The lessons of Rabbi Pinto Shlita are renowned in the Jewish world. They combine Hasidism and thought, along with tips for a better life. We have gathered pearls from his teachings relevant to our daily lives. And this week: Parashat Vaitza
When a person does things with greatness and holiness for the sake of heaven and morality, in the end, he receives blessing and joy, and his abundance is the greatest
“And Jacob came out of Beersheba and went to Harana.”
Our holy gentlemen say that our forefather Jacob went to Laban with large possessions to get married, but Esau was evil when he heard that Jacob had fled and sent his son Eliphaz to chase him and kill him. Eliphaz, who was in Isaac’s house and learned Torah from him, did not want to kill Yaakov. Eliphaz went to Jacob and said to him: I have a commandment to honor a father to kill you; what shall I do? Jacob said to
Eliphaz, Take all my possessions, and the poor man is considered dead, and this is how you will live up to what you promised your father to kill me. And about this, the Midrash says (Bereshit Rabbah 66:2), “Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman opened a song for virtue, I will look up to the mountains – I will look up to my parents.” Jacob said, When my father Isaac was supposed to get married, Eliezer went with ten camels full of goodies to bring a bride, and I go with nothing – “Where will Ezri come from?” and then continued, “Ezri of the people of the Lord made heaven and earth” – God help me.
Our holy gentlemen say that when Esau heard that Eliphaz had not killed Jacob, Eliphaz’s son Amalek went to Amalek and swore him a grave oath to eternal desolation that would persecute Jacob and his sons with great hatred to the extreme, and so Amalek claimed.
This is what our holy gentlemen meticulously: “And Yaakov came out of Ba’er Shab’a Vilach Harna” – an acronym from Yad B’a A’Lifaz R’She’a Sh’he B’n ‘Ashu and Ya’akov L’O Ya’akov K’l Khilo R’k v’Shehar HaMekel. And here, our rabbis teach us, it is implied in the Torah that Eliphaz took everything to Jacob and left him only the stick. And
our holy gentlemen also say when Jacob met Laban, “And when Laban heard the Shema of Jacob, the son of his one, he ran towards him and embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house, and told Laban all these things.” Thus, in the initials “A.T.C.L. the Almighty” – A. L. Tama 20 L. A. H. I came d’bar in ‘property R. B. Y’I came out of ‘Shem Hashem ‘Lech A’Lipez L’Take H’All. Thus Jacob went to Laban with nothing.
Our holy gentlemen, Yaakov Avinu Behir HaAvot, asks why he will marry Rachel and Leah in destitute poverty, and why God did not pity him to have something to marry. Why the cause and cause of causes, so Jacob was going to get married in such a difficult situation?Rather, it is possible to clarify and say, it is known that there are two ways that God leads His world – through poverty and through wealth. And our holy gentlemen say that the experience of poverty is the first trial, and whoever goes through the experience of poverty then God gives him the experience of wealth.
G-d began with our forefather Jacob with the experience of poverty, because he wanted the foundation of the Jewish people to be with the strength and nature to deal with times of poverty and the most difficult times. So when Jacob goes to build his house with Rachel, the first house of the people of Israel, the
twelfth of the tribes, “the tribes of the Lord bear witness to Israel” (Psalm 122:4), God is rolling that they will take everything away from Jacob and he will have nothing, the first house of Israel was built in great poverty. They took everything from Jacob, Jacob says, I go with nothing to the house of a cheater and a crook, How will I cope and how will I manage “from whence shall my help come” (Psalm 121:1) but “Ezri from the people of the Lord made heaven and earth.”
And G-d teaches us and gives us the strength that even a person with nothing can walk like our forefather Jacob, who started with nothing, eventually becoming extremely rich and blessed and successful.
And this is the great foundation that is how the first house of Israel was built with nothing, and then God gave it great wealth and wealth. And this is the meaning, “Behold, Salem, the state of the earth, and his head reaches heaven” (28:12) The state of the earth below in great poverty with nothing, but slowly and his head reaches heaven A person reaches unparalleled wealth and abundance. And this is the great foundation that a person must strengthen in his soul, To know that the people of Israel also began with great poverty and from there continued to the greatest wealth.
The Rama of Fano says that Eliphaz, who did not listen to his father Esau and did not kill Yaakov, was reincarnated in Onclus as the Gemara (Gittin 55:) It is said that he was a great minister and the son of the emperor’s sister and wanted to convert even though his uncle who was in the kingdom told him not to convert, he was able to make a translation of the entire Torah.
Eliphaz did not listen to his father to kill Jacob, nor did Onkelos listen to his uncle who told him not to convert, and thus he became the great and righteous convert who translated the entire Torah.
The lesson that we must take with us – when a person does things with greatness and holiness for the sake of heaven and morality, in the end he receives blessing and joy and his abundance is greatest.
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