2022 Passover Seder
Struggling with God and People
Torah Study Date
Saturday, January 15, 2022
Verses Covered
Bereishit (Genesis) 32:22-32:33
Next Session
Saturday, January 22, 2022
Starting at Genesis 33:1
Last week we discussed Jacob taking his maidservants, wives, and children and crossing the Jabbok ford and noted the text refers to eleven children when there actually were twelve (eleven sons and one daughter), leaving the only girl, Dinah, out (because of sexism). We discussed the idea that crossing the Jabbok was an important moment of decision and change although we also noted that after he takes them across, he sends his possessions across, suggesting that he had gone back (though perhaps he simply had all the people and possessions cross and then he crossed). We discussed the drama of the short statement, “And Jacob was left by himself,” asking why more is not said (although short sentences can provide emphasis). We discussed how Torah describes interiority in an exterior way. Perhaps the sentence implies that it was a moment of introspection, of being with himself psychologically, making it a moment of decision.
We discussed a man wrestling with Jacob until dawn rose–or was it an angel? We looked again at the idea, from Friedman, that an angel is a hypostasis or concretion of YHVH which would explain why Jacob wrestled with a man but is said to have wrestled with God. We also considered the idea that he wrestled with himself. In any case, the change represented by crossing the Jabbok ford was preceded or accompanied by Jacob
wrestling, the completion of which made a real crossing possible.
We discussed the angel touching (just touching) Jacob’s thigh and dislocating it (like a mythical story or, say, a story of a fantastically able karate teacher). We discussed the man telling Jacob to let him go because dawn was approaching and why dawn would matter (perhaps, as the medieval commentators say, because he needed to go for his morning prayers! or, perhaps because the whole story is a dream which ends at dawn). We discussed Jacob demanding a blessing to let the man go, the angel asking his name (didn’t the angel know his name; or is it like YHVH asking questions to which YHVH knows the answer?), and the importance of names in Torah and in general.
We discussed the man giving Jacob the name “Israel” because Jacob struggled or wrestled with God and with people and the possibility, grammatically, that it was God who wrestled not Jacob. The struggling with God and people claim suggests, again, that the man might be an angel (the human-formed hypostasis of God) but, we thought, could also refer to all of Jacob’s struggling with people—with Esau, Laban, etc. We discussed names again because Jacob asks the man’s name and the man does not answer but asks why he wants to know and, after that, blesses Jacob. We also discussed the fact that, though Jacob’s name is changed to “Israel,” he is often still called Jacob (for example, in “God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”) in contrast to the name changes for Abraham and Sarah which supersede their previous names.
We discussed Jacob naming the place “Peni-El” because, he says, “I’ve seen God face-to-face and my life has been delivered.” We discussed again the repeated use of “face” in the story of Jacob’s return, the idea once again that interior is expressed as exterior (some kind of change of heart expressed in terms of the orientation of the face) and what facing actually is. Jacob seems to be facing up to the bad things he has done and his injury suggests facing up is connected to being humbled (physically and emotionally). Or is he facing himself? Or is facing up to the bad things you’ve done to people the same as facing up to God? Finally, we discussed the text saying that the reason we don’t eat the tendon of the vein on the inside of the thigh is because the man touched Jacob there (which sounds like a later addition to the text).
Our artwork this week is by German-Israeli Jewish painter and woodcut artist, Jacob Steinhardt (1887–1968), Jacob and Esau (above), and Jacob’s Dream (below). Steinhardt shows Jacob and Esau reconciling (which we are about to discuss) an event that perhaps should resonate in our minds as much as Jacob’s ladder and angels. Steinhardt studied art in Berlin, lived in Paris and Italy, fought in World War I in Poland, Lithuania and Macedonia, and moved to Palestine in 1933 due to harassment by the Nazis. He was director of the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem in the 1950s.
Getting Back
Dear Friends,
When I had my bicycle accident a few months ago, a few witnesses commented on how fast I was going before the crash. While I have never gotten up to the speeds they estimated, I was not taking it slow. So, it is somehow fitting that ever since, I have had to take things slow. Recovery was slower than I expected, I was moving more slowly than I would have liked, and time even seemed to move more slowly some days.
And I’ve found out that slow is okay. I have had a lot of time to think and appreciate being deliberate and even slow. There are times to hasten, and other times require more careful steps. As Kohelet taught, “the race is not won by the swift.” It has taken a lot of my own koach, my own strength, to keep from pushing too hard and going beyond my limits. I hope that we can all take from my experience a renewed or strengthened sense of patience and kindness for those (or ourselves) as we try to make it through whatever trials we face. God willing, you can learn from my accident and never have to experience the lesson first-hand!
As for me, being patient and taking it slowly have paid off. My condition is much improved. And I am glad to announce that the doctors have given me the okay to resume many activities, including building up to coming back to the office and pulpit. Still mindful of the risk of excessive speed, I am not back to full work-weeks yet. But I am returning to work a little at a time (perhaps I will start just by cleaning out my office) and I’m looking forward to being able to resume all of my duties, slowly.
I would like to thank everyone in this community for all that you have done for us since November. Everyone who sent meals, cards, and well-wishes, please know they were so necessary for us to stay nourished, and they helped keep our spirits up. Thank you to everyone who helped Rabbi Sara, who was doing double (maybe triple) duty at home and in the synagogue. And thank you to everyone who has been patient and supportive.
L’Shalom,
Rabbi Benjamin
Mid-Year Congregational Meeting
Jacob Faces Esau
Torah Study Date
Saturday, January 8, 2022
Verses Covered
Bereishit (Genesis) 32:2-21
Next Session
Saturday, January 15, 2022
Starting at Genesis 32:22
We discussed Jacob going on his way, angels coming upon him and him seeing them and calling the place Mahanaim (a pair of camps), we discussed the dual (not singular or plural but dual, designating a pair) and wondered if the angel’s story was a truncated one from another source (since it seems incomplete).
We discussed Jacob’s fear of Esau (who was in the land of Seir in Edom) and how Jacob strategized or schemed to get in Esau’s good graces. First, he told messengers—in order to find favor in Esau’s eyes–to call Esau “lord” and say that his “servant” (Jacob) had stayed at Laban’s and acquired livestock and servants. We discussed the servant coming back and saying that Esau was coming to Jacob with four hundred men. We wondered why the servants did not say anything else such as what Esau’s attitude was toward Jacob or what he might have said about coming (though perhaps he did not think it was relevant because he did not know the history of conflict between Jacob and Esau).
We discussed Jacob’s fear of Esau (and thought we, too, might be frightened of four hundred men) and that Jacob was very afraid and felt anguish and, as another strategy, divided the people into two camps, we discussed Jacob as a divider—he was divided from his brother, he divided Rachel and Leah, he divided from Laban, etc. We discussed Jacob’s strategy of reminding YHVH that he was the God of his father and grandfather and had promised to deal well with Jacob when he went back to his birthplace and also of stating that he was not worthy of the kindness and faithfulness that such a promise indicated and that was indicated by his going to Laban’s with nothing but a rod when he crossed the Jordan and coming back with two camps, of expressing his fear of Esau (of Esau’s hand) and of restating that God said he would do well by Jacob and make him like the uncountable sands of the sea (even though God never said that to him but had said it instead to Abraham) (though we also wondered if, in all the strategizing, Jacob might be beginning to feel some guilt or remorse and some sense that he was not worthy). We discussed Jacob as entitled and as the “trust fund baby of Torah.”
We discussed his continued strategizing, after spending the night there, by sending a huge offering to Esau, placing it in herds he told to keep a distance one from the other and, when Esau asked who they belonged to, to say “to your servant, Jacob,” that he sent them as an offering and that he was coming as well and that he did this to appease Esau’s face with the offerings in front of him and see Esau’s face and maybe Esau would raise his face (that is, show him favor). We discussed the repeated use of the term “face” (five times in two verses as pointed out by Friedman) suggesting that Jacob was going to have to face his past, face his brother and, eventually, see God face-to-face (also pointed out by Friedman).
Along the way, we discussed the fact that Orthodox Judaism came after Reform (not before) and we discussed the Jewish enlightenment as evidenced in Reform as a German Enlightenment movement within Judaism and how Reform and Conservative today are increasingly similar unlike their strong differences in the past in the classical Reform (that is, Enlightenment-style Reform)—and we discussed many other topics as well.
Our artwork this week is by contemporary Russian-Israeli Jewish artist, Elisheva Nesis, Jacob and the Angel (above) and Mandrake (below). Nesis studied fine art in Russia and Israel and writing and psychiatry in Russia. Her painting makes the wrestling with the angel contemporary by making Jacob an Israeli soldier. Look closer at her mandrake and you’ll see several people in it. Nesis lives in Jerusalem and says, whimsically, “I live 2 miles from the center of the Universe. The problem is that you can’t hide yourself from the God here.”
Choices and Decisions
As you all know – the challenges that we have faced have been many in deciding how to handle the information thrown at us on a daily basis when it comes to COVID. This will change with each new strain, and we know that there will be new strains to come.
In early November, our Temple Sinai Board made a decision to finally open our doors to in-person services. At that time, the COVID positivity rate in Washoe County was around 11%. We recognized that this was the “new norm” and that by keeping our live streaming in place, each person had the option to join us in person or to continue to watch from home. I want to remind everyone that this hasn’t changed – live streaming has and will continue!
In the past few days, there have been many news articles and announcements made locally about the new omicron strain hitting the area. The lowest point our positivity rate hit during this last downturn was 6.1% just prior to the holiday season. I keep a close eye on these numbers because my day job requires me to look at these numbers for the State of Nevada and receive reports from hospitals on a daily basis. In the past few days, our rate has risen to 9.6%, 9.0%, and today 10%. As mentioned above, this fall when we were at 11%, we decided this would be the “new normal.” Please remember that we continue to mask in the building and there is no eating inside until numbers are really low.
So now back to making more decisions! From week to week we will look at the increase in positivity rate for Washoe County and base being in-person for services or not by the Wednesday of each week when Mike sends out the weekly Shabbat reminder. Please keep an eye out for that each week. As for this upcoming Shabbat – we will proceed with in-person for Shabbat services but will be canceling Tot Shabbat due to the recent closure at Alef Academy preschool.
Please, if you do not feel comfortable going out into the public at this time with this new strain, feel free to stay home and watch our streaming. We will all say “hi” to you online.
As for our upcoming Tu B’Shevat Seder, our Jewish Practice chair (Laura Smith) and I have decided to move our Tu B’Shevat Seder online, as doing this event in person would include food indoors. What seemed like a good idea in early December is no longer safe, so we will adjust. Rabbi Sara will be hosting an online Tu B’Shevat Seder from home again this year, so please make sure to register. We appreciate Rabbi Sara and the JPC Committee for adjusting on a dime when needed to accommodate new realities.
I am sure there are those who will both agree and disagree with decisions that we have made, but ultimately we want to make sure that everyone has a choice to decide what is in their best interest. Please remember – there is a lot of thought and conversation to be had in how Temple Sinai meets the needs of everyone.
I hope that all of you are having a good week and are safe and healthy. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
L’Shalom,
Michael
Taking a Breath
Dear Friends,
As you know, our situation is changing rapidly here in Washoe County. Yesterday, the Washoe County Health District emailed mid-morning with reports that the wastewater testing revealed a sharp rise in omicron levels. I was in meetings at the time, Mike Stombaugh was diligently working on the Shabbat reminder, and Michael Gorden our president was at his day job with the state.
By 2 pm, before Michael or I even had a chance to read the update from the county, we had received three complaints from congregants that having services in-person this week was irresponsible. After my meetings were over and Michael finished his security meeting at 7:30 pm, he and I had a call to discuss the new information and our response to it. We sent out a few emails to other leaders and made some calls to get the information we needed to make a sound decision for the many events we hold over the weekend and went to bed. This morning, I woke up to messages from 2 more upset congregants, and have now spent my day off making difficult decisions, drafting congregational emails, and checking in on newly sick people.
I say all of this to you because I think it can sometimes be hard to keep our perspective when we are scared. Michael, Mike, and I are human and are going through the pandemic the same as everyone else. We had full schedules this week BEFORE the news changed, and are trying to pivot as quickly as we can. These decisions take time and care and no matter what we decide, we will get angry messages from people who don’t like what we’re doing. We need to weigh what does the least harm and we take the job of caring for this community seriously.
As the spiritual leader of this community, I would like to ask for your patience and your chesed at this time. We leaders are incredibly busy serving this community, and cannot always respond immediately or perhaps as quickly as you may want to new changes. We do take to heart your suggestions and are deeply affected by your anger and disappointment.
As things change quickly in the coming days, please forgive any last-minute changes we may have to make. Know that if we have to cancel something in-person, it’s because we’re not willing to get people sick. Know that if we keep something open, it’s because we are doing the best we know how to keep everyone in our building safe. We are trying our hardest to be good leaders to everyone – those who only feel like they can be in-person and those who feel it is unsafe.
This has been such a hard time and it can be easy to fall into reacting immediately, swiftly, and forcefully to every change. But we all need to remember to take a breath, acknowledge the humanity of everyone around us, do our best to make the right decisions for us, and forgive any mistakes made by that those around us. Remember that if you ever feel unsafe coming to our building, we are always live streaming at sinaireno.org/live, and we welcome your participation there just as much as in person.
Please stay tuned for a message from Michael regarding this weekend’s events. I hope we can all take a moment to take a breath and get back to center in the middle of this stressful week.
L’shalom,
Rabbi Sara Zober
Sitting on the Gods
Torah Study Date
Saturday, December 18, 2021
Verses Covered
Bereishit (Genesis) 31:30 – 32:1
Next Session
Saturday, January 8, 2022
Starting at Genesis 32:2
Starting with Genesis 31-29 –Laban says to Jacob, “I have the power to harm you, but the God of your father told me not to do you any harm.” We noted that “your father” here is grammatically incorrect because the “your” ending is plural when it should be singular. Perhaps it is an actual error in the Torah, or perhaps the narrator wanted to show that Laban was ignorant?
Laban demands to know why Jacob stole his gods. The theme of thievery (“ganav” and “gazal” are the Hebrew words) is everywhere in this story. Also, here the actual word “gods” is used rather than “teraphim” (household gods or idols.) Jacob says that Laban is free to search for his gods, and anyone possessing them would be condemned to death. We see a parenthetical statement that “of course” Jacob didn’t know that Rachel had indeed stolen the idols. It is very rare in the Torah for there to be an insertion by a narrator like this. We discussed how “what goes around comes around” – Jacob cheats Esau out of his birthright, now Jacob and Laban are cheating each other – and oaths have consequences. Jacob commits his own daughter to death!
Laban searches the tents, but Rachel has already taken the idols and hidden them by putting them in the camel cushions and sitting on them! Then she says that she has her period and can’t get up. We noted that sitting on gods shows disrespect. We also noted that Rachel shrewdly took the extreme taboo against interacting with menstruating women and used it to her advantage to subvert the existing autocracy. We questioned why there was such a taboo and even fear of menstruating women – perhaps because women bleed every month and don’t die?
Jacob then defends himself as if he is in a court of law. He is very self-righteous, insisting that he went “over and above” as a shepherd for Laban – never even took advantage when an animal died, but replaced the animal. (But we know he is a trickster. What about the spotted lambs and the sticks etc.?) Verse 40 starts with the words “I was” but then switches ungrammatically to a list of all the abuses he suffered. Perhaps he was so angry that his speech gets mixed up?
We mentioned that the translation “time and again”, when Jacob says he is cheated, is literally “ten times”. This is the same expression Jacob uses when convincing his wives to leave. Jacob says that the “fear” of Isaac (simple word for fear, not the word “awe”) and the power of God is why he is not leaving empty-handed. We asked what the word “fear” meant here. Is Jacob afraid that his father is dying?
Both Laban and Jacob claim to each other that, essentially, “everything you own is because of ME.” Laban even insists that his daughters and grandchildren are still “his”. We have two tricksters talking to each other. They are so alike! This is an alpha male “pissing contest”. Eventually, the two men decide that because of divine intervention, they must each give up their demands and formalize an agreement to separate. Many legal words are used here.
The men and their followers gather stones and set up a stone pillar to mark their agreement. Stones are a theme in the Jacob story, at Bethel and at the well with Rachel. We noticed that the two names used for the place, Yegar-sahadutha or Gal-ed, showed that Jacob and Laban spoke two different languages. Perhaps this indicated that they were alien to each other and from different cultural backgrounds.
The men agree that Jacob will not harm Laban’s daughters and God himself will be a witness. The mound and the pillar are also a witness that the men and their followers will stay separate and not cross over the boundary between them with hostile intent. In the end, they offer a sacrifice and share a meal to “seal the deal”.
JPS ends with this meal and the two men and their followers spending the night “on the Height”. The King James version concludes with the 1st verse of Genesis 32, in which the men and their families officially part.
Our artwork this week is by Ukrainian-American Jewish artist, Ben-Zion Weinman, Jacob and the Angel (above) and A Moment’s Rest (below). When he came to the U.S., Weinman taught Hebrew. Later, he became an artist, lived in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City and changed his name to Ben-Zion (leaving off the last name). He was an expressionist painter, part of a group called The Ten which included Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb and others.
This post is authored by Laura Ashkin-Stanton (summary) and Deborah Achtenberg (artwork).
The Heart Knows Its Own Bitterness
Leaving Lavan
Torah Study Date
Saturday, December 11, 2021
Verses Covered
Bereishit (Genesis) 31:4 – 31:29
Next Session
Saturday, December 18, 2021
Starting at Genesis 31:30
Last week, we discussed Jacob calling Rachel and Leah to the field and telling them that, seeing their father, Lavan’s face, and that he was not like he had been before, nonetheless God had been with him, that he attributes his success to God (not to his own scheming and devices) and says it was due to God that Lavan had not done bad things to him, that Jacob is narcissistic, given that God had only said he would be with him not that he had been with him, that Jacob says he had a dream in which God appeared to him, he responded Hineni (Here I am) and God re-identifies himself as the God at Beth-El where Jacob set up the pillar, and tells him to go back to the land of his birth.
We discussed Rachel and Leah’s lack of concern about leaving their father’s house since they believed they no longer had any portion or legacy in his house and would be thought of as foreigners there since Laban sold them and had eaten up their money (a strong statement) and that all the wealth delivered by God (following Jacob’s claim it resulted from God being with him) now belonged to them and their children, that Jacob put the wives and children on camels and drove them with all his property and camels to Paddan Aram in Canaan to come to Isaac.
We discussed why Rachel stole the family idols—the teraphim—from her father (household idols, maybe having to do with divination), the midrashic idea that she did so in order to keep Lavan from turning to idolatry, or that she just took them for herself, or that they might indicate she followed regional gods/practice, that Jacob stole Lavan’s heart (i.e. deceived him) by not telling him Laban he was leaving, that mind was thought to be located in the heart for them, that the supposed bodily location of mind has differed in different cultures (and now scientists discuss the idea of the mind-in-the-gut), that Laban was only told after three days that Jacob and family had fled, that God appeared in a dream to Lavan telling him to beware of speaking with Jacob about anything from good to bad and that “from good to bad” means “anything” (and is a merism, a figure of speech in which two contrasting terms are utilized to stand for the whole such as “searched high and low” meaning “searched everywhere” and as we saw in “knowledge of good and evil” meaning “knowledge of all things”).
We discussed that Lavan caught up with Jacob and his brothers where they had set up tents in the hills of Gilead and complained of his taking his heart and daughters like prisoners of the sword, that he stole from Lavan, of him not permitting Lavan to give his sons and daughters a good-bye kiss (and was foolish in not doing so) when Lavan would happily have sent them off with happiness, songs, drum and lyre, that the two tricksters were meeting up with each other and accusing each other of being thieves, that the conflict cycled back and forth, that Lavan said God had told him not to speak with Jacob and asked Jacob why he had stolen Lavan’s family gods.
Our artwork this week is by contemporary Israeli-Jewish artist, Ruth Schreiber from Jerusalem (previously from northern California), Rachel (above) and Sarah (below). The photo of Rachel shows her, on a camel, hiding the idols she had stolen by sitting on them. The photo of Sarah is accompanied by “Genesis 21:12 ‘…whatever Sarah tells you, do as she says,’” which God says after Sarah saw Ishmael playing around—maybe playing around with Isaac—and expressed her wish that Abraham drive Hagar and Ishmael out so that Ishmael would not inherit with Isaac. Her eyes and expression are suggestive, perhaps of a woman who knows exactly what she is doing, perhaps of a woman who is watching everything closely. Sarah, by contrast, looks contented and maybe even a little smug. Sarah is colorful, stands out and is mobile. Sarah is plain, or even drab, and stands, powerful even though she is still and fades into the background.
