Friday 4 December 2020

Shabbos Tzetl - Vayishlach, Yud-Tes Kislev

CANDLE LIGHTING 
7:02pm - early candle lighting
8.12pm - Candle Lighting, Friday.
9.17pm - Havdalah, Saturday.
These times are for Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Eruv Status: KOSHER
Shabbat Shalom! 

In Chabad practice, the mournful paragraphs of Av Harachamim and Tzidkatecha Tzedek are omitted from the morning and afternoon prayers respectively (on Shabbos, Yud-Tes Kislev)

Tonight (Saturday), starting with the Maariv evening prayers, we begin inserting a request for rain -- "v'ten tal u'matar" -- in the 9th blessing of the Amidah (in the Holy Land, the request for rain is inserted beginning on Cheshvan 7)


NB. Chanukah begins this coming Thursday night, 10 December.


YESHIVA SHULE TIMES
Please click here to view the Yeshivah Shule Tzetel for Shabbos Parshas Vayishlach.

Please click here to view the PDFs of the Weekly Publications previously distributed in Shule each Shabbos.


PARSHAH IN A NUTSHELL
Genesis 32:4–36:43

Jacob returns to the Holy Land after a 20-year stay in Charan, and sends angel-emissaries to Esau in hope of a reconciliation, but his messengers report that his brother is on the warpath with 400 armed men. Jacob prepares for war, prays, and sends Esau a large gift (consisting of hundreds of heads of livestock) to appease him.

That night, Jacob ferries his family and possessions across the Jabbok River; he, however, remains behind and encounters the angel that embodies the spirit of Esau, with whom he wrestles until daybreak. Jacob suffers a dislocated hip but vanquishes the supernal creature, who bestows on him the name Israel, which means "he who prevails over the divine."

Jacob and Esau meet, embrace and kiss, but part ways. Jacob purchases a plot of land near Shechem, whose crown prince—also called Shechem— abducts and rapes Jacob's daughter Dinah. Dinah's brothers Simeon and Levi avenge the deed by killing all male inhabitants of the city , after rendering them vulnerable by convincing them to circumcise themselves.

Jacob journeys on. Rachel dies while giving birth to her second son, Benjamin, and is buried in a roadside grave near Bethlehem. Reuben loses the birthright because he interferes with his father's marital life. Jacob arrives in Hebron, to his father Isaac, who later dies at age 180. (Rebecca has passed away before Jacob's arrival.)

Our Parshah concludes with a detailed account of Esau's wives, children and grandchildren; the family histories of the people of Seir, among whom Esau settled; and a list of the eight kings who ruled Edom, the land of Esau's and Seir's descendants.



HAFTORAH IN A NUTSHELL
Obadiah 1:1-21.

This week's haftorah mentions the punishment of Edom, the descendents of Esau, whose conflict with Jacob is chronicled in this week's Torah reading.

The prophet Obadiah, himself an Edomian convert to Judaism, describes the punishment destined for the nation of Edom. The Edomites did not come to Judea's aid when she was being destroyed by the Babylonians, and even joined in the carnage. Many years later the Edomites (the Roman Empire) themselves destroyed the Second Temple and mercilessly killed and enslaved their Jewish cousins.

Though the Roman Empire was one of the mightiest to ever inhabit the earth, the prophet forewarns: "If you go up high like an eagle, and if you place your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down, says the Lord. . . And the house of Jacob shall be fire and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau shall become stubble, and they shall ignite them and consume them, and the house of Esau shall have no survivors, for the Lord has spoken."

After describing the division of Esau's lands amongst the returning Judean exiles, the haftorah concludes with the well known phrase: "And saviors shall ascend Mt. Zion to judge the mountain of Esau, and the Lord shall have the kingdom."



SAGES ON THE PARSHAH

Jacob was greatly afraid, and he was distressed (32:8)

He was afraid that he might be killed, and distressed that he might kill.

(Midrash Rabbah)

If Esau comes to the one camp, and smites it, then the camp which is left shall escape (32:9)

He prepared himself in three ways: he sent a gift, he prayed, and he made ready for war.

(Rashi)

https://w2.chabad.org/media/pdf/49241.pdf



ZICHRON YAAKOV


THIS COMING WEEK IN HISTORY
    Sat Yud-Tes Kislev - "Rosh Hashanah of Chassidism"





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