VaYishlach Excerpts

וישלח

Shabbat Shalom

As Yakov did, when you are scared, send people you don't care about to check out the situation first. He sent the servants first. That is what you do...This whole general goes out first kind of thing is not...

The airplane communitying didn't work last week. The drone got stuck in a tree and it is over. We ask you to parent your own children now.

Candying the guy for hagbah was wrong. I understand that we are proud of the young man getting married, but you all missed him and hit the one getting up to life the Torah...We also want to give a shout out to our new shul bouncer. Great job kicking out the guy talking during the cantor's repetition. Shlomo has been 86ed. Our first 86 from shul. We are sending a strong message to the Kiddush club. 

(35:14 & 20) Yakov puts up pillars to commemorate important places...The method is you put a pillar of stone up and then add libation. Put some oil on it...You don't use it as a slide, Bernie. It isn't a playground. It is for Gd. Not for climbing...

First it is in Padan Aram, around the time Devorah and Rivka die, when H' gives him the name Yisrael. Then, Rachel dies, and Jacob puts up a monument.

(35:19) Rachel dies due to Binyamin's birth. We all like to blame other people.

She calls him the 'son of my mourning.' It is a better name then Onesh. 'Punishment.' Though that kid is a real pain...Yakov calls him 'son of the right' or 'son of my days.' Son of mourning would have been good, but he wanted to remember Rachel as a blessing. Her name would have been beautiful. Who knows? It would have been a burden. We all know that 'Son of my 20 hour labor who forced me into a Coma' has turned out to have many psychological problems...Sometimes, people who are dying do not make the right decisions. His dad should have insisted that he keep the name Samuel, once she came out of the coma. But she insisted. That is how she remembered her little boy...

A lot goes into a names. But you parents are not willing to name your kids Fran, Bernice, Sadie. There is no meaning. No connection. You name them after the first thing you see. 'Juice Box,' doesn't even know she has Jewish ancestry. She thinks her ancestry is a vending machine...

(35:27-29) Jacob reunites with his dad and Yitzchak dies. Esav is at the burial. Death brings people together. It helps them see clearly. What do we take from the past and give to the future. Juice Box has no idea...

(36:6-9) Esav, Edom and the father of the nation of Edom, leaves Israel because of Yakov. There isn't enough space for the two of them. Reason, not sure. Look at the commentaries...I can tell you that there is a lot of traffic on the highway one road from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, and going out to the settlements during rush hour is a pain...

It seems from the Psukim that it is their possessions are too much to be together. That is how it is with you all here. You don't get along. Half the community leaves. In the meantime, there is no money coming in. We are the poorest shul. Your possessions are too much...Because you hoard, Bernie. If we all stopped hoarding, we could live together, and make this place. The place of the death of the great ancestors of this community, a holy place...With monuments.

We should commemorate our newfound parenting program with somebody erecting a playground for the kids. That is how we commemorate nowadays, by giving money. Do it for the next generation. To remember the deaths. The deaths that Edom has caused. Do it as a positive for Samuel 'Son of my 20 hour labor who forced me into a Coma.'