December 1, 2012

Vayishlach, Genesis 32:4–36:43 

A Wrestling Match for the Ages

Bruce Kadden “Ladies and gentlemen, let’s get ready to rumble!

“In this corner, returning after a long absence in Haran, where he is rumored to have fathered eleven sons and one daughter with four different women, considered by some a saint and by others a heel, is the one, the only, Jacob, son of Isaac and Rebekah.

“And in the other corner, the most mysterious being ever to set foot in a wrestling ring: Is he a man? An angel? God? Nobody knows.”

That is how the unusual encounter that highlights the beginning of this week’s Torah portion might be described if it were to take place today (before a live, pay-per-view audience, of course). If there was ever a match for the ages, an encounter that transformed not only each participant, but also an entire people, it was the experience that Jacob had when he was left alone after crossing a ford of the Jabbok River. Jacob would not be the same, his opponent would not be the same, and we, the Jewish people, would not be the same.

And yet, for all its profound significance, it is a story characterized by ambiguity and confusion. The text first says that “a man” wrestled with Jacob until dawn (Genesis 32:25), but it quickly becomes clear that it is no ordinary human being. When Jacob asks his name, he becomes indignant: “Why do you ask my name?” he says before leaving. Jacob then names the place Peni’el—“for I have seen God face-to-face, yet my life has been spared” (32:31).

Compounding the confusion surrounding Jacob’s opponent, is the fact that the text uses so many pronouns—he/him—that the reader is not always sure who is who: “Now Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the rise of dawn. When [he] saw that he could not overcome him, he struck his hip-socket, so that Jacob’s hip-socket was wrenched as [he] wrestled with him. Then he said, ‘Let me go; dawn is breaking!’ But [he] said, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me!’ The other said to him, ‘What is your name?’ and he said: ‘Jacob.’ [He said,] ‘No more shall you be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with human beings, and you have prevailed’” (32:25–29).

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November 24, 2012

Vayeitzei, Genesis 28:10–32:3 

Jacob’s Vertical and Horizontal Encounters

Bruce Kadden

As Parashat Vayeitzei begins Jacob is fleeing from his home in Beersheba. He’s afraid his brother, Esau, will make good on his threat to kill Jacob (Genesis 27:41), because Jacob (with Rebecca’s guidance) tricked their father, Isaac into giving the blessing for the firstborn to Jacob. As the sun sets, he stops for the evening and lies down to sleep.

He dreams of a ladder with its base on the ground, its top in heaven, and angels of God going up and coming down the ladder. And, for the first time in Jacob’s life, God appears to him, and says, “I, the Eternal, am the God of your father Abraham and God of Isaac: the land on which you are lying I will give to you and to your descendants” (Genesis 28:13). God then promises Jacob that he will have numerous descendants who will spread in all directions and through whom “all the families of the earth shall find blessing.” God continues, “And here I am, with you: I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this soil. I will not let go of you as long as I have yet to do what I have promised you” Genesis (28:14–15).

The Rabbis note that the unusual Hebrew word sulam, “ladder,” has the same numerical value in gematria (where each Hebrew letter represents a number) as Sinai (B’reishit Rabbah 68:12). This was Jacob’s Sinai moment, encountering God as Moses would do later at Mount Sinai.

Awakening from this amazing dream, Jacob exclaims: “Truly, the Eternal is in this place, and I did not know it” (Genesis 28:16). Jacob sets up a monument and names the place Beth El before continuing on his journey.

Why does God choose this moment to speak with Jacob? Why is it that Jacob encounters God while lying down? Isn’t it ironic that only in a horizontal position can he experience the vertical dimension of the Divine?

We can understand that God would want to assure Jacob of God's protection as he sets out on his journey to Haran, and that the covenant made with Abraham and passed on to Isaac will continue with him as well. But why wait until Jacob is asleep?

Examining the entire scope of the Jacob narrative, Bernard Och has observed that “Structurally ... it moves along two distinct, dramatic lines: a horizontal one of human-profane activity and a vertical one of Divine-human encounter. In contrast to the Abraham cycle, where the profane and sacred are so closely intertwined as to be inseparable, there, with Jacob, they are experienced as two separate dimensions” (“Jacob at Bethel and Penuel: The Polarity of Divine Encounter,” in Judaism: A Quarterly Journal of Jewish Life and Thought, 42, no. 2, 1993).

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November 17, 2012

Toldot, Genesis 25:19–28:9

Isaac: Why Is This Patriarch Different from All Other Patriarchs?

Bruce Kadden

This week’s Torah portion begins with the phrase, V’eileh toldot Yitzchak ben Avraham, "This is the line of Isaac son of Abraham” (Genesis 25:19), indicating that the text is now going to focus on Isaac, the second of the Patriarchs of our tradition. And, indeed, he figures prominently in the stories of this portion.

However, he still seems to play a subordinate role to his father, Abraham, and his son, Jacob. In the stories of two of the major incidents of his life, the Akeidah (Genesis 22) and the blessing of his sons (Genesis 27) he is not even the central figure. Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut notes that “Of the three patriarchs, Isaac’s personality is the least clearly defined” and he is primarily “the bridge between Abraham and Jacob, the essential link in the chain of greatness” (The Torah: A Modern Commentary, Revised Edition [New York: URJ Press, 2005], pp. 184-185).

While it is easy to overlook Isaac and his role in the biblical narrative, we can learn quite a lot from three aspects of his life that distinguished him from both his father and his son:

Isaac never leaves the Land of Israel
he only has one wife and only fathers children with one woman
his name is not changed
Abraham was born in Ur and—after arriving in the Land of Israel—goes down to Egypt because of a famine. Though Jacob was born in Israel, he escapes the wrath of his brother, Esau, returning to his mother’s native land, and ultimately dies in Egypt. Isaac, on the other hand, lives his entire life in the Land of Israel. In fact, the Torah twice warns that Isaac must not leave the Land. When Abraham’s slave suggests bringing Isaac to the Land of Abraham’s birth if the woman the slave finds to be Isaac’s wife refuses to come to Israel, Abraham warns, “Take great care not to bring my son back there!” (Genesis 24:6). (I prefer this stronger translation of the Hebrew text, “Don’t you dare bring my son back there.”) Later, when Isaac travels to Gerar because of a famine, God warns him not to go down to Egypt: “Stay in the land and I will be with you and bless you” (26:3) God promises him.

While Abraham and Jacob reflect what will become the tradition of the “Wandering Jew” that has characterized so much of our history, Isaac can be viewed as the Jew who will not need to wander from place to place, but will be able to call one place home. That place is Israel, which makes him a role model for Zionists. But all Jews can appreciate that residing in one place allows one to establish roots and develop a sense of home that is not possible when one moves from place to place as is so common today.

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November 10, 2012

Chayei Sarah, Genesis 23:1–25:18

What’s Love Got To Do with It? Everything!

by Bruce Kadden


Do you remember the first time you laid eyes on your beloved? Do you recall your feelings the moment you saw the love of your life?

The Torah offers us a rare glimpse of such an encounter toward the end of this week’s portion when Rebekah, after the long journey from her home in Aram-naharaim, lays eyes on Isaac. He was out in the “evening to stroll in the field” (Genesis 24:63) when he sees a caravan of camels approaching. Isaac, who apparently at this point does not recognize that this caravan is Abraham's servant (possibly Eliezer) returning from his mission to bring back a bride for him, only sees the camels.

Rebekah, on the other hand, “looked up: seeing Isaac, she got off the camel” (24:64). “Got off,” may be an understatement because the Hebrew uses the root nun-pei-lamed to describe Rebekah’s descending from her mount, and that root usually means “fall.” What a sight that must have been! (In English we still describe being in love as “falling” for someone.)

Rebekah quickly recovers from her fall and asks Abraham’s servant, “Who is this man striding in the field coming to meet us?” (24:65). Is this a rhetorical question or is Rebekah clueless that he is her intended? Her question includes an unusual form of the adjective “this”—halazeh—a word used later in Genesis with regard to Joseph (37:19). Since the Torah affirms that Joseph was “fair of form and fair of appearance” (39:6), the Rabbis conclude that Isaac also must be good looking (see B’reishit Rabbah 60:15).

When she finds out that it is indeed Isaac who is coming to meet her, Rebekah immediately covers herself with a veil, which Nahum Sarna notes was part of the marriage ceremony in the ancient Near East. “It is an unspoken signal to Isaac that she is his bride,” (The JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis, New York: The Jewish Publication Society, 1989, p. 170).

This gesture confirms for Isaac that Rebekah is the one chosen to be his bride. Abraham’s servant then tells Isaac about his successful journey. Whereas previously the text described the process in great detail, here only a single verse says it all: “The slave then told Isaac all that he had done” (Genesis 24:66). With this brevity, the text hints that Isaac does not care about what happened in the past; he is now eager to embrace the future and specifically to insure the future of the Jewish people.

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