Have you ever had the experience of walking down the street and being shouted out by a group of passing youths or a cowardly scream from a car “Hey you ****** Jew!”?
The question I’ve always had is; in a situation that you would be able to physically take on the group and teach them a lesson they would not forget too quickly, should you cross that road and do ‘what needs to be done’?! Or should you just let it go?
I think the answer lies in this week’s Torah portion. Commentator RaMBaN says that the preparation of Yaakov for the meeting with his brother Eisov whilst in exile, is to be used for us as a direction as how to approach our enemies when we find ourselves facing our enemies in exile thousands of years later.
Rashi writes that the preparations that Yaakov made for upcoming meeting with his brother, was made of three parts. Firstly, a gift which he sent to appease his brother. Secondly, prayer to Hashem for salvation from the enemy, and thirdly preparation for war.
In describing the preparation for war, Rashi quotes “and the remaining camp will be able to run away”, this refers to Yaakov’s splitting of the camp into two. His rationale being, that if one camp is attacked the second one could flee and be saved. Rashi explains this is the ‘preparation for war’ that Yaakov made.
The question is obvious; surely the real preparation for war should have been practicing war games? Yaakov knew there was going to be a serious fight, as mentioned earlier in the verse he feared the upcoming meeting with his brother ‘for fear of being killed, and fear of having to kill’, why then does the main focus of war preparation in the verse seem to be only to the ‘get away plan’?
The answer seems clear that Yaakov a man in exile, despite being more than able to put up a good fight – after all he took on the angel and was victorious – wasn’t looking to fight and be victorious, this was a fight he was looking to avoid and minimise at all costs.
Similar behaviour can be seen later in the Parshah when Yaakov’s daughter Dina was abducted by Shechem son of Chamor. In an act of revenge, his sons Shimon and Levi killed off the entire city. They clearly were capable of being great warriors, yet Yaakov was critical of their behaviour – even if they were acting to avenge his honour. Their actions would raise the ire of the surrounding nations.
As unpleasant and uneasy as it may to accept this approach, this is the way paved by our forefather Yaakov and was emulated by great men throughout the generations.
As we stood on the brink of the destruction of our Beis Hamikdosh (Temple) the Rabbis at the time favoured a plan of surrender to the Romans encamped outside. The hot headed Biryonim sect however – against the direct command of the Jewish leaders at the time – engineered a revolt by burning the store houses of food and forcing the Jewish people to fight a bloody war that they tragically lost. They choose a path not in line with our forefather Yaakov and caused a much worse destruction.
The time will come with the coming of Moshiach when Hashem’s Greatness will be recognised by the entire world and the uniqueness of us as the chosen nation will once again be known to all. Only at that time we will able, with Hashem’s backing to take on and conquer the world! May it happen speedily in our days.
Good Shabbos, Shmuel