No Gift Is Small 

There is a popular midrash quoted in a number of early sources that tells us, “Hashem said to Yaakov: You endangered your life [nosata nafshecha] for small jugs for My sake. I will repay your children with a small jug in the days of the Chashmonaim.”

This Chazal begs for an explanation on at least two fronts. First, what is the correlation between the pachim ketanim Yaakov went back to retrieve at Maavor Yabok before his historical encounter with the Sar shel Eisav and the lonely pach shemen found by the Chashmonaim that became the catalyst for our Chanukah celebration for all time? Second, what did Chazal mean when they said Yaakov went back to retrieve those small jugs “for Hashem’s sake”? According to the simple narrative in the Chumash, he simply returned to pick up what he had accidentally left behind!

We must also understand why Yaakov needed to go back, in any event. He was not lacking for wealth; a few dollars’ worth of jugs would hardly make a dent in his portfolio, which already held more cattle and property than he would ever need.

Perhaps all these questions answer one another.

I recall reading about a young Belzer chassid who received a special coin from the Rebbe as a gift in honor of his bar mitzvah. An older chassid coveted the coin and offered the young boy a significant amount of money for it. Young as he was, the boy was smart enough to realize that the Rebbe’s coin was worth more than money, and he turned the man down by simply telling him, “It is a gift from the Rebbe and it is not for sale at any price!” The man understood it would be futile to continue his effort and quickly gave up.