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Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Vayishlach
Genesis 32:4-36:43
By Shlomo Riskin
Efrat, Israel – This week’s Biblical reading provides a stunning
climax to the riveting stories of Jacob – how and why this most clearly
defined patriarch of the twelve tribes returns to his father’s house,
establishes the monument to G-d in Bet El as he had vowed, and merits the
new name of Yisrael, the name by which his descendants shall be known
forever. What is the secret behind this name, what is the true
significance of the wrestling match, and why does it take Jacob such a
long time to finally arrive home after his having left Laban. (He leaves
Laban in chapter 29 at the end of last week’s reading and he doesn’t
return to Isaac’s house until verse 27 of chapter 35!).
We have already seen how the naïve whole-hearted dweller of tents became
a scheming deceiver, first manipulating his elder brother into selling him
the birthright, then pretending to be the brother he was not, and finally
resorting to all manners of subterfuge in order to outsmart the wise-alec
Laban and come out with the majority of his flocks. Indeed, the hands of
the aggressive animal-hunter and people-trapper Esau overcame the
spiritually pure voice of Jacob, so that Jacob turned into Esau and truly
proved worthy of his name: Ya’akov, the circumventing and crooked
grasper of his elder brother’s heel. Yes, he turned himself into this
“drey around” in order to gain the father’s love he so needed and
yearned for; nevertheless, he was indeed the crooked Ya’akov, who had
twice circumvented the legitimate gains which were his brother’s just
due (Gen 27:36).
Jacob succeeds in burying his true character and expressing his first name
– until he suddenly and literally wakes up to his genuine and original
vocation as a result of his realization that his very dreams have become
sullied and transformed: he no longer sees angels ascending and descending
a ladder connecting heaven and earth but he rather now sees speckled and
striped and spotted sheep. And this latter dream is not what he wishes to
bequeath to the son he has just born, Joseph the eldest child of his
beloved Rachel.
In his oath more than two decades before, Jacob had predicated his
acceptance of Y-HVH as his G-d upon his return to his father’s house in
peace; he then thought that meant his favored acceptance by his father as
a newly improved model Esau. Now Jacob realizes that the very opposite is
the case: he must find the courage to be what he really is, a wholehearted
dweller of tents, whether his father values it or not; he must become his
own man, G-d’s man and not necessarily his father’s man. Only then
will he be free to be himself!
He leaves Laban – and wiley Labanism. He is ready to confront Esau –
and return his unearned blessing by giving his elder brother his crookedly
gained material blessing and flocks. But first he must stand alone – he
and G-d - and exorcize Esauism, the very desire to become Esau in order to
gain paternal favor, from the very depth of his being. He wrestles with
himself – and comes back to his true self. He is no longer the crooked
Ya’akov; he becomes the straight and upright Yisra or Yashar person of
G-d (El).
He is now almost ready to return home; he must first, however, test out
his new persona of walking in a straight line rather than “dreying”
around and cutting corners. He takes Shimon and Levy to task for selling
Shechem a bill of goods about circumcision in a war of subterfuge rather
than confronting them as terrorist – rapists head-on: “You have
muddied me, causing me to stink in the eyes of the inhabitants of the land…”
(34:30); you desecrated G-d’s name by having been disingenuous. Jacob
then weeps and mourns the death of his mother’s nurse and nanny Devorah
– but Rebecca, who instigated Jacob’s crookedness, is not mourned or
even mentioned at all!
Rachel then dies in child-birth for having deceived her father and stolen
his teraphim, presumably because she believed that the terpahim (or
trophies) – a tangible sign of the heir to the family fortune –
rightfully belonged to Jacob, who had worked alongside her father so
diligently and capably. But Jacob said it properly and morally: “The one
in whose possession are the terafim shall not live;” (31:32) a
birthright dare not be stolen, and a man’s wife is equal to the man
himself!
And finally, “And Reuven went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s
mistress…” (35:22). Reuven usurps his father’s place in a most
blatant and pornographic manner; he deserves to be punished, perhaps even
banished from the family. Jacob is justifiably furious. But the new-born
Yisrael also understands that he must directly take responsibility and own
up to his own weaknesses. Was this not a desperate (albeit unfortunate)
cry of pain, a poorly designed and badly executed declaration that he –
Reuven – was his father’s rightful heir and that he should not have
been cast aside in favor of Joseph, younger first-born of the more favored
wife?!
A wisened and chastened Yisrael understands that he must assume a large
portion of the blame for Reuven’s immoral act – and so he hears of the
incident and overlooks it. His silence allows him to remain the patriarch
of the twelve tribes – and his silence also gains him the catharsis of
self-forgiveness for his act of deception which he so yearns to receive.
After all, if his misguided paternal favoritism allows him to forgive the
transgression of Reuven, ought not Isaac’s misguided paternal favoritism
of Esau allow him – Jacob – to be forgiven of his transgression
towards his father Isaac? And so now, “Jacob returns to Isaac his father”
(35:27) in peace within himself, at last. Finally “The crooked has
become straight,” (Vehava he’akov le’mishor – Isaiah 40:4).
Shabbat Shalom
Shlomo Riskin
Chancellor Ohr Torah Stone
Chief Rabbi - Efrat Israel
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