Shabbat Shalom Weekly

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Torah Portion:  Vayetze

 

Team Leah
by Rabbi Jared Vidars

Several Augusts ago, our house was somehow designated as a drop-off site for new school supplies that would ultimately be distributed to financially-strapped families whose budgets simply did not allow for the significant costs associated with outfitting one’s children with brand new backpacks, binders, composition notebooks and glue sticks. Supplies of all sorts poured in.

To our surprise, one particular woman dropped off loads and loads of supplies. While we knew her to be a very generous soul, this particular display of generosity caught us somewhat off-guard because she did not boast such a robust income to be lavishly doling out gifts to others. After her third trip to the car, she mentioned how this particular cause struck such a soft-spot in her heart.

“Because I remember when my kids were young and we simply didn’t have the money for school supplies. I remember the pain and disappointment of breaking the news to my kids that there would be no new marker sets this year. Even though the kids understood, for a parent it felt just awful. So now that our kids are grown and the situation has improved, I wanted to give a little bit more. Perhaps I can spare some mother somewhere the heartache of telling her child that she has to get by with last year’s binder. For kids it’s a big thing. Especially when all her classmates have new things.”

***

At first glance, the apparent rivalry between Leah and Rachel appears to be (yet another) Torah depiction of sibling rivalry. The parsha is seemingly pre-occupied with each and every round of one-upsmanship associated with “who can mother the most tribes.” Yet, for those not complacent with this superficial understanding, a look beneath the surface reveals a stunning display of Leah’s sensitivity to others – a sensitivity borne from her own personal travails.

“God hearkened to Leah; and she conceived and bore Ya’akov a fifth son. And Leah said, “God has granted me s’chari [my reward] because I gave my maidservant [Zilpah] to my husband,’ and she called his name Issachar.” (Gen. 30:17)

Truth be told, there was no compelling reasons for Leah to invite yet another co-wife into the equation. True, from a precedential standpoint, Sarah gave Hagar to Avraham – but that was only because Sarah herself was incapable of having children. Here, however, Leah had already borne four sons to Ya’akov. So why complicate matters further by bringing Zilpah into the picture?

The Darchei Shleimus explains that this was not a strategy to simply garner more sons in the name of Team Leah. Quite the contrary, Leah’s willingness to give her maidservant Zilpah to Ya’akov represented Leah’s sincere desire to avoid any slighting to Zilpah’s honor.

How so? Well, once Rachel gave her maidservant, Bilhah, to Ya’akov and Bilhah subsequently bore two sons to Ya’akov, it dawned on Leah that her maidservant, Zilpah, was now the odd man (or woman, to be more accurate) out. Lest that that sense of estrangement or dishonor fester, Leah selflessly and graciously suggested that Zilpah have an opportunity to mother sons to Ya’akov as well. Sure enough, Gad and Asher were born to Zilpah thereby putting her on “even footing “so-to-speak with Bilhah.

***

“Afterwards, [Leah] bore a daughter and she called her name Dinah.” (30:21) Why the name Dinah? Rashi explains, “because Leah made a din [judgment] about herself and reasoned, ‘If this one is a male, my sister Rachel will not even be like one of the maidservants [who each had two children.]’ So, Leah davened with regards to the fetus and it was transformed into a female.”

Here we find Leah (again) going to extraordinary lengths to spare her sister, Rachel, any “dishonor” associated with having fewer children than her either Zilpah or Bilhah – Ya’akov’s maidservants.

Even though Leah was surely not at fault for bearing so many of Ya’akov’s sons.

Even though Leah would still, at the end of the day, be the mother to many more children than Rachel.

Even though this effort to preserve Rachel’s honor would essentially require a genetic, in utero miracle (and we generally are cautioned against davening for the supernatural occurrences.)

Nevertheless, motivated by her heightened awareness for the honor of others (especially in the eyes of one’s husband) Leah initiated (of her own volition) this strategy on behalf of Rachel.

***

Perhaps the root of Leah’s “emotional antennae” in this department stems from the fact that she seemingly always played “second-fiddle” in her own home. It is apparent from several verses (both in this week’s parsha and in the Book of Ruth), that Leah – despite being Ya’akov’s first wife, despite having mothered the lion’s share of the tribes and despite her greatness of character, would never achieve the esteem that her sister Rachel experienced in Ya’akov’s eyes.

Our life’s journeys are unique. Along the way we suffer “slings and arrows” and challenges that, if internalized properly, provide each of us with a refined “emotional vocabulary” to process life – not just our own, but others’ lives as well. One person endures loneliness. Others struggle with regret and Monday-morning quarterbacking. Some confront “guilt” on a daily basis. Others experience low self-esteem. Others live through relationships that flounder or businesses that go bust.

Leah extracted emotional know-how from her own life’s challenges and channeled that knowledge to enrich the lives of others. May she serve as a role model for our own paths towards greatness.

 

Jacob’s Impact For Today
by Rabbi Abba Wagensberg

Parshat Vayetzei opens with a seemingly straightforward description of Jacob’s travels: “And Jacob left Beersheva and went toward Haran. And he encountered the place, and he spent the night there, because the sun had set” (Genesis 28:10-11).

The Kedushat Levi explains that this journey symbolizes Jacob’s departure from the Land of Israel and subsequent travels into exile. Since our tradition teaches that every experience of the patriarchs has repercussions for their descendants, it seems that Jacob’s travels must still be relevant to our lives today.

Let’s examine the opening verses of the parsha in detail:

“And Jacob left Beersheva.” The Kedushat Levi says that Jacob’s departure from Israel hints to the spiritual greatness of the Land. He derives this from the word “Beersheva,” which is a combination of be’er and sheva. Be’er means “well” – a source of water, symbolizing abundance and blessing. Sheva means “seven,” alluding to a seven-fold increase of blessing. The Land of Israel is therefore the source of spiritual abundance.

PAIN OF EXILE

The verse continues: “…and he went toward Haran.” Jacob understands that his journey out of the Land of Israel will cause his descendants to be exiled in the future. According to the Kedushat Levi, the word “Haran” is related to the phrase “charon af,” meaning “anger.” God’s displeasure at the Jewish people’s future behavior will result in their being exiled from the Land.

This knowledge causes Jacob great pain, as the next part of the verse indicates: “And he encountered the place” (vayif’ga ba-makom). The word vayifga shares a root with the word lifgo’ah, which means “to injure.” Furthermore, the word makom, beyond its simple meaning of “place,” often refers to God Himself, the foundation of the world (Bereishit Raba 68:9).

We can understand from these words that Jacob did not only feel the people’s pain at being exiled, but he also felt God’s pain at being compelled to exile His children.

Jacob was highly sensitive to the pain of exile. Therefore, the verse continues, “…and he spent the night there, because the sun had set.” The exile is compared to night. Jacob saw that his journeys out of Israel would eventually lead to the darkness of exile descending upon the Jewish people. Just as Jacob slept, the people, too, would be compelled to “sleep.”

Jacob understood that his actions were only a prelude to what would happen to his descendants. Based on this idea, we can suggest a deeper understanding of the words, “And Jacob left” (vayeitzei Yaakov). Jacob “came out of himself” by allowing himself to feel the pain of the Jewish exile. He broadened his focus, shifting his attention away from himself and making room for others. This teaches us a valuable lesson about the importance of feeling other people’s pain.

SECRET SIGNS

We see another demonstration of this quality in Genesis 15:13, when God tells Abraham that the Jewish people will be enslaved to a foreign nation for 400 years. We know from other sources, however, that the Jewish people served in Egypt for only 210 years (Rashi on Genesis 42:2). How can we reconcile this contradiction?

According to the Kedushat Levi, as soon as Abraham was informed about the future Egyptian exile, he felt the pain that the Jewish people would experience there. His pain was so acute that God subtracted 190 years from the original decree!

This ability to feel the pain of others also helps us to see why Rachel was the ideal wife for Jacob. Jacob had arranged to marry Rachel, yet he suspected that his future father-in-law Laban would try to deceive him in some way. He and Rachel therefore agreed upon secret signs that would enable them to recognize each others’ true identity. When Rachel learned of Laban’s plan to give her sister Leah to Jacob instead, she taught Leah these secret signs – because she was so sensitive to the pain that Leah would experience were she to be publicly humiliated under the chuppah (Talmud – Megilla 13).

RETURN TO THE LAND

As soon as Jacob feels the pain of the Jewish people’s exile and goes to sleep in the darkness, God blesses him with the promise, “Behold, I am with you, and I will guard you wherever you go, and I will return you to this Land” (Genesis 28:13-15). We can learn from this blessing the tremendous power of developing sensitivity to others. Although God’s Presence is with us even in the exile, feeling other people’s pain can give us the merit to return to the Land of Israel. The blessing that Jacob receives is a message to us as well.

May we all learn to become sensitive and responsive to the pain of others, and may this ability bring us one step closer to the final redemption, when we will be gathered from exile and return to our land in peace.

 

Practical Dreaming
by Nesanel Yoel Safran 

From this week’s Torah portion: 

David and Joel sat shivering in the old oak tree, hunched over as the wind did its best to blow the baseball caps off their heads.

“Are we supposed to be having fun?” asked Joel between chattering teeth. He turned, looked at the broken down wall behind him, and shook his head. “This clubhouse has had it; let’s get out of here forever.”

A few of the neighborhood kids had built a small tree fort-clubhouse several years ago. Back then, when they were younger, it was a lot of fun to play in the simple structure, but now that they had grown, the clubhouse felt too small and was falling apart. It just wasn’t the same, especially on cold windy days like this one.

Joel expected David to agree to pack it up, but David, wearing one of his winning smiles, turned to him and said, “What do you mean – leave the clubhouse? This is a great place! All it needs is just a little work. I say we put on a new roof, for one thing, and of course fix the walls, moving them out and making the whole place bigger while we’re at it, and maybe we can rig up an elevator…”

“Whoa, hold it!” cut off Joel with the wave of his hand. “Get back down to earth, man! You’re dreaming. We can’t do any of that stuff.”

Just then a big gust of wind came, blowing a loose board off the roof, as if to emphasize Joel’s point. The boys ducked.

“Be practical,” Joel went on. “First of all we would need power tools – that we don’t have. Then we’d need tons of lumber that costs a ton of money – that we don’t have. Not to mention hours and hours of time … are you planning to quit school or something?”

Instead of convincing David, Joel’s arguments only made him dig in his heels. “Just like you to only see the problem with everything. I may be a dreamer, but your head is stuck in the mud!”

And back and forth it went, until the heat of the argument made everyone forget about the cold.

Then suddenly they heard another voice. “Hey! You guys trying to wake up the hibernating squirrels or something?”

David and Joel looked up with a start. The boys had been going at it so loudly that neither of them even heard their friend Brandon coming until he had already swung himself into the tree fort next to them. Immediately the two of them tried to pull him into the argument.

“He’s a hopeless dreamer!” cried Joel.

“He’s a killjoy!” countered David.

Each explained his side of the story, fully expecting Brandon to agree. “Well,” said Brandon, looking at David “you’re right – it is good to dream about making things better. The truth is, a lot could be done to fix this place up.”

David looked gloatingly in Joel’s direction. “But,” continued Brandon, “you’re also right. Dreaming by itself won’t get anything done. To fix the clubhouse won’t be easy, and will take a lot of time and effort.”

The boys were confused. “How could we both be right?”

“Let me give you an example,” Brandon said. “We used this ladder to get to the top of this big, high tree, right? Is the ladder only up here?”

The boys shook their heads.

“And is it only on the ground? Of course not, it’s both up here and on the ground.”

“So what?” countered Joel impatiently.

“Don’t you get it?” smiled Brandon “That’s it. If you want to get anywhere, you have to be like the ladder, with its head in the clouds…” he nodded at David, “and also its feet on the ground!” he smiled at Joel. “I say we fix the place up, but little by little. We can work on Sundays, borrow tools, and scavenge free wood from the stuff they throw out from the construction site down the street. What do you say?”

The stormy wind suddenly calmed down, just like the boys’ previously stormy feelings. They voted unanimously to start right away on what they named ‘project ladder,’ and begin reaching the heights — one step at a time.

Discussion Questions

 

Shabbat Shalom!