Vayeitze – Rebbe Reichman - Shem Mishmuel

Vayeitze – Rebbe Reichman - Shem Mishmuel

(transcribed by Dan-- all errors and typo's are mine. )

As Yaakov left Be’er Sheva to exile, he went to sleep on Mount Moriah and had a dream. There was a ladder whose feet were on the ground, and whose top reached to the very heavens. Hashem’s angels were going up and down the ladder. Then, Hashem appears, and tells Yaakov He will protect him on this trip, and return him to Israel. The image of the angels going up and down must be explained. Rashi says that we are dealing with two sets of angels. Those of Eretz Yisrael (E’Y), and Chutz La’aretz. Those of EY protect him while he is in the land, and those of Chul protect him when he is out of the land.

The Shem Mishmuel (SM) has a problem: the way the verse in Rashi explained the switching of the “guard,” first the angels of Israel go back to heaven, then the CHul angels come down to protect Yaakov as he leaves the land. The question is, there seems to be a point in time where Yaakov has no angels! There is a point in time where Yaakov is alone! He doesn’t have either set of angels to protect him.

Further, Shabbat chaf gimmel discusses a similar changing of the guard as they march through the desert after leaving Egypt. The passuk in Shmot says: during the day there was a cloud of Hashem, and at night a pillar of fire led the way at night for the Jewish people. There, the verse seems to say that these two entities are together when there is a changing of the guard. In the late afternoon, the cloud was there and the fire would come, and vice versa in the morning. The gemara says: “the cloud was together with the fire at some point” and vice versa. Wouldn’t it have made more sense then, for the angels of EY to wait for Yaakov, and wait for the Chul angels to come down, so that Yaakov will never be alone?

In fact, when Yaakov returns to EY, he meets a camp of angels. Yaakov sees the camp of angels, and calls it “Machana’im.” Rashi says: “two camps, one for EY, and one for Chul.” The angels greeted him while the other set was still with him. The old guard and the new guard were both present at a certain moment. He is always with angels. Why is it, that when he leaves EY, its not like that? At the White House, that’s how it would be!

Shem Mishmuel asks another question on top of this: does Yaakov really need angels to protect him? We read in the beginning of next week’s parsha that Yaakov meets a very strange man and has a fight with him. He defeats his adversary, and he says “give me a blessing.” The man says: “I will change your name to Israel, becuase you fought angels and men and you were successful.” We therefore see that this person was really an evil angel. An angel of Esav that came to fight Yaakov. It was a physical/spiritual battle. Yaakov can now beat an angel! He is stronger than angels! So why does he need the protection of angels in EY and Chul? A Tzaddik is greater than an angel.

There is a famous story about the Vilna Gaon, he was approached by an angel and asked to learn Torah with the angel. He said no! He knew Torah better than the angel! In every womb, a Jewish child is learning Torah. In Bila’am’s prophecies, Rashi says that when Israel is asked “what does G-d do?”, Rashi says that this refers to angels in Heaven asking men what does G-d do? Men have an ability to become GREATER than angels. Of course, we as men can also become worse than animals! However, we have the ability to be greater than angels! So, why does Yaakov need angels? He is Ish Tam, Tamim, perfection, he doesn’t need angels.
Shem Mishmuel says as follows: Rashi says in this weeks parsha that Yaakov took from the stones of the place and placed them around him and slept. Then, after the dream, that Yaakov took the single stone, and made it into a monument, and poured oil on it to commemorate his vision of Hashem’s protection. The change from singular to plural is explained by Rashi as a fight between the stones. All the stones fought over who would be under Y’s head. They all became one stone so that every stone could have the honor to support Y’s head. Y had been in the house of Lavan for 20 years, and he used to sleep in the fields with the sheep to protect them. There, there is no mention of a fight among the stones! It seems that when he was taking care of sheep, there was no fight among the stones. What is it about this moment in Yaakov’s life?
S”M explains that there is a statement made by R’ Chaim Vital. Great Kabbalist, one of the founders of the Kabala. He said: when a baby has a brit milah, he is gifted by Hashem with a “total soul.” Everything a human being could wish for—biological, emotional spiritual and intellectual components of the soul, in their complete and total potential and strength. This takes place during the milah. However, right after the milah happens, this complete soul goes away, and the baby is left with the soul of an infant, and it takes many many years for an infant to grow, and age, and complete and perfect the soul to go back to the way it was at the bris. It’s a lifetime of work to go back to the baby’s perfection after the bris. This is a fantastic and important principle. There is a moment at the beginning of life-defining experiences where one has a moment of perfection and then that goes away, and one spends a lifetime trying to regain that perfection. On the night the Jews left Egypt, the night of Seder night was a perfect night. Filled with light, no darkness for the Jews. A night that turned into day. The Jews were inspired even in the surroundings of filth and degradation of slavery, as if they were in Jerusalem as if they were in the Temple. According to the Targum Yonasan, every Jew flew there and ate their Korban Pesach. Every Jew was a king and a prince. A en Chorin, close to the Ribono Shel Olam, as if they had gone through 100 years of spiritual perfection. A taste of what it meant to be princes of Hashem. It was a difficult test to remain faithful at the sea! It was a far cry from the way every Jew felt at the seder night! The Jewish people came out with a strong and outstretched arm, fearless and confident in G-d’s protection and salvation, however, 7 days later, they feared the Egyptians! We see the same process at Har Sinai, 49 days after leaving Egypt. The giving of the Torah was given to a perfect people. A people which was free of all illnesses, fully believing, was able to say the magnificent statement “Naaseh Ve’Nishmah”—we are absolutely committed to Dvar Hashem. But 40 short days later, the Jewish people are faceed with tremendous spiritual downfall—golden calf—licentiousness, MURDER! Old habits come back!!! Trememndous power of belief is needed to withstand the difficulties of life. Its not the same as it was in the time of Matan Torah. 40 days later, it was real life, and real life was hard.

There is an amazing process which takes place, and that is that at the beginning of a process, Hashem in amazing kindness and goodness, gives a person a vision and experience of everything good that can come out of this process. The night of Pesach, Jews felt and saw what it meant to be a holy nation, to be in Jerusalem, at Sinai, the Jews so to speak saw Hashem! To be privy to hear G-d’s word Himself! A whole nation!! 600,000 men plus women and children!
As we struggle through the daily challenges and vicicitudes of life, and we have to reclimb the mountain, we can remember the beginning of the process. We experience it on seder night! Like the baby at the bris, but then Hashem says: ok, you are now in the valley, or dark forest, and you have to struggle. Sometimes in this forest, there are no markers, and Hashem says: find your way through the forest, and to the mountain, and its going to be hard to find it and climb it. There will be many great challenges, but you MUST climb, and you will re-experience what you tasted at the beginning.

This experience of the beginning of something and then the struggle afterwards is trye of everything in life. Take marriage: the first night of marriage is the happiest night of life! Joy, bliss, friendship, love, peace, all the wonderful thing which a person wants in their life. This is the first night of marriage. But then, it goes away, after a week, a month, a year, five years, but its not the same. For some people, the next morning its not the same. Its not SUPPOSED to be the same. The wedding night is a gift! Hashem puts the young couple at the top of a mountain, to see what it would be to have a perfect marriage, to see what it would be to have all the love and joy and peace and that is a gift of Hashem. Then, it goes away. Hashem wants the couple to struggle through the long windy road through the forest, and climb the mountain again. It may take 10, 20, 50 years to recapture the beauty, bliss, sanctity and love of wedding night.

When a person opens up a new business, what excitement! The first dollar, shekel, yen, he puts in a frame, full of simcha, joy. SO many people come in, friend congratulate him, he opens up his new store. A few days later, the store is empty. He has to face the rough and tumble life of a businessman. The first day joy is no longer.

As a teacher of students I can tell you, theres nothing like the first day of school—so much excitement—it’s the beginning! The top of the mountain. But 6 months later, its a lot of tired harried students, struggling to make it.

Why does Hashem do this? My own theory, not in the Shem Mishmuel, is this: A person is about to embark on a long, life-defining road. Torah, Business, Education, Marriage. These are long difficult roads, very hard roads, many ups and downs and curves, sometimes we fall and must pick ourselves up and go on. What will give us the strength to do this? What will permit us not to give in, not to throw in the towel, but to say, I’m going on no MATTE R WHAT!? What gives us this strength?

Its because we see the dream at the beginning. We Jews were at Sinai. We left Egypt. That original experience which Hashem gave us to see the glory and the blessing of total success, on the very first night of the wedding, the couple celebrates as if they were married for a hundred years, as though they have 300 grandchildren! Hashem gives people this experience at the beginning of life-defining processes so that we will have the strength to go through the entire process along the way. So we will have the vision

Shlomo Carlebach tells us: G-d gives us wonderful prophecies.

The joy of a newborn baby!!! But what happens when the baby is rebelling at 16 years old? Not such a wonderful experience. But at the beginning, Hashem tells s: “love this baby! It is going to be HARD. But the struggle is WORTH IT!! Have the joy now at the beginning of the road, so that it will give you the strength to go through the difficulties which follow.”

The passuk says “zacharti lach chessed neurayich… lechtech acharai bamidbar…” As you Jews go through difficult times, unfaithful to its father in Heaven, its Husband and most loyal supporter, we have have not been faithful, and Hashem says: remember the beginning of the road, the beginning of our relationship as G-d and Nation. There was a love of the wedding night! That’s what Hashem says. If Hashem Himself uses this inspiration to keep HIS dedication us, when WE, unfortunately betray Him, he says, NO. I WILL NOT ABANDON YOU. I am loyal. I know that the dream which we had at the beginning is worth it. I remember our Chuppa.
Rabbosai, getting back to Yaakov. Why was Yaakov able to be alone without angels, when he had the great dream? Because this was the beginning of the road, the juncture for Yaakov to go down the long, hard road of life, during which he would develop from Yaakov, the simple young boy struggling with his brother Esav, to become the amazing Tzaddik, called Yisrael, who, 20 years later, can defeat the angel in hand to hand combat. At the very beginning of the road, Hashem gives him a vision of what he CAN BECOME. Right now, he isnt at all like that! He needs angels to protect him. Because he was only Yaakov, only at the beginning of the road. But Hashem said, for one moment, Yaakov, you have to become a Yisrael. So, for one moment, I will give you the experience of Yisrael, you will be without any angels. You will see them going up, because you won’t NEED them, you will be alone! After this, he went poor, helpless, penniless to attempt to navigate his destiny. But for a moment, he was given this vision of what he could become.

Chazal said: when the angels came down to see Yaakov, they said: the throne in heaven has a picture of a human being there, and the picture is of this person, Yaakov! At that point, he was a plain person, but he was for a moment given the vision of what he could become.
It’s a long, hard, difficult road and mountain to climb. But it is worth it. There are difficult things to achieve, but the glimpse, the vision of what lies ahead gives the strength to carry through until attainment.

At the end of our parsha, it says “yaakov was alone.” He had achieved his goal. He was levado, without angels. Shem Mishmuel says something remarkable—every one of us, every Friday night, has a taste of this experience. We come home from shul, and when we come home from shul, we are accompanied by angels, the angels of Shabbos. We sing a song to them, who has sent you to me? Hashem. Then, we say, boachem, borchuni leshalom! Even before Kiddush, we say, Tzeischem leshalom! Very strange! They come, bless us, and leave!? Shem Mishmuel says: we know that Shabbat is the day of Yaakov, and that Yaakov was greater than angels, and didn’t need angels. So too, on Shabbos, we begin with angels, but when we come home, and the angels see the shabbos that the Jew has, they say, this is greater than us. The Jew has gone higher. I can’t accompany. The jew on shabbos is alone with Hashem, no angels. So we say, Tzeitchem leshalom. We say to the angels, we are beyond you, we are going to be with Hashem. It reminds me of the yichud of the chassan and kalah, as they leave behind the whole entourage of the chuppah, and go into the yichud room.

And so, Rabbotai, appreciate the sweet vision and experience of shabbos, which precedes the week—what we can become, so high, so beautiful. We should be zoche of the bracha of Yisrael, of Chassan and Kallah, of Sasson and Simcha. Shabbat Shalom.