December 13th: Vayishlach
THIS WEEK IN THE TORAH
Rabbi David E. Ostrich
Each weekday, the Union for Reform Judaism sends out a message entitled Ten Minutes of Torah, a consideration of some aspect of Judaism and Jewish life. The Monday feature always focuses on the weekly Torah portion, with a main commentary and then a secondary essay.
(These daily messages and subscriptions are available at ReformJudaism.org.)
For Vayishlach (Genesis 32.4 – 36.43), Rabbi Dan Moskovitz focuses on the changes that both brothers, Jacob and Esau, make in order for their relationship to work. As Jacob returns to Canaan after two decades in Syria, his brother Esau comes to greet him with 400 armed men.
As Rabbi Moskovitz puts it, Jacob must wrestle “with God and his own destiny. What does God want from him? How should he protect and enlarge the sacred relationship with God that he has inherited from his father? Must he vanquish Esau to prove his worthiness as a leader of the Jewish people? How should he apologize to someone he hurt so deeply and can he ever be forgiven?”
The famous wrestling match can be interpreted in several ways. Perhaps Jacob wrestles with an angel. Perhaps he wrestles with God. Perhaps he wrestles with Esau. Perhaps he wrestles with himself. After this struggle, however, he emerges a new man. Again, Rabbi Moskovitz: “He is not the young boy who bargained for his brother’s birthright over a bowl of soup; he is not the adolescent who stole his brother’s blessing with trickery and gall. He is now Yisrael; a man who knows his own flaws and limitations, a man who bears the scars and burdens of his past and allows them to inform his present perspective. Jacob is humble and pragmatic. He limps toward his brother, his hip still sore from the struggle of the night before, and with repentance and humility he asks his brother’s forgiveness.”
The result, according to the text, is rapprochement: “Esau ran to greet Jacob. He embraced him and, falling on his neck, he kissed him; and they wept.” (Genesis 33.4) Jacob transforms his arrogance to humility. Esau transforms his fury to love. In this transformation and maturity, their relationship can flourish.
In the second essay, Rabbi Joe Black makes an interesting application. Modern Judaism has also had to wrestle, and this wrestling has led to some interesting transformations. “Over the past 146 years, Reform Judaism in North America has wrestled with change. We have been on the forefront of civil rights, women’s equality, patrilineal descent, LGBTQ recognition and celebration, interfaith outreach, Jewish camping, Progressive Zionism, and a host of other causes…Our lay and professional leaders have never shied away from exploring and confronting painful issues—from within and without. While not always easily, we have grown and gained strength from our struggles.”
Among the struggles we have faced are the changing attitudes toward Jewish affiliation and Jewish participation in the modern world. Ever since the gates of the ghetto were opened, we Jews have been much more autonomous in structuring the Jewishness of our lives. This has resulted in a continually changing demographic reality for Jewish institutions. In order to command the attention of modern Jews, we must figure out what must be changed and what must remain the same. While ours is a tradition in which the forms and ideas of the past are a vital part of our identity, the history of Judaism has been one of adaptation and transformation.
Here are some questions with which we have struggled: Do we maintain the ancient sacrificial system, or do we adapt to a Temple-less reality by substituting prayers for the animal and grain sacrifices? Do we retain the sole authority of the Torah, or do we enhance it with the Oral Torah: the Talmud? Do we insist only on the Torah’s holy days, or do we add new holy days—like Purim, Chanukah, Tisha B’Av, Yom Hashoah, or Yom Ha’atzma’ut—when new situations call for religious observance? Do we keep the old words of the traditional prayer book, or do we add our Matriarchs’ names to the Amidah, expressing our respect for Jewish women of every generation? Do we make other changes to our prayer books—enhancing our spiritual reach and expressing, as the Psalmist puts it, “a new song unto the Lord?”
Sometimes, the changes work, and sometimes they do not. Back in the 1800’s, some congregations tried to do away with B’rit Milah (circumcision). Others tried to discontinue Bar Mitzvah. Some tried to shift our Sabbath worship to Sunday—so as to better accommodate American life. Though each of these changes was based on logic and sound reasoning, they did not resonate with our Jewish sensibilities, and they were ultimately abandoned. Other changes, on the other hand, have endured.
The task for our congregations and for each individual Jew is to work on our Jewishness—to fashion a functional relationship between Heaven and Earth and to transform both.
A closing thought from our prayer book:
“We Jews who are called The Children of Israel should always remember how we got the name. It was the name given to our grandfather Jacob—Jacob who wrestled the angel, Jacob who would not let go. Israel they called him for he was a wrestler. Israel they call us for we are wrestlers, too. We wrestle with God as we search for wisdom. We wrestle with people as we struggle for justice. And, we wrestle with ourselves as we make ourselves better and more holy. Yes, we Jews are the Children of Israel, the children and grandchildren of a man who wrestled an angel.”