רפואה מן התורה
Healing from the Torah
By Rabbi Adam Ruditsky
Jacob
while traveling to Haran from Beersheba stopped one night to sleep and had a
profound dream. Many of us I am sure have
played the game “Chutes and Ladders,” a game that is based on Jacob’s dream
here in this parsha. In this
dream Jacob encounters angels ascending and descending a ladder that affirms the
relationship between heaven and earth, but also reminding Jacob that he too is personally
connected to the heavenly realm. In this
dream God tells Jacob, “I am with you, and will protect you wherever you go, and will
bring you back into this land; for I will not forsake you.” Jacob says that he will respond only “If
God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me
bread to eat, and cloths to put on” (cf. Genesis 28:12-16). Jacob’s response is conditional, but on
what? What was Jacob’s expectation of
God being with him? How did Jacob
understand the idea of being protected wherever he goes? In fact, it may have been that Jacob’s disassociation
with God for 20 years after the death of his son Joseph was the result of an
unmet expectation, after all God did say, “I will protect you wherever you
go” (cf. Genesis 37:35 and 46:1). I
do not think that it is unfair to say Jacob felt God had failed him by not protecting
his son from death. As we continue to
honor Rabbi
Jonathan Sacks, z’l, of blessed memory, it is he who said that expectations can
“generate a mood of betrayal and resentment.” Did this dream in some way sow the seeds of
resentment for Jacob?
Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg and Nachum Sarna, two
Jewish voices of today, have different views on the interchange between God and
Jacob. Zornberg writes that Jacob
understood this promise to mean that with God’s help his “daily needs of
existence, food and clothing, the minutiae of human experience” would be
provided for (also see Gen. R 69:6). Sarna
writes that Jacob’s dream speaks to a temporal need for sustenance in his “present
predicament,” which likewise means food and shelter. Zornberg reflects on the dialog further between
God and Jacob that began with אָנֹכִי עִמָּךְ (anochi im’mach), “I am with you,” words
that were not spoken to either his grandfather Abraham or his father Isaac. Midrash teaches that when Jacob made his vow
in response to God’s promise it was personal, which is why it was to “The Mighty One of Jacob” (see Gen. R.
70:1). Likewise the Midrash further places
a greater emphasis on Jacob’s response to God as being more than just simply “If God will be with
me.” The language of the Midrash
reads more as “if these
conditions are carried out” (that is Jacob’s “daily needs of existence,
food and clothing,” he will) “raise up and embrace his vow” (cf. Gen. R. 70:4). Again, Jacob replies with a conditional
response.
For Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg the words “I am
with you” on a deeper level “reveals an electric change in human life, a
new sense of God involved in the steps of the human journey, Jacob is no longer
his own man; he goes on divine business.”
“Divine business” for Zornberg goes beyond Sarna’s “present predicament”
for Jacob, which can perhaps help us to better know what God meant by, וּשְׁמַרְתִּיךָ (oosh’martie’cha), “I
will protect you” (cf. Gen. 28:15). How
will God protect Jacob? Sarna would say
that imbedded in that promise are words of a “future” national promise to watch
over the Jewish people although in the immediate it was for Jacob’s current
needs. Zornberg refers to those immediate needs as a
“microscopic matter,” suggesting that there must be other needs for protection beyond the
basics. In that view Zornberg would say that God protected Jacob by
giving him a sense of awareness beyond his physical needs, so that when he “goes
out” (וַיֵּצֵא יַעֲקֹב, Yayeitzei Yaakov)
“into the world of darkness and exile, (he would know that) order and
coherence are endangered.” In other
words, Zornberg is positing that God protected Jacob (oosh’martie’cha)
as he journeyed through a broken world (darkness) after leaving his home
(exile) by providing him with a sense of awareness to protect him along the way as opposed to magically removing Jacob from the unfairness of life. While Sarna interprets “I will protect you” as the
immediate provision of Jacobs needs as well as the future needs of the Jewish
people, Zornberg understands “I will protect you” to be about Jacob’s
immediate provisions as well as his ongoing need for wisdom though out his life.
Is Zornberg’s view a viable way of reading the
text? It says in Pirkei Avot 3:1. “Know from where
you come, and where you are going, and before whom you are destined to give an
account and reckoning.” I think when we give an account of our
actions it is just not to our sense of Other, but also to ourselves, knowing
where we come from and where we are going is surely an act of awareness. Jacob lived in a broken world as he journeyed
through his own wilderness and needed to be aware of the uncertainly of life
ahead of him, which tragically would include the deception by his other sons
regrading Joseph’s death. Recalling the
words from Rabbi David Woznica from an article in the Jewish Journal about expectation, he wrote, “Can we believe in God after the Holocaust? I believe we can. The
questions is: Can we believe in humanity?”
Knowing what is before us must include recognizing, and accepting, the
imperfections of others as well as ourselves.
Last week the world was told that by the
end of the year there will be a vaccines available for the Coronavirus, causing
a new sense of expectation that maybe we can go back to some assemblance of
normal. As an essential worker, I wonder
what the expectation of my employer will be, will I have to take the
vaccine? I read an article the other day
about our current times that said, “it seems we no longer agree on what is true…we are at odds over
whether an election has been won or lost,” further saying that “polarization,
coupled with the social isolation” has left people feeling “more alone than
ever.” The expectations of things
getting fixed is causing great stress on so many levels. But even in normal times as people we live in a
world of expectations, albeit from a partner, children, family, friends, an
employer, an employee, religious leaders, a faith/social community or support
group, the casher at the local market or the person making a left hand turn in
front of us; of course, like with Jacob, let’s not forget about God. Unmet expectations because the other party
failed to deliver according to our standards, or even we did not meet our own,
can set us up for disappointment and/or resentment that will have negative results.
Zornberg’s take is that
when Jacob journeys “into the world of darkness” (brokenness) he must be aware that his own sense of “order and coherence,” which at one point or another will be “endangered,” has merit. Rabbi Philip
Berg, the founder of the Kabbalah Center, taught that while Jacob was in Canaan
he only needed spiritual support, but when he journeyed into other lands he
needed both spiritual and physical support, the divine wisdom acting as “tools
that are appropriate” to his situation. Knowing
where he came from and where he was going is how divine wisdom operated to protect
Jacob along the way; how Jacob responded to that is another matter. I think that is so or us today, and while
never easy, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks appropriately concludes, "wisdom is free, yet
it is also the most expensive thing there is, for we tend to acquire it through
failure or disappointment or grief,” to which I will add, each has its own set of expectations.
Shabbat Shalom
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