November 29, 2022 · 01:31:42
Whatever I Don’t Deal With, Will Resurface Later in My Life for RepairThis class was presented on Tuesday Parshas Vayetzei, 5 Kislev, 5783, November 29, 2022, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, NY. The Midrash relates that when Jacob discovered the switch between the two sisters, he told Leah, “You are a liar, the daughter of a liar,” his way of saying that the apple did not fall far from the tree. “Why did you deceive me?” Leah responded to Jacob’s accusation: Every craftsman creates students. Even a barber inspires students who learn from him the skill of cutting hair. My father and I, too, had a mentor who taught us how to deceive. Some time ago, Leah said, there was an old man, who wanted to bless his oldest son but was deceived by his younger son.. On a simple level, Leah was teaching Jacob the rule of “what goes around comes around.” He deceived his father, causing the blessing reserved for the older son to go instead to the younger son. What he did to his father and brother, was now done to him. Scathing indeed, but deeply disturbing. Let’s assume for a moment Jacob was wrong in taking the blessings—how does that exonerate Leah and Laban in deceiving him? Can I deceive you in a business deal, because you deceived your brother in a deal seven years earlier? Yet, a deeper reflection reveals a profounder reading of this narrative. The deeper dimension has been revealed by Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812), fo