Yaakov's Fear as a Shield for His Descendants

1The Midrash Rabbah (Bereishis Rabbah 76:1) on “Yaakov was greatly afraid, and he was distressed” [Bereishis 32:8]: R' Pinchas said in the name of R' Reuven: Two people received a promise from the Holy One, blessed be He, and were still afraid: the chosen one of the Avos and the chosen one of the prophets. The chosen one of the Avos is Yaakov, as it says, “For Hashem has chosen Yaakov for Himself” [Tehillim 135:4]. The Holy One, blessed be He, told him, “Behold, I am with you” [Bereishis 28:15], and in the end he was afraid. Of the chosen one of the prophets it says, “Hashem said to Moshe: Do not fear him” [Bamidbar 21:34]; one says “Do not fear” only to someone who is afraid. R' Berechyah and R' Chelbo said in the name of R' Shmuel bar Nachman, in the name of R' Nasan¹: Israel deserved destruction in the days of Haman, were it not that they relied on the mind of their elder father. They said, “If our father Yaakov, whom the Holy One, blessed be He, promised, ‘Behold, I am with you,’ was afraid, how much more so we!” That is why the prophet rebukes Israel, saying, “You have forgotten Hashem your Maker, who stretches out the heavens and founds the earth” (Yeshayahu 51:13). He said to them: Have you forgotten what He told you, “Thus says Hashem: If the heavens above can be measured …” [Yirmiyahu 31:36]? Had you seen the heavens slip and the earth totter, you might have feared. But from the heavens and earth standing firm, should you not have learned? Instead, “you fear continually, all day long” [Yeshayahu 51:13].

2aAll the commentators on the Midrash read it plainly, as wonder at these two great luminaries: how could they fear after Hashem's promise? But I, in my poverty and low state, hold on to the hem of my father's cloak. Following the words of my father and teacher, R' Yechiel of Alexander, zt"l, which I brought above in this parshah [maamar 1], we can explain the Midrash. On the plain level, Rashi answers there (Bamidbar 21:34) that Moshe feared Og might be protected by the merit of having served Avraham Avinu. Yaakov, too, feared that Esav might be protected by the merit of having honored his father more than Yaakov had, as the Midrash and the Zohar on this parshah explain. Tzaddikim always make their own good deeds small in their own eyes and make the virtues and fine traits of others great. All the more so Yaakov Avinu, of whom it says, “Grant truth to Yaakov” (Michah 7:20), and who is called “Yaakov the small,” the one who makes small. He made his own honoring of his father small and Esav's honoring of his father great. That is why he feared that Hashem would remember for Esav the merit of honoring his father.

2bHashem had promised to be with him. But Yaakov imagined that the whole promise of protection applied only when wicked people rose against him; then Hashem would guard him and save him from them. When Hashem would look closely, with an open eye, at Yaakov's good deeds and set against them the good deed of his brother, who also had a good deed to his name, then Yaakov feared for his life. Moshe Rabbeinu was afraid in the same way. Hashem had promised to be with him and make his enemies fall before him, but perhaps not against a man who also had merit, having served Avraham Avinu. So Hashem reassured him, “Do not fear.” All of this was brought about by Hashem: that Moshe should be afraid and that Hashem should tell him “Do not fear.” In this way Hashem set a binding decree for all time: even when those who rise against Israel have merit, He will not remember it for them, and they will be “turned back” [cf. Tehillim 35:4] before Israel. And the word of Hashem stands forever, for all generations [cf. Yeshayahu 40:8]. In the same way, Heaven cast dread and fear upon Yaakov Avinu when he heard from his messengers that Esav still held fast to his wickedness and was coming to fight him.

2cIt is always right to pray before trouble comes, as Chazal teach (Sanhedrin 44b) from the verse “Will your cry be set in order when you are not in distress?” [Iyov 36:19]. That brings a person helpers and supporters Above, as explained there. When a person fears only once he sees the trouble before his eyes, and is afraid of “a man who will die” [Yeshayahu 51:12], the accusers in Heaven bring charges against him. As Yiftach said, “Why have you come to me now, when you are in distress?” (Shoftim 11:7): you come to me only in trouble, never when things are good. If so, the question is even stronger: why did Yaakov Avinu not pray before the trouble came? The answer is that “this was from Hashem” [Tehillim 118:23], deliberately, so that it would accomplish something for his descendants after him. There will be times when they are truly soiled with sins, iniquities and transgressions, and it does not occur to them to do teshuvah or to fear Hashem and “the splendor of His majesty” [Yeshayahu 2:10]. Only when they see “the foe who oppresses them” [Bamidbar 10:9] before their eyes do they fear for their lives, cry out, return to Hashem and pray to Him. Then, in that time of trouble, may Yaakov Avinu's prayer be aroused. He prayed from just such a level, as he saw it in his lowliness of spirit, and Hashem will be filled with mercy for them as He had mercy on Yaakov their father.

3aThis is what the Ba'al HaTurim means [on Bereishis 32:12]: the first letters of “hatzileini na miyad,” “Save me, please, from the hand,” spell Haman. It fits this Midrash: had they not relied on the mind of their elder father Yaakov, they would have deserved destruction in the days of Haman. For they had not done teshuvah. No fear had come over them for having blemished themselves by enjoying the feast of that wicked king [cf. Megillah 12a], until they saw death hovering before their faces. Only then, roused by Mordechai and Esther, did they begin to return, to fast and to cry out to Hashem, as it says, “the matters of the fasts and their outcry” (Esther 9:31). Mordechai and Esther surely rebuked them to their faces: How are you not ashamed to come before the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, only now, in your distress? How can you fear flesh and blood and not Him, and not have come to Him before? But Israel trusted and relied on their elder father Yaakov, who had done the same. They imagined that this truly reflected his level, that he had acted this way of his own understanding, and so they did likewise.

3bBut the prophet rebukes Israel: “Who are you, that you fear a man who will die, a son of man who will be made as grass?” [Yeshayahu 51:12]. He reproved them to their faces: your dread and fear of flesh and blood is a sign and proof of how little you fear Hashem. This is the story of the chassid in the Chovos HaLevavos mentioned above. It is also the saying of the ascetic quoted in the Chovos HaLevavos (there) and in Rabbeinu Yonah's Sha'arei Teshuvah (Sha'ar 1): “My anxiety over the fear of You has driven all other anxieties far from me.” Is not everything in Hashem's hand? If for a single moment He withdrew His providence and life-force from the enemy, the enemy would return to dust at once. And if you say, “But our father Yaakov did the same!” then “you have forgotten Hashem your Maker” [Yeshayahu 51:13]. Hashem did this. He hid Yaakov's own righteous deeds and merits from him so that he would fear and be afraid and pray on such a level, in order to save you, so that you would be able to pray in a time of trouble and be answered. In truth Yaakov Avinu cleaved to Hashem. It is only that “Hashem's kindnesses have not ended” [Eichah 3:22], and He “looks and gazes to the end of all generations” for our sake, so that we not “perish in our affliction” [cf. Tehillim 119:92]. May we merit the eternal redemption, amen. (From the author's handwritten manuscript.)