Friday Shabbat Shalom

So when we have no words…. It’s as if we are stuck in darkness. Our Biblical forefather Jacob was, for much of his life, also someone who dwelt at times in a kind of (spiritual) darkness. Perhaps we can learn from him. Parashat Vayishlach brings us to the climax of the story of Jacob, so much of which takes place at night.

Pittsburgh and Charlottesville, Poway and Monsey… and now we add the Gaza Envelope communities on October 7th in Israel— a litany of names associated with antisemitism over the past five years. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks points out an interesting phrase in Parashat Toldot that foreshadows the antisemitism we are seeing today.

On some level, all Zionism relies on an ancient tradition that gives voice to human pathos, calling all to mercy and empathy in spirit and deed. At its most noble, Zionism could be a triumph of each individual’s yearning for wellbeing and community.

Opening Parshat Vayera, it is difficult to know where to look first. The parsha is filled with so many well-known narratives: Avraham welcoming the three angelic ‘guests’ into his tent… the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah… Sarah’s birth of Isaac… interaction between Sarah, Avraham, and Hagar... the Akedah (binding of Isaac... And these are just snapshots of the stories in this parsha. Your head and heart are pulled in so many directions as you read through the verses. And this is how I feel right now.

I think reading the Torah portion Lech Lecha this week is especially difficult. God promises Abraham and his descendants the land of Israel, inspiring a millennia-long relationship between the land of Israel and the Jewish people that continues to this day. In the wake of the recent events, I think many of us are questioning what it means to be the bearers of that promise... I want to take elements of God’s promise to Abraham and look at the different ways these elements might meet us in our lives right now...

We are living in dark and dangerous times, but as always, our tradition has much to teach us about how to navigate. First, we must recognize that we will all be toggling between our need to go out and impact the world and our need to regroup and strengthen ourselves internally… This need to find a balance between our inward and outward selves is a lesson we can derive from this week’s Torah portion, named for its chief protagonist, Noah.

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For You are with me…” All of us are experiencing the many stages of grief and mourning. We are in a valley of darkness and pain, but we will not remain here forever.

Why do we need to be encouraged to be joyful during this week of Sukkot, culminating in Simchat Torah? Isn’t joy something that we should naturally gravitate towards and practice effortlessly? Well… think about your own life. Read about the lives of others. Especially these days it seems that a great many of us are having a difficult time “getting our joy on”…