Dear {{first_name}},
Last week, the Torah portion began with the dream Jacob had about a ladder and angels. It was an incredible revelation and one that much can be said about. This week begins again with a nighttime encounter between God and Jacob, and it’s also understood to have been a dream. It’s during that dream Jacob’s name is changed to Israel because of his struggles with the Divine. There is much in this week’s portion, VaYishlach. There is the reconciliation of Jacob and Esau, the rape of Dinah and the retribution by her brothers, and there’s the completion of Jacob’s family with the birth of Benjamin. There’s even more packed into this parshah since within one chapter we learn of the deaths of three people. I’d like to examine that one chapter a bit closer.
Chapter 35 begins with God instructing Jacob to leave where he was and go to a place called Beth-El (The House of God). In the midst of the narrative of their departure, there’s a peculiar interruption of the text in verse eight when the text tells of the death of Rebecca’s nurse, Devorah, and her burial at Alon-Bachoot, the willow of crying. What’s peculiar is we’ve never actually heard of a name of Rebecca’s nurse until this point. It seems most peculiar that suddenly we have her name mentioned as she died. We’ll return to this in just a moment. The next death is that of Rachel, who dies in childbirth. As she’s dying, she found the power to offer a name for her son, Ben Oni (son of pain), but Jacob will name him Benymin (Benjamin) son of my right. The chapter draws to a close with the death of Isaac and his burial. Three deaths in one chapter is a lot and I was quite intrigued by the nurse of Rebecca being one of them. I looked at commentaries on this peculiarity. Rashi explained that this is an allusion to the death of Rebecca and Ramban explained that it was explicitly an allusion to the death of Rebecca herself. So, in this one chapter of the Torah, we have the deaths of three leaders of the people and three luminaries of the world.
The Torah portion began with this idea that Jacob was to become Yisrael and that he was to struggle. The dream/encounter happened at a time of great fear for Jacob, and from that fear, we learn a great deal. The Torah portion will draw to a close with these deaths, another time of great pain and fear for Jacob. Our future is unwritten and it’s for us to work to write it together. But we recognize our future will be made up of a different people from what we have today. We need to recognize that in spite of the deaths of our leaders, and those who have given us so much, we will continue to build and create. We need to see that when one generation leaves another arrives and picks up right where the previous one left off. That’s what it means to be living in a line of tradition and as a part of a society. We, as the Jewish people, have continued since that time to build and build on the shoulders of those who came before us. We are indeed a link in a chain of tradition of struggle and overcoming struggle. We are a link in a chain of commitment and tradition, and we must look back on that which is no longer, to help us look forward to that which is yet to come.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Hearshen
