Eisav's Blessing "Living With The Parsha" Parshat Toldot 5777 Rabbi Breitowitz

yeah hi everybody I hope uh you're doing well and uh tonight we're going to look at para's toos uh but first I just want to uh talk in a more General sense because basically in last week's para we read about the death of Ismael and in this week's partial we are introduced to the nefar twin brother of Yakov that is ASV so I just want to offer a general comment from the vagon on the relationship of Isel and ASA we also know of course that ASA married a number of wives but some of his wives were the daughters of Ismael so there actually is aor a kind of connection between ASV and yishmael the Von says following idea which at first glance does not make a lot of sense genealogically we know that there are 70 Nations the UN has more but essentially there are 70 National groups and uh the and the Jewish people are often described as a we are like a lamb amidst these 70 wolves that want to destroy us in various ways the Von writes in his commentary to kumash that 35 of these nations are descended from Ismael and 35 of these nations are descended from ASF and therefore the primary enemies of the Jew is always ASV and yesel and the 70 nations are 3535 coming from ASV and yishmael now as a matter of genealogy this is simply an incorrect statement ASA and isma both come from Abraham we know that the 70 nations are specifically the Nations that come from and from Yus right there shame and ye so genealogically in fact none of the seven in fact as and yma are not even if you make a list of the 70 Nations they're not even on that list look at the end of par Noah they weren't born yet the 70 nations are The Offspring ofam and yees including Greece which comes from yees and uh Canan and M come from and uh other children of Shame other than the ab the abrahamic line so what does the Von mean when he says that the 70 Nations 50% are and 50% isma so one might suggest that he is not referring to actual geneological descent but he's referring to the spiritual nature of the enemies that tried to destroy the Jewish people and if we compare the nature of asov and yma we see the following asov represents at least symbolically a kind of hedonistic materialism that simply glorifies in the accomplishments of man and seeks to Simply put God out of the equation thus at the beginning of the para when Yakov uh when ASF comes back from the field hunting and ASV is very exhausted and ASF says I'm starving and yakob is making a uh lentil stew midweek cholent and asov says give me it to eat and yob says well I'll give it to you if you sell me your birth right your which is the right to uh be in charge of service it's not it's not exactly clear what that birth right is but it seems to be connected to a the Catholics used to have a tradition the oldest son had to be a priest and then the second son a fireman third son a policeman those were the those were the old Irish right those were the that's the fourth one those were the old Irish professions so so too before kohanim were chosen in the deserts the aod belonged to the B and yob bought it so what does ASA say asa's words are very telling behold I'm going to die why do I need a Birthright now the simple meaning is like somebody says I'm starving to death but the commentary say there's a deeper meaning there ASV basically says there is no life after death when I die I die all I have is this world and in this world eat drink and be married for tomorrow we will die so what do I need spirituality what do I need aod I want to enjoy life in that way so asov represents the notion of a hedonistic materialistic approach to life which focuses on on essentially pleasure so um asov is very much associated with the Catholic church and so for yes and they have a very strong idea of H for example and an after yes yes well it is very interesting obviously um things don't exist in their pure prototypes things get mixed and matched Christianity itself as you know is an amalgamation of pre-christian uh pantheism some Greek mystical uh religions and Judaism and they kind of in fact the man God as it were is really a motif that predates uh Jesus so the afterlife was kind of introduced but again I would I would point out that as Christianity has developed in the modern world B let's take for example uh very modern like the Church of England just take take one example essentially religion is used as a rubber stamp for whatever Western Civilization wants to do so really it's becom an irrelevancy in the sense that it has no impact on the political and moral decisions of that people that people make now ASV therefore represents the notion of getting rid of God either by explicitly non-belief or by belief that's relegated to in irrelevancy yesel the name Ismael God will listen represents a different tendency the tendency of taking God and utilizing him for immoral and corrupt purposes kind of a religious fanaticism that preaches hate and destruction so in the says 35 Nations come from ASA and 35 Nations come from Ismael he is making a symbolic point that the external oppression that the Jewish people are going to experience are going to come from two directions literally between being between being between a rock and a hard place on one hand we Face the nisson of Western hedonistic culture that is the trial of assimilation not an anti-Semitism that tries to kill us I won't I won't even call it anti-Semitism but the other way around become like us join with us become our brothers uh enjoy life and that is a m that is actually an illness that afflicts not only people who reject the Torah but even people who follow the Torah in which somebody once described the attitude of majority they that one might look at MIT as 6113 problems that you have to navigate around in order to do what you really want to do so thus we'll have the shabas texting now people try to invent texting on Shabbat as it were because God forbid I mean listen uh we only text now 246 I want to do a 24/7 how can I not text you know you know there's a phenomenon among teenagers in New Jersey that's called half Shabbat and like whatever whatever it would be that means I I keep everything except uh texting texting I do because you know that uh I can't control myself or whatever it is so one Nan is the nission of ASV which we'll look at as hedonistic materialism and secularism the other Nan is religious fanaticism that preaches the ethic of hate in one case God is ignored in the other case God is be smirched and degraded by being coopted into immorality and evil and therefore the vagon is suggesting again I 3535 I don't know if it breaks down exactly that way but he's suggesting that we're going to be buffeted through the course of our history with two types of problems the problem that says be like us and join us and the other enemies says we will destroy you and it it is very very interesting the bab rebby used to say and he had experienced both sides of this it was easier to be a Jew in Siberia than Suburbia because Siberia let's say was the galut of Oppression and sub Suburbia is the galut of assimilation and of course uh we're approaching Kaneka kekah in uh a little bit more than than a month and uh Kaneka is really the story of the enemy of assimilation because remember although Kaneka was in the Rea of a war but remember in many many ways antias from its purely secular although he was crazy but he was aaran schizophrenic and probably so but anas from the perspective of a secular Monarch was actually remarkably tolerant in some ways he was tolerant in the sense that if Jews were willing to assimilate to the prevailing mes they would be given the full rights of citizenship he was not a hitlerian anti-semite see that is the difference between khaka and por H did not care if you were religious or not religious hon was going to eradicate the Jewish people exactly as Hitler antias was exactly the opposite he didn't care if you were a Jew or not a Jew he just didn't want you to practice Judaism if you were willing to go along with the helenistic culture that would have been totally acceptable so kanaka represents the enemy of assimilation as opposed to porm that represents the enemy of physical extermination fact the commentary say that is why on kanaka I'm sorry onm there is a Mitzvah of a physical meal because onm the danger we faced was a physical danger there is no mitvah to celebrate by eating we we have of course Etc lus but there is no obligation to have a sud uh we celebrate by the spiritual exercise of light vanquishing Darkness because Kaneka it turned into a war only because we didn't assimilate but Kana was not intrinsically a physical threat khaka was a spiritual threat and that's why Kaneka is so relevant today because at least in most of the western world with some exceptions uh we are not facing the kind of of course in Israel we Face both but say in the United States and who know knows what will happen with the new Administration the primary threat that Jews historically have faced were the threat of assimilation now now of course with the rise of Islamic fundamentalism started here but spreading to the entire world we're going to see more of the is problem as well so we're going to have a combination of as and is so the thought I just wanted to share with you is that this idea that as we approach the coming of the we are going to be buffeted by as and that is The Rock and the hard place of hedonistic assimilation versus coopting the Divine for evil and hateful purposes ISM and is the idea of using God for nefarious purposes now there is a thought in cabalistic literature that's very hard to understand and it is hard to understand it's hard to explain but uh the analogy I will use in introducing the idea comes from physics which is equally hard to explain and that is uh a physicist will speak of matter and antimatter or a physicist will speak of something called Dark Matter you know dark matter is actually the most mysterious force in the universe dark matter is simply well actually we don't know what it is but it's it must be something because if you measure the total gravitational pull that can be detected in the universe it is many many many times greater than the total mass that we've been able to detect if you detect uh all the planets all the stars I don't I have no idea how they how they know any of this but uh what I read was if you calculate the mass of all the planets all the stars all the galaxies and then you measure the gravitational FL yeah it's amazing how they even measure all these things the gravitational pull is millions of times more powerful than the gravitational pull of all the measurable matter that exists so scientists have posited there must be something that is matter likee with gravitational pole that cannot be perceived or measured in any way and they give that the name Dark Matter so they have no idea what it is but it got to be there because otherwise we can't account for the gravitational pole so so too I would say that just as there is something called dark matter in the universe there is something called Dark spiritual energy in the universe and what that means is the commentaries tell us that those who Turn To God In Prayer even if they pray to be empowered to do bad things there is a certain power they have because they are connecting to the almighty it's almost a form of black magic in a sense it's hard to understand and therefore the midr make the point these are midr much earlier than the modern times that yesel is an extraordinarily dangerous enemy because they turn to God in prayer and you know God God listens to prayers they observe you know they pray five times a day Etc and even though terrorism is so hateful and Despicable and despised by God that gives them a certain power that the hedonist and the materialist is not going to have and therefore since the power is a spiritual power they can be vanquished only by spiritual means the physical enemy can be vanquished by physical means political en M and Military strategies the spiritual enemy now again even even even as a political statement this actually makes sense because you know if you think about the cold war that existed uh in the world between the end of World War II and the fall of the Soviet Soviet Union so you'll recall if you remember this that the way a relative piece was maintained in the world was by a process called mad now mad meant that the two great superpowers China was not in the ascendency then uh but the US and Soviet Union they were massively building up their nuclear Arsenal and in a sense the concept was mad stands for Mutual assured destruction meaning we knew that the Soviet Union wouldn't send an anom bomb to us because they knew we would send an anom bomb in return and they didn't want to get destroyed if they want to get destroyed they wouldn't destroy us and therefore each one had a deterrent in in terms of the strike capacity they would have against the other one the acronym is very apt so each one is building up these huge nuclear arsenals that was called mad to Madness Mutual assured destruction now those types of strategies work only when you have an enemy who doesn't want to die when you have an enemy that considers death in the service of martyrdom to be the Supreme you know reward in which they'll get uh The Virgins and and everything else that uh they say they're going to get then conventional determents don't work at all simply because know they don't care or at least the subgroup of Fanatics don't care and when you have you know I live in malot and we're right on the uh the the theim right the border of East Jerusalem and although you know we go around our life you know we don't have a sense of constantly walking around in fear but at the stop at the recity you know there were terrorist incidents and there were Jewish people who were killed and what are you going to do all right there's a police presence there now but here you're talking about an Arab from across the street just turns his car and Rams it into a group of people standing what are you going to are you going to take away uh cars you know from people so in a sense although forgive me for digressing but although the Mish and the IDF the sahal do a tremendous tremendous job in apprehending terrorists but the truth of the matter is to to Vanquish this enemy by political and Military means is impossible it's impossible because conventional deterrence don't work uh people are willing to die and they don't care and they consider to be a great thing so cabalistic the way this would be explained is that which comes from Ismael has a spiritual power and spiritual powers can be defeated only by spiritual Powers by of course we still have to have of course we need a strong military we need a good Police Department Etc but ultimate can only be achieved in a spiritual in a spiritual way so I would call this and again it's hard to understand because it is hard for me I can't fully explain why would God be am meable to people who want to do bad things why would they be empowered and emboldened but I'm just invoking one Enigma with another Enigma that it's similar that dark spiritual energy is similar to the phenomenon of dark matter or antimatter it just exists it's kind of a Law of Spiritual nature that prayer invokes responses in in in in in different ways the talud even says that the ghif before he robs offers a prayer to God that his efforts should be uh successful and that will give him a certain measure of of of success so that's I just wanted to share with you again it's not directly connected to the para but since uh last week we read about the death of Ismael and this week we read about uh the birth of Asa the coming of age of asov and a number of other stories involving asov that is something to to think about you know people do raise the question that we'll get to the BR shortly but the idea of you know yakob is taking advantage of very hungry person or maybe it wasn't a matter of life and death literally but you know Yakov is uh basically saying I'll give you the food if you you know give me this very valuable thing so they actually tell a story The might to tell a story that it doesn't really answer the question but it but it makes a a humorous point that is somewhat helpful in interpreting this they say that a poor Jew went to his Reby he said he needed to marry off his daughter but he had no money at all so the rebi told him okay listen buy the first thing you know buy something uh cheap uh buy the first thing that you're offered and then sell it and you know maybe you'll make some money so the Y doesn't know what to do he basically doesn't have uh you know anything to you know uh to buy Etc or anything to sell no I'm I'm sorry sell I'm sorry sell whatever you have and then maybe you'll make some money okay so uh I'm sorry buy I'm sorry buy I'm sorry right right right bye right right so yeah so he goes into he goes into an inn and there are a bunch of Jews who are sitting around drinking and they see this like religious guy come in like what's he doing walking into a to a bar and they figure they're going to have some fun with him like he's walking into the wrong place he doesn't know where he is and they say hey hey Jew how you doing reut you know we're Jews too we're members of the tribe uh What uh you know what are you here for he says well the rebi told me to buy uh something uh for my daughter's wedding so I'm here to buy something I have you know so he said all right so they Jing okay I will sell you my Hab and all you have to give me is a penny a Copic so the person said well the Reby told me to buy whatever I was offered so uh he says you have to write it up in a star so the person writes up I sell to you myab for one penny one copc and the Y did have copc he gives the guy a copc he has a piece of paper that says I own Thea of uh AR whatever his name was okay and of course Abraham and his friends are laughing what an idiot you know uh you know so naive he buys my everybody know you can't sell so anyway he goes to his wife uh a the guy who sold his goes to his wife and he said you know I got to tell you this funny story I was in the I was drinking with my friends and there was this idiotic you know religious Jew this simpleton who was told he had to buy something for his daughter's wedding so I sold him I ow my I got a penny or I got whatever I got a Ruble uh and you know he started laughing then he notices after a few minutes his wife is not laughing and he says what's the matter it's funny she says I'm not going to live with a man who doesn't have a share in the world to come get it back says come on it was a joke I didn't mean get it back so goes back he looks for the jwy say he says you know he says re you know I'm sorry I made fun of you I'm sorry we had some uh you know some entertainment at your expense listen here's the copc you gave me just give me back the paper Okay so the person said no the rebi said to buy the Reby didn't say to sell the Reby said to buy the first thing I was offered he didn't tell me to sell it I'm sorry so he goes back to his wife and says listen the guy doesn't want to give me the paper the wife says get that paper back so he offers like five rubles no 10 rubles at some point it's really getting getting relatively high he says you know he keeps on going back to his wife and his wife says get it back so finally you know he offers like a lot of money and the Jew still says I'm sorry I cannot sell it until I have permission of the rebi so he goes to the rebi and the rebi asks him how much do you need for your daughter's wedding he says I need this amount of money he says that's what you should sell it for and he literally got back all the money he needed for his daughter's wedding so uh the a who had to buy his habah back for hundreds and hundreds of rubles says to the rebi now rebi I just don't know where the fairness is here you know he bought it for a penny I took a penny from him I now have to give him hundreds and hundreds of rubles so the rebi said anybody who's willing to is for one penny that's all it's worth when you're willing to pay hundreds and hundreds of Ral that means that's how much it's worth meaning is how much you want to be connected to Hashem so they say if as is willing to sell his for then that's all it's worth y didn't cheat him at all because as's earned through the through the is a function of how much he cared about it but there's another Mah that is given by the kava cabala the kava cabala it's a wonderful wonderful Parish a fantastic Parish that is not learned that much today it was written in the 19th century and uh during the height of the reformed movement in Germany same time is ref First's commentary and in fact it's dealing with the same themes to try to show the validity of the oral law when it was under attack by the reform movement and he points out the following he points out that when it says yov purchased the from as the PK says the yov not as and yov had given to ASV now he points out that usually in Biblical Hebrew we express a past by called the meaning to say normally you would say and V although is future V in biblical convention reverses it the past now what is now as opposed to the Torah actually using an actual past yov so what is the difference between vov and Yakov Natan both would be translated Yakov gay so the says is a simple past notan is what grammarians call a past perfect now for those who are not into grammar what that basically means is that when the Torah is describing a sequence of actions that yov purchased the B and he gave as the that would imply he didn't give him the food till after he purchased the B but if it's a past perfect we translate and yov had already in other words he bought the B and then it's telling me and yov had already given him the food which means grammatically speaking if you translate yov Nan not and Yakov gave which is after the purchase but rather and jakov had given then the PK is actually making an opp totally opposite point that Yakov had given asov the food first and afterwards he negotiated for the sale that's a very very ingenious interpretation very unusual interpretation but it is based on the difference between V which is a simple path and yov Nan which he translates yakob had already given a past perfect that might explain the so according to that he did not cheat although the truth of the matter is Asa later did say that yakob had cheated him but that could just be his his perception okay but now I want to go forward to the uh bigger story and this is a story that happened many many many years later when we find that yit feels he's about to die although he actually lives for many years longer but but Yak is feels that he's on his deathbed and yit wants to give a blessing to his firstborn son ASV and Rifka sees that uh ASV should not be the one that gets the blessing is should be Yakov and she Engineers a whole deception in which y who thinks he's blessing asov is actually blessing Yakov and there's kind of a a magical aspect here like you know you'd figure you know somehow the one that gets the spell is going to be successful I mean if he gave it to the wrong guy so it belongs to the right guy right but somehow and I we'll try to explain this a little bit there's a certain magic effect if you were the one that got those words it's yours even though you deceive but we have so many questions so the first point I want to make is really a bit of a family Dynamics point and that is you know SAR had a well abraam had a problem child is was s's child and and RKA have a problem child as look at the difference between the relationship between Sarah and Abraham and the relationship between Rifka and SAR and Abraham had a great deal kind of equality know when SAR saw a problem she directly told Abraham this kid is creating problems he's undermining the spiritual Heritage that we need to preserve in this family we have to do something about it we have to send him away and ab didn't want to do it and he asks Hashem and Hashem says whatever SAR says is right there was kind of a directness in their communication they kind of were a team in which they were equal Asal say abam worked with the men and SAR worked with the women and when there was a problem SAR took the initiative to address the problem and deal with it and there was no confiscation there was no cover up there was no indirection it was a very very direct type of relationship one of course predicated on mutual respect we mentioned last week that maybe the AA may have changed that at the very end that that's that's a speculation of of ref steinel and and some others Rifka deals with it in a very different way why doesn't Rifka tell you know ASA is not the righteous person that you might think he is Rifka has to deal with know trickery deception she can't really tell her husband what's bothering her now on the most superficial level it might be because of a very significant age difference although that's relatively superficial remember that the age difference between uh abam and S was 10 years which is not ins totally insignificant but as you get as you get older the big age difference doesn't become that important 80 versus 90 is not a tremendous difference but according to K and this is the opinion Rashi follows Rifka was only three years old when she married Yak who was 40 years old so there was a big big big age difference between that and in that sense rifa was like a child she felt she could not necessarily talk to but the gives a different reason the says that Y in many many ways was otherworldly the experience of the AA changed him he was more connected to the heavens than the earth she looked at him with a sense of awe she could not bring up the issues that perhaps a wife would normally be able to bring up with a husband she was overwhelmed by him in fact the N says that when then she was brought to marry him and she sees him so what she does is remember she took the veil and she covered her face so people say oh that's SAS Etc well the N says totally different the N says she covered her face because she was afraid to even look at him there was like kind of a Godly Radiance and as a result of course we can also say too that drifka herself came from a family of deceivers loving and the like and and this may have been the modality which she understood and this is the modality that she employed for good purposes granted but this is kind of what she learned this was her survival strategy in life so just on a on a superficial level the family Dynamics that's why braus is a great manual for family therapists because we have all sorts of dysfunctions and good relationships and bad relationships and sibling rivalries and uh kind of people working together people apart there's like many many many different family stories and Braes Yeah well yeah yeah but yes but on the other on the other hand uh RKA is exactly doing it even to her own son meaning to say if if the narrative would say rifa didn't try to disinherit ASA then your point would be a very good point because this is her son but Rifka is trying to do it but she's not she's not doing it directly so uh well yeah but I'm I'm not sure you know if Rifka is trying to do it anyway so uh why why would it be indirect in that way yeah so I'd like the interpretation mentioned very much by theha on it because later R tells y very clearly um I don't like the girls that he yes yes yes I'm I'm going to address that exactly I'm going to come to that now everybody I'm sorry question two bring up one is how come it is brother not get along yeah you had with jakob's kids that's right but okay it's were in born in raised in the palace yeah and they were so kind to each other the other thing I want to bring up I don't know if anybody else says it is That Yo was just seeing and learning for as was keep it off every day in day out yeah yeah in point of fact I have to say well worried that maybe you know as and double on yob yeah yeah in truth in truth if you read if you just read the story of yakob and ASV uh without any preconceptions without bringing any external knowledge to the story there is no question that uh you feel a lot of compassion for ASV that this ASV uh gets cheated out of things and uh he may not have been the studious Yakov sitting in the tents of the Torah but okay so he liked to do hunting he liked to to do some other things but you feel his anguish he comes in he's he went on a mission for his father and he comes back with the desire to serve his father the food that his father requested and then he says father bless me and the father says what can I do I gave your blessing to your brother and the PK says ASV cried a bitter cry and as said I mean these are very emotional words ASF says do you only have one isn't there anything left for me and you know yakob gives him something oh you know you'll you'll have the sword and you'll be able to militarily it's a powerful blessing but it's not it's not as significant so there's a lot of posos here there's a lot of pain here and I'm going to address that but you know your first point is very interesting that somehow the Jews in erel don't seem to get along uh you know that that's a very very interesting question but I would suggest that the specific case of yoseph was since Yosef was a victim of hatred he was able to communicate to his children how destructive hatred was so the fact that his kids went along well is because yoseph was the one who suffered uh that victim and therefore he was able to communicate my uncle what happened to him stor of that is really bad news yeah and he bad news that bring to the Next Generation also knowing who grandar and what not well again I mean yoseph was was a Sonic I mean yoseph did forgive his brothers um and therefore he was I'm not saying I'm not saying see you're correct I'm not saying every person that has suffered will automatically become a more empathetic compassionate person sometimes people who suffer become bittered yeah and they pass it on to the next Generation as we see indeed uh in the Palestinians and and and the like but if someone is truly a righteous person their suffering can often give them a measure of compassion and empathy which can translate into into into forgiveness now that apparently did happen with the I'm not saying it would happen with everybody but it potentially this suffering can be a transformative experience for people so there's a number ofor just a quick question we know that initially he sold his birth right he wanted to eat and be married and the extent of a it's it's almost curious I never understood I always think why did he care at that point to get the right BR War he gave it away he essentially gave it away himself well I I guess we have to differen see that that's that's another interesting question what is the difference between B and BR okay the he gave away by the way at the age of 15 just to give you a sense of chronology he was a 15-year-old kid uh in fact it was the day Abraham died yob is cooking lentils because MERS eat lentils and yob was going to give the food to his father and kazal actually make the point which is I think is very beautiful point that ASV didn't become like a denier in God till the day that his grandfather died that that that thought was very fascinating because we see this in life quite a lot you know we have a phenomenon of kids at risk yeah kids who don't get along with their parents they can't absorb the teachings of their parents friction in the house whatever it is but there'll often be a grandparent who has this unconditional love without the daytoday tension and the grandparents can make a heart-to- heart connection with a child that sometimes the parents cannot and this seems to be exactly what happened with ASV K make the point ASV did not become a Rasha till the day that his grandfather died and as long as abam was alive now again some say well that was just God's blessing to Abraham that he wouldn't see any of his descendants become bad I think there's something much deeper I think that Abraham was able to see the hidden goodness in ASV and therefore ASV felt connected as long as somebody saw the good in him and after that point it wasn't it wasn't that easy in fact rers makes again there's so many family Dynamic rers say a very famous Stu it's one of the most famous passages ofal H but in the ISA World they don't like to say this publicly because it's a bit of a daring statement and as I'm sorry yob and as are twins right they're born as Twins and it says the young boys were raised and as became a hunter and yakob sat in the tent studying whatever Torah they studied that's refer says the critical mistake was y you know when people have twins they of dress them the same teach them the same treat them the same wanted both yob and ASV to be Godly religious Pious people who would spend all of their days studying Divine wisdom but that wasn't asf's personality ASV needed I'm going to give give some Modern example he needed to play basketball he needed to run he needed to be a man of action he needed to be involved in the world surf H says ASV too had many many good qualities ASV too had potential but when you try to make an ASV into a carbon copy of Yakov you're putting the square peg into the round hole not only will he not become the Yakov you want him to be he will not even be the ASA he could have become and therefore was the great great tragedy that started this whole path now this is a a phenomenally important idea now again some people say well who gives you the right to talk about deficiencies in the parenting Styles okay that you know that may be so you know again you know whenever we psychoanalyze of the OS and the OS we always run the risk that who are we to make any judgment but but no matter what the point is 1 million per valid and that is this is simply a reiteration of's famous in Mish a child must be trained according to their way everyone has unique talent when you try to create an educational system or a family structure of one siiz fit At All by pitching it at a certain definition of what is schut then you're setting up many many kids to failure to frustration and perhaps even going off the D of rejecting and refers points out that this may have been the issue of now based on this R and the Mal explain the whole story here of the later now that was when they were children the B was 15 when abam died and as I indicated maybe Abraham I was suggesting may have been attuned to as's personality needs in a way that and RKA were not as grandparents and of course keep in mind that you know maybe there was always this comparison to his brother yakob yeah we don't know why can't you be like your brother you know we don't know again we don't know but refers to suggesting that some of that was going around so ASA developed his own life even even so say in spite of it all asov was meticulous in honoring his parents he was meticulous that was his Mitzvah you know I've sometimes I've sometimes seen that in the world as well it's this interesting thing that sometimes you have a kid who goes off the Derk but they make a point of still trying to show respect to you see very often you see the opposite too but I I I've seen I've seen examples of rebellious children who are still in the Mitzvah of showing respect to their parents it's an interesting thing that's why they hold on to it but that's exactly what as did because again I I see I'm going off into the thin ice of of over psychoanalysis here but in a way you know a child that is not doing what his parents dream that he should do feel he may not be loved my parents can't love me because I'm not living the life they want and keep of the a might be the desperate attempt to get that love from the parent that you feel you don't you can't have I'm not saying they didn't have it but but he feels he can't have because he's not living the life he's not the person they wanted him to be and that's why K might be that desperate cry love me care about me and that's why it's so poignant when ASV now the story of yob and ASV is when they're 63 years old the is 15 again there's a whole but 63 years old and ASF is crying to his father is there not something left over for me how that pain of the childhood is still there now y did want to bless ASV now the question is why did y want to give asce of the blessing so listen to what the malm says the blessing that y gave to yob when he thought he was Asa was actually not the same type of blessing he gave to yakob later when he knew he was yakob the blessing that he gave to Yakov that he wanted to give to ASV was a blessing that was primarily material may God give you from the do the the the produce of the land an abundance of grain and and wine Nations Shall Serve you you know Nations will bow down to you have you will be a you will be the master of your brethren this is really a about land and prosperity and rulership now later later when Yakov is running is is about to leave about to find a wife and to escape ASV remember there's a double legenda here Rifka wants to get him out of there to save his life from as says got to find a wife so gives him the blessing may God continue the Covenant of Abraham with you and your children so this is what rers and the malim suggest the spirit ual Heritage of Israel y always intended to give to Yakov and Yakov would have gotten that without any type of deception that was yakov's blessing but y envisioned what later became known as AAR and Zulan Partnership of course that that was much later what is the SAR partnership was a tribe that was devoted to full-time Torah learning Zulan was engaged in Commerce business and trade and Zulan financially supported yur and that was good for both because that enabled to learn Torah full time without economic worry and Zulan has a has a portion in all of the accomplishments of so here Y is thinking towards the end of his life although y will live many more years but he thinks it's the end of his life it's kind of a rectification for the mistake that he made when the kids were young when the kids were young I wanted to make as a too I put him in the bet I said you got to sit and learn 10 hours a day 12 hours a day 14 whatever hours a day it was but I see that did didn't work ASV was a man of action ASV was a person who needed to be out there playing basketball hunting whatever it would be and I see that because of what I did if and I did ASV did not become the person he could have become I want to rectify it I want to teach ASF that with your physicality with your materialism with your activity you can use it in positive and constructive channels you will be the one who will manage ER Israel you will be the one who creates the government you will create the infrastructure you will create the industry you will create the politics that's bad that's the bad one and in that way Yakov will be freed from all of the distractions and you will get your spiritual Redemption not by negating your abilities but by using your abilities and her first say that's why the is preceded by hunting says go and hunt and use the hunt for keep it of the aim right ASA was such a skilled Hunter he could actually she a bird in Flight he was able to shoot the arrow right through the place where you she kosher right he able to shoot a a bird in a Kosher Way that Sheed the bird properly and the like so you see what's going on y didn't think ASA was the more righteous person he knew ASA was not the more righteous and the proof by the way is the fact that right before this whole event as marries ismael's daughter and it says it was bitter in and R's Eyes by the way that's another you know I want to tell you you got to feel sorry for ASV because listen to what happened you know uh ASV marries first a Canaanite woman but then he you know one of the can Nations but then he hears that Y and Rifka don't like don't want them to marry kyanite women just like y could marry canite woman so ASA realizes oh gee I did something wrong I want to fix it so he marries isma's daughter I you know he just makes you know he makes mistake after mistake he messes up again so he's he's not a young man anymore approaching retirement 65 retirement come l so what is trying to do is that's what that's the Mal and ref purch point doesn't think as is aad but he thinks if I give as the he will use it to help yov in a collaboration and then he will get his so that's the strategy the the spiritual leadership was always going to go to yob that's the the point so what's wrong with the what is rifka's point rifka's point is a tragic point this may have worked 50 years ago it's not going to work now too little too late and therefore Yakov has to get the physical blessing as well which is erit erit Israel because Asa was not going to use his material control for the benefit of Tor and refers even makes the point very subtle point that Yakov had to do it through deception for the following reason again it's very intriguing part of's concern was I don't want Yakov to be involved number one it's for asa's benefit give asov the chance to use his talents but number two Yakov will be destroyed by the politics of the world because Yakov is naive like y was actually Yakov is spiritual Yakov is Holy and therefore the world will eat him up he needs an asov to be his enforcer so what Yakov has to show is Yakov has to show I know how to cheat too and by showing I know how to cheat he's communicating the message because I know know how the game is played I will not be victimized that's part of it in other words y was afraid you know wanted as to earn his and Y didn't want yob to be eaten up by International Intrigue war and politics Rifka realizes that ASV is not going to change for the better and she needs y to understand that Yakov is capable of comprehending fraud and deceit and that is what y realizes when he realizes that asov that that yov gained the braa by by deception now one other point though the medish makes a very very amazing point and the amazing point the medish makes is it's not entirely clear that Yakov emerged the winner of this particular context contest because in point to fact the medish tells us that because Yakov engaged in deception yov suffered the deception of m y because yov caused as huh I didn't hear that's right she was given she was wasn't given to him was that's right that's that's yeah you're correct even before that that's correct that's correct the first deception was RA the next deception there also deception of working seven years one yes that that's the RA mean meaning he wanted ra and he worked seven years and then he lay and then he has to work another seven years at deceived yeah that's yeah yeah right that's correct so yes yes the chickens come home to roof yes so this is a crucial point it's not that Yakov was wrong there may have been shulim that justified the behavior but the me if the means are morally tainted there will be a moral consequence even when used to say that the mush would be the following let's say God forbid a baby falls into a fire and you dive into the fire to retrieve the baby you did a great thing a wonderful thing a good thing the right thing but the fact that you did the right thing does not mean you're not going to be burnt being burnt is an inevitable consequence short of an open miracle there's going to be a natural consequence that when you play with fire you get Burns said when you engage in fraud deceit cheating inflicting pain on others even if in the calculus of considerations that was regrettably the best thing to do that doesn't mean there are not going to be consequences and kazal besides the fact that Joseph suffered both from the the switch of RA and Leia and m y I should also point out that for thousands and thousands of years the Jewish people did not have control of arous real and even today we're we have Medina but we're still in a precarious dangerous State both in ER Israel and throughout the world so if we ask ourselves what BR did Yakov get exactly remember God will give you prosperity Nations will serve you well what nations are that Nations will bow down to you what nations are that you will be a master over your brothers now this is not the spiritual this is it hasn't happened you know it's a funny thing you know maybe yob didn't get the the says Etc now make one point one very one very beautiful point when as says as had a loud and bitter cry even before even before a computer they always knew when a similar expression appears in that same expression appears one place in T and that is when Mor hears that ham made a to wipe out the Jews thear in Milla says because caused as to have the descendant of as ham is fromal is from as causes that mid mid so this is something to think about uh you know people debate do the do the ends justify the means do the ends not justify the means but here we're adding a certain subtlety to the mix even when even when the ends May justify the means there is a certain taint there's a certain Pagan that comes back to haunt you the chickens come back to Roose whatever the expression you want to use because when you're mishes with the means of lying cheating causing pain to others it will come back there will be a consequence and therefore one should be very very careful before sometimes you have to do these things just like sometimes you dive in to save the baby you do it but one has to be one shouldn't just say oh I'm doing it Shay so I have an insurance policy everything will be good doesn't that doesn't work that way you hurt people there's going to be some reciprocal counteraction that's going to come back I this is kind of the complex L you know people say like this now people debate how do we know the Torah is from God maybe it's man you know the sure the best answer to that is that if the Torah would have been a man-made document written by a Jew to give the history of the Jewish people most of these stories would never have been recorded you know uh who's going to write their history you know with Yakov cheating of twiice and alike it must have come from God uh because all of the warts and all of the negatives uh are there right so what person would write the history of his Nation with all of these all of these negative negative stories uh but the issue of these stor with Integrity huh a person with Integrity yeah but ancient no no ancient no ancient historian had any Integrity this was well well known I mean all the Greek Story I mean every every nation wrote its history uh with only only the POS reles and and and the like so but the point of these stories is that they are not one-sided it's not a question of positive negative there is ambiguity there is complexity on one hand Yakov was right and on the other hand Yakov was wrong on one hand he had to do what he had to do on the other hand he suffers because of it because this is what life is about a life is not always about a black and white decision it's about doing the best that you can can but knowing knowing that there are going to be some negative consequences no matter what you do and that's actually the story of Yakov and ASV and the struggle of Y and RKA in which they initially wanted to make it's a tragic story they wanted to make ASV into a righteous person and how much ASV suffered from never quite being good enough in terms of the Sun that they wanted and how many many years later when ASA was already an older man it's like one wants to fix it but Rifka says it's not going to work and you know there's a lot of lot of sadness on all sides here yeah does anybody connected between the selling of the birth right because as was starving yeah and then fast forward years to to who is starving he's running out of rations so Mor rolls up his leg and and he white B he to you know that that's a very interesting comparison I I'll check I'm not aware of it but you know uh if if there's a comparison to be made it must be made somewhere so I what's the comparison he's saying that uh morai had M had fed hm when H was was was starving yeah and then H sold himself as a slave to Mori right so there was a transaction there too where hon had sold some his own freedom to Mor and mor then reminded him later that you know you're my slave technically uh yeah um okay anyway have a good yeah one more okay yeah um why was ASA started who just came back from hunting well he didn't eat uh in other words he he was hunting you know I I've never gone hunting so I don't know but I imagine if you're running or after animals on the like you know you're you're going to be tired it's it's physically uh physically very tired and maybe he didn't want to eat while he was hunting because he thought maybe that would slow his reflexes a little bit so the concept was right you eat you eat afterwards all right have a good dis very okay everybody I mentioned this earlier during the break that uh this Thursday we have a singles event for 55 years and know anybody everybody knows somebody so especially guys a little bit so number one number twoa and I are actually contemplating what we're going to do after meaning should we continue to serve dinner it doesn't look like had guys compan a lot of work maybe just have one of the two speakers or both of the speakers or do it a different location I don't know if anybody has any input that'll be helpful but I'll tell you would be even more helpful if you all bring somebody next week and that would be like the answer would be like like your help your assistance didn't understand that guys bring somebody who hasn't been here before really you know energ two very one they say she was 3 years old I have a theory about this maybe she wasn't literally 3 years old but if she grew up in this house about dollar and what not maybe she was a little kid maybe she Chua and it's 3 years Beyond so she had been born not so much 3 years beyond that is very that is very I want to hear your other part but I'll tell you a a little story that ties into [Music] that was a great musim when he came to the Mir Yesa in Europe the man with a big beard came to him and said how old do you think I am and R said well you look like you're 35 he says no I am 3 years old because I met the great rebi re R three years ago and that was the beginning of my life right right exactly exactly exactly exactly your thought that was the other one part of it was perhaps she was