Midreshet Amit

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The Departure and The Journey

By: Gabu Beneliyahu

This weeks Parsha, Parshat Veyeitzei, talks about how Yaakov left his home to run away from Eisav and to find a wife. The pasuk says , “åÇéÅÌöÅ֥à éÇÍòÂ÷É֖á îÄáÀÌàÅ֣ø ùÈÑ֑áÇò åÇéÅÌ֖ìÆêÀ çÈøÈÍðÈä:” “And Yaakov left Baer sheva, and he went to Charan.” His father, Yitzhak told his son (in pars hat told) to go and get a wife from Charan and his mother, Rivkah tells him to leave Baer Sheva to run away from his brother that is trying to kill him. Rashi asks , “åéìê éò÷á çøðä, åìîä äæëéø éöéàúå” “Why does it mention his departure?” The pasuk doesn’t need to mention that Yaakov left, it could just say that he arrived in Charan. Rashi is pointing out the extra words in the torah. However, there are never extra words. This is to emphasize where the Tzadik is leaving and where he is going. The Torah is the book of morality and moral messages. As long as the Tzadik is in a certain place, in this case Baer Sheva, he is the one that brings kidusha to that place. He is the one that lifts that place up, he is the beauty and splendor of that place. When he leaves, it creates a vacuum and all the beauty and splendor departs and therefore that place is no longer the same. The Beit Halevi, the Raves great grandfather, doesn’t understand Rashes problem. When someone leaves from somewhere, they’re either trying to leave where they are or get to where they’re going, for a specific reason. Yaakov received two orders from his parents. His mother told him to leave and his father told him to go. Yaakov is displaying Kibbud Av v’em- he is honoring and respecting his father and mother, preforming a mitzvah in the process. We see a similar situation with Avraham in Parshat Noach. We all know Avraham was asked to leave in Lech Lecha but He is was already in the process of leaving in Parshat Noach. Both Avraham and his father, Terach got up to leave perhaps because Avraham couldn’t have kids or because they were getting away from idolatry. Hashem points out that its not about where you’re leaving from rather its about your destination. Terach never got to where he was going because he was just trying to run away and he was focusing on leaving. But Avraham focused on where he was going and knew he had to get there. There is a reversal of the journey because Avraham left and came to Israel while Yaakov left Israel and came back. We also learn that Jews need to constantly be moving up. This is why we always have the need to improve and get better. Holidays like Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are both holidays that we have to improve ourselves. Another example could be Israel as the startup nation because they were always striving to move up and improve. This message can be connected to us and how we left our homes to come to Amit. We left our moms and dads, our family and friends to grow and become better, more improved people, before we can return. We closed those doors to open new doors in our life because we too are striving to move upwards like Yaakov. We need to be prepared to always open new doors in our lives because there is always room to grow and get better.