“I acquired oxen, donkeys, sheep, servants and maidservants. I have sent [these messengers] to tell my master, to find favor in your eyes.” (Bereishis 32:6)

What defines the essence of a person? For example, there are some people who speak lashon hara, and we call them “baalei lashon hara”, and there are others who also speak lashon hara, yet we don’t call them “baalei lashon hara”. What determines their receiving this ‘label’? Usually, those who speak lashon hara all the time get the label of a “baal lashon hara”. But on a deeper level, a baal lashon hara is one who the lashon hara excites, possesses, and keeps them busy. These people are the real baalei lashon hara. In other words, we define a person by his essence, which in this case depends upon his desire to be involved with “lashon hara”.

The gemora (Kiddushin 40a) tells us that if one feels a strong urge to sin, he should dress in black clothing, go to a place where he isn’t known, and do as his heart desires in that location. There are those who explain that Chazal told a person to do this to protect himself from further damage. If a person has an urge to sin, and he dresses up and goes to a different environment to do so, there is a safeguard (at least a temporary one) that when he comes back home, he divorces himself of the sinful persona. He sees himself as a Tzadik, and he committed the sin in a different reality. Chazal wanted the sinner to have this clear distinction and know that what he did in that other place is not who he really is.

There are some people who not only do both mitzvos and aveiros, but sometimes even some of their mitzvos have aveiros in them, and some of their aveiros have mitzvos in them. For instance, a person who while giving charity shames the poor person. He has done the mitzvah of giving charity to the poor, but at the same time he has sinned by making this poor person feel bad. The same can happen the other way around. A person could embarrass another person in public in order to prevent him from sinning (in a situation where it is not halachically permissible to embarrass him). However, the righteous person takes stock of what he does and keeps everything properly organized in his mind.

To be considered kosher, an animal must possess two signs: split hooves and chew its cud. The camel has just one – chewing its cud, and the pig has just one – split hooves. Almost all other animals either have both or none. The Meshech Chochmah asks a puzzling question: Yaakov mentions that he has oxen and donkeys, but omits that he has camels. We know that he has camels because shortly thereafter he sent Eisav camels as part of his peace offering. So why didn’t he mention them? The Meshech Chochmah answers that Yaakov was telling Eisav, “Though I lived together with Lovon who tried to cause me to sin, I still kept all 613 mitzvos.  Vayehi li shor v’chamor – I have a 100% permissible Kosher ox (both simanim), and a 100% forbidden non-Kosher donkey (neither siman). Everything is categorized as clearly permissible or clearly forbidden. Ambiguity does not exist in my realm. Whatever you try to get me to do, I will know with complete clarity if it is on the permitted or forbidden side of the fence.”

Eisav on the other hand was plagued by this mixture. While he was great at honoring his parents because his head was in the right place, he was at the same time a murderer because he couldn’t control his immediate desires. In fact, the verse in Psalms refers to him as a pig.

As we read Parshas Vayishlach, I think it is important for us to assess if it is clear in our minds what is really a mitzvah and what is really an aveira. We should strive to clean up our ambiguities to ensure that everything we do ends up on the correct side of the fence dividing between permitted and forbidden.