TorahParsha

Thought for Parshat VaYeitzeh

Is traveling spiritual?

 

i

Jacob leaves his father’s house to go to Charan.

On his way he comes to the place.

The place is not named

(although later it is named).

*

Jacob falls asleep.

He dreams of a ladder.

The ladder’s base is on the earth. Its top is near God.

Angels of God ascend and descend on it.

*
Here is the gate to Heaven, Jacob says.

 

ii

When you travel from place to place, you are in no-man’s land.

Your place has no name,

as Jacob’s place has no name.

*
But traveling, you learn that you can arrive at a place from somewhere else:

Charan from your father’s house.

*

From this knowledge, you can understand how all directions are connected:

how above can be reached from below

how you can walk from Earth to Heaven.

You will see the tall ladder, spanning from Earth to Heaven.

You can see the creatures ascending and descending on it.

 

iii

If you can see that you can reach Heaven from where you stand, then you will know that you are at the gate to Heaven right now,

wherever you are.

 

 

Based largely on Avivah Zornberg 

 

____

Shabbat Shalom, Abe

 

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 Please pray for the infant Achinoam Rina bat Avital Hodaya, and please continue to pray for Ahuvah Rachel bat Orah and for Rachel Tovah bat Yehudit Esther

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Jacob / Israel

i
Jacob is named Jacob, Yaakov, because he is born clutching the heel, eikev, of Esau, his older twin brother.

He will live a life following on the heels of his brother. (Or consider the Hebrew, la'akov: to follow).

Jacob is given the family birthright, not because he is born to it but because he purchases that family birthright from Esau.

Jacob is given the family blessing, not because it is meant for him—it is meant for Esau; but because he tricks his father into giving him Esau's blessing.

ii
Then a nameless angel wounds Jacob in the thigh, and calls Jacob Israel.

Now, there is no one for Jacob—Israel—to follow after (the angel is nameless). And with the wound, the symbol of the leg (the source of following) is taken from Jacob.

*
Jacob was one who chased after his brother's life.

Becoming Israel, Jacob is called to have his own, separate life.

To be Israel is to have a life apart.

***
Based partially on comments of Rabbi Matthew Stein and my wife, Kathi.


~~~~~~~

Israel is Born in Egypt

i
Jacob and his sons come down to Egypt. They are fleeing from famine. This flight begins the time of the Jewish people in that land.

And the verse says, And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen…and they took possession of it.

*
Note how the verse says they. They took possession of it.

Before, Israel was not a they. Israel was a man. Israel was the name that God gave to Jacob, the patriarch, God's angel telling him: Your name will no more be called Jacob, but Israel.

Now, in Egypt, Israel has become a they.

Israel has become a people.

ii
This happens in Egypt.

This happens, too, in Goshen: a land tucked within the land of Egypt.

iii
We are separate from the nations of the world (we were born in Goshen).

We are bound to the nations of the world (we were born in Egypt).

We are both of these things, from our birth.

~~~~~

The Empathy of Israel

i
Jacob wrestles an angel, at night, before meeting with his brother Esau.

Jacob has not seen Esau for more than twenty years. Jacob fears that Esau may want to kill him.

*
The angel changes Jacob's name. The angel calls Jacob, Yisrael: Israel.

For, the angel says to Jacob, of Jacob, You have struggled (saritah) with God and with man, and you have prevailed.

ii
But struggle brings pain.

Wrestling Jacob, the angel touches the hollow of Jacob's thigh, by the place on the leg called the sinew of the vein.

That touch wounds Jacob and makes him limp.

*
This wound creates a Law.

The verse says: Because of this wound, when we eat meat, the Children of Israel do not eat of the sinew of the vein until this day.

iii
Thousands of years ago, Jacob was hurt in his thigh.

Now, as we enjoy food, we may not enjoy the meat of the place of Jacob's wound.

*
To be of the Children of Israel is to hold empathy for all that has happened to Israel, ever. 

That empathy is tied to the very roots of our name.

~~~~

Children of Isaac

i
Jacob and Esau are Isaac’s sons.

Esau is a hunter. But Jacob is a simple man, a dweller of tents.

Jacob’s offspring—and not Esau’s offspring—will carry the mantle of Isaac.

*
Once, Esau returns from the hunt and is hungry to the point of death. Jacob, meanwhile, cooks lentils.

Esau remains hungry, though he hunts: though he seeks to capture food from far and wide.

Meanwhile Jacob, a dweller of tents, makes a meal. A dweller of tents, he understands how to use what is near at hand.

ii
Torah is the study of the holiness of the close-by. In it you jump into questions like how to prepare meat, or what fire is, or what constitutes the act of sewing.

*
Torah will be the task of the family of Isaac, through the end of time. So the task of the family of Isaac is to grow nourishment from the-near-at hand. It is a task for dwellers of tents.

Jacob is a dweller of tents. It is no surprise, then, that Jacob would carry the mantle of his family.

*
We are that family.

~~~