“Yaakov was a simple man who lived in tents.”
– this means the tent of Sheim and the tent of Eiver (Rashi)

We learn from the commentators in Pirke Avos that Avraham is the Pillar of Chesed, Yitzchak is the Pillar of Divine Service, and Yaakov is the Pillar of Torah. We see that Yaakov is the Pillar of Torah from this week’s parsha – Yaakov lived in the tents of Sheim and Eiver. The tents of Sheim and Eiver during this generation were the main yeshivas that existed and this is the place where Yaakov could always be found. Yaakov loved learning Torah and it was publicly known that if you want to know where he is when he is late for dinner, go to the yeshiva and you will find him there.

Knowing that Yaakov loved going to the yeshiva, the end of the parsha makes no sense at all. We learn that Yaakov’s evil brother, Esav, wanted to kill him. So what did Yaakov do? He ran to the yeshiva and learned in yeshiva for fourteen years. Now think, where would be the first place Esav would go to find Yaakov? Esav knew that Yaakov lived in the yeshiva so he would have run there first to see if he was there. The question is then obvious: if Yaakov is trying to run away from Esav, why was the first place he ran to, the most obvious hiding spot?

The answer is really quite simple: Esav could have been standing next to Yaakov with his knife raised ready to kill Yaakov, but it would have done no good. The reason is because learning Torah protects a person from all harm. As long as Yaakov was not interrupted from his learning, nothing could harm him, and this is why Yaakov ran to the yeshiva. It was the safest place for him. Once he started learning Torah, he was protected on all sides.

Dovid HaMelech was told that he was going to die on a Shabbos, but he was not told which Shabbos he would die on. Therefore, every Friday afternoon, he would sit down and start learning for the next 25 hours until Shabbos was over. He did this because he knew that as long as he was learning, the Angel of Death could not touch him. It came to the day when the Angel of Death was to kill Dovid, but the angel had a difficult time because Dovid did not interrupt his learning at all. Finally, the angel needed to make a wind blow into a tree which made Dovid look up from his learning. At that moment, Dovid passed away.

So many stories exist of people learning and being saved from terrible tragedies. I once met the son of a man that worked in the World Trade Center. On the morning of September 11, this man decided that instead of going straight up to work, he would sit in the subway station and learn for a little bit. Well, during his learning, a plane flew into the building he worked in and he is still alive today because of that learning he did.

Learning Torah is very powerful. When times are going bad and all seems hopeless, open a book, turn on a Torah tape, or download a class online. Torah protects a person more than anything else in this world can protect someone!

Good Shabbos!
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