Weekly Torah from Jewish Everything. Net

A Thought On Parshas VaYetzae

"...v'haya zara'cha ka'afar ha'aretz..."
"...and your descendants will be like the dust of the earth..." (28:14)

Throughout the Torah and NaCh, the Jewish people are compared to various elements. We are at times like the stars, at times like the sand of the seashore. The image of being like the earth, the dirt, the dust of the ground, seems somehow less lofty, less picturesque. It calls up memories of those days in elementary school when the good readers were in the "Bluebirds" group. The pretty good readers were in the "Robins." Those students who were slower readers were in the "Crows." That group, the Crows, did not feel as good about themselves as the others. There is something about a title or description which conjures up a feeling. What does the Torah intend here? What was our patriarch Yakov to understand when HaShem compared his descendants to the dust of the earth?

The Rambam (Igerres Teiman) writes that this imagery helped Yakov understand the long cycle of Jewish survival in centuries to come. At times we have been like the dirt. Our nation has been trampled on as invading forces have tread upon us and host nations have sought to stamp us out. We have been like the lowly earth beneath their feet.

However, stamp on the soil and the dust rises. It coats one boots. It leaves its mark upon those who have tampered with it. Moreover, in the end, the aggressor lies buried beneath that same soil. And the dust of the earth endures.

Yakov was promised that over time and over circumstance, the Jewish nation would survive. When the dust has settled, it remains dust. But it remains. The late tzadik Rav Zalman Ury zt'l used to recall how the Jews in the concentration camps would assert, "mir vellen zae iberlebben" - we will outlive our enemies. This was the vision of Yakov Avinu.

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The Rosh looks at our verse within the context of the verse it precedes: after comparing the descendants of Yakov to the dust of the earth, HaShem says that they will spread out to the west, the east, the north and the south.

The ground is "connected to itself". It extends in all directions. Moreover, the dust which rises from the ground spreads out as well. Travel through the desert when the wind blows and you can track the clouds known as "dust devils" which swirl up-and-around as they carry their misty particles across the distant terrain.

HaShem signified to Yakov Avinu that whereas he lay asleep on a small parcel of ground, that spot was really the nexus of all the lands and continents which the Jewish people would reach. They would spread up, they would rise and in that positive sense they would one day be comparable to the topography which extends beyond the far horizons. They would one day ascend and travel far and near in enunciating the words of HaShem's Torah.

When the navi Yishayahu (58:14) proclaims that HaShem "will feed you the inheritance of Yakov", our sages explain that this is the "inheritance beyond all boundaries." The Rosh understands this as the message of "dust of the earth." The Jewish nation will be revered among the nations and our mark upon humanity will be indelible and welcome.

Wishing you a good Shabbos. D Fox