2000/5761

Heavenly Sentby Yoni Shenkman

In this week’s Parsha, Yaakov is on his way home from Lavan’s house.  On his way back, his messengers come to him with news that Esav is coming towards him with 400 men.  Yaakov is frightened and does three things: he sends gifts to Esav, he prays to Hashem to assist him, and he prepares for war.

The Pasuk states, “And Yaakov sent angels ahead of him to his brother Esav in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.  And he instructed them as follows…”  (Bereishit 32:4).  What is the significance of the word “ahead”?  Yaakov was the root of Klal Yisrael.  The word “ahead” shows that whatever Yaakov did would have an impact on future generations.  Since Yaakov knew this, he carefully organized his defense as listed above. 

One of thing that Yaakov did was to send angels with gifts to calm Esav.  These angels were not there to calm Esav only at that time; rather they are always ready to calm the descendants of Esav (i.e. Amalek).  The angels are there to protect us from the evil plans of our enemies.  This may be compared to the current conflict in Israel.  Many of the Arabs are making evil plans and are angry with us.  I hope that the angels that Yaakov sent to protect him from Esav will help protect us, Klal Yisrael, from this group of Arabs.