Angels of Pure Prayer: Making Esav a Brother

1“And Yaakov sent malachim before him …” It seems we may explain the verse as a hint. The tzaddik's whole avodah, his service of Hashem, is to cleave to Him, blessed and exalted be He, and to bind his soul beneath the Throne of Glory, the place of its root. And when a tzaddik refines his body and purifies himself of all the desires of the outside forces, then his pure body cleaves to Hashem as well. This is what the word tefillah, prayer, means: deveikus, a joining, as in Rachel's words naftulei Elokim, “joinings of God.”¹ For through pure, clear prayers, prayed with pure thoughts, he cleaves to Him. Vayishlach usually means “he sent,” but here it speaks of escorting, as in “Pharaoh commanded men concerning him, and vayeshalchu him,” which the Targum renders ve'alviu, “and they escorted him.”² And the malachim here are angels: the words that go out of the tzaddik's mouth become angels, created from them. So the tzaddik escorts the angels he sends before him: his pure body, too, helps them rise on high. “Before him, to Esav his brother”: through this he causes Esav to become his brother. And “to the land of Se'ir, the field of Edom” means that Esav becomes his brother below, which is hinted in “the land of Se'ir,” and also on high, in his own world, which is called “the field of Edom”: Edom's heavenly prince also becomes his brother.

2“And he commanded them, saying.” Tzav, “command,” speaks of urging, as Chazal say: “Tzav always means urging.”³ The tzaddik sends the words out of his holy mouth in holiness, and with such urgency that they become very strong. And lemor, “saying,” means “that it will be said”: the thing will come about of itself, that Esav will be turned into his brother. For it is surely not proper to make this the main point of one's prayer. Rather, through the deveikus in the tzaddik's other prayers and words, spoken with pure and clear thoughts, this comes about of itself as their effect: “even his enemies make peace with him.”⁴

3The prophet Yirmiyahu hints at this same need for pure thoughts in prayer, in his command, “Do not carry a burden out of your houses on the day of Shabbos.”⁵ As a person conducts himself through all the weekdays, praying with pure thoughts, so extra holiness is added to him on Shabbos, more and more. And the opposite, Heaven forbid: if he goes astray, following his own heart, with foreign and muddled thoughts, then on Shabbos all his weekday thoughts [pass before him], foreign thoughts that spoil his prayer like piggul, an offering made unfit by a wrong intention. Then the gates of prayer are closed, so that the prayers of Israel cannot rise: those thoughts stand at the entrance of the upper gates and hold back the prayers of the rest of Israel. This is what the prophet warned: “Do not carry a burden out of your houses on the day of Shabbos.” The burden is the foreign thoughts, which are like a heavy load, and which pass before him on Shabbos because he thought them all through the weekdays. “And bring them into the gates of Jerusalem” means: do not bring these prayers, spoiled by foreign thoughts, into the upper gates, where they stand at the entrance and keep Israel's prayer from going up through the gates. How can a lowly man not be seized by fear and great trembling, seeing how far his sin does harm, to himself and to others!

4“Thus shall you say to my lord, to Esav.”⁶ The holy Torah is teaching us how to conduct ourselves in this bitter exile, where we are placed under the hand of the nations. We must accept the exile with love until Hashem has mercy on us and redeems us with an eternal redemption, speedily. And while we are in the bitter exile, we must humble ourselves before them and call them “lords.” That is “Thus shall you say to my lord, to Esav”: when you speak with him, call him lord. Then, if he goes on to harm you beyond what is proper, with taxes and levies, what he takes will be robbery in their hands, and through this Hashem will have mercy on us. For it should be enough for Esav that we humble ourselves before him and give him honor; whatever he takes beyond that is robbery.

5“I have sojourned with Lavan and stayed until now.” Lavan (לבן) has the letters of naval (נבל), a scoundrel, and the yetzer hara is called naval. Once a person is privileged to serve Hashem with both his inclinations, as it is said, “‘With all your heart’: with both your inclinations,”⁷ the yetzer hara is transformed into lavan, white: the whiteness on high. When does a person earn this? Mainly through humility, by holding himself in this world as a stranger. That is “With Lavan garti.” “With Lavan” means: I was privileged to have the yetzer hara turned from naval into lavan. And the cause of it was garti, “I sojourned,” from geirus, being a stranger: I held myself as a stranger, with great humility. Even so, it did not come to me in a few days. Rather, “I stayed until now”: I lingered at this service day after day and year after year. This is what Chazal said: “He had already said, ‘Please, Hashem,’ and his voice was heard.”⁸ A person must cry out for a long time, “Please, Hashem, help me to be privileged to serve You in truth,” and then his voice is heard; but not in a few days.

6And if you ask, where will a person's livelihood come from? The verse answers, “And I have ox and donkey”:⁹ livelihood comes of itself when one does the will of the Omnipresent. “And I have sent to tell my lord, to find favor in your eyes”: this is the way of the nations. When they see the honor and wealth of Israel, a Jew is dear to them and finds favor in their eyes; even though they gain nothing from him, he still finds favor in their eyes. “The malachim returned to Yaakov, saying, ‘We came to your brother …’”¹⁰ The hint is this. The tzaddik's words take effect and enter Esav's heart, so that he turns into his brother, as we saw with “to Esav his brother.” Even so, “he is also coming to meet you”: he still opposes you and comes against you, and his deeds are the very opposite of your good deeds. “And four hundred men with him” hints that although he does every evil deed, he still says he is a son of the World to Come, who has the four hundred worlds of longing.¹¹ That is “with him”: he says that with him are four hundred, a hint at the four hundred worlds.