I am unworthy of all the kindnesses and from all the truth that You have rendered Your servant, for with my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.

(Bereishit 32:11)

 

for with my staff From here we learn that a person should recall the bad days in tranquil times in order to take notice of his advantage and thank the Holy One, blessed be He for it. That is why King Solomon, of blessed memory, said: On a day of good, be among the good, and on a day of adversity, ponder [or, alternatively, ...and think of the day of adversity] (Kohellet 7:14), meaning, "on a day of good think of the day of adversity."

(Rabbeinu Behayeiy 32:11)

 

I am unworthy- katonti I do not pray and make requests for my own sake; I have already received much from you, so much so that I am incapable of thanking You for all this. I have already become small [the literal translation of katonti] due to the plentitude of Your kindnesses. A person's stature is measured not in terms of the absolute quantity of his deeds, but by the quantity of his deeds relative to what he has received. The more we have, the more we are in danger of being lessened.

(Rabbi S. R. Hirsch 32:11)

 

 

And such ought not to be done

Leah Klibanoff

Parashat Vayishlah contains the first reference to the name Israel. Jacob, who remains alone on the night before his reunion with Esau, wrestles with an angel - and the angel cannot subdue him. After the struggle, when Jacob asks for his blessing, the angel answers him that your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel. The change of Jacob's name to Israel - the name that will refer to the nation formed by his sons - was the angel's parting gift to Jacob before leaving for the threatening encounter with his brother.

The name "Israel" reappears shortly afterwards. Shechem son of Hamor met Jacob/Israel's daughter Dinah, slept with her, and abused her. Scripture describes her brothers' reaction to hearing news of these events upon their return from the fields: and the men were grieved, and they burned fiercely, because he had committed a scandalous act in Israel, to lie with a daughter of Jacob, and such ought not to be done. This verse may be interpreted as referring to the scandalous act committed against their father, the man Israel (i.e., Jacob); however, since the name "Jacob" appears immediately after "Israel" the latter should here be understood in a broader sense. Israel is not yet the name of a people, but it does seem in this instance to refer to the entire tribe - Jacob and his whole family. Furthermore, the verse implies that the brothers think their complaint is something broader than anger over a personal deed; they - Israel - are making a group judgment, determining for posterity that such ought not to be done. The commentators disagree as to the meaning of these words, but RaMBaN clearly explains them along the lines I have developed: "That is why it says in Israel, because it is not a scandalous act among the Canaanites."

If so, it is in the course of the events described in parashat Vayishlah that the sons of Jacob come to recognize themselves as a distinct group - "Israel." True, their ancestors already possessed distinct characteristics and a connection with the one god, but it is at this stage that they crystallize as a separate tribe, a group possessing its own standards and independent values, different from those of the other people around them.

The motif of separation from other groups binds together the parasha's various events. The previous parasha concludes with Jacob's departure from the house of Laban, father of his two wives. Early in our parasha we hear Jacob's refusal to join his brother Esau to travel with him. The emotional reunion that took place only a short time earlier did not offer good Jacob reasons to question Esau's intentions. Nonetheless, Jacob prefers to go his own way instead of accompanying his brother. Later we read of the brothers' refusal to accept Shechem's request to marry Dinah, a request that includes the offer that they live together with the inhabitants of Shechem and become one people. The Shechemites are willing to accept the plan and even comply with the brothers' demand that they circumcise themselves, but Simon and Levi, enraged by what had been done to their sister Dinah, choose to avenge themselves against the entire population of Shechem, and not only against Shechem the man. They kill all the males, taking all the women and children and property.

The formal purification and separation occur immediately afterwards. God reveals Himself to Jacob and commands him to build Him an altar. In preparation for this Jacob tells all the members of his tribe to remove the foreign gods from their midst and to change their clothing. He buries the idols and nose-rings in the ground. From here on in, the children of Jacob will also be distinct from the land's populace in their outwards appearance.

The series of events described in the parasha reveals the process of Israel's crystallization: the process by which it became a tribe, which will eventually become a people; the crystallization of its faith in one God and of the first foundations of its ethical system. The dangers associated with the consciousness of separateness also appear throughout the parasha. This is most strongly expressed by the words of the brothers quoted above referring to the scandalous act committed in Israel which ought not to be done. The brothers' urge to protect their sister and their insistence that the deed that had been committed was scandalous constitute the beginning of a supremely important ethical outlook (see Rabbi S. R. Hirsch's comments on the spirit that agitated the hearts of Simon and Levi). However, in this instance their outlook produces terrible consequences. The massacre perpetrated by Simon and Levi does not distinguish between guilty and innocent; they believe that the injury inflicted on Israel justifies every form of revenge.

At the next stage violence is directed inwards; we will see the continuation of the process in next week's parasha - Vayeshev - when Joseph is sold into slavery. The plain meaning of the text has it that the brothers were jealous of Joseph and therefore plotted against him. The midrash, however, offers the alternative explanation that the brothers wished to kill Joseph because they knew that Jeroboam ben Nevat was his descendent, the same Jeroboam who split off the Kingdom of Israel from the Kingdom of Judah, "marrying" the former to the Baals, that is to say, causing them to commit the sin of idolatry. The crystallization of the brothers' faith led them to feel free to injure their own brother when he threatened the national - and perhaps spiritual - historical process, as they believed it was meant to proceed.

At first glance, this is an odd chain of events: Jacob's desire to distance himself from his brother; followed by the story of Shechem and Dinah and Simon and Levi's terrible revenge against the people of Shechem, and later the selling of Joseph. It is even more difficult to group the events together as being irrevocably linked to the process of Israel's crystallization as a tribe possessing a monotheistic faith and an independent moral outlook. Nevertheless, this is clearly implied by Scripture - the first time the term "Israel" is applied to a group is in a story that ends with a massacre.

It seems that the association between these incidents contains a great warning that danger lurks within the very heart of the process of self-construction and the creation of an independent self-consciousness. Even when the rejection of foreign gods and accepted dress is welcome and desirable, it always brings with itself a dark and threatening shadow - the danger that the separated group will hold itself to be superior, and that the feelings of superiority will give rise to the belief that those who do not belong to the group are worth less than its members. This becomes especially salient in cases when group members are harmed; then all restraints are thrown off and the feeling of superiority justifies unlimited counter-harms. Joseph's sale teaches us that vengeance can be especially ruthless against someone (even if he is a member of the group) who is thought to undermine - or even might undermine - the group members' national and spiritual outlook, that very same outlook which established the group's crystallization.

It is difficult but important to contemplate and understand the message implied by the way these events appear sequentially in the parasha. The act perpetrated against Dinah was indeed outrageous. Furthermore, Scripture and the commentators depict the choice to seek purity and devotion to one God as a deep spiritual process through which the Israelites developed solidarity in that historical period. However, it is precisely there that the great lesson is to be found, that feelings of superiority are no less dangerous when it appears that the members of the group have legitimate warrant to believe they have achieved, in certain aspects, a higher level of spiritual or moral development. Sometimes it is the feeling of belonging to something higher, and even the faith that one enjoys a special connection with God in Whose name one acts and from Whose power one is sustained, that can lead to a feeling of freedom to act without limitations or measure. This feeling can replace natural human morality, leading members of the group to fall into a yet deeper moral chasm.

Leah Klibanoff writes and produces documentaries.

 

Jacob became very frightened and was distressed

Thoughts on Current Events

Rashi, following Bereishit Rabbah and Midrash Tanhuma, explains the double formula of became very frightened and was distressed:

He was frightened lest he be killed

and he was distressed that he might kill others.

So simple! So clear!

We received numerous and varied replies to the article I wrote this year marking the anniversary of Rabin's assassination.

I decided not to publish the replies, because I think that each of them opens a discussion that lacks relevance to the simple and clear message I wanted to express.

Some make claims for a conspiracy theory. They say that despite his confession and his being found guilty by a court of law, Yigal Amir did not murder Rabin, and therefore every attempt to link the murder with the atmosphere of demonization and delegitimization found in part of the public is irrelevant. I lack any common basis for discussion with those who hold this view.

Similarly, there are attempts to equate Rabin's murder with the thousands of victims of terrorism and to link the increased incidence of terror with policies of the Rabin government. Beyond the tremendous sorrow we all feel regarding the loss of human life in terrorist attacks and wars, I think that this comparison takes us off track from the main issue I wanted to consider.

There are deep differences of opinion within Israeli society regarding issues of security and foreign policy. General elections bring to power governments which promote policies that are usually opposed by part of the public. It is the right of those opposing government policies to work towards its replacement and to protest - in a democratic fashion - against any governmental decision that is not to its liking.

However, an atmosphere of delegitimizing the views of the "other" has developed in Israel, even to the point where justifications are offered for the use of violence.

Phenomena such as the murder of Emil Grunzweig, the massacre carried out by Baruch Goldstein in Me'arat HaMakhpela, the Rabin assassination, the Teitel murders, and especially "Torah" writings such as Torat HaMelekh which excuse the murder of non-Jews and which receive statements of approval (haskamot) from famous rabbis, undermine our existence as a democratic society. When such things are done by "religious" Jews and no vigorous denunciation of these acts and writings is to be heard, it also becomes a hillul Hashem - a desecration of the Divine Name

Therefore, setting aside ideological and political disagreements for the moment, if we simply want to live we must agree to conduct our disagreements in a democratic fashion. The memorial day for Yitzhak Rabin is a warning sign against what may happen if this lesson is not appreciated.

Pinchas Leiser, Editor

 

Readers Respond

I read the article by Ido Pachter (a student at the Maale Adumim yeshiva) in the Vayeira issue of Shabbat Shalom, in which he discussed the expulsion of Ishmael. It was all quite interesting until I got the point where he made a comparison with today's Ishmaelites and proffered the historical statement that the "War of Independence sprang from the disagreement regarding the brothers' living side by side." The reader can only conclude that the lack of agreement was shared equally by both sides. Since Ido is a young student I may assume that he had not been born yet in 1948, and therefore wound up writing things that are simply not true. In 1948 the "sons of Isaac" certainly did agree to live next to the "sons of Ishmael" but the "sons of Ishmael" unilaterally refused and set out on a war of annihilation which they intended not only to win, but furthermore (as they publically insisted upon repeatedly) they intended to completely destroy the small Jewish community in the Land of Israel. Therefore, the reciprocity between the two brothers implied by Ido Pachter's article is false. One is permitted to link the weekly parasha with our lives today, one may express any political position, be it left or right, which one wishes. However, one must not confuse evaluations with facts, and Shabbat Shalom failed in publishing untruths. The writer should disavow his statements.

Too many forces for evil in the world accuse Israel - and only Israel - falsely. It is very disturbing that religious Jews add fuel to this unnecessary and dangerous fire.

Respectfully,

Amnon Schapira, Kibbutz Tirat Tzvi

 

Ido Pachter, author of the article, replies:

"Sages, take care with your words."

The honorable reader misunderstood my words. Anyone who knows anything is aware of the fact that it was the Arab states that launched the war of annihilation that was to become our War of Independence. I do not know how my article could be understood as implying anything else. Even so, I will clarify my intention briefly. The comparison of the story of Ishmael with the current situation was not made - God forbid - to criticize the actions of the State of Israel during the War of Independence and the events preceding it. The State of Israel wanted neither war nor the expulsion of people from their homes. Nevertheless, it is hardly a secret that thousands of Palestinian refugees fled their homes because of the war and continue to live in the refugee camps in our vicinity unto this day, and that those refugees think of themselves as having been expelled. The poverty, distress, and unbearable living conditions found in the camps keep them from getting beyond the feeling of expulsion and accepting the existence of the State of Israel. I claimed that the refugees' humanitarian problem must be solved first as the key to the establishment of regional peace. If we and the world fail to rehabilitate these refugees (as refugees have been rehabilitated in places all around the world) their feeling of being expellees will develop into a feeling of having a mission to regain their lost honor. Only by solving their problem can we establish peace, a peace based upon the values of mutual recognition and respect instead of hatred and vengeance.

 

 

 

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