From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, November 19, 2004
1:36 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas
Vayeitzei, 5765
Sleepless
in Be'er Sheva
By
Rabbi Joshua (apneatically known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
Ya'akov, being pursued by his brother,
reaches a certain location and stops there to sleep, because the sun had set.
The Torah tells us that he lay down "in that place" (Bereishis 28:11). Rashi,
citing the Midrash Rabbah, notes that Ya'akov laid down to sleep in that place,
in contrast to his practice over the previous fourteen years, during which time
he never laid down to sleep, because of his incessant occupation with the study
of Torah in the house of Ever. The medieval Talmudic scholar Rabbeinu Ephraim,
in his Torah commentary, explains that Ya'akov did, in fact, sleep at short
intervals over that period of time, but he never laid down to sleep.
Interestingly, if one looks in Rashi's source in the Midrash Rabbah, he will see
that there are two opinions concerning the place and time of Ya'akov's waking
state, as alluded to here to in the Torah by the peculiar wording of the
verse. The opinion mentioned by Rashi is that of Rabbi Yehudah, while Rabbi
Nechemiah says that it was in the house of Lavan, for the duration of twenty
years, where Ya'akov did not lay down to sleep. Actually, Rashi, at the end of
his commentary to parshas Vayeitzei, showed that a study of the timeline of
Ya'akov's life as recorded in the Torah leads us to the inevitable conclusion
that there was a fourteen year period of time unaccounted for, and this was the
time which he spent learning Torah in the house of Ever. However, I believe that
this is not the only reason that led Rashi to cite the opinion of Rabbi
Nechemiah in this midrash, and, moreover, that, in fact, the two opinions are
not in conflict with each other, as I shall try to demonstrate.
We
mentioned in last week's message that Yitzchok blessed Ya'akov that he should
have the ability to attain spiritual blessings from his endeavors in the
physical realm. We noted that, in order to do so, he had to remember that all
blessings have their source in the Holy Land, and from there they are
distributed to the rest of the world. Yitzchok, by remaining in Eretz Yisroel
his entire life and receiving the blessings of God there, served as a living
example to Ya'akov of this principle. Still, we need to know the vehicle through
which Ya'akov himself would be able to attain spiritual blessings through his
activities in the mundane world. I believe that the midrash cited by Rashi
provides us with the answer. Ya'akov immersed himself in Torah study for
fourteen years, never going to sleep in a bed, but, rather, dropping off to
sleep for short intervals, when he felt that he no longer had strength to
continue. He applied this Torah learning when he became a worker in the house of
Lavan.The Talmud in Bava Metziah (93b) derives laws of a hired watchman from
statements made by Ya'akov describing the way in which he tended to Lavan's
animals over the years, and the Rambam, in his Laws of Hiring (13:7), points to
Ya'akov as a model of the way a worker should perform his duties towards his
employer. For example, Ya'akov told Lavan, " These twenty years I have been with
you, your ewes and she-goats did not miscarry, nor did I eat the rams of your
flock… This is how I was : By day heat consumed me, and snow by night ; sleep
drifted from my eyes" (Bereishis 31:38 and 40). The Rambam cites this verse to
show that Ya'akov displayed complete integrity in his work, never wasting time
or cheating his employer, and that this is the way all workers should deport
themselves. It was through Ya'akov's fourteen years of Torah learning that he
understood how to apply Torah standards to the life in the physical world, and
thereby bring down spiritual blessings.
The two opinions in the
midrash, then, are really one. Rabbi Yehudah says that Ya'akov did not lay down
to sleep for fourteen years while he was studying Torah in the house of Ever.
Rabbi Ya'akov Kaminetsky, in his Emes L'Ya'akov, writes that though Ya'akov had
already studied Torah all the years he was in his father's house, he now needed
to learn those sections of the Torah that related to conditions outside of that
house. During these years, then, he prepared himself for the challenges he would
face in applying the Torah to the multifarious vicissitudes of life that he
would encounter in Lavan's house. These years of total immersion in Torah study
enabled him to forge his personality in a way that conformed with Torah law and
ethics. As a result, he faithfully carried out his duty to his employer, Lavan,
and served as an example of a faithful employee, emulating the ways of the
Torah. Thus, Rabbi Nechemiah, in saying that Ya'akov did not sleep for twenty
years while in the house of Lavan, is giving the other side of the story that
Rabbi Yehudah presented. Because Ya'akov studied Torah for fourteen years while
in the house of Ever, never allowing himself to lay down to sleep, he was able
to serve for twenty years as a faithful employee while in Lavan's house, again
never allowing himself to lay down to sleep. In this way, through applying the
Torah that he learned to his life situation, he was able to attain spiritual
blessing by means of his activity in the physical world. Rashi, then, in citing
the opinion of Rabbi Yehudah, was explaining the first step in the process -
Ya'akov's fourteen years of Torah study in the house of Lavan - that culminated
in his dedicated service for twenty years in the house of Lavan, as indicated by
Rabbi Nechemiah.
Please address all correspondence to the
author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.
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