The Story of Jacob & Esau: What No Body Told You! Secrets of Kabbalah

this is a very intense moment right now in the story of Yakov he's leaving Lavan and all of the difficulty that that entailed he's not having an easy time right now yob and he's coming back into Israel and this is not a happy ending to by any means to his story and he finds out that ASA is coming to meet him with 400 men now if we know how the story ended in before when yov got the bras we we know that that ASA wanted to kill yakob and said I'm gonna wait until my father dies and kill him or he even sent actually he didn't even wait he said he sent elifas to kill him and and luckily fortunately for yov elifas did not kill him um so now Yakov is faced with this threat of asov coming with 400 men to attack him and his family and all what he has and it's a very intense moment and we see him interestingly enough we see him preparing himself for this this conf confrontation in a few different ways so first of all the verse says that he was afraid and that's what we're going to address we're going to address the idea of Yakov being afraid Yakov decides to send Messengers angels two different two different interpretations whether they were just regular Messengers or whether they were in fact angels and he also sends a lot of gifts to give Asa to appease him that's one of the things that uh that yob does now it says over here when he finds out that ASA is coming at him yov was not just afraid but very afraid and that Disturbed him it Disturbed him and then he he does a tactic he splits his Camp into two and says if if ASA attacks one of the camps the other one will perhaps be able to run run away and and survive so those that's two things he prepared for a battle he tried to appease him by sending him gifts and he also turns to Hashem with a very heartfelt uh prayer for Hashem to save him and these are the three things we learn and and and and this is how the Jewish people have always approached difficulties and and the fears that we Face the only issue that that I'm going to bring up right now is discussed in the kazal discussed the idea of Yakov being afraid there's a there's two different teachings from the sage that it's on the surface perhaps seem to contradict each other ASA over here I'm sorry Jakob is worried why what's he worried he's worried that God forbid harm will come to him and his family the big problem with this is that he was promised by God earlier that I will be with you and I will protect you and I will make sure you come home safe and sound so people ask what in the world is yob afraid of over here why is he afraid very afraid if you had God's guarantee promise that you're taking care of what's there to be afraid of so one answer is that he was afraid for everyone else he knew he would survive because hasem was protecting him but what about everyone else they're they could be in danger that's one answer another answer is yakob was very humble and he wasn't sure if he deserved the Divine promise that he was given meaning Hashem said he was going to protect me and everything will be okay but that's only if I do my part of the bargain if I do everything I'm supposed to do but maybe I didn't do everything I was supposed to do maybe I am guilty of some type of level of sin because of things I didn't do you know after all I was with Lavan for a long time so so the idea is and this is a famous expression maybe sin and can also mean shortcoming maybe because of my shortcomings in his case it shortcomings fits better an actual sin but shortcomings or even the word literally means sin so maybe I don't deserve this Divine promise to be fulfilled and it won't happen and even I'm in danger those are the two ways to appreciate what's going on with Yakov in his mindset right now why he's so afraid why he's praying why he's protecting why he's trying to to you know buy off as this is what what's what's what's around his behavior and again the rabbis that are explaining him is that whether he was humble or whether he was just being honest human beings are limited and frail and who who says I I did everything I can to deserve God's blessing to be fully manifest For Me Maybe I maybe not okay there's another side to the story there's another side to the story different approach in kazal that mentions two of the greatest people that ever lived right people the People magazine actually have their greatest probably the most greatest people that ever lived the most influential the most wealthy whatever so People magazine when msah comes and and they get a new editor and chief because you know everything's going to be following the truth when mhia comes so the People magazine final Edition the greatest people that ever lived before Messiah when they make that final massive addition so who's going to be at the top of their list so two of the greatest probably the two greatest or two of the greatest it's hard to place them once you get that great but mosu and yobu two of the choicest greatest of human beings that have come into this world and accomplished like no other spoke through the through through the mouth of Moshe the spoke through through the of Moshe yob was the he was he was perfect he the generation of perfect sikim he raised so who greater than yov and Moshe and the Torah tells us about both Yakov and Moshe that they were both afraid you know and and it's interesting because since our religion one of one of the the fundamental principles of our of our faith is that God is in control and God runs things and he's here with us and he's watching us and he's protecting us and so the idea of of of being afraid of human beings is is a little bit of a contradiction to the ultimate Faith one has in in God and the fact that God has got him God has taking care of him you know especially the righteous that walk they're always in front of God for the moment they wake up and even while they're sleeping they just they never Yakov just slept last week and he had a dream Heavenly prophetic dream so so so the righteous are always in the the mindset of of hashem's presence so how could it be that Moshe the the amazing Moshe that was the greatest of prophets the most humble The Unbelievable Moshe Renu was afraid of parro you know how was yov here now with God's promise afraid of asov so this this approach in is critical of them the choices of Hashem were were afraid why would they be afraid and they they say they shouldn't have been afraid and so it's a classic M between two approaches one is is is being afraid of of danger a positive trait because you don't feel you deserve for God to to save you you don't deserve a miracle you don't deserve hashem's protection or is it a contradiction of trust if I have the ultimate trust and faith in Hashem then how Can I Be Afraid of Anything hashem's got me in the palm of his hands hashem's got me in his in his hands he's holding me what's that to be afraid of hash is holding you Yakov essentially was promised by God I got you don't worry I got this Yakov I got you why is he afraid that's the Kasha he had a literally a Divine promise not just a we believe that Hashem is going to take care of us Hashem literally told him I'm taking care of you you I'm going to bring you back where you came from in peace sh don't worry what's he afraid of so again one answer is that he was afraid of everyone else for everyone else but there's but but the PTA is he was afraid and there's another P he was really afraid for himself also so how could it be now what about Moshe Moshe saw an injustice taking place he saw a a cruel Egyptian that already took advantage of this Jewish Man by taking advantage of his wife and now to conceal that fact from everyone because he would have gotten in trouble perhaps is killing this man he's about to kill this je man cuz the Jewish man knows what he did to him so he's killing him and mosha sees this he sees this and he sees that there will be no righteous person to ever come from this this uh this Egyptian and convert to become Jewish and he sees what he's doing and he says I have to do something and he comes and he actually kills him not with his bare hands not with a knife not with a rock with one of the Holy names of Hashem and now when the next day he hears dat and a these two troubl makers fighting and the one says to him are you going to kill me like you kill the Egyptian and and and mosha realizes that people saw they saw if they saw then people know oh my now now power's going to find out about this and I and I'm in trouble I'm in D I'm I'm in danger and he was afraid so you you did something to save a Jew and you used you you used the holy name of Hashem to do it and you're afraid now of of of the repercussions by by parro why wouldn't Hashem protect you you did a Mitzvah you SA the life of a Jew he was was he promised like in the same the not a promise but since in context he did what he did with to save a Jew he did a Mitzvah and he was able to access such a power of of using a holy name to kill the Egyptian so clearly Hashem was behind him you can only do that if hasem lets you so maybe he should have assumed okay Hashem is going to protect me in the case of yob since he was promise he should have it's a bit stronger I know jakob's case is stronger but here too there there's reason to say that he shouldn't have been afraid neither of them should have been afraid now before we think you know how could mosha have been afraid how could yob have been afraid let me ask anyone in this room a question you're driving your car late at night from I don't know whever from a chevas from a wedding whatever and you're going through a neighborhood that's not the best neighborhood one thing leads to another you got a flat tire you're stuck in the middle of nowhere and you know all of a sudden you see some hoodlums dangerous type of people come they they they spot you you they coming they they pull out a gun they they want to rob you they want to they want to shoot you they want to kill you are you going to be afraid or not obviously we're not going to we're not being critical of them we would have been terrified in their shoes we wouldn't have we would have been so afraid we would have fainted from Fear we're talking about the holiest most righteous pure perfect Heavenly people that were in that ever came into the world they should have been afraid but we we should only be afraid so so we're not being critical of them and that think we could do any better because let's let's think about it we we every 5 Seconds we're afraid of something we're worried about this maybe this is not going to come the way I want we are we are full of fears and doubts you know it's funny I when I read the story of of the Jews in the desert we're going to get up to it soon you know you could think what is it with them they keep on arguing with hm they keep on not trusting Hashem and then I thought to myself I'm like you know it's very easy to read the story and get a picture like oh yeah of course if I would have been in those in their shoes so so obvious I wouldn't have made those mistakes and then I asked myself let me ask you how many times today alone have I doubted God how many times today alone was I either afraid or was I was or did I feel like let down because I didn't get what every five minutes we we're let down so so we're not any better than them but we have to appreciate and understand where they're coming from and we have to know what what we need to try to accomplish we need to strengthen our imuna strengthen our faith to be less afraid and less afraid till we reach a point where we also live in a world where Hashem is everywhere do was unbelievable he lit his daughter lit by mistake candles for Shabbat with vinegar by mistake they they were I guess they were rushing like in our house rushing air Shabbat no time to breathe vinegar and it's it's it's too late what can we do vinegar it's not going to work vinegar is not a good fuel for fire so so what's going to be so looked at the candle said don't worry my dear it was obviously too late to light something else the one that that told oil to light to be to be a s of light we'll tell the vinegar to be a source of light and it and so it was and the candles lit from Shabbat all the way not just for the night all the way till M Shabbat and I believe Theory I remember they did have dollar with that candle which is itself a question because how can you do on a miracle candle you should not supposed to do Mitzvah with Miracle things but okay leave it for the side but anyway talk about faith they all ask over here how could reab rely on a miracle you know you're not supposed to rely on Miracles so the beautiful answer that I that I um think and also that I thought and also saw later beautiful answer is that when for you Miracle a nature is the same then you don't get you don't get deducted for a miracle because it's all the same the same way Hashem helps me breathe every second the same way that he he he creates nature every second he creates the world from nothing every second he creates nature from absolute nothingness all the time the same way God creates nature meaning he creates water to fall can create water to stand the same God that creates oil to burn can create vinegar to burn if you're on that level where it's all the same then it's not a miracle and you don't get deducted for it now if you're on that level that you know that the same God that created creates oil to burn will create Vin to burn so this that same God will tell these crackheads that are trying to rob me and and shoot me not to do it he won't let them cuz he's making the world not them they can't do what they want he's in charge and back to our case when Moshe understands that parro is going to hear about what happened so he's he on his level is supposed to say okay hashem's certainly got this under control like and yob as well Hashem certainly got under control and we have to as much as we can in our lives try to bring that out live in that situation and it's not going to be uh Hashem should help and protect we shouldn't know from terrorist attacks we shouldn't know from real danger you know we shouldn't know from God for being in a plane that's literally on its way down the fast way we shouldn't known from such things for us it's it's going to be little things little things these little tiny things and you see we fall apart oh no my headphones I left them on the bus I'll never get them all the let's work on strengthening ourselves with the little things to have theun in the little simple little things that don't go our way and work slowly slow to build them to really emulate the true and hm's ways and hashem's but now let's bring this to conclusion so you said something very interesting for of you don't don't see there's a guy in the back that that that said that Yakov wouldn't be wrong so if yakob was afraid then the right thing to do was to be afraid when he heard that asov is coming to kill him so it's interesting the the uh the leem the leem was one of the great sikim yash's grandfather he was a big cabalist he lived in the of the in Europe theem they call himash he writes in one of his books exactly about this story and he brings the two sides that there's a side that that yob was afraid and it's because he was humble and maybe he didn't wasn't worthy and he brings the side that says no you're not supposed to be afraid it goes all the way till the end you should never be afraid and he says something along the lines of what he thoughted say but not exactly he says like this he says really Yakov would have never been afraid the holy Yakov would not have been afraid of asov so why was he afraid he says that Hashem made him afraid very very very very interesting answer it's not such a simple answer he's essentially saying that that yov was this ASF can't touch me and then Hashem said but I'm I want you to be afraid right now and he made him afraid the fear Came Upon him from above and that's the explanation of and he was he was troubled by the fact that he was afraid because he understood that the fear was put on him not that he was afraid himself and you'll ask why why would Hashem make him afraid because he explains that Hashem wanted this story to play out this way in the Torah so that future generations of Jewish people will see Yo's Behavior here and learn how they have to act how they have to be protective of themselves and of their families and they have to try to appease enemies he if Yakov would have stood up against asov then the message to us would have been we have to always fight fight fight fight Never Never Surrender never compromise never anything in the face of danger and we wouldn't always beond the Worthy on the level to be worthy to be saved by God and we would end up getting hurt Hashem said I don't want the Jewish people to get the message from yov that they're never supposed to compromise and think that every time that there's ever danger that I'm going to come and save them with a miracle it's unfortunately not going to happen because they're not always going to deserve it so y Hashem made Yakov afraid so that he would pray and he would send gifts and he would be defensive and and that's why he made him Afraid over here so in answer to your question that yakob would have never been afraid if it wasn't the right thing to do is correct he was afraid and it was the right thing to do because Hashem wanted him to be afraid and according to the Le hasem made him afraid right here and it wasn't really yov this idea of Yakov being afraid would have never really happened if it wasn't be that that hasem wanted it to be so very very radical I think think very very out of the box explanation but that's what theem one of the great great great of of of the time you know recent times so who's going to argue with him but that's I think it's a very powerful very powerful lesson very beautiful lesson uh let's conclude with with Moshe a bit we did touch on Moshe to date the most amazing explanation to this story with Moshe that I saw comes in in the form of from RE he addresses the issues that we touched on with Moshe and what happened and and he brings out an amazing amazing point he says like this he says that in life and how life unfolds together with Divine Providence and how God manages and runs the world our mindset our thoughts and our feelings towards a particular situation has the power to affect that situation and he says based on on aidic saying which also has a source in in in in tanak I forget exactly right now where the source is but there's a source in in in in a from uh in a somewhere that that says basically things turned out bad because we thought that they would turn out bad I have to find that Source later date but there is a source I remember it should remember where it is and and what he says is based on saying think good and it will be good so the reverse is also implied if you think bad it it it might lend towards things turning out bad and he says a very powerful idea here he says that because Moshe was afraid that he was in danger now that power will hear and he's in danger his negative thought of being afraid that perhaps now I'm in danger and power's going to come after me is what in fact caused parro to come after him unbelievable I mean he's the he can say this but uh we wouldn't make it up on our own but he's saying that and that's the message in the Torah it says he he he saw and he heard that that now now everybody knows so now power's going to hear and I'm in danger and and so it was until hasem had to actually save Moshe with a miracle by turning his neck into a marble and he is able to escape but again according to this had he have not been afraid then we would have never seen in the Torah the story of power chasing after him and catching him very powerful message as well because now we are told that our part is a very significant part if we allow ourselves in these moments of difficulty to be weakened and to have a lack of faith and a lack of trust so then we might be facilitating a negative result we have to be strong in our faith and our trust and we have to say no no no Hashem is there with me Hashem is going to take care of it and we as much as we're able we have to hold on and say no everything is going to be the way Hashem wants it and I accept it and and I have nothing to be afraid of and that helps a positive result that that is that is like an investment the itself is a for for Hashem to be comp more more more more compelled so to speak not compelled but you know our our we we we affect we you know our our what we initiate below affects above if we want a positive din if we want Hashem to go an extra go out of the way and go in for us so our added and our added efforts here can can cause that Hashem will do more for us and so if we stand in those strong in those moments and those difficult tests so then Hashem will hopefully deliver and save us from those difficult times and situations and that's that's what our Parton we have to hold strong as as we can because if we're weak in the in in in that moment things can become unfortunately much worse for us so so we know it's it's it's not set our involvement in in how things unfold is is crucial it's crucial and that's that's that's what we have to know Hashem is in charge hasem is in control but he's he's playing this out with us and so he's working with us and so our input is going to affect also what's going to be the end result I with this thought what I what I I have a discussion with uh my brother asks me a lot of times about you know and could things have been different can can my mistakes cause me to lose money and we get into this a lot and other people always this a concern of a lot of people so I and I try to tell him I try to tell him like this and I think it's a good message for all of us I try myself to live up to this as well it's not easy I think if we go to a basis simple approach we can hopefully try to remove a lot of the doubts we have a lot of the fears we have a lot of the issues we have with uh maybe it was a mistake to go into this deal maybe it was a mistake to buy that maybe it was a mistake to sell that maybe it was a mistake to do that we we instead of living with regret and and maybe we did this wrong wrong I think a really straight direct path to real trust and and and faith is this if I know that Hashem is holding me in his hands he has me in his hands so then I can no matter what he's always has me in he's taking care of him he's holding me in his hands so now let me ask you a question does it make a difference if I have more or less money in my pocket if hashem's holding me hashem's got me he's cradling he's got me so what's the difference how much money I have in my pocket how much less how much more what's the difference if I have that deal or that deal meaning the details don't matter as much if I understand in general Hashem has got me in his hands and he's doing the best for me protecting me helping me I wouldn't be anywhere without him wherever I am is only because he's with me and he's doing it for me with me helping me and so if I understand that and I work on meditating on that point then the details no longer matter as much meaning it doesn't matter if my this deal is working out the way I wanted hasem has me in his hands this is the way hasem wants it to work out and he certainly only wants what's best for me and if I can't see the positive I can believe that there's positivity hidden there and that's what we have to live with that everything Hashem does is for the positive and he's holding me and carrying me and and escorting me everywhere I go and then therefore there is no real reason to have regret worries fears nothing because if that's your partner and your escort everywhere you go what do it to be afraid of the best bodyguard in the world