בס״ד Torah performed as passionately as lot safer. Jacobs Lament In this Laban's evil deeds. By Rabbi Yossi Goldman week's parshah, the dreaded Weekly If the good guys were as encounter incentivized as the bad guys, A Woman’s Persuasion between Jacob and Esau finally November 29- December 5, 2020 crime would be dramatically materializes. After decades of "And [Jacob] arose during that 13-19 Kislev, 5781 down. If the security forces were separation, the twin brothers who night, and he took his two wives, as passionate as Osama Bin are anything but identical square his two maidservants, and his Torah reading: Laden and his cohorts, we would Vayishlach: Genesis 32:4 - 36:43 up. Jacob, who fled the wrath of eleven children, and he crossed have found him long ago. If the Haftarah: Obadiah 1:1-21 Esau 34 years earlier, is returning the ford of the Jabbok [stream]." police and justice systems of the home with a large family and — Genesis 32:23 PARSHAT VAYISHLACH world operated with the same much wealth. Esau is fast "But where was [Jacob's commitment and drive as the approaching with four hundred daughter] Dinah? (Benjamin We have Jewish drug lords and the hijacking desperados armed to the teeth. was not yet born, but Dinah Calendars. If you syndicates, we would all be Will it be all out war or will they seemingly should have been would like one, better off. The trouble is that the make peace? Jacob prepares for counted.) please send us a forces of evil are enthusiastic and all eventualities and also sends a highly motivated while the [Jacob] put her into a chest and letter and we will message to his hostile brother: send you one, or forces of good often depend on locked her in, so that Esau should not set eyes on ask the "Im Lavan garti," Jacob civil servants who are Calendars declares, "I have sojourned overworked and underpaid. her. Therefore, Jacob was Rabbi/Chaplain to with Laban." Rashi interprets punished for withholding her contact us. Nikita Khrushchev (of United Jacob's message to mean that from his brother – [because had Nations shoe-banging fame) was though he lived with a notorious he married her,] perhaps she Do you have family once addressing a large public trickster for more than 20 years, would cause him to improve his meeting in Russia during the on the outside he "did not learn from his evil ways – and she fell into the hands anti-Stalinist period. He was struggling? ways" and remained a righteous of Shechem." — Rashi's blasting Stalin's cruel and Please contact or Jew committed to the G-dly way commentary on the verse unforgivable atrocities, when a have them contact of life. This is indicated by voice in the crowd suddenly Esau was reared in the most ideal the gematria (numerology) of our office to learn spoke up and asked, "If Stalin household imaginable. His the Hebrew more about our was such a villain, why earliest childhood memories word garti ("sojourned") which family programs. didn't you do anything about it were of life together with his equals 613 — the number You and they are then?" illustrious grandfather Abraham, of mitzvot in the Torah. the paradigm of kindness and Family Programs Family not alone, we are "Who said that?!" thundered But wasn't this rather boastful of purity, who personally oversaw here to help. Khrushchev. There was absolute Jacob? The same man who will the education of his twin silence in the hall. Not a sound, soon be praying for deliverance grandsons and gave them the not a movement. People froze in We offer free Grape and claiming that, "kotonti" ("I foundations for a meaningful fear. Juice and Matzoh have been humbled") by all G-d's spiritual life. With Abraham's for you to be able to kindnesses to him, now seems to "Now you understand why I passing when Esau was fifteen make the blessings be pointing proudly to his piety, didn't do anything," was years old, life for the young lad Khrushchev's convincing every Shabbos. telling Esau how religious he has continued in the presence been? answer. of Isaac and Rebecca and his Please have your brother Jacob. Seeing chaplain / Rabbi The Chofetz This interesting interpretation of Chaim (Rabbi Israel Meir Jacob's lament reminds us that a tzaddik (righteous person) even contact us to enroll the voice of morality must be at once has an intense impact on a (available to all Kagan, 1838-1933) offers a novel interpretation. He explains least as loud as the voice of evil. person, and Esau spent decades Grape Juice & Matzah & Juice Grape prisons). that Jacob's words should not be Too often the voice of justice is with none other than the three understood as a boast but rather soft and still while the voice of Patriarchs! One would be hard- Hyman & Martha Rogal Center as a lament. "I sojourned with corruption and degeneracy is pressed to find another person 5804 Beacon Street Laban, but did not learn from his loud and bombastic. throughout the course of history Pittsburgh, PA 15217 who had a comparable evil ways" means that Jacob is Who will amplify the sweet, 412-421-0111 upbringing, yet this had very Fax: 412-521-5948 bemoaning the fact that he did silent sound of goodness? not learn from the way Laban did little effect on a very thick- www.alephne.org Let us strive to become as skinned Esau. [email protected] evil. How did Laban do evil? passionate and assertive for the But that which saintly parents Enthusiastically! With vim and cause of G-dliness and goodness and brother couldn't accomplish, vigor. His wicked ways were as the other side is for evil and Dinah could conceivably have embarked on with a passion and injustice. The world will be achieved. Despite the fact that energy, and Jacob regrets that his better balanced, much nicer and a she was a young girl, she could own good deeds were not IN JEWISH HISTORY have inspired Esau- a man who had Sunday, November 29, 2020 --- 13 Kislev, 5781 incredible unrealized potential- to mend his Talmud completed (475 CE) In the first decades of the 5th century, Rav Ashi (d. 427) and Ravina I (d. 421) led a group of ways. This is a compelling demonstration of the Amoraim (Talmudic sages) in the massive undertaking of compiling the Babylonian Talmud - the influence a woman wields in her home. - collecting and editing the discussions, debates and rulings of hundreds of scholars and sages Our sages refer to the woman as the "akeret which had taken place in the more than 200 years since the compilation of the Mishnah by Rabbi habayit," the foundation of the home, for Judah HaNassi in 189. The last of these editors and compilers was Ravina II, who passed away on she sets the tone of her home — not through the 13th of Kislev of the year 4235 from creation (475 CE); after Ravina II, no further additions preaching or the power of persuasion, but by were make to the Talmud, with the exception of the minimal editing undertaken by the Rabbanan establishing the environment of the Savura'i (476-560). This date thus marks the point at which the Talmud was "closed" and became household. the basis for all further exegesis of Torah law. There are many ways to influence others. Monday, November 30, 2020 --- 14 Kislev, 5781 The teacher/student dynamic is certainly a Reuben Born (1568 BCE) vital contributor to the making of a person, Reuben, the eldest son of Jacob and Leah, was born in Charan (Mesopotamia) on the 14th of Kislev yet it is widely recognized that the of the year 2193 from creation (1568 BCE). As Jacob's firstborn, he was initially entitled to the imparting of information is the least leadership of Israel and to a double portion in the Holy Land, but these privileges were taken from effective way to inspire a person to change. him (and given respectively to Judah and Joseph) because he sinned by "violating the bed of his Parents play a much greater role in the father." Reuben unsuccessfully tried to prevent the persecution of Joseph by his brothers in 2216 formation of their children's character. They (1545 BCE) and subsequently berated them for selling him into slavery (Genesis 37:21; 42:22). In serve as their children's primary role 2238 he relocated to Egypt together with his father, brothers and their children, where he died on his 125th birthday in 2318 (1443 BCE). models, teaching by example rather than Rebbe's Marriage (1928) indoctrination. The values they live by will On the 14th of Kislev, 1928, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, always be deeply embedded in their married Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneersohn (1901-1988), the middle daughter of Rabbi Yosef children's psyche. Nonetheless, children Yitzchak Schneersohn (1880-1950), the sixth Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch. The wedding was held have a natural propensity to rebel, to explore in Warsaw, Poland, at the Lubavitcher Yeshivah, Tomchei Temimim. the world on their own in order to arrive at Upon Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak's passing in 1950, Rabbi Menachem Mendel succeeded his father-in- their own code of ethics and values. The law as the Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch. On the 14th of Kislev of 1953, at a farbrengen (Chassidic innate tendency of children to discard the gathering) marking his 25th wedding anniversary, the Rebbe said to his Chassidim: "This is the conclusions reached by previous day that bound me to you, and you to me." generations allows the world to steadily Tuesday, December 1, 2020 --- 15 Kislev, 5781 progress and uncover new "truths" — many Rabbi Judah the Prince (188 CE) of which will be disproved by subsequent Rabbi Judah the Prince -- also known as Rabbeinu Hakadosh ("our holy master"), or simply as generations — but also limits the influence "Rabbi" -- was elected nasi -- spiritual and civil head of the Jewish community at large -- after the the older generation exerts over the younger death of his father, Rabbi Simeon ben Gamliel.