Vayishlach - Overcoming our Impulses

           Vayishlach/He Sent - Shabbat 11/20/10

“No longer shall your name be called Jacob, but rather Israel (Yisrael),

for you have striven (sarita) with beings divine and human and have prevailed.”  (Gen. 32:29)

            After leaving Lavan’s household, Jacob prepares to confront his brother, Esau.  That night he wrestles with a mysterious figure who ultimately blesses him and renames him Yisrael (Israel).  Jacob overcomes his adversary yet his thigh is injured during the struggle; for this reason Jews to this day do not eat meat around the sciatic nerve.  When the brothers finally meet, they embrace and part ways peacefully.  Later they reunite to bury their father, Isaac.

           

Jacob relocates with his family to Shechem, where his only daughter, Dina, is abducted by the prince of the region.  Jacob’s sons retaliate by convincing the men of Shechem to undergo circumcision and subsequently putting them to the sword and plundering the city.  Jacob is displeased by their extreme reaction and, fearful that his family will be endangered, moves once again.  En route to Efrat, Rachel gives birth to a second son who is named Benjamin.  She dies in childbirth, and is buried on the road near Bethlehem. 

In the section of the Mishnah called Pirkei Avot (or Ethics of the Fathers), the Sages teach, “Who is mighty (gibor) – one who subdues his own impulse (yitzro).”  Jacob strives to be mighty – to be a gibor by getting ahead – from the time he grabs Esau’s heel in the womb.  To reach his goals, Jacob succumbs to his evil impulse, his yetzer hara.  He rarely lets a chance to be deceptive or manipulative pass; he takes advantage of his exhausted brother, tricks his blind father, and in last week’s portion even has the chutzpah to insist that God meet certain demands of his.

 But after struggling with a mysterious, unidentified figure – perhaps the embodiment of his own yetzer hara – Jacob emerges with a new name, identity and outlook.  He outgrows his earlier identity as Jacob the trickster and manipulator, and instead becomes Israel, who engages with spiritual struggle.  He reconciles peacefully with his brother, and declares that he can see God in the face of others.  Despite the injury he sustains, Jacob is described as “shalem,” which connotes “wholeness,” ultimately becoming what he always strove to be - a true gibor.  May all of our struggles result in transformative growth, and may our mightiness stem from our ability to conquer our own impulses. 

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Vayera - A Lie for the Sake of Love and Peace

Vayera/And He Appeared - Shabbat 10/23/10

“I will surely return to you at this time next year, and behold Sarah your wife

will have a son…And Sarah laughed.” (18:10-12)

            This week’s Torah portion, Parashat Vayera, is a veritable “top ten” of biblical narratives.  We read of the three divine messengers who bring God’s promise of childbirth to Abraham and Sarah; the fiery destruction of the lawless cities S’dom and Amorah, even as Abraham argues against their annihilation; and the dramatic binding of Isaac episode.  

As it says in the verse above, Sarah laughs upon hearing the news of her future childbirth.  This nervous laughter—encapsulating both hope and gratitude along with disbelief and derision—is indicative of the emotional roller-coaster running throughout the parasha.  On one hand we have the elation accompanying Isaac’s birth and the moral audacity of Abraham’s arguing with God regarding the destruction of S’dom, while on the other hand we have the heartache of Abraham’s separation from his son Yishmael, and the tragic fate of Lot’s wife after she flees the burning city. 

            In addition to the conflicting emotions it raises, the text also includes a strange discrepancy which serves as the basis for a beautiful teaching by the Sages.  When Sarah first hears that she will give birth, she remarks, “Now that I am so old, and my husband is old, will I truly bear a son?” God then relays this statement to Abraham, but omits one crucial element, telling him merely that Sarah said, “Will I really bear a child, old as I am?”  Note that God left out Sarah’s remark about Abraham’s age!  Realizing the discrepancy, the commentator Rashi explains that her words were altered by God for the sake of peace.  That is, God realized Abraham would be insulted by the implication that he was too old to father a child, and therefore He sacrificed pure honesty for the sake of sh’lom bayit, or “peace within the home.” 

When we are honest for the sake of being constructive, then we do a mitzvah.  However, being “brutally honest” at someone else’s expense defies the example that God Himself sets for us.  May the coming week be filled with honesty in the service of peace, and with much joyful laughter.             

            Shabbat shalom!

            Micah Liben, Legacy Heritage Rabbinic Fellow

Chayei Sarah - Praying our Hearts Out

Chayei Sarah/The Life of Sarah - Shabbat 10/30/10

“Sarah’s lifetime was one hundred twenty seven years…and Sarah died in Hevron.”

            Well, if your spouse took an unplanned excursion with your child in order to offer him as a sacrifice, wouldn’t you die from the shock?  This is precisely what happened to Sarah - at least according to one Rabbinic explanation.  Indeed, no sooner does the binding of Isaac episode take place at the end of last week’s Torah portion, then this week’s story opens with Sarah’s death in the immediate aftermath.   

After Sarah is buried in the Cave of Machpelah, Abraham charges his servant with finding a suitable wife for Isaac.  The servant prays for God’s assistance with this challenge, and soon meets Rebecca at a well.  She kindly draws water for him and his camels before ultimately travelling back to become Isaac’s wife.  At the end of the parasha, Abraham is laid to rest alongside Sarah, by his two sons Isaac and Yishmael.

There are few instances of personal prayer in the Torah, so it is noteworthy that Chayei Sarah contains two examples of spontaneous praying.  The first is the servant’s aforementioned plea for heavenly guidance, which he makes on the side of the road before his journey.  The second is more subtle; the text says that Isaac “meditated in the field before evening.”  According to the Rabbis, this indicates that Isaac actually instituted the afternoon prayer service (mincha)! 

Today we are used to a fixed, set liturgy; spontaneous prayer feels foreign to us. How often do we approach God with a sincere outpouring of our hearts?  I remember how some of my rabbinical school classmates would lament their discomfort with offering prayers on the spot during chaplaincy, while their counterparts from other religious institutions in the program had no trouble doing so.  Yet the Talmud teaches that we should add something new to our set prayers—every time we pray.  And surely we are as much in need of pouring out our hearts to God as our ancestors were; we, too, have challenges that test us.   

           

This week let us follow the example in our Torah portion, and take the opportunity to offer our own spontaneous prayer – be it during services, in the afternoon, or on the road.  May our prayers give us strength to overcome whatever challenges we face.  And, of course, may the week ahead be free of any traumatic family outings. 

Shabbat shalom!

Micah Liben, Legacy Heritage Rabbinic Fellow

           

Vayetze - Being the Angels on Jacob's Ladder

Vayetze/He Departed - Shabbat 11/13/10

“A ladder was set on the ground, its top reaching the sky;

angels of God were going up it and coming down.” 

            Fleeing the wrath of his brother Esau, Jacob leaves his family in Be’er Sheva and heads for Haran.  At sundown he stops to rest, and dreams of a ladder that reaches Heaven.  In the dream he receives a blessing, both for his own protection and for his descendants.  When he wakes, Jacob makes his famous declaration, “God was in this place and I did not know it.”

When Jacob continues eastward, he encounters Rachel who has come to water her flocks.  While the other shepherds look on, Jacob single-handedly rolls off the giant stone covering the well.  After this show of strength, Jacob kisses Rachel, raises his voice—and weeps.

                     

Jacob works for his uncle Laban (La-van) in exchange for Rachel’s hand in marriage, but not before Lavan tricks him into first marrying his older daughter, Leah.  Leah bears many children while Rachel struggles to conceive, until finally she gives birth to Joseph.  When Lavan’s deceitful ways extend to his business dealings, Jacob decides to take his family and leave.  Lavan pursues him, and ultimately they agree to a truce.

 

            Many commentators note that there is something strange in the verse describing Jacob's dream.  Given that the top of the ladder is in the Heavens, we might have expected the angels in the dream to first be descending from Heaven before going back up the ladder, and not vice versa as the text above indicates.  Why the counter-intuitive order?  Rashi’s explanation is that the angels accompanying Jacob through the land of Israel would not be accompanying him further; thus they were the ones who ascended the ladder, after which new angels descended to accompany him on his journey outside the land. 

So it is with us; like Jacob, individuals in our day have their own ‘angels’ that must remain behind when they travel or move to new places.  Friends, families, jobs and communities cannot accompany people when they move; instead people must find new support networks.  By welcoming newcomers with open arms into a warm and inclusive synagogue environment, we may serve as ‘angels’ to those who have come to make a new home in our community.