BS”D

Vayetze – Ki MiZion – The Key to Zion

Dr M Bank

A Guten Erev Shabbos. This weeks parsha, parshas Vayetze, means going out. Jacob departed from Be’er Sheva and departed towards Haran. This was his journey, according to the request of his father and mother, Yitzhak Avinu and Rivka Imeinu. I would like to call this weeks parsha Ki MiZion, Key to Zion. Ki Mi Zion, means from Zion, but it also has a remez about the key to come back, after these thousands of years.

Really, everything is encrypted, encoded in the Torah, genetically; spiritually. This week’s parsha has tremendous insights into how to navigate through the darkest moments. Yaakov encounters the place and spent the night there, because the sun had set. In the Hagada shel Pesach, it says that night represents the galus (exile)and day, the geula (redemption). He took from the stones of the place which he arranged around his head, and laid down in that place. The commentaries say that there were twelve stones surrounding his head. Really these 12 stones represent the twelve tribes. Each one was a fortress of emuna and bitachon in H’. He dreamt and behold a ladder was set earthward. Its top reached heaven. Behold angels of H were ascending and descending on it.

כח, יב  וַיַּחֲלֹם, וְהִנֵּה סֻלָּם מֻצָּב אַרְצָה, וְרֹאשׁוֹ, מַגִּיעַ הַשָּׁמָיְמָה; וְהִנֵּה מַלְאֲכֵי אֱלֹהִים, עֹלִים וְיֹרְדִים בּוֹ.

Where did the angels come from? Where are angels from? Shomayim, right? So angels in the real sense should come down from heaven, do whatever mission H has sent them to do in this world, and then go back up again, as it happened with Lot, Bilam and with all the supernatural events of world history. Here the angels went up and came down. This is a total inversion of everything we ever understood before. How can we understand this? Its not that these angels lived in Australia. The angels were right at Har Habayit. Angles don’t emanate from this world. They come from Shamayim. So lets explore for a moment what may be a remez for world history. According to Vayikra Rabba (29, 2) and the Ramban citing Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer, the angels that were ascending and descending were as follows; Yaakov was shown the guardian angels of the 4 Kingdoms that would ascend to dominate Israel. Yaakov saw each angel climbing a number of rungs of the ladder to heaven, corresponding to the years of its domination over Israel, and then descending as its reign came to an end. Bavel’s angel climbed 70 rungs and then fell down. Media climbed 52 rungs of the ladder, lost their grip and they too fell down. Greece, Yavan, (whose dark forces of impurity (tuma) we are shortly going to celebrate the victory over, through the light of Torah, the tiny little pach shemen that lit up the Beis Hamikdash and lit up the world) took charge of the world for 130 years. The feel-good philosophy of Greece – if it feels good it is good, whether its drugs, promiscuity or idolatry. They were extinguished and fell to eternal destruction. The Angel of Edom kept climbing higher and higher, and Yaakov saw him climbing through the clouds on this ladder to Shamayim. Yaakov saw that nothing could stop him. He was piercing the highest levels of Shamayim, climbing indefinitely, symbolizing the current exile that has been going on now for 1000s of years. This by far is the most traumatic, darkest, deepest, deadly exile of world history. It seems to be endless. Yaakov was so terrified, he woke up and sensed that H was over him. He said, 'I am the Lord, the G-d of Avraham thy father, and the G-d of Yitzhak. The land whereon you lie, to you will I give it, and to your descendants. Your offspring shall be as the dust of the earth. You shall spread out powerfully westward, northward, eastward and southward’. Whenever we hear about the descendants of Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov, they are either the stars of shamayim, or the dust of the earth. There is a commentary that says, the stars of shamayim are eternal. Those are the tzadikim that make it to shamayim. The dust of the earth are unfortunately the ashes are those that are attracted by Eisav, put their faith in him, and whom Esav annihilated, and their bodies were turned to ashes. We see the terrible darkness of Galus where 8 out of 10 do not survive, like the terrible plague of darkness in Egypt. 1 out of 5 did not survive the plague of darkness. Statistically, in Galus the survival rate seems to be about the same. There seem to have been more Jews in Israel at the time of the Second Temple than Chinese in China. That means that there should now be 1 or 2 billion Jews in the world. Although there is a tiny fraction of this, the light is as bright as ever amongst those that are living and transmitting that light.

All the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you and by your offspring. Behold, I am with you. I will guard you wherever you go. I will return you to your land, I will not forsake you, until I have done what I have spoken to you. Yaakov awoke from his sleep and said surely H is present in this place, I did not even know. He became frightened and said, how awesome is this place. The commentaries say, he was referring to Esav’s angel climbing up to Shomayim, and that he remained terribly frightened until H reassured him and promised him Divine protection, after which he returned to the land.

I would like to explore the Haftora for a moment. Ovadia (1, 1) ‘The vision of Ovadia. So says the Lord H, we have heard tidings from H and from among the nations an envoy has been sent. Rise, let us rise up against her to do battle. ‘ This is Esav speaking about Yaakov.

‘Behold, I have made you small amongst the nations. You are exceedingly despised’. Just look at their world headlines today. Which nation is for H? Which nation is for Israel? Is this mind boggling? Shivim Zeviim, at then end of days, coming in for the kill, like 70 starving wolves, ready to feed on the tiny little lamb. She bechoil dor vador omdim aleinu lechaloteinu, verak Hakadosh Boruch Hu yatzileinu miyadam. Without H we don’t have a hope in the world.

‘Your wanton heart has seduced you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock. Whose habitation is high. Who says in his heart, who can bring me down to earth. ‘ This is Esav, saying, ‘who can bring me down to earth’. He thinks he has conquered the heavens already. ‘Though you ascend as high as an Eagle…’. What did America say when they landed on the moon, ‘the Eagle has landed’. What was the symbol of ancient Rome, on their poles, when they conquered Jerusalem? The eagle. What was the symbol of Germany? The eagle. Why of all creatures the Eagle? Because of all creatures, that flies the highest, above all other animals. When we jump as we say Kiddush Levana, and declare may our enemies not reach us just as we cannot reach the moon, we remember the eagle has landed, don’t think you can escape by going to the moon. ‘Though you place your nest in the stars like an eagle, from there I will bring you down, says the Lord, H”. Thos ehwo plot against H’snation, He guarantees, He will bring them down. In world history, every nation that has grown to be the biggest, the most mighty nation in the history of the world, every onw of them grew to infinite proportions as we went through the 4 exiles. They turned upon the Jews in their midst and annihilated what they could. They then self destructed. That is world history. Every nation that has started up with the Jews, physically or spiritually, H has brought them down. He takes revenge on those who attack his chosen children and extinguishes those who try to extinguish the light of the nation that was chosen to bring light to the world. That is world history.

The angel that pierced the heavens and seemed unstoppable is the last exile. So we see something amazing in Sefer Daniel. Daniel also had a nevua of a giant that was coming at him. It was a giant of unimagined proportions. Its head was made of gold, its body of silver, its feet of steel and ots shoes, so to speak, of clay, melted or molded onto the steel. So we see that the first Galus was in Bavel, the “Goldene Medina”. There were those that believed Bavel was a great place to live and had no intention of returning to Israel, they were buried in the Goldene Medina. Then came Midian and Yavn, Greece. They seemed sterling, so pure. Yet when they tried to lead the Jews astray, H extinguished their light. Then came the feet, so to speak. We know that steel, a very powerful metal, is a recent thing, discovered in Germany 200 years ago by the Krupp family. They found that at 1000 degrees Iron changed to something infinitely stronger. It turned to steel. They discovered a secret nobody else knew. Imagine going to battle against others without this. They funded many of the wars of Europe. This symbolically represents the feet of the giant. Then what is the clay wrapped around the feet? If you look at the clay, that represents and totally different material. Clay and steel could never bond. That is the technology of ceramics. Gold and metal crowns. Silver and porcelain crowns. These things are recent technology. At the same time recently came forward a nation that for hundreds of years was working with clay, Yishmael. He was also a warrior, a hunter and he had a trade in pottery. In ancient times the middle east was famous for its pottery and clay products. Really, that is the domain of Esav, of Yishmael. Then an incredible thing is that the clay on the feet of this giant – along comes a diamond, a sparkling diamond in the darkness and it pierces the clay, and the steel, and the silver and the gold. The massive, monstrous giant disintegrates – but only when that diamond is radiating the light of Torah. So, we have to explore. What is that clay?

What made David HaMelekh famous? His defeat of the giant Golius, which means in Hebrew, exile. The theme of world history and this weeks parsha, Vayetze, is that those of us in Eretz Yisrael are assured that H will protect us if we follow in His ways and keep the Torah through all the darkest moments. David’s slingshot became the symbol of how the week few can triumph over the mighty, over the majority. With one tiny slingshot, faith in H prevailed. As Dovid said to Golias, ‘you come to me with the sword, the spear, the javelin. I come to you in the name of H’, Master of all the armies of the world, the G-d of the battalions of Israel that you have ridiculed. On this day G-d will deliver you into my hands…’ (Shmuel 17, 1-45) can you imagine a young little shepherd, not trained in battle or warfare, slaying Golius, the epitome of exile, evil, annihilation and darkness. The Philistines were the last people to attack the Jews and to attempt to prevent them returning to their home land. They were the final impediment to returning to Torah, Eretz Yisrael and Olam Haba in Olam Hazeh, bringing the heavenly Gan Eden to this world.

How ironic it is today that it is contested that Jews have any right to access the Temple Mount, to Jerusalem, or even to Eretz Hakodesh. Unsupervised excavations on the site of first and second temples, in the very place that Yaakov had his dream of the stairway to heaven. Only when Moshiach comes will it be rightfully restored to H’ as His home, keveyachol, in this world. It is no surprise that the same individual who received a PhD in holocaust denial in Russia is now planning a holocaust himself. He denied our Torah, our history our G-d, that there is a Temple Mount and that there was a Temple on it. We ask, how can he say such a thing? But who are we to cry out against him? Do we listen to the Torah, do we listen to H? Or are we still living under the exile of false philosophies?

There is a story in Baba Basra 73b, about the end of days. Rabba Bar Hana traveled with others on a boat. They saw the appearance of dry land and were relieved. They disembarked onto the ‘island’ that gave them refuge. They became very much at home and settled in there. They began to cook, not knowing that it was the back of a very large fish. It was so large, they thought it was an island. There was even vegetation growing on the back of the fish. This is a medrash, not to be interpreted literally but to teach us a message. When the fish felt the heat of the people cooking, it turned over, throwing the entire group into the air and into the ocean. Had the boat not been close by, they would surely have drowned in the ocean. There are 12 different stories in the Agadata on Daf 73b. I would like to go back to story 7. Rabba Bar Bar Hana said, once we were going on a journey and traveled between one fin of a fish and the other fin of the same fish. The animal had a fin near the head and another near the tail. What animal has such a thing? A shark. It took 3 days and nights to sail past the animal, from head to tail. The ship was traveling at about the speed of the animal, in the opposite direction. If you say the wind was against the ship, the fish was traveling against the wind, and the ship with the wind in its sails. If you say the ship was anyway slow, there was a cavalryman on board, when they traveled from Eretz Yisrael to Bavel. He shot an arrow, and the ship went faster than the arrow. That fish was apparently a species of small fish called Gozina of the sea that has 2 fins. This story, mystically, warns us against associating with bad company, wherever it is in the world. Be that Esav or Lavan. In our parsha is the cryptic danger of Galus. Not those who chase us with the sword, but those who chase us and say, come marry my daughters, settle in my home, become a friend of the family, work for us. Forget about where you came from or where you are going. You are not going anywhere. Nobody leaves the white house of Lavan alive. Give me your tired, weary and forlorn and I will make a melting pot out of them. The story in Baba Basra warns against associating with the wrong people. The mafia or the world give the impression that there are friends, to lure the person into their company. Once they have someone’s trust, they exploit him and are even likely to murder him, if he tries to escape. The fish in our story is a false impression of being a safe haven. We’ve survived the stormy ocean and found an island of refuge. We’re tired, weary and forlorn. At last we can settle down, set up home. We see there is beautiful vegetation on this little island. We can survive. As soon as they feel comfortable enough, all of a sudden, the island behaves like a volcano. Once the people are comfortable, the fish is so enraged it will do anything to extinguish the fire that it attempts, purposefully, to throw the people off into the ocean. The boat remains to rescue them. The ship nearby is emuna, it offers a refuge, trust in H, who will never be far from Am Yisrael, as it says in Tehilim (145, 18) ‘H is close to all that cry out to Him’. Wherever we are in the islands of Galus, wherever we are in world history, wherever there is a whale, when people are having a whale of a time, the whale thrashes out and tries to drown them in its own philosophy, and tried to annihilate those that refuse to drink form its poisoned waters, the little ship saves Am Yisrael from total destruction. It is said that we need Moshiach nearby when the nations rise up against us. There is a Medrash (brought in Yalkut Shimoni and Pirkei de Rav Eliezer) that says that the Jews will offer the Arab King gold an silver for the Temple. He will deny that the Jews have any right to it. He will suggest that the Jews and the Arabs bring a sacrifice. Theirs will be accepted but ours will not be. They will say, accept our religion and we will say, we would rather forfeit our lives.

‘Rabba Bar Bar Hanna was once sailing in a ship and they saw a bird up to its ankles in water. It was a mystical bird. Its head was in the sky. We said to ourselves, ‘there is not much water here’, as it only reached the bird’s ankle. We wanted to go down into the water to cool ourselves off. A heavenly voice, a bas kol, came forth, (a sound, a reverberation, or echo with which H sometimes communicates with righteous people, heard in the language of the recipient) saying ‘Do not go down here. The water is so deep that a carpenter dropped his axe into this water and it has taken 7 years and that axe of the carpenter has not yet reached the sea bed. This is not because the water is plentiful. It was because the water is so torrential, the axe has not had a chance to sink’. Rav Ashi said that the bird with its head in the sky is know as ‘the moving thing of the field’, and the moving thing of the field is with me, H says.’ According to Alelos Ephraim, this story teaches us that a student should not delve too deeply into mystical matters, kabbala, because it may be beyond his scope. A person who has learnt Torah for 20/30 years may not be ready for mystical learning. Even Rabbi Akiva went with four Sages into the Pardes (Pshat, Remez, Yesod and Drosh) and of all the Sages, Rabbi Akiva was the only one to survive. He had to somehow pull himself out by forgetting everything he saw inside there. Then he could survive. The bird alludes to very high learning of Torah, a person with his head in the clouds. He thinks he is ready to wade into the deep waters of mysticism. It looks so easy – ankle high. Little does he know what is below the surface of the water. He cannot delve into any depth and cannot grasp more than a few shallow ideas. When Rabbah saw this learning he wanted to join, but was warned against it by shamayim. A carpenter is a skilled craftsman, the best of the craftsmen, lost his tools in the turmoil inside him when faced with the complexity of the subject matter. H warned Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah, a great Torah Sage, even if you think a bird can wade up to its ankles in the water, know that the greatest carpenter would lose his tools, he would lose his mind, his analytical ability to carve through the deep ocean. Ultimately, knowledge of mystical matters is beyond human comprehension. It is the province of H alone. R Ashi described the bird as a species that dwells with H’ like an angel. A person can get into mystical matters, but it may be that he never comes back. So he has to navigate very careful. He has to be careful not to go overboard into the depths and lose Olam Haba, has veshalom. Losing Olam Haba, has veshalom, is not only about doing aveiras, but it could also be exploring fruits that were not meant for him. For us, the ultimate level of Torah is to steig, to delve in Torah, to work on the pshat. There is no limit to the goodness that comes from basic Torah learning. The halacha and the teaching of Torah. Delving into mitzvos.

At the outset of the parsha, Yaakov Avinu was leaving Israel and had to be prepared for this. Cryptically, this speaks to everybody that has to go into Golus. The person needs emuna to fortify himself. ‘Behold, I am with you’, H tells us, in your Golus. When Am Yisrael goes into exile, H is with us. Wherever Am Yisrael is, H is. As the Baal Shem Tov said, ‘where is H? Wherever you let Him in.’ If you let H into your life, He is with you. If not, you have lost H’.

‘I will guard you wherever you go’. History testifies how impossible the lot of Am Yisrael has been over the years. At the end of the parsha a mystical hint is given (that we will see in next week’s parsha), when Lavan caught up with Yaakov after a 3 day journey, Lavan returned. The angels of H encountered him. Yaakov said this is H’s camp and called the name of the place Mahanyim, 2 camps. We are going to see in next week’s parsha, BE”H, that part of the survival in Golus is the division of Am Yisrael. We were spread out amongst the nations. In the History of the world, it was never the case that the nations were united. So that if has veshalom one camp would fall, another would survive.

As the Ponevitzer Rav asked the Chafetz Chayim, before the holocaust, ‘it seems there is an ominous, terrible thing developing here. What will be?’. The Chafetz Chaim said to him, according to the two camps, Rivka said shall I see my 2 sons die on the same day? If Esav kills Yaakov, that is the day he would perish. Yaakov divided his camp, so that if Esav slew one, the other would survive.

The dream at the beginning of the parsha alludes to the end of days. Yaakov awoke form his sleep and said, surely H is present in this place and I did not know. He became frightened and said, how awesome is this place, this is none other than the abode of H’. This is the gate of heaven. Yaakov arose early in the morning and took the stone that he had placed and set it up as a pillar.

יח  וַיַּשְׁכֵּם יַעֲקֹב בַּבֹּקֶר, וַיִּקַּח אֶת-הָאֶבֶן אֲשֶׁר-שָׂם מְרַאֲשֹׁתָיו, וַיָּשֶׂם אֹתָהּ, מַצֵּבָה; וַיִּצֹק שֶׁמֶן, עַל-רֹאשָׁהּ.

He took the stone, set it up as pillar and poured oil on its top. He called the place Beis El, although Luz was the city’s name originally.

We know from the original name that this is the heavenly temple, which is the city of Shalom – Yerushalayim. This is none other than Beis H’. This is no ordinary place but a sanctuary to H’s name. A place suitable for prayer. Furthermore, it is the gate of Heaven, the site where prayer from around the world comes to Israel, to Jerusalem, through Har Hamoria, to the Even Hashtia, and from there it is transmitted to the heavenly Beis Hamikdash, to the Kise HaKavod. The heavenly Temple correspond to the earthly temple. Yaakov was at the place, exactly that place in the centre of the universe, the most propitious place for prayer in the world. According to Rashi, he was parallel to the Kodesh Kodashim of the heavenly Beis Hamikdash. Yaakov took a vow to say, 'If G-d will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father's house in peace, then H will be my G-d, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be G-d's house; and of all that You give me I will repeatedly give 10% to You.' You see now that tzedaka is one of the secrets of surviving. Teshuva, Tefilla, and Tzedaka.

When we head out into the darkness of a 2000 year exile, Teshuva, the desire to return to Israel is enough. The desire to return to Torah is enough. Tefilla, crying out to H from all the darkest places. In all the darkest moments of World History. Natan Sheransky in the Gulag in Siberia, where the KGB was beating him to death and he wouldn’t let go of his sefer tehillim, his tiny sefer tehillim. They beat him viciously. He went back after a few years to Russia. That same KGB that wanted to murder him and annihilate him when nobody and nothing but H could hear his cries, that was the same KGB that had to guard him, as he walked through Russia, having returned to Israel.

So we see, Teshuva, Tefilla and Tzedaka, the 10% that we give to Tzedaka, of our net income, that is Tzedek – tzedek tzedek tirdof – righteousness, righteousness you must pursue. Giving 10% isn’t something you can give if you feel like it or if you want to. Its an obligation. If H provides us with lechem, bread, we will thank H, with birchas hamazon, for the good land – veachalta, vesavata, uverachta es H Elokeha, al haaretz hatova asher natan lach. Although we might never forget how delicious the food was in Golus, we never forget how good is the land of Israel, that everything is good, infinitely good. Good for eternity. How good is this land? There is nothing like it – Eretz HaKadosh. The forefathers had to go through fore to become Kadosh, Teshuva, Tefilla and Tzedaka were the keys to open the gates to come home. We see that the gates for Avraham Avinu to become Kadosh, were to leave his past and be thrown into the furnaces of Ur Kasdim. His last test was to take his future that H had guaranteed to him, and he was willing to offer that to H. Yitzhak Avinu prayed to H that he should not move his neck in resistance as he was total kadosh. That was why it was forbidden for him to leave Eretz HaKadosh. Yaakov left to go into the darkness on the command of his father and mother, to escape from Esav. He was sent to the white house, Beis Lavan, where he spent over 20 years toiling in treacherous conditions, day and night, in the freezing winter and burning heat of the summer. He was responsible for everyone’s property and he would pay for any damage. When he tried to leave, Lavan came to annihilate everything, his own daughters, grandchildren, son in law and all their property. H warned, don’t you lay a finger on them, I will protect them. If we have the emuna to listen to H’, he will guide us through all the dark moments in World History, in good faith.

So only in the land, when we come back to H’, will H be a G-d to us. ‘Ani Hotzeisi Eschem me’Eretzmitzrayim Lihyos Lachem L’Elokim’. H will take us out of all the Egypts of this world to be a G-d unto us. Don’t stay in Golus one second longer than you absolutely have to. Come home to Torah, Eretz Yisrael, and experience Olam Haba beOlam Haze. We see ultimately that the key is ‘ki mitzion tetze torah, udvar H’ miyerushalayim’. For those of you that have come to Dvar Yerushalayim, you have come back to all the three keys, Teshuva, Tefilla and Tzedaka, you have the secrets of Torah that are not mystical, but practical. Not ethereal, ethical. Not beyond comprehension, but the ultimate reason for our comprehension. It changes our world view, because this is the light that H brought to the world that we should be alight unto the nations. May we soon experience the ultimate Geula, the return from all the darkness in the world, the beis hamikdash, moshiach tzidkeinu, the geulla shleima. May we all celebrate Am Yisrael and the whole world, all the righteous of the world, moshiach tzidkeinu and the offerings of Geula to H in His home oon Har Hamoria, bimheira veyameinu.

Shabbat Shalom to everyone.