Vayetze: evolution of science

Vayetze: evolution of science

Every year, I read this parsha, skeptical of the science, especially the animal husbandry. When Jacob agrees to stay in Haran with Lavan to build his own capital, he agrees to take as his own the spotted, striped and brown sheep.  Lavan removes the sheep that already have these attributes and give them to his sons.    I presume that whiteness in sheep and goats is a recessive trait. Since color comes from an active, intact gene, whiteness implies the absence of such an active gene.   Thus, a white animal cannot have any color genes.  Hence, the white animals cannot have colored offspring in the absence of an event (mutation, jumping gene, epigenetic change).  No spotted or striped offspring will usually come from the mating of two white animals.  However, striped and spotted and brown animals can be heterogeneous, they can harbor one white gene, along with the genes that give color.  So these animals can bear white offspring.  This is not a contradiction to the deal that Jacob accepts, it merely implies that it was quite unfavorable, and perhaps both parties knew this. 

The sticks at the watering troughs have always  disturbed me. These poles were set up to encourage matings that would produce better sheep assigned to Jacob. 

  וַיִּֽקַּֽח־ל֣וֹ יַעֲקֹ֗ב מַקַּ֥ל לִבְנֶ֛ה לַ֖ח וְל֣וּז וְעֶרְמ֑וֹן וַיְפַצֵּ֤ל בָּהֵן֙ פְּצָל֣וֹת לְבָנ֔וֹת מַחְשֹׂף֙ הַלָּבָ֔ן  אֲשֶׁ֖ר עַל־הַמַּקְלֽוֹת׃

Jacob then got fresh shoots of poplar, and of almond and plane, and peeled white stripes in them, laying bare the white of the shoots.

The word  לִבְנֶ֛ה , translated as poplar, is clearly related to the white of Lavan. 

   ל֣וּז , the almond is the name of the place mentioned at the beginning of the parsha, the original name of the place that become Beth El. 

 עֶרְמ֑וֹן , the plane tree is related to the word arum, used in the story of Adam and Eve to designate both nakedness and deceit

  מַחְשֹׂף֙ might be a pun with the same  word spelled with a chof,  meaning magic

The repeated use of lavan makes the verse sound like an incantation

 I am  reading   The Evolution of Beauty,  by Richard Prum a book about the role of beauty in biology.  The fundamental question is why animals, most prominently birds, invest so much energy, so many genes, into characteristics and behaviors that do not help them feed or fight.  The proposed answer is that this  gives less physically aggressive animals, often females,  a greater role in evolution on the basis of mate choice.  Certain birds set up a bower, an arrangement of objects, including special sticks, to attract their mate.  Perhaps, Jacob's sticks were like this bird bower for the sheep. 

 I do not want to abandon the benefits and truth of the observations  we call science, that discount miracles and Divine intervention.  I do not want to arrogantly dismiss the Torah story as bad science.  I will just admit that I do not understand and use what I have at hand.   

Tolodoth: the blessing

The central story in Toledoth is Jacob absconding  with  the blessing intended for Esau. 

How is this possible?  I must be translating the words wrong.   A  blessing, in common parlance, is a wish, a thing that is made from nothing more than intention.  Such an insubstantial thing as a  blessing cannot be stolen, it automatically adheres to the intended object.   This bracha must be something more than that.  

Perhaps the blessing  is a kind of intellectual property.  The blessing that Abraham earned, as stated in the beginning of the parsha: 

וְהִרְבֵּיתִ֤י אֶֽת־זַרְעֲךָ֙ כְּכוֹכְבֵ֣י הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וְנָתַתִּ֣י לְזַרְעֲךָ֔ אֵ֥ת כָּל־הָאֲרָצֹ֖ת הָאֵ֑ל וְהִתְבָּרֲכ֣וּ בְזַרְעֲךָ֔ כֹּ֖ל גּוֹיֵ֥י הָאָֽרֶץ׃

I will make your heirs as numerous as the stars of heaven, and assign to your heirs all these lands, so that all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your heirs—

5

עֵ֕קֶב אֲשֶׁר־שָׁמַ֥ע אַבְרָהָ֖ם בְּקֹלִ֑י וַיִּשְׁמֹר֙ מִשְׁמַרְתִּ֔י מִצְוֺתַ֖י חֻקּוֹתַ֥י וְתוֹרֹתָֽי׃

inasmuch as Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge: My commandments, My laws, and My teachings.”

This Divine  Abrahamic blessing, now passed to Isaac, along with the physical, worldly legacy of Abraham, may have that corporeal characteristic of being transferable like real property.  The immediately preceding transaction, Esau selling the primogeniture to Jacob for lentil soup, hints at the substantial nature, in this text,  of things that I would ordinarily understand to be abstract and non-commercial. 

[Had Jacob failed to purchase the legal rights to Esau's status, the blessing might have gone to Esau despite Jacob's physical presence, by the mechanism of zoche le'adam shelo befonov: Jacob would have been considered Esau's messenger for the delivery of Isaac's blessing, even in the absence of prior delegation for the task ]. 

The blessing comes to us, the descendants of Jacob, as a right to the promised land (and a promise of prominence in the world). There is a phrase in the King James version: "the meek shall inherit the earth."  Some scholars have proposed this is a misleading translation.  It would be better said: the meek shall inherit The Land.  Perhaps we have that here.  Meek Jacob acquires  entitlement to the Land ( and perhaps the earth) - through his (mother's) guile. 

Did our ancestor really  get the misplaced blessing?  We certainly got the accompanying curse - our brother, who lives by the sword has claimed his legacy... repeatedly. 

Chaye Sarah : ghosts

Chaye Sarah : ghosts

This year, I understand the title of the parsha better.  Until now, it did not seem to make sense.   The parsha is called "The Life of Sarah", but it takes place after her death.  This year I understand that it is motivated by her spirit.  

The first action is the purchase of Sarah's gravesite.  The details of the negotiation are given.  Abraham selected the  site, and asked to be introduced to Ephron, the man with the power to sell it.   Ephron claims to want to give it away, but Abraham hears the real message - the asking price is 400 shekel.  Abraham does not negotiate further, he tenders the full price .  Sarah had taught  Abraham to listen to the real message. Sometimes the message is hidden in the words

The death of Sarah is part of the motivation to acquire a wife for her only son, Isaac.  The quality of helping with abandon is the criterion that the servant uses to identify an appropriate wife.  Presumably, that is what he had seen in Sarah.  When Rebecca is finally brought home to Isaac, we are told that he was comforted from the loss of his mother. וַיִּנָּחֵ֥ם יִצְחָ֖ק אַחֲרֵ֥י אִמּֽוֹ

The kindness and energy  of Sarah would continue

Abraham remarries, but he maintains Sarah's son Isaac  as his sole heir. She is eternalized in her offspring

This is the week of my mother's Yahrzeit.  Her ghost is more substantial during these days.  Her spirit of survival and helping others survive, her warmth, her ambivalence, her honest confusion are palpable now.   I am comforted by my wife and children and friends and the life that developed around me.  I do not forget.  Her spirit permeates it all. 

Vayera: Revelation

Vayera: Revelation

This week's parsha says that Gd appeared.    We understand something, to some level,  by virtue of seeing.  In the parsha we are told about the revelation to forefather Abraham.  We do not get to see the interaction, we just get the story and the opportunity to derive some understanding.  

The idea that Gd appears to some (special) people at certain ( special) times is a revelation, something I would not have known without being told.  The situations that lead to such visit(ation)s is not defined, but we can surmise that the courage to start the tradition of circumcision, by performing the act on himself at the age of 99 was part of the prerequisites.  The need to encourage Abraham and Sarah to try to have a baby may have been the motivation.   

The Sodom issue is presented as a confidence, a shared secret, that brings Abraham and Gd closer by revealing an aspect of their natures. Gd will continue to administer justice through catastrophe, Sodom and the the other 4 towns will be destroyed for their evil ways.  Abraham shows his courageous compassion by negotiating for clemency on the basis of the residual just.  Once Lot is evacuated, the city is bombed. The smoke is visible, at least as far away as Philistia. 

Abraham and Sarah   continue their quest for a place in the land .  They come to Philistia,  Abraham fearing for is life, hides his marriage to Sarah, claiming that she is his sister.  Like the Pharoah,  Avimelech, the Philistine   king, learns that Sarah is actually Abraham's wife.  Avimelech  is offended.  He saw the smoke of Sodom.  After that, he would not dare take another man's wife.  Abraham may have underestimated the power of the message in the destruction of Sodom .  And maybe not.

After the birth of Isaac, Gd tells Abraham to heed the words of Sarah and banish Ishmael ( the first filicide attempt?).  This is the Gd of extraordinary demands, counter-intuitive advice.  Abraham had intended exile, but the story unfolds to a near death episode from the lack of water and rescue from the Divine. 

The parsha ends with the dramatic binding of Isaac.  Now the demand of heaven seems outrageous. To sacrifice the beloved, remaining  son.  This is a demonstration of the inscrutability of a Divine command.  It cannot possibly mean what it sounds like.  And it does not. 

Can I rely on Divine  intervention to arrange a good outcome if I follow instructions that I do not understand?  Do I have a choice?