This week's section is called Vayeshev (and it was established). Hebrew is known to be a special language; in fact, it is called Lashon HaKodesh, the holy language, because it deals with matters of holiness, even reaching the holiness of God Himself. One of its qualities is that each word can refer to different things, so that a phrase read one way means one thing, while read another way, it means something entirely different.
The verse that begins this week's section reads (Genesis 37:1): “So Jacob settled in the land of his father’s settlement, in the land of Canaan.” The Maggid of Mezritch (1710-1772) explains each of these words with a deeper meaning, offering a practical, everyday lesson. To help you understand the commentary, I will separate each word (or group of words) into paragraphs, with their corresponding Hebrews.
“And Jacob settled” (vayeshev Jacob): to settle means that a person stops at a specific level, or in a specific job. Instead of moving forward and changing his mode of service, Jacob settled into a particular way of serving God.
“In the land” (beeretz): This word explains the type of service to God in which Jacob settled: “in the land,” meaning in earthly and worldly matters. A person can deal with the world around them in various ways, but generally there are two: withdrawing from the world (so as not to be affected by it) or becoming involved in the world to refine it. Jacob took the second path; therefore, he decided to “settle down in the land,” to stop and become involved in refining the worldly. The idea of refinement consists of using everything for a divine purpose. Every object (and concept) has within it a divine spark that gives it life. By using that object to, for example, fulfill a mitzvah, a person refines and elevates it, bringing it to the purpose for which it was created.
“of settlement” (megurei): this Hebrew word can also be understood as “gathering”, that is, Jacob was gathering the divine sparks from the mundane around him.
“From his father” (aviv): Here the verse teaches us the reason for Jacob’s attitude: for his father, for God, his Father who is in Heaven. A person may have many motivations for observing a mitzvah (because they like it, because they were taught it, because they fear divine punishment, etc.), but the highest motivation is for God Himself, without any personal inclination or interest, not even to gain a reward in the world to come.
“In the land of Canaan” (beeretz Canaan): In Hebrew, a Canaanite is a merchant. This word points to a golden rule in the Hasidic world. Just as in commerce, a person must first give money, part with their own possessions, to obtain an object, in the same way, in the service of God, a person must set aside their personal interests, their own benefit, to help another. Jacob left his father and mother's house to go to Haran, the worst place on earth, to live with Laban, the worst uncle one could have, to start his family, whose members were all righteous. If Jacob's problem was living with Esau, his brother, they could have done the opposite: Esau could have gone to Haran and Jacob could have stayed studying with his father, Isaac. However, this was not the ultimate intention: Jacob had to refine Laban and Haran, even against his own benefit.
Although Jacob had the capacity to achieve higher levels of service to God, he understood the needs of his time and place, and found in simple tasks in Haran a way to refine his surroundings. It is precisely in these simple things that the very essence of God is found, the Absolute Simplicity of the Creator.