Vayishlach Bs”d
Our sages tell us from Barashit (Genesis) we can see many things about the way one should live in this world as is shown there by the examples of our forefathers. In this parsha a point is made by the Holy One, Blessed is His Name to show us that the descendents of Avraham Yitzchak and Yaakov are seperate and different from the other nations of the world. In the parsha it is clearly drawn that from Asev comes the people of Edom as it is written ” These are the generations of Asev who is Edom”. Edom means red, the sages say this describes their blood thirsty nature. Rome descended from Edom. If we spell Rome in Hebrew ”רם“ this has the numerical value of 240 which is the same numerical value as Amalak. Amalak is the countervailing, the opposite force in the world to Yisrael. They are now a transmigratory group of souls whose nature is to hate Jews, the nation of Yisrael and GOD. There is a aspect of Amalak among the nations whose’s greatest desire and delight is to hate and ultimately kill the Jews. Amalak souls have motivation and delight in attacking our sense of purpose in the world. They want you to believe there is no Divine providence or God for that matter and those things one may see as providence, they will say are only chance occurrences. The souls from Amalak want to make you believe that everything in the world occurs only out of randomness and chance occurrence. That life has no greater purpose and that we are born, live and die as any animal and beyond this there is no real purpose to life. There is an aspect of Amalak that hides in souls that “appear” as Jewish they love to argue, especially against Divine truths. these souls are generally vicious and have no regard for the feeling of those they oppose. Many times amalak are religious hypocrites. They pretend to be religious but in truth hate all that is really good. These souls enjoy creating strife and division especially among God fearing people. Souls from Amalak think they are better than everyone else. Amalak claims to a servant of God but those who truely serve God they hate. If we don’t rise up against Amalak they will couse more pain, misery and destruction to those who love God. They and the evil they do will not just go away until we uproot them from within and without. So it is written
“The Lord has sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation”
This would all make much sense since the Zohar tells us that Asev is of the side of defilement. Yisrael on the other hand the Zohar tells us means ”princehood and strength”.
The angel Yaakov wrestled gave him this name Yisrael. The Zohar tells us the angel gave Yaakov this name so that he could prevail over anyone. From this we can learn a lesson as Yaakov faced a conflict here, namely having to fight a Angel. From this conflict came good tidings, as Yaakov received a blessing of power from the Angel. So when the Holy One puts obstacles in our path we should be joyous since we know that by overcoming these difficulties we will be better off than before. It is by overcoming temptations and turning instead to bring light into the world Yisrael is strengthened. From the parsha we can see ways to overcome these obstacles as when Yaakov was going to meet Asev he split his party into groups so to be able to survive a attack. In Safer Giloya Raza its written that the sages added to the Amida a prayer that our enemies be uprooted and shattered. He says they did this so advise us that we must destroy our enemies, and that to pray against them is not enough. It will not even help, unless we war with them. He also sent Asev gifts and most important he got up at night. At the time which the Zohar speaks concerning saying “when the north wind blows” the breath of Gan Aden (Garden of Eden), Chuchmah the first flash of creative creative inspiration that guides universal consciousness. It was to this that Yaakov rose so that there he could there evoke a will of GOD that would be most favorable for Yisrael. Such that would enable him to overcome Asev and stop him from wanting to do do harm to Yisrael. The time most appropriate for revelation of Chuchmah of secrets is at midnight. The proper way to get comprehension of the Torah is to be occupied in Torah at midnight. This is the main time for learning Torah. As this is a time of favorable will to know secrets of the Torah. Its a Torah party. Rabbi Ashlag teaches from the Zohar that at night the eyes whose light is chuchmah (Divine creative inspiration) are closed, this is because of judgments so they are not able to illuminate because of diminishment of divine flow, so people sleep. Sleep is drawn from the ruling of the burning of Gehenem (Hell), which makes a closing to the Nashama (soul of Divine intellect). These do not dress in the supernal light as it is not enjoined to them. Learning Torah at night and carefully saying the ”Sma” (meditation on Unity of God) will help you rise to be occupied in Torah after midnight. At midnight is given light of the left from Ima divine understanding, specifically Chuchmah from the left of ima. It’s the vowel “shuruk”. This is the power of sight that can open the eyes, but for this light to illuminate it requires chassadim. Which is the force of GOD’s giving. The power which has us do Mitzvot.1
In the parsha we see clearly Asev becomes the nation of Edom and Yaakov becomes Yisrael. Asev goes to ”Seir” which the Zohar says refers to a strange God. While Yaakov goes to a place called Succot and then to Kedesh which refers to ”kodesh” (Holiness).
So always Go in the way of KODESH !
- 1sulam on zohar Lech Lecha p. 4,Share Ramcha’l p30,Alp Bat Book p.68,164