Close Encounter Moments - Parasha Vayeitzei, Genesis 28:10-32:3

In order to comprehend the actions of Jacob in this week’s parasha, Vayeitzei, we have to reflect on Esau’s choices in last week’s parasha, Toledot.  Regardless if Esau could have been helped by a better supportive family at the end of the day he alone was responsible for the choices he made, and as we shall see, the same is so with Jacob.

This week’s parasha begins with a dream, a dream that most of us learned as kids, either in religious school or by playing the game "Chutes and Ladders" (Gen. 28:12-15). In the dream there are ladders going from earth to the heavens, with Angels going up and down on them, and God also descended to the physical earth and stood right beside Jacob as they spoke.  In this dream Jacob was told by God, “I am the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac,” and according to the same promise made to them, “Your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth [and] all the families” of the earth will be blessed by “your descendants,” God also reminding Jacob that “I am with you: I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

It is how Jacob responds that is of interest. Jacob does not dissect his dream to question if it was real or not, but in using the words of Martin Buber, Jacob describes the mystery of his dream by  “creating language” understood by the masses to convey its mystical nature.  The meaning for Jacob is what it means to him which is; If God remains with Jacob, providing him with necessities like food and clothing then Jacob will return home to carry on the promises made to his father and his father’s father. But let’s stop here and take just a moment to reflect on Esau in this same light. While not a dream, Esau was given a birthright (Gen. 25:31), which held the same purpose.  In this case this birthright meant that as the oldest he would one day be “filling the father’s position of head of the family once the father passed away” (Rabbi David Kimhi), a position that was about the “sacrificial service [of the things of God that] were then carried out by the first-born sons,” in fact it was like being a Kohen, or a Priest (Rashi). Firstly, for both Esau and Jacob whatever would happen would be in the future and not in the now, which is why Esau said I am hungry today so what good is a birthright tomorrow. Secondly, Esau rejected his father’s concerns about marriage partners because he did not get what he wanted in the immediate whereas Jacob agreed to return to his homestead sometime in the future with the condition that God took care of him in the now.  And thirdly, in light of life’s disappointments Esau and Jacob choose to each responded differently.  Esau chose to be angry and seek revenge over Jacob’s exploits, but Jacob after years of subjection to Laban’s unfair treatment choose the higher path over not letting his anger own him.    

In fact, it is how Jacob responds to Laban that we want to take note of.  After getting his opportunity to respectfully tell his uncle what he thought after 20 years of labor (even if Jacob benefited he was deceived by Laban), when all is said in done he responds, “לוּלֵ֡י (lulay), which means “had it not been,” or “unless” the “God of my father’s - the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac—had been with me, you (Laban) would have sent me away empty-handed ...”  For Jacob the blessings of family and riches he had after 20 years with Laban have foundation in how he responded to his dream all those years earlier, believing that despite all that had happened God had been with him (lulay) so he triumphed.  Esau was angry and chose a path that lead to a people who were wicked.  There is a Midrash that teaches how both Esau and Jacob started out on the right path, but later Esau would “ruin himself with his deeds.”  Esau and Jacob despite the unfairness of life elected different directions: for Jacob it was the way of the divine image that aspired him to seek higher values in life whereas for Esau he could not conquer his Yetzer haRah, or evil inclination, so he fell victim to it.

A Lesson we learn from this parasha is the power of our encounters to provoke positive change in our humanity and discover and/or awaken the divine within. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel writes that a sense of God, which he calls the ineffable, “inhabits the magnificent and the common,” just like a dream vis-à-vis a birthright! According to tradition evening prayer (Maariv) was instituted by Jacob who had his encounters with God at night (see both Gen. 28:12-15 and 32:25-32), and when we encounter prayers they invoke a change within the human spirit.  Herschel also wrote “we do not create the ineffable, we encounter it,” and the rest was a matter of choice for Esau and Jacob how that would impact them.  We also will encounter moments in our day, most overtly ordinary and some personally spiritual, but then like with Esau and Jacob how we respond is a matter of choice.   

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Adam  

The Mental Health of Esau

Given the events of the 7 people being killed at a Walmart last night – a Walmart 15min from where I live – on the heels of what happened in Colorado Springs, CO this past weekend, this week’s blog is driven by those tragic events (amongst others of course).  This shooting also made me recall the story a young boy who had anger issues, so his father told him that every time he was angry he needed to put a nail in the back fence.  Eventually the young boy had no more need to put nails in the fence; he learned to control his anger, so he shared this accomplishment with his father.  The father then told him to remove a nail from the fence each day he was not angry, and after a few months there was no more nails left in the fence. The father used the opportunity to teach him a very important lesson, saying; “My son, in the same way the nails have left marks in the fence that need to be repaired, anger can leave permanent scares on a person that we cannot see.”  This story made me further think of what we could not see in those who needlessly kill and therefore about the mental health of Esau.     

In this week’s parasha, Toledot (descendants) we read about Esau who is the first twin to come out of his mother’s womb; Jacob came out next grasping the heel of his brother as he entered the world; the grandchildren of Abraham and Sarah (Gen. 25:26).  While we have no direct background information about his childhood that may tell us why Esau rejects his birthright (although we do in a Midrash), instead opting for the food prepared by his brother Jacob after a long day of hunting (Gen. 25:32).  Yet later Esau sobs at the loss of his blessing to that same brother; perplexing (Gen. 27:34).  Regarding Esau, we meet three Esau’s in our Holy texts, the one in the written Torah, the Esau of the first temple period and the Esau of Rabbinic literature.   In the written Torah the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes that Toledot seeks to capture “our sympathies” throughout this chapter for Esau rather than Jacob. Well this is the reality; Jacob could have fed Esau without manipulating the birthright and what type of son deceives his own father and metaphorically punches his brother in the gut, again!  In the text Esau was a troubled young man more than he was a bad guy, the Talmud teaching that Esau had the free-will to choose his path (Niddah 16b).  The view of Esau being a purveyor of wickedness seems to have been the prevailing view of the latter books of Tanakh (Old Testament; see Psalm 137:7 of Obadiah 1:18), which then fed the view that Edom and Esau came to represent Rome, an enemy of the Jews who was responsible for the destruction of the second Temple, and later negative Rabbinic views. 

The Rabbinic view, as taught by Rashi, recalls a Midrash that says when Rebekah’s children leaped in her womb Jacob would do so as they passed a house of Torah and Esau would do so when they passed a place of idolatry.  In fact Rabbi Shlomo Chaim Kesselman (Chabad) teaches that Isaac actually wanted his son Esau to discover his lofty soul, his own divine image, gifted with extraordinary spiritual powers, Isaac wanted to shower Esau with the Godly light that would empower him to pull through his struggles, whereas Rebekah recognized that the blessings would be ineffective in empowering Esau, so she helped Jacob to decisive his father Isaac to give Jacob the blessings instead. R’Kesselman further teaches that in response to Esau’s rightful objections his father Isaac seems to also have become soiled, saying, “If it is true that you sold him your birthright, then he is the one who deserves the blessings.”  Esau became a symbol of wickedness and unfaithfulness in Judaism.   

Can you image, in the story I shared, how the young boy with the anger issues might have turned out if his father did not believe in him?  Perhaps Esau just rejected his birthright because he was not in the same place as Jacob spiritually and did not see the value of the birthright over his hunger?  Perhaps Esau cried the way he did over the blessing because by then he recognized the importance of those family values? Perhaps Esau would have not gone out and married a Canaanite woman against his father wishes if his own mother loved and believed in him as opposed to helping Jacob steal what was not his?  Perhaps Esau would have turned out differently, and therefore our tradition as well, if Esau had the support of his family as he was figuring life out?  Therefore, I wonder if we pay more attention as a society would we help to prevent these needless killings? I wonder how things may look today concerning people’s destructive and deadly actions if we find better ways to address this part of people’s needs much earlier.  I wonder why we just do not hear enough conversation about this societal scare that impacts all of us?  I could go on. 

Be grateful for everyday and Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Adam  

Which Brotherly Bond Will you Follow

Parasha Chayei Sarah is the conclusion of the lives of both Abraham and Sarah, almost like book ends, Sarah dies at the beginning and Abraham dies at the end.  In between we have Abraham seeking the preservation of the promises made to him by God in Genesis 12:1 about a land and seed.  Abraham did this by purchasing the cave of Macpeilah as a burial ground for his family to secure rights to the land for the future and found a wife (Rebecca) for his son Isaac to continue the progeny of the people.  This third parasha about Abraham completes the trilogy of events about his life that is an ongoing definition of what the community of God, Israel, are to act like as the recipients of Torah who are to be the voices and the hands of the Divine in the world.    

This past week here in America we had our midterm elections to determine who would have the majority control of the House and the Senate.  What we know so far is that the Republicans have taken the House and the Democrats at best will hold the tiebreaker if not the majority vote of the Senate; two very close races.  Okay, well we know the country is politically polarized right now, but the question is can they work together and what will be the outcome if they cannot?  I am not here to offer my opinion on those questions more so than I want to look to see what this week’s parasha can teach us regarding those questions.

In Genesis 25:9 and in the Haftarah, from 1 King 1:5-14, we have the story of two sets of brothers; Abraham’s sons Ishmael and Isaac who we met last week in Vayeira and in 1 Kings this week we meet Adonijah and Solomon, two of King David’s sons who were at odds over who would sit on the throne after their father dies.  Here are the similarities; Abraham and David are dying (David dies in 1 Kings 2:10) and the dissimilarities; how their sons handle the situation.  Beginning with David his two sons are enemies of sorts according to the text. King David, while on his death bed, had to intervene by making sure that Solomon would be king as he promised and not Adonijah who unjustly usurped the throne.  In the end Adonijah is assassinated (after David dies) for seeking to marry his father’s concubine, Abishag the Shunammitte, as a way to ascend the throne perhaps to unseat Solomon who is now the rightful King.  There is also no evidence that as their father was dying they came together to ensure their dad that they would take care of the family and the kingdom’s success. Conversely we have the story of Ishmael and Isaac who came together to bury their father after he died.  If we recall the last time Ishmael saw his brother (Isaac) was when Sarah told Abraham to kick Hagar and Ishmael out of the family camp, depending on your dating, some 60 years earlier!  If we embrace the tradition of the Talmud (Bava Batra 16) that says Ishmael did t’shuvah (repented) by accepting that Isaac was the rightful seed even though he was the youngest (just like with Adonijah and Solomon) then it is not a stretch to also suggest that they both stood by their father’s bed together, each holding one of their dad’s hands, as Abraham breathed his last breath. After Abraham died, both Ishmael and Isaac prospered, and while Arab and Jewish history is replete with conflict both communities stand strong.  Yet, Adonijah and Solomon began a series of inter and intra family conflicts that would lead to the demise of the Davidic Kingdom within 400 hundred years.  

It was only a few years ago that the Abraham Accords saw four Arab counties join Jordan and Egypt to make peace with their brother (Israel) from another mother (Abraham is their joint father), not really getting the fanfare it deserved because of the political issues in our country (I’ll leave it at that).  That is a result of what happens when brothers work together for a common goal.  Likewise, maybe our country is divided equality between red and blue seats, but they can choose to work together, which is why we pray for our government, or they can be like Adonijah and Solomon; we all know how that ended. What about us, at work or with friends and even family, what does it take to work together with others who we just do not see eye to eye with or even care for?  So in the case of Ishmael and Isaac the honoring of their father was a bigger deal than their personal disagreements. The heart of Torah encourages community and acceptance, despite any diversity, loving your neighbor as yourself and forgiving those who have committed wrong as much as we have the power to do so; the Torah constantly asks us to reevaluate what is important for the desired result before reacting.  Which brotherly bond will you follow in this case is a statement as opposed to a question. Good food for thought.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Adam          

The 11th Test Revealed!

We read in Vayeira, in particular Genesis 22:1 that God was going to test Abraham with the Akedah, or binding of Isaac.  Maimonides concluded that the Akedah was the final test of ten in total.  This idea of Abraham being tested, which begins in Lech Lecha and for some ends next week in Chaya Sarah, is found as early as 100 BCE in a book called Jubilees that was written some 300 hundred years before we read in Pirkei Avot 5:4; “Our Father Avraham was tested with ten trails and withstood them all.”  In a commentary on Pirkei Avot by Rabbi Judah Lowe ben Bezalel (the Maharal), called the Derek Chaim (the Path of Life), Abraham was indeed tested, but Rabbi Judah used a different word for test than Pirkei Avot, let alone the Bible itself.  For Rabbi Judah, the word for Abraham’s “test” (mivchan) was more like an examination, inquiry or investigation, whereas for Pirkei Avot the test (nis’sayon) is about a personal trial or experiment, a learned experience of one kind or another, how did life "try us" for this or that?  We have to wonder: did God intend to test Abraham, was this how those who wrote it understood the Akedah, or was the mention of a test added later?  That is not the concern of most commentators nor is it the concern here, our concern is why and how it matters.

Why it matters.  If we view this test according to Rabbi Judah it can easily be read as if God will give Abraham a pass/fail grade depending on the outcome.  If we read this idea of a test per Pirkei Avot then it is about Abraham’s handling of his business when the trails of life came upon him.  The former can be understood as a person being investigated by God if they were naughty or nice so to speak and worth their reward whereas the latter can be viewed as when life trials emerge a person should call on divine wisdom as they walk through it, hence the words of Psalm 11:5 "The LORD tests the righteous," in this case God does make inquiry to how a person will respond to the trials of life.  Those are two very different ways to understand this idea of Abraham being tested that will impact how we might understand being tested, or feel as we are being tested.

How it matters. It matters because of a non-test that should have been a test.  In other words the following was not one of the 10 tests although it should have been.  We read concerning God, then, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”  This question was asked by Abraham of God over the ensuing judgement upon Sodom and Gomorrah.  Found quite often both in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and rabbinic literature, we find this idea of a “machaloket,” an argument for the sake of heaven, Abraham having the first one with God.  In short Abraham calls God out over the sanctity of life even though Sodom and Gomorrah were filled with evil and evil people.  As we spoke about with Noah, Noah did not seek to intervene for the lives of the people of his day, yet Abraham did the very opposite with the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.  In the end of the story we read that God relented and told Abraham that if 10 righteous people could be found (Abraham started with 50) than Sodom and Gomorrah would not be exterminated, but there were not even 10 so those cities were destroyed.  

In Genesis 18:7 we find an interesting verse where God elects to tell Abraham about the impending doom for Sodom and Gomorrah, suggesting that perhaps God was considering not letting Abraham know. Based on that question posed by God (should we let Abraham know) Rabbi Jonathan Sacks asks his own question; “why did God invite Abraham’s challenge?”  Rabbi Sacks goes on to say that the answer was not so much that Abraham called God out more than God called Abraham out, asking both he and his “descendants” to be "agents of justice.”  In this case, for R’Sacks, God is asking Abraham to be the “defense attorney” for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah even though they are guilty.  Abraham’s God is an ethical God and just not a deity that demands unquestioned loyalty of action.  As Rabbi Sacks also says, in the end, if God allows the judgement from heaven to be challenged by Abraham, “how much more” does God expect a verdict handled down justly in a “human court?”

We are Abrahams “descendants to be agents of justice” as well and God's justice just like then is handed out through people like you and me.  Abraham did not triumph over all his tests, but he withstood them.  We might not pass all of our tests either, but we cannot cease trying to make life more "just" no matter how unpleasant life’s trials may be.  We live in a world where justice matters and we live in a world where we are the agents of that very same justice, whatever your cause may be.  The non-test that should have been the 11th test asks the following of Abraham; will you rise up and be an agent of justice even if you will not win in the end?  That same question is being asked of us.  Will we stand upon our sense of right regardless of the push back that life puts upon us?  Why vote, does my voice really matter?  Why protest for Israel’s sake, the media is always anti-Israel?  Why stand up for this or that (you choose) if abortion rights got over turned, what can I do to make a difference?   Abraham did not get what he wanted in the end, but his sense of justice never failed him.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Adam    

What the World Needs Now

The first two parshiyot (sections of Torah/Bible), Bereshit and Noach that make up Chapters 1-11 of Genesis, is really the prologue to the story of Israel that begins with Abram (exalted father) who became Abraham (father of many), beginning this week in Genesis 12.  But even before we got here the Torah aspires to establish some foundational criteria before moving forward with the relationship between God and humankind.  We saw this in the lives of Adam and Eve, Cain and Able and Noah, meeting the conflict of their divine image in the struggle with personal choice, a lack of moral responsibility and an awareness or even concern for the collective whole. The voice of Torah wants us to know the following; proper human character built upon the divine image within speaks to every part of how life is to be lived in this world.

Yet in this parasha, Lech Lacha, we encounter fundamental change that is best summed up in the words of Martin Buber.  Buber wrote that the words of Torah (or the Bible) are not directed to an “isolated individual but always as an individual member of the people.”  Yes we saw this in part with Adam and Noah for all humanity in general, but those stories are limited to their immediate circumstances: Adam was about tending to the garden and Noah was about building a boat to save his family.  But with Abraham it was different, Buber going on to say concerning Israel (who we will meet later in the book of Exodus), “its (Israel) father to be, Abraham, is addressed as such; he is to become a ‘blessing’ in his seed,” something that we did not read with Adam and Noah even though they had the opportunity to do so.  Abraham therefore became the figure head not only for Judaism but also for other religions, like Islam and Christianity, Islam telling their story through Abraham’s other son Ishmael as opposed to Isaac and Christianity viewing Abraham’s descendants spiritually as grafted on children to God.

For Judaism the story of Abraham, which will play out over the next few weeks, is ultimately tied directly to the role of all people in this world, but in particular the Jewish people.  In the very beginning of this parasha Abraham is told, not that he will be blessed (although he was), but that he will be a “be a blessing” to others (Gen. 12:2).  According to a Midrash, Genesis Rabbah 39:11, Abraham is blessed in order to distribute blessings as he sees fit, it says “I blessed Adam and Noah — but from now on you (Abraham) shall bless whomsoever you wish.”   But it is also important to recognize that in the Torah, and for that matter the entire Hebrew Bible, Abraham is just the beginning. This is pointed out by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin who says there are two covenants in Torah, the first being with Abraham here in Genesis 12:1ff and the  second being with Israel at Mt. Sinai in Exodus 19:1ff.  In the same way that Abram became Abraham, Israel went from being called slaves to a “holy nation and kingdom of priests,” a nation who would be given the same mandate as Abraham.  It says according to the Prophet in Isaiah 49:3 “You are my Servant, Israel in whom I will be glorified,” something that Buber would say the people of Israel were to “embody,” God was glorified because Israel became a blessing to all peoples, just as one person can be been blessed by the hand of another, which begins this week with Abraham..  It is way too simple to say that this is simply a religious thing, spreading your beliefs so others can believe what you do, it’s much more than that.

Abraham was given the power to bless others, something that would later be given to Israel and something we shall encounter over and over again as we travel through Torah.  While sure life was different back then in almost every way one might imagine, the human need to receive in love and goodness is always the same. Contemplate this for just a moment: We have the ability and the power to be a blessing in another person’s life.  In the narrative of the Bible, Abraham and Israel were just not proverbial puppets on a string with God, but they were partners with the Divine to bring blessings into their world. I am going to pass on those particulars at this moment, yet it’s good to take a breath and reflect upon the fact that we too have the power and ability to be a blessing to those around us. That is the role of our inner holy spark within, impacting those who we encounter on any given day.  We have been given a wonderful opportunity - please join me in remembering that.   

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Adam