Parshas Toldos | The Kollel Connection

November 21, 2014 – Candle lighting 4:20 pm, Shabbos Ends 5:28 pm

Note: Times are for Bensalem; Check your local calendar for exact times in your area.

Rabbi Moshe Travitsky

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This week we read Parshas Toldos. The Parsha begins will the story of the birth of Jacob and Esau. Isaac and Rebecca had been married 20 years, and they prayed that they be granted a child. Hashem heard their prayers and Rebecca became pregnant with twins. The Torah tells us that a very unusual thing occurred. There was a struggle in Rebecca’s womb. The Torah does not explain the nature of this struggle, but the Sages do. When Rebecca would pass by a house of Torah, Jacob would give her pain, as he strove to leave her womb. When Rebecca would pass by a house of idols, Esau would try to leave her womb. Rebecca was concerned with the opposite directions she was getting from her  children, and asked for an explanation from Hashem.

One of the most basic questions asked here, is to try to understand why Esau would  try to leave his mother’s womb when she passed by a house of idols?   After all, he was still a little baby in his mother’s womb. Our Sages teach us that when a child is its mother’s womb, it is the best time of its life. It need not do anything to support itself, yet it has the ability to learn the entire with an angel provided for this express purpose. Why then, would Esau want to leave his mother’s womb, and not experience the special holiness that was provided there? More than that, if Esau had not been born yet, how could he already have such an evil inclination to sin? Was he created with a handicap? Could he be held accountable for anything he did wrong?

There is a beautiful lesson here.  We often look around, and see a person who seems to have none of the challenges that we do. We get jealous of them, and envious. We feel like throwing up our hands and saying “it’s too hard!”. We have to realize, that this attitude is a mistake. Each one of us is born with a different challenge; Each one of us is created with a different situation – that will help us reach our perfection. The fact that Esau may have had a desire from the beginning of his being to go and to serve idols did not absolve him from his obligation to try to overcome that desire. Indeed, that was the very challenge that Hashem had created for him to overcome.  When we feel a desire to run after a sin, – even something as basic as running after our evil inclination away from pure goodness, we have to realize that this challenge was given to us to overcome it. Rather than giving in to it, as Esau did, we have to learn to rise against it, and to overcome it.

Wishing you and your family a Great Shabbos!!!!!!!! 

Rabbi Moshe Travitsky

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