What's Hashem doing in the darkness??

In this week's Parsha Vayeishev, there are many details that could point to an apparent randomness of events or events that could seem accidental.... but like the Purim story are actually interwoven in an intricate pattern of Divine Providence!
Yakov sends Yosef to check on his brothers acting on and bringing to fuition, information from Avraham Avinu that his family will be exiled,
the brothers cast Yosef into a pit and then sell him to Yishme'elim, and then totally broken from all of these events, the family starts to unravel somewhat, many of the members spending time either in mourning or Tshuvah or both in sackcloth and ashes.

The Chumash tells us that Yehuda goes down to live in another place and do business with an Adullami man. The going down could refer to his own sense of self worth or his estimation in his brother's opinion of him.

Yehuda marries, which we are told also in the Medrash is a choice of action that Hashem approves of, a starting over, a choice of having a new beginning! He has three sons, marries the eldest one to Tamar, when the eldest son dies Tamar is given to the second son and when he too dies, Yehuda holds back his third son from marrying Tamar.
The chumash tells us that after Yehuda's own wife dies, he goes on the road on some business trip, sees Tamar, does not recognize her as his daughter in law and thinking she is a harlot has relations with her.

The medrash tells us that a Malach  actually pushed Yehuda to notice and desire to have relations with Tamar, without this push he would never have noticed her at all!  Another medrash tells us that while all the family members were busy with their  mourning and regret;
"the tribes with the selling of Yosef, Yosef with his sackcloth and fasting , (because he was separated from his father's house) Reuben with his sackcloth and fasting, Yakov with his sackcloth and fasting, (mourning his son) , and Yehuda,  busy with selecting a wife, the Holy One blessed be He was busy with creating the light of Moshiach!" How so, the union of Yehuda and Tamar produces Peretz, the forefather of Moshiach!

When it seems that the most unlikely things are happening and it seems that Hashem has abandoned the scene, he is actually working in apparent darkness, a darkness that distracts the negative forces, so that He is free to bring  about redemption!

The medrash highlights a number of liaisons  connected to the seed of Moshiach that come into the world in suspect circumstances, Ruth's own heritage, the marriage of  Boaz and Ruth, David's own lineage and now Yehuda and Tamar. The Medrash highlights the idea of bringing something of holiness into the world through the backdoor, in an unexpected fashion....Concealment is a hallmark of the means by which G-d prepares the way for the arrival of Moshiach. The Gemorrah states in Sanhedrin, "Three things come into the world when one's attention is diverted, these are Moshiach,... etc". The Ramban mentions this method of confusing the Satan by reminding us of the action of throwing a goat off a cliff on Yom Kippur, the Ramban says we are tricking the Satan by leading him to believe we are making an offering to the forces of impurity and then distracted , the Satan refrains from prosecuting Israel in the heavenly court on Yom Kippur!

It seems that when darkness surrounds us, we may be led to believe Hashem has abandoned His post, but in fact he is working behind the scenes, orchestrating the next manifestation of Moshiach, the darkness is meant to be a distraction, so the forces of evil get thrown off...a false sense of strength and victory should not be seen as true strength... Hashem is pulling strings and orchestrating our redemption although right now it definitely seems like it's happening behind the scenes.... may we have revealed good very soon with the ultimate revelation of Moshiach!
May it be soon!

Yakov as Peaceful Warrior

What does it mean to be a peaceful warrior?

At first glance these two words seem contradictory yet if we think more deeply into the the root of what makes us strong, (our vulnerability) what makes us the best fighters, (a desire for true peace) and what helps us to reach above ourselves, (being grounded) then perhaps the combination of these two words is not so strange after all. A peaceful warrior is someone who enters into battle open to reconciliation if that is truly available, but brave enough to take a stand if it is not. In my understanding, a peaceful warrior is a fighter who is centered and calm, flexible and adaptable and really wishes to hurt no living thing, but when his or her family and values, land and loves are threatened, they can be very focused in defending what is right and what is theirs.

In this week's Parsha our forefather Yakov reminds me of  the perfect example of what a  peaceful warrior truly is.

Yakov leaves Charan and the home of Lavan where he was successful in transforming the energy that existed there from energy that served selfish and material interests, to energy that fused the material and the spiritual in the service of Hashem. He leaves with 12 children and great material wealth, his abundance all devoted to the service of the ideals of the Torah, his children and wives  loyal to his beliefs and the wealth available for offerings and gifts to G-d as well as spreading light in the physical world....

and he now prepares to confront and attempt to elevate the energy of Esav.

The Torah tells us of the various different strategies Yakov employs in planning for this cosmic meeting. He sends angels (in the form of people as Esav would not have been able to engage with them in angelic form) with a message of reconciliation, he divides his family into two camps, (part of a war strategy that in the event of  violence,  at least one camp would escape Esav) he prays to Hashem to save him , (connects to his spiritual self) and he sends  a very large gift, (as Rashi explains, large enough to  amaze and fully satiate the eye of Esav) more effort at reconciliation and then perhaps without planning it at all, he is forced to do the most intense preparation of all, he fights with the angel of Esav. 

There are many different explanations of  the meaning of this encounter with the angel of Esav . Is the angel the externalization of his own inner conflict and fear in relation to Esav that he needs to confront? According to the Babylonian Talmud (Chullin 91a) the angel appeared in the guise of a man; one opinion is that this " man" was a pagan idol worshipper and most interesting another opinion suggests that the angel took the guise of a Torah sage! Does Yakov need to understand his own guilt and ambivalence regarding their past?  Does he need to come to grips  with what happened and  defeat the 'idea" of  what Esav represents in this world before he can face him in a calm and secure fashion in actuality? To truly defeat Esav, Yakov has to come to a point where he can reconcile himself to what happened regarding his and Esav's history, he needs to  understand why in fact it was G-d's will that he should have received the blessing of the first born when in fact Esav was really older and his father's intended recipient for the blessing? 

It seems that  it took all night for Yakov to work through all these inner struggles and at the end of it it.. the "man" was not able to overcome him, meaning possibly that Yakov was able to neutralize all the accusations thrown at him by both the secular voices in his head and the super halachic and  "super righteous"  voices telling him he had possibly sinned and had no Torah based claim to the blessings....so ultimately he does emerge victorious but he is damaged slightly. The significance of the damage is that Yakov is forever vulnerable in certain aspects of his mission, some doubt did lay it's seed within him  and this seed developed into fruition with the destruction of all that Yakov held dear generations later with  the destruction of the Temples on a date that has a Kabalistic connection to the site of the injury. 

Most important of all, Yakov emerges from his night of confrontation with something that adds a dimension to him for all time and becomes an aspect of the entire Jewish people.. Yakov becomes Yisroel! Yakov, who deals with things in a somewhat round about kind of way,  sometimes surreptitious and perhaps even devious, becomes Yisroel ,  Yashar-El... straight with Hashem, unapologetic, upfront and direct and then he names the place of the encounter Peni'el, (the face of G-d) he is ready for a face to face encounter with what ever !

Yakov struggled within himself to find his belief that ultimately he is the one to whom the blessings rightfully belong, and that he can walk tall and face anyone who may be an accuser , knowing that he is calm and centered within...peaceful and focused...this calmness and clarity has allowed him to see the face of Hashem hidden in all the details, and this calmness allows him to face Esav as a peaceful warrior!

The name Yakov implies a kind of struggle while the name Yisroel hints to a place beyond the struggle , a place of peacefulness and resolution. When Avram becomes Avraham his new name takes root and he is never again called Avram, however  Yaakov continues to be referred to by both names, he continues to have struggles in his life ( the loss of Yosef for over 20 years) being called by both names  even after he receives his name Yisroel.

May it be that the Children of Israel/Yisroel truly achieve a state of peace, within and without in the perfected world of the Messianic era and may it be soon in our day!!!