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May 25, 2012
Mark Clayton: Is Hillary's State Dept. hacking Al Qaeda? Not quite
Erika Bolstad: Temple cancels Wasserman Schultz speech
The Kosher Gourmet by Ethel G. Hofman: The former president of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, whose members included the likes of Julia Child, is back with contemporary Shavous cuisine: Ruby Fruit Soup, Sweet Noodle Kugel with Cheese, Key Lime Curd, Calsone Casserole Frittata with Wild Mushrooms, Sun-dried tomatoes and Olives, Baked Tilapia with Pepper Cheese Cream and Brown Sugar Shortbread
May 24, 2012
Jeff Jacoby: The peace process battered Israel's reputation
Michael Muskal: 'Pro-choice' position hits record low, according to poll
Chris Farrell: Are We in a Tech Bubble?
The Kosher Gourmet by Penelope Wall: PHILLY CHEESE STEAKS --- hold the steak!
May 23, 2012
Tony Pugh: More private colleges offering tuition discounts
Mary Beth Franklin: How to Choose the Right Annuity for You
Tina Susman: The wig wasn't enough: Man gets 13 years for posing as his dead mom
The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen:A simple way to do fish right
May 22, 2012
Warren Richey: Can US group challenge overseas surveillance act? Supreme Court to decide
Thomas M. Anderson: Walking Away From a Mortgage
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: Enjoy a celebration of the most rich and layered flavors: Black bean, sweet potato and quinoa chili
May 21, 2012
Mark Clayton: Cybersecurity: How US utilities passed up chance to protect their networks
Howard LaFranchi: NATO summit: Who will foot the bill for long-term Afghanistan security?
Chris Farrell : Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Stephen Whiteside, Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: Social anxiety disorder --- or just shy?
Guy Jackson : Victim's father regrets death of Lockerbie bomber
The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: Famed chef's veal shoulder farsumagru: A festive meat course for late spring
May 18, 2012
Rabbi Berel Wein: Striving: The People of the Book's Book for (All of) the People
Steven Goldberg: 5 Great Stock Picks and the Exchange-Traded Fund that Owns Them
Mary Pickett, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Don't be forced into gluten-free lifestyle based merely on a doctor's false-positive test
The Kosher Gourmet by Carolyn Malcoun: DIY healthy lunchbox treats: HOMEMADE FRUIT BARS for kids and brown-bagging adults alike
May 17, 2012
Warren Richey: Teacher fired for being unwed and pregnant can sue religious school, court rules
Josh Mitnick: Netanyahu's 'centrist' coalition is already proving it's anything but
Steven Goldberg: Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Amina Khan: Research links coffee to lower death rates
The Kosher Gourmet by Faith Duran : Cheesy Potato Breakfast Casserole with Cheddar and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
May 16, 2012
Carmen Terzic, M.D., Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: A variety of exercises can help improve balance
Melissa Healy: National strategy on Alzheimer's disease aims to halt it by 2025
The Kosher Gourmet by Joyce White : GOODNESS GRACIOUS: GREENS! 4 winning recipes that are no longer just for down-home folks (Includes expert tips & techniques)
May 15, 2012
Kristen Chick: Obama administration resumes arms sales to Bahrain despite serious unresolved human rights issues. Activists feel abandoned
Pat Mertz Esswein: Homes are now affordable again and mortgage rates are low. What you need to know before you buy
Kathy Kristof: Our Practical Investor Fights Inflation with These 6 Investments
Sue Hubbard, M.D.: The Kid's Doctor: Lactose intolerant young child? Check again
The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Hunt: Spread a Little Excitement with EXOTIC CONDIMENTS (4 RECIPES)
May 14, 2012
Lisa Gerstner: How to Protect Your Identity, Finances If You Lose Your Phone
Harvard Health Letters: Heart disease and dementia
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: MANGO COCONUT OAT MORNING MUFFINS are a bright but hearty delight
May 11, 2012
Jessica L. Anderson: Get the Best Deal on a Used Car
Jett Stone: Forget face-lifts and fake knees. Scientists have seen the fountain of youth --- and it's broccoli
The Kosher Gourmet by Chef Mario Batali: The famed chef's vegetable dish that tastes true to the season: FAVAS AND SUGAR SNAP PEAS WITH POTATOES AND TARRAGON
May 10, 2012
Sergei L. Loiko: Putin sends warning to U.S., NATO in Victory Day speech at Red Square
Mary Rourke: How being a 'mentch' got Vidal Sasoon his start and fighting in Israel's War of Independence provided him with confidence and a strong sense of his own identity
Jeff Bertolucci: Get Home Phone Service for Less Than $10 a Month
The Kosher Gourmet by Betty Rosbottom: Gleaming with its golden, crimson, and snowy white hues, this silken smooth and creamy STRAWBERRY ORANGE TRIFLE looks impressive, but is easy to prepare
May 9, 2012
Sharon Palmer, R.D. How you can reduce your risk -- or delay -- chronic diseases associated with aging
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Jewish World Review
Can a single word make a difference?
By Rabbi Hillel Goldberg
Mining profound biblical lessons about Truth, justice and human nature from "redundant" verbiage
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Not every comment on a Torah (Bible) portion must take in the whole portion, nor even a theme within it. A comment may be on one verse, one phrase or even a word or two. And sometimes, a theme may emerge from a single word.
In the 1970s, our rabbi in Israel, Rabbi Noah Heisler, told me that a Holocaust survivor once came up to him and illuminated two words in this week's Torah portion. At its beginning, Jacob makes a vow. It includes these phrases, "If G-d will be with me . . . and give me bread to eat and clothes to wear . . . "
The survivor asked Rabbi Heisler:
"Why does Jacob ask for 'bread to eat'? If one has bread, what else is it for but eating? Why doesn't Jacob simply ask for bread? And if one has clothing, what else is it for but wearing? Why does Jacob ask for clothing to wear?'
Rabbi Heisler related the survivor's answer:
"When we were in the camps, often we didn't eat the little bread we had. We might have had a greater need for a boot, a stocking, a tattered shirt. So we traded the bread for clothing. This saved a life. And often, we didn't wear the little clothing we had because we might have had a greater need for food just then. So we traded clothing for a scrap of food.
"Jacob is asking G-d: May I have food — and, may I be in a position to eat it. May I have clothing — and, may I be in a position to wear it."
This is a moving insight — based on what? In Hebrew "to eat" is one word, "to wear" is one word. A mere two words convey a profound message. And so, let me offer three comments on a few words in this week's Torah portion.
Genesis 31:2: "And Jacob saw the face of Laban and behold it was not with him as yesterday and the day before."
Jacob has always had trouble with Laban, the cheat. Jacob is supposed to marry Rachel, but Laban substitutes Leah. Then Laban forces Jacob to work 14 years for his two wives. Thereafter, Laban changes the terms of Jacob's employment 100 times, always to Laban's advantage. Finally, Laban prepares to intensify his oppression of Jacob; as the verse says, "the face of Laban was not with him [Jacob] as before." Laban's body language threatens untold new deceit and disruption in Jacob's life.
I read the verse very differently. (I don't remember whether I heard this from Asher Katz in Santa Fe or whether this is my own reading.) Jacob sees that the face of Laban is not with him [Jacob] as before. Laban does not appear to Jacob to be as bad as he once had. Laban's dishonesty is not so bothersome as it was 20 years earlier, when they first met. The verse records not Jacob's observation of Laban, but of himself. Jacob is saying: Time has worn down my resistance to corruption. The face of evil doesn't look so terrible anymore. The moment I catch myself beginning to make peace with evil, it is time for me to leave here and go back to Canaan, all the wealth I've acquired here notwithstanding.
Ethical compromise, "selling out," creeps up. The moment Jacob notices it in himself, he acts. If only the Germans in the 1930s and the Russians in the 1920s had done the same!
Genesis 31:44-48: "[Laban said:] 'Let us [Laban and Jacob] make a covenant, I and you . . . ' Then Jacob took a stone and raised it up as a monument. And Jacob said to his brethren, 'Gather stones!' So they took stones and made a mound . . . Laban called it Yegar Sahaduta, and Jacob called it Gal Ed. And Laban declared, 'This mound is a witness between me and you today'; therefore he called its name Gal Ed."
My late teacher, Rabbi Ben Zion Bruk, observed:
First Laban attaches his own name to the mound, Yegar Sahaduta. Representatives of falsehood insist that others take everything on their terms. The signs and symbols of falsehood are self-declared; woe to him who resists. But Jacob resists. After Laban says Yegar-Sahaduta, Jacob repeats, Gal Ed. And Laban comes around! ("he called its name Gal Ed").
Rabbi Bruk: The pressures to bend to falsehood are great. Jacob doesn't bend. He teaches, it is necessary to take a stand. This is tough, but in the end the representatives of falsehood come around.
That, in a nutshell, was the relationship between the West and communism — a falsehood if there ever was one. It took 70 years, but by not bending to communism the West eventually triumphed.
Genesis 29:7: "[The Haranites tell Jacob], 'Look, the day is still long; it is not yet time to bring the livestock in; water the flock and go on grazing.'"
The midrash says that Jacob is teaching a lesson in business ethics. He is telling the shepherds: If you are employees, you are guilty of theft because it is still the middle of the day. You must go out and guard the sheep. If the flocks are yours (you are self-employed), you are guilty of wasting time.
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kuk commented*:
Jacob is conveying to the shepherds an ethical truth he learned from his father Isaac and grandfather Abraham. Immediately upon arriving in the east, Jacob accepts his universal responsibility to teach Torah to the world — and who is listening in to all this?
Rachel.
She comes upon the scene with her father Laban's flocks just before the encounter between Jacob and the shepherds of Haran. Now, Rachel is the youngest sister. Wouldn't it make sense for Laban to entrust the oldest daughter, Leah, with the sheep?
Rabbi Kuk introduces a typology, citing Zohar (I:154), the major work of Jewish mysticism: Leah is the "Alma de-Itkasya," the hidden, concealed world. Rachel is the "Alma de-Itgalya," the revealed world.
Rachel goes out into the world: She is the breadwinner, the shepherdess. She steals her father's idols (31:19) because, like Abraham, she teaches faith to the world. Rachel has a "beautiful face and a radiant countenance" (29:17); she is concerned with the outside aspects of her existence, unlike her older sister Leah, whose "thin eyes" (29:17) could be taken to mean that her eyes are sensitive, requiring her to remain inside. When Jacob calls his wives to ask whether the time has come to return to Canaan, it is Rachel who speaks up first (31:14). Rachel, like Jacob, assumes the obligation of universal responsibility.
But Jacob also needs to create a strong spiritual home, a hidden, inner world, for the nation he is to father, and for this the very different Leah is necessary. Indeed, Leah and her maidservant bear most of Jacob's children.
All this, Rabbi Kook teases out of half a verse (29:6): " . . . And behold Rachel, [Laban's] daughter, is coming with the sheep."
* Sparks of Light: Essays on the Weekly Torah Portions Based on the Philosophy of Rav Kuk, edited by Gideon Weitzman (1999), pp. 43-47.
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JWR contributor Rabbi Hillel Goldberg is executive editor of the Intermountain Jewish News. To comment, please click here.
© 2010, Rabbi Hillel Goldberg
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