When Eisav discovered that his brother Yaakov had snuck in and taken the brachos from their father Yitzchok, he cried out הָרָמ ו הָלֹ„ ¿‚ הָ ָ̃ﬠ¿ˆ – a great and bitter outcry. And what did he say as he wailed? “בֹ ֲ̃ﬠַי ֹמוׁ¿ ̆ ‡ָרָ ̃ יƒכֲה – You see that he was rightfully called Yaakov! םƒיַמֲﬠַפ ה∆ז יƒנ≈ב¿ ̃¿ע ַיַו – Because he deceived me twice.חָ ָ̃ל יƒ ̇ ָרֹכ ¿ב ̇∆‡ – First he took away my birthright,יƒ ָ̇כ¿ר ƒב חַ ָ̃ל ה ּ ָ ַ̇ﬠ הּ≈נƒה¿ו – and now he took away my brachos (Bereishis 27:36). And so it's a perfectly fitting name for him,” Eisav said, “‘Yaakov the Deceiver.’”
Now when Eisav said that, he wasn't just saying something that was his own fanciful interpretation. Because we know that the word ‘yaakov’ comes from the word eikev, a heel; when Yaakov was born וָׂ ̆≈ﬠ ב≈ ֲ̃ﬠ ַב ̇∆ז∆חֹ‡ ֹו„ָי¿ו – his hand was holding the heel of Eisav. The heel is round like a hook. It's not straight—it's bent like a hook—so Yaakov means ‘somebody who is not straight.’ That's how Eisav explained the word; akev means crooked and Yaakov is ‘the one who acts crookedly.’
Now, we think that Eisav is saying something, a form of lashon hara that he invented out of his anger. Because we have a different pshat; we know that Yaakov was called that name because he's going to come eikev, ‘at the end’; Eisav may come first in this world but at the end Yaakov will be the one left standing. Like the heel that comes after the person; when you're walking, your heel comes after you.
And so, according to the plain pshat, Yaakov was called that name because in the end he's going to be victorious. Even though in the meantime the gentiles have big empires and they seem to be the conquerors, but when all is said and done, they'll all go down in the dust and Yaakov will be supreme. That's what the Torah says. The end will be ל≈‡ָרׂ¿ ̆ƒי¿ו לƒיָח הׂ∆ ֹ̆ע – Yaakov will be the one that will succeed (Bamidbar 24:18).
The Difficult Shver
But let's pay attention, however, to Eisav’s pshat. After all, he wasn't a nobody, and when he said that peirush on Yaakov he knew what he was talking about. Because actually, Yaakov wasn’t a straight man; he was a man of cunning.
Yaakov Avinu was a shrewd man, no question about it. That’s why he knew how to deal with Lavan. To get along with a Lavan, you have to know, is not an easy job. Twenty years he was together with that gangster! Any other eidem would have given his father-in-law a punch in the eye. Any other eidem! After being cheated by your father-in-law so many times! Absolutely! That’s called being straight—“I had enough of you, so here’s an uppercut to your chin.” But Yaakov didn't do that. No, Yaakov used other methods, wiser and trickier methods.
And when he wanted to leave finally, he was tricky too. Just like he had snuck in to his father to get the brachos, this time he snuck away. He ran away.
So a fool says, “That’s not right. He should come to Lavan like a straight shooter.” He could be truthful. “Look, my shver. I have to leave you. I have to go back home.”
“Nothing doing!” Lavan would have said. “ ֹ̇נו ּ ָבַה יַ ֹ̇נ ּ ¿ב – These are my daughters, my family. You’re not going anywhere.” And then he would have had a much harder time leaving; because now Lavan was forewarned.
So he didn't tell him anything. He stole away.
“Oh,” Lavan said. “That's a cheat! He cheated me! He ran away with my daughters.”
The Honest Nation
That’s what the goyim always say, that the frum Jew is dishonest. It’s one of the biggest errors the world could ever have, maybe the biggest, to think that the frum Jew is dishonest. If you say the Italians, maybe. The blacks, maybe. The Poles, whoever it is, maybe. But the Am Hashem?
The Am Hashem are the most honest of all people. Which nation compares to us? Which nation teaches their little boys not to do harm to other people’s property? Bava Kama and Bava Metzia and Bava Basra are all talking about mamon acheirim, about how important other people’s money is, about hashavas aveidah, and about not cheating, not swindling.
That's what it is if you know Torah. But a goy? Where does he learn honesty? On the street corners? Just by chewing gum and playing baseball, he’s going to pick up the ideal of regarding the other man's property as sacred? From the TV and movies he’ll become honest? Be serious. It’s ridiculous! Nobody can compare to the Jewish nation.
The Korean’s Apricots
Let me tell you. I go in the streets every day and I watch the people at the fruit stores, the gentile customers. They stop and they eat cherries, just to taste them. They don't buy them. They taste them and walk away. They pick the grapes, eat them, and don't buy them. They pick peanuts and eat them, and don't buy them. Apricots too! So the Korean who owns the store comes out and looks at them with a sour face. He doesn’t say anything; he doesn’t want to lose customers.
I tried telling it to them once. Even if it’s less than a penny, a goy is not moichel even less than a perutah. “You’re stealing,” I said. But it’s like talking to a wooden head. Go talk to a wood mannequin—nothing goes into their heads. A frum Jew, he has a hargashah. He has emunah in Hakadosh Baruch Hu, that’s how you learn to be a mentsch.
So the non Torah world is a world of crooks. They are mamash ganavim. So don't make any mistake about it. No question about it, the Am Yisroel is the truest, most honest of all nations. Only that sometimes you must be dishonest in order for the truth to be carried out.
With Crooks, Act Crooked
Now, don’t go home now and tell your friends that Rabbi Miller said you have to be dishonest. You have to listen first to the Torah; to understand the details, vu ein and vu ois.
For example. The Gemara says a story about a Jew’s dishonesty, about when to be dishonest. A man was walking down Ocean Parkway alone at night—I’m saying Ocean Parkway; that’s not in the Gemara—from Boro Park in this direction, and suddenly a queer, suspicious character came out from the dark and started walking with him.
And the character says, “Good evening sir. How far are you going down Ocean Parkway?”
So you say, “I'm walking all the way down to Brighton.”
So this character is thinking, “I have time to make my move. There's a lonely spot near Avenue V and Ocean Parkway. Then I'll do what I want with him.” And he continues walking with you. When you come to Avenue U you make a sharp turn in, where the stores are, where it’s well-lit.
“Hey! Where are you going? I thought—”
And you wave and say “so long” to him.
That’s a Gemara, an eitzah from Chazal. Sometimes you have to deceive the criminal.
Yaakov is our Model
Now, you know where we learn that trickery from? From Yaakov! When Eisav came out to welcome him back to Eretz Canaan, so he said to Yaakov, “ך ∆„¿‚∆נ¿ל הָכ¿ל≈‡¿ו הָכ≈ל≈נ¿ו הָﬠ¿סƒנ – Let us start journeying, and I’ll proceed along with you (ibid. 33:12). I’ll accompany you.”
Now, that’s the last thing Yaakov wanted. He wanted to reconcile with his brother, but only from a distance. It would be a sakanah if his family would mingle with Eisav’s family. And so he acted with cunning, with dishonesty. He found excuses. “Look, I would love to, but I can’t go with you because we walk too slowly.” יוָל≈‡ ר∆מ‡ ֹּיַו – And Yaakov said to his brother, “ַﬠ≈„ֹי יƒ נֹ„ֲ‡ – My master knows that the children are young and if I’ll press them that they should be able to keep up with you—after all you're traveling on horseback—then all the sheep will die out. It's not good for us. We can't keep up with you. So let my master”—that’s how a cunning man speaks to an Eisav; he says ‘master’—“let my master pass before his servant. And I'll go slowly until I come to you, to your place in Se'ir. I’ll keep walking all the way to Seir and I'll meet you there.”
Missing the Appointment
Now, that’s an appointment he never kept. He made an appointment to meet him in Har Seir, but he didn’t keep it—he squirmed out of it.
And our Sages ask: How could he make an appointment and not keep it? What about honesty?
So they say that he'll keep the appointment. לוָﬠ¿ו וָׂ ̆≈ﬠ רַה ̇∆‡ טֹּפׁ¿ ̆ƒל ןֹו יƒˆ רַה ּ ¿ב יםƒעׁƒ ֹ̆מו. Oh yes, we’ll come there someday. In the days of Dovid they came to Edom and they conquered Edom. They did it a second time in the Bayis Sheini when Yochanan Horkanus came and conquered Edom again. And l’asid lavo we're going to conquer all of Eisav. We'll keep the appointment when it's profitable for us to keep it. But that’s drush—that’s not what Yaakov was saying, and most definitely it’s not what Eisav was thinking.
And so you can be sure that Eisav considered Yaakov Avinu a real dishonest character. “My crooked brother doing the same thing again.” And he looked down on him. Because Eisav, you know, was an ‘honest’ man. He didn't do such things.
So this criminal, when he sees you're not keeping the appointment to walk with him all the way to Brighton, and instead you’re turning in on Avenue U, where he won’t be able to mug you, so he says, “Feh! These frum Jews are crooks. They’re so dishonest.”
But of course we understand, however, that the shoe is on the left foot. The straight man was Yaakov; only he was as crooked as he had to be because that was part of his training. In order to be straight you have to be crooked sometimes—if you’re going to be only truth, only emes, you won’t succeed.
Eisav’s Pshat Justified
And so בֹ ֲ̃ﬠַי ֹמו¿ׁ ̆ ‡ָרָ ̃ יƒכֲה – you rightfully called his name Yaakov because he is a cunning man, not a straight man. You know, people think ם ּ ָ ̇ ׁ ̆יƒ‡ בֹ ֲ̃ﬠַי, tam means ah tamevater, a straight, naive fellow. No; tam means he was a perfect man and to be perfect you can't be straight. To be perfect you have to be crooked at times. That's the lesson we're learning here. יƒנ≈ב¿ ַ̃ﬠַי¿ו – Yaakov was a crooked man. That’s why he’s called Yaakov. Because he didn’t do things straight. A fool does things straight, but an oived Hashem is b’ormah. You have to learn how to twist things.
Sometimes that's how you have to deal with people. And that's the ratzon Hashem. You must be diplomatic with everybody. A rebbi has to be cunning with his talmidim. A father and mother have to be cunning with their children—and each child with a different twist. You have to be diplomatic with your neighbors—you can’t always say what you feel. You have to be cunning with your wife and your husband. And that's the ratzon Hashem. And therefore, Yaakov actually was not a straight man. You cannot be an oived Hashem if you're straight. You can’t always be truthful.
