Category Archives: Jeremy’s Notes

Please note that service reminders aim to build a bridge between the last Saturday service two weeks before and the one being announced. They will therefore often focus on the previous parshah rather than on the one in the title.

Jeremy’s Notes

Vayeshev

We left Jacob, and his now large family, at the end of Vayetze, having made just made his peace with his father-in-law Laban and now ready to return to his father in Canaan. The beginning of the next parsha, Vayishlach, finds him fearful of meeting his brother Esau. After all, Jacob bought his birthright for a bowl of lentil soup and later cheated him out of his blessing. Who would not be fearful in such a case? Jacob is a wise strategist, however, and he plans his meeting with Esau in such a way as to reduce the chance of violence and to minimize its effect, should it occur. He divides his camp into two and sends a succession of tributes or peace offerings ahead.

The night before the meeting, Jacob wrestles with an angel, and thus Israel is born. The child who grabbed his brother’s heel becomes the man who struggles with God, and so we, the children of Israel, have been doing ever since. As Jacob is transformed, so is his relation with his brother. It turns out that he had nothing to fear from Esau, who greets him with great kindness, embraces and kisses him and weeps. This is a wonderful moment. The one who carries forward within himself the Covenant is reconciled with the brother he so sorely deceived years before and who now shows great generosity. Surely, Esau has earned God’s blessing too.

Jacob’s return is followed by the terrible episode of Dinah, Jacob’s only daughter (as far as we know). After the local Hivite chief Chamor, his son Shechem and all the men of the city have allowed themselves to be circumcised, is it right for Simeon and Levi to slay them because of the rape of their sister? Later Isaac dies and is buried by his sons Esau and Jacob, just as Abraham was buried by Isaac and Ishmael years before. The parsha ends with a genealogy of Esau and Edom, interesting if only because it is there.

This week, it is Vayeshev that we will be reading from, another momentous parsha, in which Joseph will make his appearance and in which yet another example of sibling rivalry will begin to play out. Let’s face it, Joseph could be seen as somewhat of a pain in the elbow by any band of brothers, though not enough to merit being butchered or sold into slavery. We will see him in Egypt, trusted by his master and betrayed by his mistress and flung into prison. Vayetze contains more, though, than Joseph’s misfortunes. It also tells the fascinating story of Judah and Tamar and of how a man can learn the meaning of righteousness and  justice from the seemingly immoral behaviour of a daughter-in-law.

Enough already. For more come to the service this Saturday at 10.30. Liz Berg will be leading us and we will surely learn much more.

Jeremy’s Notes

Next service: Vayetze

There are several parshiot about Abraham and about his grandson Jacob, but Isaac’s life is dealt with mainly in one, i.e. Tol’dot. Of course, he appears in the previous parsha of Chayay Sarah and in subesequent ones,  but it seems almost as a secondary character, someone to whom things happen, rather than as someone shaping his own fate. Even in Tol’dot, there are things done to him, while he remains rather helpless. Under Rebecca’s guidance, Jacob deceives him into thinking that he is Esau and so gains the blessing which was meant by his father for his older brother. Many years earlier, in Va-yeira, Issac took part in one of the most pivotal stories of the Torah, namely the Akidah, but again his is a passive, though potentially tragic, role. He is the victim, in no way the perpetrator.

Yet there is one episode, or narrative thread, in which Isaac does play an active part. Like his father before him, he experiences famine and goes to the Philistine king, another Abimelech, for possible help.  He also  pretends that his wife is his sister and, as happened to Abraham years before, is reproached but then offered royal protection for him and his family. And like his father before him, Isaac prospers, has problems with his neighbours over land and water, but manages to resolve them and to live in peace. All through these trials, he is true to God, and God blesses him. Finally, despite having been fooled by his younger son and his own wife, Isaac blesses Jacob again, this time freely, and sends him to Padan Aram to seek a wife from his uncle Laban’s family.

It is with Jacob’s journey to his uncle’s house that Vayetze begins. Early on in the journey, he has the first of his great dreams, that of the angels descending from and ascending to heaven, and God blesses him and, through him, us and, through us, all the families of the earth. What a blessing and what a responsibility are carried in a few lines. Jacob reaches his uncle’s house, meets his uncle’s two daughters and falls in love with Rachel and not with Leah, from which much will flow, but this is enough for now. The best way to read and hear more is to come this Shabbat to the service which will take place from 10.30. Adam Feldman will lead and enlighten us.