On Sunday morning the world woke up to the news that the half-century Assad regime in Syria no longer existed. Two weeks earlier it was one of the most formidable enemies on Israel’s border, backed by Russia and Iran and a veritable lynchpin in the Axis of Evil threatening to throttle Israel. And within days it simply disintegrated.
There is no telling what the power vacuum will bring, and the types of policies the rebels will pursue. But without engaging in punditry - for which I have no credentials - I’d like to dwell on the fact that an evil regime, that seemed stable to every intelligence agency in the world, fell apart like a house of cards with no resistance. In this week’s parsha we learn about the reunion between the two twin brothers Yaakov and Eisav. They had not seen each other in decades, and no love was lost between them. Eisav was still seething with rage that Yaakov had outsmarted him in receiving the blessings of destiny from their father Yitzchak. When Yaakov journeyed back to the Holy Land with his large family and fortune, Eisav gathered a force of 400 warriors to destroy them. Yaakov was saved by a miracle, as always, and they parted ways once again. At the conclusion of the parsha, the Torah dedicates 43 verses to recording Eisav’s extensive legacy through the generations and their multiple alliances. Our sages relate that when Yaakov realized the enormity of Eisav’s influence throughout the generations he worried how the Jewish nation would fare in their shadow. Here is the teaching as it is recorded by the eleventh-century sage Rashi: The camels of a flax dealer entered a city, laden with flax. The blacksmith wondered: “Where can all this flax be stored?” A clever person answered him: “One spark coming out of your bellows can burn up everything.” Similarly, Yaakov saw all the chieftains written above and wondered, saying, “Who is able to conquer all of them?” What is written afterward [in parshat Vayeishev]? “These are Yaakov’s descendants: Yosef…”; and it says: “The House of Yaakov will be a fire, the House of Yosef a flame, and the House of Eisav will be stubble.” A spark will emanate from Yosef that will destroy and consume all of them. The dramatic saga of the Yaakov and Eisav relationship is an analogy for the struggle between good and evil for all time, and this teaching expresses the physics of these two forces. Although evil may seem like a formidable and intimidating force, it is inherently brittle and corrupt; even just one spark of goodness can consume it all. Evil is dangerous and real. It must be confronted and destroyed. But remember the inherent advantage of goodness and approach the struggle with joyful confidence. World events this week illustrated how inherently weak evil is, and we can apply the same lesson to our personal struggles as well. Never identify with negative traits or vices, because their presence in your life is as permanent as a row of dominoes. One positive good deed, spoken word or even thought can set off a chain reaction to knock down all the nonsense and replace it with divine serenity, goodness, and purpose. Even one spark can do it. Try it. It works.