Amen


5758

This week we read in the Torah the portion of Va’yishlakh -- which means ‘and he sent.’ The reading begins with our father Jacob coming near to the Promised Land, where his brother Esau still lives. Jacob has spent some two decades in Aram of the two rivers, where he acquired two wives and two concubines, eleven sons, an unknown number of daughters and servants, and much sheep and wealth. One might assume that with this coming of age and success both in his personal affairs and business dealings, Ya’akov became assertive and self-confident — but that is not the case. The opening verses of the portion read, "Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, instructing them, "Thus you shall say to my lord Essau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have lived with Laban as an alien, and stayed until now; and I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male and female slaves; and I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.’" [Gen 32:4-6]
Our father Ya’akov is so full of fear that he splits his camp in two, in the hope that if Esau will attack and annihilate ‘Jacob’s camp,’ the other half will survive. He prays, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do you good,’ I am not worthy of the least of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan; and now I have become two companies. Deliver me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him; he may come and kill us all, the mothers with the children." [Gen. 32:10-14]
The sages tell us that Jacob was, possibly, overwrought with fear. After all, he did have Yitzkhak’s blessing and promise that he shall be "Lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!" [Gen. 27:29] Furthermore, God promised him at Beit-El that he shall be blessed and protected, and yet he behaves in a servile manner, sending word to his ‘unworthy’ brother, who sold him the birthright, who did not receives the first blessing of Yitzkhak — he should have been more assertive.
After his experience of struggling with the angel, and his name change to Yisrael; after his ‘success’ in confronting Esau, coming to terms with him, and receiving from him a ‘charter’ to live on in the land, Jacob makes another poor choice, delaying his arrival at Beit-El to fulfill his commitment to God, which he swore while escaping the wrath of Esau: "If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one tenth to you." [Gen 28:20-22] Instead, he arrives in the center of the Land of Canaan: "Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan-aram; and he camped before the city. And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, he bought for one hundred pieces of money the plot of land on which he had pitched his tent. There he erected an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel." [Gen 33:18-20]
His grandfather, Abraham, had arrived there, too, on the same route, from the same land, and we read, "Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and invoked the name of the Lord." [Gen 12:6-8] The commentators tell us that he removed himself from Shechem to avoid contact with the wicked Canaanites. Jacob stays -- and becomes a victim of the people of Shechem: they abduct his daughter, rape her and insist that she become wedded to her tormentor!
The sages asked, ‘why did this terrible thing befall Dina, the daughter of Leah and Jacob. They answered, because Jacob ingratiated himself with the wicked Canaanites of Shechem, and they took his grace for fear. Thus they had no respect for him, and they felt free to abduct his daughter and force her into illicit and unnatural sex -- and they had the audacity to ask Jacob to make this impure relationship permanent by allowing the rapist to marry his victim! What is even more disturbing than this proposition is the fact that Jacob may have considered allowing such a thing to happen! However, Dina’s brothers took matters into their hands. We read, "The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah." [Gen 34:13] They said that they could not consider their womenfolk marrying men who were not circumcised. All the men of Shechem then proceeded to have this ‘operation’ -- to be ready to marry these ‘newly available’ women.
The text continues, "On the third day, when they were still in pain, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and came against the city unawares, and killed all the males. They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went away. And the other sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city, because their sister had been defiled. They took their flocks and their herds, their donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the field. All their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and made their prey. Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have brought trouble on me by making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites; my numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household." [Gen 34:23-29]
However, the text tells us that this was a turning point for Jacob -- he had to assert and define himself, and he issued orders, "Put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your clothes; then come, let us go up to Bethel, that I may make an altar there to the God who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone." [Gen.35:2,3] Jacob comes into his own, the honor of Israel and its strength is established, and "As they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities all around them, so that no one pursued them." [Gen.35:5]
Friends, things have not changed much since the days of our fathers. Shechem is still not a good place for Jews to live in, and the ‘inhabitants of the land’ still want to either assimilate or annihilate us. If we try to compromise, and if we act indecisively, we shall surely be defeated. We must remain vigil and strong, and we must not let down our guard for event one moment, until the Canaanites become civilized and accepting of us and of our sovereignty in the land that God promised us and that we then earned by the sweat of our labor and the blood of our finest men and women -- and even children. As Tziporah, Moshe Rabeinu’s wife declared, "Truly you are a bridegroom of blood to me!" We are wedded to the land, not by circumcision, but by the commitment of the heart, the soul, and our life’s blood. We have married the land, we are it’s "bridegroom of blood." Jacob and his seed shall persevere and prosper. Amen

5759

This week we read in the Torah in the book of Genesis, from 32:4 to 36:43. The portion is called Va’yishlakh -- which means ‘and he sent.’ The reading begins with our father Jacob coming near to the Promised Land, where his brother Esau still lives. Jacob has spent some twenty two years in Aram of the two rivers, where he "acquired" two wives and two concubines, eleven sons, an unknown number of daughters and servants, and much sheep and wealth. Our portion deals with the dramatic and fateful reunion of the two brothers, Jacob and Esau.
You would think that with this great success of Jacob’s, both in his personal affairs and business dealings, he would have become assertive and self-confident — but that is not the case. The opening verses of the portion read, "Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, instructing them, "Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have lived with Laban as an alien, and stayed until now; and I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male and female slaves; and I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.’" [Gen 32:4-6] Our father Jacob addresses his brother as "my lord," and speaks of himself as "your servant."
The messengers return and inform Jacob, "We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him." [Gen 32:7] We don’t know if Esau received his brother’s messengers and spoke to them, or if they just saw him ‘on the move’ -- at any rate, Jacob reaches the conclusion that Esau is getting ready for battle.
Our father Ya’akov prepares for conflict, splitting his camp in two, in the hope that if Esau will attack and annihilate ‘Jacob’s camp,’ the other half will survive. He prays, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do you good,’ I am not worthy of the least of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan; and now I have become two companies. Deliver me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him; he may come and kill us all, the mothers with the children." [Gen. 32:10-14]
Still, Jacob tries to avoid conflict, and he sends another delegation to appease Esau, "he selected a gift for his brother Esau: two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, "Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds." He instructed the one in the lead: "When my brother Esau meets you and asks, 'To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?' Then you are to say, 'They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.'" He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds: "You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. And be sure to say, 'Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.'" [Gen. 32:15-21]
Finally the long awaited (and, for Jacob, agonized over) meeting takes place. The text tells us of a typical meeting between brothers who have not seen one another in a very long time. Esau runs, alone, towards his sibling, his arms open to embrace him warmly. Jacob anxiety evaporates as the brothers kiss and hug warmly. Esau does not mention old rivalries, long buried transgressions, or once implied threats. He does not speak of forgiveness -- because he does not mentions any reasons for such a pardon. He calls Jacob ‘akhi -- my brother,’ while Jacob maintains the "proper" attitude to his ‘older’ brother by calling him ‘adoni -- master!’
There is a midrash, an interpretation of the text, which says that "anyone who wishes to show proper etiquette towards a king or a ruler and does not how -- should study closely this portion’s text, and learn from it a lesson in methods of peace making and conflict avoidance."
The sages tell us that Jacob was, possibly, overwrought with fear. After all, he did have Yitzkhak’s blessing and promise that he shall be "Lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!" [Gen. 27:29] Furthermore, God promised him at Beit-El that he shall be blessed and protected, and yet he behaves in a servile manner, sending word to his ‘unworthy’ brother, who sold him the birthright, who did not receives the first blessing of Yitzkhak — he should have been more assertive. Yet, the sages also praise the third patriarch for making a good choice, acting as a righteous ruler, diplomatically sending "mal’akhim," which are messengers, or ambassadors, not lowly servants, to personally greet and suggest to Esau that his brother is coming in peace and with a desire to ‘share his success’ with Esau. Jacob behaves in this manner to negate the source of Esau’s anger. Father Yitzkhak blessed Jacob with the words, "your brothers shall bow before you." Now Esau comes towards ‘the blessed one’ -- and he, Jacob, bows down and blesses him! This makes Esau conclude that he lost nothing by not getting his father’s blessing, since it did not come true.
After Jacob’s experience of struggling with the angel, and his name change to Yisrael, our third patriarch shows sensitivity and maturity in dealing with his pugnacious brother, allowing him to feel superior, and avoiding a confrontation. The two brothers are comfortable enough with one another that Esau suggests to his sibling that they travel on together -- and here again Jacob shows maturity and tact in avoiding being swallowed into the camp of Esau. "My lord knows that the children are tender and that I must care for the ewes and cows that are nursing their young. If they are driven hard just one day, all the animals will die. So let my lord go on ahead of his servant, while I move along slowly at the pace of the droves before me and that of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir." [Gen. 33:13-14] Jacob, renamed Yisrael, is ready to be master of his faith, with his brother no longer a threat, with their relationship established on his terms by his doings. The grandson of Avraham, the son of Yitzkhak is finally his own man, in his own land. The future will unfold!

Amen



5760

This is the Shabbat following the American holiday of Thanksgiving. This Shabbat we read in the Torah the portion of Va’yishlakh, Genesis 32:4 to 36. The reading begins with the following words, "Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, instructing them, "Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have lived with Laban as an alien, and stayed until now; and I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male and female slaves; and I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.’"" [Gen 37:3-5]
In the past, I looked at this story and I saw Jacob as a man weak and full of self doubt. Yet when I was preparing to speak about the Torah reading this week I saw a different approach to this parsha. I recalled that Jacob’s mother, Rivkah, had a very difficult pregnancy, with the twins fighting in her womb. She complained to God and He told her, "And the Lord said to her, "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger."" [Gen. 25:23] We all know that Esau was the older, and so we expect that Jacob shall be served by him. However, I recalled that Jacob bought the birthright from Esau for the lentils stew that he had made and that Esau had to have. Now, if Jacob’s deal with Esau stood, then he was the older, and he had to behave in a servile manner to his brother, and serve the younger as the text said.
What do we learn from this story?
I think that the primary lesson that must be learned has to do with the destructive nature of sibling rivalry. This can be extended to include all rivalry that is taken beyond the bounds of good sportsmanship. Jacob spent the better part of his adult life away from his parents’ home, deprived of their company and all that he could have learned from them — because of this kind of rivalry. He then passed on to his children a set of circumstances that made it impossible for him to live his life in the company of all his children — Joseph was sold into slavery, Jacob thought his favorite son to be dead, and the other brothers, having done what they did to Joseph, selling him into slavery — even though it turned out that they fulfilled the destiny Joseph was meant to have, still they most certainly could not have been good company to their father, because of their heavy guilt at what they had done.
There is a corresponding situation existing today, in the manner in which some of the sons of Jacob treat each other. I am thinking of members of the family of Israel, who are at each other’s throat with accusations of every conceivable kind of wrong-doing, unwilling to reconcile or to bend, unable to compromise or rectify, on issues of paramount significance and preeminent relevance to the continued existence of our nation, Israel, and of our people all over the world as one people, indivisible and united through Torah, Mitzvot, and Ahavat Yisrael — the love of Israel!
Torah, Mitzvot, and Ahavat Yisrael are the essence of what has kept us alive through two millennia of persecution and exile. When we were disunited and hating one another, we brought about the splitting of the kingdom of David and Solomon to the two kingdoms, Yehudah and Yisrael — causing the downfall of the one and of the other. Sin’at akhim — brothers hating one another, caused the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the second Temple. When we were united, when we cared about each Jew’s destiny, we survived and even flourished in the face of the wrath and venom of Greek garrisons, Roman rulers, crazed crusaders and greedy goose stepping Germans. When we argue and fight among ourselves, we attack and devastate one another in a frenzy of brotherly betrayal and character assassinations of those that only yesterday we supported and saved from the all consuming foreign fire of annihilation.
I am speaking of the issues of the day! I am speaking of religious communities that do not act with faith or with charity towards one another. I am speaking of b’nai Torah, Jews learned in the Torah, steeped in our tradition, who do not accord respect to fellow scholars. I am speaking of an entire segment of Judaism that has seen fit to sit as judge and jury to arbitrate the great question of who is and who is not a Jew. I am also speaking of those who disdain our connection to Torah, and who postulate that one can be a Jew without Torah, without Mitzvot, without a reverence for God!
But this is the Shabbat of the Thanksgiving holiday — and we need to look at the good that has been given to us. Jacob spoke softly and humbly to Esau, and he turned the brother’s hatred into love. The two reconciled, and each went his way to live and prosper separately. Jacob was still to learn and do most of what made him the father of a nation. We, too, are even today only at the beginning of our great adventure: To prepare the people Israel for the next four millennia. With God’s help and inspiration, we — as father Jacob before us — shall not fail!



5761

This week’s Torah portion is Va’yishlakh – which means ‘and he sent.’ It is found in the book of Genesis, from 32:4 to 36:43. The portion begins with our father Jacob returning to the Promised Land, having spent some twenty two years in Aram of the Two Rivers, where he “acquired” two wives and two concubines, eleven sons, an unknown number of daughters and servants, and much sheep and wealth. Our portion deals with the dramatic and fateful reunion of the two brothers, Jacob and Esau.
The opening verses of the portion read, “Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have lived with Laban as an alien, and stayed until now; and I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male and female slaves; and I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.’” [Gen 32:4-6] Our father Jacob addresses his brother as “ my lord,” and speaks of himself as “ your servant.” You would think that with this great success of Jacob’s, both in his personal affairs and business dealings, he would have become assertive and self-confident.
Like men who win an election... You know what I mean? Everyone sends messengers to smooth the transition; everyone wishes to avoid a direct confrontation. It is true in this great country of ours, and it is even more true in our beloved State of Israel. In the whole world there are very few nations where the opposition is viewed with respect and consideration. It is only a pragmatic approach that others have: are you for me or are you for and with my enemies?
The Torah, on the other hand, teaches us to bide our time and be civilized, and wait for events to unfold. Jacob was promised the primacy, in his mother’s dream before he was born, in his father’s blessing before he was hounded out of him home and hearth. Yet, at no time did he entertain the thought of defending himself against his brother, of doing harm to him before harm would be done to Jacob. He returns from exile, and he sends messengers to “ your servant” from “ my lord.” Similarly, at the conclusion of a bitterly fought and contested election in our country, and without conclusive verification of the true measure of winning or defeat, we have come together, the two candidates for the greatest office in the land, maybe in the world, and they called a halt to adversity. They were magnanimous in defeat and charitable in victory. They showed the spirit of our father Jacob. The began the process of healing the nation and bringing it together.
In Israel the situation is quite different. There we see how precarious life can be when Esau holds sway. The government of Israel is at an impasse. There is an insistence on carrying on the negotiations (which are called “peace” though events contradict the term), even while admitting that they do not have a mandate to rule, as evident from the resignation of the prime minister. Still, the emissaries of our leader do not follow the example of father Jacob. There is no humility, and there is no attempt at making peace within the camp. The nation of Israel is torn asunder by the smashed dream of peace with our neighbors, a dream devastated by the events of the past two months. How can one believe in the sincerity of adversary in his claim to want peace when one sees the blood thirsty multitude in the lynch mob in Ramallah? How can one accept the peaceful intention of a leader who praises the killers and the murderers and the children who are used as shields and cannon fodder in a callous maneuver to dislodge us from our hard fought and hard labored land which we have turned from desert to blooming garden.
Let us send emissaries far and wide, like father Jacob, like all decent and God loving people do. Let the emissaries speak of peace – peace with honor, peace with honesty, peace between equals. Let us speak peace in the marketplace, not behind closed doors. Let peace flow from street to avenue to city square. Let none threaten it or try to put it down. Let none speak of revenge or redress or reported wrongs of yesteryear. Let us take the time to heal and hallow life above pride and prejudice. Let the messengers return, as the dove did to Noah’s ark, carrying the olive branch that symbolizes the end of evil and of strife. Let there be true and complete peace. In America, in Israel, and throughout God’s great creation.

Amen

5763

This Shabbat we read in the Torah in the book of Genesis, from chapter 32, verse 4 to chapter 36, verse 43. The portion is called Va'yishlakh – which means ‘and he sent.' The reading begins with our father Jacob coming near to the Promised Land, where his swarthy and hot-tempered brother Esau lived.
Jacob had spent some twenty two years in Aram of the two rivers, where he went, the Torah tells us, to "find a wife" – but we know it was to avoid being killed by his older brother. During his sojourn with his mother's family he "acquired" two wives and two concubines, eleven sons, an unknown number of daughters and servants, and much sheep and wealth. Esau, the brother deprived of Yitzkhak's blessing, was master of the land; he had remained with the tents of his father while his brother spent the best years of his youth working in vain for ‘uncle Laban' — being cheated again and again before he cut loose. Now Jacob returns, sending messengers before him bearing gifts and homage to the brother he once (and still) feared.
When the long awaited meeting finally takes place, everything turns out well. Esau runs, alone, towards his sibling, his arms open to embrace him warmly. Jacob anxiety evaporates as the brothers kiss and hug warmly. Esau does not mention old rivalries, long buried transgressions, nor once implied threats. True, he does not try to make amends nor mentions forgiveness – maybe because he does not harbor any reasons for such a pardon. He calls Jacob ‘akhi -- my brother,' while Jacob maintains the "proper" attitude to his ‘older' brother by calling him ‘adoni – master!'
And then the brothers part and Jacob settles near Shekhem in the center of the land. Now the text tells us one of the most unlikely stories concerning the relations between Jacob's camp and the people of the town. Dinah, Jacob's daughter, was accosted by the son of the king. He caused her grief and did not wish to release her. His father came to Jacob asking to have the daughter to be wed with his son. The sons of Jacob, particularly Simeon and Levi, her maternal kin, suggest that if every make in the town will be circumcised, there could be an accommodation. "Then will we give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters for us, and we will live with you, and we will become one people." [Gen. 34:16]
The men of the city accept the offer, and perform the medical procedure. Simeon and Levi do not keep their word, though. Instead they attack the men while they are weak and in pain, killing all the men, looting the city and taking the women and children for themselves. Jacob is scandalized, reproaching his sons, "You have brought trouble on me to make me odious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites; and I being few in number, they shall gather together against me, and slay me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house." [ibid. 34:30] The opposite actually happens – the "fear of God" falls upon the people of the land, and no one attacks Jacob or any of his camp.
Jacob was never quite reconciled to what Simeon and Levi did, and he brought the matter up – and cursed them – in his parting words to his children. "Simeon and Levi are brothers; instruments of cruelty are their swords. O my soul, do not come into their council; to their assembly, let my honor not be united; for in their anger they slew a man, and in their wanton will they lamed an ox. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel; I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel." [ibid. 49:5-7] Our sages also found it hard to explain or find the rational for this massive act of violence.
Two years ago, speaking on Shabbat Vayishlakh, shortly after the lynching of two young Israeli men, I said the following words:

In Israel the situation is quite different. There we see how precarious life can be when Esau holds sway. The government of Israel is at an impasse. There is an insistence on carrying on the negotiations (which are called "peace" though events contradict the term), even while admitting that
they do not have a mandate to rule, as evident from the resignation of the prime minister. Still, the
emissaries of our leader do not follow the example of father Jacob. There is no humility, and there is no attempt at making peace within the camp. The nation of Israel is torn asunder by the smashed
dream of peace with our neighbors, a dream devastated by the events of the past two months. How
can one believe in the sincerity of adversary in his claim to want peace when one sees the blood thirsty multitude in the lynch mob in Ramallah? How can one accept the peaceful intention of a leader who praises the killers and the murderers and the children who are used as shields and cannon fodder in a callous maneuver to dislodge us from our hard fought and hard labored land which we have turned from desert to blooming garden.
Let us send emissaries far and wide, like father Jacob, like all decent and God loving people do. Let the emissaries speak of peace – peace with honor, peace with honesty, peace between equals. Let us speak peace in the marketplace, not behind closed doors. Let peace flow from street to avenue to city square. Let none threaten it or try to put it down. Let none speak of revenge or redress or reported wrongs of yesteryear. Let us take the time to heal and hallow life above pride and prejudice. Let the messengers return, as the dove did to Noah's ark, carrying the olive branch that symbolizes the end of evil and of strife. Let there be true and complete peace. In America, in Israel, and throughout God's great creation.
Studying for this week's presentation, I came upon an interpretation of the events at Shekhem that gave me a new perspective on the Torah story - and the present conflict.
One sage says, "Then will we give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters for us, and we will live with you, and we will become one people." [Gen. 34:16] For a father to avenge the honor of his daughter by killing all the men in the city is an unpardonable act of violence. However, the verse speaks not of a family but of a nation - "and we will become one people." A nation is defined by its leaders (which may or may not be good news to ponder in our day and age...) – and Shekhem and Khamor are the leaders of their town. For men such as these, who kidnap and rape a young girl and then wish to condemn her to continued rape and humiliation under the pretext of ‘marriage' is completely unthinkable. It is precisely the danger of becoming such a nation that drove Simeon and Levi to attack and destroy the "source" of the evil - the men of the city. The women and children of the city, many of whom were undoubtedly also forced into their relation with the men, were liberated from the evil influence that had darkened their days.
This lesson is carried on to our times and the conflict in Israel and the war our nation is involved in. We do not hate a nation of Palestinians, Arabs, or Moslems. We have no quarrel with families or individuals. We have a war to the bitter end against a philosophy that trains people to kill and maim and devastate as a means to achieve the goal of removing our society - from a land, any land, and in the end – from the land of the living. It is leaders who hold such beliefs and train their citizens to act upon them, who cause the grief of both the victims and the perpetrators. Call his Bin Laden, Saadam Hussien, Yassir Arafat or sheikh Yassin – like Pharaoh, Haman, Torquemada or Hitler before them, they are evil doers who despoil their followers. Neither Israel not the United States can be faulted for fighting against them and what they stand for. May they be defeated soon, and may the world learn the lesson of their demise.
Amen

Vayishlakh 5764

This week we read in the Torah the portion is Va'yishlakh -- which means ‘and he sent,' and is found in Genesis, from 32:4 to 36:43. The portion begins with our father Jacob returning to the Promised Land and the dramatic and fateful reunion of the two brothers, Jacob and Esau.
The portion opens with verses that read, "Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, instructing them, "Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have lived with Laban as an alien, and stayed until now; and I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male and female slaves; and I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.'" [Gen 32:4-6] Our father Jacob addresses his brother as "my lord," and speaks of himself as "your servant." You would almost think that Yitzkhak had actually blessed Esau with the blessing he spoke over Ya'akov by trickery... Remember? "Let people serve you, and nations bow down to you; be lord over your brothers, and let your mother's sons bow down to you; cursed be every one who curses you, and blessed be he who blesses you." [Ibid 27:29]
Next week we shall celebrate the first night of the Festival of Lights, Khanukkah. We shall kindle the first light and sing "Al Hanisim" – thanking got for all the miracles that he wrought for our fathers in days long gone (but not forgotten) and this time of the year... Today, in a sober and somber mood, let us recall humbly what happened before God worked His miracles. I applaud the historical editor that chose to "close" our Tanakh, our "holy Scriptures," before the time of the Maccabees. This way we do not have to read in our holy books of the horrible treason of some of our brothers against the main body of the Jewish People.
Let us look briefly at the historical facts leading to Khanukkah: the Jewish people came under the control of Greece in Alexander the Great's conquest of the Middle East. They were treated most kindly and fairly by Alexander and his administration – and were thereby seduced to the Greek culture and life-style. Back in those days, "it's Greek to me" did not mean what it does today. Back then it was "the IN thing to do," "Greek is slick," and philosophy was much more exciting than theology. So Jews were assimilating, Hellenizing, as it was called, and they looked with displeasure and contempt at their brethren who refused to follow their lead.
Admiring Greek culture, they bought into the Greek language, and despised the tongue of their fathers. Hebrew became foreign to them, and they wished to remove its use from the land. Maybe with the spread of the language of Hellenism, its ways would become more palatable to the People of the book, which they now called "Biblos" – Bible.
Let us remember the folly of the age: on the one hand we had the Hellenists, on the other hand the zealots - Khassidim. It was our brothers, the assimilationists, who went to the king, Antiochus, and asked him to issue the infamous edict forbidding the study of Torah and the celebration of Shabbat! It was they who suggested turning the Temple in Jerusalem to a place of "new and modern worship" of the Gods of the Hour – the parthenon of Greek idols. Deprived of their Temple, they reasoned, their fellow-Jews will fall in line behind them.
Let us also recall our dear martyred brothers and sisters, children, adults and elderly, who kept the faith and paid for it with their lives. They refused apostasy, and they did not raise a hand to defend themselves. They lived by their faith – and they died for it. Their faith and their way condemned them to extinction until the Hasmonean priests, of the village of Modin, in Judea, raised the banner of revolt. Matthaias Hasmonean slew the Hellenist Jew who was willing to make a sacrifice to Zeus in the village square, calling out to the villagers, "Mi Ladona'y Ela'y – who so ever is for God, let him follow me!" His brave sons killed the Greek soldiers, and they all took off for the hills, setting the pattern for countless freedom fighters who would follow their example.
The Maccabees were the first anti-heroes. They hated war, and only engaged in it as a last resort, realizing that the death of the faithful is not martyrdom if none will be left alive to affirm the sacrifice and continue the ways for which life was given who generously. In the final analysis, it was the Hasmoneans who were first to realize that there is a "threefold cord [that] is not quickly broken" [Ecclesiastes 4:12] – and it is the land, the language and the people. If the people would be gone, the language will disappear and the land will become desolate. Thus, the Maccabees called for self-defence. If the language is lost, the people will lose their identity – and so the connection of the Hebrew people to the tongue of the prophets throughout the ages has been a great and heroic achievement of Jewish survival. As for the land – the Maccabees fought for it and won their war; the zealots in the revolt against Rome fought a valiant battle and lost; two thousand years of exiled Jews kept faith with it in their heart and in their lives everywhere in the world where fate took them – and in the last century the Zionists and pioneers went back to reclaim it and reestablish our claim to the land.
It was the split among our people that caused the Hellenistic attack upon our people, their land and their heritage. Brotherly strife caused the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of our people in antiquity. Our common bonds have sustained Judaism through the millennia of the exile and the battle to reestablish our sovereign land of Israel. Today we are once again being attacked and assailed by foes who would like to deprive us of our sovereignty and our legitimacy. As long as we are united - they will fail. Let us keep our faith, let us keep faith with our brethren, and let us persevere for the sake of future generation, in honor of those who gave their all in days of old, at this time of the year.

Amen