TBE Torah Study - Vayishlach 5781

Blessed are You, Lord, our God, Ruler of the Universe, Who has sanctified us with mitzvot and commanded us to immerse ourselves within words of Torah.

(7) and sent out the raven; it went to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth.

(10) And Abraham picked up the knife to slay his son.

(29) Thus it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the Plain and annihilated the cities where Lot dwelt, God was mindful of Abraham and removed Lot from the midst of the upheaval.

(4) Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom,

(8) Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and was buried under the oak below Bethel; so it was named Allon-bacuth.

(1) ותמת דבורה AND DEBORAH DIED — How came Deborah to be in Jacob’s house? But the explanation is: because Rebékah had promised Jacob (Gen. 27:45) “then I will send and fetch thee from thence”, she sent Deborah to him to Padan-aram to tell him to leave that place, and she died on the return journey I learnt this from a comment of R. Moses Ha-darshan.

Perhaps she was among his household because she was raising Jacob's children too, out of her love for Rebecca.

“Ra’iti menorat zahav (I looked, and behold a candelabrum all of gold) and a bowl on top of it.” (Zekhariah 4:2) See how precious is the sigh and groan {the krekhtz } of a Jewish person. It provides wholeness [in place] of the lack. For through the breath, which is the ruach-of-life, the world was created. As is written (Psalms 33:6), “… and by the ruach of His mouth, their entire hosts [were created].” The renewal of the world will also come about by means of the ruach, as in (Psalms 104:30), “You will send Your ruach —they will be created; You renew the face of the earth.” This [ruach] is also the vital force of human life. This is because man’s breath is his life-force. As is written (Genesis 2:7), “He breathed into his nostrils nishmat (the breath of) life,” and (ibid. 7:22), “All in whose nostrils was a nishmat (breath of) ruach-of-life.” Regarding this, wise men said: To the extent breath is lacking, so is life (Maaseh Tuviah, Bayit Chadash 2; cf. Zohar II, 24b). We find then that the quintessential life-force of everything is its ruach. Whenever a lack exists, it is essentially in the life-force, which corresponds to the ruach-of-life of that thing. This is because it is the ruach which gives that thing its existence. And sighing is the extension of the breath. It corresponds to erekh apayim (patience)—i.e., extended ruach. Therefore, when a person sighs over the lack and extends his ruach, he draws ruach-of-life to that which he is lacking. For the lack is in essence a departure of the ruach-of-life. Therefore, through the sigh, the lack is made whole.

(14) Thereupon Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was rushed from the dungeon. He had his hair cut and changed his clothes, and he appeared before Pharaoh.

(24) As he sent his brothers off on their way, he told them, “Do not be quarrelsome on the way.”