A vort of the Rebbe on this week's parshah, Parshas Vayeitzei. This is one of the famous sichot of the Rebbe, written in Likkutei Sichot, the first volume, so this is a very, very famous sichah and it shows the Rebbe's whole tsugang in many, many other sichot. In the beginning of the parshah, when it talks about Yaakov going to Charan, in the middle of the way, he lay down to sleep, and the pasuk says: ויקח מאבני המקום, he took from the stones of the place, וישם מראשתיו, and he put it around his head. Why did he put the stones around his head? So Rashi says: עשאן כמין מרזב סביב לראשו, he made it like a gutter pipe around his head, שירא מפני חיות רעות, because he was afraid from wild animals. Now why Rashi mentions the word מרזב, why specifically a מרזב, a gutter pipe, that the Maharsha, kulam explains, but that's not noge'a to our inyan. But the main thing that Rashi says here that the reason he put the stones around his head because he was afraid of wild animals, and therefore he wanted to protect himself, so he put these stones around his head. But the Rebbe asks the she'elah: Why did he only do something to protect his head? Mamah nafshach, if he wanted to rely completely on Hashem, that Hashem will protect him, he didn't need anything, even around his head he shouldn't have put anything. And if he didn't want to rely on a miracle, he wanted to rely on teva, on nature, so you've got to do things naturally, and therefore he had to do something to protect himself, so why only around his head? Why didn't he protect himself by surrounding him on his whole body? Why davka his head?

And the Rebbe explains this על פי חסידות, על פי עבודה. He says like this: there is a pasuk in Tehillim that says, יגיע כפיך כי תאכל אשריך וטוב לך. The literal translation is from the toil of your hands you shall eat, then אשריך וטוב לך, you are lucky and it's good to you. And Chasidut explains that what is the pasuk telling us? The pasuk says you should work, toil with your hands. That means when you get involved in making a living, getting involved in your parnasah, it has to be only יגיע כפיך. You have to put your hands into it, you've got to toil with your hands, but not יגיע ראשך, not with toiling with your head. Which means your head has to be completely immersed in Torah and avodah, in Torah and mitzvot. And you have to be careful that your head should not be completely involved in your parnasah more than you have to. Avadai you have to use your head when you work and make a living, but that shouldn't be your main focus. The main focus should be Torah and avodah, that's where your head should be. And the work has to be with your hands. And when a person behaves that way, the pasuk says: אשריך וטוב לך, you are lucky and it's good to you. So the word יגיע כפיך means you should only toil with your hands, and your head should be involved in higher inyanim.

As the story is that there was once a chassid of the Rabbi Rashab that got involved in business and he opened a company with boots, kaloshen, galoshen. But he got too much involved in it, and he once came to the Rabbi Rashab in yechidus and he was discussing his business, so the Rabbi Rashab looked at him and he said, \"I heard of feet in kaloshen, feet in boots, but I never heard of a head in kaloshen, a head in boots.\" And he realized the message and he changed. But to get too much involved and that becomes your life, you have to do it, but your head has to be mainly involved in Torah and mitzvot.

And that explains why Yaakov Avinu did something to protect his head. Yaakov Avinu knew that he's going to Charan, he'll have to work hard there for his parnasah, for his livelihood by Lavan HaArami. So therefore, to prepare himself for that, he did something to protect his head, which means that he did something that his head should be protected from being involved too much in the development of his parnasah, and he was doing things to guarantee that his parnasah should be יגיע כפיך, should be with the rest of his body when he has to work, practically he'll have to work, but his head should be open for Torah and mitzvot, Torah and avodat Hashem, and that's what he should be involved, as it actually was. And the way he did it, how did he protect himself, his head, is through stones. What's the inyan of stones? We know stones are domem. Stone, stone is an inanimate object, has no chayut, basically it has no ego, has no yeshut. That represents bitul, bitul to Hashem. That represents kabalat ol malchut shamayim. You accept the yoke of Hashem without mixing in your own ego, your, even your own understanding. You do it because you're given over completely to Hashem. And that's why when we want to show that we're given over to Hashem, in Shemoneh Esreh we say the expression, ונפשי כעפר לכל תהיה, my nefesh, I should be like dust to everyone. If you want to show that I'm nothing, I'm batel, you use the word like dust, because dust is domem. And that's what he did here, that Yaakov Avinu, when he was going to protect his head from being involved too much in the gashmiyut and the work that he's doing, he did it through stones. That means, in order for the involvement in the gashmiyut, in the parnasah, should not have an effect on the person to change his level, he shouldn't get too much involved, it's not enough if you serve Hashem because you understand and you have you're a baal sechel, etc., etc., you have certain feelings, you have to do it with kabbalat ol. If you have the proper bittul to Hashem, the proper קבלת עול מלכות שמים, like a stone, which has no yeshut, no ego, if you have that kabbalat ol, that's the way to guarantee that you will not get involved too much, and your main part of yourself will be involved in avodat Hashem, and at the gashmiyut part, you will only be with your outer kochot, which is referred to in the pasuk as יגיע כפיך, with your hands.