{"id":44513,"date":"2018-11-23T10:07:17","date_gmt":"2018-11-23T08:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=44513"},"modified":"2022-03-20T23:19:45","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T21:19:45","slug":"responding-to-violence-with-kindness-and-goodness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/responding-to-violence-with-kindness-and-goodness\/","title":{"rendered":"Responding to Violence With Kindness and Goodness"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[374,490,368,540],"acf":{"old_id":"44513","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36663,"related_cahpter":"1019","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Seeing the face of God in the face of one who wants to kill you","content":"<p>I have found that violence is strangely capable of returning my characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment of grace. Their heads are so hard that almost nothing else will do the work.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 270px;\"><em>-Flannery O\u2019Connor,<\/em> quoted from <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Flannery-OConnor-Blooms-Critical-Hardcover\/dp\/1604135891\">Bloom\u2019s Literary Criticism<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>I have been thinking this week about how Catholic writer Flannery O\u2019Connor\u2019s notions of violence affecting transformation in a character apply to the life of our patriarch Jacob throughout his life, but particularly in this week\u2019s portion, <em>Vayishlach <\/em>(&#8220;He sent out&#8221;). As the portion opens, after twenty years of servitude, having his wages &#8220;changed ten times&#8221; (31:41), relationships with two wives and two concubines, the birth of eleven sons and a daughter, Jacob is finally leaving Haran and crossing through his twin brother Esau\u2019s territory in the \u201cland of Seir, the field of Edom\u201d (32:3). This necessitates the encounter Jacob has been avoiding with the brother who is furious that Jacob has supplanted him (27: 36) and towards whom he has murderous intentions (27:41).<\/p>\n<p>We know that from the beginning of his journeying out of his parents\u2019 house, Jacob has been changed by his unexpected visions of God and of angels (28:12-17; 32:1-2), and learning to depart from the na\u00efve ways that are natural to him as an \u201c<em>ish tam<\/em>\u201d (simple or whole man, 25:24) and more like his brother the \u201c<em>yode&#8217;a tzayid<\/em>\u201d (knowledgeable about hunting, 25:24) which begin when he disguises himself as his brother at his mother\u2019s request (27:8-17).<\/p>\n<p>In this portion, the transformation is finalized. Jacob wrestles with another being \u2013 whether an actual angel, or Esau\u2019s guardian angel, an emissary of Esau, or possibly Jacob\u2019s guilty conscience \u2013 and his name is changed to Israel (32:28).<\/p>\n<p>What really enables Jacob to change, and signifies that his transformation has been effective? Quoting Genesis Rabbah 78, Rashi (on 32:29) says about this name change that \u201cwe have no fixed names, our names change, all depending upon the service that we are commanded to carry out as the missions (<em>shlihut<\/em>) that we are charged with.\u201d I believe that though no transformation can ever be fixed, and even those on the right path can go astray at any time, through the agency of violence, Jacob has changed.<\/p>\n<p>Wrestling with the angel, as well as his years in the house of Laban, enables Jacob to say, \u201cI have seen God face to face and my soul has been saved\u201d (32:30). Once he encounters the real Esau, Jacob says something similar, \u201cFor therefore I have seen your face as though I had seen the face of God\u201d (33:10). It is extremely difficult to see the face of God, the divine spark that is in each human being, especially in the face of someone who is seeking to kill you; Jacob is able to do that. This ability to see the core humanity in another is what lets us know Jacob has become a fully realized human being worthy of the name Israel (32:28 and 35:10).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Or in the words of Flannery O\u2019Connor in the story \u201cA Good Man is Hard to Find,\u201d which apply equally well to Jacob or to most of us, \u201cShe would have been a good woman,\u201d the Misfit said, \u201cif it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Jacob remains flawed after this of course, not restraining the murderous impulses of his sons in response to the rape of their sister (chapter 34), favoring some sons over others (chapter 37), or seeing his life only as \u201climited and awful\u201d (47:9) when he reflects on it to Pharaoh, nearing his death.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t have anyone there to shoot him every minute, but then, when he does encounter both the angel and Esau, he <em>is<\/em> capable of being a good man.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The rest of us should only be so fortunate as to be able to respond to violence with kindness and goodness.<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":78824,"id":78824,"title":"zeph1-face","filename":"zeph1-face.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/zeph1-face.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-insider-outsider\/zeph1-face\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"zeph1-face","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":78815,"date":"2020-08-13 13:01:15","modified":"2022-08-14 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