~ One Hundred Words on the Parsha – VaYishlach

After Shimon and Levi killed out the city of Shechem, Yaakov rebuked them for making the locals angry at him. Many years ago, I read an article about Israeli politics where the author was refuting Yaakov’s attitude to argue that Jews shouldn’t be fearful. He pointed out that nothing happened to Yaakov as a result of what Shimon and Levi did. The fallacy of this argument is that the Torah tells us that the יושבי הארץ didn’t run after Yaakov because Hashem put a special fear in them. In other words, Yaakov was correct in his assessment.

Bonus – Halacha Words

The Yidden don’t eat the גיד הנשה

תפילין can only be made out of kosher animals. Part of תפילין is the strings made out of animal veins. Is it permitted to use the vein called גיד הנשה? On the one hand, it is from a kosher animal, however, it itself is not kosher. This is actually a dispute among the Poskim.

Only B’Simcha Parshas VaYishlach

When Yaakov met Eisav, he hid his daughter, Dina, in a box. He was afraid that Eisav would be interested in her. Chazal have a complaint against Yaakov and indicate that he should have let Dina marry Eisav. Perhaps she could have returned him to the proper path.

The Alter from Slabodka wonders about this. He explains that Chazal meant that even though Yaakov was correct, he should have done this act regretfully. He should have felt bad about having to protect his daughter at the expense of improving Eisav.

There are many times in a person’s life where he must choose not to do a good deed due to other considerations. He should do this reluctantly and certainly not act enthusiastic about not doing this good deed. Even so, he should be B’Simcha understanding that he is doing what’s best under the circumstance.

~ One Hundred Words on the Parsha – VaYishlach

After Shimon and Levi killed out the city of Shechem, Yaakov rebuked them for making the locals angry at him. Many years ago, I read an article about Israeli politics where the author was refuting Yaakov’s attitude to argue that Jews shouldn’t be fearful. He pointed out that nothing happened to Yaakov as a result of what Shimon and Levi did. The fallacy of this argument is that the Torah tells us that the יושבי הארץ didn’t run after Yaakov because Hashem put a special fear in them. In other words, Yaakov was correct in his assessment.

Bonus – Halacha Words

The Yidden don’t eat the גיד הנשה

תפילין can only be made out of kosher animals. Part of תפילין is the strings made out of animal veins. Is it permitted to use the vein called גיד הנשה? On the one hand, it is from a kosher animal, however, it itself is not kosher. This is actually a dispute among the Poskim.