a Kingdom of Israel all of these Kings were extending from ASV meaning they were a super developed Society in terms of their material existence while we were slaves in Egypt ASA already had full-blown kingdoms it's like showing you that the proof is in the pudding the peace was made between them by setting things right as they should have been giving the blessing to asov and the first born ship to yakob and then throughout all of our history you can see this as well because you can hardly say that the Jewish people have lived off the fat of the land and that everyone bowed down to us like historically speaking Abraham's bre blessing is precisely what we got we had continuity of generations continuity of a relationship with Hashem and a piece of land can you think of any other nation that can trace a continuous lineage going back thousands of years that have practiced one religion for thousands of years and have been connected to one little geographical location for thousands of years it's precisely that very Blessing of Abraham that came true in the shat we say if you listen to The Commandments then you'll have rain we don't have any kind of unconditional promise for abundance we have unconditional promise of relationship and you know the Torah is packed with blessings and curses that come onto us like it could be amazing or it could be Beyond horrible when you live in a covenant with Hashem that has a conversation where you actually live your life in in in in connection with Hashem and look at asov who symbolically represents the Roman Empire in the western world you can see precisely his Blessing coming into reality the whole world was dominated by Rome the whole world is dominated by Western culture and this tremendous materialism and consumerism and abundance that have come with that that all seem really unconditional and irrespective of their spiritual stature you don't really see the economy dramatically changing in Western culture as uh let's say spirituality has declined what's dramatic about this reading is that these blessings I think are essentially putting before every person a choice between two paths that are not really compatible at their core yakob is saying this is your blessing I want my blessing I want a life and and think about the courage that that takes because what he's doing is he's voluntarily letting go of a promise of a good life in favor of a promise of a life that will have everything the good and the bad but it'll be a relationship and that's terrifying he voluntarily lets go of that that his he he takes upon himself Covenant instead of peace and quiet and you know there was a pivotal moment in my life I've probably mentioned this a million times with my friend Lisa I said how did you find your spiritual path in life she's an amazing person she said you know one day I said God please correct me I want to be good if I step off the path take a swack at me and I was blown away by this courage of preferring relationship and goodness over just just having things be okay to just be able to say to actually say to Hashem I want to get what I deserve I don't want to get what I want I want to get what I need I want reality to be reflective of where I am spiritually and I'll bear the burden of everything that that entails yesterday one of uh one of our kids Jeremy I didn't even tell you this story uh she had a sleepover with their friends and I told them that they could watch one movie and they ended up staying very late after I'd already fallen asleep and they watched two movies which was really not okay and she said to me EMA you should you know you should give me a punishment you should take you know take this or that privilege away from me because I didn't control myself and I was actually more proud of that than if she had controlled herself to begin with because she basically was saying I am willing to accept upon myself the corrections that I need in order to develop self-control that's better than being a person who was just born naturally having self-control she's willing to be in a conversation with me where her material privileges are reflective of what she needs and what she deserves and not just what she wants and so you know they say be careful what you wish for because you just might get it I think that is really the message here of these pares are you willing to give up your material comfort for a relationship with Hashem and say I want to be in conversation you sometimes our kids will have friends over that don't behave so nicely and I'll let them get away with it and if my kids aren't behaving then I'm like hey I laid down the law and they'll be like well you know my you didn't you didn't tell my friend to clean up his mess and to stop having a tantrum and I say yeah but it's because I don't love them so much I love you that's why I work so hard for you to be good those guys those kids are somebody else's problem so the Torah holds us up you know these two possible paths it's for every society for every you know every nation But ultimately for every individual there's one path that leads to Rome that leads to mount the ear and there's another path that's the path to Jerusalem there's one path where you can have much that's not bad per se it just means that you're going to seek comfort and safety and and and happiness and then there's another path that leads you to everything that's the everything that's the everything of Abraham because everything is going to be thrown at you to make sure you become who you can become and do you want to voluntarily go on that road to goodness to meaning to growth to Jerusalem to the blessing of Aram so with that I wish you guys a beautiful blessed week