A vort from the Rebbe on this week's parshah, 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 parshah 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. 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? שירא 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? צי מה 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, didn't even have to do it around his head. If he didn't want to rely on miracles, so then he should have done something to protect his whole body, he should have made a circle, a fence around his whole body. 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 the toil of your hands, you are lucky and it's good for you. And it says in chassidut, 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 parnasah, 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 gashmiyusdike things. You have to be careful that your head should not be completely immersed into the parnasah 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, 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 chassid of the Rebbe Rashab that he was a chassid, learned chassidut, etc., etc. He davent properly, he did an avodat Hashem. But then he went into business, he opened a business of kaloshen. Kaloshen means galoshes, boots. And he got so involved in it that at 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 kaloshen. I never heard of a head in kaloshen.\" 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 areingetan, completely immersed in these גשמיותדיקע 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 parnasah 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 yegia kapecha, 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 giving yourself over to Hashem, and that's it. So avanim, it says in chassidut, represent bitul. And the way to protect his head that it should be in the proper way, if it's based on bitul and nullification, self-nullification to Hashem. And that's what the pasuk says: he took from the אבני המקום, took the concept of avanim, 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 kedushah, and Torah, and mitzvot, and avodat Hashem.