Shiurim

Back to Shiurim List

Parshat Vayishlach

By: SFW Students & Alumna
Chavi Barr, SFW '04-'05

Perek 34, Pasuk 12: "And the Land which I gave to Avraham and Yitzchak, to you I will give it, and to your children after you I will give the land"

Meshech Chochma asks a question: Why did Hashem promise to Avraham and Yaakov that Eretz Yisrael would be given to them and their children after them (u'leZarecha acharecha), but when the promise is granted to Yitzchak, it only says that the land will be given to his children (u'l'zarecha).

The Meshech Chochma cites a Midrash to explain the reasoning behind this discrepancy. The Midrash explains that Avraham comes to represent the first Beis HaMikdosh. The reason for this is because when Avraham first saw Har Hamoriah he refered to it as Har. During the time of the Beis HaMikdosh, people would refer to the Beis HaMikdosh as Har.

The Second Beis Hamikdosh, which was destroyed by Edom, the son of Eisav, was represented by Yitzchak. When referring to Har HaMoriah, he calls the place Sadeh. Eisav, was known as Ish Sadeh, a man of the fields, and his descendants come to destroy the Beis HaMikdosh, the place that Yitzchok had named Sadeh.

Yaakov was representative of the third Beis HaMikdosh. He calls Har HaMoriah a Bayis, a permanent dwelling place, thus symbolizing that the third Beis HaMikdosh will be everlasting.

All of Bnei Yisrael felt connected to the first Beis HaMikdosh. They were affiliated with Torah and Mitzvos and identified with their Jewish heritage. Thus, in the promise granted to Avraham, Hashem tells him it's L'zarecha Achareicha, the land would be granted to the children who were following in his ways.

However, this was not true for the Second Beis HaMikdosh. In Sefer Ezra we are told that many of the few people who returned to Eretz Yisrael did not even know from which families they were descended. They were disconnected from their heritage. Therefore, there was no promise of acharecha, because they were not connected to the ideals of Yitzchak.

In the times of the third Beis HaMikdosh, we will once again have a total affiliation with Torah and Mitzvos and identity with our heritage. Before we are returned to Eretz Yisrael, we are told that the rishaim will be killed out, and only the people who are devoted to Hashem will remain.

Thus, we see that the Meshech Chochma feels that in order to be identified as part of the Jewish people, as descendants of Avraham, Yitzchok, and Yaakov, we need to keep Torah and Mitzvos, and not only identify ourselves as part of the Jewish nation.

The opposite view is expressed by the Chasam Sofer. The Chasam Sofer asks why the land is mentioned twice in this pasuk. Why could the Torah not condense the pasuk to say "the land which I gave to Avraham and Yitzchok, I will give it to you and your children"?

The Chasam Sofer explains that Hashem was making two separate promises. The first promise was the granting of the land to Yaakov himself, as a personal possession. The land had first been promised to Avraham and his children. In order that Yishmael should not be included in the inheritance, the land is once more promised to Yitzchok. The promise is again granted to Yaakov as a personal possession, in order to take Eisav out of the promise.

However, all of Yaakov's children were going to be part of the next generation of the Jewish people, so why the need for a second promise? The second promise comes to answer a fear of Yaakov's. The Gemara teaches us that a geir, a convert, does not have any inheritance in their parent's possessions. We are also told that Bnei Yisrael underwent a conversion at the time of Matan Torah. Thus, Yaakov feared that his children would not receive Eretz Yisrael, as they would be geirim and would not be allowed to inherit that which was his. So, Hashem responds to him by saying that he should not worry, his children would still have an inheritance in his land.

Taking a deeper look into what the Chasam Sofer is saying, one can see a parallel to an idea expressed by Rav Soloveitchik in Fate and Destiny. In his work, the Rav expresses two different ways in which a Jew can identify themselves. There is Bris Mitzrayim, which is the national aspect to Judaism, while Bris Sinai represents the religious aspect. The national identification of Judaism comes from the fact that we all emerged from Mitzrayim as a group, as a community. On a religious level, we are brought together by our accepting upon ourselves at Har Sinai to keep Torah and Mitzvos. As long as a Jew identifies themselves with the Jewish community on either a national or religious level, we must view them as part of the community.

It could be that Hashem promised Yaakov that his children would indeed inherit the land, despite their having undergone a geirus, and despite their being on a different religious plane than Yaakov. The reason for this is because on a national level, they were still the children of Yaakov. Hashem promised that on a national level, the promise given to Yaakov would still exist, despite the fact that religiously, they were not the same.

The lesson we can take from this is that no matter how one identifies themselves with the Jewish community, we must be accepting of it, as both aspects are acceptable. At the same time however, it is only through our keeping of the Torah and Mitzvos that we can come to inherit the land and fulfill the promise given to our forefathers, that the land would be given to them and their children after them.

Shabbat Shalom