Wrestling with the human and Divine
Dvar Torah Parshat VaYetze
Rabbi Neal Borovitz
Rabbi Emeritus Kol Dorot
On his flight from his family compound in Beer Sheva to Haran and then on his return from Haran 22 years later, Torah shares with us Jacob’s fear and anxiety in the context of dreams. In the account of “Jacob’s Ladder”, pictured for us in the opening words of VaYetze, Jacob sees Malachay Elohim, angels or messengers of God, ascending and descending a ladder that Jacob envisioned connecting heaven and earth. Moreover, in this dream Jacob “hears” God’s promise that Jacob will not only return home from exile, but that the blessings promised to his grandfather Abraham and his father Issac will be bestowed upon him and his progeny. The context of this dream is the Biblical narrative of Jacob, fleeing his home in order to avoid the anger of Esau over Jacob’s having “stolen” the blessing and birthright of the first born.
When Jacob awakes from his dream, he says to himself:
“How awesome is this place! This is none other than the House of God, and that, (the ladder) is the gateway to heaven” Gen:28:17
Jacob, the quintessential Biblical deal maker, then vows in Gen:28:18-22 that if God’s promises are fulfilled he will build a place of worship, which he will name Beth El, and promises to tithe his income to the service of God.
Juxtaposed to this dream, where Jacob is pictured as being totally alone, in Genesis 32:25-33, Jacob’s second dream finds him now a husband and father and a man who has truly been blessed with the material success which the voice of God had promised him 22 years earlier. Yet, here too Jacob is once again alone. Moreover, where the young Jacob encounters a God who promises him prosperity, the message of this dream as stated in Gen: 32: 29.
וַיֹּ֗אמֶר לֹ֤א יַעֲקֹב֙ יֵאָמֵ֥ר עוֹד֙ שִׁמְךָ֔ כִּ֖י אִם־יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל כִּֽי־שָׂרִ֧יתָ עִם־אֱלֹהִ֛ים וְעִם־אֲנָשִׁ֖ים וַתּוּכָֽל׃
Said he, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with beings divine and human, and have prevailed,
I believe that a better translation for The Hebrew term Tuchal that is translated by JPS as “Prevailed” is “persevered, Or, perhaps, to paraphrase the Nike slogan, Jacob’s destiny and the destiny of we who call ourselves Bnai Yisrael, the children of Israel is to persevere as we continue to wrestle with both the human and Divine.
Now 14 months into Israel’s longest war, wrestling with the reality of Antisemitism here in America coming at us simultaneously from both the political Right and Left, our challenges today remain to both reach up to the Transcendence of God and reach out to the Immanence of God that dwells within each of us and all of us. Like Jacob in the dream which opens our Parsha this week, we too, need to dedicate our time, our talent and our resources to being God’s Voice and Hands in the world. Similar to the message found in the dream in next week’s Torah portion, Vayishlach, we must continue to wrestle with God and our fellow human beings and with ourselves, but nonetheless, recognize that the goal of Shalom, is one that we must strive for, but one we may not ourselves reach.
As we are taught by Rabbi Tarfon in Pirkei Avot 2:16
“It is not your responsibility to finish the work of redemption but neither are you at Liberty to ignore it”
