Another Tale of Love and Darkness

“I’m sick of telling the story because it’s important. I just want some peace and quiet.” This from 15-year-old Gali. Her adroit use of WhatsApp on that terrifying October 7 morning, provided the IDF with precise locations for hundreds who were hiding throughout her Kibbutz. She herself was the last one rescued. A crazy explosion shook the house where she was hiding. She was sure she was going to die. Thankfully she got rescued. But she’s had enough of telling her story. Gali just wants some peace and quiet. 

This week’s portion throbs with anguish. It convulses with painful trembling (Gen. 27:33-34). Jacob has deceptively taken the blessing his father thought he was giving to Esau. And yet, what’s most astonishing is that this was not the covenant blessing. Later on, Isaac calmly and clearly confers Abraham’s blessing to Jacob (Gen. 28:3-4). So why all the emotional agony? 

Well, perhaps, because life itself doesn’t excuse us from it. If you live fully, you’ll be forced to experience painful emotions from time to time. 

More than a year ago, I quoted this passage in my 2nd Letter to you back on October 10, 2023. 

I called it, Why We Can’t Sleep. It was about a moment, 77 years ago today, November 29th, 1947, when the UN voted to permit Israel’s establishment. A young author named Amos Oz was in bed with his father at 4 am. His father told him a story from his youth of utter humiliation that his father, Grandpa Alexander, had endured back in Poland.  

Bullies attacked his father in front of his eyes, forcing him down onto the paving stones in the middle of the playground, removing his trousers, and the girls laughed. Then his father told him, “Bullies may well bother you in school or in the street someday … but from now on, from the moment we have our own State, you will never again be bullied just because you are a Jew… Not that. Never again. From tonight that’s finished here. Forever.” A Tale of Love and Darkness pp. 345-346

If only. 

Oh how we all long to return to productive lives that aren’t centered around war. Our Gali thirsts for it. Time will one day provide it. Until it does, we make space to breathe. To let our emotions and those of others have their due. God’s Torah reminds us that life will include pain. Still, the context of this reminder is one where blessings are bestowed. May we too find ways to extract blessings whenever and however we can.