ABRAHAM AND ISAAC

At the beginning of Jewish history, when we were not yet a people or even a tribe, but merely a small nuclear family, a painful pattern repeated itself more than once: abuse. Our first two patriarchs, Abraham and Isaac, had to face existential threats when, due to drought and famine, they left their place of residence and became vulnerable refugees. When Abraham emigrated to Egypt, he knew that the locals might kill him in order to seize his wife Sarah. That is why he had to pretend she was his sister. Abraham had cut ties with his family in Haran; he did not belong to a powerful nation nor did he have a large extended family. There was no one who could defend him or avenge his blood if he was attacked. He was completely vulnerable. Abusable. The same thing happened in another city, Gerar, and it was repeated a generation later with Isaac. He too had to hide that Rivka was his wife. God intervened directly and protected our matriarchs.

Abuse, which in its extreme expression—taking women by force—had sentenced the generation of the flood to extinction, remained present. Apparently, Sodom and Gomorrah were not the only places where foreigners were abused: the complete lack of basic human rights for the poor and the refugee was the rule, not the exception.

Incidentally, in light of this terrible normalization of the abuse of the unprotected in that era, we can better appreciate the extraordinary revolution of the Tora, which commands not only not to abuse but to “love the foreigner,” to actively care for the non-Jew—the ger toshab—who comes to seek refuge in our land. This mitsva constitutes a total inversion of the moral order of the ancient pagan world, where the law of the jungle prevailed.

JACOB

In this week’s Parasha we read about an episode that is not identical but very similar, which happened with Jacob. When our third patriarch and his family arrived in Shekhem, the powerful local prince took Dina, Jacob’s daughter, carried her off, abused her, and held her by force.

Jacob did not react. He was obviously devastated but remained passive, like his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham. Perhaps he was afraid to react because he knew the enemy had a numerical advantage. Or perhaps he thought that, just as had happened with his ancestors, direct Divine intervention was imminent. But there was no Divine intervention. God did not appear in dreams to Hamor or to his son to warn them not to touch Jacob’s daughter.

Two of Jacob’s sons, however, did react. They understood perfectly that the law of the fittest prevailed in the Middle East and that they could not survive if they showed weakness. It was also unrealistic to passively expect miracles. Ein somkhim al hanes: “miracles are not guaranteed.” The rules of the game had changed—perhaps because now they were able to defend themselves.

Through a cleverly planned strategy, they deceived the aggressors, incapacitated them, attacked them by surprise, destroyed the city, and rescued their sister Dina.

Jacob, surprised by his sons’ unprecedented military operation, reproached them for what they had done. He feared retaliation from the neighboring peoples, who were far more numerous than his family. But the military operation of Shimon and Levi produced an unexpected effect. The Tora states explicitly that a “Divine fear” (hittat Eloqim) took hold of the neighboring peoples and dissuaded them from attacking Jacob’s sons. That supernatural, miraculous fear made the locals feel that the Jews were unpredictable and that it was not wise to mess with them. God’s more subtle intervention manifested itself, but only once they had acted.

SHIMON AND LEVI

Abraham had a very small family: three people. Isaac, four. Neither of them could do without direct Divine intervention to rescue their wives; they simply did not have the minimum number of people required to do so.

Shimon and Levi, on the other hand, were fully aware that although the enemy possessed a numerical advantage, defeating them was possible. They had such strong self-esteem and emunah that they launched into combat even without the help of their other brothers, who remained waiting in the rear.

Shimon and Levi represent the new generation: a generation that does not surrender to abuse and uses intelligence to compensate for numerical disadvantage, defending itself with determination.

They did not wait passively for miracles; instead, they sought another type of Divine intervention—one that accompanies the military operation, not one that replaces it.

And in the long term, this became the normal modus operandi of Divine intervention in the fights of the people of Israel against their enemies. As the Tora states unambiguously (Devarim 20:4):

כִּי ה׳ אֱלֹ-הֵיכֶם הַהֹלֵךְ עִמָּכֶם לְהִלָּחֵם לָכֶם עִם־אֹיְבֵיכֶם לְהוֹשִׁיעַ אֶתְכֶם

HaShem will go with you (holekh imakhem) when you go out to fight against your enemies, and He will grant you victory.

Help comes once Israel defends itself, goes out to battle, and refuses to become a victim.

MEDINAT ISRAEL

It is impossible to ignore the parallel between what happened with Shimon and Levi and what is happening today in Medinat Israel.

Shimon and Levi represent a generational change: they are the brave young men who have lost the fear of confronting the enemy, who are no longer a defenseless minority, and who use not only their strength but also their Jewish intelligence to defeat those who seek our destruction.

A final reflection, somewhat interpretative:

Shimon represents among the tribes the least observant one, as we see in the Tora, especially in the episode of Bil‘am.

Levi represents the opposite: it is the most observant tribe, the one that will give rise to the Kohanim who will serve in the Bet HaMiqdash, but when there is a war of survival (milchemet mitsva), they join the army. And Shimon and Levi are fighting together!

In post–October 7 Israel, a very significant social and cultural process is taking place: more and more young religious haredim, who study Tora, prepare themselves in academies or technological institutes with professional careers. And also, little by little, more of them are enlisting in the army, especially in special units where religious observance is stricter.

According to Shlomo Filber, a demographic analyst, although the haredi population today in Israel constitutes around 15%, its demographic growth is, B”H, the highest in the Western world, with more than six children per family (see here Filber’s article).

According to Filber, the new Israeli army, in the coming years, will have at least 50% religious soldiers—dati leumi and haredi. That is, it will be a modern version of the partnership between Shimon and Levi.

Like Jacob’s family, Israel is growing demographically in a miraculous way, and its army is preparing to incorporate thousands of young scholars of Tora who understand that they must defend their “families” and that Divine intervention will accompany them and grant them victory when they face their enemies.

The Israel Defense Forces in the immediate future will not only be “an army with more Jews,” but “an army with more Judaism.”

THE SWORD OF ESAV

Ya’aqob Abinu returns to the land of Israel. He has many doubts. One of those doubts is whether his brother Esav still bears a grudge against him. Let’s remember that 20 years ago, Esav was determined to kill Ya’aqob. Now, Yaaqob’s question was: Does Esav still hate me, 20 years later? Maybe his resentments have changed, and he already forgot what happened so long ago….  Ya’aqob cannot be sure. And then he finds one more complication: he hears that Esav is arriving leading a band of 400 men: too many people for a welcoming committee….   Ya’aqob fears the worst, and feels the danger that lies in wait for him and his family. Ya’aqob prays and pleads for Divine intervention, with the famous phrase: “[HaShem], save me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esav.” When the brothers finally meet again, Esav does not attack Ya’aqob. Some biblical commentators explain that Esav came to meet his brother with the intention of destroying him and stealing his family and his possessions, but that at the last minute, there was an emotional change in Esau’s heart. Why? Because the previous night, Ya’aqob fought against an envoy of HaShem (“angel”, although the Tora describes him as a “man”). This individual hit Ya’aqob on his thigh and left Ya’aqob wounded. When Esav saw Ya’aqob limping, he was moved (or thought that Ya’aqob was no longer a worthy adversary …) and, according to this interpretation, what 20 years were not able to do in terms of forgiveness, “pity” for Ya’aqob’s vulnerability, did it in a matter of minutes. Following this idea, in a direct or indirect way, HaShem saved Ya’aqob from Esav, by making him fight against that individual.

THE INVITATION OF ESAV

In the following act, and now in a family-reunion atmosphere, Esav thanks Ya’aqob for his generous gifts and tells him: “I don’t need anything, my brother, I already have too much.”  Esav is materially successful, he is the patriarch, founder and leader of the people of Edom. But Esav, as his mother had anticipated, did not follow the path of his grandfather and his father. The Edomites, led by Esav, abandoned the beliefs of Abraham Abinu and were idolaters, like the rest of the world.  At this point, Esav no longer sees Ya’aqob as his enemy, but as his peer and friend.  And here, ironically, a huge problem begins for Ya’aqob. Something more delicate and more subtle than Esav’s sword, but just as deadly.  As a consequence of the new fraternal reconciliation, Esav does what any normal brother does when his sibling comes from overseas. Esav invites Ya’aqob to join his family. (Gen. 33:12) “nis’a venelekha”.  Come on now! Let’s go together to my land Se’ir, and there we will live as one family. Your little children are going to play with my children: their cousins. And I already have in mind some of my daughters and granddaughters who could be very good candidates to marry your sons.  Ya’aqob knows that if he accepts Esav’s invitation, his children will end up assimilating to Esav and becoming part of his family. And that would be the end of the legacy of Abraham Abinu (the end of “Judaism” of that time) by the inevitable dissolution of the “religion” practiced by Ya’aqob’s family.

THE “NO” THAT CHANGED HISTORY

And at that defining and crucial moment , Ya’aqob “heroically” said ‘NO’ to Esav. He said it in a very diplomatic way.  Esav, you go ahead, and I will arrive, at the pace of my little children. Esav, who perhaps did not understand Ya’aqob’s way of refusing his invitation, insisted.  If you wish, I’ll leave you some men to protect you on the way, until you get to my house. Ya’aqob, stoically, endured the tremendous psychological pressure of the moment and with great discomfort, but uncompromising firmness rejected for a second time Esav’s offer. Why should I find so much grace in your eyes?. Esav finally got the message and left. If I were to describe in our own words what Ya’aqob experienced in his intense encounter with Esav,  I would say that in one and same event Ya’aqob confronted  anti-Semitism and assimilation.  God intervened “directly” (following the opinion we mentioned above) to save Ya’aqob from the hands of Esav, “his enemy” by sending the “fighting angel”.  But when Ya’aqob confronts Esav “his friend” there is no Divine intervention. There is a human decision. Ya’aqob had to act on hos own and assume the consequences of his choice”. To clarify, in this second instance God does not intervene, but He expects Ya’aqob to make the right decision.

IF YAAQOB HAD NOT SAID “NO”….

We, contemporary descendants of Ya’aqob Abinu, continue to face very similar challenges. The gentile society is open to cultural and social integration without barriers or discrimination. Assimilation has already claimed millions of Jewish “souls”. Instances in which children –or parents or family– did not have the strength or the conviction to say ‘NO’ to Esav ‘the friend’.  And the results have been catastrophic. Two numbers say it all: 1) 1927. 2) 4,200,000. In 1927 the Jewish population in the United States was 4.2 million souls. How many Jews should there be in the United States in 2021, almost 100 years later? There was no Shoah in America, no concentration camps, no anti-Semitic mega-massacres. And Jewish emigration to this country continued uninterrupted. I am not a math genius, but my intuition tells me that today there should be no less than 15 or 20 million Jews in the United States…. but there are less than 6 million today…. What happened to the millions of Jews who are no longer counted as such? To resist assimilation, we have to constantly improve and grow in our observance and knowledge of Jewish values. Educate our children in Jewish schools, and preach by example. And having the courage and conviction to say “NO” if ever a relationship with Esav has the potential to go from cordiality and respect, towards a social level in which we risk losing our identity and our Jewish future.

Written in December 2023

THE NATIONS, UNITED AGAINST ISRAEL

Most of the world’s nations systematically criticize and demonize Israel when Israel defends itself from terrorist attacks. And when the crime of Israel’s enemies is so great that our political foes can no longer justify calling for Israel’s passivity, they use one of their favorite arguments: “Israel must defend itself proportionally to the crime to which it was subjected.” These nations use this aberrant argument with just one purpose in mind: restraining Israel and preventing her victory. After the fact, it also serves to delegitimize and demonize Israel and as an invitation to the enemy to continue with its aggression. Israel, of course, should not listen (and B”H is not presently listening ) to these claims coming from those who fervently wish for the disappearance of a Jewish State.

I want to present a historical episode—a crime against the newborn family of Israel and their subsequent reaction to that crime, found in this week’s Parasha Vayishlach, chapter 34 of Genesis. We might learn a valuable lesson from this story.

THE INNOCENCE OF DINA

Jacob and his children finally settled in the land of Israel near the city of Shechem. One day, Dina, Yaakob’s only daughter and sister of twelve boys, visits the neighboring town to meet the local girls. She is young and has gone out alone without the protection of her brothers. Dina, mistakenly, is not afraid because she was raised in a safe place for women: Yaakob’s house. She is unaware of the behavior of men in those places and ended up in their vicious hands. 

The attacker was Shechem (named after his own town). He was King Hamor’s son. This prince, who probably lacked nothing, saw the young Jewish girl “took her by force, subdued her, and raped her.” After raping her, he became obsessed with Dina and kidnapped her.

Jacob’s family finds out what is happening. They  “are sad and outraged” at the abomination committed by these people.

Meanwhile, the entitled young man asks his father to “acquire this girl for him as a wife” (קַח לִי אֶת הַיַּלְדָּה הַזֹּאת לְאִשָּׁה). King Hamor offers Jacob’s family money to keep Dina: “You set the value of the dowry”, he tells them, “and I will pay it to you.” But Jacob’s sons have a different plan. They deceive the king with words he understands: “We are willing to join your people in marriage and trade. But on one condition: first, you must be circumcised.” The inhabitants of Shechem, thinking about future benefits, undergo mass circumcision.

THE POWER OF DETERRENCE

On the third day after the circumcision, which is when the pain is most evident, Shimon and Levi, Dina’s brothers by father and mother, carry out a military rescue operation: they attack the city, which was incapable of defending itself and kill all men, they destroy the city and finally rescue their sister Dina from captivity. 

The reaction of Jacob’s sons was not proportional to the crime they suffered. Jacob objected to what his sons did (I follow in this explanation the opinion of Rabbi David Qimchi) and told them: “You are destroying me! You have put me in danger before all the nations of this region since now they are going to unite among themselves, attack us, and eliminate me and my entire family.” Ya’akob, explains Rabbi Quimchi, was afraid of the potential violent reaction of his neighbors, who were much more numerous than his family and could easily attack and destroy him. His sons, who, according to Rabbi Qimchi showed more courage than Jacob, said to his father: “Are we going to allow our sister to be treated like a prostitute?”

WHO WAS RIGHT?

The previous chapter ends without a final verdict from the Tora regarding this argument: did the brothers do the right thing by disproportionately attacking the inhabitants of Shechem? 

To find an indirect but unequivocal verdict, we must continue reading the next chapter, 35.

Jacob’s family prepares to leave the place. When they break camp and are about to leave, they know it is a moment of extreme vulnerability. It would be natural for their enemies to attack them then. Jacob knows it. There is tension in the air. Verse 5 says it all in one word, “VAYISAU.” “And they began their journey”. Then, there is almost a full stop (atnach), creating suspense and expectation as to what the enemy will do next. Then, the Tora says with his usual economy of words: “But the nations of the region were possessed by a ‘divine’ (supernatural) fear and did not persecute Jacob’s family.”

The non-proportionate reaction of Shimon and Levi had the desired effect: it persuaded the nations of the region that these Jews were unpredictable and it was not wise to mess with them. The Tora thus issued its verdict: a proportional response could have endangered Jacob. Shimon and Levi’s disproportionate response created a deterrent for the entire hostile neighborhood.

SHIMON LEVI AND THE ISRAEL ARMY

As I mentioned on previous occasions, the present history of the Jewish people, especially since 1948, is like a biblical déjà vu: it feels that we have already lived similar experiences that are recorded in our biblical genetic memory. We see how the pattern of behavior of our enemies—violence, outrage, kidnapping—is repeated exponentially. But perhaps we can also learn from biblical events a thing or two regarding the appropriate response to the Shoatic massacre of last October 7: Israel does not have to react proportionally to the massacre. Israel must respond in a non-proportionate manner that will prevent this crime from being repeated by Hamas or other enemies of Israel. Israel must react in a way that creates a ‘supernatural deterrent among our relentless enemies. There is no other way.

My friend Mordechai Kedar already said it: the Lebanese officials warned Hezbollah not to mess with Israel when they saw the destruction of Gaza City. They don’t want Beirut to look like Gaza! And the words they used were: “Israel went mad. Israelis are dangerously out of their mind.” The non-proportional response deterred the enemy and made them think twice before attacking us. If Israel does not destroy Hamas, if it does not reach a complete humiliating lesson, it risks being attacked by Hamas and our other neighbors.

Israel, like the sons of Jacob, not only has to be the most muscular guy in the Middle East neighborhood but the most unpredictable if attacked as well. The non-proportionality of the response to the enemy’s attack is the existential strategy for the future of the Jewish state.

LOVE OF DEATH

There is an additional reason why Israel cannot proportionally defend itself against an enemy like Hamas. It is a very delicate topic, misunderstood by most of the world and cynically abused by Hamas as propaganda material. It has to do with the total moral asymmetry between Judaism and jihadism regarding the value of life.

This topic, absolutely critical to understanding Israel’s phenomenal vulnerabilities, was masterfully formulated by the American journalist Charles Krauthammer, who died a few years ago. He wrote the following words in January 2009 when Israel was fighting against Hamas in response to a series of suicide attacks and the murder of three young Israelis. After relentless international pressure over the Palestinian victims, Israel had to suspend its attack and back down:

“Some geopolitical conflicts are morally complicated. The Israel-Gaza war is not. It possesses a moral clarity that is not only rare but excruciating. […] For Hamas, the only thing more prized than dead Jews are dead Palestinians.”

 Krauthammer explains the inconceivable: that Hamas “celebrates” the martyrdom, the death of its civilians, not just because, according to their religion, they inherit a sexual paradise in the afterlife but also because their deaths is a critical factor in the Jihad, it creates a precious “prized” element that brings Israel to its knees, when the Jewish army is about to defeat Hamas, by tremendous international pressure. 

The idea that the deaths of one’s own citizens serve as a tool of pressure in the international arena is very difficult to digest for a person with Western morality. But it explains, for example, why Hamas has no problem hiding behind civilians or storing arsenals in hospitals and schools or why Hamas fighters opened fire on their population when they were leaving northern Gaza while Israel, ironically, protected the civilians with his tanks.

The proportional and still abhorrent response that our political enemies always propose, “I should kill one person from your side for every person you kill on my side”, will never deter a movement that embraces the martyrdom of Jihad. Even if the proportion is higher: 10 x 1 or 100 x 1, this will not make Hamas put down its weapons and surrender, since for Jihdist, the death that Jihad causes to civilians is morally and religiously justified, as long as they can be attributed to the Zionist army, and serves to exacerbate international public opinion with cynical claims of genocide.  

The following words by Ismail Haniyeh, one of the actual leaders of Hamas, explain it all: “We [Hamas] love death to the same extent that our enemy [Israel] loves life.”

LAND > LIFE

But if the death of its fighters and civilians—15,000, 20,000, or more—does not mean a defeat for Hamas, what should be Israel’s response to deter the terrorist enemy? According to Israeli journalist Guy Bechor, the only sobering response to terror and the only significant and actually “proportional” punishment that Hamas should suffer, beyond losing its political power, is to lose part of its territories in Gaza. Why? Because for the jihadist Palestinian narrative, land is more precious than life. This would be Hamas’s nightmare. The recovery of Gush Katif and the creation of 5 km of territorial security belts by Israel would represent the most significant defeat for Hamas and a deterrent of Biblical dimensions for them and for all the peoples of the region. I hope and pray that this “proportional” response is part of  Netanyahu’s plans for the day after the war. 

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF A NAME

The Jewish people were not always called by this name. In the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, three names appear that define our identity: Israel, Hebrew, and Yehudi, each with its own background.

Israel is the oldest patronymic. We are Bene Israel, the descendants of Yaacob, who received the name Israel after struggling with and defeating an angel. Why are we called by the name of Yaacob and not, for example, the people of Abraham or of Yitsjaq?
The simplest answer is that several nations came from Abraham, and the same from Yitschaq. But the children of Yaacob, despite having gone through very deep conflicts, ended up united. From them came the twelve tribes and one single people: Bene Israel.

“THE OTHER”

The second name is “Hebrew” (ivri), which means “the one who comes from the other side,” probably referring to the other side of the Euphrates, that is, Mesopotamia. This term, which also has a very deep cultural meaning, appears in reference to Abraham, Yosef, Moshe, and other descendants of the Jewish people.
The Egyptians called the Israelites “Hebrews.” Even in the El Amarna letters—Egyptian documents from the fourteenth century B.C.E., the oldest sources outside the Torah that mention our people—they are identified as habiru (“Hebrews” in ancient Egyptian).

The third name, the most universal today, is Yehudi, and it appears much later. After the death of King Shelomo, the kingdom of Israel split in two: the kingdom of Yehuda, with its capital in Jerusalem, and the kingdom of Israel, also known as the kingdom of “the ten tribes,” with its capital in Samaria or Shomeron. When the Assyrians invaded Samaria in the year 720 B.C.E., the ten tribes were destroyed and exiled. Only the kingdom of Yehuda survived, which in English and Spanish is called Judea. Since then, we became known as Yehudim, “Jews.”
Thus it appears in Megillat Esther: Mordechai is not called Hebrew nor Israelite, but Yehudi. The Greeks and Romans also called us yehudim, and the territory of Israel was always known as “Judea”.

THE ROOT OF YEHUDI

But there is something more in this name. Beyond its fascinating history, the name Yehudi has a very deep spiritual meaning. And it was born in an intimate and special moment described in this week’s parasha, Vayetse.

Yaacob arrives in Haran and marries Lea. Lea had already had three sons, which was, in a certain way, the expected number. Let us remember that Sara had one child and Rivka had two. For Lea, having three children was the “expected evolution” of the next matriarch. But, to her surprise and joy, Lea gives birth to a fourth son, and her happiness overflowed. At that moment, she expressed her feeling in words of gratitude to God. Lea declared:
“HaPaam ode et HaShem — This time I will thank God,”
and thus the name Yehuda emerged, which literally means: “I will thank God.”

This is the first recorded instance in the Torah in which someone verbally expresses gratitude to God. That emotion became sealed forever in the name of her fourth son. And every time Lea pronounced the name of her son, she repeated her desire and need to thank God for the great blessing she had received from Him.

What, then, does Yehudi mean, beyond historical considerations?

In a world where spirituality tends to “activate” only in moments of crisis or convenience, where we forget daily about the Creator even while enjoying His blessings, our own name YEHUDI must remind us that the most genuine connection with God must be a relationship of “thanks,” when there are no urgencies or anguish.

JEWISH IDENTITY

In the United States, Thanksgiving occurs once a year. In the Jewish people, gratitude is a daily act. From Lea, who named her son Yehuda in order to thank God, Jewish identity became organically linked to that gesture.  The root of Yehuda is yod–dalet–he, which is also the root of the modern Hebrew word toda, “thanks ” and of the Hebrew word mode, “I thank.. .”

This is why, every morning, when we open our eyes, the first word we pronounce is mode, “I thank You [God]”:
Mode ani lefanecha melekh chai vekayam — “I thank You, God, for being alive, for the opportunity of this new day that begins.”

The identity of a Yehudi is defined by this act: starting the day with a word of thanks to God.

THE NEW GENERATION
In this week’s Parasha, we meet the second generation of the Jewish people: Isaac, Ribqa, and their children. At the center of this Parasha, we find the famous episode of the blessing that Isaac wanted to grant to Esav, but thanks to the intervention of Ribqa, he ended up giving to Yaaqob.

Let’s start from the beginning.
Isaac and Ribqa had two sons. Jacob and Esav. Jacob was a man of his house, docile, upright, and studious. Esav was the complete opposite. Pure adrenaline. A man of battle. A fighter. A great hunter.

When Isaac grows old, the time comes to choose his heir. It is not about who would inherit Isaac’s material wealth but about something much more important: Who would continue, lead, and promote the path and values of Abraham Abinu? Which of the two sons was the most suitable to be the future patriarch of the Jewish people? Isaac and Ribqa had different opinions. For Isaac, the undisputed candidate was Esav. But for Ribqa, the most suitable was Jacob.
We will try to understand why they thought this way in the following few lines.

THE CASE FOR ESAV
Isaac knew that Abraham’s faith would inevitably be attacked by idolatrous peoples, who would surely try to eradicate his descendants. Why? In the polytheistic world, each person had and served their local gods. They accepted that other civilizations had their gods, and they believed that the powers of those gods were true. The pagan gods could coexist with each other. Sometimes, people exchanged their gods or even forged alliances among them.
But Abraham’s faith, monotheism, is different. Monotheism “excludes” all other faiths. By affirming that there is only one “and only” God, monotheism expresses directly or indirectly that the other gods are fake. With this ideologically and politically revolutionary message, Isaac knew that for his descendants to remain firm in the faith of Abraham, they would have to fight and defend themselves against countless enemies, and he was not wrong!

Based on a famous Midrash that describes Esav’s hunting tactics, we realize that Isaac saw that Esav was an expert at identifying his adversaries’ weaknesses. He was a cunning warrior who knew the enemy’s language, a critical talent in warfare. Isaac knew that his son Esav possessed the ideal virtues to defend Abraham’s faith and that he could organize and lead an army. And Isaac was not wrong! In two weeks (Vayishlach) we will see Esav leading an army of 400 men. Isaac wants to choose Esav because he knows that Esav will be able to conquer the land of Israel and militarily defend his descendants from multiple enemies.

THE VISION OF A MOTHER
But for Ribqa, all the military qualities of Esav were incompatible with Abraham’s human values. Could Esav, a man dedicated to warfare, be as kind to foreigners as Abraham was? Could he be as diplomatic with his neighbors as Abraham was with the Hittites? Ribqa thought Abraham’s future successor had to be kind, sensitive, and generous like Abraham. Smart, rather than aggressive. Abraham’s successor had to differentiate himself from all other men by prioritizing study, not war! And these were the characteristics of Yaakob. According to Ribqa, Ya’aqob and not Esav should be chosen to lead Abraham’s nation.
In the end (no surprises here), the wife prevailed, and Yaaqob was Isaac’s successor.

However, we must recognize that, in theory, the ideal would have been an alliance of the two brothers: the spirituality of Jacob combined with the strength of Esav. For Ribqa, this alliance was impossible because, as the Tora mentions in the paragraph preceding this episode, Esav crossed a red line and distanced himself from his family by marrying two Hittite women.

JACOB, ESAV, AND MEDINAT ISRAEL
This interpretation, which I wrote a couple of years ago about the virtues that Isaac and Ribqa were looking for in the future leader of Israel, is very relevant today to understand our present.

After 2,000 years of persecution and being unable to defend ourselves by our own means, we have achieved today the perfect balance between the strength of Esav and the virtues of Jacob. I am referring to Medinat Israel’s people, spirit, and army.

Israel, on the one hand, is a spiritual paradise where millions of Jews pray and study Tora daily. The voice of Tora has never been heard as much as it is heard today in the State of Israel. Jews in Israel practice unlimited Chesed (kindness), generosity, and compassion at incredible levels. Israelis are also extremely intelligent and highly educated in all areas, with infinite intellectual creativity.

And on the other side, Israel has a very strong army, the IDF, which is showing the world that whoever messes with the Jews is going to pay a heavy price and that it will not be other nations that defend us, but ourselves. Our own army. Our new strong hands will pursue justice.

Medinat Israel represents the perfect balance that our patriarchs were looking for: the sweet voice of Yaaqob’s Tora that Ribqa wanted, combined with the strong hands of a warrior that Isaac was looking for. Which, when necessary, would dissuade, deter, and punish the enemy. All in one at the same entity: Yaaqob / Israel.

הַקֹּל קוֹל יַעֲקֹב וְהַיָּדַיִם יְדֵי עֵשָׂו
Jacob kept his spiritual voice, and he learned to use his hands.
“The voice is the voice of Jacob, and the hands are [like] the hands of Esav.”

EFFORT AND BLESSING
In this week’s Parsha, Genesis chapter 26, we read that Isaac had to leave his land due to famine and came to Gerar, a city between Gaza and Beer Sheba, the land of the Pelishtim (Philistines). Isaac temporarily settled there and began to work hard. v:12-14 “Isaac sowed in that land, and that year he reaped a hundredfold [a hundred times more than he had planted]: HaShem had blessed him! Isaac enjoyed prosperity and continued to grow until he became wealthy: he had sheep, cows, and many servants…

Although HaShem blessed him, Isaac’s wealth did not rain from heaven; Abraham’s son was a very hard worker. He had to work very hard to plant in that arid area, and as the Torah tells us a little later, he had to dig again and again – without laziness and without giving up – to obtain the most scarce and precious element in the Middle East: water.

But now, the same verse that mentions Isaac’s wealth describes the feeling and reaction of the Pelishtim to Isaac’s success.

וַיְקַנְא֥וּ אֹת֖וֹ פְּלִשְׁתִּֽים
וְכׇל־הַבְּאֵרֹ֗ת אֲשֶׁ֤ר חָֽפְרוּ֙ עַבְדֵ֣י אָבִ֔יו בִּימֵ֖י א ַבְרָהָ֣ם אָבִ֑יו סִתְּמ֣וּם פְּלִשְׁתִּ֔ים וַיְמַלְא֖וּם עָפָֽר ׃
וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֲבִימֶ֖לֶךְ אֶל־יִצְחָ֑ק לֵ֚ךְ מֵֽעִמָּ֔נוּ כִּֽי־ע ָצַ֥מְתָּ מִמֶּ֖נּוּ מְאֹֽד׃

The Pelishtim were envious of Isaac.
And all the wells [of water] that the servants of his father [Abraham] had dug… they made useless, filling them with earth.”

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JEALOUSY AND ENVY
The Pelishtim received a refugee, Isaac, weak and poor. And they sympathized with that Isaac. But once Isaac recovered, his success did not make them happy; quite the opposite: he bothered them. The Torah uses here for the first time in biblical history the word quin’a, which means: “envy” (ויקנאו אותו פלשתים “The Pelishtim were envious of Isaac.”

There are two possible reactions one can have to a successful person. The first, the best, is to learn from those who do things well and imitate them. The Pelishtim could have imitated Isaac’s efforts: working more, getting up earlier, getting drunk less, saving more, not spending as much, etc. But that didn’t happen! The reaction of the Pelishtim consisted of destructive envy that led them to do something inconceivable: covering with earth the water wells that Isaac had dug!

There is a big difference between the Hebrew words “jealousy” (jemda or ta’avá לא תתאוה), and “envy” (quin’a). “Jealousy” always refers to an object: I am jealous of what you have, and I would like to have it myself. I want to have your house, your money, your car. And in theory, once I have what you have, my jealousy disappears or should decrease. “Envy,” on the other hand, is a deep, toxic, and complicated feeling. It’s not about my desire to have what the other person has but about listening to the person who has it. When I envy you, I resent your success. I can not stand. I’m going to try to take away what you have. And if I can’t take it away from you, I will destroy it. Because what impresses me the most is that YOU don’t have it! Envy is destructive and, by nature, self-destructive. Envy/hatred led the Pelishtim to do the most irrational thing a Middle Easterner can do: destroy water wells in the desert. Which would hurt them, too.

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF
Ramban, Nachmanides, says that the Tora goes out of its way to describe the details of this event to teach us that מעשה אבות סימן לבנים, “what happened to our ancestors is not just history,” but marks a pattern of behavior that will be repeated with their descendants. This story repeats itself in our days.

HaShem’s blessing and Israel’s success in the areas of education, innovation, technology, and economy arouse admiration in the world but also a lot of envy, resentment, and hatred, especially from Isarel’s neighbors, who aim to destroy the “water wells” that could benefit their citizens, to harm Israel.

Gaza’s history makes it clear.
On August 15, 2005, 8,000 Israeli Jews were displaced from their homes in Gush Qatif, Israel. That land, which had been conquered militarily by Israel in response to the war started by the Egyptians, was “gifted” to the Palestinians, who had democratic elections in 2006 in which the Hamas party was elected. The population of Palestine that elected Hamas knew—and knows perfectly well—the objectives of Hamas since they are explicit in its founding charter: in that charter, Hamas does not mention the desire to provide prosperity, human rights or social services to the inhabitants of Gaza to improve their lives. ALL THE LETTER SAYS IS THAT HAMAS WILL DEDICATE FULLY TO JIHAD, that is, to the armed struggle against the State of Israel until its destruction, and clarifies that it will reject all diplomatic negotiations and management. Just as the Pelishtim did with Isaac, Hamas is willing to impoverish its population and pursue self-destruction (immolate itself = jihad) to destroy Israel or, at least, to kill as many Jews as possible.

Gaza does not engage in terror because they are poor; Gaza is poor because it chooses to engage in terror. This idea is so mind-blowing to normal people that they refuse to believe it. And in some ways, those with a Western mentality, even Israel, forcibly “overimpose” their own ideals and try to help Gaza out of its poverty. The Palestinians of Gaza have received more money than any other population in the entire world. From the European Union, United Nations, and the United States, hundreds of billions of dollars. All this money that should have been dedicated to building schools and hospitals and providing clean water to the population has been dedicated to building war tunnels, buying weapons, developing more weapons, and all to destroy Israel.

It is challenging for an ordinary person to understand that envy transformed into hatred makes human beings lose their desire for prosperity and self-preservation to dedicate themselves to eliminating those who work and prosper. But the Torah already warned about it in the story of Isaac with the Pelishtim. And today, we see more clearly than ever that there is nothing new under the sun of Gaza.

שמענו אדני נשיא אלקים אתה בתוכנו
In this week’s Parasha, Chaye Sara, we meet Abraham, our first patriarch, in a long conversation with the Hittites, one of the peoples who inhabited the land of Canaan in those days. Abraham wants to acquire a piece of land from them in Qiryat Arba, Hebron, to bury his recently deceased wife, Sara.
MONOTHEISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM
Abraham negotiates with the Hittites. And as the negotiation progressed, we saw that the Hittites leaders – men famous for their violent conquests – treated Abraham with great respect and addressed him as “nesí Eloqim”, “A representative of God among us.” This is a very uncommon gesture since pagans people did not have an open mind about other gods or cults. The mythological gods competed with each other to prove their supremacy. And Abraham not only practiced a different religion, but his religion was “monotheism,”: which means that while the idea of other cults implied that “Our gods are more powerful than your gods”, the religion of Abraham held that: ” Your gods are fake”. The Hittites should have considered Abraham’s beliefs a great challenge, a threat, and an insult to their belief system. And they surely knew that Abraham did not keep monotheism for himself: Abraham was an activist, an iconoclast (“a destroyer of idols”), and the Hittites were idol-worshippers. And yet they respected him superlatively.… In those days, there was no religious tolerance. We saw, for example, in the story of Yosef and his brothers, that the Egyptians did not even sit down to eat at the same table with a Hebrew because they considered our menu – in this case: meat – abominable, offensive to their beliefs. How was it then that Abraham, being so different from the Hittites, was respected by them as he was by other peoples of the region?
In my opinion, the Hittites respected and admired Abraham not because but rather despite his beliefs (which the Hittites probably never fully understood) because of Abraham’s extraordinary human virtues.
Here are a few examples.

GENEROSITY:
In the pagan world, “the representatives of the gods on earth” would make their livelihood from gifts and offerings from idol worshippers. When MalqiTsedeq, a priest, “blessed Abraham, Abraham gifted him generously. These offerings to pagan religious leaders (priests, wizards, witches, magicians) were prevalent at that time. But Abraham, whom everyone saw as an ambassador of God, far from expecting others to support him materially because of his “spiritual role”, devoted himself to materially assisting others out of his own pocket. Abraham had a literally “open house” to welcome any foreigner who needed shade, water, or food, and Abraham did not ask for or accept any compensation for that service. In light of the above-mentioned common practice, this behavior of Abraham must have inspired the respect and admiration of all those who knew him.
RESPECT:
God spoke to Abraham and promised that he and his descendants would inherit the land of Canaan. But Abraham never behaved arrogantly in front of other Canaanites. His unconditional faith in the Divine promise could have led him to say to the pagans who inhabited the earth: “This land will be mine. And therefore, I can take possession of it without your permission.” Abraham dealt with the Hittites with dignity and honor and paid a very high price for the burial place. Abraham represented the epitome of the nobility of those observant Yehudim who know very well that “the closer one is to God, the more he must respect and behave with integrity towards others”, and especially towards those who profess another religion or are less observant than them (Qiddush HaShem).
HUMILITY:
Abraham’s humility becomes much more evident when we compare him, as our Sages did, to Bil’am. Bil’am was a pagan prophet and a representative of God among gentiles. HaShem communicated with Bil’am, as he did with Abraham and Moshe. But this privilege, instead of making Bil’am more humble, caused Bil’am to look down at other people and deal with them with disdain. Bil’am said to himself:” If God speaks to me, no one can be compared to me!” Bil’am’s behave with arrogance and contempt. He was unwilling to help anyone unless he obtained a substantial material benefit and retribution “for the services rendered.” Bil’am represents those gentiles or Jews who “misrepresent” religion. Abraham was precisely the opposite of Bil’am.
FIRST INFLUENCER
Although Abraham held different theological beliefs, which “he” was aware were superior to the ideas of the pagans who lived around him, he behaved with generosity and respect. He was always willing to help anyone in need, even those who did not share his creed and values. In his boundless humanity, Abraham asked God to spare the lives of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, the most corrupt cities in history.
And this is why even though Abraham’s ideas were very different, Abraham never had enemies. He was never judged negatively on account of his “radical” beliefs. Why? Because of his integrity, his humbleness, and generosity toward other human beings. And this is why Abraham is the Father of most world religions: the most impactful INFLUENCER in human history.

This week’s Parasha is about the last days of Abraham Abinu. After taking care of the burial of his wife Sarah, Abraham has a critical mission: to get a wife for his son Isaac (Ytshaq). Much is at stake. Finding a woman worthy of Isaac will allow Abraham’s legacy, his covenant with HaShem, to continue for posterity. But if the wife does not accompany Isaac in Abraham’s way, everything will be lost. At that time, as today, the children’s education and Jewish continuity depended primarily on the wife. For this challenging mission, Abraham sends his most loyal servant, Eliezer. He arrives in Haran, the land where Abraham comes from, and where he still has some relatives. Eliezer begs HaShem to guide his steps. And he proposes to do a “test” to find the future wife of Isaac. Eliezer heads towards the well. And he tells himself that when he arrives, he will ask one of the young women for some water to drink. If the woman agrees and also offers water for his camels, this would be a sign that she is a suitable wife for Isaac.

The rabbis are divided in their opinion regarding this event: Some, like Maimonides, say that Eliezer showed a lack of judgment: we cannot “put God to the test” (לא תנסו). A Jews should never say, for example, “HaShem, You are Almighty, and it is within your power to determine which way the coin will fall. I am not sure whether I should buy this house. Therefore, HaShem, I am going to toss a coin so that You reveal Your will to me: if it is Your will that I buy this house, make the coin fall ‘heads’. And if it is not Your will, let it be ‘tails’. “Maimonides indicates that this seemingly impeccable reasoning was part of the rhetoric used by idolaters to “force their gods to reveal their will”, which they then manipulated at will, claiming that they were following their god’s instructions.

Other Rabbis, while agreeing in principle with Maimonides’ opinion, say that in this case, Eliezer did not try to test God but to test the character and personality of the girl. After all, Eliezer didn’t ask for an arbitrary identifying sign: he did not say, for example, “if I see a young woman wearing a dress with flowers, she will be the one HaShem wants for Isaac,” or something like that. Eliezer set out to identify “qualities” that would test the girl’s good character.

As additional support for this second opinion, we should notice what virtues Eliezer hoped to see in Isaac’s future wife. 

Eliezer looked for the virtues of Abraham Abinu.

1. When Abraham welcomes guests, he offers them less than he ultimately gives them. Abraham offered them “a piece of bread and some water.” But in the end, he feasted them on tender meat, freshly baked bread, and delicious desserts. Part of the virtue of a Tsadiq (a righteous man) “is to do more than what he promises” (the opposite of politicians!).

2. Abraham served his guests with “enthusiasm” (זריזות). One of the ways to measure our enthusiasm is to see how quickly we do things. If a child or a teenager has to get up at dawn to do a task that he does not want to do, he will surely get up very slowly, dress in slow motion, with total reluctance, etc. But if he has to get up at dawn to fly to Disneyland, he will surely do that without delay, dressed up quickly and with great enthusiasm. When Abraham received his guests, the Torah tells us that Abraham “hurried” and said to his wife: “Hurry, mix the flour and prepare the cakes.” And then Abraham “ran” to his cattle and “hurried” to prepare the meat …

1. When Eliezer saw Ribqa he asked for water. Ribqa “hurried” to the fountain and said: “Drink, my Lord.” And she said, on her own initiative: “I am going to give your camels to drink, too.”

2. “And she “hurried” and “ran” to the source of water and watered the camels until they quenched their thirst”. 

This exceptional behavior is typical of people who practice chesed, acts of kindness at the highest possible level: They do more than they are asked or expected to do. They do more than they promised to do. And when they do their good deeds, they do it with enthusiasm, passion, and selflessness.

Ribqa passed the character test, reached the bar established by Abraham Abinu, and graduated with flying colors.