If we want to live, if we want to represent God in this world as we are supposed to do, we must stop succumbing to greed and foolishness. We must stop worshipping and craving material success. We must learn from our father Jacob.
Israel earned its inheritance, the tradition of Abraham and Isaac, because we Jews fought and continue to fight the angel representing our own human failings. Jacob became Israel. Not without pain, not without scars, not without wounds, but the Torah testifies about us: “You have striven with the Divine and with man and you have overcome.”
And so we must merit the name Israel. It bears repeating: If we are to rise to our inherited position as the moral and spiritual leaders of the world, the Chosen Nation that represents God, then we must act like it and become Israel, defeating the angel who would try to drag us down into the mud.
Nations of the world, do not make a mistake. With all due respect and humility, I tell you that your mocking words will fall upon your own head. Do not make the mistake of pointing the finger at Jacob. As the prophet tells us, “Is there any doubt that on that day … Esau’s mountain will be cut down…” As it will be with Esau, so it will be with Ishmael. All who hate us will swallow their own venom.
But we must speak and act in the name of God. We must give our Father in heaven nachas by acting with complete righteousness.
When we do that, we will soon see the day of the Final Redemption of all mankind, the day of Moshiach ben Dovid, when the entire world will be bathed in the eternal light emanating from the holy Temple standing in glory on the Temple Mount in the restored and purified Land of Israel.
May we see it soon, this year.
