The other morning I am watching my favorite news
show, a U.S. newscast based in New York. The morning news leads with gubernatorial
elections in Virginia and New Jersey and the political implications for the
national Democratic and Republican Parties as well as the Tea Party. My
children were awake, bleary eyed and quietly eating breakfast since they are
not yet too excited by politics. Then the host of the morning show began
speaking about the next news story. “In Toronto…” she began. My kids perked up
and started paying attention. The newscaster was talking about the troubling
news story of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack and even with this news the
Mayor’s approval ratings had actually gone up 5 points from the previous
week. Our children’s’ eyes didn’t blink,
they didn’t leave the television. Their mouths, ears and eyes were wide open.
The story ended, the commercial began and so did the questions. “What’s crack?”
“Is it illegal?” “If the Mayor is doing
something illegal why is he still Mayor?” “How can his approval ratings go up
if he was smoking crack?” For five minutes as I am preparing to leave for morning
minyan, I am answering questions about Crack, drugs, and how can the Mayor
smoke crack, break the law, and be Mayor.
We all like to have our leaders, Mayors, Prime Ministers, and Presidents
to serve as role models and to have minimal character flaws.
This week’s Parsha is Parsha Va’Yeitze.
We continue reading of the adventures of Yaakov Avinu, Judaism’s third Patriarch.
Yaakov flees from home and eventually
arrives at his uncle’s home. Yaakov’ marries both his cousins, Leah and Rachel.
He is given their maidservants as a concubine. He has children, twelve sons; he
works for his uncle and makes his uncle very wealthy. Finally Yaakov realizes
that it is time for him to leave his uncle Lavan and return home. Yaakov
devises a plan that will allow him to return home with much of his uncle’s
flock as a form of payment for the 21 years of indentured servitude.
Indeed Yaakov struggles in this week’s Parsha as he
struggled in last week’s Parsha. He
struggles in his relationships and faith in God. He struggles with his need to
cling to someone or something. He was born clinging to his brother. Now he
desperately struggles to find another to cling to: God, Lavan, Rachel, his sons,
or his wealth. Yaakov also struggles with himself. He struggles with his
“moniker” and what he is supposed to be, an Ish Tam- a simple man (Gen. 25:27), and his desire to be materially
well off (Gen.28: 20). Perhaps this struggle is best illustrated at the
beginning of the Parsha when Yaakov suggests that God is not yet his God but
only the God of his father and grandfather. In that famous dream about the
ladder and the angels, God stands next to Yaakov and tells him the Covenant made
with his father and grandfather will now
be passed down to him. By re-iterating the covenant with him, Yaakov not only
inherits a pre-existing Covenant but also becomes an active participant in the
Covenant. God tells Yaakov “Hinei Anochi
Imach Ushmarticha b’chol Asher Teilech, Behold
I am with you and I will guard you wherever you go…” (28:15). That should
have been re-assuring to Yaakov as he makes his way to Padan Aram and to his
uncle’s home.
However, Yaakov needs more. Yaakov does not yet have
the faith that his father and grandfather have. Yaakov, as a young man, still
struggles with who he is, whom he should emulate, and how to live his
life. In an incredible act of chutzpah,
Yaakov makes a deal with God. Im Yiheyeh
Elohim Imadi Ushmarani Baderech Hazeh Asher Anochi Holech v’Natan Li Lechem
L’echol Uveged Lilbosh, vShavti b’Shalom el Beit Avi v’Hayah Hashem Li Le’lohim
- If God
will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread
to eat, and clothes to wear, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace,
then shall the Lord be my God. Until now Yaakov only considered God to be
the God of Avraham and Yitzchak, his father and grandfather. When will Yaakov
consider God his God? If and when God provides him with the material sustenance
that his brother Esav clamored for in Parsha Toldot. Yaakov wants food, clothes
and material goods. Again we see a very different Yaakov than the one described
as an Ish Tam (Simple Man-
Gen.25:27) Now that he is on his own, Yaakov is unwilling to accept God as his
until he too has some type of personal relationship with God. Both Avraham and
Yitzchok had this personal relationship with God and experienced signs and
wonders. Yaakov takes the first steps toward a personal relationship with God.
He received a Covenant from God. However Yaakov still struggles in his attempt
to cling to God. Certainly some kind of
sign or wonder would cement his belief.
Yaakov was hardly a saint. From Yaakov we learn that
faith in God is not necessarily easy. While a covenant may satisfy our mind, a
sign or a miracle engenders faith in God. Yaakov demonstrates that achieving
faith in God is a challenging undertaking, as well as an ongoing process.
Frequently this process begins as Yaakov’s began, with an immature demand such
as: “if you save me now God,” or “if you do this for me God, then I will do….”
Hopefully the process evolves into a more mature relationship where neither
party has to prove its faith or its presence to the other. Perhaps this is the
difference between one who perpetually struggles and one who has achieved
spiritual fulfillment and contentment. I admit it is far easier to explain and learn from the “flaw” of a lack of faith
as opposed to the flaw of arrogance, hubris and smoking crack.
Peace,
Rav
Yitz
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