Shabbat Vayetze
Written by Judith Levitt Sunday, 18 November 2007
I struggle with parashat Vayetze because immediately previous to it, Jacob has lied to his blind elderly father and stolen the birthright from his twin. Yet here, God doesn’t just offer compassion or forgiveness – God promises to make Jacob into a great nation and that all future generations will be blessed through him. Not the best lesson in behaviour and consequences. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t expect perfection from our patriarchs and matriarchs. I appreciate that they have flaws; that they’re imperfect and they struggle. I also far prefer God’s compassion to God’s wrath. I’m just not sure that Jacob’s behaviour towards his family warranted the extent of God’s favour Jacob experiences.
The commentators work hard to vindicate Jacob. Verse 10 reads,
“And Jacob went out from Beer Sheva towards Haran” (Gen. 28:10).
The text might have simply said “and Jacob went to Haran.” There is no need to state that he left Beer Sheva, only that he was going to Haran. Rashi says,
“Scripture only needed to write, “And Jacob went towards Haran.” Why does Scripture mention his departure? Only to teach that the departure of a righteous person from the place, makes an impression. At the time that a righteous person is in a city, he is its distinction, he is its splendour and he is its glory.”
Considering Jacob’s actions before his departure, there’s a little too much talk of his splendour and glory for my liking.
In verse 11 it says, “And he came upon the place” (Gen. 28:11). The Biblical text clearly states that Jacob reached not just "a place" but "the place". This implies that Jacob had prior knowledge of a specific place and that there was intentionality in his journeying. The text is referring; it seems, to a place whose identity is already known to the reader. However in the immediate preceding verses there is no mention of any place. Rashi therefore explains its location suggesting that the place is Mount Moriah.
The verb va-yifga is used, usually translated as meaning to meet, encounter or light upon. Commentators therefore debated what it means to meet a place. Rashi suggests that in the phrase va-yifga ba-makom, the word makom refers to the physical place as in the Akeda when it says, “And he saw the place (ha-makom) from afar” (Gen. 22:4). The place in this context is Mount Moriah. Therefore Rashi explains that in Jacob’s context also, “the place” indicates Mount Moriah. Rashi also notes that the verb va-yifga is used elsewhere in the Tanakh to demarcate a physical place.
Verse 15 reads, "Behold, I am with you, and I will guard you wherever you go, and will restore you again to this land; for I will not forsake you, until I have done all that I have spoken to you" (Gen. 28:15). At the very same place where the promise of a future for Abraham almost came to an end in the slaughter of his son Isaac, God appears to his grandson, Jacob, and assures him that the promise remains whole. Not only that, in the narrative that Rashi refers to, Genesis 22, Abraham went there because directed by God. There was great intentionality; here Jacob simply comes upon the place. Thus each of our ancestors arrives at the identical destination but through different means. One is deliberate, the other seems accidental. One gives the impression of being threatened with extinction by God, the other is under God’s protection.
Mount Moriah, the future site of the Temple becomes a place of reconciliation. At a place where Abraham almost did the most horrific act, Jacob, fresh from his own misdeeds, is given a fresh beginning. Rabbi Matthew Berkovitz suggests that even more significantly, Mount Moriah is a place of opposition for God as well — where God demands sacrifice and eventually promises protection. He suggests it is even a place of teshuvah for God. Not surprisingly, this very same makom is to become the holiest site for Judaism. Mount Moriah then is transformed into a symbol of reconciliation and repentance.
And so Jacob’s relationship with God is about so much more than himself. He represents the past, the atrocities that happened between his father and grandfather, but it is also the conduit for God’s relationship with future generations.
