It has all the ingredients of a best-selling novel or a blockbuster movie: sibling rivalry, a life-threatening scene in a pit of serpents, an unexpected rescue, degradation in the slave market, a beautiful seductress and her jealous husband, incarceration for life, a surprise release, ascent to international fame and power, and then, sweet revenge.
These are the elements in the story of Yosef and his brothers. What is it doing in the Holy Torah?
The selection of the Jewish people as a distinct entity apart from the “family of nations” is apparent in the two essential miracles of Chanuka – the military victory and the miracle of the menorah.
The military victory was visible for all to see. The miracle of the menorah transpired in the privacy of the Temple’s sanctuary (kodesh). The visible miracle was for the world to realize our special connection with the Creator. The miracle of the private and enclosed menorah expressed the intimate relationship between HaShem and His people.
Picture a wedding scene with 1000 guests in a palatial hall.
This message is directed to the young men and women still residing in the various Jewish communities in the lands of our exile.
You are a vital element in the ongoing saga of our nation. Regardless of where you were born or whose citizenship you hold, you will forever be a Jew in the eyes of the Halacha and in the eyes of your gentile neighbors.
How can you stand aside when history is beckoning to you? Where is the passion and adventure of youth?
Though Ya’akov Aveinu returns home triumphantly, as Chazal say – spiritually, physically and materially “whole” – a dark cloud hovers over him as he learns that waiting to greet him in Eretz Yisrael is his brother, Eisav, accompanied by 400 “armed to the teeth” cohorts.
Ya’akov prepares for the fateful meeting of not only two alienated brothers, but of the collision of two ways of life; both which will influence humanity until the end of time.
We find Ya’akov gripped with fear. He devises a three-pronged strategy: to bribe Eisav with gifts, to pray to God, and just to make sure, if these two tactics should fail, Ya’akov divides his loved ones and material wealth into two camps, in the event Eisav destroys one camp, the other will have an opportunity to escape.
Ya’akov is desperate. On this day, his destiny, and that of the Jewish nation, hang in the balance, and tomorrow it will be resolved in the life and death struggle between him and his brother.
Aisav cannot be Ya’akov any more than Ya’akov can be Aisav. Their dispositions, characters and ambitions are reflections of their souls. Rivka felt this when each child was aroused in her womb – Ya’akov upon passing a place of Torah study and Aisav when passing a place of avoda zara (idolatry).
The dichotomy of Ya’akov and Aisav is clear cut. Ya’akov clings to HaShem through Torah and mitzvot from which he derives his lifeblood of existence, whereas Aisav sees his survival through being able to stalk his prey in the field with his bow and arrows. He has no need for HaShem for he is the master of his own life and future.
At this juncture in our history, each Jew is again faced with the choice to be Ya’akov or Aisav, to pick up the gauntlet of the strong and courageous or to back off from the responsibility of a bechor.
The Holy One Blessed Be He created Wisdom, Prophecy and the Torah, with each one representing its own approach to sin and the sinner. Wisdom (logic) demands that the sinner who violated the Creator’s will shall suffer in order to attain his atonement. Prophecy lays down death as the prior condition for his atonement. And the Torah requires the bringing of a sacrifice or any of the other punishments present in the Torah such as a monetary fine, flogging, or exile.
When King Shaul had pity on the Amalekite King Agag, the prophet Shmuel killed Agag and informed Shaul that HaShem regretted having appointed him as King of Israel.
