His hand held the heel of Esau, so they called him "Jacob" [from the Hebrew word 'ekev', meaning 'heel']. (Gen. 25:26)

A Jew's Hebrew name is an expression of the essence of his soul and the theme of his life's work. Was the fact that Jacob emerged from the womb holding on to his twin brother Esau's heel noteworthy enough that his parents named him for this event, meaning that for his whole life he will be described to others as a heel?!

The answer is yes. The service of Jacob - and for all of his descendants - is to draw down G‑dliness even into the lowest levels of this physical world. This is the message of the name "Jacob" (in Hebrew, "Yaakov", made up of the letter yud and the word "ekev"): yud, the first letter of G‑d's name, the source of all holiness, and "ekev", "heel". In other words, Jacob's work is to draw the yud, G‑dliness, into the heel, even to the heel of Esau, the archetype of physicality. The World to Come is created with the letter yud of G‑d's name, while This World is created with the letter hei…

The Shelah wrote that a theme of this week's Torah portion is the idea of tzedaka, expressed by the commandment to give a tithe of 10% of our income to Jewish causes. Rashi explains that the verse, "He [Isaac] found in that year 100 gates, and G‑d blessed him" (Gen. 26:12) is connected to the calculations that Isaac made towards giving tithes. Not only regarding Isaac, but also Abraham (Gen. 14:20) and Jacob (Gen. 28:22) all were as strict about giving tithes as they were about fulfilling all of the commandments even before they were given.

Tithes, a tenth, are connected to the letter yud, whose numerical value is ten. The mitzva of giving tithes will eventually bring us the rewards of Torah, Israel, and the World to Come, which are all connected to the yud. Torah is connected to the Ten Commandments; the Land of Israel, according to the Mishna (Keilim 1:6) is bestowed with ten levels of holiness. The Midrash states that the World to Come is created with the letter yud of G‑d's name, while This World is created with the letter hei. What destroys these same forces is our awareness that they are actually positive experiences…

This is connected to the famous Talmudic expression that three things - Torah, Israel, and the World to Come - can only be attained with the refinement of our character traits that comes with fighting difficulties and tests we experience in This World. What brings the tests are negative energies, or "husks", in the world, and what destroys these same forces is our awareness that they are actually positive experiences and facing up to and overcoming them. This was true for each of the Patriarchs, and, as their descendants, is and will forever be true for us. The idea of overcoming a test returns us to the idea of tzedaka. Realizing that 10% of the money given to us in fact belongs to someone else, and we were just chosen by Heaven to be custodians for the funds is one of the most difficult tests we experience.

Shabbat Shalom, Shaul

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