This Shabbos we discussed parsha Vayishlach. David Schlesinger led discussion. This Shabbos was a special Shabbos, as we welcome back Efroni Schlesinger from Israel. We discussed Rav Yeager’s commentary on the parsha, as well as additional commentary from Efroni .
We discussed this Shabbos the emotion of fear, including Rav Yeager’s commentary on this. We discussed how our fear is often based on what is happening in the short term physical world, when perhaps our focus should be on longer term, spiritual issues. We discussed how we may need to have more faith that our physical needs will be met, as long as we do our part. We may worry too much about what is going to happen tomorow, even after doing all we can, when maybe what we should be worrying about is what is going to happen to us and our soul in the long run.
We discussed what it means to have a fear of Hashem. This fear may be very different than the type of fear we have about physical things. We discussed how a healthy fear of hashem is desirable, when it is manifested as an awareness of Hashem. It is healthy to be aware that now is the time to study Torah, do mitzvah, and grow spiritually, before we miss out on the opportunity. David suggested that we should ask ourselves every day if we did something significant. We should consider whether or not what we did contributed towards our long term spiritual goals.
Efroni gave a dvar Torah on the parsha, discussing the main differences between Jacob and his brother, Esau. Esau was the oldest son of Isaac, but was willing to give away his oldest son rights to his younger brother Jacob. Efroni commented that Jacob was most concerned with spiritual matters, and continuing to father a nation, whereas Esau seemed more concerned with the physical, and with the here and now. Jacob was able to give Esau physical things in order to make peace with his brother.
David commented this Shabbos on how we should not judge people as either “good” or “bad”, but that it is actions that fall into these categories. We discussed whether the world is “good” or “bad” overall. David commented that most of the world is oriented towards construction rather than destruction. We discussed how it is much easier to construct something, than to destroy.
We discussed why Hashem may allow a world with some destruction, especially that which is a result of nature. This allows for a perfect world by maximizing our opportunity to have a virtuous response. David talked about how he would ask his father about this, and how it could be that some suffering does not seem to allow for a virtuous response. The answer seems to be that the virtuous response goes on for a long time. Even today we are in the process of a virtuous response to suffering that happened a long time ago. This includes making sure buildings are earth quake proof, and constructing the state of Israel which is a response to the Jews not having any homeland.
Efroni discussed the idea of how the 2 different parts of tefillin represent our thoughts and actions. The head (rosh) tefillin represents our thoughts, and the arm tefillin represents our heart and our actions. It is not enough to have good thoughts and knowledge of Torah - we have to have good actions as well. Our actions need to be aligned with our thoughts and what we have studied from the Torah and know of our commandments. Efroni commented that only those whose actions are aligned with their thoughts should be eligible to join the army.
Efroni talked about how we should trust those who are expert on a subject, even though when coming up with dvar torah it may be desirable to come up with original material. This brought up an issue, that was raised by Ellie, as to how we can trust a rabbi whose judgement may now be obsolete in the modern world. David commented that during each period of time we get a “layer” of Torah by the current day experts, who should be trusted. We discussed how Judaism is a religion without an official central authority, and that it is good to have debate, but not trusting experts can lead us into trouble.
This Shabbos we discussed the haftorah and why it came about. Efroni talked about how the haftorah complements the parsha. David talked about how we may sing the haftorah in a minor key. Efroni also talked about how repetition helped him learn at his Yeshiva, but even with this knowledge we should still trust experts.
Finally, Brett from the all Torah team came up with an answer. He talked about how a marriage can be declared null and void if the man was deliberately not told of the woman’s inability to have children.
This is a summary of what we discussed. No Halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.
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