TorahParsha

The name Israel

for Parshat VaYishlach

 

i

Jacob wrestles an angel. That angel changes Jacob's name.

Your name will be Israel, the Angel says

and strikes the muscle at Jacob’s hip socket.

The angel injures Jacob.

Jacob limps.

 

That is why the Children of Israel do not eat of the muscle of the hip socket to this day. 

ii
To this day, we do not eat of the meat of the place where Jacob’s wound was. 

 

Jacob was wounded once

and to this day we cannot stop being reminded of that pain

and making our pleasure a little bit less.

 

iii
Our empathy must run so deep

it must reach back to struggles and pains and hurt

our people felt thousands of years before us.

 

Such great empathy.

It comes to us with our very name.

 

 

_______

Shabbat shalom,

Abe

______

Please pray for Yechiel ben Michal

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What is our national identity?

for Parshat VaYishlach

 

i

The prince of Shechem

rapes Dinah,

Jacob’s daughter:

an abomination

done upon Israel.

*

The prince of Shechem

wants to marry Dinah.

In trickery,

Dinah’s brothers tell the prince:

let usbecome one nation,

let us marry each other—

but first your people must be circumcised.

*

When the people of Shechem

circumcise themselves

and sit wracked with pain,

Dinah’s brothers

annihilate them

in war.

 

ii

Jacob fears retaliation

from the other nations.

God says:

Return to Bet El,

the place I first appeared to you

years ago.

And Jacob’s family hands over their foreign idols.

And the terror of God is upon the other nations.

No one harms Jacob’s family.

And Jacob’s family arrives at Bet El,

safe.

 

iii

This story is the first time

Israel

is used as our nation’s name.

Perhaps this is the story

of our nation’s birth.

It is a story of treaties,

war, violence:

any nation’s story.

*

But God says:

Be more than any nation.

Be a nation of God.

And Israel journeys to God’s place

and gives up the other nations’ gods,

ways.

And Israel does not need to fight any more.

*

Israel is born.

 

 

___

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

___

The phrase “foreign idols” literally reads “foreign gods.” But in context this clearly refers to idols.

___

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Does it matter if life is a flicker in history?

for Parshat VaYishlach

 

i

Cain’s line dies out in the Flood

but we still learn the names of his descendants.

 

ii

Esau’s descendants

are not part of Israel,

they are barely mentioned in the Torah.

But we learn the names of the patriarchs of Esau’s family.

 

iii

Even if you are a story that does not go on

you still bear a name,

you still bear a meaning.

 

 

___

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com

What do we do when we are afraid of others?

for Parshat VaYishlach

 

i

Joseph loves Rachel

so Rachel’s father, Lavan,

gives him her hand.

But Lavan also tricks Jacob

into taking Leah, Rachel’s sister,

and into taking Leah’s handmaid,

and into taking Rachel’s handmaid.

From these four women

Jacob sires thirteen children

only two of whom

are Rachel’s.

 

ii

Jacob sends a message

to his brother who hates him,

who has wished to murder him—

a message of peace.

The messenger answers back:

Your brother comes to you

with four hundred men.

Jacob says to God:

I am afraid.

*

That night

when Jacob is alone

an unnamed man

who is an angel

wrestles him.

This angel injures Jacob.

But even so

Jacob forces the angel to bless him.

 

iii

Jacob is afraid

because people overwhelm him:

more join him  than he had hoped

they are more dishonest than he would expect

they are violent when he seeks peace.

*          

What does Jacob do?

He reaches out

into this overwhelmingness:

and so he finds

how the man who hurts him fiercely

is also an angel who will bless him. 
 

 

 

_____
Shabbat shalom,

Abe 

 

Based in part on thoughts of Rav Moshe Lichtenstein 

 

Please pray for for Ayelet Yakira bat Chaya Hinda Matel Nechama, and for Neshama Emunah bat Batya

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The People Culminates in One Man (for Parshat VaYishlach)

i

Abraham fathers Isaac and Yishmael.

 

But only Isaac’s children become Abraham’s family.

 

Yishmael’s children become another family, a different nation.

 

Isaac fathers Jacob and Esau.

 

But only Jacob’s children become Isaac’s family.

 

Esau’s children become another family, a different nation.

 

Jacob keeps all twelve of his sons within the family, within the fold.

 

 

ii

Jacob wrestles an angel. The angel wrenched Jacob’s hip at its socket.

 

The angel re-names Jacob, calls him Israel.

 

*

That is why, when the Children of Israel eat meat, they do not eat the thigh muscle—that is on the socket of the hip—to this day.

 

 

iii

The generations before Jacob are split in half. One part is kept and the other is cast away.

 

But when Jacob comes, it his own body that is wrenched. His own thigh muscle is split from him.

 

*

This family, this people, is made through the process of the question: Who, what of us does not fit in a people of God?

 

But that process culminates in a single lone man—who is made to ask himself: What of my own self must I sacrifice?

 

_______

Shabbat Shalom, Abe

 

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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.


~~~~~~~

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.

~~~~