B"H

Thursday, Kislev 7, 5783 (Hakhel Year) / December 1, 2022

 

This week's Parsha, Vayeitzei, is about Yaakov's journey from the Holy Land to his uncle Lavan where he spent the next twenty years. 

 

On the way he has a dream of a great ladder stretching from earth to heaven and angels going up and down the ladder.  Before leaving the Holy Land, G-d speaks to Yaakov in a dream, promising to give this land, to his many descendants and to protect him until his return.  Yaakov vows that on his safe return he will give a tenth of his possessions to G-d – to charity. 

 

When he comes to Charan he offers to tend Lavan's sheep for seven years so that he can marry his daughter, Rachel.  After seven years, Lavan cheats him and gives him his older daughter, Leah, instead. Lavan tells Yaakov that for another seven years of work, he can marry also Rachel.  Yaakov agrees.

 

The ladder which Yaakov saw extending from earth to heaven had special significance for Yaakov as he was going to establish a family and worldly possessions. It signified that worldly matter (earth) and spiritual matter (heaven) are connected. By using one's assets and personal success to perform G-d's commandments and acts of good deeds one builds the ladder which connects the physical and the spiritual - earth and heaven.

 

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Barditchev would visit local Jewish settlements to teach Torah, help them with their problems and strengthen their Jewish observance. 

 

Arriving once in a town where he was unknown, a local Jewish butcher, seeing a very distinguished looking rabbi, approached him and said, "Rabbi, perhaps you're a qualified shochet (ritual slaughterer)?"

 

"I am," the rabbi replied.

 

"Great! I'll pay you well for your trouble.  Our shochet has taken ill and many customers are waiting for their kosher meat." 

 

“I agree, but first I need a favor," he told the butcher. "I urgently need a loan of 300 rubles for my daughter's wedding.  Can you lend me the sum?  I will repay it in three months."

 

"Three hundred rubles is a lot of money!  How can I lend you such a large sum when I never met you before and I don't even know who you are?"

 

"I don't understand," replied Rabbi Levi Yitzchak.  "You’re afraid to trust me with your money because I'm a complete stranger, but you’re ready to entrust me with the responsibility of providing your community with kosher meat? Is money more important than the observance of G-d’s mitzvot?

 

Lesson: To a Jew, physical matter, and spiritual matter, are inseparable. They complement each other.

 

HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY