The blessing of success--and how to handle it: Vayetzei 5785

Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov all suffered from jealous reactions to their success from the local populations in which they lived. Avraham is recognized as the “prince of God in our midst” and yet is begrudged a grave in which to bury Sarah. Yitzchak is sent away from the kingdom of Avimelech because, the latter says, “you have grown too great from us.” And, in this week’s parsha, Lavan tells Yaakov that everything that Yaakov owns really belongs to Lavan. 

The blessings of God and His promise to protect the patriarchs and matriarchs of Israel do save them from their neighbors, relatives and enemies. However, the success and achievements of this small family, as per God’s promise and against all odds and opposition, raise the hatred and jealousy of their neighbors—even though the neighbors themselves, such as Avimelech and Lavan, benefit mightily from the achievements of Yitzchak and Yaakov. 

The rabbis of the Talmud taught us that “hatred destroys rational thought and behavior.” So, instead of gratitude and friendship, the accomplishments of the patriarchs and matriarchs only bring forth greed, jealousy and persecution, with the ever-present threat of violence hovering in the background. All efforts to maintain a low profile and to mollify Lavan result only in increased bigotry and hatred. 

It is not for nothing that the Pesach Haggadah makes Lavan a greater enemy to the survival of the Jewish people than even the Pharaoh of Egypt. But almost all the enemies of the Jews over the centuries suffer from the same basic moral faults regarding the Jews: ingratitude, jealousy and greed. These are all revealed to us in this week’s parsha. 

Someone mentioned to me that perhaps, if we maintained a lower profile in the world, didn’t receive so many Nobel prize awards, and were less influential in the fields of finance, and the media, that anti-Semitism would decrease. “What if?” is a difficult thought process to pursue intelligently. There is no question that the world and all humankind would be so much poorer if the Jews purposely withheld their energy, creativity and intelligence and ceased to contribute to human civilization. And there certainly is no guarantee that the world would like us any more than it does now if we were less successful and prominent. 

The mere fact that God blessed the patriarchs with success and influence indicates that this is His desire for us. The Torah specifically states that every nation and family on earth will benefit and be blessed through us. So, in our case, less would not necessarily be more. Yet we were enjoined from flaunting our success in the faces of those less fortunate than us.

Modesty in behavior and deportment is an important partner in times of success. This is also a lesson that our father Yaakov intended to teach us. We are not allowed to rein in our talents and achievements. We are however bidden to control our egos and bluster. That is also an important Jewish trait that should be a foundation in our lives. 

Shabat shalom, Rabbi Berel Wein 

Family, foes and painful choices: Toledot 5785

The troubling question on this week’s parsha that has persisted throughout the ages of biblical commentary is: Whatever is Yitzchak thinking when he plans to give the blessings and heritage of Avraham to Eisav? Basically, explanations fall into two categories. One view is that Yitzchak, fooled by Eisav, is quite unaware of his true nature and wanton behavior. Rashi, quoting Midrash, interprets that Eisav “hunted“ his father with his pious speech and cunning conversation. Yitzchak is taken in and believes that Eisav, a man of the world and a physically powerful figure, is better suited to carry on Avraham’s vision than is Yaakov, the more studious and apparently less sophisticated of the pair. 

The other opinion, more popular among the later commentators to the Torah, is that Yitzchak is aware of the shortcomings of behavior and attitude of his elder son. His desire to give the blessings to Eisav is due to his wish to redeem and save him, to enable Eisav to turn his life around and become a worthy heir to the traditions of his father and grandfather. Yitzchak thinks that even if he gives the blessings to Eisav, Yaakov will not really suffer any disadvantage in his life’s work, while Eisav will find his way back to holiness through the blessings that he will have received. 

These two divergent attitudes towards the wayward child in Jewish families are enacted daily in Jewish family life. Later Yitzchaks either wilfully allow themselves to be deluded regarding the behavior and lifestyle of children or, aware of the problem, they attempt to solve it through a combination of generosity and a plethora of blessings. 

Rivkah, the mother of both Eisav and Yaakov, is not fooled by Eisav’s apparently soothing words; nor does she believe that granting him blessings will somehow accomplish any major shift in his chosen lifestyle. To a great measure she adopts a policy of triage, saving Yaakov and blessing him while thus abandoning Eisav to his own preferred wanton ways. 

The Torah does not record for us the “what if” scenario of Eisav receiving the blessings. Would he have been different in behavior and attitude, belief and mission? However, from the words of the later prophets of Israel, especially those of Ovadyah, it appears to be clear that God concurred with Rivkah’s policy, holding Eisav to be redeemable only in the very long run of history and human events. 

The moral of this episode is that one must be clear-eyed and realistic about the painful waywardness and misbehavior of Yaakov’s enemies, be they from within or without our immediate family and milieu. There are many painful choices that need to be made within one’s lifetime and especially in family relations, and few pat answers to varying and difficult situations. Perhaps that is why the Torah does not delve too deeply into the motives of Yitzchak and Rivkah, being content merely to reflect the different emotional relationships each had with their two very different sons. The Torah emphasizes the role that human emotions play in our lives and does not consign all matters to rational thought and decision-making.   

Shabbat shalom, Rabbi Berel Wein       

Tailor-made blessings: Vezot Habrachah 5785

 Though we don't leyn Vezot Habrachah in its entirety until Simchat Torah, which falls on 22 Tishrei/24 October, we have already started leyning it midweek, so here's a devar Torah for it fom Rabbi Berel Wein:

The holy Torah concludes with the blessings of Moshe to the people of Israel before his passing from the world. Though the point has been made before, it bears repetition: the blessing to each of the tribes is different in detail and purpose. Contrary to much current belief and practice in religious Jewish society, there is no one-size-fits-all blessing or mission statement that applies to all Jews.

Rather Moshe, to whom the task of nation building was assigned by Heaven, looks to construct a whole nation, multi-faceted and productive, holy and interactive. If everyone is to be Zevulun, then what will be of Torah study and knowledge amongst the people of Israel? But if everyone is Yissachar, then again Torah will fail to survive within Jewish society.

King Solomon advised us wisely that every child is to be educated according to the individual talents, predispositions and abilities of that particular child. When home schooling was the vogue for Jewish education in biblical times, such an individualized educational program was both more possible and feasible. With the introduction of universal and institutionalized schooling, the task of individualized education to meet every student’s specific situation became a goal that was well-nigh unattainable.

The system was built to create Yissachar, but those that dropped out and became Zevulun were, to a certain extent, treated with less respect in the Jewish scholarly community. Though certainly Yissachar was to be respected, honored and supported, many generations lost sight that it was only through Zevulun that Yissachar could exist in the Jewish world. The two tribes were meant to complement each other, not to compete and denigrate one another.

It is striking to note how careful Moshe is to identify each tribe’s nature and strengths. Moshe is the one person who forges the different tribes into one whole nation. He did so by granting each tribe its different due, by recognizing that all are necessary in this process of nation building. The rabbis carried this idea further when they identified the four species of plant life that form the commandment on Succot, as being representative of the basic groupings that have always formed Jewish life. Just as all four species are necessary for the fulfilment of the commandment, so too are all four groupings of Jews are also necessary to form a vital and healthy Jewish society.

The remarkable variety of people and ideas that have always characterized Jewish society throughout the ages was recognized and extolled by Moshe through his individualized blessings to Israel before his passing from this world. At times Jewish society appears to be riven and chaotic and we long for the elusive “Jewish unity” to which we all pay lip service. But what we really should mean to yearn for is not Jewish conformity but Jewish loyalty, which is a far different matter. There is an Jewish ballad that states this matter clearly and succinctly: “Whatever we are, we are—but we are all Jews!” The blessings of Moshe as they appear in our concluding parsha of the Torah should help guide us to this important conclusion.

Blessings and Beyond: Bechukotai 5784

This week’s parsha, which concludes the book of Vayikra, portrays some vital aspects of Jewish national and personal life. On one hand it describes in rapturous terms the blessings of happiness, security and serenity that can benefit the Jewish people and the individual Jew. On the other hand, it vividly and graphically describes the prospect of exile, tragedy, and death. 

Jewish history bears out the reality of each of these visions. We have lived through both and seem to have experienced much longer periods of darkness than of light, of more tragedy than joy or serenity. The Torah attributes observance of the commandments as the prime cause of security in Jewish life, their non-observance as the cause of tragedy. However, history and the great commentators to Torah qualify this simplistic impression. 

God’s wisdom and judgments are inscrutable, beyond even elementary comprehension by us mortals. This is why we are left to speculate about the tragedies that descended upon the Jewish people and that continue to plague us today. Though there are those amongst us who are prepared to give and accept glib answers to questions about the causes of tragedy, the wise men of Israel warned us against taking such an approach. 

Observance of commandments is enormously difficult to fulfill completely and accurately. This is why it is so hard to measure the "why" part of this week's parsha. We should still however take note of the "how it happened" part. This shows us that its depiction of contrasting periods of serenity and tragedy has been painstakingly accurate and contains not one word of hyperbole. The destruction of the Temples, the Crusades and pogroms, the Inquisition and the Holocaust are all graphically described in this week's parsha. Such is the Torah;s prophetic power. 

In personal life, the longer we live, the more likely it is that misfortune will somehow visit us. The Torah makes provision for this eventuality in its laws of mourning. We all hope for good quality of life and for secure serenity. Yet, almost inexorably, problems, disappointments and even tragedy intrude on our condition. 

In Vayikra, the death of the sons of Aharon remains the prime example of tragedy suddenly destroying a sense of pride, satisfaction and apparent accomplishment. In this week's parsha too, the description of the punishment of Israel for its backsliding is placed in the context of a background of blessings and security. The past century presented the Jewish people with horrors of unimaginable intensity and of millennial accomplishments. The situation of extreme flux in our national life has continued throughout the years of the existence of the State of Israel. 

The unexpected, sudden, but apparently regular changes of circumstance in Jewish national life mirror the same situation that which we recognize in our personal lives. We are constantly blindsided by untoward and tragic events.  So, the jarring contrast that the two main subjects of the parsha present to us are really a candid description of life, its omnipresent contradictions, and its difficulties. Though we pray regularly for health and serenity, we must always be cognizant of how precarious our situation truly is. Thus, as we rise to hear the conclusion of the book of Vayikra, we recite the mantra of "chazak, chazak, v'nitzchazek"—let us be doubly strong and strengthen others! So may it be. 

Shabbat shalom, Rabbi Berel Wein