Parashah Vayishlach
16 Kislev 5786 / December 6th, 2025
By Rich Birndorf
This Week's Readings:
Torah: Genesis 32:4-36-43
Haftarah: Obadiah 1:1-1:21
Brit Chadashah: Galatians 6:3-10
One thing I really appreciated about being around Sarah Specter was her honesty and straightforwardness, even for those very few, almost not worth mentioning, isolated instances when she would call me out. Basically, whenever I had any conversation with her. In those rare situations when I possibly may have said or suggested something that seemed like an amazing idea to me, her response would be “That’s a terrible idea!” Which of course never was a terrible idea to me, so my instant response was, “what can possibly go wrong.” For instance, planning to make mac & cheese for the children of the synagogue, I rightly assumed that everyone would like it prepared in a way that sounded good to me. Although the recipe may have called for two teaspoons of cayenne pepper, which may seem excessive to some, particularly when serving the dish to children, my thought was if two teaspoons makes the mac and cheese sound tasty, two tablespoons would be even better. My goal was for the children, after tasting this delectable goodness, to have a complexion matching that of King David, ruddy. But, I slightly digress. Throughout our lives we are faced with circumstances that require us to make decisions. Our goal should always be to do what G-d desires from us, not what we have deemed is most desirable.
The Torah portion begins with a focus on Jacob, who similarly to many others we find in Scripture, exhibits pronounced character flaws. I actually find this inspirational in that I am able to more easily relate to these men and women of faith. With the focus on making appropriate decisions, Jacob is perhaps the epitome of someone we do not want to emulate, at least initially. However, it is also clear that G-d loved him greatly, as shown by His blessings that he bestowed on Jacob. In the passage, we see the previously crafty, plotting, scheming, calculating, shrewd Jacob, was about to meet up with his brother Esau, whom he hadn’t seen in many years. As we’re aware, Jacob had previously obtained both Esau’s birthright and blessings through being both opportunistic and deceitful. Perhaps Esau was also bitter because not only did he give up his birthright for stew, but the stew was referred to in the TLV version as, “really red stuff”. Most likely Jacob added two tablespoons of cayenne pepper. Jacob now prepares to meet Esau, who had previously planned to kill his brother and was approaching him with 400 men. He no doubt was now pondering if his poor prior decision making was going to bring about dire consequences. So, why wouldn’t Jacob merely turn and flee rather than risk meeting with his potentially revengeful brother? I believe the answer is found in Jacob’s immediate response to his dilemma. He prays to G-d for deliverance. Perhaps we see a change in the behavior of the younger twin. A behavior that is responsible and benevolent. I believe that was his desire at that time. When the encounter with Esau did occur, Jacob demonstrated what appeared to be humility, a sure change from his previous self. The question to contemplate is, did G-d spare Jacob’s life only because as is stated in Romans 9:13-16 He had mercy on him, or also because Jacob was a changed man?
Not totally trusting his brother Esau, we see in verse 33:14 that Jacob continued in his deception. Jacob told Esau that he would meet up with him in Seir to the south; however, three verses later we read, “but Jacob journeyed to Sukkot and built a house for himself…” Now, on all the maps I’ve pursued, Seir is to the south, and Jacob traveled north. Perhaps Jacob purchased his GPS device from Jonah’s GPS Emporium.
In the final Aliyah passage, G-d instructs Jacob to go up to Bethel, live there, and build an altar to Him. Jacob not only follows G-d’s directive, but through his own decision, Jacob orders his household to “‘Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Cleanse yourselves and change your clothes.’” Maybe Jacob had finally matured in his decision making. As I had mentioned previously, decision making is an ongoing process and this appeared to reflect in his actions.
The Haftarah portion is found in the book of Obadiah, the shortest book of the Old Covenant. Here the prophet foretells the demise of Edom, a people who were descendants of Esau. Throughout their history the Edomites were antagonistic towards Israel beginning with their refusal to let Moses and the people pass peacefully through their land. Similarly, this same rebuff of the Israelites is recorded in the book of Judges, as again the people desired to travel through their land. This animosity of the Edomites continued with their hostility with Saul, David, Jehoshaphat and Jehoram. In particular, in this section we see a prideful people that demonstrated contempt towards G-d’s people and their ultimate downfall. Unlike their brother who’s change is seen in the Torah portion, there is no repentance and therefore they were judged accordingly. Here the decisions made by a group of people didn’t show progression towards positive change, but rather their demise.
The Brit Chadashah portion speaks of reaping what is sown. The reality is what we choose to do largely impacts what direction our lives will take. Please do not misunderstand; I am not professing that the outcomes of our lives will be solely the results of our decisions or the related actions that we perform. But rather, we are responsible for our decisions and those choices will have great bearing on who we are and become. Ultimately, it is G-d that chooses to bless us or not. As this is an ongoing process, we are not to lose heart, but continue in living out our salvation in a way that is consistent with our life in Messiah.
The concept of making proper decisions is often simplistic in its basic approach. I don’t profess to sharing great insight of life to my daughters growing up, but I did provide some basic advice that would serve them well. I remember telling Hannah at a young age, when faced with uncertainty in an important decision, is to think through the situation and always choose which option seems to be the right one. That in turn would be consistent with what G-d would want of her. Just common sense, right? Then why do we continue to make poor decisions in our lives? This is largely because even as believers, we are still in the flesh and make those decisions that make us feel good, may seem right in a given moment or perhaps because we are swayed by others or the world we live in. How often do we justify our decisions or make exceptions based on our own standards? As we continue our walk in trying to emulate Yeshua, those decisions should not only be carefully determined based on related factors, priorities and potential outcomes, but most importantly through prayer, truths learned through the study of scripture, guidance of the Ruach and reliance on others that exhibit wisdom. This is an ongoing process that often reflects the maturity of the individual.
The challenge for us, is when encountering difficult decisions, to constantly use the seykel, or wisdom, that we have garnered through our ongoing walk with G-d. As was just mentioned, most importantly, pray. 1 Thessalonians instructs us to “pray without ceasing” (NASB) and I encourage you to reach out to others to have them pray with you. Finally, and this is an invitation particularly to parents with young children, I will happily practically apply these truths to your children by allowing me to make them some special mac & cheese.