Retailers and business owners were worried…and for good reason. Super Storm Sandy had just ripped through the region, leaving behind a trail of devastation and destruction. People were still struggling to put their lives and daily routines back together. The major concern for retailers was whether consumers would come out and make significant purchases over Black Friday and the following weekend. After all, this was the defining season, one that would determine for many stores whether the year would end in the ”black” or ”red.”  To make matters worse, all the talk about the  ”fiscal cliff” and the potential tax ramifications at the beginning of 2013 gave retailers another reason to be on edge about consumers’ reluctance to open their wallets. 

Indeed, as it turned out, all-time sales records were set this year. To the total relief and joy of retailers, this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales numbers were the strongest ever, with an estimated 247 million shoppers accounting for $59.1 billion in sales! At least this past weekend, people were thinking about purchasing and spending. 

With this backdrop, I think that we will find a relatively obscure narrative from this week’s parsha quiet fascinating. The verse states that Yaacov (Jacob) was left alone (Beraishis 32, 25).  Rashi ,the great classical commentator on the Torah, cites the Talmud, which explains that Jacob had forgotten some small earthenware jugs, and had gone back to retrieve them; thus, the verse states that he was left alone. Incredible!  Yaacov, an extremely wealthy person, personally traveled back, out of his way, to retrieve small earthenware jugs? Why? If they were valuable, either due to their inherent worth or sentimental value, perhaps then we could make sense of this, but we find no indication of this being the case at all! So why would a man of Yaacov’s stature do something like this? 

 To explain this, some of the classical commentaries share the following insight. When Hashem (G-d) grants us things – talent, unique abilities, or material wealth – we must recognize and realize that they are given to us for a reason: in order to empower us to perfect ourselves and become the best we can be. Everything –  whether large or small, from the most expensive to most trifling –  was gifted to us as an indispensible tool to be used in fulfilling our potential. Nothing that we have is ”extra.” And just as we are responsible to exercise all of our abilities and talents properly, so too are we responsible for carefully safeguarding and utilizing all of our material possessions – even something as seemingly trivial and insignificant as Yaacov’s small jugs! 

Wishing you a wonderful Shabbos!