{"id":38558,"date":"2018-07-09T18:50:03","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T15:50:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wall\/wall-1006\/"},"modified":"2022-03-17T18:12:33","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T16:12:33","slug":"wall-1006","status":"publish","type":"wall","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wall\/wall-1006\/","title":{"rendered":"weekend-from-20220313-to-20220319"},"parent":0,"template":"","acf":{"type":"weekend","wall_id":"1006","date_from":"20220313","date_to":"20220319","book":"Genesis","books_group":"Torah","posts":[{"order":1,"id":"103081","color":"#f8ebe3","size":"1","name":"Tzav: Shmita As An Expression of Gratitude\u00a0 ","post_title":"Tzav: Shmita As An Expression of Gratitude\u00a0","slug":"tzav-shmita-as-an-expression-of-gratitude","old_id":"103081","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":38047,"post_title":"Shoshana Michael Zucker","slug":"shoshana-michael-zucker","old_id":"38047","first_name":"Shoshana Michael ","last_name":"Zucker ","description":"Shoshana Michael Zucker is a translator and editor by profession, but would much rather be learning and teaching Torah. A graduate of Barnard College, she made aliyah in 1983 and now lives in Kfar Saba where she is an active member of the Masorti Congregation Hod veHadar. ","short_description":"Shoshana Michael Zucker is a translator and editor and lives in Kfar Saba \r\n","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":38048,"alt":"","title":"Shoshana Michael Zucker","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker.jpg","width":231,"height":310,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker-224x300.jpg","medium-width":224,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker.jpg","medium_large-width":231,"medium_large-height":310,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker.jpg","large-width":231,"large-height":310,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker.jpg","1536x1536-width":231,"1536x1536-height":310,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker.jpg","2048x2048-width":231,"2048x2048-height":310,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker.jpg","post_full_size-width":231,"post_full_size-height":310,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker.jpg","home_baner-width":231,"home_baner-height":310}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"1006","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"People who have the tools of production at their disposal should gratefully acknowledge their blessings, and invite others to partake of the bounty.\u00a0\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

Of the many sacrifices mandated in <\/span>Parashat Tzav<\/span><\/em>, one stands out: the thanksgiving offering (Leviticus 7:12-15), which must be consumed before the next morning. To eat the whole lamb at one sitting, it is necessary to invite guests. As <\/span>Rabbi Shai Held<\/span><\/a> teaches: \u201cA core aspect of gratitude is the desire to respond, the urge to repay or pay forward the kindness we have been shown. Gratitude is the bridge between the realization of how much I have been given, and the commitment to be a giver myself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Biblical and modern Hebrew word \u05ea\u05d5\u05d3\u05d4, <\/span>todah<\/span><\/em>, which has a dual meaning of \u201cacknowledge\u201d and \u201cthank,\u201d embodies this idea. The word\u2019s root,\u00a0 \u05d9-\u05d3-\u05d4 <\/span>y-d-h<\/span><\/em>,<\/span><\/i> is derived from \u05d9\u05d3-<\/span>yad<\/em> <\/span>hand and also means \u201cto throw.\u201d Just as the hand is a body part that can move away from the rest of the body, these words all signify acts that move outwards from the self. We express thanks by sharing. Moreover, in order to be grateful, we must first acknowledge that our achievements build on gifts we have received.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Some of these lessons are also to be found in the practice of <\/span>Shmita<\/span><\/i>, although in a linguistically inverted way. By withdrawing their hands from their fields and orchards, the owners of agricultural properties acknowledge that the land is not solely theirs. Rather they, too, are tenants on God\u2019s estate, as it is written, \u201cfor the land is Mine; you are but strangers resident with Me\u201d (Leviticus 25:23).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Shmita <\/span><\/i>is similar to the thanksgiving offering in another way: the sharing of produce with others. When the idea of <\/span>Shmita<\/span><\/i> is first introduced in Exodus 23, it is explicitly tied to ensuring that food is available to all who need it, \u201cLet the needy among your people eat of it\u2026\u201d (verse 11).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Sacrifices, including the thanksgiving offering, are a distant memory. Widespread implementation of the <\/span>Shmita <\/span><\/i>laws in their literal sense is challenging in a modern economy. Yet the values they manifest have not lost their urgency. People who have the tools of economic production at their disposal should gratefully acknowledge their blessings, and invite others to partake of the bounty.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This year is the shmita year: Shmita means a sabbatical year for the Earth but also for ourselves, our communities, and our world. Each week we continue to share thoughts on how the weekly parsha can help guide our thinking around shmita themes of work and rest, wealth and debt, responsible land use, fair labor practices, private and public property ownership, and physical and spiritual revitalization.<\/em><\/p>\r\n

See here for more information on the Hazon Shmita project, and its blogs.<\/a><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":81608,"alt":"","title":"shmita","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","width":711,"height":708,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","medium_large-width":711,"medium_large-height":708,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","large-width":711,"large-height":708,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","1536x1536-width":711,"1536x1536-height":708,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","2048x2048-width":711,"2048x2048-height":708,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","post_full_size-width":711,"post_full_size-height":708,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita-422x420.jpg","home_baner-width":422,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"A Weekly Series: The \"Shmitah Parasha\" Blog","tile_main_caption":"Tzav: Shmita As An Expression of Gratitude\u00a0","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"in conjunction with Hazon.org","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":81608,"alt":"","title":"shmita","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","width":711,"height":708,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","medium_large-width":711,"medium_large-height":708,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","large-width":711,"large-height":708,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","1536x1536-width":711,"1536x1536-height":708,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","2048x2048-width":711,"2048x2048-height":708,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","post_full_size-width":711,"post_full_size-height":708,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita-422x420.jpg","home_baner-width":422,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":false,"chapter_main_number":false,"date":false,"wall_id":"1006"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"368","name":"Parasha","old_id":"768"},{"term_id":"494","name":"Shmita","old_id":"894"}]},{"order":2,"id":"103006","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Megillat 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of posts by leading scholars - and you!","post_main_content_content":"

Want to know what people have written on 929 about Esther?<\/p>\r\n

Click on the links below to get to the posts for each chapter<\/p>\r\n

Chapter 1<\/a><\/p>\r\n

Chapter 2<\/a><\/p>\r\n

Chapter 3<\/a><\/p>\r\n

Chapter 4<\/a><\/p>\r\n

Chapter 5<\/a><\/p>\r\n

Chapter 6<\/a><\/p>\r\n

Chapter 7<\/a><\/p>\r\n

Chapter 8<\/a><\/p>\r\n

Chapter 9<\/a><\/p>\r\n

Chapter 10<\/a><\/p>\r\n

Chapter summary - some of the greatest hits!<\/a><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":82041,"alt":"","title":"ps30-purim","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps30-purim.png","width":738,"height":700,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps30-purim-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps30-purim-300x285.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":285,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps30-purim.png","medium_large-width":738,"medium_large-height":700,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps30-purim.png","large-width":738,"large-height":700,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps30-purim.png","1536x1536-width":738,"1536x1536-height":700,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps30-purim.png","2048x2048-width":738,"2048x2048-height":700,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps30-purim.png","post_full_size-width":738,"post_full_size-height":700,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps30-purim-443x420.png","home_baner-width":443,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Megillat Esther: 929 Takes A Deep Dive","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Dozens of posts by leading scholars - and you!","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":82041,"alt":"","title":"ps30-purim","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps30-purim.png","width":738,"height":700,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps30-purim-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps30-purim-300x285.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":285,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps30-purim.png","medium_large-width":738,"medium_large-height":700,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps30-purim.png","large-width":738,"large-height":700,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps30-purim.png","1536x1536-width":738,"1536x1536-height":700,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps30-purim.png","2048x2048-width":738,"2048x2048-height":700,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps30-purim.png","post_full_size-width":738,"post_full_size-height":700,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps30-purim-443x420.png","home_baner-width":443,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"29","chapter_main_number":"29","date":"20251008","wall_id":"29"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"515","name":"Purim","old_id":"915"},{"term_id":"517","name":"Esther","old_id":"917"}]},{"order":3,"id":"40137","color":"#f6f5de","size":"2","name":"Genesis 26-30: The Weekly Video Summary and Overview ","post_title":"Genesis 26-30: The Weekly Video Summary and Overview","slug":"genesis-26-30-the-weekly-video-summary-and-overview","old_id":"40137","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":38102,"post_title":"929-English","slug":"929-english","old_id":"38102","first_name":"","last_name":"929-English","description":"","short_description":"","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":38333,"alt":"","title":"\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5.png","width":1513,"height":860,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-300x171.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":171,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-768x437.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":437,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-1024x582.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":582,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5.png","1536x1536-width":1513,"1536x1536-height":860,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5.png","2048x2048-width":1513,"2048x2048-height":860,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-1200x682.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":682,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-739x420.png","home_baner-width":739,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"1006","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"","post_main_content_content":"

https:\/\/youtu.be\/Zi8ZvfHJ_ng<\/p>","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"929 Whiteboard Library","tile_main_caption":"Genesis 26-30: The Weekly Video Summary and Overview","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":"","tile_preview_video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Zi8ZvfHJ_ng","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":false,"chapter_main_number":false,"date":false,"wall_id":"1006"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":4,"id":"102885","color":"#efefef","size":"1","name":"Seekers ","post_title":"Seekers","slug":"seekers","old_id":"102885","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":44967,"post_title":"Abe Mezrich","slug":"abe-mezrich","old_id":"44967","first_name":"Abe ","last_name":"Mezrich ","description":"Abe Mezrich wants to know what our sacred texts say about our world right now. Sometimes he writes down his answers to those questions. His second book, Between the Mountain and the Land Lies the Lesson, is available through Ben Yehuda Press. Learn more at www.abemezrich.com.","short_description":"Abe Mezrich wants to know what our sacred texts say about our world right now. Learn more at www.abemezrich.com.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":101452,"alt":"","title":"-61fd0e6c351e2--61fd0e6c351e3Abe_Mezrich.JPG","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/12\/61fd0e6c351e2-61fd0e6c351e3Abe_Mezrich.JPG.jpg","width":1914,"height":1754,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/12\/61fd0e6c351e2-61fd0e6c351e3Abe_Mezrich.JPG-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/12\/61fd0e6c351e2-61fd0e6c351e3Abe_Mezrich.JPG-300x275.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":275,"medium_large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/12\/61fd0e6c351e2-61fd0e6c351e3Abe_Mezrich.JPG-768x704.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":704,"large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/12\/61fd0e6c351e2-61fd0e6c351e3Abe_Mezrich.JPG-1024x938.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":938,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/12\/61fd0e6c351e2-61fd0e6c351e3Abe_Mezrich.JPG.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1408,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/12\/61fd0e6c351e2-61fd0e6c351e3Abe_Mezrich.JPG.jpg","2048x2048-width":1914,"2048x2048-height":1754,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/12\/61fd0e6c351e2-61fd0e6c351e3Abe_Mezrich.JPG-1200x1100.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1100,"home_baner":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/12\/61fd0e6c351e2-61fd0e6c351e3Abe_Mezrich.JPG-458x420.jpg","home_baner-width":458,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"26","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Perhaps God wants us to entrench ourselves in the earth \/ in the place where we stand\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

In Babel the people try to build a tower up to Heaven,
\r\nbut God does not let them.
\r\n
\r\nIsaac and his men do not build upward. They dig wells in the earth.
\r\nAnd God blesses Isaac.
\r\nAnd Isaac and his men reach water.
\r\n
\r\nPerhaps God does not want us to reach toward Heaven.
\r\nPerhaps God wants us to entrench ourselves in the earth,<\/p>\r\n

in the place where we stand.
\r\nIn the place where we live.<\/p>\r\n


\r\nOur blessing is there.<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":71381,"alt":"","title":"jer32-land","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer32-land.jpg","width":407,"height":422,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer32-land-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer32-land-289x300.jpg","medium-width":289,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer32-land.jpg","medium_large-width":407,"medium_large-height":422,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer32-land.jpg","large-width":407,"large-height":422,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer32-land.jpg","1536x1536-width":407,"1536x1536-height":422,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer32-land.jpg","2048x2048-width":407,"2048x2048-height":422,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer32-land.jpg","post_full_size-width":407,"post_full_size-height":422,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer32-land-405x420.jpg","home_baner-width":405,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"929 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Political Meaning of Esau ","post_title":"The Political Meaning of Esau","slug":"the-political-meaning-of-esau","old_id":"38112","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":38025,"post_title":"Alicia Suskin Ostriker","slug":"alicia-suskin-ostriker","old_id":"38025","first_name":"Alicia Suskin ","last_name":"Ostriker","description":"Alicia Suskin Ostriker is New York State's Poet Laureate, and a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. She is the author of numerous books of poetry and criticism, including: Feminist Revision and the Bible: the Bucknell Lectures on Literary Theory (1993); The Nakedness of the Fathers: Biblical Visions and Revisions (1997), and For the Love of God: the Bible as an Open Book (2007).\r\n","short_description":"Alicia Suskin Ostriker is poet and a critic and is currently New York State's Poet Laureate.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":38026,"alt":"","title":"Alicia Ostriker","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Alicia-Ostriker.jpg","width":165,"height":110,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Alicia-Ostriker-150x110.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":110,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Alicia-Ostriker.jpg","medium-width":165,"medium-height":110,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Alicia-Ostriker.jpg","medium_large-width":165,"medium_large-height":110,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Alicia-Ostriker.jpg","large-width":165,"large-height":110,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Alicia-Ostriker.jpg","1536x1536-width":165,"1536x1536-height":110,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Alicia-Ostriker.jpg","2048x2048-width":165,"2048x2048-height":110,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Alicia-Ostriker.jpg","post_full_size-width":165,"post_full_size-height":110,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Alicia-Ostriker.jpg","home_baner-width":165,"home_baner-height":110}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"27","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Feeling for the persecuted Other - even a rival - is the ethical basis of being Jewish","post_main_content_content":"

As literature, the Sarah-Hagar story is extraordinary\u2026 It encourages us to feel relief when [Hagar] and her child are saved from dying of thirst in the wilderness. It tells us, most emphatically, that God is \"with\" Ishmael.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

What is the effect of this passage in political terms? The long shadow of the enmity between the women reaches to this moment\u2026 We may both recoil from Sarah's cruelty, and feel for her. Yet the narrative, far from encouraging us to gloat over the expulsion of Hagar, also forces us to feel for her and with <\/span>her<\/span><\/i>. This is what is truly uncanny.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Why does the Torah engage in this digression? Aren't we supposed to be the chosen ones? Why are we made to pity the enemy, the rival, to care about the survival of the other, the stranger, the non-chosen? Why is there a similar pattern [to the one of Sarah and Hagar] in the narrative of Jacob and Esau, when we see Esau weeping and begging his father for a blessing equal to Jacob's stolen one? The name Esau in Jewish tradition is virtually synonymous with \"enemy,\" yet his repeated \"great and exceeding cry\u2026 Bless me, me also, O my father\u2026 Have you only one blessing? Bless me, me also my father\" (Gen 27:34-38) is the quintessence of pathos. And why is this pattern later made into a commandment, repeated a dozen times in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, where we are told never to oppress the stranger, but always to care for the stranger as ourselves, because we know the heart of the stranger, because we were strangers in Egypt?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

For me, this commandment marks the core of what it means, ethically, to be a Jew. Not that it is easy to follow such a commandment. On the contrary, it seems insuperably difficult. But one thing is clear. In any situation of relative power and powerlessness, it behooves the one with more power to <\/span>care for<\/span><\/i> the one with less. Whoever is the more powerful should do the more listening, the more caring, the more giving\u2026 The simplest way of putting this is what Deuteronomy 16:20 requires in God's name: \"Justice, justice shalt thou pursue.\"<\/span><\/p>\r\n

(Excerpted and reprinted with permission from the essay \"The Face of the Other: Sarah-Hagar Then and Now\" in:<\/span> Reading Genesis Beginnings<\/span><\/i><\/a>, Beth Kissileff, editor, Bloomsbury, 2016, p. 119-20).<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":102959,"alt":"","title":"-622e038209334--622e038209335gen27-powerlessness-desperate.png","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622e038209334-622e038209335gen27-powerlessness-desperate.png.png","width":1228,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622e038209334-622e038209335gen27-powerlessness-desperate.png-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622e038209334-622e038209335gen27-powerlessness-desperate.png-288x300.png","medium-width":288,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622e038209334-622e038209335gen27-powerlessness-desperate.png-768x801.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":801,"large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622e038209334-622e038209335gen27-powerlessness-desperate.png-982x1024.png","large-width":982,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622e038209334-622e038209335gen27-powerlessness-desperate.png.png","1536x1536-width":1228,"1536x1536-height":1280,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622e038209334-622e038209335gen27-powerlessness-desperate.png.png","2048x2048-width":1228,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622e038209334-622e038209335gen27-powerlessness-desperate.png-1151x1200.png","post_full_size-width":1151,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622e038209334-622e038209335gen27-powerlessness-desperate.png-403x420.png","home_baner-width":403,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"The Political Meaning of Esau","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Feeling for the persecuted Other - even a rival - is the ethical basis of being Jewish","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":102959,"alt":"","title":"-622e038209334--622e038209335gen27-powerlessness-desperate.png","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622e038209334-622e038209335gen27-powerlessness-desperate.png.png","width":1228,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622e038209334-622e038209335gen27-powerlessness-desperate.png-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622e038209334-622e038209335gen27-powerlessness-desperate.png-288x300.png","medium-width":288,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622e038209334-622e038209335gen27-powerlessness-desperate.png-768x801.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":801,"large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622e038209334-622e038209335gen27-powerlessness-desperate.png-982x1024.png","large-width":982,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622e038209334-622e038209335gen27-powerlessness-desperate.png.png","1536x1536-width":1228,"1536x1536-height":1280,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622e038209334-622e038209335gen27-powerlessness-desperate.png.png","2048x2048-width":1228,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622e038209334-622e038209335gen27-powerlessness-desperate.png-1151x1200.png","post_full_size-width":1151,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622e038209334-622e038209335gen27-powerlessness-desperate.png-403x420.png","home_baner-width":403,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"27","chapter_main_number":"27","date":"20251006","wall_id":"27"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"391","name":"In\/Justice","old_id":"791"},{"term_id":"433","name":"Other","old_id":"833"},{"term_id":"436","name":"Morality","old_id":"836"},{"term_id":"486","name":"Esau","old_id":"886"},{"term_id":"503","name":"Power","old_id":"903"}]},{"order":7,"id":"102921","color":"#e0e9ef","size":"1","name":"Deception Or Well-Planned Strategy? ","post_title":"Deception Or Well-Planned Strategy?","slug":"deception-or-well-planned-strategy","old_id":"102921","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":46656,"post_title":"Molly Morris","slug":"molly-morris","old_id":"46656","first_name":"Molly ","last_name":"Morris ","description":"Molly Morris holds a Masters degree in Leadership and Community Engagement. Her particular area of interest is biblical leadership. Molly participates in the 929 initiative with a dedicated group from the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto congregation. \r\n\r\n","short_description":"Molly Morris holds a Masters degree in Leadership and Community Engagement. Molly participates in the 929 initiative with a dedicated group from the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto congregation. \r\n\r\n","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":92561,"alt":"","title":"molly morris","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris.jpg","width":2192,"height":2488,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-264x300.jpg","medium-width":264,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-768x872.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":872,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-902x1024.jpg","large-width":902,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris.jpg","1536x1536-width":1353,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris.jpg","2048x2048-width":1804,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-1057x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1057,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-370x420.jpg","home_baner-width":370,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"27","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"As an attempt to deceive Isaac, the ruse is riddled with bad timing, poor props and little forethought\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

Our sages characterize Jacob as a man of truth. If we begin our understanding of this chapter of Genesis in that context, then how do we reconcile a man of truth with the Jacob who deceives his father and brother in order to gain the blessings of nationhood?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Let\u2019s start with the premise that Jacob was divinely destined to be the leader, as prophesied to Rebekah while she was pregnant with her twin boys (Genesis 25:23.) With that starting point, the story of Esau selling his birthright to Jacob in exchange for a bowl of soup is moot in terms of changing the course of history, although evidently neither Jacob nor Esau understood the futility of the trade. But by the time the events of this chapter come into play, since Rebekah knew how history was meant to play out, her job at this critical point in time seems to be to ensure that Jacob doesn\u2019t frustrate God\u2019s plan. Rebekah\u2019s own conviction is evident in how she reports Isaac and Esau\u2019s conversation to Jacob. Although Isaac tells Esau to bring him food \u201cin order that I may bless you before I die (27:4),\u201d Rebekah paraphrases Isaac\u2019s request as the words in her repetition to \u201cI will bless you <\/span>before God<\/span><\/i>, before I die (27:7).\u201d Rebekah frames the blessing not as father to son, but as divinely prescribed. And in that regard, Rebekah knows that Isaac has erred in his selection of the son to receive God\u2019s blessing.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The 19<\/span>th<\/span> century commentator Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (Netziv) wrote that Isaac believed his two sons would lead the Jewish people in partnership: Esau providing physical leadership and Jacob, spiritual leadership. Each son had his own strengths and would receive different blessings. Rebekah knew, through the prophecy she received in pregnancy, that such a partnership is not what had been ordained. And I\u2019d venture a guess that her maternal instinct also told her that these two sons would never be able to form a viable partnership. Rebekah understood that leadership in this instance would require one individual with both blessings. And she knew that, based on her understanding of the prophecy, and her interpretation of birth order (Jacob would have been first, but Esau muscled his way in, with Jacob being born hard on his heels), the blessings belonged to Jacob.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

If this story is read as an attempt to deceive Isaac, the ruse is rather weak. It\u2019s riddled with bad timing, poor props and little forethought. And it\u2019s hard to imagine that Isaac, even with blindness, would be fooled by these physical stunts. We could, instead, read it as a strategy to heighten Isaac\u2019s clarity concerning the blessings. When the blessings were duly bestowed on Jacob, and Esau confronted his father, Isaac understood what just transpired. He \u201cshuddered a great shudder (27:33).\u201d Perhaps this was not a shudder of anger or bewilderment about being deceived at all, but about Isaac realizing how close he came to making a terrible mistake.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":73664,"alt":"","title":"ez13-lie","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-lie.jpg","width":600,"height":375,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-lie-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-lie-300x188.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":188,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-lie.jpg","medium_large-width":600,"medium_large-height":375,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-lie.jpg","large-width":600,"large-height":375,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-lie.jpg","1536x1536-width":600,"1536x1536-height":375,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-lie.jpg","2048x2048-width":600,"2048x2048-height":375,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-lie.jpg","post_full_size-width":600,"post_full_size-height":375,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-lie.jpg","home_baner-width":600,"home_baner-height":375}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Deception Or Well-Planned Strategy?","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"As an attempt to deceive Isaac, the ruse is riddled with bad timing, poor props and little forethought","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":73664,"alt":"","title":"ez13-lie","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-lie.jpg","width":600,"height":375,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-lie-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-lie-300x188.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":188,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-lie.jpg","medium_large-width":600,"medium_large-height":375,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-lie.jpg","large-width":600,"large-height":375,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-lie.jpg","1536x1536-width":600,"1536x1536-height":375,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-lie.jpg","2048x2048-width":600,"2048x2048-height":375,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-lie.jpg","post_full_size-width":600,"post_full_size-height":375,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-lie.jpg","home_baner-width":600,"home_baner-height":375}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"27","chapter_main_number":"27","date":"20251006","wall_id":"27"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"485","name":"Isaac","old_id":"885"},{"term_id":"490","name":"Jacob","old_id":"890"},{"term_id":"501","name":"Deception","old_id":"901"}]},{"order":8,"id":"38088","color":"#faeed8","size":"1","name":"Isaac\u2019s Wells ","post_title":"Isaac\u2019s Wells","slug":"isaacs-wells","old_id":"38088","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":36663,"post_title":"Beth Kissileff","slug":"beth-kissileff","old_id":"36663","first_name":"Beth ","last_name":"Kissileff ","description":"Beth Kissileff is the editor of the anthology Reading Genesis (2016 - https:\/\/www.bloomsbury.com\/us\/reading-genesis-9780567381521), and the forthcoming Reading Exodus, and the author of the novel Questioning Return - https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Questioning-Return-Novel-Beth-Kissileff\/dp\/1942134231. \r\nHer journalism appears in many publications; she has taught most recently at the University of Pittsburgh. Visit her online at www.bethkissileff.com. ","short_description":"Beth Kissileff is the editor of the anthology Reading Genesis (Bloomsbury\/ T and T Clark, 2016) , a journalist and teacher.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":36664,"alt":"","title":"BethKissileff","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/BethKissileff-e1533157952224.jpg","width":3478,"height":3200,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/BethKissileff-e1533157952224-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/BethKissileff-e1533157952224-300x276.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":276,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/BethKissileff-e1533157952224-768x707.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":707,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/BethKissileff-e1533157952224-1024x942.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":942,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/BethKissileff-e1533157952224.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1413,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/BethKissileff-e1533157952224.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1884,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/BethKissileff-e1533157952224-1200x1104.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1104,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/BethKissileff-e1533157952224-456x420.jpg","home_baner-width":456,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"26","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Isaac is a practitioner of the arts of the possible.","post_main_content_content":"

\u201cAll the wells which his father\u2019s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father the Philistines had stopped them up and filled them with earth\u201d (Gen 26:15). \u00a0So what did Isaac do? He dug them again, unstopping them (26:18 -34). <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Genesis Rabbah 64:8 says that the five wells that Isaac dug were for <\/span>kineged, <\/span><\/i>the sake of [or equivalent to] the five books of the Torah and names them. \u00a0Esek (Genesis 26: 20) for Genesis, Sitna for Exodus (26:21), well of the living water (26:19) for Leviticus, Shiva (26:33) for Numbers and Rehovot (26: 22) for Deuteronomy.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

It\u2018s a clich\u00e9 that the Torah is a wellspring, something that replenishes itself. If we unpack this metaphor, \u00a0I believe it rises above the world of clich\u00e9 to become something more. If the word <\/span>kineged, <\/span><\/i>used to mean \u201cequivalent to\u201d or \u201cin place of,\u201d is creating the equivalency, and the five wells Isaac dug are <\/span>in place of<\/span><\/i> the five books of the Torah, a different level of meaning is at play here.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

If we each need to<\/span> write our own sefer Torah<\/span><\/a> for ourselves as Deuteronomy 31:19 instructs, then the wells are Isaac\u2019s writing. The wells are actually Isaac\u2019s art, his expression of himself in this world. \u00a0Isaac then is a person who draws things out and unstops that which has been stopped up so it flows once again and provides nourishment. So the question then is: what gives him this unique ability to make art, to continue to have something that he creates, flow in the world?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

One explanation of his puzzling calm at the time of finding out that Jacob had usurped his brother Esau\u2019s blessing is that Isaac is a practitioner of the arts of the possible. Isaac responds to Esau\u2019s anger that Jacob will get the blessing, \u201che too will be blessed\" (Genesis 27:33).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Isaac lives and creates within the contours of what he has been given. \u00a0Those words - \u201che too will be blessed\u201d - and that acceptance are hard earned by someone whose own father must have been such a disappointment to him by almost sacrificing him. To have his son deceive him as well must have been a cause of great pain. Isaac\u2019s wisdom is to accept reality as it is, not as he wishes it might be, in the wells and in his life.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":38106,"alt":"","title":"shutterstock_434778253","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_434778253.jpg","width":5000,"height":5000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_434778253-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_434778253-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_434778253-768x768.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_434778253-1024x1024.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_434778253.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_434778253.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_434778253-1200x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_434778253-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Isaac\u2019s Wells","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Isaac is a practitioner of the arts of the possible","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":38106,"alt":"","title":"shutterstock_434778253","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_434778253.jpg","width":5000,"height":5000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_434778253-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_434778253-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_434778253-768x768.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_434778253-1024x1024.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_434778253.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_434778253.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_434778253-1200x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_434778253-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"26","chapter_main_number":"26","date":"20251005","wall_id":"26"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"363","name":"Midrash","old_id":"763"},{"term_id":"410","name":"Torah","old_id":"810"},{"term_id":"485","name":"Isaac","old_id":"885"}]},{"order":9,"id":"38093","color":"#e6f5f3","size":"1","name":"In the Matter of The STATE v. Isaac ","post_title":"In The Matter Of The STATE v. Isaac","slug":"in-the-matter-of-the-state-v-isaac","old_id":"38093","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":37737,"post_title":"Nathan Lewin","slug":"nathan-lewin","old_id":"37737","first_name":"Nathan ","last_name":"Lewin ","description":"Nathan Lewin is a Washington, DC, lawyer, engaged in the full-time practice of law with his daughter Alyza at Lewin & Lewin, LLP, and teaches Supreme Court litigation at Columbia Law School. He has been voted by his peers for inclusion in four separate categories in \u201cThe Best Lawyers in America\u201d since its inception. Mr. Lewin was President of the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington from 1982 to 1984.","short_description":"Nathan Lewin is a Washington, DC, lawyer, engaged in the full-time practice of law with his daughter Alyza at Lewin & Lewin, LLP, and teaches Supreme Court litigation at Columbia Law School. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":37738,"alt":"","title":"Nathan Lewin","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Nathan-Lewin-e1534183034331.jpg","width":2188,"height":2280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Nathan-Lewin-e1534183034331-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Nathan-Lewin-e1534183034331-288x300.jpg","medium-width":288,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Nathan-Lewin-e1534183034331-768x800.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":800,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Nathan-Lewin-e1534183034331-983x1024.jpg","large-width":983,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Nathan-Lewin-e1534183034331.jpg","1536x1536-width":1474,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Nathan-Lewin-e1534183034331.jpg","2048x2048-width":1965,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Nathan-Lewin-e1534183034331-1152x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1152,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Nathan-Lewin-e1534183034331-403x420.jpg","home_baner-width":403,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"26","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Brief for Isaac, Appellant - Did he commit a criminal offense of submitting a false statement on a government form when he falsely represented that Rebekah was his sister?","post_main_content_content":"

QUESTION PRESENTED<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Whether Isaac committed the criminal offense of submitting a false statement on a government form when he falsely represented that Rebekah was his sister.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

ARGUMENT<\/span><\/p>\r\n

His Majesty, King Abimelech, found Appellant Isaac guilty of filing a false statement in violation of Section 1001 of Plishti Code (PC 1001) for having stated on his immigration form that his wife Rivka is his sister, and not disclosing truthfully that they are married. The King held that this false statement could have misled a Gerarite into seducing Rebekah in the mistaken belief that she is single. That, says His Highness, would have brought sin and disgrace on the entire community. Consequently, according to the judgment below, Isaac was guilty of a criminal offense.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The conviction must be reversed because Isaac introduced evidence that required his acquittal under the \u201cnecessity defense.\u201d Isaac testified, with no evidence contradicting him, that reports of the immorality in the City of Gerar led him to fear for his personal safety if it were known in Gerar that he was the husband of beautiful Rebekah . Locals gangs would have murdered Isaac so as to be free to dally with Rivka. Isaac\u2019s false statement that Rebekah was his sister was the only alternative available to him to prevent homicide, and murder was avoided as a \u201cdirect causal relationship\u201d of Isaac\u2019s misrepresentation.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The defense proffered evidence that Isaac had solid ground for believing the worst of the Gerar community. When Isaac\u2019s parents had arrived in Gerar years ago, King Abimelech (in his youth or, according to some, the father of the current King) was smitten by the beauty of Isaac\u2019s mother and immediately had her brought to his harem. Only because he was warned in a dream-like vision not to approach Sarah because she was married to Avram did King Abimelech liberate Isaac\u2019s mother. In Gerar immediate gratification of one\u2019s desires precedes deliberation of the consequences of one\u2019s actions. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Although Rebekah would not have yielded to any attempted seduction, the Gerarites would not have realized her virtue until after they did away with her husband. Hence Isaac was justified in submitting the false statement as necessary self-defense.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

CONCLUSION<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Isaac\u2019s conviction must be reversed with instructions to enter a judgment of acquittal based on the \u201cnecessity defense.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":37232,"alt":"","title":"shutterstock_1027639132","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1027639132.jpg","width":5616,"height":3744,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1027639132-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1027639132-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1027639132-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1027639132-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1027639132.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1027639132.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1365,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1027639132-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1027639132-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"In The Matter Of The STATE v. Isaac","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Brief for Isaac, Appellant - Did he commit a criminal offense of submitting a false statement on a government form when he falsely represented that Rebekah was his sister?","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":37232,"alt":"","title":"shutterstock_1027639132","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1027639132.jpg","width":5616,"height":3744,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1027639132-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1027639132-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1027639132-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1027639132-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1027639132.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1027639132.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1365,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1027639132-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1027639132-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"26","chapter_main_number":"26","date":"20251005","wall_id":"26"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"391","name":"In\/Justice","old_id":"791"},{"term_id":"485","name":"Isaac","old_id":"885"},{"term_id":"499","name":"Trial","old_id":"899"}]},{"order":10,"id":"38110","color":"#f7e9e9","size":"1","name":"What was Going Through Jacob\u2019s Head? ","post_title":"What Was Going Through Jacob\u2019s Head?","slug":"what-was-going-through-jacobs-head","old_id":"38110","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":37140,"post_title":"Ariana Siegel","slug":"ariana-siegel","old_id":"37140","first_name":"Ariana ","last_name":"Siegel","description":"Ariana Siegel is a fourth year rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary. In her spare time she enjoys reading and writing modern midrash.","short_description":"Ariana Siegel is a fourth year rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":37141,"alt":"","title":"ariana siegel","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ariana-siegel-e1533663570199.png","width":173,"height":173,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ariana-siegel-e1533663570199-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ariana-siegel-e1533663570199.png","medium-width":173,"medium-height":173,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ariana-siegel-e1533663570199.png","medium_large-width":173,"medium_large-height":173,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ariana-siegel-e1533663570199.png","large-width":173,"large-height":173,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ariana-siegel-e1533663570199.png","1536x1536-width":173,"1536x1536-height":173,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ariana-siegel-e1533663570199.png","2048x2048-width":173,"2048x2048-height":173,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ariana-siegel-e1533663570199.png","post_full_size-width":173,"post_full_size-height":173,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ariana-siegel-e1533663570199.png","home_baner-width":173,"home_baner-height":173}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"27","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"My father asks me to draw near, and the part of me that wants to be like Esau steps forward","post_main_content_content":"

An inner monologue of Jacob as he enters the tent of Isaac<\/span><\/em><\/p>\r\n

I have never been like Esau. My mother put clothes on me that are like his and cooked a stew for my father and put goat-hair on my arms to make them burly and masculine, but I am not Esau, never have been and probably never will be. I don\u2019t even know if I want to be like him. Part of me does and part of me doesn\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The part of me that does strides towards father\u2019s tent as though I had just been hunting. The part of me that doesn\u2019t has weak arms and can barely hold this heavy pot.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I pause at the threshold of the tent and look at my father in silence. He has a kind and vulnerable face. How can I betray him?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I put down the stew, it thuds on the dirt floor. My father turns toward me. I summon a voice that comes from the part of me that wants to be like Esau, deep and brawny. \u201cFather\u201d I say. I cannot muster another word. And my father asks me, point blank, which son I am.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The part of me that doesn\u2019t want to be like Esau screams \u201cJacob! I am Jacob! Can\u2019t you tell? Don\u2019t you know your own sons?\u201d Even though he cannot see me, I want to believe that my father can sense my unique soul entering the tent. But the words of my mother are firmly planted in my head, the memorized script are the only words I can think of. I respond, with the voice who wants to be Esau, \u201cI am Esau, your first-born I have done as you told me. Pray sit up and give me your innermost blessing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The part of me that wants to be like Esau feels triumphant, elated. The part of me that does not burns with shame. The latter reviews the script; inserting words. \u201cI am [Jacob],\u201d \u201cEsau [is] your first born. I have done as you told me [at other times but not today. Today I am betraying you, and myself.] Pray sit up [and recognize me for who I truly am,] and give me your innermost blessing [the one designated for the real me].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

My father asks me to draw near, and the part of me that wants to be like Esau steps forward. The other part of me, the one who with the weak arms and high voice who lives with mother, and likes to cook and dress-up, steps backwards, and flees the tent.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":93770,"alt":"","title":"job6-heads confrontation","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/job6-heads-confrontation.png","width":1920,"height":1263,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/job6-heads-confrontation-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/job6-heads-confrontation-300x197.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":197,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/job6-heads-confrontation-768x505.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":505,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/job6-heads-confrontation-1024x674.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":674,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/job6-heads-confrontation.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1010,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/job6-heads-confrontation.png","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1263,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/job6-heads-confrontation-1200x789.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":789,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/job6-heads-confrontation-638x420.png","home_baner-width":638,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"What Was Going Through Jacob\u2019s Head?","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"My father asks me to draw near, and the part of me that wants to be like Esau steps forward","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":93770,"alt":"","title":"job6-heads confrontation","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/job6-heads-confrontation.png","width":1920,"height":1263,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/job6-heads-confrontation-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/job6-heads-confrontation-300x197.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":197,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/job6-heads-confrontation-768x505.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":505,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/job6-heads-confrontation-1024x674.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":674,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/job6-heads-confrontation.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1010,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/job6-heads-confrontation.png","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1263,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/job6-heads-confrontation-1200x789.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":789,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/job6-heads-confrontation-638x420.png","home_baner-width":638,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"27","chapter_main_number":"27","date":"20251006","wall_id":"27"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"386","name":"Psychology","old_id":"786"},{"term_id":"486","name":"Esau","old_id":"886"},{"term_id":"490","name":"Jacob","old_id":"890"}]},{"order":11,"id":"38118","color":"#e8ecf6","size":"1","name":"What Was Going Through Isaac\u2019s Head? ","post_title":"What Was Going Through Isaac\u2019s Head?","slug":"what-was-going-through-isaacs-head","old_id":"38118","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":37130,"post_title":"Lauren Tuchman","slug":"lauren-tuchman","old_id":"37130","first_name":"Lauren ","last_name":"Tuchman ","description":"Rabbi Lauren Tuchman received rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2018 and is, as far as she is aware, the first blind woman in the world to enter the rabbinate. A sought after speaker, spiritual leader and educator, Rabbi Tuchman has taught at numerous synagogues and other Jewish venues throughout North America and was named to the Jewish Week's 36 under 36 for her innovative leadership concerning inclusion of Jews with disabilities in all aspects of Jewish life.","short_description":"Rabbi Lauren Tuchman is a Jewish educator based in the Washington, DC area.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":37131,"alt":"","title":"Lauren Tuchman","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Lauren-Tuchman-e1533662722150.jpg","width":1728,"height":2494,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Lauren-Tuchman-e1533662722150-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Lauren-Tuchman-e1533662722150-208x300.jpg","medium-width":208,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Lauren-Tuchman-e1533662722150-709x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":709,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Lauren-Tuchman-e1533662722150-709x1024.jpg","large-width":709,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Lauren-Tuchman-e1533662722150.jpg","1536x1536-width":1064,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Lauren-Tuchman-e1533662722150.jpg","2048x2048-width":1419,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Lauren-Tuchman-e1533662722150-831x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":831,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Lauren-Tuchman-e1533662722150-291x420.jpg","home_baner-width":291,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"27","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Why do people think seeing-impaired people are incompetent?","post_main_content_content":"

A modern Midrash:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Life has not been kind to me. I am old in years and nearly blind. I have two very different sons, Jacob and Esau, who are constantly at odds. Discord between brothers is prevalent in my family, and I fear that I am going to play that out again. I love Esau dearly and there\u2019s but one blessing to give.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I am blind. I know my two children in ways sighted parents cannot imagine. They have not walked a moment in my shoes. Is it the fear of overwhelming narrowness and constriction that blocks them?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I am sensing that Rebecca is plotting. She believes I love Esau and not Jacob. And truthfully, I do love Esau more. I yearn for that which Esau has - strength, and his sense of self. But, I\u2019ve been around long enough to know that Esau cannot move his family in the necessary direction.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I will use my blindness as a cover. Make it appear that I have no idea what is going on when Jacob disguises himself.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I call Esau into my tent and ask him to prepare game. Rebecca, overhearing, devises the elaborate disguise, despite Jacob\u2019s protestations, to mask his smooth-skin.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I will make it appear as if I am confused. I ask which son is here? The voice is the voice of Jacob but the hands are the hands of Esau. He doesn\u2019t try to disguise his voice. The blind are often teased, taunted by people disguising their voices, knowing that they are embarrassing and humiliating the visually impaired. Our tradition would later teach that to embarrass someone in public is akin to bloodshed.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I ask him to approach so I can feel him, there\u2019s always that lingering feeling\u2014am I being given all of the information? I believe it\u2019s Jacob and not Esau. I am using all of the tools at my disposal, I know Jacob must ultimately be blessed. It is Jacob who is in front of me, he will receive the blessing, just as I secretly planned. And yet, I come off looking foolish, and incompetent.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Will everyone think that blind people are foolish? Blind does mean foolish, after all. How much pain have people endured because that word, blind, is thrown around so casually to mean stupid, ignorant? What a horrible spiritual and emotional burden to carry. Did my actions and the way I am portrayed contribute to that? What consequences have my choices created?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

image: Isaac Blessing Jacob, Nicolas-Guy Brenet (France, 1768) \/ wikidata<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":102939,"alt":"","title":"-622df1c5e9079--622df1c5e907bGen27-Isaac_Blessing_Jacob_Brenet.jpg","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622df1c5e9079-622df1c5e907bGen27-Isaac_Blessing_Jacob_Brenet.jpg.jpg","width":1024,"height":855,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622df1c5e9079-622df1c5e907bGen27-Isaac_Blessing_Jacob_Brenet.jpg-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622df1c5e9079-622df1c5e907bGen27-Isaac_Blessing_Jacob_Brenet.jpg-300x250.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":250,"medium_large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622df1c5e9079-622df1c5e907bGen27-Isaac_Blessing_Jacob_Brenet.jpg-768x641.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":641,"large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622df1c5e9079-622df1c5e907bGen27-Isaac_Blessing_Jacob_Brenet.jpg-1024x855.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":855,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622df1c5e9079-622df1c5e907bGen27-Isaac_Blessing_Jacob_Brenet.jpg.jpg","1536x1536-width":1024,"1536x1536-height":855,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622df1c5e9079-622df1c5e907bGen27-Isaac_Blessing_Jacob_Brenet.jpg.jpg","2048x2048-width":1024,"2048x2048-height":855,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622df1c5e9079-622df1c5e907bGen27-Isaac_Blessing_Jacob_Brenet.jpg.jpg","post_full_size-width":1024,"post_full_size-height":855,"home_baner":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/622df1c5e9079-622df1c5e907bGen27-Isaac_Blessing_Jacob_Brenet.jpg-503x420.jpg","home_baner-width":503,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"What 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Ladder on the Ramp in Auschwitz ","post_title":"Jacob\u2019s Ladder on the Ramp in Auschwitz","slug":"jacobs-ladder-on-the-ramp-in-auschwitz","old_id":"38145","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":38016,"post_title":"Naava Semel","slug":"naava-semel","old_id":"38016","first_name":"Naava","last_name":"Semel","description":"Nava Semel was an Israeli author, playwright, screenwriter and translator. Her short story collection \u201cKova Zekhukhit\u201d (Hat of Glass) was the first work of fiction published in Israel to address the topic of the \"Second Generation\" - children of Holocaust survivors. She died in 2017\r\n","short_description":"Nava Semel was an Israeli author, playwright, screenwriter and translator.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":1305,"alt":"","title":"","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/15-2-e1534413416449.jpg","width":117,"height":164,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/15-2-e1534413416449-117x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":117,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/15-2-e1534413416449.jpg","medium-width":117,"medium-height":164,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/15-2-e1534413416449.jpg","medium_large-width":117,"medium_large-height":164,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/15-2-e1534413416449.jpg","large-width":117,"large-height":164,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/15-2-e1534413416449.jpg","1536x1536-width":117,"1536x1536-height":164,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/15-2-e1534413416449.jpg","2048x2048-width":117,"2048x2048-height":164,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/15-2-e1534413416449.jpg","post_full_size-width":117,"post_full_size-height":164,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/15-2-e1534413416449.jpg","home_baner-width":117,"home_baner-height":164}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"28","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"I am with you wherever you go","post_main_content_content":"

Jacob, the child, is sleeping. Jacob, the child, is dreaming. And there is no ramp in his dream to which the soldiers and murderers push him. In the dream of the child Jacob, his father and mother appear, from whom he is torn, and they whisper to him: \"Remember, I am with you: I will protect you wherever you go\" (Genesis 28:15).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The child Jacob - perhaps he was nicknamed Jacob\u2019ele or Yankele - does not want to open his eyes and wake up to the nightmare in which he will find out, \"How full of awe\/fear is this place!\" (28:17).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

And the child Jacob\u2019s ladder\/stairway, there are no angels ascending or descending, neither in that order nor in any other order.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

According to one explanation, the word \u201cladder\/stairway\u201d derives from the Hebrew root s\u2019l\u2019l, whose meaning is a ramp. \u00a0On the ramp in Auschwitz, people of flesh and blood degraded the child Jacob to the lowest level of \"not being human\" whereas on the ladder of Jacob our forefather, the angels ascended, and only afterwards did they descend.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The dream meets our patriarch Jacob while he wallows in fear due to his retreat into exile when Esau threatened his life. The night vision, when his head is resting on a stone instead of a pillow, is God's way of assuring Rebecca and Isaac\u2019s son that He will protect him until he returns to the land He promised him.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

When he awakens, our patriarch Jacob announces that this is the gate to heaven. \u00a0My mother who survived Auschwitz will never forget the chimneys that opened up in the direction of heaven. Up to her last day, that smell of horror, not angels, will accompany her. She did not dream anything there, and if she dreamed, she forgot.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Like our father Jacob, she, too, made the long journey to the land that was established for her. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

According to Midrash Tanchuma, God suggested to our patriarch Jacob to ascend the ladder\/stairway. \u00a0However, Jacob, afraid, refused. When he awoke, he took the stone that was under his head and turned it into a monument. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

One brave boy, whose name was not Jacob but Hanus Hachenburg from the Terezin ghetto, left behind his dream for us to remember forever, before he was exterminated in 1944:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But anyway, I still believe I only sleep today,<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>That I\u2019ll wake up, a child again, and start to laugh and play.<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>I\u2019ll go back to childhood sweet like a briar rose,<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Like a bell which wakes us from a dream,<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Like a mother with an ailing child<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Loves him with woman\u2019s love.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

From: <\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/i>I never saw another butterfly\u2026 Children\u2019s Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp 1942-1944<\/span><\/em>.\u201d<\/em> McGraw-Hill, New York, 1971. Printed in Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The above essay is dedicated to the late Naphtali Lau-Lavie, an Israeli journalist, author, and diplomat. Lavie's entire family was murdered during the Holocaust, with the exception of his brother, Yisrael, who would later become the Chief Rabbi of Israel.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":38147,"alt":"","title":"auschwitz-jacob","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/auschwitz-jacob.jpg","width":1024,"height":550,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/auschwitz-jacob-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/auschwitz-jacob-300x161.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":161,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/auschwitz-jacob-768x413.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":413,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/auschwitz-jacob-1024x550.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":550,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/auschwitz-jacob.jpg","1536x1536-width":1024,"1536x1536-height":550,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/auschwitz-jacob.jpg","2048x2048-width":1024,"2048x2048-height":550,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/auschwitz-jacob.jpg","post_full_size-width":1024,"post_full_size-height":550,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/auschwitz-jacob-782x420.jpg","home_baner-width":782,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Jacob\u2019s Ladder on the Ramp in Auschwitz","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"I am with you wherever you go","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":38147,"alt":"","title":"auschwitz-jacob","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/auschwitz-jacob.jpg","width":1024,"height":550,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/auschwitz-jacob-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/auschwitz-jacob-300x161.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":161,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/auschwitz-jacob-768x413.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":413,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/auschwitz-jacob-1024x550.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":550,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/auschwitz-jacob.jpg","1536x1536-width":1024,"1536x1536-height":550,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/auschwitz-jacob.jpg","2048x2048-width":1024,"2048x2048-height":550,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/auschwitz-jacob.jpg","post_full_size-width":1024,"post_full_size-height":550,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/auschwitz-jacob-782x420.jpg","home_baner-width":782,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"28","chapter_main_number":"28","date":"20251007","wall_id":"28"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"408","name":"Holocaust","old_id":"808"}]},{"order":13,"id":"38246","color":"#f8ebe3","size":"1","name":"Jacob\u2019s Dream in Art ","post_title":"Jacob\u2019s Dream in Art","slug":"jacobs-dream-in-art","old_id":"38246","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":37927,"post_title":"Adapted from ALHATORAH.ORG","slug":"alhatorah-org","old_id":"37927","first_name":"Adapted from","last_name":"ALHATORAH.ORG","description":"ALHATORAH.ORG is a one-stop Tanakh study resource, providing the texts, tools, techniques, and technology to help scholars, educators, and laypersons make Torah come alive in the home, classroom, and synagogue. Enter the site to explore 2,500 years of Biblical interpretation and enjoy a rich, multi-dimensional, learning experience.\r\n","short_description":"ALHATORAH.ORG Re-envisioning the way Torah can be studied and taught","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":37929,"alt":"","title":"shutterstock_473208484","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_473208484.jpg","width":10000,"height":10000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_473208484-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_473208484-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_473208484-768x768.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_473208484-1024x1024.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_473208484.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_473208484.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_473208484-1200x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_473208484-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"28","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"What were the angels doing? Three interpretations","post_main_content_content":"

Bartolom\u00e9 Murillo's <\/span>Jacob's Dream<\/em> <\/span>(1665), a miniature from the <\/span>Sister Haggadah<\/span><\/em>, and Jacques Stella's <\/span>Jacob's Ladder<\/span><\/em> (1650) all depict the scene of Jacob's dream in Beit El. Though each depiction contains similar components (a sleeping Jacob, a \"ladder\" of some sort -- the Hebrew word, \u201csulam,\u201d is ambiguous -- and angels), the varying details included by each artist suggest different interpretations of what Jacob actually saw in his dream and the meaning of this vision.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In Stella's painting, the angels descend the ladder in pairs and seem to converse with each other, taking no notice of Jacob.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\"\"\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

In the Sister Haggadah, in contrast, some of the angels are not on the ladder at all but rather hover over the figure of Jacob on the floor. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

\"\"<\/p>\r\n

Murillo's image charts a middle course. While most of his angels are simply climbing the ladder oblivious to Jacob, one of the angels at the bottom appears to be bidding him farewell while another seems to be about to greet him.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\"\"<\/p>\r\n

These differences relate to an unknown in the Biblical text. Though the reader is told that the angels were going up and down the ladder, the text does not elaborate any further about their accompanying actions, nor about the significance of their movements. This leaves the meaning of the vision ambiguous. Did the angels symbolize a protective guard for Jacob? Did they form some sort of receiving line in advance of Jacob's entering into a discussion with God? Or, did God simply want Jacob to see His messengers discussing their respective tasks?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Adapted from: ALHATORAH.ORG<\/span><\/p>\r\n

For fuller analysis, see: <\/span>http:\/\/alhatorah.org\/Yaakov's_Dream_in_Art<\/span><\/a><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Jacob\u2019s Dream in Art","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"What were the angels doing? Three interpretations","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":38248,"alt":"","title":"Slide1","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Slide1-2-e1534828687230.jpg","width":995,"height":704,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Slide1-2-e1534828687230-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Slide1-2-e1534828687230-300x212.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":212,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Slide1-2-e1534828687230-768x543.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":543,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Slide1-2-1024x576.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":576,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Slide1-2-e1534828687230.jpg","1536x1536-width":995,"1536x1536-height":704,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Slide1-2-e1534828687230.jpg","2048x2048-width":995,"2048x2048-height":704,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Slide1-2-1200x675.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":675,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Slide1-2-e1534828687230-594x420.jpg","home_baner-width":594,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"28","chapter_main_number":"28","date":"20251007","wall_id":"28"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"363","name":"Midrash","old_id":"763"},{"term_id":"369","name":"Visual Arts","old_id":"769"},{"term_id":"509","name":"Angels","old_id":"909"}]},{"order":14,"id":"38228","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Jacob and Esau Reflected in Leah and Rachel ","post_title":"Jacob and Esau Reflected in Leah and Rachel","slug":"jacob-and-esau-reflected-in-leah-and-rachel","old_id":"38228","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":37498,"post_title":"Clive Lawton","slug":"clive-lawton","old_id":"37498","first_name":"Clive ","last_name":"Lawton ","description":"Clive Lawton is co-founder of Limmud worldwide, and founder and developer of the field of school-aged Holocaust education in the UK. He is currently CEO of the Commonwealth Jewish Council, formerly a governor of London's Police Service, Chair of a hospital board, principal of a high school, Chair of the Third World Development charity, Tzedek, advisor to the UK governement on curriculum development and Race Equality and deputy director of a municipal education authority. 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Brothers and sisters eh? Can\u2019t live with \u2018em, can\u2019t live without \u2018em! And then add the complication and intensification of twins!<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Much is made of how Jacob and Esau are so very different, but that\u2019s probably a gross over-simplification. While they\u2019re together, the contrast between them is evident. But once apart\u2026<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In this chapter, we see Jacob, the mummy\u2019s boy, going off on his own and before long, he\u2019s not only doing the he-man thing, rolling the stone off the mouth of the well all by himself, but he kisses Rachel virtually at first sight. How Esau can you get! And as if that wasn\u2019t Esau enough, he weeps on kissing her, utterly overwhelmed by love at first sight. This is Esau-style, hedonistically in the moment, moved beyond reason.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

And then unfolds the well-known story of Laban\u2019s duplicity \u2013 and of course Jacob getting his comeuppance. Jacob can\u2019t complain about being tricked at his (first) wedding, and he doesn\u2019t. He knows that he took advantage of his father\u2019s inability to see in order to get what wasn\u2019t his, so that Laban obscures Jacob\u2019s vision to give him what he doesn\u2019t want is beautifully poetic justice.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

And then the sisters\u2026 I\u2019ve always disliked the practice, when we bless our daughters on Friday evening \u2013 I hope you do, it\u2019s a beautiful practice! \u2013 we say \u2018May you be like Sara, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah\u2019. Not me! I reverse those two and say, \u2018Leah and Rachel\u2019. Leah\u2019s never loved as she should be, nor is she given the due she deserves as elder sister. And, of course, being a Levi too, she\u2019s my great-great-great-\u2026 grandmother . She had a tough deal in her lifetime, we don\u2019t have to compound it by our mealy-mouthed blessings. \u00a0I\u2019m not demoting her for anyone.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

There\u2019s sisterly jealousy too then, with Rachel wishing she could produce children as Leah does, while no doubt Leah wishes she could procure love and admiration as her sister does.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

So this is a chapter about everyone failing to value their own qualities while also failing to notice that they probably embody those of other family members too. We are all amalgams of our families, echoes of our siblings, continuations of our parents, vanguards for our children.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

How lovely that the chapter ends with Leah at last seeming to find a kind of peace (no thanks to Jacob!). She deserves it.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":99030,"alt":"","title":"1chron7-nephews family","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1chron7-nephews-family.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1chron7-nephews-family-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1chron7-nephews-family-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1chron7-nephews-family-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1chron7-nephews-family-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1chron7-nephews-family.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1chron7-nephews-family.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1chron7-nephews-family-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1chron7-nephews-family-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Jacob and Esau Reflected in Leah and Rachel","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"We are all amalgams of our families, echoes of our siblings, continuations of our parents, vanguards for our children","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":99030,"alt":"","title":"1chron7-nephews family","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1chron7-nephews-family.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1chron7-nephews-family-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1chron7-nephews-family-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1chron7-nephews-family-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1chron7-nephews-family-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1chron7-nephews-family.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1chron7-nephews-family.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1chron7-nephews-family-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1chron7-nephews-family-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"29","chapter_main_number":"29","date":"20251008","wall_id":"29"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"379","name":"Family","old_id":"779"},{"term_id":"385","name":"Siblings","old_id":"785"},{"term_id":"486","name":"Esau","old_id":"886"},{"term_id":"490","name":"Jacob","old_id":"890"}]},{"order":15,"id":"38361","color":"#f2e9df","size":"1","name":"It's a Woman's World ","post_title":"A Topsy-Turvy World","slug":"its-a-womans-world","old_id":"38361","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":33859,"post_title":"Avidan Freedman","slug":"avidan-freedman","old_id":"33859","first_name":"Avidan","last_name":"Freedman","description":"Rabbi Avidan Freedman is the Rabbi of Hevruta, the Shalom Hartman Institute's post high school program for Israelis and North Americans, and an educator in the institute's high school. 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","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":33860,"alt":"Avidan Freedman","title":"Avidan Freedman","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365.jpg","width":856,"height":1024,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-251x300.jpg","medium-width":251,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-768x919.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":919,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-856x1024.jpg","large-width":856,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365.jpg","1536x1536-width":856,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365.jpg","2048x2048-width":856,"2048x2048-height":1024,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-800x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-351x420.jpg","home_baner-width":351,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"30","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Children are the primary source of meaning in this world, not the paycheck...","post_main_content_content":"

The magic of Tanakh study, which participation in the 929 project delightfully affords, is in its ability at once to resonate and to challenge. Common wisdom nowadays dictates that a person ought to have their career in order before having children. This is pragmatic - it's considered irresponsible to have children before you're able to provide adequately for them. More fundamentally, it reflects a value system in which people see the meaning in their life provided by self-actualization, and self-actualization provided by one's career- the work that they get paid for. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

This worldview puts a double emphasis on your paycheck- it represents your level of responsibility, and also reflects how much your work is valued by society, which sends you signals about how much you ought to value (it) yourself. The primary breadwinner of the family, in this worldview, is more responsible, more actualized, and more valued. And children are a double nuisance; the more you have, the less you can provide, and the less time you have to dedicate to your self-actualization in the form of your career. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Chapter 30 presents us with a topsy-turvy world worth contemplating. Children are the primary source of meaning in this world, a value expressed most forcefully by Rachel, but reinforced by the frequent invoking of God's name with almost every new birth, and with Jacob's attempt to leave after Joseph is born. Once he has had a child with the woman he intended to marry, his purpose in Haran has been realized; it doesn't bother him that all his earnings have gone to Laban in accomplishing this purpose, and that he will leave penniless. Jacob the breadwinner is an enabler; he comes home from a long day's work and is told by those responsible for what is really valuable where to go and what to do. It's a woman's world...at least until Laban intercedes.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":103046,"alt":"","title":"-6231c6eb9883a--6231c6eb9883bgen30-children 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Topsy-Turvy World","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Children are the primary source of meaning in this world, not the paycheck...","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":103046,"alt":"","title":"-6231c6eb9883a--6231c6eb9883bgen30-children 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Gratitude Amidst Heartbreak ","post_title":"Leah\u2019s Gratitude Amidst Heartbreak","slug":"leahs-gratitude-amidst-heartbreak","old_id":"38255","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":37918,"post_title":"Shai Held","slug":"shai-held","old_id":"37918","first_name":" Shai ","last_name":"Held","description":"Rabbi Shai Held, theologian, scholar, and educator, is President, Dean, and Chair in Jewish Thought at Hadar, where he also directs the Center for Jewish Leadership and Ideas. A 2011 recipient of the prestigious Covenant Award for excellence in Jewish education, Rabbi Held has been named multiple times to Newsweek\u2019s list of the 50 most influential rabbis in America. He holds a doctorate in religion from Harvard; Rabbi Held's first book, Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence, was published by Indiana University Press in 2013; The Heart of Torah, a collection of essays on the Torah in two volumes, was published by JPS in 2017.","short_description":"Rabbi Shai Held is President, Dean, and Chair in Jewish Thought at Hadar,","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":37919,"alt":"","title":"shai held","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shai-held.jpg","width":150,"height":186,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shai-held-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shai-held.jpg","medium-width":150,"medium-height":186,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shai-held.jpg","medium_large-width":150,"medium_large-height":186,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shai-held.jpg","large-width":150,"large-height":186,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shai-held.jpg","1536x1536-width":150,"1536x1536-height":186,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shai-held.jpg","2048x2048-width":150,"2048x2048-height":186,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shai-held.jpg","post_full_size-width":150,"post_full_size-height":186,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shai-held.jpg","home_baner-width":150,"home_baner-height":186}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"29","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"It is one thing to be grateful when everything is wonderful, but it is quite another when life is complicated","post_main_content_content":"

It\u2019s not often that a biblical character makes you want to cry, but if you pay careful attention to the matriarch Leah, she can break your heart. Leah is married to Jacob, a man who does not love her\u2014indeed, who barely notices her.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The way the story unfolds is well-known. Jacob works for seven years for the right to marry Rachel, but Laban deceives him, and Jacob ends up being married to Leah, whom he does not love and does not want. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Imagine Leah\u2019s humiliation when, on the morning after her wedding, her husband\u2019s only response to discovering that she, rather than her sister, is his wife is an excruciating mix of outrage and disappointment. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Genesis tells us simply that Jacob \u201cloved Rachel more than Leah\u201d (29:30), but Leah wishes for something different: She names her first son Reuben, hoping \u201cNow my husband will love me (Ye\u2019e<\/span>hevani<\/b>\/Re<\/span>uven<\/b>)\u201d (29:32). Her second son, Simeon, proves that her hope with Reuben did not come to fruition: \u201cThis is because the Lord heard (<\/span>Shama<\/b>\/<\/span>Shimo<\/b>n) that I was unloved and has given me this one also\u201d (29:33). Leah names her third son Levi, and declares: \u201cThis time my husband will become attached (Yi<\/span>laveh\/Lev<\/b>i) to me, for I have borne him three sons\u201d (29:34). Still, nothing changes. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Leah bears a fourth son, and we wait for yet another expression of her sadness and desolation. But something else entirely occurs: \u201cShe conceived again and bore a son, and declared: \u2018This time I will praise (<\/span>odeh<\/b>) the Lord.\u2019 Therefore, she named him Judah (Ye<\/span>hudah<\/b>)\u201d (29:35). What has happened here? How does she do a total about-face and express gratitude rather than longing?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Leah has somehow found the courage to accept that her life is not going to turn out as she had hoped. Her disappointment is real and deep. But something inside of her shifts, and she is able to embrace the beauty and fullness of what she still has. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Simeon b. Yohai says that Leah was the first person in the history of the world who expressed gratitude to God (BT, Berakhot 7b). It is one thing to be grateful when everything is wonderful, but it is quite another to be grateful when life is complicated. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Strikingly, Yehudah becomes the basis for the name of all Jews (<\/span>Yehudim<\/b>, from <\/span>Yehud<\/b>ah). Who is a Jew? One who discovers the possibility of gratitude even amidst heartbreak.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":38259,"alt":"","title":"leah","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah.jpg","width":794,"height":397,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah-300x150.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":150,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah-768x384.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":384,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah.jpg","large-width":794,"large-height":397,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah.jpg","1536x1536-width":794,"1536x1536-height":397,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah.jpg","2048x2048-width":794,"2048x2048-height":397,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah.jpg","post_full_size-width":794,"post_full_size-height":397,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah.jpg","home_baner-width":794,"home_baner-height":397}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Leah\u2019s Gratitude Amidst Heartbreak","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"It is one thing to be grateful when everything is wonderful, but it is quite another when life is complicated","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":38259,"alt":"","title":"leah","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah.jpg","width":794,"height":397,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah-300x150.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":150,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah-768x384.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":384,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah.jpg","large-width":794,"large-height":397,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah.jpg","1536x1536-width":794,"1536x1536-height":397,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah.jpg","2048x2048-width":794,"2048x2048-height":397,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah.jpg","post_full_size-width":794,"post_full_size-height":397,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah.jpg","home_baner-width":794,"home_baner-height":397}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"29","chapter_main_number":"29","date":"20251008","wall_id":"29"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"490","name":"Jacob","old_id":"890"},{"term_id":"518","name":"Leah","old_id":"918"},{"term_id":"519","name":"Courage","old_id":"919"},{"term_id":"520","name":"Gratitude","old_id":"920"}]},{"order":17,"id":"38225","color":"#e6f5f3","size":"1","name":"Emotions of a Barren Woman ","post_title":"Emotions of a Barren Woman","slug":"emotions-of-a-barren-woman","old_id":"38225","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":38045,"post_title":"Elana Bekerman Frank","slug":"elana-bekerman-frank","old_id":"38045","first_name":"Elana ","last_name":"Bekerman Frank ","description":"Elana Bekerman Frank has over 18 years of experience working with non-profits (in America and in Israel) in fundraising, marketing, community outreach, and program development in the field of fertility. She is the Executive Director & Founder of Jewish Fertility Foundation and resides in Atlanta, GA with her husband Jason and their two children, Levi and Avidan.\r\n\r\n","short_description":"Elana Bekerman Frank is the Executive Director & Founder of Jewish Fertility Foundation and resides in Atlanta, GA","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":38046,"alt":"","title":"elana bekerman frank","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/elana-bekerman-frank-e1534497853414.jpg","width":146,"height":190,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/elana-bekerman-frank-e1534497853414-146x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":146,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/elana-bekerman-frank-e1534497853414.jpg","medium-width":146,"medium-height":190,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/elana-bekerman-frank-e1534497853414.jpg","medium_large-width":146,"medium_large-height":190,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/elana-bekerman-frank-e1534497853414.jpg","large-width":146,"large-height":190,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/elana-bekerman-frank-e1534497853414.jpg","1536x1536-width":146,"1536x1536-height":190,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/elana-bekerman-frank-e1534497853414.jpg","2048x2048-width":146,"2048x2048-height":190,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/elana-bekerman-frank-e1534497853414.jpg","post_full_size-width":146,"post_full_size-height":190,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/elana-bekerman-frank-e1534497853414.jpg","home_baner-width":146,"home_baner-height":190}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"29","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Despite medical breakthroughs, all of the raw negative feelings, pressure, jealousy, marital stress and pain are still as real and painful as they were for Rachel","post_main_content_content":"

Gen 29: 31 \u2013 \"And the LORD saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her womb; but Rachel was barren.\"<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The pressure is on for Rachel. Her womb is barren. She is infertile. She cannot produce a child. This is HER issue. Rachel feels this sense of guilt and shame that her body has failed her. Jacob is not the one with fertility issues, he has children with his other wife, Leah. Where does that leave Rachel? Frustrated, sad, angry, jealous, stuck and alone. Many women (and men) who suffer from infertility today relate to Rachel.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The verse implies that fertility is a reward or a pity-present gifted to Leah and that because Rachel was loved, she deserved to suffer. There is a stigma surrounding fertility where the woman is blamed for this medical issue that does not exist when it comes to other medical conditions. Certainly infertility feels like a punishment. It is an attack on all of your plans and visions for your future. As someone who has gone through what Rachel has gone through, I have asked myself \u201cWhat did I do wrong to deserve this?\u201d \u201cWhy me?\u201d And even, \u201cWhy her, and not me?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Rachel gets to a place in her fertility journey where she envied her sister Leah and tells her husband, Jacob, \u201cGive me children, or I shall die.\u201d Infertility really is that powerful. Jewish identity is so intertwined with children that it often leaves adults without children feeling alone, isolated, and even suicidal. Couples struggling to build their own families feel left out of Jewish life cycle events, holiday celebrations, Shabbat invites, and they are often overlooked or not included in leadership roles within the Jewish Community. Emotions are raw and painful and Jacob too is frustrated. He tells Rachel that it really has nothing to do with him, it\u2019s up to God. Jacob may be trying to be a supportive partner but instead, he further alienates himself from Rachel, leaving her even more alone. Fertility puts additional pressure and stress on marriages. This is not how they envisioned their life together.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Thanks to medicine, fertility breakthroughs and adoption, women and families today have many more options and resources on how to face their infertility. However, all of the raw negative feelings, pressure, jealousy, marital stress and pain are still as real and painful as they were for Rachel in Biblical times.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":38226,"alt":"","title":"shutterstock_776784970","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_776784970.jpg","width":4000,"height":2667,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_776784970-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_776784970-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_776784970-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_776784970-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_776784970.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_776784970.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1366,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_776784970-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_776784970-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Emotions of a Barren Woman","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Despite medical breakthroughs, all of the raw negative feelings, pressure, jealousy, marital stress and pain are still as real and painful as they were for Rachel","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":38226,"alt":"","title":"shutterstock_776784970","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_776784970.jpg","width":4000,"height":2667,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_776784970-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_776784970-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_776784970-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_776784970-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_776784970.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_776784970.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1366,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_776784970-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_776784970-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"29","chapter_main_number":"29","date":"20251008","wall_id":"29"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"513","name":"Rachel","old_id":"913"},{"term_id":"521","name":"Fertility","old_id":"921"},{"term_id":"522","name":"Marriage","old_id":"922"}]},{"order":18,"id":"103042","color":"#f7e9e9","size":"1","name":"Jacob Names His Price, And Much More ","post_title":"Jacob Names His Price, And Much More","slug":"jacob-names-his-price-and-much-more","old_id":"103042","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":78133,"post_title":"Josh Blechner","slug":"josh-blechner","old_id":"78133","first_name":"Josh ","last_name":"Blechner ","description":"Josh first finished the Tanach during Yeshiva in Mevaseret Zion. He and his daughter studied the Tanach again for her bat mitzvah. Josh has taught many classes on Tanach throughout the years and currently in the New Rochelle 929 group. When not studying for 929, Josh works as an in-house lawyer in New Jersey.","short_description":"Josh has taught many classes on Tanach throughout the years and currently in the New Rochelle 929 group, and is an in-house attorney in New Jersey. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":78134,"alt":"","title":"josh blechner","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","width":276,"height":351,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner-236x300.jpg","medium-width":236,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","medium_large-width":276,"medium_large-height":351,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","large-width":276,"large-height":351,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","1536x1536-width":276,"1536x1536-height":351,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","2048x2048-width":276,"2048x2048-height":351,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","post_full_size-width":276,"post_full_size-height":351,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","home_baner-width":276,"home_baner-height":351}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"30","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"More on Laban\u2019s upright and guileless character\u00a0\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

After 11 children are born, Jacob approaches Laban and asks to leave. Laban responds that he knows that God has blessed his house because Jacob dwells there. Again, Laban here attributes his success to Jacob and God. Laban then asks Jacob to name a wage in order for him to stay. This is the second time that Laban has asked Jacob to name his price. We have yet to see Laban set any wages for Jacob. Jacob confirms to Laban that God is responsible for everything that Laban has gained. In response, instead of attacking Jacob or denying this, Laban again asks Jacob to name his price. Jacob responds with a plan to remove all speckled and spotted sheep and goats from Laban's flock. Then, in the future, all newly born speckled and spotted animals will be Jacob\u2019s, and every white sheep will be Laban\u2019s. If Laban intended to swindle Jacob, he would not have allowed him to remove the spotted sheep and goats, let alone set the price. Yet, Laban does exactly what Jacob suggests: he removes the spotted animals and separates them from the rest of the flock.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Some commentators point to this as Laban tricking Jacob even though Jacob told Laban to do that exact thing. Jacob then devises a plan to place spotted wood stakes by the animals' troughs. He makes sure that only the sturdy animals drink in front of the stakes. These sturdy animals in turn mate and produce sheep that are spotted and speckled. Under his agreement with Laban, these sheep are Jacob\u2019s. Jacob keeps the weaker ones away from the stakes, and those offspring go to Laban.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Again, this seems like Jacob working to trick Laban by setting a price and then manipulating the results in his favor. Furthermore, after the first round of births with so many spotted and speckled animals being born, Laban should have stopped the arrangement! Chapter 30, therefore, continues the trend of Laban asking Jacob to set the price and then agreeing to whatever Jacob offers. Furthermore, Jacob is the one who seems to be tricking Laban, and despite all of this, Laban does not seem to care.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Why? More on that in chapter 31.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

image:\u00a0Jacob with the Flock of Laban, Jusepe de Ribera, 1632; Naples, Italy \/ wikiart (PD)<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":103043,"alt":"","title":"-6231a5073d197--6231a5073d198gen30-De 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