Welcome to the mussar haTorah podcasts for Parshas VaYishlach. Join us as we explore the weekly Parsha, uncovering valuable insights and striving to become the best versions of ourselves through Mussar teachings.
The parsha has the famous incident of Yaakov wrestling with the "stranger". Rav Shmuel Beirnbaum z'l asks a question I never considered. Why didn't this "stranger" get into any fights with Avraham or Yitzchok yet have one with Yaakov?
Rav Shmuel answers we need to look at what each of the Avos represented. Avraham represents chesed obviously because of all of the chesed he did. Yitzchok represents avodah because he was put onto a mizbach when Avraham was going to sacrifice him. (This is the reason why he was not able to leave Eretz Yisroel when there was a famine.) Yakov represents Torah as we see from the pasuk "ish tam yoshev ohalim". Additionally the "stranger" who wrestled with Yaakov was the yetzer harah as is indicated in Bereishit Rabbah 77:3.
If someone is doing a chesed, the yetzer harah doesn't mind so much. The same goes for when you daven, especially when you daven like we usually do. However, when it comes to learning, the yetzer hara goes to work because we and it know that Torah is the antidote to the yetzer hara.
This insight from Rav Shmuel gives us a powerful lesson for our own lives. Just as the yetzer hara specifically targeted Yaakov - the pillar of Torah - we often find our greatest resistance when sitting down to learn. Think about it: when was the last time you felt an overwhelming urge to check your phone while helping someone move furniture? Or when did you suddenly remember urgent errands while in the middle of davening? But when we open a sefer to learn... suddenly we're bombarded with distractions, tiredness, and urgent "responsibilities" that just can't wait.
This is precisely because Torah learning has a unique power to transform us. As Chazal teach us, "I created the yetzer hara, and I created Torah as its antidote." The yetzer hara knows this better than anyone - which is why it fights so hard against our Torah learning.
So the next time you sit down to learn and feel that resistance - whether it's sudden exhaustion, a flood of "urgent" thoughts, or the overwhelming need to organize your sock drawer - remember this lesson from Parshas Vayishlach. That resistance itself is a sign that you're engaged in something truly powerful. Like Yaakov, who emerged from his struggle with a blessing and a new name, we too can transform our battles with the yetzer hara into opportunities for growth.
This has been another episode of Mussar HaTorah. Until next week, keep learning, keep growing, and remember - the harder the yetzer hara fights, the more important the battle. Thank you for listening.
