Midrash relates that when the trees
of the forest first heard the clanging of iron implements they trembled with
fear. “Woe is us,” they moaned in distress.
“They are preparing to cut off our
young loves,” one tree called out.
“If it is only the iron we hear,”
another tree said, “we have nothing to fear.
After all, they cannot chop down a tree with a piece of iron. It only is dangerous when the iron is
attached to something which comes from our own kind – a wooden handle.”
Moral: If we Jews are only
concerned with the prayer, “Deliver us from the hands of Esau,” our tragedy
would not be so great. The misfortune
lies is a handle of our own kind being held by the hands of Esau. Often we find one of our own kind being used
by the enemy’s hands.
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