Parshas Vayishlach
The Job of the Av
By Rabbi Label Lam
And they journeyed, and the fear of Elochim was on the surrounding
cities
and they did not pursue the Children of Jacob. (Breishis 35:5)
The Children of Jacob are new settlers in the Land of Canaan. Shimon and
Levi destroy an entire city to defend the honor of their sister Dina and
miraculously they are not attacked by their neighbors. They are
intimidated, not by their military might but by the fear of G-d! How did
that happen? How did they dodge that bullet? We don’t need too much guess
work for this one. It’s actually a pretty basic concept with a profoundly
practical application.
A few years ago, I was getting ready to take a three week trip to Israel
in January in the middle of the winter season. For years I had been going
during the summer. I was used to taking light clothing. I knew I might
need a sweater, but my wife insisted I take winter boots. I refused! I
reasoned, “Who needs to carry those clunky things around? There’s only so
much room in my suitcase. I know it’s the rainy season. What use do I have
for boots?” So I didn’t pack them!
The first week I was there, Jerusalem was hit for the first time in many
decades with eighteen inches of snow. The city was paralyzed and it was
beautiful beyond words but everyone was ill-prepared and under-equipped
for the reality on the ground. As it turned out, my wife, bless her soul,
without my knowing had tucked my fur-lines rubber insolated winter boots
into a side pocket of my suitcase. My feet remained dry and warm and I was
extremely grateful for her active concern and foresight!
The Torah records that when Avraham first set out on his journey, “…And
they went out to go to the Land of Canaan and they came to the Land of
Canaan, and Avram traversed until the place of Shechem to Alon Moreh.”
(Breishis 12:5-6) Rashi comments on why he had zeroed in on that
place: “To pray for the Children of Jacob when they would come to battle
in Shechem”. Amazingly, Avraham did not even have any children at that
point. All he had was a pocket full of promises, albeit from The Almighty.
Yet, he intuits future needs and prays for their welfare before the moment
of emergency. From this practice of Avraham the Talmud Sanhedrin
teaches, “A person should always pray before problems arise. For had it
not been that Avraham had prayed prior to the problem, between Beit El and
Ai, no survivors or remnants of Israel would remain.” The Jewish Nation
confronted 36 casualties in the city of Ai but who knows how much worse
the losses might have been had they not had the protection of Avraham’s
prayers in advance. The same was true with Shechem!
Two practical points emerge from this. The Talmud says, “A person should
always cry for the future and gratefully acknowledge the past!” 1)
Whatever success or survival we enjoy, as a nation or as individuals, is
most probably due to the protective prayers of prior generations. It is
likely not in the insufficient merit of our own goodness that the
malevolent machinations of our numerous enemies are more often than not
frustrated. 2) We as parents of future generations have a duty to pray for
the health, welfare, and spiritual success of our children and
grandchildren born and not yet… After all this is what Avraham, our common
father, had done. That’s what makes him an Av- a father.
The caring parent prepares and packs away for the future that which is
needed for his children to find safety in world of unforeseen danger. So
too the loving father casts a blanket of prayer to cover his sleeping
children, shielding them from the cold winter night of exile, in ways they
could never know, and that has always been the job of the av!
Check out www.beyondbt.com to join
Rabbi Lam and others blogging on
matters close and personal to BT's...Soon Hundreds of Rabbi Label Lam's
audio classes will be made available at the audio section of Torah.Org -
TorahMedia.com
Text Copyright © 2005 by Rabbi Label Lam and Torah.org.
