Dear {{first_name}},
There is much to be written about this week’s Torah Portion, Vayetze, and the opening lines. It all begins with Jacob being on the road. He fled his home out of fear of retribution at the hands of his brother, Esau. Jacob was now on the run, and as such, he was homeless. One night he laid down to sleep in a location that would become a central place for the Jewish people, the Temple Mount. The text described the less than ideal conditions as he used a rock for his pillow. It was on that night Jacob had the famous “Jacob’s Ladder” dream in which he saw a ladder from earth to heaven with angels going up and coming down. At the end of the dream, Jacob woke up and said one of the more profound statements of the Torah: אכן יש השם במקום הזה ואנכי לא ידעתי/Wow!
God is here in this place and I didn’t know it.
This statement is powerful and thought provoking. The emphasis is on the “I” in the sentence. In Hebrew, we don’t need pronouns when verbs are conjugated in the past or future tense. Whenever the Torah goes the extra distance of including a pronoun, we are forced to ask why it’s there. In this case, it’s clear this was a life changing moment for Jacob. It wasn’t for other people. It was something that forever changed Jacob and the way he would see the world. In other words, the “I” is there to tell us Jacob was affected more so than others. It’s also there to teach us that we all can change… that each of us can grow. Jacob grew in that moment when he recognized that God is a part of his life in every locale and at every moment.
I’d like to focus on the state Jacob was living in at this moment of realization. Jacob was homeless. He was living in the outdoors on his own without a place to call home. He was living in adverse conditions that made his life more difficult. Homelessness didn’t end with Jacob’s realization that God was there.
It didn’t end with our enslavement in Egypt and it didn’t end when we conquered the land of Israel. Homelessness has never ended because we as a society have learned to simply accept that it’s part of the world we need to accept as inevitable. This is not right… it is wrong. Complacency is an illness too many of us have. So long as we accept that people live on the street and don’t see it as the complete and total failure of our society, including ourselves, we’ll struggle to truly see God in our world to the fullest extent. So long as we look the other way time and again, homelessness will continue and our own quality of life will diminish.
Next week I’m signed up to sleep in the same way Jacob slept on that night… outdoors, without a bed, without a shelter and without the comforts I normally have to help me sleep. As I’ve explained on a number of occasions, I’m doing so to raise awareness in our community - and in myself. I’m doing so to raise money for homeless youth in the Atlanta area through Covenant House. And I’m doing so because, while I’ll likely never know the pain and suffering of being homeless… of having to sleep on the streets and of being cast aside by society… Through this experience I can learn and grow as a person and as a Rabbi. I can at least better grasp how it is to walk in another person’s shoes. I can feel the pain and fear albeit at a much lower magnitude. The reason I said I’m signed up to do this is that I might not be able to actually sleep out that night because I haven’t met the minimum fundraising goal of $5,000 yet. YET. I want to thank all of you for your incredible support. As of this minute, I’ve raised $3,106 and I still need to raise another $1,894 to meet my fundraising obligation for this important cause.
I can guarantee your contribution will not end homelessness. We will still need to do more and more, as a community, and as a world. At the same time, we learn in Pirkei Avot: It is not on you to complete the task but you are not permitted to stop trying. As individuals, we will not end homelessness, but as a society we can. When more and more people begin to see the Divine that is all around. When more and more people begin to realize they can’t accept homelessness as an unfortunate reality because it isn’t them on the street. When more and more people step up and do their part, we’ll see that together homelessness isn’t so insurmountable. Please consider joining me in fighting homelessness and closing these last dollars. Together we can find God in our world, and together, we can change the world for the better. Click here to donate.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Hearshen |
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