There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
Leonard Cohen
Thoughts on Parashat Vayetze
Menachem Mirski
The Torah is the cornerstone of Judaism. It was given to us to be an instruction manual on how to live well, justly, with empathy and compassion. It was not given to us because we were “better” than other people, but precisely because we were imperfect, and sometimes even defective, to make ourselves and our lives better.
The same applies to the Biblical figures: they are not perfect and for this reason Judaism is not a religion of role models but the religion of the law. Patriarchs, like Rebeccah, were people who chose a spiritual journey from idolatry to worship the One and Only God. But on that journey they committed some mistakes, as almost everyone who decides to step on that path. The whole story of patriarchs is a story of their ethical and spiritual purification, to become fathers and mothers of a great nation. The last chapter of this story starts with the act of selling Joseph to slavery, an action motivated by jealousy, sense of inferiority and resentment.
Similarly with Jacob, in our parasha for this week. Jacob is fleeing from his brother Esau and his anger, after incensing him enormously by the successful plot of taking over his birthright. Jacob is at the same time fleeing from his family and everything he had. He is fleeing from his past and everything that happened before.
Jacob is alone and probably completely destitute. Now, he needs to reinvent himself and his entire life. But luckily for him, he is not completely alone. On his journey through the desert from Beer Sheva to Padam Aram, the place of his uncle Laban that was located in the upper Mesopotamia, he encounters the Creator that is going to guide him and help him to reinvent himself and create his entire future. God speaks to him in his dream, repeats the promise he gave to his grandfather, Abraham and renews the covenant with Jacob.
Your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you and your descendants. Remember, 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.”
Genesis 28:14-15
According to some translations/interpretations of the Torah, God speaks to Jacob from the top of the ladder, while angels are going up and down on this ladder. According to other translations/interpretations God speaks to him “from beside him.” The Hebrew text is ambiguous here: the word alav (used in Gen 28:13) can mean beyond, above or next to and can refer here to both, Jacob and the ladder. This ambiguity may lead us in two different theological directions (and it may be actually deliberate), one that God speaks to Jacob from Heavens or that God
speaks to him like another human being standing next to him. In any case, God can be both and our tradition recognizes both theological concepts.
From now on, God will support Jacob “from above”, and comfort him “down here”, by being with him all the time. And this is, in a way, another Abraham’s lech lecha moment but in a different direction, the opposite direction. Now Jacob is spiritually equipped by God to go back to the land of idol worship and to face the reality there. This help is extremely important for Jacob to navigate in it wisely because he will encounter harsh reality with a lot of bad stuff like lies, manipulation and deception (as if he had entered our contemporary politics).
The story of Jacob is another redemption story. There are numerous redemption stories in the Hebrew Bible, stories about how people fail, reflect, repent and correct their ways. This is one of them. Jacob sees redemption, sees the brilliant and beautiful future, of being the head of a great and numerous family and a father of a great nation. This vision was revealed to him in a moment of complete distress, a misery that was completely replaced by the vision and feeling of the Divine presence and Awesomeness. This is actually a pattern, a biblical pattern and a life pattern: many great visions, amazing life goals are revealed in moments like that. I had that kind of experience a few times in my life. If you have had it, you know what I’m talking about. It’s the experience of an existential crack, the crack through the light gets in.
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Mirski
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