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Parshat Vayishlach 16 Kislev 5762, 1 December 2001 |
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Parshat Vayishlach 16 Kislev 5762, 1 December 2001 |
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Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Vayishlach Genesis 32:4-36:43
"And Rachel died, and she was buried on the road to Efrat which is Bethlehem." (Genesis 35:19)Our Sages teach us that "a woman's death is felt most profoundly by her husband, and a husband's death is felt most profoundly by his wife." From this perspective, the greatest tragedy of Father Jacob's tragic life was the death of his beloved wife Rachel, the woman with whom he literally fell in love at first sight and for whose hand in marriage he worked for fourteen years. The Bible even gives us the cause for Mother Rachel's untimely passing; after all, an unsuspecting Jacob declares to his Uncle Laban, chasing after him in search of his stolen household gods, "the person with whom the gods shall be found, shall not live." And it was Rachel who took the household gods! But the agonizing question of this passage is: Why did she take the gods? The classical commentator Rashi explains that "she intended to separate her father from idolatry " (ad loc). But if that were the case, why didn't she reveal her theft to Jacob, and why didn't she destroy these idols? She certainly could not have desired to worship them! We have previously analyzed the fundamental tension in the Book of Genesis between civilization and culture, scientific technology and intellectual ideology, materialism and spirituality. The scientifically advanced farmer Cain murdered the more contemplative shepherd Abel, the materialistic hunter Esau is pitted against the introspective student Jacob, and the politically astute cosmopolitan Joseph is sent into exile by the more Israel and Torah oriented Judah. After all, it is the food-supplying Joseph who dreams of Egyptian agriculture as well as familial and even cosmic domination, whereas the penitent Judah is never desirous of leaving his ancestral homeland and eventually establishes a Torah Academy in Egypt in order to pave the way for his father Jacob's arrival. Ever since Mother Rebecca's insistence to Father Isaac that the "hands of Esau" must be joined to the "voice of Jacob," that civilization must become the handmaiden to culture and that scientific technology will enhance the influence and dominion of Torah, it has been the Jewish vision to coopt the economic, scientific, military and political infrastructure as the matrix from which an embracing and all-encompassing Torah can emerge. Hence the beautiful, powerful and fruitful Joseph receives the materialistic blessing and the spiritual and intellectual Judah receives the spiritual sceptre of the birthright; both must work together, with Joseph serving as Judah's hand-maiden, if Mother Rebecca's messianic vision is to be realized. Now it is hardly accidental that Joseph is the son of Rachel; both mother and son - and only this mother and this son - are described as being "beautiful in form and beautiful in appearance" (yefat to'ar, yefat mar'eh) - strongly reminiscent of the Divine blessing bestowed upon Noah's youngest son Yefet, "The Lord shall beautify Yefet", progenitor of Greece and Rome, the Greco-Roman civilization of art and music, esthetics, hedonistic materialism and military prowess. Unfortunately Esau was not willing to subjugate his physical abilities to Jacob's Divine words; he insisted upon being equal to - parallel with - his twin brother. (Genesis 33:12) Joseph, however, was willing to "praise his brother " and accept the fact that the sceptre of religious and messianic leadership would rest in Judah's authoritative voice. This too Joseph inherited from Rachel, who allowed her sister to be the first primary, (and most fruitful) wife to Jacob; after all, it was Rachel who gave over the secret signs to her sister Leah so as not to embarrass her when her father substituted her for Rachel under the nuptial canopy with Jacob. >From this perspective, we can understand Rachel's removal of the household gods from her father's house. According to the ancient Mari and Nuzi documents, the patriarch of ancient pagan families would bequeath the household gods to the first-born or favored son as a sign that he was to receive the birth-right blessing as well. Rachel believed that Jacob, the husband of the two eldest daughters of Laban and the one most responsible for their father's wealth, was deservant of the rights of the first born - Jacob, rather than Rachel's younger brothers. She therefore utilized her "hands of Esau" in order to acquire for her husband what she believed was rightfully his. The Judah-Joseph combination of the voice of Jacob with the hands of Esau, the Torah culture of Judah with the beauty - civilization of Joseph, is most in evidence in the personality of David, progenitor of the Messiah. He is after all described as the ruddy, red-blooded warrior with the beautiful eyes and goodly appearance (admoni, yefeh eynaim) who developed into the psalm-singing visionary of the Jerusalem Temple of G-d. (Samuel 1, 16:12) The midrash magnificently depicts the necessary relationship between the two ideals by prophesying the Messiah scion of Joseph as initially setting the infrastructural, civilizational stage for the ultimate coming of the ideal Rabbi-Prophet-King, Messiah scion of Judah. And Rav Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook went as far as to say that Theodore Herzl, visionary of the Jewish State with its economic, political and military expressions, was indeed the Messiah, son of Joseph. We now eagerly await his senior partner, the Messiah son of Judah. Shabbat Shalom.
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