Ad he slept on that night (Bereshis 32:14)
And he slept that night in the camp (Bereshis 32:22)

Yaakov seems to be sleeping a lot in this week’s parsha. I think it’s to teach an important lesson – Yaakov’s life in this week’s parsha is full of stressful moments. He’s not sure if his brother is going to kill him, but Yaakov is still able to sleep at night. How can he do this? It is because he has full faith and trust in Hashem that Hashem will protect him. This does not mean that Yaakov was not concerned and did not do anything. He prepared, but at the same time, he felt confidence that whatever Hashem did is for the best.

Yaakov’s behavior teaches an important lesson. Yaakov did not just sit back and say “Hashem will take care of everything and I have nothing to worry about.” Yaakov prepared for meeting his brother – he sent him gifts, he prayed, and he prepared for war. He did his proper effort, but after he did his effort, he calmly went to sleep. That is because he realized there was nothing more for him to worry about. Would he be successful? He did not know. Was his brother going to attack him? He did not know, but this did not make Yaakov lose sleep. That is because Yaakov knew that a human’s job is to put in effort – G-d’s job is make the results. We do not control results.

Most worries people have are regarding results. No matter how much worrying you do, though, you cannot decide what will happen. My Rabbi from North Miami Beach likes to say the following: “Plans are Man’s, but the odds are G-d’s”. We need to make the preparations, but after that, it is out of our hands. We don’t always get the result we want, but G-d knows best and He wants us to get this particular result. This is an important lesson to remember anytime we start to worry about something.

Good Shabbos
-y.e.s.
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