‘Parsha Power Pointers’
Rabbi Dani Staum
Parshas Toldos
(25:22) “The children struggled within her.”
Rashi quotes the Medrash which explains why Rivkah felt such turmoil within her. When she would walk past the yeshivos of Shem and Aver, Yaakov would struggle within her as if desiring to enter the Bais Medrash. Then, when she would pass a house of idolatry, Eisav would bang inside her as if desiring to enter there.
Rabbi Chaim Brisker once asked his father, the Bais Halevi, the following question: The gemara (Niddah 30b) relates that throughout the months when a fetus is in its mother’s womb an angel teaches the neshama the entire Torah. Therefore, it makes perfect sense why Eisav couldn’t wait to get out of there. But why would Yaakov want to enter the yeshivos of Shem and Ever when in the womb he was able to learn Torah from an angel?
The Bais Halevi answered that ‘when Eisav is your chavrusa (study partner) it doesn’t matter how great your rebbe is; you need to get out as soon as possible’. The Avos d’R Nosson (chapter 9) states, “Do not associate with a wicked person- even in regards to Torah”.
The effect of one’s friends and surroundings cannot be overstated. Even if one’s parents and rabbeim are supreme educators, if his circle of friends behave inappropriately and unbecomingly it is likely that their effect will be more profound than all of his mentors.
When Eisav is your chavrusa you need to get away!
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(25:34) “And Yaakov gave to Eisav bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank, got up and left; and Eisav disgraced the birthright.”
The fact that Eisav was readily willing to sell the birthrights for food demonstrates his apathy towards those rights. If so, why did Eisav disgrace them afterwards?
Harav Leib Chasman zt’l explained that a ba’al ta’avah (one overwhelmed by his desires) often becomes a ba’al shittah (one who stands on principle)! Even if one, G-d forbid, succumbs to his evil inclination and commits an aveirah, at that point he is not ‘far away’ from repenting. If he regrets his actions, confesses, and seeks to ensure that he will not repeat his error, he can easily achieve complete repentance. The problem is that it is difficult for a person to admit that he erred. His initial reaction is to immediately rationalize and justify his actions, often insisting that it was not his fault, or worse, that he did nothing wrong.
At that point, his sin becomes far more serious, because if one does not recognize the folly of what he did there is no way he will seek to rectify it or make amends.
In a moment of weakness, Eisav sold the birthrights to Yaakov for a bowl of food. No sooner did he finish eating it, that Eisav realized the idiocy of what he had just done. How could he live with himself after selling his natural right for a bowl of lentils? To assuage his own conscience Eisav mocked and scorned the rights of the firstborn, until he convinced himself that his actions were not imprudent or rash at all.
The first step towards repentance lies in one’s ability to be man enough to take responsibility and fess up to the mistakes he has committed.
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(26:18) “Yitzchok dug anew the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Avrohom his father and the Phillistines had stopped up after Avrohom’s death; and he called them by the same names that his father had called them.”
At the groundbreaking ceremony for the Grodna Yeshiva in Ashdod, Harav Rabbi Yecheskel Abramsky zt’l was invited to address the assemblage. In his speech, he applied the aforementioned verse to the Ponovezher Rav, Harav Shlomo Kaheneman zt’l:
“The Nazis ys’v sought to destroy every yeshiva. In fact, they not only sought to destroy them, but “they closed them up and filled them with dirt”; they wanted to eradicate every trace of the yeshivos from the face of the earth. But now the Ponovezher Rav has come and has “dug wells”. But these are not new wells, rather they are those same wells which had been in Europe. And to ensure that they are the same wells which he is supplanting here, “he called them by the same names that his father had called them.”
Indeed the great bastions of European Torah live on in the hallowed halls of the yeshivos of ‘Brisk’, ‘Ponovezh’, ‘Telshe’, ‘Mir’, and ‘Chevron’, among others.
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(Bais Halevi – quoted in Otzaros HaTorah; Harav Leib Chasman – Ohr Yahel chelek 3; Harav Chatzkel Abramsky – Chazon Yecheskel (Tanach))