Genesis Cycle Three Vayetze 28:10 to 32:3

Vayetze

Vayetze is a study of faith. By following the actions of Jacob we learn what it means to act with an understanding that God is more and more here. The question is… how do we get just close enough to fortify this faith and at the same time remain a human vessel? After all, God’s power is awesome. We repeat this message in the Amidah every day. And as the kabbalists teach, we are vessels within which there are more vessels and so on. We are vulnerable. We can break.

Well, to attempt to answer the above question, we need to know our individual level of sensitivity. How well can we each receive this mighty flow of light? How strong are our individual vessels? What is the greatest possible intimacy?

Please note that I mention our individual level of sensitivity. No doubt, as we see with the names and births of Jacob’s children, we are each unique and sacred beings. Not one person in this world is thinking feeling seeing hearing loving at the same intensity taste and vibration as another. Faith therefore (like love) is not generic. It isn’t an item we can buy at the local store. It’s continually tempered, colored, directed and engined by us… by the continuum of our unique vessels created by God to hold His essence. So as we look at Jacob it’s important to note that our individual faith-compass is our spiritual thumb print. What we want therefore is not to repeat Jacob’s same actions. We want to borrow from his masterful technique, how he applies his faith-compass to his life.

Since we’re looking at a compass, we’re in the metaphor of geographical direction. For the sake of this writing let’s see how Jacob reaches to the north. (I’ll study the other directions in the next three parshas.) After all God says to Jacob in line 28:11: You (singular) shall spread out to the west, the east, the north and to the south.

According to Matt, in his commentaries on the Zohar (p.320) the north symbolizes the harshness of gevura. Jacob’s very leaving of Beer Sheva is an act of gevurah in that he takes his radiance with him: This will have an effect on the town itself (Rashi). He also is forced (in leaving) to cut off earthly connections with his mother. But he goes out anyway. He extricates himself from the womb of his birth-place to raise himself into the blessing that he has received, to peel off the darkness (symbolized by the fear of Esau) and be the spark that can light upon the makom (28:11).

Next, he places the stones of the place at his head (root word resch aleph shin) for when he sleeps. In Talmud we read that all stones gathered themselves together and merged into one (Bab Talmud Chullin 91b). Why would he do this? To create a boundary. The divine light of God as it flows into his vessels will now be less direct and harsh. The rock is not a pillow or a plug…as the wells (for example) were plugged by the Philistines in Chayay Sarah…It is a lid or a crown at his highest self, right above the sefirah of keter. Compare it to the kippah. Knowingly or unknowingly, the kippah is the rock we place at our head as we sleep in this human realm.

In Jacob’s sleep therefore, because of the rock placed with the gevurah he has built within himself beginning with his leaving Beer Sheva and continuing during fourteen years of study (Megillah 16b-17a) he will not be hurt by an unrelenting force from God. It is a sacred moment, a moment of faith. And sure enough, in his dream he gets as close to God as humanely possible. God stands near. God is not closer…for example in Jacob. That would be too dangerous. So while knowledge of intimacy is decreased momentarily, the intimacy itself is increased by the rock that discerns the exact point where physical survival meets spiritual integration.

In Jacobs dream as well the word head is repeated and used to describe the top of the ladder that reaches towards heaven. Here, heaven becomes the rock of God. In other words, while the rock is at the head of Jacob, heaven is at the head of the ladder that connects us to God. Therefore, God protects us from Himself with heaven so that we will not be overcome and so that He will not be overcome by us. Heaven can be seen as the kippah of God.

The beauty is that with protection from two sides there is the greatest possible approach and connection. No wonder Jacob says God was in this place and I did not know.

Later, when Jacob meets Rachel it is at the rock (note the use of the definite article) now magnified to lid the well from the earth. Therefore, it is the place where the human capability to love is at its peak.

So, may we each have our own personal connections with God and with others. May we have the faith to discern, mark and protect the place that marks the merge. May we respect the same action of gevurah in others and in God. May we use words to further mark that place. May we be the spark that rises from our birth place to the vow to the offering. Like God, may we watch our flow to others so it won’t be too overpowering. May we reach towards the north with care, attention, discernment and meaning so we can have the faith to open our hearts (safely) to the great love of God. Then, may we allow it to flow through us and bring us to the holy of holies to merge as one.