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שבת שלום - פרשת וישלח
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Video Shiur
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Click play to watch the video shiur by Rav Yosef Kaminetsky
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News and Notes
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On Thursday, our students enjoyed an intensive day of learning, coupled with a special Thanksgiving meal with turkey, cranberry sauce, and all the trimmings! Everyone had a great time, and experienced a Yeshiva-style Thanksgiving we hope they will long remember.
Mazal Tov and best wishes to our former student and madrich, Noam Sendor, upon the occasion of his marriage to Sara Levitas this past Sunday in Montreal. She'tiku livnot bayit neeman b'Yisrael!
Mazel Tov and best wishes as well to our alumnus, Moshe Shamouilian, upon his engagement to Sara Kotlicky.
The Yeshiva is pleased to welcome back Rav Scott Kahn following his very successful recruiting trip in New York and Philadelphia.
This Motzaei Shabbat, Rav Pesach Wolicki will be traveling to the United States for a ten day recruiting trip. If you would like to contact Rav Wolicki during his trip, feel free to call him at 347-225-1791.
Finally, the Yeshiva has been bustling this past week with many students and parents visiting from chutz la'Aretz. If you are interested in visiting Yesodei HaTorah, please contact our office at 972-2-992-3099, or email us at yeshiva@yesodei.org.
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Parsha Insights
By Rabbi Scott Kahn
As Yaakov Avinu prepares for his dramatic encounter with Eisav, wondering whether he will be forced to wage war against his brother, he moves his entire camp - his wives, children, and possessions - across the Yabok River in the middle of the night. The Torah tells us that he took his eleven children across the river; we know, however, that by the time he encountered Eisav, he already had eleven sons and one daughter, Dina. Rashi, citing a midrash in Bereshit Rabba 76:9, explains that Yaakov hid Dina in a box in order to protect her from Eisav. Thus, only eleven children actually crossed the river in open fashion, and only eleven children were physically present during Yaakov's meeting with his brother.
How does Rashi know that the missing child is Dina? Why could it not have been one of his eleven sons?
The Vilna Gaon offers a potential solution to this problem. He explains that according to Chazal, the Beit HaMikdash was built in the territory of Binyamin because he had not been born at the time of the encounter with Eisav, and, accordingly, was the only son not to bow down to his uncle. If the eleven children who crossed the river had included Dina, however, then there would by necessity be a second son who did not bow down to Eisav. The fact that the Gemara assumes that the Beit HaMikdash was placed in the tribe of Binyamin because of this historical episode means that the eleven children were those who received a part of the Land of Israel, thereby excluding Dina.
The Siftei Chachamim presents a different answer. When Yosef, the vizier of Egypt, sees Binyamin for the first time in twenty two years, standing with his remaining ten brothers, he blesses him with the words, "May G-d give you grace [yachnecha], my son." (Bereshit 43:29) Rashi states that the other ten brothers did not require the blessing of grace, for Yaakov had already used the term in reference to them when Eisav, upon seeing the children, asks who they are: "They are the children with whom G-d has graced [chanan] your servant." (Bereshit 33:5) The fact that only Binyamin among the twelve brothers did not receive the blessing of grace demonstrates that the eleven brothers did receive such a blessing during the meeting with Eisav. Accordingly, the eleven brothers must have been present, and Dina must have been the absent child.
A third answer is suggested by the Netziv, who prefaces his answer with an obvious question of his own: why did Yaakov transfer the children before his possessions? While he returned to the other side of the river to retrieve his possessions, his children were left alone, at the mercy of Eisav's army should it approach in the night. But the Netziv explains that Hashem had promised Yaakov that all twelve tribes of Israel would survive; this was the deeper meaning behind the fact that G-d, in Yaakov's prophetic dream at Beit El, promised to protect Yaakov's children even before promising to protect Yaakov himself. (Bereshit 28:14-15) Indeed, the idea that none of the twelve tribes will ever be completely extinguished is presented as a principle in the laws of inheritance (see Baba Batra 115b). Yaakov had no fear for the eleven sons who would father the tribes. No such promise had been made with regard to Dina, however, so he was forced to hide her rather than her brothers. She alone among Yaakov's children was in physical danger should Eisav attack.
The answer presented by the Netziv, in fact, encapsulates a reality which transcends this specific episode and relates to the historic destiny of the Jewish People. In every generation, Am Yisrael is confronted with challenges and threats; there is always a danger that Eisav is determined to confront Yaakov. (In fact, Rav Soloveitchik ZT"L writes in his famous essay, Confrontation, that Yaakov's reaction to Eisav's approach in Parashat Vayishlach epitomizes the proper Jewish response to interactions with other faith communities.) Sometimes the confrontation with Eisav results in an attack, while other times the attack is averted. But the danger never goes away. And we regularly hear voices expressing fears that the Jewish People is in danger of disappearing - either because of external threats, or because of internal indifference to the enticements of a non-Jewish world which is suddenly inviting. Must we fear for our future in the face of the dual threat emitting from the outside world?
Just as Yaakov's encounter with Eisav represents every Jewish person's encounter with the non-Jewish world, the confidence Yaakov expressed by leaving the members of the tribes unprotected reflects the eternal Jewish recognition that despite our hardships and fears, we will never be abandoned by G-d. Certainly, we must marshal all our abilities to protect that which we have achieved, and we must make every effort to ensure that every individual is safe and protected. We must use every means at our disposal to save every Jewish life and soul - even to the point, so to speak, of hiding in a box. But we can never lose faith that Am Yisrael and all its constituent parts will never be extinguished. Yaakov Avinu recognized that he had to protect Dina, who symbolizes the individual Jew. But he had no fear for the existence of the eleven sons, who symbolize the nation as a whole. Am Yisrael is always going to be threatened, for the spiritual laws of history demand that Israel be despised and outcast: "Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai said [that] it is a known law that Eisav hates Yaakov." (Rashi on Bereshit 33:4) But we are also assured that we will survive and thrive. We worry for the welfare of each Jew, but we need not worry about the survival of the Jewish People.
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