And the children struggled within her (Bereshis 25:22)

Rashi informs us that Rivka had an issue when she was pregnant. She would walk by a house of idols and would feel kicking. She would then walk by a shul or Bais Medrash and feel kicking. She wondered what was going on… was her child confused? She went to inquire from Hashem what was happening and found out that she had twins. Esav would kick when she walked by idols and Yaakov would kick when she walked by a shul.

Rabbi Dovid Goldwasser points out that the reason Esav kicked makes sense. He wanted to leave his mother so he could go worship idols. But why did Yaakov kick when she walked by a shul? Yaakov wanted to learn Torah, but he was learning Torah. When a child is inside his mother’s womb, he is learning Torah from an angel. What could better than learning from an angel? So why did he want to leave?

Rav Ovadia Yosef answers that Yaakov wanted to merit to toil in Torah on his own. The learning is only part of the process. It is the toiling which is the other part. A person needs to work to get greater. Yaakov did not want to be “spoon-fed” the whole Torah, even if it was from the greatest teacher in the world. He wanted to work for it. People who work for something are always more successful than those who do not.

Someone once came to Rav Scheinberg asking for a blessing to be a wise person. The Rav asked what type of wise person did he want to be. The boy said he wanted to be wise like the Rav. Rav Scheinberg answered that he does not need a blessing for that, the boy just needs to do what he did. He would say “Good morning” to his learning partner each day and then learn for 17 hours straight.

We sometimes want a blessing to be great, but the greatest blessing we can give ourselves is working hard.

Good Shabbos!
-y.e.s.
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