Rabbi Philip Weintraub
Parashat Vayetzei / פרשת ויצא
Congregation Agudas Israel
11/29/14
Parshat Vayetzei tells us much about the life of Jacob. It opens with him leaving his home and heading to Lavan. It includes Rachel and Leah, their challenges of love and fertility. Broken promises from Lavan to Jacob are common and two decades pass by in just a couple chapters. Yet, his struggles and his blessings remind us of how much we take for granted and how much success and gratitude we must acknowledge.
By: Reb Mimi Feigelson, Masphiah Ruchanit and Lecturer of Rabbinic Studies at JTS’ sister school, the Ziegler School of Rabbinical Studies in LA wrote this week:
In a year when this Torah portion of Vayetze, is connected in such proximity to Thanksgiving day, here in the United States, I feel that we must also pause and return to the many moments and places and opportunities of gratitude that we may have passed by this year, as our Patriarch Ya'akov did, in his haste to get to Charan, as we may have done in our haste to achieve the goals we set out for ourselves.
It is in moments like these that I hear my dear and precious soul-brother, Rabbi David Zeller, of-blessed-memory, sing "I don't have time to hurry, I don't have time to pass things by..." quoting his first wife, Elana, while she battled cancer many years ago. What wisdom to know to pause in a time that you may feel that your time is running out! It is so counter intuitive to slow down when you feel you are being drawn into the "quicksand of time" passing through your fingers.
It is for this reason that I pray that we find the many ways to share moments of gratitude and appreciation in a week leading us to Thanksgiving and the shabbat of Ya'akov's journeying. I pray that we realize on the brink of "arriving," all those people and situations that carry blessings for us while we are on the road of our life; the locations of God's revelation, that beg of us to return to them in prayer and gratitude.
Before returning to our text, I wonder what you are thankful for this year?
After weeks of sinus trouble, I pray that our vacation next week will finally clear my head. I am thankful that for me, these challenges are my biggest ones. I am so grateful to all of you, to this community, to my wife and to my darling daughter for all this blessings we have here.
Attending the Interfaith Thanksgiving Service, I was challenged by the sermon from Rev. Steve Ruelke of Ecclesia Ministries in Newburgh. While he did not include a nechemta, a positive ending, he challenged us to look at the systemic evil in our world. He preached of the challenges of poverty and a social service system that takes away all benefits when someone gets a job, keeping people in poverty, rather than helping them to work their way out. He spoke of the challenges of homelessness and the prison cycle, where many ex-inmates return, since they have no opportunities to earn a living outside of prison. Looking around our fair city, we see many people trapped in a broken system, yet even in our darkest days, when we wonder how we will pay some of our expenses, we are far richer than many of our neighbors.
When we hear words like those, it is easy to get discouraged. We see that poverty and needs seem eternal. Looking at our own Torah, knowing this year is a Sabbatical/Shmita year, we are reminded that poverty is not a new problem, yet we are commanded to fight against it, even if the battle is not winnable. When we pay wages, we cannot hold them, but must pay them immediately. When we take clothing as collateral, we must return it every night. When we harvest our fields (or collect our salaries), we must remember to leave some for those in need.
How is it that we balance the desire to change the system with our inability to completely eradicate poverty? The simple answer is that we must meet the needs we can and work towards a day when those needs will be fulfilled for all.
Ashrei teaches us that Gd provides for all. In the Reconstructionist prayerbook, there is a note that teaches that on this planet, we HAVE enough for every person to have enough to eat, shelter to cover themselves, and clothing to keep them warm. Gd has done Gd’s part--now ours is to work on the distribution.
As we just celebrated Thanksgiving, I think that recognizing our blessings, recognizing that we are fortunate, forces us to remember those who are less so. In the weeks to come, as we celebrate Hanukkah, as the weather gets even chillier, let us work to help those in need get what they need AND change the system so that it works better for all!
Many people celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday then went shopping on Black Friday (or Gd-forbid) started shopping Thursday, AmEx promotes today as Small Business Saturday, and Monday has become CyberMonday. Many non-profits and charities are encouraging GivingTuesday. Locally the Jewish Family Service http://www.jfsorange.org/ is collecting gift cards for grocery stores on that day. I made a donation already, if you would like to give more, make a donation to my discretionary fund with a note or send them a donation directly. You can always support our holy work here by donating to the shul!
Shabbat Shalom.
No comments:
Post a Comment