Parshas Vayeitzei: Our Matriarchs and Patriarchs Chose Life. So Should We.

Our Torah portion this week, Vayeitzei: Bereishit (Genesis) 28:10 - 32:3, opens as Jacob sets out for Charan, where he will fulfill his destiny as father of the 12 tribes of Israel. A hazardous journey from the beginning, Esau immediately sends his son, Eliphaz, to murder Jacob. Reluctant to follow his father’s order, Eliphaz gladly agrees to Jacob’s suggestion that rendering Jacob destitute confers ‘death.’ Jacob gives Eliphaz his belongings and Eliphaz returns home to report Jacob’s demise.

Anticipating more problems on the journey and at his destination, Jacob prepares himself by first setting aside 14 years to study at the Academy of Eber. Spiritually fortified and confident that God will keep him safe, Jacob travels to Charan. One night during sleep, Jacob encounters  angels and God in a dream. God promises that the land upon which he rests will be given to him. “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie, to you will I give it, and to your seed. Your seed shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall burst forth to the west, to the east, to the north and to the south; and in you and in your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”

Jacob, overwhelmed with the presence of God, promises a lifetime of devotion. He declares this specific location as the site of God’s dwelling place on earth and promises to use his future prosperity in service to Him.

Arriving at Charan’s watering well, Jacob meets Rachel and falls in love with her. He meets her father, Laban. Laban has two daughters but no sons to work the land. He accepts Jacob’s offer to shepherd his flocks for seven years as payment for marriage to Rachel. Custom dictates elder daughters marry before younger daughters. Rachel realizes that marrying Jacob first will shame her older sister, Leah, so she sends Leah to consummate the marriage. Jacob remedies the situation by marrying Rachel, too, and agreeing to work seven more years. He will agree to work for Laban an additional six years before he leaves Charan a very wealthy man.

Over the next 13 years, Jacob fathers many children with Leah, Leah’s maid Zilpah, Rachel’s maid, Bilhah, and finally a son, Joseph, with Rachel. From his eleven boys, along with Rachel’s second son, Benjamin, born on the journey back to Canaan, will spring the nation of Israel. 

Leah and Rachel’s pregnancy and childbirth experiences illustrate Judaism’s priority of having children. Several times this story mentions that God blesses the barren sisters with fertility. Four of Jacob's children were conceived outside of marriage. This informs our view that every baby, no matter the circumstance of conception,     is a gift from God. 

Our Haftarah portion this week, Hoshea(Hosea) 11:7-12:14, takes place during the reign of King Jeroboam II, whose trade policies and territorial expansion generate great wealth along with moral deterioration. Hosea accuses the King and the elites of his day of forgetting God, abandoning righteousness, and treating the citizens unjustly. He reminds the King of Jacob’s faithfulness to God and his successful life. Hosea pleads with the King to repent and acknowledge God as Israel’s source of mercy and prosperity. "Return, O Israel, unto God, your Lord; for you have stumbled through your iniquity. Take with you words of penitence; come back to God and tell Him: 'Pardon all our iniquity and accept our return to good.”

Jacob’s mystical encounters with angels and the Almighty stay with him throughout his life. These experiences give him an ability to inspire others to seek God beyond the confines of physical constraints and intellectual limits. Besides his role as patriarch to the nation of Israel, Jacob’s other great contribution to the world is demonstrating how to become conscious of God’s presence, not as a result of rational thinking, but through transcendent spiritual experience.

It is from his encounter with God when he receives the promise of the land of Israel that Jews claim ownership of the modern state of Israel. It is a biblical claim. It stands the test of time, but Israel must pass the test of holiness in order to persist. Rational solutions to problems that Israel faces today aren’t sufficient. Hosea’s warnings to powerful stakeholders in his time still apply. Her hope for peace, prosperity and territorial integrity depends on a national repentance for the errors of idolatry, child sacrifice, and other features of secular life that conflict with a biblical mandate. The restoration of a national consciousness of God’s presence is Jacob’s legacy and God’s promise for blessings to all families of the earth.

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Cecily Routman

May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and good life upon us and upon all Israel. Amen.