Vayishlach :the underdog

Vayishlach :the underdog

Jacob did not dare to simply come to his brother Esau.  Esau said that he would kill Jacob on account of his treachery. Jacob devised a multi layered  plan:  He sent messengers of greeting ( and reconnaissance), he sent gifts of appeasement, he divided his camp- to increase the chance of survivors in the event of battle and probable defeat.  Jacob was terrified, but he went forward and claimed the land.  Esau backed down. Courage triumphed. 

The dream of settling in the Promised Land begins. The family/nation buys a piece of land and settles in Shechem.  Then, the problem feared by Abraham and Isaac finally happens,  Dina is taken.  Abraham and Isaac misled their previous hosts, calling their wives their sisters.  Dina really is the sister of her redeemers.  Simon and Levi wage a war of deception and conquest on the nation of the man who raped their sister.

Deception wins against numbers. 

After this war, Jacob is worried that an alliance of the Canaanites will destroy his band,  The alliance never happens. There is no attack.  A possibility that would certainly defeat the Israelite just does not happen.  The course of history is not predictable, it is second order chaos.. 

The parsha ends with the princes of Esau and the royal succession of Seir.   Each king of Seir is identified by his land, presumably the country of origin.  The series, each from a different place, implies  that each king usurped the previous king, there was a succession of conquests; conquest is the way of the world. Jacob's conquest of Canaan is justified.   The Pilgrims' conquest of Massachusetts is justified.  It is the way of the world  Happy Thanksgiving. 

Vayeze: leaving the comfort zone

Vayeze: leaving the comfort zone

When Jacob leaves ( runs away from) his home, he has already lost his comfort zone.  He may never have had a place in this world.  He was born the second son.  The land Promised to Abraham was going to Esau... until Jacob made his deal and carried out its consequence. After that, Jacob  had no place at all.  Esau was going to kill him. 

He runs to Haran, to Leben, Whitey, the All White.  He has returned to the place that Abraham, by the instruction of Gd, had left.  He went to marry, to make his fortune, to do the immigrant thing, to become richer than the entitled natives.

He deals with Lavan, the capitalist. To Lavan labor is worthless,  He appreciates only the capital it produces.  When Jacob tries to leave with his earnings, Lavan says: the daughters ( Jacob's wives) are Lavan's and Jacob's children also belong to Lavan and Jacob's sheep belong to Lavan.  Jacob came with his labor as the only  thing he had to sell.  To Lavan, a laborer is a slave; and the children of a slave are the possessions of the master; the possessions of a slave are the possessions of the master.  No capital, no wealth;  and no way to acquire wealth.  It is only Gd, who appeared to Lavan in a dream, that allows Jacob to claim his wage,  The worker has no comfort zone.

Ezra Schwartz, the gap year student murdered in Gush Etzion today, had left his comfort zone  He went to a disputed land in the Biblical Promised Land, and he was killed for being a Jew in that place.  He was killed to discourage Jews from coming to that place or staying in  that place; to remove that place further  from the comfort zone.

When Jacob leaves Charan  he names the new place in Canaan, Machanaim: camps, resting places, place of multiple rests, a place where more than one people can rest. The comfort zone

Toledoth: consequences

Toledoth: consequences

Toledoth means progeny, it is what is born from an individual  In the parsha, it means Jacob and Esau, the children of Isaac and Rebeca.  Perhaps it also points us to the consequences of actions  which might also be called toledoth. 

The parsha begins and ends with Rebecca questioning the meaning of her life. Initially she wonders about what is going on in her womb.  She realizes that there is a battle going on.  She knows about the story of Cain and Abel,  the inevitable, murderous, rivalry of siblings .  She is determined to prevent that in her offspring  She ends upon protecting the physically weaker brother. 

The first thing we hear about Jacob is how he purchased the birthright from Esau.  He seized an opportunity - Esau's hunger and exhaustion- to buy an item that, at the time, had little meaning.  Jacob and Esau could easily have  understood the birthright to mean  different things.  Jacob could have understood it to mean that he bought the right to Esau's name and trademark, justifying his statements to his father, "I am  your first born, Esau"  Esau could have understood his sale to have meant 

something far more limited...

 the world of contracts

Jacobs gets the blessing. Jacob gets the legacy and the Promise of the Land.  Jacob gets the eternal resentment of his brother. Jacob gets the eternal mistrust of the Gentile.  Jacob gets the reputation of the Jew.  Is it worth it?  

The fact that I question it attests to how  American I have become.  Do I believe that Esau would not have cheated Jacob if he had the chance? 

Chaye Sarah: mother's legacy

Chaye Sarah: mother's legacy

 Chaye Sarah is the parsha that precedes  the yahrzeit for my mother.  I read the Haftorah for  the parsah every year.  The haftorah is the story of Bathsheva ( David's real wife)  protecting her son, Shlomo, from the consequences of  his half brother, Adoniya's,  grab for the throne of David.  That throne had been promised to Shlomo.  Every year, I see my mother protecting me from unseen threats.  I trust in her; she was very good at miraculous survival, as evidenced by my existence. 

The parsha talks about the lives of  our mother Sarah.  It then proceeds to tell us elements of her legacy. Her impact extended far beyond her lifetime

 Sarah  was the catalyst for the first land purchase in the Promised Land. 

 My mother did likewise, I buried her near Beith Shemesh.  My parents made our family's  first land purchase in the Promised Land: their graves.  When I went to bury her, the funeral agent (  my Efron)  tried to dissuade  me.  He wanted to buy back the plot.  I did not let that happen.  I personally flew with her and buried her in , what is now, our family plot.  I hope that Elisheva and Shoshana, the two daughters that now live in Israel, will visit  for her yahrzeit. 

When my mother was born, there was no Jewish Homeland.  Some say that is part of the reason that her parents, brother and sisters were buried in mass graves ...after their murder. A homeland might have protected them.

 The parsha ends with the the 12 princes  who are the legacy of Ishmael.  This is the Ishmael that Sarah had cast out into the wilderness, the Ishmael from whom Hagar, his mother,  turned away ( rather than see him die), the Ishmael who was rescued by an angel.  The cruel act that Sarah insisted upon did not have the tragic outcome that logic would dictate.  Ishmael bore 12 princes and lived to be 137 years old. . .

A happy ending is an ending that happens, a testament to survival