Given 12/19/2022
We’re in the midst of Chanukah.
Let me dedicate this shiur to be a merit for the health and success of the families of Regina bas Yosef Reuven, Yeshaya ben Yisrael Binyamin Wolf ben Tzvi Hersh, and Baruch ben Binyamin Wolf, and Sohl bas Chana for an aliyas neshama in the merit of this shiur.
I want to continue with the internal story, the hidden story, of Ya’akov and Esav which I began before Chanukah. I want to continue exemplifying the idea of how the Torah uses the same narrative to reveal both the covert and overt story. This covert story of Ya’akov and Esav is completely different than what people think really happened.
Recap
I’m up to when Ya’akov is about to meet up with Esav after he fought the angel—”v’yeavek ish imo—and a man wrestled with him. As I explained, the angel was the Satan, the angel of Esav. I explained that the Satan was Esav’s angel because Esav’s job required that he be connected to that root of evil so that his task of going “into the field” of the world while remaining righteous would diminish the Satan in stature and power and, ultimately, severely damage him. That was Esav’s original job.
We know, of course, that Esav failed and he, himself, was taken over by the Satan, the very angel that he was supposed to destroy. Instead, the Satan got the upper hand. Like everyone, Esav had free will to ally himself with the evil of the Satan. Ya’akov, therefore, had to take over Esav’s job; he then had two jobs. At first, he had his own job of bringing down holiness by being immersed in Torah and mitzvot. When Esav failed in his patriarchal duty, Ya’akov had to go “into the field,” specifically, to the house of Lavan—a very bad place—yet remain righteous, to fight the adversity that Lavan presented, and he did remain incredibly righteous, even in that evil place.
I also mentioned that one man could not do these two jobs, especially the job of another patriarch—can’t do it. Ya’akov did so, regardless, but it was only half of Esav’s job. What the Ribono Shel Olam did was to elevate one of Ya’akov’s children to the status of patriarch. Yosef, amazingly, became a chatzi av—half a patriarch. His neshama was much greater than the souls of the shvatim—tribes. In fact, that’s how he was able to have two tribes because a tribe cannot give birth to a tribe. The level of holiness isn’t that great but, since Yosef was half an av—patriarch, he could have two, amazingly.
There’s a “Divine chariot” enumerated in the Book of “Yechezkel/Ezekiel” and one of the symbols of one of the wheels of that chariot is that of an ox which represents Yosef because he was a chatzi av, a very lofty neshama. He is really the foundational soul of the Mashiach ben Yosef; that’s really who he is.
Yosef took over half of the job prompting Ya’akov to the leave the house of Lavan having done what he had to do, having been successful. The Satan even admitted to Ya’akov when, having fought him successfully and requesting a blessing which he did not get, that he’d been victorious; he did, in fact, succeed in doing Esav’s job. That, in a sense, is the greatest type of blessing the Satan can give you, to admit that you’d been successful in overcoming the temptations the Satan presented. The Satan, in essence, said: you won. Think about that!
Deeper Into the Mitzvah of Kibud Av v’Eim
When Yosef was born, Ya’akov prepared Lavan for his departure, “v’elcha el mikomi u’lartzi”—that I may go to my own place and to my land, which is Israel. “Mikomi“—my place” indicates what?—his original job in the tikkun process, the bringing down of holiness, not fighting the Satan “in the fields” of the world. Ya’akov wanted to go back to his original “position,” both geographically and in terms of his original task.
The Torah tells us that, on the way—“Vayishlach”—that Ya’akov was very afraid because Esav had an advantage over Ya’akov Avinu; it’s an important idea. As I’ve mentioned before, he had a great merit which Ya’akov did not have, the merit of kibud av v’eim—honoring one’s father and mother. The chazal—sages consider the performance of that mitzvah by Esav to be the greatest ever. Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel, who was the “Prince of Israel” later on, said that he, himself, fulfilled that mitzvah to the greatest extent of anybody in his generation but concluded: Esav did so much more than I. In other words, Esav’s fulfillment of this mitzvah was greater than anyone else. It is said that Esav, before entering the chamber of this father, would don Shabbos clothing, would change his garments. His love and respect for Yitzchak was incredible. I explained this phenomenon in the last shiur. The merit Esav gleaned from this was detrimental to Ya’akov Avinu so Ya’akov was always afraid.
Ya’akov had been gone from his parents for at least twenty-two years. The first fourteen years were spent learning in the Yeshiva of Shem v’Ever, and I mentioned why. Then, he was gone another twenty-two working for Lavan. All that time he did not serve his father. It’s not that he didn’t honor his father; he just wasn’t around to honor him, therefore, he lacked the opportunity to do so. Esav, on the other hand, lived in the land of his father so his observance of that mitzvah was much greater than that of Ya’akov Avinu. Because of this disparity, Ya’akov was afraid of Esav. When you do a mitzvah, it stands for you, protects you, provides a merit. Ya’akov’s fear was well-founded upon this fact that Esav’s honor of his father was so great that, in a battle between him and his brother, Esav would win and he, Ya’akov, would be killed. Imagine that! That’s why it says, “v’yirah Ya’akov me’od”—and Ya’akov was exceedingly afraid. The Targum on this says that, due to Esav’s observance of the mitzvah of kibud av v’eim being so great, his merit was great enough to enable him to win in a battle with a tzaddik—just imagine that, with Ya’akov, a tzaddik!—therefore, Ya’akov was afraid.
The messengers Esav sent, which were really angels, told Ya’akov that Esav would be coming with four hundred men, obviously to kill him, due to his anger over the stolen blessings. We find that, at the end of the parasha, Esav communicated that when his father passes away, he will then kill Ya’akov.
Esav was an evil-doer and, in anticipation of the meeting of the brothers, Ya’akov hid his daughter, Dina, in a chest, concealing her from Esav. Ya’akov anticipated that, upon seeing Dina, Esav would look at her and say: hey! She’s good; let me marry her. To remove that possibility, Ya’akov concealed her which makes a lot of sense given that Esav was such a horrendous rasha—evildoer. Ya’akov didn’t want to do a shidduch—matchmaking with Esav.
The Ribono Shel Olam says: you had no right to conceal Dina from Esav. As a result, the judgment is that I’ll allow Shechem to abduct Dina and, in various ways, violate her. This is what the medrash—commentary says. It’s an astounding idea. Who could blame Ya’akov? Would you allow your daughter to marry a mafia gangster? Would G-D have complaints against you because you didn’t facilitate such a union? Why would G-D judge Ya’akov harshly for hiding Dina? That’s the medrash, so we have to ask why there was such a judgement.
It’s difficult to find anyone willing to answer such a question because it is an arresting realization. There are people who want to look at it from a musar approach saying: of course, Ya’akov Avinu did not have to give Dina to Esav, but nowhere does it say that Ya’akov felt sorry that he did what he did. One might expect Ya’akov to feel sorry that he’d had to hide Dina; after all, it’s his brother and they’re twins so maybe one would expect Ya’akov to feel sympathy for Esav, but nowhere in the Torah does it say that or even intimate that. The conclusion is that his sin was his lack of sympathy for feeling compelled to hide Dina.
I think there’s an answer which makes perfect sense. Once you understand the entire story, which I will tell you, the answer is easier to discern. Remember, Esav’s job was to destroy the Satan. That’s why he had this tremendous yetzer ha’ra—evil inclination that would, even as an embryo/fetus, responded excitedly to avoda zara—idolatry because, as I said, he was connected to the Satan.
Why was Esav so evil? He chose it, but he had that connection to the Satan and, a result, he had an overwhelming number of temptations; it was almost abnormal. This is why Esav had such a difficult time fighting the yetzer ha’ra. When Ya’akov fought with the malach—angel and won, it means that he weakened the Satan. As the inheritor of Esav’s job, this was his final attempt to subdue the Satan, which he did by the Satan’s own admission—"v’tuchal.” Since Ya’akov won, it meant that the hold the Satan had on Esav had been weakened; it’s incredible to contemplate. That is the first observation that Ya’akov should have recognized.
If the Satan’s influence over Esav had been mitigated, Ya’akov should have realized that Esav was now prone to doing teshuva. The temptations against such action were not as great as they had been.
The second indication of Esav’s readiness to repent occurred when Esav met Ya’akov with the four hundred men, seemingly, to kill him. The Torah records that Esav kissed Ya’akov and Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai say that the kiss was genuine. Esav had undergone a change of heart. He kissed and hugged Ya’akov out of joy, so Ya’akov should have said to himself: wait a minute! this doesn’t make sense. Instead of killing me, battling me, the guy is hugging and kissing me out of brotherly love. This is the second realization Ya’akov should have had, that Esav was no longer dominated by the Satan and, therefore, was able to do teshuva, doing teshuva.
A third sign that Esav was at the doorstep of doing teshuva was that Esav said, “y’hi l’cha asher lach”—let that which is yours be yours. Rashi comments that Esav was implying: the blessings you stole are really yours; let them remain yours. Esav was admitting that it’s okay for Ya’akov to have the blessings, that he’d no longer contend with Ya’akov regarding them.
Ya’akov should have realized these three ideas. He fought the Satan and triumphed. That victory thereby weakened him as indicated by Esav’s behavior of kissing him rather than battling him. The third indicator was Esav’s abdication of the blessings. What then should Ya’akov have done?—given him Dina.
As the daughter of Ya’akov Avinu, Dina was no ordinary girl. As the daughter of Ya’akov, you can imagine what her chinuch—education was. When it says, “v’teitzei Dina es b’nos ha’aretz”—and Dina went out to see the daughters of the land, she wasn’t surveying women’s latest fashion trends. She “went out” to do kiruv, to bring them to knowledge of G-D as Sarah had done. Had Dina married Esav, she’d have brought him further along because he was already at the doorstep of teshuva. With her strong neshama, she could have changed Esav. Can you imagine what that could have facilitated? The indicators should have been obvious to Ya’akov. Instead, Ya’akov concealed her and now you understand why G-D objected. As a punishment, she was abducted and violated.
What is interesting is that the Torah tells the story I just recounted but not directly, openly. It reveals it in one word, alludes to it when it says that Ya’akov took his leave of his brother and Esav “v’yoshov l’darko seira”—returned to his path, to Seir. Esav would return to Seir, where he lived, he and his tribes and his children. The Torah could just as easily have said, “and Esav returned to Seir,” and that’s all. Why does it mean to have added that one word, “l’darko”—to his path? It hints that Esav would be returning to his evil ways. That word doesn’t refer to the journey to Mount Seir but to his sinful character because Ya’akov missed the opportunity to spur Esav’s teshuva. This one word alludes to what the actual sin of Ya’akov was.
One could ask: why didn’t Ya’akov Avinu realize this? We don’t know. We’re not talking about an average person. We’re talking about the greatest of the patriarchs, a person whose righteousness we cannot fathom. We have no concept of who this man was. It is conjecture on my part that, maybe, he was angry at Esav because Esav caused him a lot of problems, threatening him, causing him to flee his home for fear of being killed. We don’t really know.
Why was G-D so angry? True, Esav didn’t repent but we have to conjecture what might have happened if he had.
What Might Have Been
Had Ya’akov not hidden Dina and Esav married Dina, let me tell you what would have resulted—incredible!
Esav gave rise to the Edomites. The existence of Edom became Rome, the terrible empire that, ultimately, would destroy the Beis Ha’Mikdash and murder millions of Jews. All that would have been prevented. Had Esav done teshuva, there would have been no Rome because nobody would represent Esav because he’d be a tzaddik. That would be the first significant change to history, especially, vis-a-vis, the Jewish people.
The second change to history would have been the use of his great power in the service of holiness. Despite his great arrogance, his difficulty in submitting to authority, had he repented, he could have used his formidable kochos—powers in the service of righteousness instead of evil.
A third change, had Esav repented, would have been the joy he’d have brought Yitzchak. Because Esav had the same job as Yitzchak, fighting satanic influences and impulses, imagine how joyful Yitzchak would have been had Esav, the son he loved so dearly, returned to being G-D-fearing, observing mitzvos. In one fell swoop, Yaakov would have done the mitzvah of kibud av v’eim making himself no longer subservient to Esav in that monumental mitzvah of honoring one’s parents. It would have brought great joy to his father, his having made Esav G-D-fearing. But it never happened.
Another repercussion was that, had Ya’akov recognized Esav’s inclination toward teshuva, Dinah wouldn’t have been abducted by Shechem and the daughter he fathered with Dina would have had another destiny entirely. Osnas--the humiliating product of a rape—would have been born in other circumstances. Due to the embarrassment of being the product of rape, somehow, they got Osnas to go to Egypt and, as chazal—sages tell us, she was in the house of Potiphar. When Yosef saw her, he noticed her wearing some type of necklace adorned with Jewish symbolic pendants. She told Yosef who she was so he realized that her mother is Dina so, guess what! –Yosef ha’Tzaddik married her. Instead of being born from Shechem as the product of the abduction of Dina, Osnas would have been born to Esav and Dina. Yosef ha’Tzaddik would have married Osnas as his intended match, and Esav would have been Yosef’s father-in-law! Astounding!
Most startling of all is that Esav’s original job to battle the Satan would have been reclaimed by Esav. Esav would have been back in the parsha—agency of Mashiach ben Yosef. Could you imagine that all of this would have been accomplished had Ya’akov not withheld Dina? It’s astounding to think about! Now you understand why G-D was so irate.
Summing it Up
Look what would have happened had Esav done teshuva—no Rome, no Beis Ha’Mikdash destroyed, no persecution and slaughter of the Jews. The power of Esav and his kedusha would have been enormous. Ya’akov would have had enormous merit of kibud av v’eim for the joy he would have given his father, and Yosef would have been Esav’s son-in-law and fulfilled his original destiny of being the forerunner of Mashiach ben Yosef. All this was missed because of Ya’akov’s act of concealing Dina. Now we understand the judgment of G-D. It’s not merely just a missed opportunity to bring Esav back; it’s devastating.
Measure-for-Measure, Yet Another Task
We can now understand one more thing. It says in the next parasha that Ya’akov “dwelt.” The chazal tell us that, in Ya’akov’s wanted to leave Lavan and return home to his own land with still so much to do, he wanted to, in a certain sense, relax, take it easy. “V’yeshev b’shalvah”—to dwell suggests
“relaxation.” He still had his own avoda—service to perform, to bring holiness into the world. He had succeeded in achieving the feat of subduing evil, Esav’s job, so he now wanted to just go home and return to his own mission. G-D said, and the chazal bring this down: it’s not enough that you’ll relax in the Future World; you want to relax here also? In Olam Ha’Ba, in eternity, you will relax. That’s okay, but you’re not going to relax here. You must continue doing your service to bring the tikkun—rectification. Tzaddikim don’t relax! They are busy doing G-D’s work. They don’t take vacations! They do G-D’s work until they die. We’re talking about Ya’akov Avinu. How could he have thought about relaxing?
G-D’s response was to bring the tragedy of the kidnapping of Yosef, the suffering of missing his son for twenty-two years. Actually, Yosef was missing for more than twenty-two years when you consider the time that Ya’akov learned in the yeshiva for fourteen years. That is the time that Ya’akov did not serve his father. What is the nature of this particular avodah G-D subjected Ya’akov to?
Ya’akov didn’t want to relax altogether, only from having to do Esav’s job. What, then, did G-D mean by denying him that peace? G-D’s “position” was that Ya’akov’s being gone, being unavailable to honor his father, was at a severe detriment to him and his descendants. Such a terrible vulnerability had to be remedied. Esav’s advantage in this regard had to be nullified. Since Ya’akov was disadvantaged due to the twenty-two years of absence, G-D decreed that Yosef would be missing for twenty-two years. That was a measure-for-measure repercussion to even the score. Just as Ya’akov was not at his father’s side for twenty-two years, so Yosef would not be at his father’s side for twenty-two years. Had this not been remedied, it would have made Ya’akov and his descendants vulnerable to Esav’s formidable advantage where this mitzvah was concerned. Ya’akov could not rest; he hadn’t finished the job to remove the weakness conferred upon him by Esav’s unsurpassable merit, hence the abduction of Yosef and Ya’akov’s impression that Yosef was dead. His suffering is an atonement which removes his vulnerability.
Interesting too is that, when Serach bas Asher said that “od Yosef chai”—Yosef still lives, she sat with him and sang the information as a lyric so as to prevent the shock from giving Ya’akov a possible heart attack! After all, it had been so many years thinking he was dead. She brought such joy to Ya’akov Avinu that he blessed her, that she should never die. She’s one of the few people who never died. She went to heaven alive just like Eliyahu and Chanoch without ever experiencing death.
After Ya’akov discovered that Yosef was still alive, it is written that he would go down to Egypt to see Yosef before he, himself, died. On the way, it says that he built a mizbeach—altar to the “G-D of his father,” Yitzchak. Why? He realized that one of the reasons Yosef was gone for twenty-two years was for the purpose of atoning for his failure to honor his father for that length of time. That’s how the Ribono Shel Olam took away Esav’s merit against Ya’akov’s lack which required a kapporah—atonement. Ya’akov dedicated that altar to the sacrifice of Yitzchak having realized his having been remiss in kibud av v’eim. That was the avodah that Ya’akov still had to do within the dimension of the work of Esav, doing away with Esav’s superior merit regarding this mitzvah.
I will continue next week with the ongoing story of Ya’akov and Esav which is fascinating. We will go more into Yosef and what he’s about. All of this is fundamental to the entire tikkun process. It means that the job of Esav has an answer, Ya’akov and Yosef completing the job of Esav, the critical job of the tikkun process.
Q&A
Participant: You know how we say that, at the End of Time, Esav does teshuva?
R’Kessin: Right, that’s where I’m up to. I’m up to that part...teshuva of Esav, about Trump, up to that part...
Participant: That’s my question; it’s a two-part question. Does Esav take back his role in bringing the Mashiach ben Yosef? When Esav gave away his job, he was giving away that job of Mashiach ben Yosef so, when the tov she’b’Esav—good aspect of Esav, of today, of our time, does teshuva, does he take back the ability to bring forth Mashiach ben Yosef?
R’Kessin: No. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. In that sense, he doesn’t take it back but he is part of the assistance in terms of the tikkun process, as he always has been. The process really is the process of Mashiach ben Yosef. In fact, that’s really—I’ll get that next week—Trump is an incarnation of—as I’ll mention next week—of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus who is a gilgul—reincarnation of Esav. Who is he battling? Trump is battling the Satan. Why do you think everybody hates Trump so much? The Satan is dying and Trump, now, is the greatest threat to the Satan.
How could Trump be a threat to the Satan? He is Esav doing teshuva! Therefore, in a certain sense, that’s back into the subject of what—of the Mashiach of Edom which is a sub-division of the Mashiach ben Yosef. That’s what’s happening. Does anybody ever ask...this whole thing is insane. Who ever heard of such hatred? It makes no sense. If you want to disagree with this policies, fine. But they don’t disagree with his policies; they hate his guts. It’s a visceral, abnormal hatred because the war is really Trump versus the Satan who is using all his minions, all his people, to destroy Trump. If Trump, in a certain sense, is a “subset” in the inyan--idea of battling the Satan, that will mean he, ultimately, will assist the Jews to do teshuva and that is the worst thing you can do to the Satan.
Had Esav done teshuva, it would have been he who would have been back in the parsha of battling the Satan. The relationship between Esav and Satan didn’t really change. Now that Trump is the teshuva of Esav, he is battling the Satan. Where is the Satan? He is behind the visceral gut-hatred of Trump. In that sense, Trump, who is the messiah of Edom—not of the Jews but of Edom—is battling the Satan for survival so isn’t it interesting that there was an interlude—when Esav did not do teshuva—of almost 4000 years! Finally, it’s sort of like a far descendant of Esav—Trump—is, instead, battling the Satan.
We’ve never seen anything like this; they just can’t stop trying to destroy Trump. Today, there’s the “January 6 Committee” which is an absolute farce. For anyone who understands what’s going on, they just voted, with no opposition, to have a criminal referral to the Department of Justice against a president, a former president which never happened before. It was done today; it’s unbelievable! You’re watching Trump who “picked up the gauntlet,” the “flag,” of the inyan of ben Yosef, because he’s the mashiach of Edom, of Esav, doing teshuva battling the Satan today, December 19, 2022. This is what Esav would have been doing had he done teshuva! Isn’t it amazing!
Participant: Don’t you always say that....let’s say that the goyim planned something out and Ha’Shem says: oh, that’s what you want to do and then He uses that plan for their demise.
R’Kessin: Right!
Participant: The January 6th thing is really Ha’Shem’s...going to use it for Biden.
R’Kessin: You mean to get rid of Biden?
Participant: It’s as if He lets them do everything with their plan in their minds to do against Trump and then, when it’s done, last minute, Ha’Shem sets things in motion so it’s really against Biden.
R’Kessin: Yes, right. It will be turned around. That is why, probably—I’m not saying it definitely—Trump will win in 2024. One of the main reasons is because he is, basically, a gilgul of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus who is, himself, a reincarnation of Esav. They are the products of Esav doing teshuva. Since Trump is the soul that was picked for this mission, clearly then, I feel that he will win the election of 2024. Somehow, something will happen so that he will win like the first time which was a miracle. He will win a second time because that’s really his mission. He has to be involved in the presidency and then, hopefully, that will mean not only the restoration of America to greatness, but, more important, he will destroy the Democratic Party and go after the Deep State like you’ve never seen anybody take revenge. That’s what he’ll do. He’ll continue the Abraham Accords and use the power of the presidency to move everything forward. How could he not be the president of the United States in 2024? It’s his mission.
Everything is nothing more than a cover-up. It’s like the Ribono Shel Olam wants to hide all this from the Satan so maybe he’ll stop trying to destroy Trump. He’ll just try to destroy DeSantis instead of Trump. It should be interesting to see what the Ribono Shel Olam does.
Participant: Esav needed Dina in order to help him to do teshuva.
R’Kessin: Dina would have finished the job.
Participant: So, does Esav now, in our time, the tov she’b’Esav—the good aspect of Esav now, like Trump, need someone to push him in the direction of teshuva like Dina.
R’Kessin: Trump is married to—what’s her name again, Melania....yeah—I mean I have no idea who she is or what she is but...
Participant: I don’t mean that it needs to be a wife. Do they need that....whatever, the soul of that person to push them in that direction?
R’Kessin: Not necessarily because, in the time of Esav, Dina would have helped Esav do teshuva but Trump is already b’tzad ha’tov—on the side of good so why would he need a woman to help him do teshuva? See what I’m saying? There’s a significant difference between the two. Trump has already gone over the hurdle of doing the right thing.
It should be fascinating to watch but at least you know what is going on from the perspective of heaven; that’s what’s fascinating, how it all hearkens back to Esav doing teshuva, how everything can be understood and explained by what happened almost four thousand years ago. That’s why, if you learn chumash this way, you’re not just learning the Five Books; you’re learning the Divine Plan itself and how it expresses itself in 2022.
Participant: Why did Ha’Shem punish Dina so harshly? Why? What did she do, herself?
R’Kessin: She, probably, should not have “gone out;” that may be true.
Participant: But you said that she did kiruv
R’Kessin: That’s true but who said that kiruv was permitted at that moment in time. A woman has to be careful doing kiruv. At that time, the world was steeped in avodah zara--idolatry. You have to remember, Sarah did it because she was with Avraham Avinu and he could protect her. Avraham Avinu is the person who was doing the kiruv and she, Sarah, probably assisted him. Dina went out by herself and that could be very dangerous. Really, she was not permitted, as far as I understand, to “go out,” even for kiruv purposes. She went out alone. Maybe that produced a kitrug—prosecution against Dina. That, together with Ya’akov’s sin—which we clearly see he did otherwise why would he have been punished—made them both liable to suffering.
Participant: I understand everything you say and believe it all but, again, Ya’akov was a great tzaddik while Esav murdered, raped a bride, gave up the birthright, did so many sins that Ha’Shem took Avraham’s life away five years earlier so he wouldn’t suffer. She....(inaudible)
(Other) Participant: She doesn’t blame Ya’akov for putting Dina in a box.
R’Kessin: That’s the great question. One thing is clear; G-D did say this. The “Midrash Rabbah” say this, that G-D deemed him responsible expressing: you were wrong in doing this and, therefore, you, together with Dina, will be punished. We would never have said that but G-D says this. Automatically, we realize that Ya’akov did sin. We gotta figure out why. Who would want to marry their daughter off to a mafia gangster? That’s what we would say, but the truth is what I explained. I enumerated what the colossal advantages would have been had Esav done teshuva. I gave a whole bunch of them.
Participant: We don’t know so how would Ya’akov know that Esav would have done teshuva?
R’Kessin: G-D, obviously, held him responsible. Esav was doing teshuva. It wasn’t that he was going to or could have done teshuva. When he said to Ya’akov, “Let that which is yours be yours,”—what? Do you mean you’re coming to kill me, so why are you okay with that? That is teshuva and then he kissed and hugged him. That is teshuva. Esav did teshuva, but not completely. Dina could have had him do it completely. The fact that Esav came with four hundred men, seemingly to kill him, then he does this...? Ya’akov should have thought: wait a minute! This guy is doing teshuva so let me give him the right zivug—partner and Dina was the right person.
Participant: Why didn’t Ha’Shem tell Ya’akov in a prophecy?
R’Kessin: No. The Ribono Shel Olam does not say everything, even in nevuah. A navi is not privy to everything, only to what G-D wants him to know. In this case, clearly, He wanted Ya’akov to exert free will, to figure it out himself, not that he would be told. He should have exercised that free will to realize.
Participant: What about the mishna that says that, when Esav went to kiss Ya’akov, he went to bite him in the neck to kill him.
R’Kessin: That’s an argument; that’s true. Rav Shimon bar Yochai says that the kiss was a true kiss. That is what he argues and I’m interpreting based on his statement. Even if Esav meant to kill him, Ya’akov’s neck would resist the bite for some reason. Between that and what Esav said, it’s teshuva. Why else would he say, “Let that which is yours be yours”? It wouldn’t make sense. It would contradict what he might have done. Maybe he realized: why is it so hard to bite this guy? Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe G-D is protecting him.
Esav was a brilliant person. Clearly, there was a change in him. There is an argument as to whether the kiss was genuine or not. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said it was, so, with him, we have no problem. But even about stealing his blessings he expressed: keep them! They, rightfully, belong to you. If he tried to bite him, his neck turned to stone, or whatever so Esav realized that G-D was protecting Ya’akov so: maybe I’m wrong. Esav had to have been open, at some point, to some degree, to doing teshuva.
Participant: There was an opening, a moment, an “aha moment”...
Other Participant: But it wasn’t true teshuva. He returned to Seir and...(barely audible recounting Esav’s return to Seir and ongoing anger about the theft of blessings)...so it wasn’t true teshuva.
R’Kessin: Esav did, at some point, change his mind and the opportunity passed because Ya’akov failed to take advantage of that “aha moment.” Ya’akov should have asked himself why Esav did what he did, should have realized: you come with four hundred men and then, all of a sudden, ‘don’t bother; you can keep it’? He also should have realized that he’d beaten Esav’s malach indicating that the hold of the Satan on Esav was severely diminished. That’s what he should have realized because that’s what happened.
Participant: The bottom line is that a woman could really change a man.
R’Kessin: You know what they say; If a man who’s not religious marries a religious woman, he will become religious due to his wife. But, if a woman is not religious and she marries a religious man, he will not be able to change her. That’s what they say. A woman has a very strong influence on the husband. Women have their ways. This is what we see. If a woman is religious, she may often have the ability to get a husband to do teshuva, and Dina had more than that. Dina was not just any woman. She was what’s called the “yatzanus,” a woman who “goes out,” an assertive woman who goes out to try to bring others back. Dina is a powerful figure.
This parasha teaches us great deal, even today. It’s amazing that Trump picked up on Esav’s job; he’s a continuation of what Esav could have done four thousand ago, could have done had Ya’akov realized that Esav was doing teshuva to a certain degree.
Don’t fool yourselves; what we are seeing now, all that’s happening to Trump is a satanic attempt to destroy him because, if Trump wins the presidency, he’ll severely disable or destroy the Democratic Party which is the firstborn of the Satan. That’s who they are. The Satan, of course, doesn’t want that. He needs them to destroy America, to destroy the entire world, because America is the beacon to the entire world. Trump is the most dangerous man alive to the Satan. He’s got everybody in a psychotic rage against Trump. None of this is normal, none of this.
Participant: If Trump is Esav, who is Ya’akov? Ya’akov doesn’t need to come back.
R’Kessin: Ya’akov does not have to come back, of course not. Esav has to come back to complete his teshuva, not Ya’akov.
Participant: And Yosef....
R’Kessin: The truth is that, with tchias ha’meisim—resurrection of the dead, they all come back.
Participant: That’s after everything’s done with.
R’Kessin: Right, but Esav has—like I said and will bring out next week and by Trump—that G-D said...
Participant: What do you think about Elon Musk telling all the information about the FBI?
R’Kessin: It illustrates something interesting. We cannot predict what’s going to happen.
Musk is destroying the Democratic Party, the governmental agencies who are in cahoots with Biden and the Democratic Party. Nobody predicted or thought that Musk would buy Twitter. This is why you cannot write anybody off. Musk’s revelations are destroying the Democratic Party and the Ribono Shel Olam allowed the House to become Republican and they’re going to investigate everybody on January 3rd. We can’t predict what will happen when all these revelations come out. The next two years will be a circus in terms of what’s gonna happen in the American government. It will be investigations after investigations, a real upheaval in American politics when the Republicans take over the House.
Participant: We’re going to have Rosh Chodesh Tevet. Is Tevet a good month because...
R’Kessin: No.
Participant: But all this is coming out so...
R’Kessin: Right, but Teves is not a good month. Teves which is the month of Esav...but it’s happening in parashas “Mikeitz,” and it’s also on Shabbos, and also the ushpizin of Yosef is also coming out on Rosh Chodesh so that sort of protects us. This is exactly what happened a year ago which I talked about. So, there’s a lot of stuff up ahead and we don’t know....no one predicted Musk would do what he’s doing. We don’t know what’s up ahead.
Participant: He tried to get out of buying Twitter but they were suing him so he had no choice and had to buy it.
R’Kessin: You’re looking at the G-D saying: oh no, I need you to begin the process of destroying the Democratic Party so He made sure Musk could not have an exit. It’s amazing how G-D works.
Participant: The former CEO of Twitter, this guy Jack Dorsey, the big fat trouble-maker, and he’s Biden’s....he’s very bad.
R’Kessin: Yes. He lied to Congress.
Participant: and Dr. Fauci too....
R’Kessin: Fauci is a murderer.
Participant: He is a murderer.
R’Kessin: He’s a murderer who lied and the real way he was (a murderer) is that he prevented people from taking Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin which could have saved many lives.
Participant: One hundred percent! Instead, he put his agenda with the vaccines over everything else to make money and they weren’t even effective.
R’Kessin: He didn’t care; he was probably getting paid off by Pfizer and all the drug companies. He made millions of dollars.
Participant: Now they want little kids, six-month-old babies, to take it.
R’Kessin: It’s insane.
Participant: It’s insane and they don’t even get affected by it; that’s the funny part.
R’Kessin: Right, exactly. You’re looking at the commission of enormous amounts of evil. A lot of people are murderers. We don’t even know if Pfizer is a murderer because they promoted their death drug, their vaccine, when they didn’t know if it was safe.
Participant: They see under the microscope that it forms blood clots immediately.
R’Kessin: There are many complications from taking the vaccine. Many people are murderers. Anyway, have a wonderful Chanukah.
Participants: Happy Chanukah and thank you, rabbi. Thank you...
R’Kessin: Happy Chanukah and thank you and see you next week.
R’Kessin: It’s insane.
Participant: It’s insane and they don’t even get affected by it; that’s the funny part.
R’Kessin: Right, exactly. You’re looking at the commission of enormous amounts of evil. A lot of people are murderers. We don’t even know if Pfizer is a murderer because they promoted their death drug, their vaccine, when they didn’t know if it was safe.
Participant: They see under the microscope that it forms blood clots immediately.
R’Kessin: There are many complications from taking the vaccine. Many people are murderers. Anyway, have a wonderful Chanukah.
Participants: Happy Chanukah and thank you, rabbi. Thank you...
R’Kessin: Happy Chanukah and thank you and see you next week.