There is a famous joke about a general in the American army who came to speak before the soldiers of a prestigious military academy. He told them that the army is preparing for the possibility of a third world war. Against who will the war be? Against China. Fear filled the room – how can America defeat China, when they have 1.3 billion people and America has only 300 million? The general told them that in 1967, in a war lasting 6 days, 3 million Jews defeated 300 million Arabs. The audience calmed down, until someone got up and asked: "Where will we get so many Jews?"
 

And how, really, could the few defeat the numerous?
 

Our parsha appears to give the answer. Yaakov prepares for the encounter with Esav, a war between the few against the many. Yaakov is wary of this confrontation, and prepares himself with a gift, with prayer and for war.
 

In the end, the encounter was warm and friendly. Instead of biting Yaakov, Esav kissed him.  What made this happen?
 

In his article, HaRav Elchanan Samet maintains that the night encounter with Esav's angel, before Yaakov faced Esav himself, was what decided the outcome of the conflict. When Yaakov conquered Esav's spirit (which was embodied by Esav's angel) the result was that the physical struggle declined in its importance. When Esav's angel concedes regarding the blessings (according to Rashi), Esav sees no more point in fighting.

We saw a similar encounter in the previous parsha as well, when HaShem appears to Lavan, and Lavan himself admits that the "spiritual" meeting prevented him from harming Yaakov: "I have the power to harm you, but the G-d of your father said to me last night: beware lest you speak with Yaakov for the good or the bad."
 

From here we learn that at the root of the physical struggle stands the spiritual struggle, and when Am Israel is victorious in it, the result is that the military conflict becomes easier.
 

We find the identical concept about Chanukah, when, as we know, we had two miracles: the miracle of victory and the miracle of the oil pot.
 

Which miracle was more important? Certainly the miracle of the war, which encompassed salvation for Am Israel and the return of the kingdom to Am Israel, by virtue of which we were able to purify Beit HaMikdash. So why is it specifically the miracle of the oil pot which we commemorate most conspicuously by lighting the Chanukkiah?
 

On the other hand, when we come to thank HaShem on the holiday of Chanukah, in the Tefillot and Birkat HaMazon, we add "Al HaNissim" – where the miracle of the Menorah is hardly mentioned. The focus is mainly on the victory: "the many (who were delivered by HaShem) into the hands of the few, the defiled into the hands of the holy, etc." Where did the miracle of the oil pot disappear to?

The Maharal from Prague (Chidushei Aggadot 21) explains that we didn't understand properly the two miracles which were performed for Am Israel: they weren't two separate miracles - the oil pot and the war - but in fact they were all one. The Maharal says that after the victory in the war, "rational" people could have claimed that it was the result of "my strength and the power of my hand" and would have offered all kinds of rational explanations for the victory. Therefore HaShem gave us a sign that He fought the war with us "and we can say that the main reason that they (the Sages) established the days of Chanukkah is that the victory over the Greeks appeared to be by virtue of their (the Maccabees) strength and courage, and not because HaShem did this, and therefore the miracle of the candles was performed, so that all will know that it was all a miracle."
 

Still we can ask: why was the miracle performed specifically on the Menorah? From the words of the Maharal it seems that there is an additional message, that the struggle between Israel and Greece was first and foremost a spiritual-cultural conflict "and darkness – this is the Greek exodus (rule) which darkened the eyes of Israel with their decrees, in which they said to them: write on the horn of the bull that you have no part in the G-d of Israel" (Bereshis Rabbah 2^nd parsha). But the purpose of the Menorah is to illuminate, especially the Chanukkiah which is placed at the entrance of the home at the time of year when darkness begins to dominate the world, and it announces HaShem's providence in the world. 
 

The miracle of the oil-pot reveals what stood at the foundation of the war. The physical victory emanated from the spiritual victory.
 

However, the spiritual struggle is very difficult. Whereas the physical battle has winners and losers "since every enemy which you have, when you defeat him once or twice, will leave you alone and will not think of fighting you, as he knows that you are stronger than him and he despairs of defeating or overcoming you. But the evil inclination will never give up, whether he conquers you a hundred times, or you conquer it. Because if it conquers you it will kill you, and if you defeat it once, it will lie in wait for you all your days to defeat you" (Hovot HaLevavot, Sha'ar Yichud HaMa'aseh 85).
 

So we see in our parsha – even though Yaakov succeeds in overcoming Esav's physical strength, the spiritual battle didn't end. Esav proposes to Yaakov: "And he said: let us journey and go, and I will go alongside you." Esav knows that even though he cannot hurt Yaakov in battle, he can harm him spiritually by going with Yaakov and having a negative influence upon him.
 

Yaakov is aware of this and rejects Esav's offer.  Moreover, Yaakov prepared himself and prayed for protection against this kind of injury: "Rescue me please from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esav." HaBeit HaLevi wrote: "We can understand Yaakov's intention: when he knew that Esav was coming toward him, he knew that he could not escape from one of two eventualities: either Esav will attack him and try to kill him, or Esav will reconcile with him and his anger will subside and they will dwell together in tranquility and fraternity like two brothers. And Yaakov feared both possibilities, since Esav's affection and favor are also to Yaakov's detriment… and afterwards when Esav reconciled with him, he asked Yaakov to join him and said 'let us journey and go, and I will go alongside you' and the two of them would be together. And Yaakov put him off with words and was saved from this as well, as the Torah says: And Esav returned on that day to his way to Seir."
 

Today as well we are experiencing two conflicts, a spiritual one and a physical one. The physical one is easy to discern, but we must muster strength for the spiritual struggle, which itself has direct influence on the physical one.

Do you have a comment or question on the shiur?
Comment below and we'll join the discussion