Vayishlach newsletter: Should I start if I can't fully accomplish?

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In this week’s Parsha we have the phenomenal story, of Yaakov meeting his brother (and enemy) Esav.

Yaakov sends him a large gift (consisting of hundreds of heads of livestock) to appease him.

Yaakov instructs his messengers what to tell Esav upon meeting him (Bereshit (Genesis) 32, 18-19):

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And he commanded the first one, saying, "When my brother Esau meets you, and asks you, saying, 'To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and for whom are these before you?'

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You shall say, '[I belong] to your servant Jacob; it is a gift sent to my master, to Esau, and behold, he himself is behind us.'"???????????

The Sefas Emes makes this dramatic episode relevant to our daily life, to our battles with our own Esav, which is none other than our Yetzer Hara (– evil inclinations).

The Sefas Emes starts by quoting his Grandfather the Chidushei HaRim, as follows:

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Our Yetzer Hara is busy making us perturbed and miserable, so we shouldn’t be able to maximize our full potential, which is to fulfil our purpose of creation, to bring down Divinity to the world, the way he does it, is by evoking in us questions (which are mentioned in Pirkei Avos (Ethics of the Fathers, 3, 1)) to disturb and distract us.

He asks us, ‘From where are you?’, ‘Where are you going to?’ and ‘Before whom you are destined to give a judgement and accounting?’ all these just to make our lives miserable, so we cannot live life to it’s fullest, as HaShem wants us to.

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Our answer to this, shall be: We are part of Klal Yisrael, who are beloved and cherished to HaShem, and every small and little deed we do, for the sake of G-D, is so precious for HaShem - as our sages teach us – it’s as if, one sacrifices his own life, and each time we fight our dark forces, it is uniquely dear to HaShem.

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The Sefas Emes adds on to his Grandfather’s words, as follows, the deeper meaning of the words (which Yaakov told his messengers to tell Esav) “and he himself is behind us” is, that, G-D is behind each and everyone of us, G-D is our biggest supporter (so to speak), we just have to start, to kindle and ignite the light, but we cannot afford to be worried and concerned that we may not fully complete it, for that we have to trust HaShem!

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Written by R’ Moshe Neuwirth