Parashat “Toledot” (Genesis 25:19-28:9)
for the week of November 6th, 2010/29 Cheshvan, 5771
This week’s parasha tells the famous story of the twins, Jacob and Esau. The portion describes how Jacob, at his mother’s urging, disguised himself as Esau and tricked their father into giving him Esau’s blessing. There is plenty to say about the participants in this ancient family drama and their somewhat dysfunctional relationships. But what most caught my eye and my heart this year was a commentary on the blessing itself.
In Genesis 27:28, a nearly blind Isaac blesses his son saying: “V’yiten l’cha ha’Elohim mital hashamayim umishmanei haaretz.” The traditional English translation renders these Hebrew words as: “May God give you of the dew of heaven and the fat of the earth…” According to the Hasidic teacher, Sefat Emet*, a peculiarity of the Hebrew syntax (“V’yiten l’cha ha’Elohim”) leads the midrash to interpret this phrase as something like, ‘may you be given godliness.’**
Sefat Emet goes on to teach that the true intent of this blessing is that Jacob (and, by extension, all Jews) should “…receive godliness from everything that exists in the world.” He explains that this is why the familiar passage in Deuteronomy says: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might (Deut. 6:5)—to receive divinity from everything. For all of life comes from the blessed Holy One—there is nothing without Him.”
In other words, the verse might now be rendered: ‘May you be given God’ [or perhaps, ‘may you recognize/experience godliness’] “in the dew of heaven and the fat of the earth.” May you learn to recognize God’s presence even in life’s material blessings. As Sefat Emet teaches towards the end of his interpretation, “’The fat of the land’ indicates that desirable things in this world even earthliness itself, have a potential [godliness] to be realized. … That is why the earth needs to be worked in various ways: plowing, planting, reaping, and so forth, until food is prepared. This shows that by the power of human effort, the true “food,” or the hidden sparks of holiness, can be brought forth in this world…”
Perhaps, this is the best definition of a Jew’s ‘work’ in the world—to uncover (and perhaps, help make manifest) the way in which God is present in each thing, each experience, each relationship and each moment. Perhaps, being a serious Jew is no more (and no less) than adopting a stance towards the world and towards life in which we constantly ask ourselves: “How is God in this?” Or perhaps better, being a serious Jew means always asking: “How could God be in this thing, this moment or this relationship?” and also, “What do I need to do to help bring that hidden godliness to the surface?”
Clearly, this task sounds more than a little daunting. First, we have to try to wrap our heads and hearts around the “God” thing. How do we recognize or experience ‘godliness?’ Do we even believe that such a reality exists? And once we’ve accepted that ‘godliness’ is real, how do we nourish the kind of strong faith that believes ‘godliness’ is potentially present everywhere and also remembers to look for it all the time—even in dark or ugly or difficult things?
The good news is that just like exercising and making music and having healthy relationships, the work of looking for and discovering God in as many places as possible seems to get a little easier with practice. The trick, of course, is simply to start looking, not to be discouraged by set-backs, to find good traveling companions and teachers for the journey and realizing that we don’t have to be perfect or saintly or certain about God to succeed. After all, the guy who first received this blessing (to find godliness everywhere) was busy pretending to be his brother, lying to his father and taking something that wasn’t intended for him. So, if Jacob was considered good enough to do this work, we probably are too!
*Sefat Emet is the nickname given to the great Hasidic teacher, Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter of Ger (1847-1905). He was the heir of a rabbinic dynasty in the Polish town of ‘Ger’ or ‘Gur’ outside Warsaw and was sometimes referred to as the “Gerer Rebbe.” Sefat Emet is the name of Yehudah Leib’s most well known collection of teachings. It’s not unusual for great Jewish teachers to be referred to by the name of their most famous work.
**Commentary to Toledot in The Language of Truth: The Torah Commentary of the Sefat Emet, Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter of Ger, trans. & interp. by Arthur Green (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1998), pp. 40-41. All subsequent citations come from this same text.
