Wednesday Night Shiur - Parshas Vayechi

Listen to this week's shiur on Parshas Vayechi

Listen to last week's shiur on Parshas Vayigash & Hey Teives.

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לעילוי נשמת יצחק בן אברהם

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Good Shabbos

This Sunday is Asara B'Teves. The fast is only by day, not the night before. Enjoy your Melaveh Malkah! All those that have end of year donations please remember the Yeshiva.

This week's Torah portion begins as Yehuda approaches (Yigash) Yosef, the viceroy of Egypt, to beg for the life of Binyamin, his youngest brother, who had been accused and arrested for supposedly stealing Yosef's divining cup.

The Midrash (Raba 93:6) explains (see Rashi end 44:18) that although Yehuda was begging Yosef for mercy he was also prepared, if need be, for war against him.

This, at first glance, makes no sense. Yehuda was a clever man, what would drive him to such a pointless thought? He, even together with his brothers, was outnumbered thousands to one and had no chance to win! Why would he even consider fighting?

To answer this, here is a story. (Hadshot HaP'ilut, Kfar Chabad #25)

There is no where that Jews suffered so constantly as in Russia. Even in Germany and Poland where millions of Jews were murdered there were occasional eras peace and prosperity for the Jews. Not so in Russia; the Czar, the Church, and the peasant population saw to it that they never had a moment of respite. But worst of all was Communism.

The Communists opposed G-d, destroyed Torah education and with it paralyzed the minds and souls of almost the entire Jewish population.

So it was no wonder that observant Jews tried everything and almost anything to get out. But Stalin made it impossible to do so.

However, briefly after WWII a brief split in the Iron Curtain opened. It seems that in the course of the terrible war hundreds of thousands of Polish Jews fled from the Nazis over the border into Russia. Now, as soon as the war ended, the Russian and Polish Governments were allowing them to return; anyone carrying a Polish passport could leave Russia! Of course when the Jews heard this they immediately set to work.

But it wasn't easy.

Once one 'obtained' (i.e. bought a forged) passport, it was necessary to reach the border city of Lvov (Lemburg), buy train tickets to Poland, pass a special immigration board of Russians and Poles and finally take a train across the border to freedom during the course of which were also several 'checks'.

And there were even more problems; First of all, the passports cost astronomic prices, secondly, the secret police (N.K.V.D) were always on the lookout for forgeries and if caught the punishment was beating, imprisonment...or worse! Third, it was forbidden to remain in the city of Lvov over night without a special permit and finally, not everyone passed the 'special board'.

Eliezer (the story did not give a family name) was a young religious Jew from Buchara (Tashkent) who decided that he had to leave Russia. He acquired a Polish passport, got permission from his parents and began the long journey to Lvov. On the way he met other young men his age with the same goal and they decided to work together and help each other to get out. They rented a room with a back alley entrance where they intended to stay until they engineered their escape and began preparations.

But the very next day terrible news hit the thousands of Jews secretly hiding in Lvov; the board of Russian-Polish immigration had been eliminated! No one could leave Russia to Poland anymore! The border was closed!

Jews began streaming out of Lvov while they still had time. There was no reason to stay and if they got caught they would lose their homes, jobs and possibly more and be cut off from all sides.

But the group of young men decided they would not give up so easily. They sat up the entire night trying to figure out what to do until one of them suddenly remembered something he had heard from someone; there was a rumor that a high official in the NKVD, perhaps a colonel, by the name of Boris Spokoyni dealt with exit visas and not only was he Jewish (although he denied it), but he had a warm spot for helping his fellow Jews!

Now, this was only a rumor and possibly it was a totally untrue one which meant it could be fatal. But they talked about it and decided it was worth the gamble. They first would try to acquire the forms necessary to request permission to leave (when the board ceased to exist so did the requesting forms), fill them out and pray to G-d.

Eliezer and another young man were chosen to carry out the mission.

In the middle of the night they furtively made their way to the NKVD building on Lenina 3 street, approached the guard, slipped a fairly large bribe into his hand and asked him for two things; ten request forms (which were, of course, outdated) and the address of Spokoyni.

The guard rubbed the ruble bills in his hand, briefly looked down at them and when convinced that they were of sufficiently large denominations, told the Jews to wait off to the side in the shadows, entered the building and returned with an envelope. They took it, walked for a half hour down the street and, when they were sure they weren't being followed, opened it. It contained ten blank forms and a small paper with an address scribbled on it.

They hurried back to the room, everyone filled out a form and, just before dawn Eliezer and friend ran off to what they hoped and prayed was the right address.

They waited outside the house near some bushes until the door opened and out came a polished, immaculately dressed NKVD officer who lit a cigarette and began walking in their direction.

The sidewalk was empty. Now is the time. As soon as he got close enough they approached him and, almost weeping, pled for their lives, "We represent ten young Jews, please have mercy! Help us! We must leave Russia or we will die! Please help or we will commit suicide!" A warm sweat covered their bodies although it was a cold fall morning.

But Spokoyni just acted as though they didn't exist and kept walking. "Oh no!" Eliezer thought to himself. "We were wrong! If he calls the police on us we're finished!"

Then, after a few more steps he stopped, turned to them, narrowed his eyes and said, almost as though he got pleasure from their helplessness; "You missed the deadline! There are no more exit permits! How did you get my name anyway? Who gave it to you!? And my address!?" He angrily threw his cigarette to the pavement, crushed it out with his boot heel and suddenly looked deeply into Eliezer's eyes as though searching for something familiar.

He asked quietly, "Do you have the request forms?" Eliezer took them out of his coat pocket, the officer took them and stuck them into his pocket and whispered to Eliezer, "You know where my office is? Be there at eleven tonight. Come alone." And he waked into the distance.

"It could be a trap!" one of the group said when they returned. "Now he has all our names! It's evidence! What do you think? Maybe we should get out while we can." But when they took a vote everyone agreed they would stay and leave the rest up to G-d.

That night at eleven Eliezer was let in to the NKVD building, found Spokoyni's room and knocked on the door.  He entered the room and Spokoyni locked it behind him.

He told Eliezer to be seated and again looked deeply into his eyes until two tears ran down Spokoyni's cheeks. He almost broke out weeping as he told his entire story.

Spokoyni said that essentially everything said about him was true despite his efforts to hide the facts. He even circulated rumors to the opposite so he wouldn't be flooded with requests that would draw attention. But he admitted that through his efforts thousands of Jews left Russia.

When he finished his short speech and dried his eyes Eliezer announced quietly that he too has good news; that night was the first night of Chanukah!

Spokoyni's eyes widened as though he had heard a message from another world and it was obvious that he was very emotional.

He looked around him to make sure that all the shades were down, went to the corner where there stood a candle stuck into a bottle in the event of a power shortage. He fumbled in his pocket, took out a match and Eliezer quietly said the three blessings as the officer repeated after him word for word and lit the candle.

As he gazed longingly into the flame the tune 'HaNairos HaLalu' quietly came through his lips.

After two days Eliezer and his friends got their permits to leave Russia and arrived in Poland. Several months later he even made it to Israel and today lives in one of the Chabad communities here, surrounded by children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

According to him he heard from reliable sources that Boris Spokoyni eventually was caught, tried and killed by firing squad. But he succeeded in saving thousands of Jews, or to be more accurate; thousands of families!

This answers our questions. The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that the reason Yehuda was willing to wage a hopelessly lopsided war was that he took total responsibility for a Jewish child (in this case, Benyamin) and therefore acted totally above logic.

Something like the colonel in our story. He waged a single handed war against the entire Communist system because his responsibility for others elevated him to a reality which was above selfish considerations.

This is a very deep lesson to us. The goal of life is not freedom but rather responsibility to help others to live the truth.

As in our story; Spokoyni sensed that despite the power, pleasure and satisfaction that Communism offered, nevertheless it was a lie; and despite the weakness, difficulties and disappointments accompanying Judaism: it contains the whole truth.

So too in our weekly Torah portion:

It is known that Moshiach will come from the tribe of Yehuda and not from Yosef; although Yosef represents holiness and elevation (Yesod). This is because Yehuda represents humility (Malchus) and only through the humility of accepting responsibility for others will Moshiach come.

It all depends on us to do all we can, even one more good deed… it is our responsibility to rise above normal and for sure we will succeed in bringing…..

Moshiach NOW!

Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
RYYH
ULYOP
In a Rush to bring Moshiach

Wednesday Night Shiur - Parshas Vayigash & Hey Teives

Listen to this week's shiur on Parshas Vayigash & Hey Teives.
Listen to last week's shiur on Parshas Mikeitz & Chanukah.

This week's shiur is uploaded
לעילוי נשמת יצחק בן אברהם

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Wednesday Night Shiur - Parshas Mikeitz & Chanukah

Listen to this week's shiur on Parshas Mikeitz & Chanukah. Very interesting shiur about Yosef's and his brothers' meeting in Egypt and insights into Chanukah.

Listen to last week's shiur on Parshas Vayeishev.

This week's shiur is uploaded
לעילוי נשמת יצחק בן אברהם

Hear all shiurim at www.shiur.us.

Gutt Shabbos & Happy Chanuka

Friday Evening Light Menorah first, Shabbos candles after. Shabbos candles need to be lit no later than 4:11 p.m. Motzoey Shabbos Light after Havdalah not before 5:15 p.m.

This week we learn the story of the terrible sufferings of Yosef. First his own brothers threw him into a pit of scorpions and snakes, then sold him into slavery after which he got imprisoned for life due to the treachery of Potifar's wife.

At first glance this is totally not understood. Why does the Torah reveal these gruesome details? Even more, why did they have to happen?

True, Yosef's descent into Egypt eventually brought salvation to the entire world from starvation and fulfilled the promise of G-d to Avraham (Gen. 16:13,14).

But G-d is the King of the Universe and Yosef was His devoted servant. Why did Yosef the Tzadik (Totally holy man) have to suffer?! Why couldn't all this happen in a more friendly way?

To understand this, here is a story. A decorated Israeli army veteran by the name of Moshe Levi related his first meeting with the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

Moshe Levi is one of the few soldiers that received the 'Ot Gevura'; the highest Israeli combat award for bravery. In his case it was for his service in the Yom Kippur war.

The Yom Kippur war was won solely by Divine intervention. As is already well known, the Israeli Government, at that time run by Goldi Meir and Moshe Dyan, made the same mistake as they are trying to make now (Thank G-d, unsuccessfully). They knew that the Arabs were planning to destroy Israel but thought that preparing for war would anger the United Nations (especially the United States) so they let the Arabs attack.

The result was disastrous. Our troops were totally unprepared, undermanned and under armed. The result was that thousands of young Israelis needlessly lost their lives and, if it weren't for a massive series of clear miracles, the Arabs would have easily overrun the country in just a few days!

Moshe Levi tells his story. He was in a battalion of seventy five combat soldiers in the south of Israel guarding the border with Egypt when suddenly they received orders from head command that the entire Egyptian army was attacking! A full battalion of one hundred and twenty Egyptian tanks backed up by who-knows-how-many hundreds of foot soldiers were heading toward their position and they were the only thing preventing them from reaching Tel Aviv! It was total war!

There was no time to send reinforcements or ammunition, they would have to do with what they had; Israeli forces were needed to stop the Syrians attacking from the north and the rest of the Egyptian army that was attacking the rest of the southern border!

The desert night was silent.  Only in the far distance could be heard something like wind.  Was it the Egyptians? The 75 soldiers felt helpless. They didn't have a chance!

They couldn't possibly destroy so many tanks… they didn't even have that many anti-tank missiles! And who knows how many hundreds perhaps thousands of soldiers were behind the tanks?

The horrible truth was too obvious; none of them would get out alive. But to run was impossible… they were the only ones stopping the Egyptians from Tel Aviv! One of them mumbled dejectedly, "We're all dead! How can we possibly defeat 120 tanks?!"

"Suddenly one of the soldiers, a Yemenite Jew by the name of Zandani, stood, took a book of T'hilim (Psalms) from his pocket, held it defiantly in the air and declared, "With this! We'll defeat them with this!! The Egyptians don't stand a chance against the G-d of Israel!" And he began to read aloud, each word clearly ringing out in the desert night.

Now it is important to mention that all the other 74 soldiers were almost total ignoramuses about Judaism. In fact most of them were brazen, outspoken, Israeli style atheists. But after each few words the Yemenite read they all yelled out 'AMEN' (Although Amen is only said after blessings).

And that was when the Egyptian tanks appeared in the distance.

Moshe Levi stood, put his hand on his heart and swore to G-d that if he got out alive he would put on Tefillin (Phylacteries) for the rest of his life… and the battle began.

The Egyptian tanks opened fire with their artillery and as soon as they got close enough the Israelis opened up with bazookas and mortars while the Yemenite stood and yelled Psalms through the smoke and explosions.

Moshe Levi related, "We fired while the Yemenite read aloud and it seemed like every missile we shot was a direct hit! It was miraculous! A miracle! We knocked out so many of their tanks! And then, just as we were running out of ammunition and a lot of us were wounded and it looked like we were through, suddenly the Egyptians stopped and turned back! They turned around and left! And the biggest miracle was that, although a lot of us were hurt.... no one got killed.

"Except Zandani.

"The Yemenite that saved us was the only one killed! And there was something else….. My left arm got blown off….. so I couldn't put on Tefillin!

"It took me nine months in the hospital to recover and in that time I was visited by a lot of Rabbis but none of them could explain this to me. Why was it that, of all people, that Yemenite was the one to die? If anyone should have been protected by G-d it was him! And my arm that I vowed to put Tefillin on got blown off? The question began to drive me crazy.

"Three or four years later," Moshe Levi continued, "I went to the United States to have an artificial arm constructed and fitted and while I was there a good friend called me and told me that he was by the Lubavitcher Rebbe and that the Rebbe was interested in seeing me.

"At first I couldn't figure what he was talking about. I was a totally non-religious person and had no connection with this Rabbi or any Rabbis, why would he want to see me? So I refused. But my friend told me I was crazy. He said that people came from all over the world and waited for sometimes months to see the Rebbi, and now I'm refusing?!

"So I agreed. I figured, what do I have to lose? The meeting was set for twelve midnight the next night. So I went in and as soon as I was in there and looked at him I knew he was something special. In fact the entire time I was there I tried several times to look him in the eyes and I wasn't able to! It was just too holy. Something I just can't explain.

"He asked me to sit down and tell him about my experiences and we talked about the war. He was simply amazing! He knew each and every detail of each and every battle! He had very strong opinions. He was very disappointed with the Israeli government. For instance, he said they should have allowed the Israeli army to take Damascus and Cairo for even one day just to show them who is boss. He also said it was a big miracle that they attacked on Yom Kippur because the holiness of the day protected us and because Jews don't drive on that day so the streets were empty and it was easy to mobilize the troops.

"We spoke for an hour and forty five minutes and it seemed like five minutes. This is something that never happened to me in my life; that almost two hours passed like a few minutes. But then, somewhere in the middle I asked him my question that had been plaguing me; why was Zandani killed and why did I lose my Tefillin arm? And I waited for the answer.

"The Rebbe paused for a second and said that the answer was simple. I had asked this question to tens of Rabbis who didn't have an answer and he said it was simple!

"He said that in fact our entire company should have died. But Zandani made himself close to G-d and got what he wanted; that everyone in the company would live. And the same with my arm; I was supposed to die even after Zandani's sacrifice. But because I devoted my arm to G-d so G-d took it instead of my life."

Moshe Levi continued praising the Rebbe and the interview and the movie ended. But afterwards I thought about what he said and it didn't make sense.

His question was: if Zandani and his own left arm were devoted to G-d then why weren't they taken away? And the Rebbe's answer was; BECAUSE these were devoted to G-d, THERFORE G-d took them.

Why did the Rebbe's answer calm him down? Seemingly, he just repeated the question!

But I think the explanation is as follows. Before the battle Moshe Levi had been, at best, an atheist. He didn't have any reason to believe there was such a thing as G-d.

But when he saw Zandani's certainty and then the miracles that occurred afterward, it made him realize that not only does G-d exist but He is infinitely real and GOOD.

And that is where his questions began:

If G-d is good, then why did ANYONE have to die? And if anyone did die then it made sense that it should have been the non-believers. Why did the holy ones (the Yemenite and his own left arm) have to go?

But the Rebbe opened his eyes. He explained that G-d wants US to be His partners.

G-d usually gives life and blessing for free; but when this happens it is hard to realize there is a Creator or a plan for creation. It just seems like nature… and nature neither implies meaning nor demands responsibility.

But sometimes life and blessing depend on us….. WE have to make sacrifices in order to make it happen. Like Zandani did with his life and Moshe Levi did with his arm. BECAUSE they were devoted to G-d, THERFORE G-d took them in order that those that remain will realize their obligation and responsibility.

This is what happened to Yosef. His suffering was not due to natural causes; neither to his brothers' hatred or the evil woman who slandered him into jail.

Rather it was a sacrifice, his partnership with G-d, in order to bring life, blessing and meaning; save the entire world from famine, bring about the exile and Exodus from Egypt, the birth of the Jewish nation at Mount Sinai and finally…make all mankind realize their obligation to bring the total redemption of all mankind by means of Moshiach.

This is a major lesson to us. We are all alive today because of the sacrifices of the generations before us. Now we must learn from this that we have an obligation to them and to the future generations.

Namely, we must do everything possible to improve the world around us and be an example to others to do the same.

And through our work, the sufferings of the past will become meaningful (as the Lubavitcher Rebbe once wrote, that before he was three years old he already had woven a picture in his mind of how Moshiach would make sense of all the thousands of years of Jewish suffering) and before we know it our efforts will bring true blessing and joy with....

Moshiach NOW!

Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
RYYH
ULYOP
In a Rush to bring Moshiach

Wednesday Night Shiur - Parshas Vayeishev

Listen to this week's shiur on Parshas Vayeishev.

Listen to last week's shiur on Parshas Vayishlach.

This week's shiur is leiluy nishmas Yitzchak ben Avraham.

Hear all shiurim at www.shiur.us.

Gutt Shabbos

Strangely the Jewish Bible, the Book of Books, contains almost no miracle stories about the founding fathers of the Jewish religion. These stories are found in the 'Midrash' and Talmudic 'Aggada' but only hinted at in the book of Genesis.

For instance, how Yaakov wrestled and defeated an angel.

For some reason the Torah doesn't tell us it was an angel. It just says "A man wrestled with him" (32:25) and Rashi explains that it was really not a human being but rather the guardian angel of Aisav; Yaakov's wayward brother.

This seemingly makes no sense.

Why doesn't the Torah just tell us it was an angel? And why did Yaakov have to fight him? Yaakov was religious -he should have just prayed to G-d to do it for him.

We learned that an angel destroyed the entire cities of Sodom and Amora. Howthen can a human fight, no less defeat, an angel? And finally, what was the value of Yaakov's victory when we see that the offspring of Aisav (Church, Nazis, Pogroms, and Communists etc) didn't seem to be affected at all?!

To understand this here is a story. (Sichat HaShavua #1194)

Some two hundred and fifty years ago in the Ukrainian town of Alik lived a great Tzadik by the name of Rabbi Tzvi Arie of Alik.

He had been one of the pupils of the Magid of Mezritch; the successor of the Baal Shem Tov. Besides being a Talmudic and Kabalistic genius, he was renowned for his ability to miraculously negate heavenly decrees through prayer.

In fact he had such an uncanny ability to 'break in' through 'locked' heavenly gates that the other pupils of the Maggid, all tzadikim themselves, lovingly called him 'The Thief'.

Since anyone could remember, the gentiles in Alik hated the Jews. Some said it was part of Ukrainian culture, others said it was because of the local priest who was a rabble-rousing anti-Semite. Regardless of the cause, it was impossible for a Jew to walk down the main street of Alik without getting beaten and robbed by local ruffians.

But now, to add to their problems, there was a plague.

The situation was unbearable. Young people, especially children, were dying by the dozens and the doctors had no cure. The Jews turned to prayer, fasting, doing more good deeds, but nothing helped. And of course, the priest, every Sunday in his sermon, eloquently and convincingly blamed it all on the Jews.

The Jews flocked to Rabbi Tzvi Arie for help but help didn't come. He tried prayer, fasting, meditation and seclusion with no success until finally he announced a change in strategy: he would use the advice of the Talmud on the sentence, "I will put a man in your place" (Isaiah 43:4): The anti-Semites should suffer in the place of the Jews.

He ordered the congregation to gather one hundred and sixty coins of pure silver and bring them to him.

Some say that according to Kabala 160 equals 'Tzelem' i.e. 'form' because man is made in the 'form' of G-d, some had other explanations. In any case, in less than an hour Rabbi Tzvi received the money and locked himself in his room. The entire population of the Jewish quarter waited impatiently around his headquarters and sure enough, after two hours he came out and announced that he wanted a young man or boy who could run fast.

One boy stepped forward, the Rebbe gave him the bag containing the coins, put both hands on his shoulders, looked him squarely in the eyes and told him he wanted him to run down the main street as fast as he could and throw the coins in all directions over his shoulder as he ran.

No one exactly understood what the Rebbe's plan was but the boy looked at the Rebbe, the Rebbe smiled slightly, nodded his head in encouragement, the boy nodded back, took a few breaths deep breaths and ran like lightning toward Main Street.

The first ruffian that saw him let out a shout of joy and all the riffraff yelled like animals and the chase, with intent to kill, was on! But when they heard the falling coins ringing on the cobblestones they forgot about their prey and began grabbing and quarreling over the money. Suddenly there was no corner or place on the road that was empty of an argument, a wrestling match or worse.

The results were soon to follow. Unexplainably two days later the Jewish fatality dwindled to zero; Jews stopped getting sick and the sick began feeling better, while that of the gentiles soared - especially among the anti-Semites of Main Street!

It was a miracle! An open miracle! But it so infuriated the priest that he decided to do something he had never done before; go to the local Baron and complain.

He didn't like to do it because officially the Baron had much more power than he did and could have him fired, or worse. But on the other hand, if he succeeded in arousing the ire of the Baron it could mean the end of the Jews in Alik!

The next day Rabbi Tzvi Arie got an official summons to appear before the Baron for trial.

Everyone was worried. Some wanted to declare a day of fasting and prayer, others suggested moving to another town. But Rabbi Arie Tzvi was calm and even smiling.

The day of the trial began. The Priest was given the floor and began ranting against the Jews, how they couldn't be trusted, stole everyone's money, oppose the church, kill babies and drink their blood and now....were the source of the plague!

The Baron turned to Rabbi Tzvi Arie and asked him if these charges were true. "Complete lies, your honor." he answered calmly. "Just ask him if he has any proof."

"Proof?" stammered the priest. "I have proof that they caused the plague! That's what I have proof! I have witnesses that saw a Jewish boy scatter money on the street, which incited a riot and was a direct cause of the plague! I mean, after that, the Jews stopped dying and our people got sicker!! And I asked around and people told me that this Rabbi was behind it all! He sent the boy!"

"Aha!!" exclaimed the Baron as he turned to Rabbi Tzvi Arie. "Is this true? Did you send the boy to scatter money and cause our people to die?!"

Then, without waiting for a reply he stood, turned to the priest and exclaimed. "If so, it is fully in my power, and it is my decision to punish the Jews for this travesty! Yes! Punish them severely!!! And I give you, my dear priest, full power to carry out the verdict!!

The Priest was gloating with victory and didn't conceal it. He was smiling from ear to ear, standing as straight as a statue with his arms folded and chest jutting out, occasionally grunting and shooting a glance of 'just wait to see what I'll do to you!' at the Rebbe.

But the Rebbe either knew what was going on in the Baron's mind or he totally trusted in G-d or both, because not a trace of worry could be seen on his face

What, in fact, was going on in the Baron's mind was a sudden and unexplainable hatred for the priest!

Suddenly it occurred to him that the priest's plan to oust the Jews would deprive him of a good source of income from their taxes!

The Baron raised one finger ominously and continued. "I decree that the Jews should be punished measure for measure!!

"I hereby decree that you, honorable priest, shall personally take 160 silver coins of your own money, scatter it in the Jewish quarter and return the curse to where it came from. MEASURE FOR MEASURE!!"

The priest had to do as he was told and from that day there was never any problems for the Jews of Alik.

This answers out questions. Everything has a spiritual source or soul that enlivens it and Yaakov (as well as the other patriarchs) was concerned only with this source in everything he did.

Just as Rabbi Tzvi Arie battled the plague and the evil priest spiritually, so Yaakov's battle with Lavan and with Aisav was really a spiritual one.

Therefore the angel he fought was called 'a man' because it was really this spiritual essence of the man Aisav that Yaakov had been battling all along in order to transform it (much as Rabbi Tzvi transformed everything in our story) to holiness.

And that explains how Yaakov, a limited human being, could battle a spiritual, angel. Because Yaakov (and all human beings… especially Jews) was actually higher than the angel. Yaakov could choose to serve G-d with his own free will while angels lack this power. And this power of free choice reflects the essence of the Creator.. far above the angels.

But the victory depended solely on his free will. And that is why he had to fight the battle on his own.

And that is also how he could win. Because G-d created this world in order that we CHOOSE good and TRANSFORM evil (selfishness).

Finally what can we learn from all this is: we have the power to change nature; both our own human nature and the nature of the world around us! Just as Yaakov and Rabbi Tzvi Arie.

It all depends on our will; on making a firm resolution to do good and to bring meaning and blessing in everything we do. Because, as we see,Yaakov only began the battle. It is our job to finish it.

If we CHOOSE to do this then even the angels cannot stop us!

This will be the preparation for the biggest and most positive change in history; the arrival of Moshiach and the total redemption he will bring!

It all depends on us to choose to change the world; one deed, one word even one good thought can tilt the scales of history and bring….

Moshiach NOW!

Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
RYYH
ULYOP
In a Rush to bring Moshiach

Wednesday Night Shiur - Parshas Vayishlach

Listen to this week's shiur on Parshas Vayishlach.

Listen to last week's shiur on Parshas Vayeitzei.

Hear all shiurim at www.shiur.us.