VAYETZE 1993

In the Torah portion Vayaetze we learn how Yaacov leaves Beersheva and goes to Choron, obstensibly to get a wife but really to escape the wrath of his brother because he swindled his brother Esau out of the blessing.  It says In the text, "And he alighted at the place and he lodged there because the sun set and he took from the stone of the place and he put it under his head and he lay down in that place." The word Vayeefka has many meanings In Hebrew,  It means to pray, and from this word we learn that Yaacov Instituted the Maariv prayer, the evening prayer for the Jewish people.  The word does mean alight but it also means to be wounded. Yaacov was wounded when he came to this place.  The word Vayeefka does not only mean to lay down but to be sick, to lay down in a sick bed.  Yaacov was sick because he could not understand how all these things had happened to him.  Here he was a student, a person who was Interested in morality and injustice, and of all people
he was the one who had cheated his father, swindled his brother, and estranged for his mother.  All these things happened and he could not understand what happened,
so he dreamed, "And behold there was a ladder that was standing on the ground and its head was reaching the heaven and, behold, angels of G-d were going up and going down on it, and, behold, G-d was standing upon it and He said, 'I am the G-d, the G-d of Abraham, your father, and the father of Yitzchak.  The land that you will lie upon It you, I will give it to you and to your seed'." G-d promises him then that his seed would be like the dust of the land and it will spread eastward, westward and northward, that they would be blessed all the families of the earth by you and by your seed.  Then He also promises that He will return Yaacov to this land and that He will not desert him.  Then it says, "And Yaacov woke up from his sleep," and Rav Yogan explains that this word means not just that Yaacov woke up from his sleep but that Yaacov woke up from his learning.  He went to bed and was a sick man but when he woke up we learn that he was no longer sick.  Instead it says, "Truly there Is G-d In this place.  How awesome is this place? This is nothing more than the house of G-d.  This is the gate of heaven.  And Yaacov got up early in the morning and he took the stone that he put under his head and he made It a monument and he poured oil on its head." What happened here? How come all of a sudden Yaacov woke
 
up and he was no longer sick? He no longer felt that he was wounded.  In fact, in the Gemora Shabbos we learn how Yaacov was associated with Shabbos.  In the Gemora Shabbos it says specifically that Avraham was not associated with Shabbos and Yitzchak is not associated with Shabbos, only Yaacov is associated with Shabbos.  The problem that Yaacov had was that Yaacov all his life was an observer.  He thought that because he understood the processes of nature, he understood interpersonal relationships that they did not affect him, that he was exempt from them.  It is like many times it happens that a doctor will think that because he understand the law of medicine that the medical rules are not applicable to him.  I remember our family doctor in Seattle who actually delivered two of our children, that he was a man who used to tell everybody stop smoking and to go on a diet as he was smoking a cigar and his belly was hanging over his desk.  In fact, when he had a heart attack he checked himself out the next day from the hospital.  Of course, he died, but he seemed to feel that he was exempt from all these other rules of medicine that everybody else had to adhere to and was subject to because he understood them.  Just because you understand the rules of nature does not mean that you are exempt from them.  Even if I understand biology very well if I cut my finger I am still going to bleed. Even if I understand the laws of physics very well if I jump off a cliff I am going to fall down and be hurt.  You cannot defy the laws of interpersonal relationships either.  Yaacov somehow thought that he was exempt from these laws, but now he woke up from his learning.  He realized that he was an active participant in life, that he, himself, had to observe all. these laws that he read about, that just understanding the laws of interpersonal relationships does not mean that you are exempt from them. He, too, could cheat.  He, too, could swindle.  He, too, could harm and hurt.  He did not realize this before, but then he had a dream of a ladder that was resting on earth with its head going up to heaven, and then he understood that man, even though he is imperfect and limited, man can reach up to heaven as long as he realizes the hard fact, that rock that he had to put under his head, that he, himself, was
 
human.  Yaacov was sick, troubled, and here he learned he was human just like everybody else.  He had all the foibles that everybody else had and it hurt him, but it should not hurt him because as long as you understand that you can be tempted, as long as you understand that you can do evil things then you, too, can make allowances for them but as long as you are rooted on the earth you can still reach up to heaven as long as you realize that you, too,  are subject to all these rules and regulations. They are not for somebody else.  They are for you.  In fact, Isaac Balsever Singer, in all his literary career actually wrote about this problem, how good people can do bad things.  Bad people cannot do bad things because bad people do not think that they are bad things.  Bad people do not have any conscience.  Somehow they are drawn by making one little error here and covering up that error and doing another error and end up by doing terrible things because we are all subject to the same rules of interpersonal relationships.  Sometimes politicians think they are exempt from these rules and all of a sudden we find out they have misused campaign money and misused their position.  Many times people think that they are immune from these types of rules.  Everybody else has to obey the rules but they do not have to obey the rules.  They are different, but Yaacov learned quickly that he was not different. He learned that he was the same as everybody else, that he, too, had to be careful of the different temptations that there are in the world, but it did not make any difference because these things of the world we can enjoy and sanctify and make them holy.  We can make them reach up to heaven.  That is why Yaacov is considered the person who is closest to Shabbos.  Avraham was not considered close to Shabbos because Avraham was a man in this world.  Yitzchak was not considered close to Shabbos because Yitzchak was a man of the other world.  He really did not care much for this world.  Yaacov was the bridge between them.  Yaacov knew that you take things in this world and you transmute them and make them spiritual.  That is what we do on Shabbos.  After all, on Shabbos we eat a lot and drink a lot and have a good time and enjoy each other's company and If you are married you are supposed to be
 
friendly with your wife or husband.  It is a day of joy and happiness but we transmute physical things and we make them into spiritual things, and it depends upon our attitude to them, how we use them, recognizing our limitations, recognizing that we cannot benefit from stolen property. We have to benefit from the work of our own labors, that we have to recognize that we have marriage relationships which are holy and are faithful, and we can take the mundane things of life and transmute them and make them spiritual.  Our angels can go up so G-d's angels can come down. Yes, we sometimes make mistakes.  Sometimes because we are human we make mistakes but then G-d will help us overcome the mistakes as long as we are sorry for doing the bad things we have done, but we cannot rationalize and say that we are above the rules.  In fact, many times teenagers tell me that.  They say, "What's the matter, Rabbi? You think I have a dirty mind? Don't you think I can handle it?" I say, "Well, you are human, aren't you?  If you are human you cannot handle it.  It is just too much for any person to handle.  You get too involved in it.  You can only see one side of the situation." Therefore, we are all subject to these same rules and regulations.  When Yaacov woke up he was no longer sick.  In fact, he took this hard rock, this hard rock that he, himself, was human, that he, himself, was subject to the rules and regulations, and then he poured oil on it.  What does that oil stand for? The oil. stands for simcha.  Shemen is spelled Shin, Mem, Nun.  It stands for simcha, joy, for menucha, rest, and for naches, for joy and inner satisfaction and happiness.  How do you get these? By realizing about pouring oil on that hard rock, that rock that was underneath his head, that rock that he, himself, was human. That is what we can do.  We realize that we are human. We can take our human qualities and transmute them and make them spiritual.  That is what we learn Leah did later on in life.  Leah knew that she was second fiddle and not the preferred wife, but yet after she had Reuven, after she had Shimon and Levi, then she had Yehuda and she praised G-d because she did not allow her jealousy and her feelings of being a second fiddle wife interfere with her relationship with her sister or husband.
 
She was still able to thank G-d. We have to realize that all of us are human but we can transmute our qualities and make them spiritual.  We should not think that we are ever above the rules, that we are different from other people.  We are not. We are the same as every person, as Yaacov found out.
I am reminded of the story they tell about a man who applied for a job and got a job with this firm.  Afterwards he approached one of the older employees and said, "Well, how is it working here?" The older employee said, "Oh, it's wonderful working here.  They have such a wonderful pension plan, and, what's more, working here ages you." That, of course, is true of human beings who for some reason think that they are above the rules, that they are above the law, that they are different from everybody else.  There is nothing more that will age a person than to think this way.  If a person thinks this way then he is truly going to be sick.  He is not going to have the simcha, the joy, and the menucha, the rest, and the naches, the satisfaction that comes from people who know that they are subject to the rules, that they are human beings, that they can make mistakes, but, yet, they can still transmute the physical and make it into the spiritual and lead wonderful lives.  Let us all hope that we can do this so the Mashiach will come quickly in our day.  Amen.