בס''ד
As
Yaakov’s life slips away and he realises he is on his final journey back to his
Creator, he calls his children to deliver his parting messages to them. At a moment such as this, with a person such
as Yaakov Ovinu, every word must have been crucial, every nuance deliberate and
vital. So when he informs Yosef that he
will be leaving him the city of Shechem, we may well wonder why Yaakov also
feels the need to inform him about precisely how the city came into his hands, “which
I took…with my sword and with my bow.”
Was this such an important detail to include at this time? You will not be surprised to hear that the
answer is a resounding yes!
If
we were to encapsulate what the overarching theme of Yaakov’s final
communication to his family would be, it would not come as a shock to see a
focus on their spiritual goals, that which was at the centre of his life and
the purpose of our creation. Everything
that Yaakov said was chosen to enhance their ability to achieve their potential
and this was no exception. You see, says
the Lakewood Mashgiach, a person can be the wisest of individuals, and can have
a natural leaning towards righteousness, but if they are not prepared to fight and
battle and go to war with their own inclinations, they will never become what
they are meant to be. Yaakov wanted to
pass this idea on to Yosef, to let him know that everything that he had
achieved in his life, despite perhaps what it may have looked like from the
outside, was attained only through a willingness to confront, grapple and
ultimately defeat his evil inclination.
This was how he captured Shechem, but it was also the story of his
greatest victory, against himself.
Everyone
wants an easy life these days. No one is
prepared to struggle unless they are left with no other option. But if we look at those who have achieved the
most in any walk of life, it is those who have battled for what they believe in
and those who have fought to achieve their goals whose accomplishments have
stood the test of time. We must of
course never look for a fight, but we must be cognizant of the fact that conflict
is inbuilt into our composition, a divine soul at odds with an animalistic
body. And should the need arise we must
be primed to engage in warfare with ourselves and on the side of that which is
right in order to vanquish the enemy within and without.
*May Shabbos fortify us
for the battles ahead*
לעילוי נשמת לאה בת אברהם
לעילוי
נשמת שרה יעל בת גרשון
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