We Envy You!
The Alter Rebbe referred to Moses’ vaunted praise as the most humble man on the face of the earth and asked: How could Moses be so humble when he knew his towering greatness? Moses was given a preview of all future generations of Jews. When he saw the final generation before the coming of Moshiach and their self-sacrifice for Torah and Mitzvos, he was humbled.” The mere fact that despite all of the exile conditions, we have done everything in our power to hasten Moshiach’s coming earns us the envy of all our forebears. They will marvel at our faith, perseverance and self- sacrifice in the face of unprecedented darkness.
Dealing with the Threat of Esau
Jacob is now returning home from Charan and discovers that his brother Esau was coming towards him with 400 armed men. Esau was still angry at Jacob for having “appropriated” the blessings of their father, Isaac. In response to this ominous threat, Jacob develops a strategy that included sending his brother an elaborate gift to help assuage his hostility.
Every detail of Torah is instructive. Esau symbolizes the obstacles to our Jewish lives and every aspect of Jacob’s attempt at rapprochement is to be seen as lessons for us in removing these obstacles and even converting them into opportunities, that will enable us to realize our goal. That goal is the coming of Moshiach and the Final Redemption at which time, our Sages tell us, Esau will have been rehabilitated.
Bearing this in mind we must find meaning in the details of Jacob’s instructions to his servants as to what they should say to Esau:
The Three Questions
“When my brother Esau encounters you and questions you, saying, ‘Whose are you? Where are you going? And to whom belong all of these things before you?’ You should say, ‘We belong to your servant Jacob. This is a gift (mincha) sent to my master, to Esau, and, behold, he is himself is behind us.’”
One of the Chassidic Masters explains that these three questions parallel the three questions mentioned in Avos (Ethics of the Fathers) that are intended to keep us from sin: “Reflect on three things, and you will not come to the handle of sin: From where to you come? Where are you going? And before whom are you going to give a judgment and accounting?”
Isn’t it strange that Esau—who symbolizes the evil impulse within us—should ask the same questions that are designed to steer us away from sin?
Chidushei Harim clarifies that when Esau asks these questions they are meant not to inspire us to be more conscientious Jews, but on the contrary, they are intended to demoralize us and get us to become depressed. Chidushei Harim, however, does not explain what these questions are about when they come from Esau.
Upon some reflection we may suggest the following three arguments the internal Esau poses to us to get us from realizing our goal.
Our goal is a grandiose one of changing the world and preparing it for the coming of Moshiach and the final Redemption. And we accomplish this by staying on the road towards that goal. By performing Mitzvot, learning Torah—specifically the parts of Torah that prepare us for the higher spiritual dimension of the Messianic Age— praying and demanding the Redemption, we will reach our destination.
Esau, however, is displeased that we are even thinking in terms of that goal and poses three challenges to us:
Humble Beginnings
The first question/challenge, “Whose are you” which corresponds to the question “where do you come from” in Ethics of the Fathers. It is meant to prevent us from even starting our journey—or derailing us if we began the journey—by pointing to our humble origins. “Who do you think you are that you are considering a life of spiritual achievement that would result in changing the world? The evil impulse chastises us. “You have but humble beginnings. You are not the scion of some illustrious family. You are a nobody. Give up your pipe dreams. Think small!
Elusive Goal
The second question, “where are you going?” is intended to get us off track when we fail to heed his demoralizing advice to think small. When he sees that we have taken off with gusto and are on the way to reaching our destination he quickly sends us a second message intended to derail us: “Where do you think you’re going? You’ll never get there. It is so far and your objective is so elusive? Slow down, or better still, go back, forget about your grandiose goals.”
Future Embarresment?
The third question posed by the internal Esau when he sees that we ignored his second admonition and we continue to stubbornly trek ahead even when it gets tough, and, as the saying goes, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.” The evil impulse pulls out his last arrow from his quiver:
“Look at the future. No matter how good you are, when you arrive at your destination—the Messianic Age—in a world of perfection, when the righteous of the past will be brought back to life, of what value will be all of your accomplishments? You will look foolish relative to the standards that will be the norm in the future. You will be insignificant in the presence of these towering personalities. Why waste your time trying to get to a place that will only bring you shame and dejection. Here in the less than perfect world you can be someone special. Why clamor for the time when you will be reduced to a virtual nobody?”
These are the three challenges that prevent us from realizing any positive goal, but especially the goal of bringing the Redemption.
How do we respond to these challenges?
No Jew Without a Background
Jacob already gave us the answer in his instructions to his servants:
The answer to the first challenge as to “who do we think we are considering our humble beginnings” is that “we belong to your servant Jacob.” Every Jew has an illustrious background. Every Jew is a descendent of Jacob (who embodied and transmitted the collective energies of Isaac and Abraham). There is no such thing as a Jew with no background! We were all empowered to change the world because of the traits that we inherited from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The Poor Man’s Offering
The response to the second challenge of Esau that the goal is elusive is contained in Jacob’s continuing instruction to his servants, “This is a gift (mincha) sent to my master, to Esau.” A mincha is a modest offering. In the days of the Temple, only the poorest people would bring a mincha that consisted of flour and oil in place of the more elaborate animal sacrifice. Yet, it is the small gesture of a poor man that G-d cherishes because, as our Sages state, “he is actually bringing his own soul.” A poor person instills his heart and soul in the offering. Our small efforts are not any less meaningful than the major achievements of the spiritually affluent.
Moreover, the mincha is being offered to Esau. This is a way of saying to Esau. Thank you for your efforts to ensnare us and deter us. This is what makes our offering so much more meaningful. We owe you, Esau, a debt of gratitude, because, ironically, you are what makes our paltry mincha possess the power that it possesses.
The Giant and the Dwarf: Who Dwarfs Whom?
The refutation of his final challenge that we will be “nobodies” in the future is contained in the words, “behold, he himself is behind us.’” This can mean that contrary to the argument that we will lose our identities because our achievements pale compared to our forbears, the response is that, on the contrary, “Jacob will be behind us.”
There is a dual meaning to that phrase.
First, it means that we have the power to get us over the top because we are the proverbial dwarf that stands on the shoulders of the giant who can see farther. We will get the credit for bringing the Redemption because, as our Sages declare, “A Mitzvah is credited to the one who completes it.” We are the ones who will finish the job, so notwithstanding our status as dwarfs compared to our ancestors, we will not be “nobodies.” Even among the illustrious leaders of yesteryear we will be prominent. Jacob—and all the other greats—will point to us and declare, “You were the ones that made all of our work bear fruit. You completed and validated all of what we’ve begun.”
But there is a second and more powerful meaning to that expression that “Jacob is behind us.” Not only are we the ones to finish the job and deserve to get the credit for it; we have a distinction even in comparison to all the spiritual titans of the past. Our generation’s self sacrifice in times of spiritual darkness make us unique. That a Jew growing up in the assimilated, affluent Western world eschews materialism for Judaism, shuns wealth for Torah knowledge, and resists the alluring temptations of the secular world for the observance of Mitzvot is no less heroic than the Jews who risked their lives in the former Soviet Union to preserve Judaism. The combined sacrifices of the modern day Jew who has resisted the twin pressures of persecution and assimilation puts our generation on a pedestal no earlier generation can rival!
This last point—while sounding somewhat exaggerated and pretentious—was actually made by the Alter Rebbe (Rabbi Schnuer Zalman of Liadi, the founder of the Chabad Chassidic movement and the author of the Chassidic classic, the Tanya, whose day of liberation from Czarist imprisonment we will be observing this coming week, on the 19th day of Kislev).
The Alter Rebbe referred to Moses’ vaunted praise as the most humble man on the face of the earth. The question is asked, how could Moses be so humble when he knew his towering greatness? The answer provided by the Alter Rebbe was that according to the Talmud and Midrash, Moses was given a preview of all future generations of Jews. When he saw the final generation before the coming of Moshiach and their self-sacrifice for Torah and Mitzvot, he was humbled.”
We do not have to worry about our position in the future and how we will be judged. The mere fact that despite all of the exile conditions, we ask for—nay demand Moshiach—and do everything in our power to hasten his coming, that itself places us in the category of people that Moses, Jacob and all of our forebears will look up to. They will marvel at our faith, perseverance and self-sacrifice in the face of unprecedented darkness.
In a similar vein, the Rebbe turned a person’s Jewish life around when he informed the Rebbe that he was about to embark on a spiritually destructive path of intermarriage. Rather than castigating him for his plan the Rebbe told him “I envy you. I do not have your challenge. And meeting it makes you unique.” These were the powerful words that the Rebbe told a Jew who was standing precariously on the precipice of his Jewish life ready to fall into the abyss. And it was to this Jew—and all of our generation who have similar challenges in one form or another—that the Patriarchs, Moses and Moshiach will say to us: “We envy you!”
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Vayishlach by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
