VAYETZE 1985

In the Torah portion Vayetzae we learn how Jacob goes into Galut, goes into exile.  We learn how he lights upon a certain place, and he has a dream of angels ascending and descending.  The rabbis ask the question, why is it that the angels ascend first and then descend second?  The dream should have been with angels descending and then ascending.  They give two answers to this question.  One, that this dream teaches us that G-d helps those who help themselves.  We first must send Mitzvahs up to Hashem before He will send blessings down to us.  Another explanation is that there are different angels that we need outside the land of Israel than we need inside the land of Israel, that a Jew's position is entirely different outside of Israel than it is inside of Israel.
This is true even today.  We Jews outside of Israel are a minority. We are outsiders.  We are not insiders.  In Israel we are the majority. We are insiders, not outsiders.  Israeli Jews who come to the Galut many times have a very difficult adjustment.  In Israel they did not have to do anything really to remain Jews.  They did not have to make a conscious effort.  The majority of the culture was Jewish, and they just had to go along.  Secondly, they were psychologically used to being an insider, not an outsider.  Many times when they come to America or other lands outside the Diaspora, they disappear very fast even if their name is Avi because they are not used to being an outsider and they are not used to making any effort to remain Jewish.
This also applies to Jews who go to Israel from the Galut.  In the Galut Jews are used to being a minority and many Jews who go to Israel cannot adjust to being a majority.  That explains why so many American
 
Jews when they go to Israel become either extreme secularists or adopt extreme religious positions.  Many of these people in America
were not even observant, but in Israel they adopt extreme positions because they are used to being a minority and they cannot adjust to being a majority.  They have to always be counter-culture or slightly counter-culture.  They must adopt a critical stance, an outsider's stance.
In the Torah portion Vayetzae we learn what Jews must do in order to maintain themselves in the Galut.  Jacob three times in this Torah portion almost assimilated in the Galut and Mesopotamia and gave up his status as a Jew.  The first time we read how when Rachel saw that she could not have children she said to Jacob, "Give me children or else I will die." Jacob became very angry at her and said, "Am I in place of G-d?  Am I stopping you from having children?"  The rabbis are very hard on Jacob for this reply because he answered in a cruel manner, but, of course, what he was saying was, "It is not my fault because I have children with my other wives.  It must be your fault." He should have consoled her and comforted her. He acted in a hard hearted and cruel manner.  Any Jew who acts in a hard hearted and cruel manner has forfeited his right to be a Jew. The rabbis say that if you see somebody who does not have Rachmones, then you should doubt whether he is a Jew.  Jews are not supposed to have killer instincts.  We are supposed to be merciful.
The second time Jacob almost lost being a Jew was when he had his second dream in this Torah portion.  In it he dreamed of one sheep mounting another.  From dreaming of angels ascending and descending, all he now thought about was one sheep mounting another.  All he
 
thought about was money.  The more one sheep mounted another, the more money he would make.  When all a Jew things about is making money, they pretty soon he or his children will stop being Jews. It is like the fellow who told me how smart he was when he tricked somebody into selling something to him real cheap.  He was not smart. He was a crook, and his children did not respect him anymore.  A Jew must have ideals or pretty soon he will blend into the general community and stop being a Jew.
The third time Jacob almost lost his Jewishness was when he decided that he would have to leave Laban, his father-in-law.  He, however, did not stand up to him but sneaked away.  He did not stand up for his Jewish ideals.  Laban, of course, found out and came after Jacob. If it would not have been for G-d's intervention, Jacob would have been destroyed.  When Laban and Jacob parted they made a treaty. They then piled up a heap of stones and Laban called it "Yegar Shahadusa" which means "a heap of witnesses".  This word is in Aramaic.  Laban was telling Jacob, "You are not different from me.  You are the same as me.  You do not have any different values.  You do not have anything to stand up for."  Jacob, though, called it "Galaid" which means "the heap is a witness".  He tells Laban by this that "this treaty does not mean that we are the same except in our humanity but not in our values." Laban then says something very interesting:  "All right, you want to call it a Galaid in Hebrew?  Then let it be a witness between me and between you." He says, "And this watchpost that G-d should watch between me and you when we are hidden from each other."  In other words, Laban said, "You have to worry, Jacob, about the hidden things and the open things if you want to be different. I, Laban, only worry about the open things.  The hidden things, the
 
things nobody sees I can be as tricky as I want." A Jew must stand up for something and take added responsibility.
In this Torah portion we learn how the Jew can survive in Galut but,
first of all, he cannot be cruel; second, he cannot be only concerned
about making money; and, third, he must stand for values, values
which may be different than his surroundings and which hold him to
an even higher standard.  Jews must be willing to stand up for themselves
and stand out and must be willing to be different if we are to exist
in the Galut.
There is a story about two medium sized bulls and a little bull in a pasture with about 50 cows.  All of a sudden, a truck came out and unloaded a huge bull.  One medium sized bull said to the other medium sized bull, "Let's go in the other pasture." All of a sudden they saw the little bull snorting and starting to paw the ground. The medium sized bulls looked at the little bull and said, "Are you going to charge that big bull?"  The little bull replied, "Of course not."  They then asked, "Then why are you doing that?"  The little bull said, "I want that big bull to know that I am a bull and not a cow." We Jews must be willing to stand up for ourselves, we must just not be concerned about making money, and we must not be cruel if we are to exist in the Galut.