Guest Sermon: Vayetze by Gary Smith

BEFORE I BEGIN, I want to acknowledge a few people here today. First, Rabbi Mina, for allowing me to give the drash. My wife Debbie, my editor, who I met on this day 34 years ago and whose sweet voice continues to inspire me.

I’m going to be addressing the entire portion of Vayetze today, not just the triennial cycle that we read this morning. We’ve been given a portion that is, shall we say, a bit risqué. As far as format goes, I would like to start with something just a little bit different than what we usually do.

[Watch Gary's intro: a re-enactment of "Rachel's Rap" on YouTube]

This has been a very difficult few weeks.

Since events this year in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, California, and many other places, including social media, we have done a lot of mourning, for specific people, for our sense of security, and for our country. We are still in shock.

But I did find in my email yesterday some inspiration. And it has a connection. Rabbi Andy Shugerman, Executive Director of the International Federation of Jewish men's clubs, talked in this week’s FJMC Unraveller about the phrase traditionally offered to mourners entering a space of prayer after the loss of a loved one.

HaMakom Yenachem Etchem B’tokh She’ar Avelei Tzion V’Yerushalayim.

May God comfort you among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

When we say this, we use the term HaMakom as a name for God. HaMakom means The Place. Today we may think of God as everywhere, in every place, but when we say place, we think of a specific place. In today’s portion, our ancestor Jacob discovers God’s presence in the place where he sleeps, and an immutable connection is thus made between place and God, forever.

As this week’s portion begins, Jacob stops for the night, with a stone for a pillow, and has an amazing dream that fills him with awe. We’ve all heard of Jacob’s ladder, which finds its origins in this parsha. In Jacob’s dream, a stairway sits on the ground, but leads up to the sky. Jacob sees angels of God going up and down, and God is right beside Jacob, and gives Jacob a promise to make a great nation from him. Spoiler alert, God’s promise comes true.

Leading up to this week’s portion, Jacob, with the help of his mother Rebecca, had tricked his brother Esau into getting the family blessing from their father Isaac. That gave Jacob the right to lead the family. But Rebecca warned Jacob, that his brother was incensed and plotting to kill him when Isaac died. Rebecca told him to go live with her brother Laban, that he would be safe there. So, Jacob up and fled. It was on his way to Laban’s that his dream took place.

Jacob starts off as an immature young man, and he ends up married and wealthy, with two wives and two concubines, with a huge family, having sired the leaders of most of the 12 tribes of Israel. Most of the patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel were born during the time described in this parsha, as well as Dina, the daughter of Jacob whose name was not one of the tribes.

Let’s work our way back from the end.

Near the end of Vayetze, Jacob finally finishes up his 20 years of indentured servitude to his patron and Uncle, Laban. Jacob has literally gathered his flock and up and made tracks. For reasons we won’t get into here, Rachel has taken her father's idols, which was a really big deal. To us today, it might be like a daughter of the synagogue slipping one of our Torah scrolls in her luggage before boarding a flight to somewhere far away.

Laban realizes his idols are gone, and that Jacob has left abruptly. He quickly gathers his people, and after quite a chase, finally catches up to Jacob. Laban confronts Jacob – why did you leave without saying goodbye? And why did you take my idols?

Jacob denies everything, and tells Laban that anyone caught with Laban’s idols shall not remain alive. Unknown to Jacob, it was his wife Rachel who had stolen them. Rachel hides the idols on the camel on which she sits and claims it’s her period and sorry for not getting up.

So, Laban’s search through the tents and other areas is unsuccessful. But then Jacob turns the tables and goes off on Laban. He says you've looked through all my things. What have you found of your personal stuff? I've spent 20 years in your service, 14 for your two daughters, and six for the flocks. None of your lambs or goats miscarried. I didn't eat any rams from you and any animals that were torn I never brought to you, I made good on the loss myself. I worked when it was hot when it was cold when I was tired during those 20 years. You changed my wages time and time again. If God hadn't been with me, I would be leaving empty handed.

And then a remarkable thing happens that is relevant to what’s going on in the world today.

Laban listens to Jacob. And then, he does an about-face. He gestures to the huge group of people with Jacob. These daughters – they are my daughter's, the children of my children. These flocks – they are my flocks. All that you see is mine.

But – and here’s the meme-worthy part – he lets it all go, to save face.

What can I do now, he says, about my daughters and the children that they've born? Come, let's make a pact, that there may be a witness between you and me.

They take a stone and set it up as a pillar and then make a mound and have a meal there. Laban says “this mound is a witness between you and me this day.” One called it Galed, and the other called it Mitzpah.

Like any treaty, there were details - if Jacob mistreated Laban’s daughters or took other wives besides his daughters then God would be witness. And Laban was not to cross to Jacob past the mound and Jacob was not to cross to Laban past the mound and pillar with hostile intent, and they swore on the God of Abraham, and on the God of Nahore (Laban’s ancestral deities). And Jacob swore on the fear of his father Isaac.

Jacob then offered up a sacrifice and after the meal, they spent the night on the height. The parsha ends with Laban early in the morning kissing his family goodbye – they were family - and then leaving on his journey homeward.

There is so much in this parsha to talk about, such as Jacob having to work seven years for Rachel, only to discover it is Leah who he wed. (By the way, since childhood I was under the impression that Jacob had to work another seven years before he got to marry Rachel, but in reading this parsha, only a week after he weds Leah he gets to cohabit with Rachel. For some reason, I didn’t quite grasp that in Sunday School.)

We need to also talk about this portion from the point of view of the women in it. Each of them had to find their power within the constraints of the male-controlled community which was the norm for their time. Rachel and Leah both went through heart-wrenching, existential crises around childlessness and childbirth, including sharing their husband with three other women. And we haven’t even talked about Zilpah and Bilhah, who bore children but had even less standing than Leah and Rachel.

There is also trickery and deception that surrounded Jacob’s life and those around him. Esau lost his birthright in exchange for a bowl of stew; Jacob followed up and got Isaac’s blessing. Jacob had the tables turned on him by Laban, who tricked him into marrying both his daughters, and working an extra seven for the one he wanted. And Rachel tricked her father out of his religious icons.

The portion concludes with Jacob’s honest, vocal pact with his Uncle Laban not to cross over the boundary on which they agreed.

This week's Torah portion opened with the beginning of Jacob's journey from the only home he had ever known. Yet he finds God in an unsettled place, when he has his nighttime vision of angels ascending and descending a ladder in that very place.

We too might continue to feel unsettled by the events of recent weeks and days. Let us not close ourselves to the rawness of that reality and to the needs of those who need peace, who need a safe place.

As we walk together, as we work together, perhaps we will find God's presence in the name that means place.

In That Place.

HaMakom.

Shabbat Shalom.