Vayetzei -Jacob's Deal with God-An act of gratitude?

Jacob leaves home to spend the next 20 years at the home of his Uncle Laban.At the beginning stage of his journey eastward, he encounters God's Presence in a dream assuring him of protection, a safe return to his home,and the fulfillment of the Promise that the land of Canaan will become the inheritance of his descendants, the Jewish People.

Upon awakening he utters the following pledge:"If God remains with me, if he protects me on this journey that I am making, and gives me bread to eat and clothing to wear and if I return to my father's house safely, the Lord shall be my God, and this stone which I have set up as a pillar shall be God's abode and of all that you give me I will set aside a tithe for You. "(Genesis 28:20-22)

On the surface it appears as if Jacob is entering into a deal with God, attempting to bargain with Him,making his allegiance conditional on God's response! The implication appears obvious and typical of the mindset of many who find themselves in situations of danger.If you help me, I will reciprocate.The converse is also implied-if not, then our bargain is off and all that I pledge-my accepting Your Godship, my dedication of a shrine and my commitment to give back in the form of tithes-is null and void!

Another way of viewing this exchange is prompted by his perception of gratefulness toward life and his God..

We can understand Jacob's ostensible conditionality of a reciprocal response differently-he articulates his awareness of God's protection and care as conveyed to him during the night time and announces his deep sense of gratitude which elicits a response not only of verbal thanksgiving but one translated into a commitment of giving and compassion-he dedicates a place to God and commits himself to a lifetime of tzedaka-of generosity and kindness.

He recognizes that at the root of his existence both materially and spiritually resides the guiding Presence of the Holy One. Not only his food and clothing, but his very safety and survival, and a promise of a dream's fulfillment embedded in his very being, are all the result of God's compassion and goodness.

Jacob underwent a night time transformation from not knowing-

"Surely the Lord is present in this place and I did not know it."(Gen.28:16) -to recognizing that embedded in all of life is the subtle but real presence of the divine which evokes an inner response of gratefulness and ensuing gestures of compassion and concern.

Taking with him this experience of transformative gratefulness he was able to "lift up his feet and continue on his journey into the future.(Gen.29:1)

Grateful for America's Uniqueness-more reflections on 9/11

Three thousand names! The reading of the names of victims of 9/11 was the centerpiece of the commemoration on Sunday,9/11/11, ten years after that awful moment in our lives, a moment that changed the face of the entire world.

Those who watched their TV screens were afforded the added visual dimension of a photograph and an age, which added a greater sense of reality to the public recitation.

So many of the names were mispronounced; as a matter of fact, if called upon to write out those names, most of us would not know how! The scope of ethnic variety and national diversity was staggering! The World Trade Center-a microcosm of NYC and the USA, housed a veritable united nations of peoples and ethnic groups.

As one name followed the other, it became clear to me,on an emotional level, how unique and extraordinary America is in this world. No country anywhere, perhaps with the exception of our neighbor to the north, Canada, can claim a population of such diversity and difference. Given our population numbers-300 million-the American reality is sui generis on this planet.

How daunting a task, I thought, to achieve some consensus and mutuality, a sense of unity and shared values, so necessary to govern successfully, from so many disparate groups.

And yet, in face of this challenge, the greatness of America lies precisely in its extraordinary amalgam of people, all of whom are bound together by the dream of personal and political freedom.

Ethnic, cultural or religious background mattered little to those who committed this evil act-no distinctions were made by the terrorists-they were attacking Americans and it was the American who was their enemy.

Perhaps one of the reasons for such murderous hatred is deeply embedded in the psyche of so many people who simply cannot abide by the notion of human freedom that allows each one of us the right to be ourselves. How impossible it seems for nations and groups, religions and ideologies to tolerate, with understanding and respect, the commitments and ways of life of others. If anything makes America singular and a model to be emulated it is not its military power, wealth or technological dominance. It is its internal cultural , intellectual, social and spiritual structures that embrace us in the canopy of freedom, tolerance and an abiding respect for difference and diversity. This is America's strength and uniqueness; for this we all can be profoundly grateful.

9/11 is a powerful and painful reminder of the American dream and promise to this world. Let us hope that we can achieve our dream without repeated nightmares of terrorism and murder.

Grateful for so much-reflections on 9/11

Unexpectedly, I found myself riveted to the television screen for 6 hours as the commemoration ceremony in honor of the victims of 9/11 unfolded. My wife sat beside me and for most of the time, we stared at the images with tear-filled eyes. The ceremony was perhaps one of the most poignant and simple expressions of sadness and hope that could be presented to New York and to the world.

When considering the capacity for gratitude at this time, it becomes fairly obvious that all of us experience profound gratitude to those heroes of the police and fire departments who risked and lost their lives in the performance of their duty as the rescuers of others. Additionally, we are most grateful for the many average citizens who likewise stepped forward to help, sacrificing their time, effort and even health in the process.

What struck me most as I listened and watched family members recite the names of the victims and share brief, simple and often poetic personal expressions of love and loss, were the everyday, ordinary things and experiences that these loved ones now miss because of this tragedy.

A son expressed his sadness in not having a father to show him how to play baseball; another child was pained by not being able to hug her daddy; a brother indicated that a lost sister's meatloaf is something that is deeply yearned for; a wife would give anything just to see once again her husband's smile or deep blue eyes. Parents bemoaned the absence of their "baby,"desperately praying against all reality that they once again hear their child's voice, touch her cheek, kiss his lips.

SImple everyday things; these were the constituent parts of the fabric of life and love so painfully missed by the thousands of family members and friends. I don't think I heard one reference to success, wealth or celebrity-merely the emotional and spiritual substance of human life, a substance that we take for granted not realizing that it is the very stuff of our human existence.

What do we have to be grateful for?

I leave it up to you to figure out as we pay tribute to these fallen heroes and ordinary people-however painful and frightening the reliving of that traumatic moment was, I pray that through our tears we catch a clearer glimpse of the endless blessings bestowed upon all of us.

B'chukotai

“If you follow My laws and faithfully observe My commandments....you shall eat your fill of bread and dwell securely in your land.”(Lev.26:3-5)

This segment of the Torah ostensibly contains one of the most obvious expressions of the doctrine of reward and punishment in Judaism.The modern mind is skeptical about the accuracy of this doctrine if understood literally. How do we resolve the dilemma of the righteous suffering and those who don't follow God's laws, prospering? Some gain clarity from the view of faith and the assumption that all outcomes are unknown by the mortal mind .Others see this as a collective assurance that when a community lives morally it will prosper even though some individuals may be subject to suffering in the process. Or we can understand these passages as reflecting an historic time when Israel was in its childhood and like children they needed this type of conditional reasoning and understanding in order to withstand the possibilities of straying from God's path.

From a spiritual-psychological point of view I offer another way of understanding this passage.Security comes from within.The Torah suggests that if we have the capacity to “eat our bread” -לשבע- to our fill, with an ability to feel grateful for what we have, this grateful heart will result in the feeling of dwelling securely in the peacefulness and fullness of mind and heart pulsating with thankfulness for out gift of food. Gratitude engenders faith and the assurance that one can dwell securely and safely without fears of not having and without feelings of debilitating insecurity and anxiety about the future.Sensing deeply the gift of all of life, we can take the strength and faith of living our lives anchored in a trust in the world's goodness and the compassion of a God whose gifts we are bidden to enjoy.

B'Har-B'Hukotai

These are the laws that God commanded Moses and Israel on Mount Sinai—

A well-known question that emerges from this opening sentence is found in Rashi who asks: Ma inyan shemittah etzel har Sinai? Why is Sinai referred to in the setting of the Sabbatical laws and the rules governing the Jubilee year? I spite of his answer that establishes the Sinaitic authority for all the laws of the Torah-that is, just as these laws were enunciated divinely, likewise all laws, in their general presentations and in their minutiae are to be considered as divine in origin, I prefer to find in this juxtaposition a different meaning and interpretation.

The first question to be raised is related to the content of these laws, their spiritual purpose. The injunction to allow the land to lie fallow each seventh year and the wider embrace of release in the Jubilee year, namely the release of slaves and the remission of all debts, suggest the overriding principle that in the realm of human affairs absolute ownership of goods and property is a fiction; we are only temporary owners of what we have whether it be land or indentured servants. The earth is the Lord’s and at best our possessions are objects of lease. Ultimately, even our lives do not belong to us. In other words life is impermanent and temporary.

The question remains: does anything survive death and the passage of time? Is there not something that somehow lasts, that out lives the cycles of time? Fields return, debts are cancelled; even belongings are worth only the period of their lease, not the intrinsic value of the object itself.

What about the soul, the higher self, the spirit, the image of God, the divine refraction embedded in the human personality? Does that not belong to us eternally?

Our tradition maintains quite firmly that such a reality is spiritually unmistakable. Thus the text places the reality of impermanence in the setting of that which represents the transcendent, the godly, the moment of a shofar’s sound that only grows louder and stronger-Mount Sinai, a moment of eternity.

Things are shared; they perish. The individual human spirit somehow always occupies a mountain top. Sinai is the symbol of the eternity and indestructibility of the human soul; of a uniqueness that is shaped out of the lives of ordinary human beings who leave behind a legacy of their spirits to others.

B'chukotai

“If you follow My laws and faithfully observe My commandments....you shall eat your fill of bread and dwell securely in your land.”(Lev.26:3-5)

This segment of the Torah ostensibly contains one of the most obvious expressions of the doctrine of reward and punishment in Judaism.The modern mind is skeptical about the accuracy of this doctrine if understood literally. How do we resolve the dilemma of the righteous suffering and those who don't follow God's laws, prospering? Some gain clarity from the view of faith and the assumption that all outcomes are unknown by the mortal mind .Others see this as a collective assurance that when a community lives morally it will prosper even though some individuals may be subject to suffering in the process. Or we can understand these passages as reflecting an historic time when Israel was in its childhood and like children they needed this type of conditional reasoning and understanding in order to withstand the possibilities of straying from God's path.

From a spiritual-psychological point of view I offer another way of understanding this passage.Security comes from within.The Torah suggests that if we have the capacity to “eat our bread” -לשבע- to our fill, with an ability to feel grateful for what we have, this grateful heart will result in the feeling of dwelling securely in the peacefulness and fullness of mind and heart pulsating with thankfulness for out gift of food. Gratitude engenders faith and the assurance that one can dwell securely and safely without fears of not having and without feelings of debilitating insecurity and anxiety about the future.Sensing deeply the gift of all of life, we can take the strength and faith of living our lives anchored in a trust in the world's goodness and the compassion of a God whose gifts we are bidden to enjoy.

Grateful for a Bird's Nest

It was an early summer's day and we returned to our cabin in the country for a restful Shabbat. In typical pre-Shabbat fashion, we hurried as we deposited our things in closets, on tables , in the refrigerator, and began our food preparations for the Sabbath day. Amidst our scurrying about I heard my wife exclaim excitedly but in hushed tones: “Come here-the nest is back!”

I rushed to my wife's side and looking up to the corner of a log beam that crisscrosses with the side of our cabin I caught sight of a perfectly constructed bird's nest, of an unmoving tail and the head of the mother bird scouting for potential risk to her soon to be fledglings.When would the eggs hatch ?When would the first stirrings of life grace our rear deck with their chirping cries of life reborn and renewed? I wondered aloud. We dropped everything and for a few minutes stared at the nest in silent reverence and awe.

At each visit, we make our way to the kitchen window and await, like nervous parents, the arrival of our new-found guests.

How simply wondrous is this everyday phenomenon of nature! The precise construction of a nest, the protectiveness by the mother of her soon to be born young, and the exciting emergence of life from within the confines of thinly covered shells!

The miracle continues with the unstoppable foraging of the mother for food to bring back to her young and with the image of wide open tiny beaks reaching upwards to catch the worms and live.

The final stage of this amazing unfolding of life are the valiant but hesitant attempts of the babies to fly, to leave their nests and soar upwards toward the heights of life's greatness and challenges.

Each step in this wondrous process is reason for praise, for gratitude that life stubbornly pushes on.This persistence is always a sign of hope.

Kedoshim-Grateful for fathers,mothers and the Sabbath Day

This Parasha is often considered one of the most morally significant sections of the Torah- at the heart of the many ethical injunctions beats the aspiration toward the Godly reality of holiness in the spiritual world of humankind. It has been pointed out that in fact we discover in this segment unmistakable references to and some expansions of, the Ten Commandments. Perhaps the most popular of all Torah declarations is found in this Torah section-”You shall love your neighbor as yourself!”(Lev. 19:18)

From the “scattering” of so many laws, both ethical and ritual, there have been attempts to impose some philosophical or conceptual order on the diversity of content in our chapter. Some connections appear natural while others are somewhat strained.

I would like to share one attempted association that on the surface don't appear to have much connection or equivalency; as a matter of fact , traditional commentators view the two verses as suggesting a situation in which conflict arises and difficult choices must be made.

“A man must fear his mother and his father and observe My sabbaths.”(Lev. 19:3) According to the Halachik interpretation of these passages-Rashi et al-should an individual be commanded by one's parent(s) to violate the Sabbath , the Torah makes it clear that he must disobey his parents (a transgression of the fifth commandment) and not violate the Sabbath(the fourth commandment) related to the higher authority of God.

I see in these passages a different spiritual insight , one at the heart of Torah itself.I believe that both verses contain an underlining principle that is reinforced and supported by both passages. In the verse read about “fearing” mother and father, the Hebrew-”tee-ra-oo”-תיראו- is usually translated as “you shall fear”-”yaroh”-ירא- meaning fear. However, I would prefer to translate the word-”tee-ra-ooh” as you should be in awe of.While fear can be viewed as a powerful pedagogical tool in moral education, its benefits are short-lived and often misguided and counter productive. Positive behavior can indeed be arrived at out of fear; indeed much of our legal system is founded upon the fear of penalty and punishment. The younger child naturally behaves at home because of the fear of parents, a fear that continues to influence the behavior of our young, up to a certain point. But in the total scheme of things spiritual, fear fuels suspicion, anger and antagonism. Fear divides us, creating distance and distrust. Whether in our relationships to our parents or to God, few would disagree that the higher form of relationship is that founded not on fear as much as one based on reverence-awe and love.

How does one arrive at the reverence for parents? I suggest that the awareness of the gift of life and its care and cultivation provided by parents allows one to relate to one's parent from the perspective of reverential and loving gratitude.as partners with God in the act of creation and continued nurturance, the child is called upon to experience gratitude and thanksgiving in the parental relationship; a crucial component of the child's love for her parent is that of gratitude.

From gratitude to parents the Torah then naturally proceeds to bring our attention to the need for gratitude in relation to the world that is a gift to all of us, a gift which is acknowledged and celebrated each Shabbat -”Remember the Sabbath day- for in six days He created the universe and rested on the seventh day.”Simply put, Shabbat is essentially a day of gratefulness.

Therefore, the injunction to bein awe of one's parents and to observe the Sabbath have nothing to do with conflict; rather they complement and reinforce each other in the deepening capacity of the human heart to cultivate gratefulness in one's life and in this way arrive at stage of greater holiness and come closer to God the Source of all holiness.