BS"D
YESHIVAT HARA'AYON HAYEHUDI
Jerusalem, Israel
HaRav Yehuda Kroizer SHLIT"A, Rosh Yeshiva
PARSHAT TOLEDOT
29 Cheshvan 5768/9-10 November 2007
BROTHERLY LOVE (NOT!)
The struggles between the brothers Yitzchak and Ishmael continue in this
week’s parsha with another set of brothers, Jacob and Esau. In fact, it is
the continually unfolding story that is playing out on the world stage to
this very day.
Already at the Brit-Mila of Yitzchak, Ishmael plotted the take over the
world, saying: "Fools, look how they celebrate the birth of this child,
saying 'Abraham’s newborn son will take his place and receive a double
portion of his possessions'. But it is I who am the older, and I will
inherit the Land." As a young lad, Ishmael would shoot arrows at Yitzchak,
pretending that he was shooting birds. Even thousands of years later, his
descendents continued their false claims to the Land of Israel, while going
before the court of Alexander the Great with their claims to the Land. And
so it continues to this day.
Our Rabbis warned us of the hash trials of the exile of Ishmael at the
end of days. The Rambam writes: “Know that G-d has unfortunately cast us
down among this people Ishmael, who plot great evils against us and hate us.
Know that no greater enemy has threatened us and no nation has done more to
subjugate and humiliate us”. The very name of Ishmael -“G-d should hear”-
comes to teach us that at the end of days he will subjugate the Jewish
people so much that we will cry out to Hashem because of him.
As for the struggles of Jacob and Esau as portrayed in our parsha, it
does not stack up much better. As soon as Esau was born, he tried to prevent
Jacob from coming out into the world by destroying his mother’s womb. But
Jacob firmly held on to Esau's heel and emerged after him. Nevertheless Esau
succeeded in damaging his mother’s womb to such an extent that she bled
profusely and could not have any more children. Esau said: “Cain killed his
brother Abel before his father Adam died. How silly of him, because after
Abel was removed Adam begot yet another son, Seth. I will do better - I will
wait until my father death to kill Jacob and then I will be the only son to
inherit the Land."
Rabbi Shimon, the author of the holy Zohar, teaches us that it is a
well-known halacha-law, that Esau hates Jacob. Why did he use the term
"halacha" when teaching us this? In order to bring home the point that just
as any of G-d's other laws have their roots in Heaven and are unbreakable,
so, too, with this law; the hatred of Esau for Jacob is everlasting.
At the end of our parsha, Jacob is forced to flee from his brother Esau,
and only with the birth of his 11th son, Joseph, is he able to confront Esau
again. For it is well known that Esau in the end of days will fall only
before the descendent of Joseph (Mashiach ben Joseph), as our Rabbis teach
us: “Esau is like a house of straw and Joseph is fire who will ignite the
straw”.
Throughout our long exile, the Jewish people have had to confront the
descendents of either the children of Ishmael or Esau in their countries, by
being their unwanted guests in their lands. Today, though, the descendents
of the brothers, Ishmael and Esau, join forces in their ultimate plan, which
they have never given up hope on, to continue to weaken Jacob in the Land of
Israel over which both of the brothers have never given up their claim, in
their attempt to finally “come in for the kill”.
At the upcoming conference at Annapolis next month, both Ishmael and
Esau will join forces together to play out their roles of their forefathers
to “bury Jacob once and for all”. We must understand this well and not go to
the conference, as Foreign Minister Tzippi Livni was quoted saying: “We
uprooted thousands of Jews from their homes, and still we are under daily
rocket attacks, but again we are willing to disengage from more of the
land". Makes sense, right? Of course NOT!
G-d willing, as in ancient times Hashem did not leave or forsake
Yitzchak or Jacob to the will of their brothers, and He will continue not to
forsake their descendents. As our parsha opens up: “These are the
descendents of Yitzchak”, which as the “Ba'al Turim” points out that this
continues from the end of last week's parsha: “And Ishmael fell before his
brothers” to teach us that in the end of days, Ishmael will fall before the
descendents of Yitzchak - May it be in our time!
With love of Israel,
Levi Chazen
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