Dear friends;
I hope that you”ll enjoy the following Parsha summary followed by a Dvar Torah.
” Parsha in a Nutshell ”
Jacob returns to the Holy Land after more than 20 years stay in Charan, and sends messengers to Esau in hope of a reconciliation, but his messengers report that his brother is on his way with 400 armed men. Jacob prepares for war, prays, but decides to go in peace and sends Esau a large gift (consisting of hundreds of sheep and cattle) to appease him.
That night, Jacob ferries his family and possessions across the Yabbok River; he, however, remains behind and encounters the angel, with whom he wrestles until daybreak. Jacob suffers a dislocated hip but triumphs the supernatural creature, who bestows on him the name “Yisrael”, which means “He who prevails over the Divine.”
Jacob and Esau meet, embrace and kiss, but part ways. Jacob purchases a plot of land near Shechem, whose crown prince — also called Shechem — abducts and rapes Jacob’s daughter Dinah. Dinah’s brothers Simon and Levi avenge the deed by killing all male inhabitants of the city after rendering them vulnerable by convincing them to circumcise themselves.
Jacob journeys on. Rachel dies while giving birth to her second son, Benjamin, and is buried in a roadside grave near Bethlehem. Reuben loses the birthright because he interferes with his father’s marital life. Jacob arrives in Chevron, to his father Isaac, who later dies at age 180.
Our parshah concludes with a detailed account of Esau’s wives, children and grandchildren, and the family histories of the people of Se’ir among whom Esau settled.
” Dvar Torah ”
In this week’s Parsha, we learn about two extremely opposite approach of dealing with the enemy. First we read the story of the close encounter of Jacob and his brother Eisav, after more than 20 years of separation. At their last encounter, which some commentators believe that it was 34 years before, Eisav promised to kill Jacob, because he stole his father’s only blessing. Jacob, still scared of his brother’s wrath, comes up with a strategy; he decides to come in peace. He sends lots of gifts before his arrival. Once he saw the sight of his brother Eisav coming with 400 armed men, he bowed down to him seven times, and he called him his “Lord” and his “Master” several times. He made his wife and his children bow down to him too. Only then, we see that he won the heart of his brother Eisav and he kissed him and forgave him for his past deeds. But immediately after, we see that Jacob separates himself from Eisav and each of them go in their own way. Some Chachamim praise Jacob for reconciling with his brother in peace, while others criticize him for showing lack of fate in G-d to protect him against his brother.
The second approach is when we read the sad and tragic story of Dinah’s rape, the only daughter of Jacob, by Prince of Shechem. The rapist’s father, “Chamor”, subsequently asks for the hand of Jacob’s daughter in marriage with his son, Shechem, and also wanted to make a treaty between their nation and Jacob’s. “Intermarry with us! Give us your daughters, and take our daughters for yourself, and come and dwell among us!” Dinah’s brothers agree on the condition that all the males in the city agree to become circumcised first. The community consents and all the male get circumcised. But on the third day of circumcision, when the men were all in pain, Jacob’s sons, Shimon and Levi took their swords and killed all the men of the city of Shechem.
Most Chachamim criticize Shimon and Levi’s barbaric massacre, since they were undoing the good their father accomplished in reconciling with his brother Eisav. Later in the Torah, Jacob too, while lying on his deathbed, condemns Shimon and Levi for their inhumane behavior.
So, which one is the right approach of dealing with the enemy??? Do we take the Shimon and Levi’s approach and kill them all? Or do we take the Jacob’s approach and make peace with them, bow down to all their needs and humiliate ourselves, just to win their consent?
Well, the Torah does not tell us which one is the right approach, but since both strategies are criticized by our Chachamim, it’s safe to conclude that extremism is not the best solution to deal with the enemy. However, by studying these two strategies, the Chachmim came up with an important discovery. Both of these strategies have one thing in common. In both scenarios, the confrontation with Eisav and meeting with the Shechemites, Jacob and his children never mixed in with the other nation!! At the end of the day, they each went their separate ways. Neither time, they agreed to live together with the gentile nation and become one! We see that later on when Jacob and his family moved down to Egypt, they also never mixed with the Egyptians and they lived their lives, separately.
Yes my friends, the message of the Torah is quite clear. Whether we live in peace with the non-Jews or whether we are at war with them, at the end of the day, we each go our separate ways. We don’t give our daughters to them and we don’t take their daughters for ourselves! Throughout our lifetime, sooner or later we come across dealing with the non-Jew, specially when we live in the diaspora. Sometimes we need to study with them; sometimes we need to work with them; sometimes we need to be tough with them and sometimes we need to be nice to them and bow down to their needs. But at the end of the day, we have to remember that we are the Chosen People and we cannot mix in with them because we are a holy nation!! Those of us who live in America, know very well the dangers of assimilation. It is as if we can still hear the King of Shechem’s voice whispering in our ears: ” Give us your daughters, and take our daughters for yourself, and come and live among us!” Unfortunately many Jews fall in the trap and take their offer! This is why the Torah is warning us. Even if we live in peace with them, we have to make sure that we”ll go our separate ways at the end of the day.
Remember that it’s a privilege for a non-Jew to marry a Jew, but it’s a dishonor for a holy Jew to marry a “Goy”!
Shabbat Shalom & Regards;
Martin