5786 - "And Yaakov sent angels/messengers before him to Esav his brother... I have dwelt with Lavan." Rashi: "And I have kept the 613 commandments." But what would the commandments Yaakov kept matter to Esav?…

00:02 Speaker 1 “And Yaakov sent angels ahead of him to his brother Eisav, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom.” Rashi says: “Angels”—actual angels. Why did he send actual angels? Couldn’t he have sent people? One explanation is that Yaakov was concerned that people who went to Eisav, especially in the land of Seir, a place of wicked people, might be influenced by them. We say in Pirkei Avos, “Do not associate with a wicked person.” If he sent people, they could get drawn in there, so he sent actual angels. Then it says, “He instructed them, saying: Thus shall you say to my master Eisav: Thus says your servant Yaakov: I have lived with Lavan.” What does “I have lived with Lavan” mean? Rashi says: “I did not become a prince or an important person, but remained a sojourner.” In other words, he tells Eisav: You have no reason to hate me over the blessings I received, because Yitzchak blessed him that he would be master over his brother. So Yaakov tells him: They were not fulfilled for me; my father’s blessings were not fulfilled in me. If we take the word gavir, “master,” and remove the beis in the middle, we are left with ger, “sojourner.” In other words, “I have lived with Lavan”—the blessings were not fulfilled. I did not become a prince or an important person; I remained a sojourner. Rashi gives another explanation. What does “I have lived with Lavan” mean? “I kept the 613 mitzvos.” Seemingly, why would Eisav care whether he kept the mitzvos or not? Why does Yaakov tell Eisav that he observed all 613 mitzvos while he was with Lavan? Eisav doesn’t believe in that. He doesn’t observe the mitzvos. Why does Yaakov tell Eisav, “I observed all 613 mitzvos”? When Yitzchak blessed Yaakov and Eisav then came and it became clear that Yaakov had obtained the blessings through deception, it says, “He cried out a great and bitter cry.” Eisav cries out: “Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me too.” So Yitzchak says: How can I bless you?

02:19 Speaker 1 After all, I made him your master, and your mother’s sons will bow down to him. Whatever a servant acquires belongs to his master. What can I bless you with? How can I bless you? Whatever I bless you with will pass to Yaakov. But Yitzchak concludes by saying, “And when you rebel, you will break his yoke from your neck.” If the Jewish people do not observe Torah and mitzvos, you will be able to escape Yaakov’s control. You will be able to overpower him and rule over him. Now Eisav reasons: After twenty years with Lavan the Aramean, Yaakov has surely been influenced by him. He is no longer that same “simple man, dwelling in tents.” So presumably he can now take control of him. Yaakov sends him this message: Listen, I lived with Lavan, and I kept the 613 mitzvos. You have no chance. You cannot overpower me, because I kept the 613 mitzvos. “And I have delayed until now”—even if there is a concern, he had a concern that perhaps marrying two sisters was, that there was some possible prohibition involved, even though this was before the giving of the Torah. So he says that even if there is some concern, “I have delayed until now.” What does “until now” mean? “And now, what does Hashem your G-d ask of you but to fear Him?” In other words, I have done teshuvah for that as well, so there is no chance that you will overpower me. That is what Yaakov says. “The angels returned”—the angels come back and tell Yaakov: Listen, Eisav is coming toward you. This is Eisav the wicked; he will have no mercy on you, and four hundred men are with him. “Yaakov was afraid,” and he prays to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He says, “Lest Eisav come and strike me, mother and children alike,” and he is worried. Yaakov is worried about what will happen. But here something astonishing occurs. When Yaakov—when Eisav approaches Yaakov, it says that Yaakov prepared the gift,

04:20 Speaker 1 the offering, prepared everything, and Yaakov goes forward and bows down to him seven times. Then Eisav runs toward him, “embraced him, kissed him, and they wept.” There was a dramatic reversal here. All those years, for decades, Eisav held on to his grudge and his hatred of Yaakov, and he planned all along to kill him. Here, the moment he has the opportunity, he suddenly turns around completely. What happened that made Eisav change so completely? He embraces him and kisses him, and he weeps. There are dots over the word “and he kissed him.” Rashi explains that we interpret the dots to mean that he did not kiss him wholeheartedly. But Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says: “It is a halachah: It is well known that Eisav hates Yaakov.” Why does he call it a halachah? What does halachah have to do with this? It is a fact that Eisav hates Yaakov. Why does he say “halachah”? “It is well known that Eisav hates Yaakov.” There is a principle in halachah: Even if the reason no longer applies, the halachah is not annulled. Even if the reason and the logic, the explanation for why this halachah was established, no longer applies, the halachah itself is not annulled. Non-Jews have always hated Jews. They said: They are different from us, different in their language and dress; they keep themselves apart from us. That is why they hated them. And even when Jews behaved exactly like non-Jews, they killed them too. Even if the reason no longer applies, the halachah is not annulled. But here we see such a sudden reversal: Eisav comes to kill Yaakov, and suddenly he changes. Rashi says, quoting Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, that Eisav hates Yaakov, but his compassion was aroused for him, and at that moment he kissed him wholeheartedly. What caused Eisav to turn around so completely? There is an explanation. King Shlomo says, “As water reflects a face to a face, so does one person’s heart reflect another’s.” Just as when a person looks into water, like a mirror, he sees the same expression he is making, so too with the heart—

06:48 Speaker 1 one person’s heart reflects another’s. In other words, the heart senses what is in the other person’s heart. When Yaakov met Eisav, he stirred up compassion for Eisav in his heart. After all, Eisav was his brother, so it says that he bowed down seven times “until he approached his brother.” In other words, he thought: This is my brother; he is part of me. And he stirred up compassion for Eisav. That affected Eisav too, so that he, too, transformed his hatred. Because “as water reflects a face to a face, so does one person’s heart reflect another’s.” Words that come from the heart enter the heart. This is also what King David says: “They speak falsehood, each to his fellow; with flattering lips, with a divided heart, they speak.” When a person speaks flattering words but does not mean them, it accomplishes nothing. “They speak falsehood,” because “with a divided heart, they speak.” A person senses what is in his fellow’s heart, and that is what brought about the change in Eisav. When Yaakov stirred up love for his brother Eisav in his heart and felt compassion for him, that caused Eisav, too, to change completely. Since we are now at the Shabbos before 19 Kislev, the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus, and chassidim always wished one another, “May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year in the study of Chassidus and in the ways of Chassidus,” may it be a good year for everyone.

08:20 Speaker 2 Amen.