Thursday, November 20, 2008
Toldos - Removing The Shackles
TOLDOS - REMOVING THE SHACKLES
by Rabbi Pinchas Avruch (Executive Director, Milwaukee Kollel)
As Yaakov approached his father Yitzchak for the Divine blessings for material sustenance, he did so dressed as his coarse twin, Esav. This scheme was undertaken in accordance with the prophecy of his mother Rivka that Yaakov - who was already destined to receive the Divine blessings for the spiritual and national providence promised to their grandfather, Avraham (see Beraishis 28:3-4) – would also need this blessing if he was to survive.
“Yaakov said to his father, ‘...Rise up, please, sit and eat of my game...’ and So Yaakov drew close to Yitzchak his father who felt him and said, ‘The voice is Yaakov’s voice but the hands are Esav’s hands.’” (27:19,22) Rashi explains that the voice recognition was not an issue of insufficient disguise; rather it was an issue of verbiage. Yaakov would request, “Father, rise up, please,” where Esav would say “Get up, father!” (27:31)
But the Medrash Raba explains that the honoring of his father was of paramount importance to Esav. This evil son offered one hundred times more honor to Yitzchak than did the righteous Second Temple era sage Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel to his father. Esav genuinely felt compelled to wear his most formal wear when serving his father; Rabban Shimon could have gone through the motions, attempting duplication of Esav’s dedication, but it would have been an empty, meaningless act. If Esav’s sensitivity to his father’s honor was so profound, his actions and his words are most incongruous! How could he speak to Yitzchak in such a crass manner? It is even more perplexing considering Esav’s objective of putting Yitzchak in the proper frame of mind prior to offering his blessing!
Rabbi Alter Henach Leibowitz zt”l, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim in Kew Gardens Hills, New York, observes that one’s habits in speech are such an ingrained element of the personality that they come to surface in all situations. Thus, no matter how much honor Esav truly desired to bestow upon his father, his biting, chiding tone came through. For speech is a manifestation of the soul, as Onkelos translates Adam’s soul of “life” (2:7) as the power of “[intelligent] speech”. Effecting genuine change in one’s speech demands an overhaul of one’s core personality, no small feat.
Rabbi Leibowitz draws the similarity to changing any one of our negative midos, a challenge the great ethicist Rabbi Yisrael Salanter (1810-1883), founder and spiritual father of the Mussar movement, called more difficult than learning through the entirety of the Talmudic and Midrashic Oral Tradition. Not addressing these spiritual shortcomings can be extremely self-defeating. Rabbi Leibowitz concludes that Esav’s negative trait of cruelty was, to his detriment, the root cause of in his selling his birthright to Yaakov. Nachmanides (1194-1270) explains that Esav’s own sense of cruelty turned on him and caused himself harm by cruelly selling a birthright that he knew in his core essence to be most valuable.
As we strive to develop our “G-d consciousness”, to foster the growth of every Jew’s Divine spark and bring our G-dliness to the fore, we need to realize that we cannot move forward so long as we are shackled in place by bad character traits. Freedom is not the ability to DO what one wants; freedom is the ability to DETERMINE what is in one’s best interest and ACT upon it. One who is “free” to react with jealousy, hate, rage, haughtiness and a pursuit of desires may not be a slave to another human...but is very much enslaved to himself. Only when we succeed in removing these fetters will our Jewish selves truly be free to soar.
Have a Good Shabbos!
Pinchas Avruch
Reader's Comments
Hi Rav Pinchas! Hope all is well with you and the family! All the best.
David
Posted on 11/25 at 06:09 PMHi !, Rabbi Pinchus ,
Are you from Arcola Avenue in Silver Spring ? I’m so impressed to see you here on these pages ! What a wonderful d’var torah.There is always a bond between NCSY alumni ! I’d love to hear from you. Tzirel Goodman (Sinai chapter advisor)
Posted on 12/15 at 01:05 AMI am always a bit late on reading the newsletters, but what a pleasant surprise from another resident of Arcola Avenue. Hope all is well.
..Debra
Posted on 12/24 at 09:20 AM
Next entry: Alumni Spotlight on Jennifer Proper
Previous entry: Pay It Forward