In an old book called the Fountain of Torah in
English, I saw an interesting word from Orach Le Chaim. I was
interested in this particular word because it answered a question that I
had.
How could Yakov be afraid of Aisav. And he certainly
was. The verses say it clearly. He was afraid that Aisav would kill
him and others. But this is Yakov, who had a personal guarantee
from Hashem himself that he and his children were going to grow into a great
multitude. This is Yakov, who gave orders to real Angels, as it says
in verse 5, " ve ye tzav otum, and he commanded them. This
is Yakov Avinu, who had his 12 sons at his side ready and able to do
battle. How could he be afraid of Esav, with just 400 men coming towards
him? He had G-d and his Angels with him.
So the Orach Le Chaim says this : Yakov was attacked by
fear, however immidiately he regretted having felt afraid, and it upset
him greatly, that how could it be that he was afraid of someone, outside of
Hashem, may he be praised. Therefore, He also said (verse 12,)
Please save me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esav; for I fear
him, - meaning that since I see that I still fear Esav this
means that I have not reached my full potential in this world. And if this is
true then, I had better start praying for myself.
In other words, as I understand the Orach Le Chaim,
this panic attack of fear that Yakov had when he heard that Esav was thundering
down to kill him with an army of 400 trained and
experienced murderers, told Yakov a different message, and that was that
he had not yet reached the level of completeness where he would have the total
confidence in Hashem. Therefore that meant to him that really anything
could happen so he prayed hard and fast.
Next Shabbas is the first day of Hanuka. My family and
I love Hanuka because that is the holiday of oil. To my children, oil
means Abba’s deep fried Kosher Calamari, Sole brother, marinated and
fried the way the Croatians do it.- Deep, and served hot, thin curly twisted crispy golden
brown pieces, swimming in salt and freshly squeezed lemon.
Important Numbers
