An Open Letter to Mayor Zohran Mamdani
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Bereishis, 32:5: “And he commanded them saying, ‘Say to my master, to Esav, so says your servant, Yaakov, I lived (garti) with Lavan and have lingered here until now.”
Rashi, 32:5, Dh: Garti: “… ‘I lived with the wicked Lavan and I guarded the Taryag Mitzvot (613 commandments), and I did not learn from his evil deeds.”
Upon his return to the Land of Israel, Yaakov sends a message to his hostile brother, Esav. He begins the message saying, “I lived with Lavan and have lingered here until now.1” The Hebrew word for lived is garti which consists of the same letters of Taryag which is the gematria of 613, representing the 613 Mitzvot. Thus, Yaakov seems to be warning Esav that he observed all of the Torah while he was living with the evil Lavan. One of the questions commonly asked on this Rabbinic teaching is that Yaakov did not keep all the mitzvot while he was with Lavan. Apart from the fact that Yaakov could not observe some commandments such as honoring his father while he was away from his parents, he did in fact seem to transgress an explicit prohibition - the Torah prohibition to marry two sisters.
Rav David Zucker, Rosh Kollel of the Chicago Kollel2 explains that we need to redefine the word “shamar” – to keep -- in this context. It doesn’t mean that Yaakov actually observed all the mitzvot, rather the Torah uses it to mean something totally different. In Vayeishev, the Torah states that after Yosef related his dreams, “V’Aviv shamar et haDvar.”3 It means that Yaakov anticipated the fulfilment of Yosef’s dreams. In the same vein, in our Torah portion, the Torah is conveying that Yaakov was telling Esav that the entire time he was with Esav, he was anticipating the time when he would be able to observe all the Torah, and in particular when he could return to the yeshiva to sit and learn the Torah.
This begs the question: Why was this such a significant message to convey to Esav?
Rabbi Zucker suggests an answer based on a comment of the Kli Yakar.4 In the end of the Torah portion of Toldot, the Torah tells us, “And Esav said in his heart, the time of mourning for my father will soon be here and I will then kill my brother, Yaakov.” The simple understanding of this verse is that Esav didn’t want to kill Yaakov while Yitzchak was alive. However, the wording of the verse does not seem to fit with this explanation, as it should have simply said that Esav was waiting for the death of his father. Why does he express his hope as “the time of mourning for my father”?
The Kli Yakar explains that Esav knew that Yaakov was protected by his constant Torah learning, and so he was waiting for the moment when Yaakov would not be occupying himself with Torah, and at that moment he would lose the protection of the Torah, Esav would be able to kill him. Since a mourner is not allowed to learn Torah, Esav realized that this would be the most propitious time to kill Yaakov.
Similarly, Rav Zucker explains, Esav knew that Yaakov had just spent many years working very hard for Lavan and that Yaakov was unable to devote the same amount of time to learning Torah as he had up to that time. Thus, in the words of Rabbi Yissachar Frand, Esav said to himself, “Maybe my brother learned by Shem and Ever and he maybe he learned in my father’s house, but for the last 22 years, he has been in business. He is in the cattle business and has done very well for himself in the cattle business. Now is my chance.”
In response to this thought of Esav, Yaakov warned his brother that while it was true that in his time with Lavan, he was unable to devote all his time to learning. However, the entire time, he anticipated and longed for the time when he could return learn Torah. Rabbi Frand explains that when a person is in the workplace but he anxiously awaits getting back to the study hall, that gives him the merit of Torah as well.
Rabbi Zucker, in support of this idea, cites the remarkable introduction to the book, Chachmat Adam written by Rabbi Avram Danzig, better known as the Chayei Adam. Not many people know that for a large portion of his life he was a businessman. He writes as follows in his introduction to the Chachmat Adam:5
“I know that people are going to whisper about me and ask, “Is Shaul also one of the prophets?” (Shmuel I 10:11) We know this fellow is a businessman for the past 15 years who sold his wares in Leipzig and in Frankfurt. When did he possibly learn Torah (that he now feels qualified to write Halachic compendiums on the laws of Orach Chaim and Yoreh Deah)? After all, the Torah testifies about itself “It is not found on the other side of the river” (Devarim 30:13). The Torah says about itself that it is not to be found by merchants and by businessmen. You should know my brothers, that my travelling great distances (from home) was not, Heaven forbid, to accumulate wealth. The Master of All will testify for me. I was only trying to support my family.
This is the fact with every Jewish man: If a person abandons Torah, distances himself from it, and gives up the practice of intensive Torah learning, then Torah will also distance itself from him and he will no longer possess the ability to be innovative in Torah. But if a person’s intent is not to leave Torah but due to circumstances beyond his control, he cannot cling to it with the same intensity that he once could, then Heaven forbid, that the Torah should leave him! One who in the midst of his business dealings longs for the opportunity to return to his Torah learning and be married once again to it, that power of Torah creativity will remain in his soul.
This is what I say about myself. Even though it is true that I travelled to faraway places while engaging in my business dealings, my Torah wisdom has remained with me. Whenever I travelled on my routes, my thoughts were with Torah. When I was in the store my thoughts were with Torah. Let me be given credit for the fact that even while engaged in buying and selling, many times my thoughts were in fact involved with Torah. My fellow businessmen will testify about me that even while travelling to Leipzig, I never failed to take with me a Gemara, Mikra, and Mishna. Even during the times of the Great (trade) Fairs, I learned a daf and a half of Gemara daily, besides Mishnayot. Therefore, that is how I can write these Halachic compendiums – because “Taryag mitzvos shamarti,” because I longed to go back to the Beit Medrash (study hall).
The Chayei Adam is making the vital point that even if a person needs to work, if he utilizes all this free time to learn and anticipates the times when he will be able to devote his time to Torah, then it is considered as if he is still connected to the Torah in a profound way and protected by Its merit. May we all merit to emulate Yaakov and the Chayei Adam in our attitude to the times when we are involved in earning a living.
