Since we are in the midst of Galus Edom which culminates with Galus Yishmael, let us discuss this topic.
It says וידו אחזת בעקב עשו ויקרא שמו יעקב, Yaakov held onto Esav’s heel, so he called his name Yaakov. If this is the case, then he should be named עקב, heel. Why is he called יעקב?
After Esav saw that Yitzchak blessed Yaakov and sent him off to get married, he married the daughter of Yishmael. Let us delve into what is happening here. Esav now wanted two forces of impurity in order to defeat Yaakov. He did this by marrying the daughter of Yishmael. We know that Esav possessed the quality of gevura, as his bracha is על חרבך תחיה, by your sword you shall live. It also says that he is a איש ידע ציד, man who knows hunting.
Yaakov on the other hand possess tiferes which is a combination of chessed and gevura. Through marrying the daughter of Yishmael he acquires the characteristic of chessed, as this is the quality of Yishmael. As a result, Esav now has these two powers in order to counter Yaakov.
When Yaakov is born it says וידו אחזת בעקב עשו, meaning Yaakov wanted to nullify the power of Esav’s impurity with his trait of Torah. He didn’t know that later Esav would marry into Yishmael and possess another quality, namely chessed. Consequently, עקב is an acronym for בטול קליפת עשו. However, he is named Yaakov because in the future Esav would marry into Yishmael and take possession of this quality of chessed. So he is named יעקב which is an acronym for שמעאלישו עליפת קטול ב.
Breishis 25:26. See Rashi s.v. Vayikra.
Breishis 28:6-9.
Breishis 27:40.
Breishis 25:27.
Yishmael is the son of Avraham whose trait is chessed. Consequently he has this quality, just in a negative way.
See Megaleh Amukos in Parshas Vayeitzei.
The Yerushalmi Magid, R' Shabbsai Yudelevitch, related that after the Yom Kippur War he was invited to a memorial event for the IDF soldiers killed in battle. Most of the participants were non-religious and the speeches were given by leaders from the military, political and academic spheres. R' Shabsai spoke after them and began, “You are all probably wondering what the bnei yeshiva contributed on behalf of the war effort since they had their heads in the gemara.” Many heads nodded indicating they were also pondering that question. He explained, “Before the war, the military sent a notice to the various Chevra Kaddishas instructing them to prepare 80,000 graves, expecting the worst. We are now memorializing the victims of the war which number 2,700, not 80,000. That is what the bnei yeshiva contributed. The power of their Torah is what directly affected the outcome of the war.”
It has been said from the Steipler that at times a girl cannot find her shidduch because there was never a kidush made for her after she was born. R' Chaim Kanievsky, the Steipler’s son, was asked in a letter if this was true. R' Chaim wrote: לא שמעתי דבר זה ואני לא עשיתי קידוש לבנותי ואדוני אבי מורי ורבי זצ"ל לא אמר לי לעשות, I never heard this. And I didn’t make a kidush for the birth of my daughters and my master, my father, my Rebbe didn’t tell me to make a kidush. So R' Chaim didn’t make a kidush for his own daughters.
Based on what we said, we now know that the way to nullify these shells of impurity of Esav and Yishmael is through the power of learning Torah.
May the exile come to an end very soon with the coming of the future redemption.
