Community Blog

Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Vayetzei - “and he went out.” The “he” here refers to Jacob, who is leaving his parents’ home to return to the land of his grandparents and extended family to find a wife, and to wait out his brother’s murderous rage after Jacob has stolen all of Esau’s inheritance. The Haftarah comes from Hosea and opens with, “Jacob had to flee.” Next week we read Parashat Vayishlach - “and he sent”. So there’s a lot of going and coming and fleeing and sending and receiving in Jacob’s narrative. Early in Vayetzei, when Jacob has left the home he grew up in, but before he has reached his destination, he has a dream about angels ascending and descending a ladder. He awakes and says, “Surely God was in this place and I did not know.” The classical commentators puzzled over this admission of ignorance. One 15th century Italian rabbi suggests that Jacob’s meaning was, “If I had known, I would have prepared myself for prophecy - and this I did not do.” 

I imagine it would be hard for Jacob to prepare himself for prophecy when he’s on the run. Even though he lives on his uncle’s lands for 20 years, he remains an outsider, always intending to return to the Holy Land. Indeed, the whole 20 years passes in just a few verses in this Torah portion. He is a man poised to move at all times. Yet, when the time does come to flee again, the next section of the Torah begins with, “And he sent,” a more passive action. He sends messengers ahead of his camp to let his brother know he’s coming. He leaves his uncle’s house with a quickness, but he tarries before reaching his destination. We know he hesitates to reunite with his brother for good reason. We don’t know why he allows himself to then get waylaid in the land of Shechem, where tragedy befalls his daughter and subsequently all the men of Shechem at the hands of his sons, thus prompting another quick move. On the final move back to where his parents and grandparents are buried, his beloved Rachel dies in childbirth and he buries her hastily on the side of the road rather than bringing her back to the family burial plot where he and Leah will eventually be buried with the other matriarchs and patriarchs of the Jewish people. Modern commentator Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg suggests that it is because of his delays, his hesitations, his neglect to follow through on God’s plan for him (to return to Hebron), that all these tragedies occured. 

To me, this suggests that even when we try to anticipate dangers or prophecies, we may still find ourselves unable to properly prepare for the moment at hand. Thus, by contrast, being in a hurry is no reason to deny ourselves a moment of centering and mental preparation for the task at hand. Jacob on the run received a prophecy he felt he was not prepared for. Jacob dilly-dallying on his way home is blind to the implications of catastrophe, more or less actively refusing prophecy that God is trying to send him to hurry him home. 

Whether we are feeling rushed by outside forces, or procrastinating out of fear, it is always wise to try to take a deep breath and be present at the current moment. What is happening now? How did I get to this moment of feeling rushed or anxious or put-upon? How can I best approach the task at hand? Do I really need to accomplish this task, or is this an expectation I have put on myself for no reason? What will help me, not only accomplish this task, but feel good about doing it in my own time and way? 

In other words, Jacob is never very “present”, but we can be. Hopefully none of you are on the run from murderous brothers or thieving uncles, but even if you are, I hope you are able to find peace in your current moment. You are here, at our lovely synagogue, able to enjoy prayer and fellowship with people you choose to be in community with. Maybe not every moment of every day is a time we can be fully present to all that is happening within and around us, but surely Shabbat is a time to reset and recenter. And may you find peace at that center. Amen and Shabbat Shalom.