Vayetze
Genesis 28:10-33:3
Précis:
As Jacob travels towards the household of his uncle Laban, he dreams of a
ladder (some translate it as a ramp) to heaven, with angels ascending and
descending. He vows to build a great House for God on the spot. Jacob meets and
falls in love with Laban’s younger daughter, Rachel. Laban agrees to the
match, provided that Jacob works for him for seven years. Laban switches the
older daughter, Leah, for Rachel; Jacob works an additional seven years for
Rachel’s hand. Jacob then works for Laban an additional six years, and acquires
great wealth and flocks through shrewd husbandry. During the stay with Laban,
most of the children of Jacob are born. At the conclusion of the parasha, after
tense negotiations with Laban, Jacob leaves with his possessions and family.
Genesis 28:11 “He
took from the stones of that place and laid down his head.”
Jacob, fleeing from his brother,
arrives at the end of his first day’s journey, and finds rest on a pile of
stone pillows. But when he wakens a few verses later (after the famous ladder
dream), the text switches from the plural to the singular: “Rising
up early that morning, Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and
set it up as a monument” (Gen. 28:18).
Our sages of course could not allow
this grammatical change to take place without commentary. One midrash tells a
wonderful tale: the stones argued about which would be the one to have the
honor of upholding Jacob’s head until they began to merge into one and became
the single stone that Jacob slept upon.
The
moral to the story: some people can be as hard as rocks, being “stony” and
unbending. However, if there is sufficient need (and discussion), they
can come together in unity.
In
recent weeks, we’ve all watched our governmental leaders act like a bunch of
rocks: unbending and unwilling to join together. It’s been a challenge to see
whether unity can be achieved, all the more problematic given that unity and
agreement are so important to us right now. I wish that I could awaken tomorrow
like Jacob, with a single stone pillow. Somehow, I doubt that will be the case,
and I (and all of us) will need to continue dealing with a bunch of rocks that
refuses to meld into one. Our American leaders have forgotten to look at the
motto on the Great Seal: E pluribus unum, Latin for "Out
of many, one.” Maybe they have rocks in their heads instead of under
them! As for unity in the Knesset, I’ll leave that for another time.
