In this week’s Sedra, Yaakov Avinu meets Lavan and his family. The first member of that family that he encounters is Rachel. Yaakov tells Rachel upon meeting her that he is her father’s “brother”. Yet that was not so. Yaakov Avinu wasn’t Lavan’s brother, but rather his nephew.  Rashi offers two explanations: the simpler of the two is that Yaakov Avinu was using the word “brother” to mean relative; the second explanation is that he was indicating through use of the term that he was a match for Lavan. Should Lavan act deceptively, then he, Yaakov, could beat Lavan at deception.  Should Lavan be nice to him he would treat him like a brother.

In last week’s Sedra (Toldos) the Torah tells us that Yaakov was “Ish Tam”. Rashi explains that ‘Ish Tam’ means that he wasn’t fluent in deception and lying. There seems to be a stark contradiction here: either Yaakov knew how to lie or he didn’t? If he wasn’t fluent in deception what made him think he would be a match for Lavan?

In life we are all born with a personality particular to each of us.  We have natural character traits. Some people are born with nice personalities. They are naturally nice people and they naturally do good things. Others however are born with more difficult personalities. They may be mean or complex, and naturally veer towards evil. Yaakov Avinu naturally was good and therefore wasn’t comfortable with, or inclined toward falsehood.  Eisav, however, had a more complex nature that made it much easier to lie. It wouldn’t be fair if being born with a good nature would mean that one is destined to be a Tzadik, or if being born with a bad nature would mean that someone is destined to be a Rasha. Furthermore, it would undermine the whole idea of “Bechira”, of free will.

Each and every one of us has the ability to go against his nature and to become the opposite of what his nature would dictate. This being the case, it follows that one can also control how much, when, and how far one wishes to go against one’s nature.

Yaakov Avinu didn’t naturally know how to lie; he was naturally a truth teller. However, Yaakov Avinu, who aspired to be truly great, understood that he might sometimes have to deviate from his nature. Yaakov Avinu understood that there would be times when being deceptive might be necessary – no matter how unnatural and contrary to his nature this was.

Had Yaakov Avinu not been able to go against his nature, he wouldn’t have become Yitzchok’s bechor, and would thus not have received Birchos Avrohom. Yaakov Avinu wouldn’t have been the father of Klal-Yisroel.  Had Yaakov Avinu not been deceptive towards Lavan, who knows what would have been with “Netzach Yisroel”?

True greatness doesn’t just come from merely being good. True greatness comes from doing great things.

A very warm Good Shabbos, Rabbi Y. Dov Krakowski