Rabbi Mansour 09
פרשת וישלח
"וישלח יעקב מלאכים לפניו"- רש'י says מלאכים ממש- they were real מלאכים. What is רש'י telling us? The פסוק says מלאכים, why does רש'י have to add ממש? Since מלאכים could also mean messengers, Rashi is telling us that here the word מלאכים mean real angels, not messengers. The Baba Sali gives another reason, there are 4 images on the כסא הכבוד of Hashem. An אריה- lion, נשר- eagle, כרוב- cherub, and the face of Yaakov (it says in last weeks parasha that Yaakov slept in the place of the Mikdash, and after his dream when he saw what was in שמים he said אכן יש ה' במקום הזה – אכן stands for אריה-כרוב-נשר but אנכי לא ידעתי I didn’t know I was on the throne of Hashem אנכי- אריה-נשר-כרוב-יעקב). When the Jews are doing the will of Hashem, then the face of Yaakov is on the throne. When they are not fulfilling Hashem’s will, then the face of Yaakov does not appear. So Yaakov wanted to check in שמים to see if his face is on the throne, to see if Hashem was happy with him. So obviously only angels can go up to שמים to check the throne of Hashem. Rashi explains ממש since only angels are able to check on his פניו- his face to see if it was on the כסא הכבוד. That is why the Pasuk says וישלח יעקב מלאכים לפניו, to check if his face was there. Another answer is that Yaakov sent 3 angels to Eisav and their names were מיכאל, מלכיאל, שננדיאל and Rashi was hinting to this with the word ממש, which is the ר'ת for מיכאל, מלכיאל, שננדיאל . In Shaharit we say עזרת אבתינו אתה הוא מעולם- that Hashem helped our fathers. We are supposed to have in mind all the good that Hashem has done for the Avot, and specifically for saving Yaakov in his fight against Eisav. This is hinted to in the word עזרת, which is the גמט'- 677, and 677 is the גמט' of the 3 angels that were with Yaakov, who went to Eisav מיכאל, מלכיאל, שננדאל,= 677. This is also hinted in the words of the Pasuk וישלח יעקב מלאכים which is גמט'-677, hinting to who the מלאכים were מיכאל, מלכיאל, שנניאל=677.
Another answer given is that Eisav came to fight Yaakov with 400 men, so Eisav plus his 400 men=401. Yaakov plus his 11 sons and 4 wives=16 in addition to them the Pasuk says he had שור וחמור צאן עבד שפחה and for each of these categories he had another person in charge of them. That is another 5 people, so 16+5 =21. So Yaakov had 21 people against Eisav’s 401, so he was short 380 people (401-21=380). So according to this answer he brought 380 angels to "even the score"- the גמט' of ממש is 380!
Another reason is that every Friday night there are 2 angels that escort a man home, a מלאך טוב and a מלאך רע. When these angels see that the table is set, the candles are lit, and all is in order, the good angel says "may it be like this next week" and the bad angel is forced to answer Amen. If they see that the table is not set etc. than the bad angel says "may it be like this next week", and the good angel is forced to answer Amen (that is why we say שלום עליכם and say ברכוני לשלום, that we should be blessed by the angels). On Shabbat specifically we see the concept of a bad angel answering Amen against his will. Yaakov wanted to "tap into" these angels to force even the angels of Eisav to bless him. So Yaakov told Eisav עם לבן גרתי, the word גרתי is the same letters as תריג, hinting to him that he kept all תריג-613 mitzvot. The question is how is that possible? There was no Beit Hamikdash, and many other mitzvot that were not applicable to Yaakov, so how could he have kept 613 mitzvot? The Zohar says that Shabbat is equal to all 613 mitzvot, so when he kept Shabbat it was as if he was keeping all the mitzvot. Why was Yaakov telling Eisav that he kept Shabbat? To show him that he had properly kept Shabbat, thereby forcing the bad angels to bless him,(as we see at the end of his fight with the angel of Eisav he forced the angel to bless him) "so don’t try and mess with me"! This is hinted to in the word ממש, that stands for מטה מנורה שלחן (the 3 things the angels look at when they come into the house are to see if the candles are lit-מנורה, the couches and beds in order-מטה, and the table set- שלחן). Yaakov sent angels and even forced bad angels to bless him, like on Friday night in a home that is ready for Shabbat. We also see this hinted in the Pasuk that says when Yaakov saw the angels he called the place מחנים- which literally means "camps" why camps in plural? It should just say camp? Because he was also controlling the angels from the other side, so there were 2 camps of angels under Yaakov’s control, both the good and bad. The גמט' of the word מלאך is 91 and מלאך x 2 (for the 2 different kinds of מלאכים good and bad)= 182, which is the גמט' of Yaakov =182. Showing he had control over both kinds of angels. We see this connection between Yaakov and Shabbat in other ways like it says in the Kiddush of Shabbat נחלת יעקב אביך. Every day of the week has a different number of שם ה' in it, for ex: Sunday has one י-ה and Monday has 2 etc. Shabbat is the 7th day of the week, so it has 7x שם ה' of י-ה and 7x26=182 which is the גמט' of Yaakov=182. During the Seudah of Shabbat we also allude to these 7 names of Hashem. We take 2 loaves of bread לחם=78 which is 3x26=78 and 2 loaves is 2 לחם which is 2x78 equaling 6 timesשם ה'. We are still short one so we start the Kiddush by saying יום השישי ויכלו השמים, giving us the 7th name of Hashem. Hashem placed in this world קדושה וטומאה- זה לעמת זה. Avraham Avinu was the aspect of חסד דקדושה and opposite that was Yishmael who was aspect of חסד דטומאה. Yitzhak Avinu was דין דקדושה and opposite him was Eisav who was aspect of דין דטומאה. Yaakov however was made up of both חסד ודין of קדושה. Eisav was only דין דטומאה going against Yaakov who was both חסד&דין of קדושה. Eisav knew this and in order to fight against Yaakov he wanted to make it even, so at the age 40 he married בשמת, the daughter of Yishmael to tap into the חסד דטומאה of Yishmael. It was a very "calculated" marriage, he was attacking Yaakov with both חסד & דין of טומאה. What has the power to destroy both Eisav and Yishmael (חסד ודין דטומאה)? The Shabbat, as it says ונקדשתי בתוך בני ישראל- that Shabbat was placed in between Friday, the day that the Arabs observe and Sunday, the day that the goyim observe. As it says in אזמר בשבחין written by the Arizal that ימינא ושמאלא ובינייהו כלה- that you have the right (Friday- day of Yishmael) and the left (Sunday- the day of Eisav) and in the middle the כלה- referring to the Shabbat –(like we say באי כלה). Shabbat goes in the middle and destroys both Eisav and Yishmael. So Yaakov who as mentioned was connected to the Shabbat had the power to beat Eisav who attacked Yaakov with both his own טומאה and that of Yishmael. This is hinted to in the name of Yaakov, since the ר''ת of the name of Yaakov spelled backwards is בטל קליפת עשו ישמעאל (he nullified the tumah of Eisav and Yishmael). When he was in the womb, he only had Eisav to deal with. That is why when he was first born the Pasuk says he was holding on the עקב of Eisav. עקב backwards is בטל קליפת עשו, but Hashem added a "י" to his name because he would need it in the future to nullify Yishmael as well. By Matan Torah the Jews said "נעשה ונשמע". The נעשה was to subdue Eisav (נעשה is to do like Eisav who was named that because he came out "done") and נשמע is to subdue Yishmael(נשמע to hear is like Yishmael-מלשון שמע).
