Now, these two prongs of Yaakov’s strategy, milchamah and doran, were important; they were eminently important and eminently successful too. And they stand for us – as individuals and as a nation – for all time as a teaching, a lesson in how to deal with the gentiles in general and especially when there’s trouble brewing.
But there was a third thing that Yaakov made himself busy with that was more important than those two strategies, much more important. And that’s tefillah; prayer, calling out to Hashem for His help: פן ו ̇‡ נכי‡ ‡יר כי ו ̆ע „מי חי‡ „מי ‡נ ילניˆה בנים על ם‡ והכני ‡יבו – Rescue me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Eisav, for I fear he will come and strike me down, the mothers together with the children (32:12).
Now when we hear this so everyone imagines they understand it right away. To daven? Of course, what’s the question? After all, He’s the only One Who can save you anyhow. No war strategies and no running away and no gifts and no being polite is going to save you if Hashem is not on your side. So absolutely you have to daven. Anytime you’re faced with Eisavs – it means with troubles – coming your way you have to daven to Hashem that He should give you hatzlachah, that He should give you advice and solutions. If you want to succeed, absolutely it pays to pray to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. ‡ ̇בעו ‡והני – Tefillah helps.
But I’m going to tell you something now about davening that may be a chiddush to you. And even if you’re a regular in this place and you heard it already once it’s worth hearing this again: Davening for the purpose of getting what you ask for, that’s only part of the story. And actually it’s the smaller part because there’s a much more fundamental purpose, a bigger accomplishment than being answered. And so when we hear that Yaakov Avinu was davening we have to understand what it was really all about.
Summa Cum Laude
So let’s go back again to our story and study it a little more. Eisav is coming now with four hundred men and „‡מ ב ̃יע ‡ויר – Yaakov was very much afraid (32:8). לו רˆוי - Yaakov was distressed (ibid.). He was in a vice, in a tight situation – רˆוי from the word רˆ – and he was very much afraid. That, the Torah tells us, was the first reaction of this great tzaddik.
Now that’s something we have to understand because at the beginning of Shaar Habitachon when the Chovos Halevavos is trying to sell you the idea of studying this chapter about achieving trust in Hashem, so he tells you that one of the great benefits is menuchas nafsho, the peace of mind you're going to have as a result of bitachon. When you’ll gain a true understanding of the way that Hakadosh Baruch Hu controls and manages everything then you’re going to live in constant tranquility because you know, you’re absolutely certain, that He’s doing everything and that He’s doing it for the best.
And yet here we see a big contradiction. Yaakov Avinu, after all, was a great man. He was already an elderly man and he had gone through a number of great yeshivos and kollelim. He had studied for more than sixty years at the yeshiva of his father and mother – a wonderful institution of bitachon and emunah – and then another fourteen years he studied in ths yeshivah of Shem v'Eiver; that was post-graduate courses in bitachon. And then the years that he spent with Lavan certainly were finishing off years. It was post-post-graduate.
Bitachon and Fear
And so when he was coming back now to Eretz Canaan he was returning as an ish shaleim, a tzaddik who was certainly reinforced and corroborated and strengthened in all of his principles. He was the epitome of a baal bitachon, a man who lived intimately with the ideal that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is in charge and doing everything for his benefit in a kindly manner.
And if Eisav is coming now, Yaakov surely knew that he couldn’t come unless Hakadosh Baruch Hu stirred him to come. Otherwise, he's not a baal bitachon. If he thinks it's an accident, that despite what Hashem wants to do for him, Eisav is intending to do otherwise, that's not bitachon. If somebody can contradict Hashem's plans you can’t have bitachon. So the baal bitachon understands that Eisav is coming because Hashem is sending him. And so it would seem that this great baal bitachon shouldn’t be afraid. Hashem is pulling all the strings. He’s pulling Eisav and each one of the men; if not, they would have stayed in Edom.
And so it’s a big question: What’s there to be afraid of? Maybe for me, if I would have been there, it makes sense I would have been paralyzed with fear. But Yaakov? Why was he afraid?
Bitachon to Act
The answer is that just because the baal bitachon understands this fundamental principle of bitachon that everything that happens to him is done by Hashem, therefore, when a certain peril is approaching, chalilah a big sakana, he knows right away that Hashem is sending that on him. He’s not thinking “Eisav this” or “Eisav that”. It’s kulo the Yad Hashem.
Now, why is He sending him? If He’s sending Eisav with four hundred men does He want Yaakov to be stoic and just look boldly at Eisav and dare him to do anything? He should push the natural emotion of fear out of his mind, out of his heart completely?
Chas veshalom! The baal bitachon is supposed to be afraid because fear is intended to be a stimulus in a certain direction. Not that he was paralyzed with fear; not that he was depressed and despondent. He was electrified with fear! That’s the purpose, to electrify a person into action, to electrify him to do what has to be done. And that’s why Yaakov got busy with strategies; he got busy with milchamah and doran and his fear encouraged him to do it in the best way possible.
The Main Result
And now we come to the main point of tonight’s lecture. Because strategies, milchama v’doran, that’s very important. Absolutely fear is intended to be a stimulus to go all out to do whatever has to be done. But there’s something much bigger than that, something much more important. And that’s the third thing that Yaakov prepared with: tefillah.
Yaakov knew that if a peril is coming to confront him now, he was supposed to react with fear. Not to be afraid of Eisav, no that’s nothing. To be afraid of Hashem! And what should be the result of that reaction? To cry out to Him with all his heart! That’s what Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted – Yaakov’s tefillos. And that's what he did and that was his success.
The question is why does He want our prayers? He needs our prayers? Of course not. I explained this to you already once. To the Almighty, your prayers are as important as the prayers of bacteria on the rug. Suppose all the bacteria on all the big rugs would pray to our friend, Rabbi Price, over here. All the bacteria are shukeling and praying to Rabbi Price. He wouldn’t even turn a hair; it would mean nothing to him.
But relatively speaking, the bacteria here are more important to him, than we are to the Almighty!
Praying for Ourselves
And still, He wants us to pray because it’s for our benefit. Praying is a big achievement! When you pray to Hashem, you’re changing your character. Your mind is developing in the right direction, the direction of yiras Hashem, of reliance on Hashem, of love of Hashem, of emunah.
And we understand now that this was Yaakov's success. Hakadosh Baruch Hu didn’t create us in this world we should conquer Eisavs. That's a big error. We didn’t come in this world in order to overcome our enemies and obstacles. We're in this world for one purpose and that purpose is shleimus, to gain perfection in knowledge of Hashem, in awareness of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That’s our perfection. That's our success.
And Hakadosh Baruch Hu therefore gives people the opportunities always for the great success in life of gaining more and awareness of Him. And even Yaakov Avinu, although all the years he had been making progress, coming closer and closer to Hashem – he was so close to Hashem before this incident that he even had contact with a malach, physical contact. That's something that others never had, even those who had visions of malachim. Yaakov wrestled with a malach! That's the most tangible contact that anybody can have. So he was so great and yet Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted him on the next day to become greater.
Emergency Stimulus
And how did he become greater? By the stimulus of an emergency, a crisis. And when, in his fear of Eisav he called, out that was his greatest success. Not the success that he prepared for battle with various stratagems. Not the success that he was able to placate Eisav with gifts and words. Of course that was a great victory for Yaakov but the real victory was that he responded to the stimulus of fear and he cried out. He utilized the fear as a stimulus to cause him to cry out from the bottom of his heart and come closer to Hashem.
So we learn now from our parsha that chalilah when troubles come in life, bitachon means that you know it’s being sent by Hashem. And the purpose is to cause us to cry out to Hashem. Be afraid of Hashem and cry out to Him.
Let’s say the doctor says, “I’m sorry, you have to go to the hospital for further observation.” So „‡מ ב ̃יע ‡ויר – the Jew becomes very afraid. And right away he gets busy making appointments. That’s milchamah. Very good! And doran, gifts? He he has to start paying bills, doctor bills. Some people, maybe they buy a nice gift for the doctor before the surgery. Why not? He’ll take it, I’m sure. And maybe he’ll remember it when he’s putting on his surgical gloves to open you up.
So absolutely you have to do things. The fear should stimulate that. All the steps are necessary and they’re all required of him. If a man will just pray and he doesn’t take any steps to take care of himself, Hashem says, “You’re a failure!” That’s part of the nisayon. Bitachon means bitachon and hishtadlus. Sure you trust in Hashem, but at the same time you have to take steps to protect yourself to the best of your ability.
Your Success
But what about crying out to Hashem too? That’s the most important of all things! It’s the first and last thing. And in between too. And so when you’re about to be strapped down on the operation table – it should never happen to you – the first thing is to cry out to Hashem. Oh yes! “I’m afraid of You, Hashem! Please save me!” Cry out to Hashem! That’s what it’s for!
And not only when it comes to Eisavs and sickness. You must pray for everything! All forms of trouble that are coming towards you. You’re afraid? Daven to Hashem! That’s how you should respond! You should rise to the opportunity and call out to the Almighty. And this will transform your time of fear and worry into a time of real success. Because the biggest success of all is that tefillah. No matter what happens later, that’s the success. You became more aware of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, more reliant on Him, closer to Him. And no matter what happens, even if the trouble continues, you have succeeded thereby more than at any other time in your life!
Have a Wonderful Shabbos
