I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs Mondays at 7:00 pm PST on the Rabbi Rabbs cam and on YouTube. Facebook Fan Page.
This week we study Parashat Vayetzei (Genesis 28:10-32:3).
* San Fernando Mayor Mario Hernandez Admits Affair with Councilwoman Maribel De La Torre
* Are you looking forward to Mel Gibson’s Maccabbees movie?
* Rabbi Berel Wein writes: “The Talmud teaches us that anti-Semitism is a shortcut to fame but eventually it is a long road to Hell and destruction. Ask the Greeks, the Romans, the Crusaders, the Ukrainians, Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians and Germans.”
* Rabbi Wein writes: “The Hellenistic Jews no longer go by that name but their program of advocating unchecked Jewish assimilation, no matter what the cost, still lives on.”
Rabbi Berel Wein writes: “Yaakov arrives penniless and persecuted – a survivor from the ravages of the enmity and sword of Eisav. He is subjected to further humiliation and discrimination in the house of his erstwhile father-in-law and employer Lavan who exploits his talents and labor to the fullest. In spite of this unfair treatment, Yaakov prospers and builds a family and future for himself. Yaakov’s success in the face of overwhelmingly negative circumstances only enrages Lavan and his sons and Yaakov is eventually forced to flee and return to the Land of Israel. Here, he will again encounter enmity and great challenges to the survival of his family and himself.”
Notice that the rabbi and the Torah does not say: “Because of this unfair treatment, Yaakov got affirmative action and massive social welfare benefits so that he never had to work.”
* Rabbi Wein writes: “Lavan and Eisav resemble each other acutely. They are all about “now” – the additional pot of lentils and labor that can be squeezed out of the weak and defenseless with no thought about the ultimate future and the consequences of their behavior. Yaakov states that “tomorrow I will come into my reward” – Jews are concerned about their ultimate tomorrow and not just their today. He who is concerned about tomorrow is also successful today.”
* Rabbi Wein writes: “Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov all suffered from success-induced jealous reactions from the local populations where they lived.”
How do you react when people excel you? Do you get jealous and hate them or do you learn from them?
* Rabbi Wein writes: “This is also a lesson that our father Yaakov intended to teach us. We are not allowed to rein in our talents and achievements. But we are certainly bidden to rein in our egos and bluster. That is also an important Jewish trait that should be a foundation in our lives.”
* Rabbi Wein writes: “Rashi points out for us in the beginning of this week’s parsha (really at the conclusion of last week’s parsha) that Yaakov stopped at the study house of Shem and Ever for fourteen years on his flight from Eisav to his uncle’s house in Aram. This seems to be a strange stopover at first glance.
“How will the instruction that he received in the school established by Shem and Ever contribute to his survival and success at the house of Lavan, the master conniver and duplicitous character? The question is phrased in a more current if blunter fashion in the Talmud itself – of what value are the Torah students to society at large?
“To meet Lavan, Yaakov apparently needs to train in different forms of legal, commercial and worldly pursuits. Studying Torah is all well and fine, but how does it prepare one for the real world? This question is heard today in thousands of Jewish households and is a most vexing one. Our world today is one of Lavan compounded.”
Many Orthodox Jews never went to college. Their education was in yeshiva. Then they went out and worked successfully in business.
Thanks to Torah study, I’ve been able to enter diverse worlds and achieve great success, even becoming the “Matt Drudge” of one particular industry.
It would’ve been very easy for me to get sucked into the ways of Lavan even while I was blogging about his industry.
Rabbi Wein writes: “A proper Torah education, a study course at the school of Shem and Ever, is meant to impart life-long values and a world view in which to fit the events of one’s life in a proper and moral fashion. One has to learn how to deal effectively with Lavan but one has to be very cautious not to become Lavan in the process.
“Self-defense and protection of one’s own interests is part of the Torah value system. But pleasantness, sensitivity, faith in God’s justice and promises, and a willingness to tolerate and accommodate others (even unpleasant others) are also a part of the value system of the Torah.”
* Rabbi Wein writes: “The inherent disdain towards Jews generally and currently focused primarily on the Jewish state of Israel is a product of millennia of Lavan attitudes. In the 1930’s, though Franklin Roosevelt was appalled by the treatment of Germany’s Jews by the Nazis, he nevertheless commented that Hitler was correct in asserting that there were too many Jewish doctors and lawyers in Germany. His fashionable, Hudson Valley manor house upbringing imprinted this attitude upon his psyche.”
* Rabbi Berel Wein writes: “Behind the veneer of his intellectuality and liberal humanism, Lavan is a killer, a murderer of his own family, simply because he detests Yaakov and all that he stands for. Lavan has diplomatic solutions for Yaakov’s problems with Eisav. Lavan wants a single-state solution to the Israeli-Arab war; he wants the anachronistic Jew and his baffling religion to disappear; he really wants what is best for us but we are too stupid to accept his suggestions. Lavan is thriving today – in the UN, the European Union, academia and unfortunately even amongst some of Yaakov’s descendants. But Lavan also is to be vanquished and left in the ash heap of history. After four thousand years of history, not much has really changed.”
* Rabbi Wein writes: The Nazi slogan in Germany summed up the matter succinctly, albeit brutally: “The Jews are our misfortune!” And in our century, the attitude of the leaders of the Soviet Union towards its Jewish population was also one of pathological disdain and suspicion. Yet, the Jews were castigated for leaving (and in many instances prevented from leaving) their “homeland,” for longing for Zion and Jerusalem. The countries of our exile always claimed that our children belonged to them and that everything that we possessed was in reality somehow taken from them. The sad events of this bloodiest of centuries testifies to Lavan’s true intentions and the difficulties of living in Lavan’s home and the difficulties of leaving Lavan’s home.
But somehow Yaakov did leave Lavan and he did finally return home. There would be many difficult and sad stops on that way home, but Yaakov nevertheless persevered and came home. And that pretty much is the story of this century of Jewish life. The great centers of the Jewish exile, except for North America, have all practically closed down. The Sefardic world of the Mediterranean and Near East countries, the heartland of Ashkenazic Jewry in Eastern and Central Europe, all are almost judenrein today. Most of the Jews (and many non-Jews as well) have left Russia and settled in Israel. The Diaspora is slowly closing down. Yaakov is going home, no matter what. Lavan, may not be happy with Yaakov’s decision, or that Yaakov has a home to go to, but Yaakov owes Lavan little, and therefore Lavan’s objections are no longer too relevant to Yaakov’s plans. The children of Yaakov live his odyssey in their lives in the present. So may we be able to follow in his footsteps in the future.
