Vayeitzei: Yaakov’s Emes in Business, Shabbos, and Building the Jewish Home

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Yaakov Avinu going to the house of Lavan, spending years, marrying, building his home, making parnassah, making a living. Vayeitzei. Yaakov goes out, and of course it means he went out physically, Vayeitzei Yaakov miBe'er Sheva, and physically, Vayeilech Charanah. But also it has a deeper meaning. Vayeitzei Yaakov goes out to the world. Yaakov, who was tam, yoshev ohalim. Yaakov is the quintessential ben Torah. He's the example of what it means to sit in yeshiva, locked away from the world. Vayeitzei. Here he goes out. Through the parsha, we have lessons on how one should live when he goes out into the world. Both on a halachic level, we learn a lot from Yaakov. The way Yaakov was of the po'el, he was the hired worker, the most honest in his job. We learn halachos from that. But in hashkafah as well, we can learn from Yaakov Avinu. In lashon hakodesh, we say gisha, the approach that we have to take when we go out into the world is also in this parsha a lesson to be learned. Yaakov Avinu was chosen from all the others, that he should be the one to teach us all this. Avram teaches us lessons of chesed, of emunah, kiruv rechakim. Yitzchak teaches us lessons of emunah, mesiras nefesh, korban. Yaakov Avinu was chosen to be the model role, the model role, to teach us how it's supposed to be in the outside world. When one leaves, when one leaves his home, he leaves his environment, he leaves his yeshiva to go out to the real world, if—may I use that expression, even though I don't think it's the real world. I think it's the unreal world. But this is the lessons that are taken from the parsha. In Chassidishe sefarim, in Chassidishe sefarim, we find interesting in the sefer Teiras Avram from Slonim, page ayin reish hei, os yud gimmel. He brings down that Reb Mordechai Melachovitch, great rebbe, did not say Torah, Shabbos parshas Vayeitzei. Didn't say Torah. He came to the tish, he didn't say any Torah on the parsha. Why? He said, Take a look. Look at Yaakov Avinu. He eats, he sleeps, he drinks, he makes money, and it's all called Torah. What do we read? He went, he got married, he lived, he worked, he made money, and it's all Torah. The lessons are, if you do things for the right reasons, l'shem Shamayim, even eating, drinking, sleeping, making money, building a house, it's all Torah. And this was the lesson he was trying to convey to the tzibur. You don't need any Torah. That itself is Torah. Torah is to live vayeitzei, to live the way a Yid's supposed to live, to build, to do. Yes, to work, to make money, but to do it, as they say, b'derech Yisrael saba, vayid. That itself is Torah. Parshas Vayeitzei is that. And to convey this message, the Madtchim Lechavitz did not say Torah by the Shabbos table, by the tish. Lebin vayid is eich Torah. The dream that Yaakov gets is the sulam, the sulam mutzav artzah, v'rosho magia hashamayma. This dream was obviously the hakdamah. It was supposed to be the hachanah, the introduction to his Vayeitzei.

This was supposed to be a chalom and a nevuah, lessons that he was supposed to take before he enters the new world, this new world called the world of Lavan. What is the lesson of the yesodim? The answer is the way the mefarshim — you'll see the Sfas Emes speaking a great deal about this — sulam mutzav artzah, v'rosho magia hashamaymah. Got to live in this world. The sulam is mutzav artzah. Its feet are on the ground here. V'rosho — where should one's head be? What does his goals, what does he look to? Where is his mind? His mind has to be shamayma. His mind has to be about Torah, about yiras Shamayim, avodah, Eretz. We live in this world. We got to work. We got to do, and we got to be osek in Olam Hazeh. But how are we osek in Olam Hazeh? Sulam mutzav artzah, v'rosho magia hashamaymah. Why was Yaakov chosen? Why was it Yaakov Avinu the one to be chosen from all the avos to give us a path in Olam Hazeh, in darkei hachayim, in the outside world? Why? And I always thought the pshat is pashut. Yaakov Avinu is emes. It's truth. Truth means that when you go to work, you got to be truthful on every penny. Every cheshbon has to be emes. It's not an easy thing, but that's what the Torah wants of, so to speak, the Yiddishe businessman, that he should be like Yankiv, emes. And so, titen emes l'Yaakov. This is the midah, madreigah of Yaakov Avinu, emes. So he was the av from all the other avos that was chosen to be the model role of making parnassah in the outside world. And he takkeh showed us all the years in the house of Lavan that he was emes, how to deal al pi emes. The question, though, bothers me always: does that mean the other avos were not emes? But you think that Avraham and Yitzchak, if they went outside to the world, they would be sheker, they would steal, or they would cheat, or be dishonest, or unfaithful? But what is the titen emes l'Yaakov? That Avraham was not emes and Yitzchak was not emes? What does that mean? And I think the pshat, rabosai, is that emes isn't just to be truthful. Emes is how to deal with sheker. Emes is the koach of how to do emes when confronted with sheker. You know, many times Yankiv Avinu seems to be really not what... Emes. Because the topel, he seems to be playing around. Ach, ani b'ramois. Yarochi, yareis of achi ani b'ramois. Yeah, but I thought you're emes. And the answer is that there's an emes in the ramois, and how when you're dealing and you're involved and you're surrounded with ramois, to be able to succeed with emes, to proceed with emes, that's titen emes l'Yaakov. Emes is not just a person that's honest. Avraham, Yitzchak, avadim were emes. But the koach and the middah of emes means the koach to be able to be emes and to be able to bring out the emes, even in a situation when confronted with sheker, the ultimate sheker, Lavan and Eisav. Notice the nisyonos that they went through. Avraham had nisyonos of people in emunah. Wherever he went, people were trying to disprove the emunah. And the pshat is because Avraham was about emunah, so his nisyonos were in emunah. Chesed, that's why he had zdoyn. The anti-Avraham, the anti-

Avraham had to work against was chesed and emunah. Yitzchak, maybe it was inyanim of tefillah, Ravi Melech. We could discuss that at great length in another shiur. But Yaakov, because he was emes, all his nisyonos, all those that were his obstacles in his way, was a lavan and an Eisav. The two biggest gangsters, liars, thieves, conniving people in the world. Titen emes l'Yaakov was to live and to teach us how to live in that world. It's interesting. The world of business is based on sheker. The more sheker, the more you matzliach. You know, I remember someone once came to ask me a question in the diamond business. Everybody cheats about how many carats. Everybody's off by one or two. That's what the guy told me. I'm not out there, I don't know. So the question was, is he allowed to say the same thing? Because everybody does it. If everybody does it, so then it means that's normal. By saying four, you mean really three and a half. That was the question that somebody asked. At the time, I was, you know, a young talmid chacham, market share, a rebbe. I couldn't even understand what the question was. How could you say something which is not four, four? But then I started to understand that what he was saying was that the world... Is moli sheker. What is the emes in that world? That's complicated. The balance of being able to balance sheker and emes. Yankiv had that koach. Even in a world of sheker, where everything, where the shakranim are claiming they're emes. That's the chiddush. Avada, where the sheker is sheker and the emes is emes, so the emes is clear and the sheker. The question when it's not clear, when it's phased, when it's hazed, you're not sure what the emes, what the sheker is. The sheker walks around saying, I'm the emes. It needs titein emes l'Yaakov, to be able to discern what the real emes is and to proceed with that emes, and to be matzliach with that emes. You know, the Mesillas Yesharim uses an interesting lashon. Sheyisbarer v'yis'ameis eitzel ha'adam, mai chovaso b'olamo. What is yesod haChassidus? In the chapter aleph, beiur chovas ha'adam b'olamo. What is the responsibility of a person in this world? Says the Mesillas Yesharim, yesod haChassidus v'shoresh ha'avodah, sheyisbarer v'yis'ameis. Clear and truth. The two leshonos are pretty obvious, because one, you got to be able to know the truth. You got to be able to identify and live by the truth. But then there's another thing: she's barer. What is the truth? It has to become clear what the truth is. That's also a complicated thing. The first thing is to want to follow the truth, and the second thing that's needed is she is barer, to become clear what the truth is. Living in the world of Lavan, and in today's time in the world of business, the truth is hazy. Yeah, everybody says three and a half when they mean four. Everybody does it. That's the truth. But then if you're not in that world, and you're a ben Torah, you say, But no, that's not true. Three is not four, and four is not three. Yeah, but everybody's saying it. You see, that's called emes. Titen emes l'Yaakov means sheyisbarer v'yisameitzeitz l'adam b'chol ha'malos sheyamol, in everything that he does in this world, all the difficulties, all the ameilus, what is it about? Not so clear. A person begins to work, he believes that it's about making money. When he started out, that's not what he was thinking. He was thinking, I need to make parnassah. It's a big rule in life.

A person has to work to make parnassah, not work to make money. She is borer viyasameis. It needs truth. It needs that the truth is important. Also, viyasbarer, that it should be clear what the truth is. Unfortunately, as you go to the outside world, it begins to become a fog of what the truth is. Yankev Avinu, whose emes, is the av chosen for this mission, to teach Klal Yisrael how does one live in the outside world, in the olam hasheker of Lavan and the olam hasheker of Esav, and yet remains the true ben Torah, the ish emes, the man of truth. So it's not only about the halachos that we learn from Yaakov Avinu, like it's learned from the end of the parsha, hilchos yom, hilchos layla, achlani chorev v'kerach balailah, shomer. It's not only the halachos, but it's the hashkafah, the outlook that Yaakov has that is the real basis, the foundation of where he's able to survive and succeed. And the answer is the basis is emes. It's about truth. And that truth that Yaakov has, even within the sheker, to identify. And to not lose the emes is titen emes l'Yaakov. It's very complicated. Once you go out, things become a blur. She isbarer v'yisametes, loda ma chovosai ba'olam, uvechalamalah she'amel. That's Yaakov Avinu, to stay focused with the clarity that the truth guides him in the sheker. I've always thought to myself, Yaakov Avinu steals the brachos from Esav, but he's the ish emes. What happened? Since yedua, Baal HaMussar, the Chofetz Chaim speaks about it. What is emes and what is sheker? Yaakov Avinu knows that the brachos cannot be by Esav; it must be by him, so the emes is to go get it. You see, it takes a tremendous conviction of emes to be able to realize that that's called emes. The titen emes l'Yaakov is the power of emes, even where the emes is not clear, even where the sheker seems to be the emes, and still Yaakov is titen emes l'Yaakov. And so that emes is sent out to the real world to be a model role on how to make it in an alma d'shikra, and how to build a home, a family, and make money in that alma d'shikra. The sulam mutzav artzah, that clarity and the v'rosho magia hashamaymah, to remain focused. Es titen emes l'Yaakov. That's Yaakov's koach. That's Yaakov's ability. Shabbos, rabosai. We say in the mincha of Shabbos, Menuchas ahavah v'nedavah, menuchas emes ve'emunah. What does emes ve'emunah mean? It's a menuchah of emes. You look at the Yun Tefillah, the mefarshim, they explain that it brings out nedavah, it brings out ahavah, it brings out emes, it brings out sholom. Sholom, we've spoken about in the past, that Shabbos sholom, it's able to create sholom. How does Shabbos create emes? Sheishes yamim ta'avod, I believe. V'asisa kol melachtecha. Uvayom hashvii Shabbos laShem Elokecha. The emes that this world of sheishes yamim, the mutzav artzah, about the roish hamagia hashamayimah becomes the tachlis, is in the sheishes yamim ta'avod v'asisa kol melachtecha, v'yom hashvii Shabbos laShem Elokecha. The six days of work together with the Shabbos.

Is the emes. The emes is that this world is not about this world. This world is the Ribbono Shel Olam created this world. That's why Shabbos is an eidus. Eidus is truth. It says testimony that the Ribono Shel Olam created the world. You know, in six days a guy can get confused about that. He does here, business, ... comes Shabbos, it becomes the reisha d'gia shmaya. He gets focused. In Me'ah She'arim, which is the hashbatzah, it's brought down that this chalom that he had was on Shabbos. In Me'ah She'arim, the hashbatzah says clearly that the dream of the reisha d'gia shmaya was Shabbos. Shabbos is about mutzav artza and reisha d'gia shmaya. Yankiv, titen emes l'Yaakov. That's menuchas emes. Teaches the person the truth. You're not the balabos. You're not the one who does it. It's ... Shabbos laShem Elokecha. It's interesting, where does he have this dream? Luz. It says in the pasuk, he calls the place Beis El, v'Luz shemo ir larishonah. What is Luz? And why do I need to know that the name was Luz? Unbelievable question. So the Maharal Diskin explains that when Moshe Rabbeinu conquered Eretz Yisrael, He'll find that the name is Luz, because that's the goyim gave it the name Luz. And then he'll come and rename it Beisel, because Yaakov Avinu gave it the name Beisel. So it's about geography here. It's about telling me that when we koveish Eretz Yisrael, when we conquer Eretz Yisrael, you should know the name of the town should be, should go to the municipality and tell them we're changing the name from Luz to Beisel. So why do I have to know that here? It's all important. It's interesting in Tanach, by Yehoshua, by Moshe Rabbeinu, later, he'll rename the place Beisel, and that's all. You look at the Medrash that Luz has a lot of meaning. There's a lot of meaning to Luz. Luz was a very interesting place. You look at Rabbeinu Bechaye, he adds and he says, Luz is like the bone Luz. It's a bone in the back of the neck which is called Luz. The world was created there. Techiyas hameisim will come from there. Luz, the bone Luz, you hear? It's Yerushalayim, Luz. It has a lot. All the inyanim, Luz is a big place. Techiyas hameisim, life. So these are big inyanim, Rabbeisai. But you know what's interesting? I'll tell you something very interesting. The Gemara tells us there's a place that nobody died. It's called Kushta. What is this place Kushta? It's Luz. According to most mefarshim, it's Luz. Kushta, it spoke the truth. You know, Yaakov Avinu was emes. He also never died. Yaakov lo meis. It's interesting, where does he have the chalom? Where does he have the dream? Where does he have the dream? In Luz. He has the dream in Luz. Kushta, emes. Yaakov, they were teaching him the emes. What is this world about? And a person dies, does he die? There's techiyas hameisim. What's the real world? Techiyas hameisim is also about, we think we die. The sheker, the Olam Hazeh dies. The ruchniyus of the person, that doesn't die. You know, there's an interesting, I think it's from the Rishonim, see the Sefarim are full with this, that anyone who eats melaveh malka, there's a bone, Luz, and that bone, Luz, gets sustenance from the melaveh malka. From there, the techiyas hameisim, the person will revive himself. What is the connection between techiyas hameisim, melaveh malka, Luz, Yaakov Avinu? So many ideas to put it together in one.

Plate, what is this all about? I think the pshat, rabosai, is very poshut. Remember I explained to you, sheishes yamim ta'avod and Shabbos is emes, and what's the emes of it? That a person works, he starts to understand he's not working and making money. It's all about Shabbos teaches me it's all about the Eibishter. You know, melaveh malka is, melaveh malka is I take the Shabbos into the weekday. I take the Shabbos. I don't stop. Shabbos, Shabbos is over. Now I take the oiros. I take what the Shabbos is teaching. I take the kedushas haShabbos. I take the inyanim of Shabbos and I carry with me to the beginning of the next week. I'm melaveh it. This is the idea that weekday prepares for Shabbos, so Shabbos prepares for the weekday. Luz. If a person lives that way, that it's mutzav artza v'rosho מגיע השמימה. Gemara tells us that Tannaim always used to buy and say this will be for Shabbos, that even during the week their focus was on the Shabbos. That's mutzav artza v'rosho מגיע השמימה. That's not this world. That's techiyas hameisim. That's a different world, rabosai. That's techiyas hameisim. That's where the meis, that the guf is not meis because the guf is ruchni. This is called kushta, emes. Yaakov sees the emes. When is it? It's on Shabbos. Now let's point out something very interesting. Yaakov Avinu was about galus. We've spoken about it in the previous shiurim, ma'arev chaysh of galus. Yaakov is leaving Eretz Yisrael, the avos were in Eretz Yisrael, Yaakov is leaving. Notice that when Yaakov leaves, the Makom HaMikdash comes to him. Interesting. Avraham Avinu goes to Har HaMoriah. He has kefitzas ha'derech, that he jumps quickly to the Makom HaMikdash. Here, he left, and the Makom HaMikdash gets wrapped up and comes to him. See the sefarim, especially by the Belzer, the Belzer Torah, is this idea that even in the galus, then the Beis HaMikdash comes to you. Then the Beis HaMikdash comes to you. There's a time where you go to the Beis HaMikdash, where there is a Beis HaMikdash. But then in galus, where there's no Beis HaMikdash, and you're away, you got to be able to bring the Beis HaMikdash to you. How do you do that, rabosai? You know, each one of the avos gave a different name to the Beis HaMikdash. Avraham called it Har, Har Hashem Yera'eh. Yitzchak called it Sadeh. Yaakov calls it Beis El. That's what we just learned, Beis El. The bayis. What does that mean? A har. Who can go up on a har? Mi ya'aleh b'Har Hashem, very few. Avraham was able to do an akeidah on the har. Very few could come to that. Yitzchak already made it easier, sadeh. But you have to go out. You have to go, Vayeitzei. You got to go to the sadeh. Yaakov Avinu said, I could bring the Beis HaMikdash as a bayis into my home. Beis el, bayis, karoi bayis, which means even in the home you could make a Beis HaMikdash. It's brought down clear in the mefarshim, Shabbos is the zman where the home turns into a Beis HaMikdash. Why? What is a Beis HaMikdash? We're makriv korbanos, it's mutzav artzah, it's beheimus. It's rosho magia shamayimah. Don't forget, there's two batei mikdash. There's the one here and the one above. It's rosho magia shamayimah. There's a here and a there. There's mutzav artzah Beis HaMikdash. But there's also mutzav artzah, rosho magia shamayimah, that the Beis HaMikdash goes all the way up to the shamayim where there's another Beis HaMikdash. This is Shabbos. This is the bayis, the home. The home, the home. And Yaakov especially knows this because in Galus there's no Beis HaMikdash. It's the home that turns into the Beis HaMikdash, specifically in the Galus, specifically in the Vayeitzei Yaakov, that when Yaakov leaves. So what does this lose? It begins with lose, which is emes, focused, knowing the truth.

This world is not about this world. It's מגיע השמימה. Then it's Beis El. ויקרא יעקב שם המקום ההוא בית אל. The ulam, Luz shemo l'rishonah, begins with Luz. It begins with knowing the emes. Rameishis, zecher tzaddik livrachah, the Rosh Yeshiva zatzal writes, we always find Beis HaMikdash and Shabbos, Beis HaMikdash and Shabbos. Chazal pellos, because we don't build the Mikdash on Shabbos. That's why it's always put together. Shabbos, Tishmores, Mikdashi tiro'u, together to teach me that on Shabbos we don't build the Beis HaMikdash. Says the Rosh Yeshiva, Rameishis, zecher tzaddik livrachah, in Parshas Bechukosai at the end, there's a reason why we're so emphasizing this inyan of Shabbos and Beis HaMikdash, Shabbos and Mikdash, because the Mikdash takes secondary step, becomes a secondary inyan to the Shabbos. The Shabbos is more important. We don't build the Beis HaMikdash on Shabbos. It's not docheh Shabbos. Why? Because the Shabbos is more important. Rosh Yeshiva zatzal, Rameishis used to say over something which, b'etzem, could be, there's a mefurash Reb Chaim v'Lozhner, there's a Beis HaMikdash. That's a physical thing. It's all about v'shachanti b'socham. Sagt der Rosh Yeshiva zatzal, it's the Shabbos. Without a Beis HaMikdash, we live many years, thousands of years. Without a Shabbos, we can't survive. We can't survive without Shabbos. Shabbos. Becomes the roshem hagiash, Motzav artza, a roshem hagiashamayim. It happened on Shabbos, and this is the base El. He understands it's about the house, the base El. It's the home. It's interesting, we find that Yaakov Avinu was so involved in the bayis, in the building of his homes. You know, Beis Yisrael comes from only Yisrael. We don't call it Beis Avraham. We don't call it Beis Yitzchak. We call it Beis Yisrael, Yaakov. You know, later on, Rus, we're going to read, Rus is stated that when they sent Rus, they gave her a bracha: You should be like Rachel v'Rivka, asher shneihem banu es Beis Yisrael. That was the bracha they gave Rus. The mefarshim ask, why only Rachel and Rivka? Rachel and Leah? Why not Sarah? Why not Rivka? Why, Ki Rachel v'Leah asher shneihem banu es... And the Teretz says, because Beis Yisrael. He wanted to create a bayis, the bayis of Klal Yisrael. It was Yaakov, together with Rachel and Leah, together with Rachel and Leah, Beis Yisrael, asher shneihem banu Beis Yisrael. Yaakov Avinu's goal was to build the bayis, knowing that in galus, it's not the Beis HaMikdash, it's the bayis. That's going to be the mekor of kedusha, the mekor of avodah. Mekar of Yiddishkeit. When we had a Beis Hamikdash, the focal point of the Yiddishkeit was the Beis Hamikdash. You were oleh regel, even on Yontif. You weren't home on Yontif. You left your house and you went to the Beis Hamikdash on Yontif. Today we don't have a Beis Hamikdash, so the ikur becomes what? The bayis, the home. The bayis, the home. And that's Yaakov Avinu understanding in the galus that it's about the bayis, and he protects that bayis. I think that's pshat in the pasuk in the beginning of the parsha. Hashem tells Yaakov Avinu, Ki lo e'ezovcha ad asher im asiti es asher dibarti lach, v'hashivoticha el ha'adamah hazos. Bring you back to this land, this place. Actually, Yaakov asked the Eibishter, ... v'shavti b'shalom el beis avi. Why beis avi? The Ribono Shel Olam promised him el ha'adamah. Yaakov is not happy with that. He asks for something more different, and he's asking what? V'shavti b'shalom el beis avi.

Father's house. Yaakov takes with him the picture. Yaakov takes with him the vision of what a Beis Avi is supposed to look like, what a Tatte's shtub, what the Yiddishe shtub is supposed to be. He takes that with him to the galus, asking the Ribono Shel Olam, help him to protect, to preserve the Beis Avi in galus, because that's Beis El, that's the yeshuah, hatzlachah in galus. We don't have a Beis HaMikdash. He never lost focus of all this: making money, fighting Lavan, emes. What is the emes? Sheyisbarer veyis'amenes l'adam machalosoi b'olamoi, kol amalei asher amel. What is the ikur? It becomes veshavti beshalom el Beis Avi. Veshavti beshalom el Beis Avi. The bayis, Shabbos, and then to take the Shabbos and bring it into the chol, to the weekday, into the avodah, into the work. You go to work, it's got to be with the Shabbos that precedes it, the kedushas and the oros, and his'alus, that oneg on a Shabbos he takes it with him into the workplace. And as he works the week, he looks forward to the next Shabbos. ... This becomes Titein emes l'Yaakov. Why Yaakov Avinu was the av that was chosen for this mission. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.