Parshat Vayishlach – Yakir Silverman

Posted on December 4, 2015

This week’s Parsha is Parshas Vayishlach. In this week’s Parsha a few things happen. Number one, Yaakov encounters his brother Esav who wants to kill him, lovely. While encountering Esav, Yaakov does three things to prepare for the up and coming battle between him and his brother (even though the battle will probably last ten minutes because esav’s army outnumbers his own). These three things include davening to Hashem, separating his camps and sending gifts in an awkward manner; instead of giving a gift card of $50 he gave a gift of $1 and then $1 and so on. Yaakov davens to Hashem to send the message that you need to do your part in order for G-d to help you. He splits his armies to show that he is going to prepare for battle with G-d’s help and he does so because just incase Esav’s army would attack his army again and, Chas Vshalom, kill one of the tribes the other tribes would have the ability to escape. Lastly, Yaakov gives gifts in an awkward manner because it seems like a lot more when someone gives you something over and over again. Continuously giving gift after gift sends the message that he doesn’t want to kill or be killed by Esav’s army. And that is this week’ s Parsha.