This past Sunday I had the pleasure of participating in the banquet of the annual Chabad Lubavitch Convention of Shluchim (Emissaries). Close to 4,000 Shluchim, 2,000 supporters and guests as well as tens of thousands of online viewers celebrated the Rebbe’s impact on global Jewry and humanity.
While crowds and buildings are necessary and attractive, the focus of the evening was on the stories of personal impact. The genuine interactions that bring hope and inspire change.
Rabbi Motti Flikshtein shared with the crowd that as a child, known as Matt, he had zero Jewish education. As a teen he fell in with the wrong crowds and was a gangster, high on drugs, rapping in bars every night.
Life was spiralling out of control and his parents begged him to visit the local Chabad House. Matt was sure that he would be thrown out of the building just for the way he dressed, but when he arrived, Rabbi Aryeh Weinstein greeted him with a smile and a hug and told him how happy he was that he chose to participate that evening.
One Mitzvah led to another, one Torah lesson led to another and today Matt, now Motti, is a Shliach himself, sharing the beauty of Torah with fellow Jews in Delaware.
In this week’s parsha we learn of the epic struggle between the first twins discussed in the Torah, Yaakov and Eisav. Polar opposites in every way, Eisav was hairy from birth and Yaakov remained smooth skinned into adulthood. Yaakov was immersed in Torah study, while Eisav roamed the countryside killing and raping at whim. He masterfully hid his true character from his father, but his mother Rivkah was well aware of his depravity.
When Yitzchak became blind of old age and felt his final days approaching he wished to pass on the powerful blessings of destiny to his progeny, and since Eisav was born first, he seemingly deserved to receive them. Yitzchok was unaware that Eisav had sold his birthright to Yaakov for some lentil soup when he was 15 years old. Rivkah was aware of the transaction and also understood that Eisav would wreak havoc on society if he were to possess such spiritual energy.
She instructed Yaakov to enter Yitzchok’s room instead of Eisav camouflaging his arms with goat skins. Feeling the hairy arms, Yitzchok was sufficiently convinced Eisav was standing before him and bestowed upon the camouflaged Yaakov the greatest blessings ever uttered by man.
Why was it necessary for Yaakov to be blessed while camouflaged as Eisav? Could Rivkah not have convinced Yitzchok that Yaakov was the right recipient by sharing the facts on the ground?
Rivkah understood that in the future some of Yaakov’s descendants will don the camouflage of Eisav - they will be indistinguishable from their gentile neighbors - often at no fault of their own. Yet even they are the progeny of Yaakov, endowed with unmatched spiritual energy - equal partners in the ultimate task of making this world a divine space of goodness and kindness.
Although Matt looked like a thug, Rabbi Weinstein was able to tap into the beautiful neshama within. Even a “Yaakov” that looks and feels like “Eisav” has the ability and obligation to change the world for good.