And I Told Her My Story; I Told Her What Was Going On (Grateful Dead - "Caution: Do Not Stop On Tracks)

           Despite the rising tide of antisemitism, despite the cesspool of anti-semitic tropes that one finds on Twitter, despite all the anti-semitic conspiracy theories found in the extreme parts of the Alt-Right universe and the anti-Israel rhetoric of the extreme Left political universe, I found tremendous comfort in the middle. Two weeks ago, the State of Pennsylvania elected a “Left of Center” Jewish Governor. Josh Shapiro was recently elected Governor by receiving the greatest amount of votes for a Governor in state history.  He ran against a candidate who espoused White Christian Nationalism, supported the January 6th Capitol Riot, and believed that a woman has no right to an abortion under any circumstance. Josh Shapiro grew up attending Jewish Days School and attending shul with his father. He and his wife send their children to Day School and celebrate Shabbat and the Jewish Holidays. When Josh campaigned, he told a story that people were familiar with. He told a story. He told an aspirational story of a nation founded upon the principles of religious freedom. He told the aspirational story of a nation struggling to guarantee and protect the rights and freedoms of all its citizens. He reminded the voters that the future of their community and state is premised upon expanding rights, freedoms, and liberties. Josh’s story reminded everyone of the past and spoke of a future that was both inspirational and aspirational.

          This Shabbat we read from Parsha Chayei Sarah, “the Life of Sarah”. It is a rather odd name for a Parsha that discusses’ Sarah’s death, and Avraham’s funeral preparations including a eulogy, crying, and the purchase of land for burial. The focus then shifts from Sarah’s death and Avraham’s caring for her to Avraham’s son Yitzchak and getting on with his life. Avraham instructs his servant to find a wife for Yitzchak from among his ancestors. The servant head back to Avraham’s homeland, he asks God for a sign so that he knows which girl is the right one for his master’s son. He finds the girl and convinces her to return with him, the girl leaves home and heads back with the servant to meet her new husband and her father–in–law. They get married. Avraham takes a wife and lives quietly in retirement. The Parsha concludes with Avraham’s death and the death of his eldest son Ishmael.

          Structurally, the Parsha is rather peculiar. Between the narrative of Sarah’s death and funeral and the narrative of Avraham and Ishmael’s deaths exists a narrative affirming life.  A father arranges to find a wife for his son. A young woman, Rivkah,  leaves home and marries Avraham’s son Yitzchak, a man who had a near-death experience when his father tried to offer him as a sacrifice and who is dealing with the death of his mother.  This life-affirming narrative is told in three different ways. The first narrative occurs when Avraham tells his servant what to do: Return to the ancestral homeland, find a girl from the tribe, and bring her back so that Yitzchak can marry her. The second narrative is Avraham’s plan coming to fruition. The servant returns to Avraham’s homeland, he prays to God for a sign that he should pick the right girl, he meets the girl and then meets the family. The third narrative is the servant recounting the narrative beginning with Avraham’s presenting the servant with this sacred task. Why does the Torah present this narrative in three different ways and from three different perspectives: Avraham’s plan, Avraham’s servant (Eliezer) fulfilling the mission, and Eliezer explaining all these events to Rebecca’s family? Why all the details? The Torah could have told of Avraham’s plan and even included the events that allowed Eliezer to fulfill the plan. Certainly, we don’t need to read Eliezer’s recounting of events to Rebecca’s family. The Torah could have said: “And Eliezer told her family all that happened.” Maybe we read the narratives’ reiteration gets us to look at it in more than just a cursory manner. The more we look at it, and hear about it, the more we begin to realize just how miraculous the whole story is. Maybe the narrative’s reiteration reminds us that the focus should be on life-affirming events rather than death-affirming events.  Maybe the subliminal message and the reason for the narrative’s reiteration is the sanctity of the narrative. Yitzchak was dealing with lots of death, as was Avraham. Generally, death marks the end of a narrative. For Yitzchak and Rebecca, both of whom were about to begin a new stage of life together, they needed to have a new narrative, their narrative. For the narrative to be effective it had to include the past and an origin, it needs to embody a point to a possible future, it needs to embody fundamental values, and it needs to have a way of being transmitted.

          The ability to create a narrative and share it is an incredibly important part of life. A narrative connects the past, present, and future. A narrative provides attributes meaning by adeptly connecting seemingly disparate events. Whether it was a servant’s narrative that spoke of miracles and God’s presence, or a gubernatorial candidate’s narrative on the broad themes of liberty and freedom as expressed in casting a ballot; narratives connect people allowing them to create community, purpose, and meaning.

Peace,
Rav Yitz

I Got No Dime, But I Got Some Time To Hear His Story ( Robert Hunter & Jerry Garcia - " Wharf Rat")

Our eldest daughter had a big week in terms of her professional career. For the past 5/6 months, she served as the campaign manager for a woman running for re-election to the Virginia State legislature. Her candidate won in a landslide. This was the first political campaign for which she was in charge of the entire campaign. With that experience, comes the next campaign which inevitably becomes a bigger and more prestigious campaign. Winning a campaign, as she explained to me, is all about a narratives. First she needs to tell the candidates life narrative and the narrative should include events, and experiences that allow the candidate to connect to the narratives of the voters.  That leads to the second narrative, the candidate needs to listen to the narratives of the voters’ lives. Her candidate needed to hear about the struggles, and tsuris that they deal with in order to speak to it and perhaps even come up with a solution for that pain, tsuris and hardship. The third narrative, is the integration of these two different narratives into a coherent messages that allows the candidate and voter to connect.  When I ask her about transmitting the narrative and what is the most powerful way of transmitting these narratives, it’s not Facebook, Twitter, digital media, print ads. Certainly all those modes of transmitting a narrative are helpful but nothing is more helpful than knocking on the door and talking to people face to face.

This week's Parsha is Chayei Sarah. The Parsha begins with the recounting the years of Sarah's life, Avraham's mourning for his wife, purchasing the land for Sarah's burial and then burying her. Avraham then tells his servant that he does not want his son, Yitzchak, marrying a Canaanite woman. Instead, the servant must return to Avraham's hometown and look for a woman from Avraham's family/ tribe. Avraham explains that the girl that returns with the servant is the right girl. Armed with treasures, camels and plenty of wealth for a dowry the servant sets off and decides that the best place to find a girl is by the local well. There the servant decides that the "right" girl is the girl who would offer him water, as well as offer water to his camels. Sure enough, Rebecca arrives at the well and fulfills the servant's standard. The servant returns with Rebecca to her family, convinces the family to let her go, and Rebecca is asked if she wants to return with the servant. Rebecca unhesitatingly responds with a yes. Now Rebecca has fulfilled the servant's requirement as well as Avraham's requirement. Upon her arrival at her new home, she sees her betrothed, and, not knowing who he was, asked the servant. The servant told her and she covered herself. Rebecca and Yitzchak are married. The Parsha concludes with Yitzchak and Ishmael burying their father, and the genealogy of Ishmael's family.

Three different times and in three different contexts we read about a father’s desire to find a wife for his son and then we read about that desire being fulfilled.  First, Avraham tells his servant Eliezer to swear an oath to find a wife for Yitzchak. Then we read about Eliezer actually finding the future wife for his master’s son, Yitzchak. Finally we read about Eliezer’s transmitting the first two narratives to the future bride’s family since they are about to be impacted by both Avraham’s desire for his son to find a wife and their daughter’s decision to become that wife. Each narrative contains numerous details and descriptions. Yet the narrative that immediately preceded this week’s Parsha, the narrative that Jewish tradition points to as the foundational essence of a people’s relationship to God, the Akedah, and the Binding of Isaac is scant nineteen verses and numerous details aren’t even included. In this one long narrative divided into three subsections, we are told of specific conversations, prayers, jewelry as well as gifts for Rebecca’s family.  Why does the Torah tell the story of how a couple met in three different ways, the third being a recapitulation of previous events by the servant. The only other time we read of a detailed recapitulation of a narrative is when Moshe speaks to B’nai Yisroel when they are on the eastern bank of the Jordan River and preparing to enter into Eretz Canaan. The RaDaK (Rabbi David Kimchi- Provence, France 1160-1235) explains that Eliezer’s recapitulation serves to placate Rebecca and her family. Avraham’s servant speaks candidly and enthusiastically of his master and his master’s household. Eliezer’s re-capitulation hints at the Avraham’s character as well as the very unique covenant established between him and God. Only by transmitting this message, this story in a face to face manner, Rebecca’s family understands the significance and the necessity of Rebecca leaving her family of origin for her future with Yitzchak.

Creating a narrative is important for individuals and for nations. However, it is the way in which that narrative gets transmitted which allows members of a family, a people, voters, citizens and members of a specific community to connect to a shared common past and experience. The means by which a narrative is transmitted will affect the way in which people connect with each other and its leadership. Just ask our daughter, she transmits narratives in order for people to serve their constituency and their community.  The real question becomes how do we transmit the values embodied in the narratives of our lives and our families and our traditions to the next generation?

Peace,

Rav Yitz