Parashas Vayeitzei

At the start of this week's parashah we find Yaakov leaving his home, and the Yeshivah of Shem V'ever, to go to the home  of his uncle Lavan in Charan.

 

The sun set suddenly, and he prepared to spend the night at Har Hamoriah, the site where Avrohom had offered Yitzchok as a sacrifice and where the Beis HaMikdash would later stand.

 

The Torah tells us: , וַיִּקַּח מֵאַבְנֵי הַמָּקוֹם וַיָּשֶׂם מְרַאֲשֹׁתָיו, and he took from the stones of that place and he placed them at his head. Rashi explains that he placed them around his head for protection.

 

Why does the Torah tell us "He took from the stones of that place"? It could simply have told us וַיִּקַּח אַבָנִים he took stones. From where else would he have taken stones? Would we expect him to have traveled carrying a bag of rocks?

 

Perhaps the lesson is that Yaakov had arrived in a new place, and he knew that he had to protect himself against the dangers there.

 

But how does he do that?

 

He realized that the "stones" of Beer Sheva and Shem V'Ever would do him no good at Har Hamoria, as holy a place as it may be. He needed to understand the threats of this new place, and he needed to protect himself against them in an appropriate and effective way.

 

That is why we are told that Yaakov took from the stones of that place to protect himself.

 

Rav Moshe Feinstein used to ascribe the complete failure of many chadorim in America to the fact that they tried to emulate the European shtel-approach here. But the challenges of America were different than they were in "der heim". And if there was to be even a slim chance of small success, it had to be with the understanding of the new challenges and with an effort to address them.

 

Indeed, later on, we find that Yaakov taught Yosef everything he had learned in the Yeshivah of Shem V'Ever (37:3). Rav Yaakov Kamenetzky asks: What could Yaakov have learned there that he did not already learn in the house of Yitzchok?

 

Rav Yaakov answers that under Shem V'Ever Yaakov learned the Torah of how a Jew survives in Galus. Yitzchok never left Eretz Yisrael; that was all Yaakov had experienced until then. Shem V'Ever prepared Yaakov for their future.

 

It was that lesson which guided Yaakov as he took from the stones of that place, and it is a lesson we must all understand if we are to succeed in overcoming challenges -- for ourselves and for our children.

 

May Hashem grant us the wisdom and siyata Dishmaya to succeed.

 

Gut Shabbos.