Vayishlach 1994

In the Torah portion Vayishlach we learn how Yaacov is very much apprehensive of his meeting with Esau, his brother. He sends him a huge present. He divides his camp in two. He prays to G-d. The Torah says that Jacob was afraid very much and he was very troubled. The rabbis explain he was very afraid that Esau would kill him but he was much more troubled that he would have to kill Esau. Golda Meir later paraphrased the same expression when she said that we can forgive the Arabs for killing our boys but we can never forgive them for having our boys kill their boys. Yaacov was really upset and some people say that that dream that he had wrestling with the angel all night was because he had qualms about the way he had treated his brother 22 years earlier.
We then learn about their meeting and it is a complete surprise. First it said that Yaacov lifts up his eyes and he says, "Behold, Esau is coming and look at my 400 men," and he divided the children by each of the mothers and then he passed before them and he bowed down to the ground 7 times until he approached his brother. And his brother Esau ran to greet him and he hugged him and fell on his neck and he kissed him and they cried. Here Esau did not hurt his brother at all.  In fact, he hugged him and kissed him and they cried together, but the question can be asked, if Esau wanted to be reconciled with his brother, why did he bring 400 men with him? Why didn't he accept the gift immediately and say that they were friends. What happened? What caused Esau to reconcile with Yaacov?
We know that usually arguments are never solved. They just become irrelevant. The big dispute between England and France over colonies completely evaporated when it became clear that colonies were a drain on a country's income, that they did not increase a country's income. Today it is much more profitable to give colonies independence and just obtain raw materials from them so you do not have to spend money for an army to subdue the population or provide services for that population. You just receive the raw materials and process them in your own land.

Therefore, the very basis of the dispute between France and England for over 100
years over colonies became completely irrelevant. Most arguments are not solved
but just become irrelevant. The same thing, of course, happens in many other spheres
as well.  In the religious sphere the argument between the Mishnageem and the Chasideem,
which was a very bitter argument, in fact, much bitterer than the argument between
conservative, orthodox, and reform today, (in fact, the Lubavitch have a special
holiday in which they celebrate how the one of the first rebbe got out of jail,
but you know who put him there? Other Jews by informing the government on him).
We know that in ancient times wealth was based upon the land. We know that Rome
was a might empire and Rome was a rich city because it was able to get tribute
from all the other provinces that it had conquered. Wealth was based upon agriculture.
This is no longer true. Wealth is not basically based upon land. Land is almost
irrelevant when it comes to producing wealth. Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan
are very poor in natural resources but they are among the most wealthy of all countries
in the world because the important thing in the world is not natural resources
but what you do what the natural resources.  It is the brain of man which is the
prime resource. The brain of man can transmute the natural resources into wonderful
inventions that all human beings want. Today very few people actually farm the
land. Wealth is not a direct product of farming anymore. Even in Israel we talk
about the Chalutzim, and I have just returned from Israel, they are less than 6%
of the Israeli population really farming today, and pretty soon it will be even
less.  Israel's wealth today comes because it comes from the Jewish mind where
Jews import all sorts of things and they change them and fix them and make them
better.  Israel is the forefront of the information revolution.  Israel is a country
of high tech. When I was in the hotels there the hotels were flooded with Japanese
and Chinese and Korean and European people who want to get involved with high tech.
Today Israel has the highest standard of living in the Middle East, $13,000 per
capita. Even Saudia Arabia with all its oil only has a $7000 per capita income.

Jordan has only $1300 per capita income.
Esau looked at Yaacov and he realized that the argument was ridiculous. After all, what did he want? Did he want the blessing of Abraham? Did he want to have to live according to the rules and regulations of Judaism? Let his brother live like that because he could see that his brother was tied, was hobbling from the encounter with the angel the night before, he had all these children, he was tied to a moral code, so the argument was irrelevant. After all, Yaacov had already given him a huge present and he, himself, was a wealthy man. He did not have to fight his brother in order to get wealth, and who wanted the spiritual restrictions that were upon Yaacov? So the argument became completely irrelevant.
We hope in our day, too, that the argument between the Palestinian Arabs and the
Jews will become irrelevant because land no longer is a source of wealth.  It is
the human brain which is the source of wealth. The Arabs do not have to have all
the land in order to become a wealthy people. All they have to do is learn how
to apply their brain power to the problems of the modern world and they can be
as wealthy as all the Israelis. We know that this argument could become irrelevant.
It is a battle, though, because there is the old way of thinking against the new
way of thinking and it is not just economics which determines a person's thinking.
It also has to do with religion and nationalism, but much of nationalism, too,
is based upon the fact that a country wants to be the wealthiest and best and strongest
and the only way a nation can be the wealthiest and best and strongest now is through
developing education. The Palestinians are the most educated of all the Arabs.
In fact, a genetic study was made of Jews throughout the world. We know there
are 10 basic fingerprint classes and in each class, of course, there is much variation,
and the Jews all over the world have the same fingerprint. We are the only people
who have that particular fingerprint class. The other nations have other fingerprint
classes and surrounding Israel the Syrian and Egyptians and Jordanians all have

different fingerprint classes, but the Palestinians have the same fingerprint class
as the Jews showing that there is a lot of Jewish blood actually among the Palestinians.
The Palestinians should make peace now. They should learn that it is important
for them to make peace because they could have a wonderful life and they should
not have to struggle over those few little pieces of land because land is not what
is going to bring wealth in the modern world.  It has to do with the mind.  If
they can apply their mind to the modern problems they can produce all sorts of
inventions and devices that the modern world needs and they can become as wealthy
as any other people in the world and as stronq as any other people in the world.
Let's all hope that they will realize it, that the people who support Hamas will
realize that they are destroying themselves and their future, not helping their
future.  If they will become partners with the Jewish people in progress they can,
themselves, have a wonderful and good life and the land can be shared adequately
by both peoples.
I am reminded of the story they tell about two Irishmen who were Casanova types. After about 10 years one of the Irishmen said, "Listen, it's not right.  I have to go make a confession to my priest. How can I have lived such a sinful life and not make confession?" So he went to his priest and said, "Father, I must confess that I have slept with women who are not my wife." The priest asked who were the women. He said he could not tell him. The priest said, "Is it the widow Brown?" The man said he could not tell him. The priest asked, "Is it the divorcee Smith?" The man said he could not tell him. The priest asked, "Is it spinster O'Leary?" The man repeated he could not tell him in which case the priest said he could not forgive him, so he left. His friend looked at him when he came out and said, "Well, are you forgiven?" The man said, "No, but at least I got three new leads." It is the same thing here in the Arab-Israeli dispute. There are some new leads now. There are new ways of looking at these problems. We do not have to look at the problems the old way where land was the source and the only source of wealth and

the people scrabbled over it because it was only through controlling the land that they could be strong and mighty and feel pride in themselves because they had a certain amount of wealth in back of them, but today that is not true. Wealth comes from the mind, from transmuting the natural resources of the world around us. Let us hope that the Arabs will realize this so peace will come quickly in the Middle East so the Mashiach will come quickly in our day. Amen.