The Weekly Shtikle - Toledos

This week's shtikle is dedicated le'iluy nishmas my rebbe and Rosh HaYeshivah of Yeshivas Ner Yisroel, Harav Yaakov Moshe Kulefsky, zt"l (Yaakov Moshe ben Refael Nissan Shlomo) whose Yahrtzeit is this coming Sunday.

 

At the end of this week's parsha, after expressing his desire to kill Yaakov, Eisav is informed (28:6) that his parents had sent Yaakov away to Padan Aram. If he knew that Yaakov was in Padan Aram, why didn't he kill him there? The obvious answer is that Eisav himself established (27:41) that he did not intend to kill Yaakov until after his father's passing. However, when Eisav finally did confront Yaakov in parshas Vayishlach with apparent intent to kill him, Yitzchak was still alive. Obvioulsy, Eisav's declaration that he would wait until Yitzchak's passing was not a comitment he was particularly dedicated to keeping. So we are still unclear as to why Eisav never confronted Yaakov in Padan Aram.

 

Perhaps the next pasuk gives us a hint. We are told that Yaakov "listened to his parents" and went to Padan Aram. We know that Eisav was very strongly dedicated to the mitzvah of kibud av va'eim. Perhaps he had so much respect for that mitzvah that when he saw that Yaakov went to Padan Aram, obeying a direct order from his parents, he simply could not bring himself to harm him there. Only when he returned from the fulfilling of this mitzvah could Eisav confont him. The Sefer HaYashar at the end of Parshas Vayeitzei writes that when Yaakov escaped from Lavan, Lavan sent messengers to Eisav to cut Yaakov off and kill him. Perhaps it is because of the above that Eisav arranged this correspondence with Lavan.

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Have a good Shabbos.

Eliezer Bulka
EzBulka@hotmail.com
http://weeklyshtikle.blogspot.com
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