From: JoshHoff@aol.com
Sent: Friday, December 12, 2008 3:24 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort:parshas Vayishlach,5769
Mr.
Lonely
By Rabbi Joshua solitarily known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
Ya'akov, after preparing
for his encounter with Eisav by sending him a lavish gift, praying to God and,
as s a last resort, arranging for battle, sends his entire family and entourage
to the other side of the River Yabok, and then crosses back over by himself.
The Torah tells us, at that point, " Veyivaseir Ya'akov levado,' or,
" Ya'akov remained by himself' ( Bereishis, 31:25)..These three words have
served as the theme of many sermons, taking Ya'akov as a paradigm for the
Jewish people, who, throughout their exile, have remained alone, without
support from other nations, relying on God to survive as a sheep among seventy
wolves. Thus is certainly the image one has when thinking of Israel's
ambassador to the United nations sitting at a meeting of the General assembly
there. I first heard this verse used in this context from a shul
rabbi in Chicago, Rabbi Rosenthal, in a sermon he gave on parshas Vayishlach.(
perhaps in 1970- for the record, the sermon was in Yiddish). This view of
Ya'akov is certainly consistent with the midrashim we referred to last week, as
cited by the Beis Yisroel, which view Ya'akov as the patriarch who was told to
pave the way for the Jews in their various exiles. I would like to
suggest , however, that there is another dimension to Ya'akov's
loneliness that is being presented in this episode, which we can better
understand through one of the classic works of Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik,
" he Lonely Man of Faith."
Rav Soloveitchik writes,
in his essay, that when he speaks of his profound loneliness, he does not mean
that he is physically alone. He is surrounded by friends and acquaintances with
whom he is able to speak, argue and reason. still, this does not relieve him
from his feeling of loneliness,and at times he feels rejected by all, and is
reminded of the verse in Tehillim, chapter 36), " for my father and my
mother have abandoned me, and God has taken me in." Faith in God, says Rav
Soloveitchik, is by its nature a solitary experience, man confronting God, and
it is an experience that can therefore cause pain, but, ultimately, is
cathartic. Rav Soloveitchik, in his essay, goes on to explain what this lonely
encounter means for him, by analyzing the first two chapters of Bereishis, and
delineating two aspects of man, coining the terms Adam I and Adam II, the first
being the man of action who is charged to engage the world and conquer it, the
second being the man of faith, who encounters God as a solitary human being
dialoguing with his Creator. I would urge readers who have not yet done so to
study this remarkable work, a testimony of faith by one of the most profound
dialoging of the twentieth century.
Applying Rav
Soloveitchik's remarks to the situation of Ya'akov, the Torah tells us
that he helped his family and company cross over the river, thus leaving him
alone. He is described as being alone even though he has two wives, two
maid-servants, thirteen children and a company of servants just across the
river. He then encounters a mysterious 'ish,' or man, with whom he struggles
throughout the night. The midrash tells us that this man was really the
guardian angel of Eisav, and Ya'akov, on some level, was now battling with him.
Rabbi Yissocher Jacobson, in his Meditations on the Torah, suggests that this
was actually a psychological struggle that Ya'akov went through, with his
own soul, struggling with his misgivings over having tricked Eisav out of
his blessings,even though,as the Targum notes, Rivkah's plan was divinely
inspired,and Ya'akov acted on this awareness. Perhaps we can modify this
approach somewhat and suggest that Ya'akov, left alone, reflected on the
essence of his faith, and on how he differed from Eisav, from whom he had
bought the bechora, or the status and responsibility of the
first-born, In order to confront Eisav, he felt that he needed to first clarify
his own relationship with God, and he did this by himself, as a lone individual
encountering his Creator. .
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