The Story
THE BIG IDEA
The feeling of war is not new to the Jewish people. Even in a fetal state, Jacob and his twin brother Esau were fighting so intensely, their mother Rivka, (who desperately had prayed for a child) was left wondering about the purpose of existence. “If this is how it goes, why exist?”
The prophecy she then received, and later guidance she gave her son, sealed our fate as a people that feels both blessed AND eternally hated, and wanted for dead.
The material abundance and success within the Abrahamic blessing, does not come without a shadow. This week’s Torah Omens show us the type of fighting and jealousy that surrounded Yizchak’s story wherever he went.
Struggle, hierarchy and exclusivity are somehow mysteriously built into the blessing. At the end of his life, when Yizchak passed the blessing to his unintended son Jacob, a murderous energy seemed to come with it. And so, don’t be surprised by hatred and jealously that comes at Jacob’s descendants - especially from those that feel energetically close. In fact, learn to expect it.
The ancestral blessing did not passed to the entitled eldest, but was claimed by the one that will do anything (including lie) to get it.
And while we cannot undo the biblical unfolding, or understand why it had to be so, just as we cannot understand the deep purpose of war, we can work on ourselves. Take time this weekend to cultivate compassion and soothe your own murderous parts, identify the Esau parts within our own life and consciousness. Find the places that feel overlooked, neglected, and angry for things you thought should be yours and didn’t come. Name the feeling when someone younger and hungrier, with a more supportive mother, directs another to take what you feel was yours.
Feel Esau’s pain, also for the Esau within, and then, with all your might, put your arms around the Esau within and hold him as he cries.
And then, when you feel ready, hold your Jacob self. The part that sees the blessing and yearns for presence and light. The part that wants a bigger destiny. The part that will do anything to get it.
Hold the paradox of ancient history, and with it, the painful divide in the moment.
May we find healing within ourselves.
May we find healing and love within the nation of Israel.
May we bring home ALL of Israel’s hostages alive and healthy.
May we bring home ALL Israel’s soldiers alive and healthy.
May the truly innocent in the world be protected wherever they are.
May we merit Esau’s forgiveness, and may we merit the blessing Israel is meant to carry in the world.
Shabbat Shalom.