Parashat Vayischlach
Gen. 32:4-36:44
Since I usually travel during the Thanksgiving weekend to be with my family, I spend quite a bit of time in the airport with the rest of the hoards getting from here to there. It is always interesting to observe the family groups and listen in on their conversations as they anticipate family reunions at the other end of the trip. Of course, there are exclamations of longing and dread and everything in between. Families are complicated!
Since I usually travel during the Thanksgiving weekend to be with my family, I spend quite a bit of time in the airport with the rest of the hoards getting from here to there. It is always interesting to observe the family groups and listen in on their conversations as they anticipate family reunions at the other end of the trip. Of course, there are exclamations of longing and dread and everything in between. Families are complicated!
And they have been so since Torah times - as we have seen since we opened Genesis anew in this year’s study of the text. This week’s parasha is no exception; we find Jacob returning to Eretz Yisrael after twenty years. While he fled alone, he returns with two wives and many children. But he knows Esau awaits the reappearance of the brother who tricked him out of his inheritance. Will Jacob be greeted with Esau’s righteous anger? With violent revenge? With reluctant welcome?
In one of the most vivid passages in the Torah, Jacob wrestles through the long night before his anticipated reunion with Esau. With whom does he struggle? The Torah calls the being “a messenger/angel”, but our commentators suggest that it could be Esau himself who struggles to a draw with Jacob. While the messenger wounds Jacob, once again our Patriarch manages to receive an extra blessing, a blessing not due him. The messenger says: “Your name shall not longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with beings divine and human and have prevailed.”
We are B’nai Yisrael, the progeny, the descendents of Jacob/Israel. Surely, through the centuries and the millennia, we have struggled and wrestled, with ourselves, with our brothers and sisters, with the nations of the world and with our God. We are inquisitive, not content with placidity, eager to move forward, to bless and be blessed.
It’s not an easy road, but its filled with blessings if we cling to Torah and learn its lessons week by week. Like our families of origin, our Jewish family can fill us with longing and dread and everything in between. But most of the time - it fills me with gratitude: for learning, for community, for history, for teaching and for our commitment to tikkun olam.
May our family reunions and gatherings be filled with joy! Here is a Thanksgiving prayer to add to your celebration:
PRAYER FOR THANKSGIVING
God, creative Source of all being, we thank you for the blessings that come to us from You, day to day and year to year. You are loving, kind and generous! In every place we live, the beauty of nature - towering mountains, shaded forests, abundant streams and fruitful earth - all testify to Your endless bounty.
When our ancestors entered the Promised Land of Israel, they thanked God for “bringing them to a good land, a land with streams and springs and lakes issuing from plain and hill; a land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and of honey; a land where you may eat food without stint, where you will lack nothing… When you have eaten your fill, give thanks to God for the good land which God has given you.” (Deuteronomy 8:7-10)
God, we give thanks for this country in our turn. Our ancestors came to these shores from many lands to seek liberty, freedom and new hope. Here they found the opportunity to outgrow old fears and build a good life for themselves and for generations to come. For this land, for its natural beauty and great bounty, we give humble thanks.
Bless us, God, with strength to help this land live up to all its promise. Let us use our hands and hearts to labor for justice, to ensure freedom and prosperity for all its people and help make this land a beacon of light for many peoples. Amen
{Adapted by Rabbi Judy Shanks in November, 2007 from a prayer in Gates of the House, ed. by Rabbi Chaim Stern, CCAR, New York, 1977}
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