Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Bereshit
- Vayetze
The Torah study is dedicatedin the memory of
Amram son of Sultana
To what is Yaakov’s fear a reaction? Is the fear one of the conclusions to the lessons he received by means of the dream? If so, mention of the fear should have prefaced the entire statement. Also, why should Yaakov be afraid after he was promised that Hashem would protect him wherever he went? The Radak (ad loc.) tries to explain that the fear was part of the reaction to the holiness of the place, not the content of the dream, but the location of the mention of the fear is still not addressed.
It is possible that these problems are that which brought the midrashim to explain the context of the fear as a hint of a fundamental problem which arose. "We learn from here that Hashem showed Yaakov the guardian angel of Bavel ascending and descending; that of Yavan (Greece) ascending and descending; that of Rome ascending and descending. Hashem said to Yaakov: ‘You too can ascend.’ At that time, Yaakov was fearful and said: ‘Maybe, just as these descend, so will I.’ Hashem said to him: ‘Do not fear. If you ascend, you will not descend forever.’ Yet Yaakov did not believe and did not ascend" (Vayikra Rabba 29:2). The midrash goes on to relate that Hashem told Yaakov that now that he did not ascend, his offspring would be subjugated by the four, aforementioned empires with taxes of all sorts and worse. At that point, Yaakov was afraid that he would never ascend, to which Hashem replied with the pasuk in Yirmiya (30:10): "Do not fear, my servant Yaakov, I will save you from distant [places]."
The lesson for all generations that we see from this episode is that the level of one’s belief is that which determines the level of Divine Providence one will experience. When one merits hearing the Divine voice telling him to ascend, if he has enough confidence in Hashem to carry out the mission, he actually saves himself from unnecessary dangers and complications in the future. These Divine voices need not be as explicit as those that Yaakov heard. The individual and certainly the leader are thrust into situations where they have to decide how to deal with the tests and challenges.
We pray that we will all merit to ascend in such a way that we will not have to descend.
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
fast navigation
Various Events FOR WHOM NOT TO VOTE
Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook stressed that Israeli politics is G-dly, so I have no problem answering this common question on a Torani blog. Also, Free-Will is a G-d-given right and obligation, to "destine one's fate" (R. Soloveichik, Kol Dodi Dofek, 67), so I obviously don't tell others how to vote. But once not a few (especially young) have already asked, a couple of personal words from experience and thoughts from chazal & Rav Kook which may be of help to others, mainly for whom NOT to vote.
P'ninat Mishpat Fallout from Failure to Install Elevator – part II
based on ruling 85007 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
