Parshas Vayishlach - Parsha Stumpers/Something to Think About

פרשת וישלח

Parsha Stumpers/Something to Think About

1. Many know the famous Rashi in our parsha which says “with Lavan I have sojourned...and yet I have kept the 613 mitzvos”. However, many do not realize that that is the second explanation Rashi gives. The first is, “I did not become a dignitary or a notable, but rather a mere sojourner. It therefore does not befit you (Eisav) to hate me over the blessings of your father who blessed me, 'Be a lord to your brothers', for it has not yet been fulfilled in me.” Aren't these two explanations in a couple of ways contradictory to each other?

2. The passuk says (32:8), “And Yaakov became very frightened, and it distressed him....” Why was Yaakov afraid? Certainly a yarei shamayim like Yaakov avinu had complete bitachon in Hashem that his encounter with Eisav would be fine. After all, Hashem had promised to be with Yaakov. So, why was Yaakov afraid?

3. What is the difference between the way that Yaakov prepared to go to battle with Eisav and with the malach of Eisav? Why the differences?

4. Rashi explains that from the fact that Yaakov went back to retrieve the pachim k'tanim we see that tzadikkim stay away from stealing. What does going back for pachim k'tanim have to do with stopping from stealing?

5. Yaakov told the malach of Eisav to bless him, and in return the malach asked, “What is your name?” How was this a valid response to the question?

6. The Gemara in Berachos says that after Avraham and Sarah's names were changed, it is assur to call them by their original names. What is different about the name changing of Avraham and Sarah and the name change of Yaakov to Yisroel?

7. The Torah tells us that Yaakov heard what had happened to Dinah, but kept quiet until his children came back from the field. Why?

8. Despite the fact that now-a-days people name kids after deceased relatives all the time, it is pretty rare that you find names repeated in Torah. Why is that? And what are a few names in these week's parsha which are repeated elsewhere in Tanach?

9. Rashi again in this week's parsha says, “I do not know what this is coming to teach us”. Why does Rashi bother telling us that he doesn't know? Just write nothing!

Parshas Vayeitzei

פרשת ויצא

Parsha Stumpers / Something to Thing About

1. Where is there a ראיה in this week's parsha that one should wear a shtreimel?

2. Three types of people are called “dead” even while they are alive. All three appear in this week's parsha. What are they and where do they come up in the parsha?

3. How could Yaakov avinu come into a foreign land and start bossing around the shepherds and telling them that, as Rashi writes, “If you are hired workers, you have not yet completed the day's work. And if the animals are yours, there is still time in the day...”?

4. Eliphaz was sent by Eisav to kill Yaakov.

a. Why is this included in kibud av?

b. What did Yaakov do to get out of the situation?

c. Why did this satisfy Eliphaz?

5. There are two times other then the episode with the shepherds by the well that Yaakov seems to go on a rant, so to speak, and “lose his cool”. What is the connection between these three times?

6. Who named the shevatim?

7. Why did Leah only name her fourth son Yehuda? Was she not thankful for the first three?

8. Why did Yaakov curse the one who took Lavan's idols?

9. What is the significance of eating in this week's parsha? (continuing the theme from last week)

10. Where do you see in this week's parsha that “stealing” could be said in reference to intangible things which “can't be paid back”?

11. What was the difference between the way Lavan and Yaakov each named the גל?

Parshas Toldos

פרשת תולדות

Parsha Stumpers and Something to Think About

1. Rashi (25:20) writes that the Torah praised Rivkah that despite being a daughter of a wicked person, and the sister of a wicked person, still she did not learn from their deeds and instead was righteous. Yet, Rashi (25:21) comments that Hashem only answered the tefillos of Yitzchak – because the prayer of a tzadik ben rasha (a righteous person who is the son of a wicked person) is not comparable to a tzadik ben tzadik (a righteous person who is the son of a righteous person). Why is this so? Shouldn't the tefillos of someone who, despite their background, is a tzadik, be more dear to Hashem than someone who simply “grew up that way”?

2. The Torah relates that Eisav said to Yaakov, “Pour into me , now, some of that very red stuff for I am exhausted”. Did Eisav not know what the food was called that he had to say “that red stuff”?

3. What is the significance of eating in this week's parsha?

4. Hashem promises again in this week's parsha (26:4) that B'nei Yisroel will increase as many as the stars. Now with the help of science we indeed know that there are billions of stars across the galaxies, etc. However, the Torah generally speaks in the lashon of people and in the way we perceive things from earth. Looking up on even the most starry night in the clearest sky, one could still put a relatively low estimate on the number of stars that the eye could see – whether it be 100,000 or perhaps a million or two million, the promise comparing us to the stars seems different in nature from the comparison to the sand – where even the amount of grains in a single sandbox seems infinite. How could we understand the promise of us being like the stars?

5. In Toldos 26:5, Hashem tells Yitzchak that Avraham kept “My safeguards, My commandments, My edicts, and My Torahs”. Rashi explains them, respectively, as follows: “Rabbinic decrees, common-sense mitzvos, decrees, and Torah shel baal peh” Why is this the order that the Torah lists them in? Shouldn't the order be: mishpatim, chukim, torah shel baal peh, and then the rabbinic decrees?

6. Why was Yaakov suddenly worried that he was going to die in פרק כז : פסוק ז ?

7. What was special about Eisav's garment? Where did he get it from? Why wasn't he wearing it?
8. The Torah tells us that Yitzchakl became visually impaired. Rashi offers three possible causes of/reasons for this. The first is that he was affected by the smoke of avodah zarrah incense of Eisav's wives. If so, why wasn't Rivkah affected in the same way?

9. In פרק כז : פסוק יט Yaakov tells Yitzchak, “ אנכי עשו בכורך". How could he say this, isn't it lying? And even according to Rashi that Yaakov stuck in punctuation to make it truthful, still wasn't Yaakov really the bechor – he bought it from Eisav?

10. In פרק כח : פסוק ה Rashi writes, “I do not know what it teaches us”. Why does Rashi tell us this? Just say nothing?

11. There are four times throughout the parsha (in Rashi) where the Beis Medrash of Shem and Aver is mentioned. Two of these times it is refereed to as “Shem and Aver”. Another time, though, it is referred to only as “Shem”, whereas another time only by “Aver.” Why the differences?