Last week, in Tol'dot, we read in Genesis 27 of the story of Jacob tricking his father to obtain the blessing of Esau, the firstborn. As that parasha ends, Jacob has left his father's home, heading for the land of Laban, his mother's brother.
This week, in Va'Yetzei, we read first of Jacob's dream -- or, as the Etz Chaim editors title it, "Jacob's Encounter With God" -- and then of Jacob's first steps towards fulfilling his destiny as Patriarch. Luckily for one, such as me, who is both on a deadline for writing a d'rash and fond of leaving it until the time (or after the time) set as the deadline, this part of Torah is rich with topics on which to write.
In Jacob's dream (28:11-15), Jacob sees the Malachei Elokim, the Angels of God, ascending and descending the stairway, as God promises Jacob that God will not leave him "until I have done what I have promised you". After rising the next morning, Jacob vows in response that "If God remains with me, if He protects me on this journey that I am making, and gives me bread to eat and closing to wear, and if I return safe to my father's house - the Lord shall be my God…and of all that You give me, I will set aside a tithe for You."
Many commentators have noted a troubling theme in Jacob's words. Despite God's promise to Jacob, Jacob still turns the onus back onto God to prove God's offer. This is not the Torah of "na'aseh v'nishmah" that we read in Shemot 24:7; rather, this is a Jacob who is not willing to accept God's word without first seeing the benefits that were promised to him.
Jacob's past makes this understandable. Jacob has a proven record of trickery and deceit -- from conning his brother, Esau, into trading his birthright for a bowl of gruel, to dressing in skins to obtain Yitzchak's blessing. And it is here, in Ya'Yetzei, that the tables are turned on Jacob: Laban successfully substitutes Leah for her sister (using garments to fool Jacob just as Jacob used garments to fool Yitzchak), and thus coerces Jacob into seven more years of servitude in order to obtain his chosen bride, Rachel. Then, Laban and Jacob engage in an almost pathetic show of attempted one-upmanship, in order to attempt to obtain the lion's share (so to speak) of Laban's sheep and goats.
Most disturbing of all, to me at least, is that Jacob is the role model for an all-too-common pattern of behavior: one who is not willing to treat others fairly, but yet expects that he will receive fair treatment from others. Maybe the "Me Generation" didn't just start in recent decades after all?
Each of us, in our day-to-day lives, has opportunities to fall into the same pattern of poor behavior shown here by Jacob: Do we cut off the driver seeking to enter our lane, and still curse at the driver who fails to yield to us? Do we "shush" those sitting near us in shul, while blissfully chatting away with our friends when we feel like it? Do we do our share of the work of the Library Minyan, or do we simply sit back and complain when it's not "like it used to be"? How can we claim to value community, without regularly being willing to do for the community first before receiving the community's benefits?
Our patriarchs (and matriarchs) can be role models to us: sometimes as positive models, sometimes as negative models. We will all be better off if our community is one in which we look to give before we look to receive, where we look to do before we look to get. Just as Va'Yetzei ends with a pact between Jacob and Laban in which they end their petty feud before it escalates further, let us make a pact as a community to offer more of ourselves, and ask for less in return.
Shabbat shalom.