A vort from the Rebbe on this week's parsha. And the vort I'm going to say is a very famous vort, one of the most famous verter of פשוט פשטים and ideas of the Rebbe, but it's always good to repeat it because it's a very important lesson. In the beginning of the parsha it speaks about Yaakov Avinu going to Charan, and it says the sun set, so he lay down. And it says ויקח מאבני המקום וישם מראשתיו. He took from the stones of the place and he put it on his head, by his head. And Rashi says, עשאן כמין מרזב סביב לראשו. He made it like, what it means is like a little fence around his head. Why did he have to surround his head? שהיה ירא מפני חיות רעות, he was afraid of the wild bad animals. So the Rebbe asks a question: why did Yaakov do it on his only on his head? צו ממה נפשך: if he would rely on the promise of Hashem, or he had bitachon in Hashem that Hashem would protect him, he didn't need any protection at all. He didn't even have to do it around his head. If he didn't want to rely on miracles, so then he should have got something to protect his whole body, he should have made a circle, a fence around his whole body.

And the Rebbe explains it על פי חסידות. There's a pasuk in Tehillim that says, יגיע כפיך כי תאכל אשריך וטוב לך. The toil of your hands if you eat from that, if you work with toil of your hands, you are lucky and it's good for you. And it says in Chassidus, why does it say יגיע כפיך, with the toil of your hands? When you work, you work with every part of your body, you work with your brain, why does it say with the toil of your hands? To tell you that when it comes to get involved in parnasa, making a living, involved in the gashmiyut, you only have to do it with the toil of your hands, not with your head. Obviously you have to use your head to know what you're doing, but it shouldn't be involved in it with your head. You shouldn't be completely involved in these gashmiyusdige things. You have to be careful that your head should not be completely immersed into the parnasa more than a person needs. Because your head has to be always ready for learning Torah and doing mitzvot and avodat Hashem. You have to, your head has to be involved in that. And when a person behaves that way, that יגיע כפיך, that it's your hands only that's really involved, but your head is in holier things, then אשריך וטוב לך, then it's you're lucky and it's good to you.

And a famous story that once there was a chasid of the Rebbe Rashab that he was a chasid, learned Chassidus, etc., etc. He davent properly, he did in avodat Hashem, but then he went into business, he opened a business of kaloshn. Kaloshn means galoshes, boots. And he got so involved in it that in yechidus, he came once to the Rebbe Rashab and asked him all kinds of questions about his business. And the Rabbi Rashab says to him, \"You know, I heard of feet in קאלאשן, I never heard of a head in קאלאשן.\" It was an expression that your whole head is involved in it. And that changed him back that he went back to his proper avodat Hashem. But that's the whole idea: your head should not be אריינגעטאן, completely immersed in these גשמיות'דיגע things. And that's what Yaakov Avinu did. He surrounded his head to protect his head. Yaakov knew that he's going to Charan, he's going to have to work for his parnasa with all the hardships that are there. So he made a a fence around his head, meaning to say he protected his head. He worked on that his head should be protected from all these problems and hardships that come, and to make sure that it'll only be יגיע כפיך, and the head should be open and place involved in learning Torah and mitzvot.

And also it says, what did he use to protect his head? It says he put it אבני המקום, the stones of the place. We know that stones are דומם. These are unmovable objects, objects that have seemingly have no חיות. And what it means in avodat Hashem: bitul. Bitul is something, give yourself over to Hashem and that's it. So אבנים, it says in chasidut, represent bitul. And the way to protect his head that it should be in the proper way, if it's based on bitul and self-nullification to Hashem. And that's what the pasuk says: he took from the אבני המקום, took the concept of אבנים, of bitul, and that he put around his head, davka around his head. So he protect his head that his head should not be involved in the things that, the gashmiyut more than you're supposed to for your pashut physical work that you have to do, but your head should be basically involved and immersed in inyanim of kedusha, in Torah, mitzvot, and avodat Hashem.