Vayetze: the Gd of Jacob

Vayetze: the Gd of Jacob

The unity of Gd is arguably the most fundamental principle of Judaism. The concept is emphasized because the Torah provides reason to question that premise.  In the core daily prayer, the Amidah, we begin by recognizing the Gd of Abraham, the Gd of Isaac and the Gd of Jacob. 

The Gd of Abraham gives orders: Leave your home and  go to Canaan; bring your son Isaac as a sacrifice. That Gd also quietly corrects errors: a disease make Sarah unavailable to Pharaoh; and a disease makes her unavailable to  Avimelech.  The Gd of Isaac delivers  a correction: do not leave  the Promised land. The Gd of Jacob interacts. 

When Jacob must leave Canaan, to escape the murderous wrath of his brother, Esau, Gd appears in a dream and reassures Jacob that his innumerable descendants will inherit the land that he lies upon. Jacob has made a decision, his dream of Gd and the angels validates it.

 Jacob is going to Haran. He is undoing Gd’s instructions to Abraham to settle in Canaan. Jacob is returning to  the people and practices that Abraham had rejected and moved away from. Jacob must confront this past and, by necessity, participate in it. He is going to a place forbidden to his father Isaac. Abraham was not secure that Isaac could resist assimilation into a culture that was so  similar, so comfortable, but would not spawn the monotheistic belief system that Gd had commanded to Abraham. For Isaac, alienation and isolation in Canaan was the safer course. Jacob had to leave. Jacob would need to maintain his differences surrounded by the temptations of the familiar and comfortable.  

When Jacob left Beer Sheva he was justified. He was fulfilling the parental request to find a wife from the family. He was to marry  someone that was  just like the girl that married dear old dad; not a local, like Esau had married. Jacob left Canaan to escape the threat of his brother, to fulfill the request of his parents.  As he undertook his journey,  Gd gave  a seal of approval. He saw the gates of heaven in a dream and he was reassured that Gd would support him  through this travail.  Jacob searches for a way to reciprocate.  He  promises the tithe, ten percent. At the time of the oath, that seems to be zero. 

As usual, Gd remains aloof for a long time. It is not until Jacob sees that Lavan is looking at him funny, and therefore decides it is time to move on, that Gd reappears to Jacob... and tells him to move on. For the preceding 20 years, Jacob had to figure things out for himself. He had a very complex family , with children born to three, and finally four women. 

He had to deal with the evolution of economic theory. How should labor be valued? Can capital be acquired?  Sheep beget sheep: how can the offspring belong to a new owner? In the end, Lavan says: 

וַיַּ֨עַן לָבָ֜ן וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֶֽל־יַעֲקֹ֗ב הַבָּנ֨וֹת בְּנֹתַ֜י וְהַבָּנִ֤ים בָּנַי֙ וְהַצֹּ֣אן צֹאנִ֔י וְכֹ֛ל אֲשֶׁר־אַתָּ֥ה רֹאֶ֖ה לִי־ה֑וּא וְלִבְנֹתַ֞י מָֽה־אֶעֱשֶׂ֤ה לָאֵ֙לֶּה֙ הַיּ֔וֹם א֥וֹ לִבְנֵיהֶ֖ן אֲשֶׁ֥ר יָלָֽדוּ׃ 

Then Laban spoke up and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks; all that you see is mine. Yet what can I do now about my daughters or the children they have borne?

Retrospectively, Jacob recognizes that the wealth he has accumulated has come through the, mostly silent, Divine interventions that foiled the plans of his competitor. When Jacob explains to his family that they had best move, he points out that Gd had transferred the wealth to them. It had been an angel that showed him the magic  of the pealed sticks at the water trough  that maximized the sheep that he wanted.  Is economic theory a theological question?  If Gd created, and therefore eternally owns, the world, is private ownership theft? Is it idolatry?  Is wealth a gift from Gd? How should Gd's share  be recognized  in acquisition  and investment?

The parsha ends as it begins.  As Jacob leaves Haran, he is confronted by angels. He recognizes a  spiritual transition, an encampment  of angels. Does this mean that the promise in the vision, twenty years ago, when he left Canaan, has now been fulfilled? Is Jacob in his own again?

In Jacob's spiritual life, Gd appears at critical moments: leaving the Promised land, separating from Lavan, entering the holy land.  The Gd  of Jacob reinforces plans and actions that seem to be initiated by natural, albeit unusual and, often, dangerous, circumstances. This is closer to how I experience the Divine: as deliverance in times of need. It is different from the commanding Gd of Abraham, the correcting Gd of Isaac, and the unapproachable Gd of Moses. Jacob's Gd is practical.

Gd helps me every day. I tell myself that every day. I do not understand it. I just believe it.