Genesis Cycle Four Toledoth

Toledoth

Imagine this. A family in New Mexico must sell their house. For weeks nothing happens. Then at the end of one month a fifteen year old, a trick skier in Switzerland, makes an advanced high jump and lands in perfect form. At that moment the house sells. Two situations; both incongruous. Or are they? What is it about the celebration in the heart of the boy, the explosive realization as his skis hit the snow? How does that epiphany influence a situation across water and land masses? How does it influence potential buyers who make the offer?

Here’s another situation. A couple in New York adopts a girl. She wants to find her birth mother. She feels ostracized, alone and turns to drugs. The couple sends her to a rehab center. Meanwhile there’s a gay couple that gets married in San Francisco. Just as the vows in San Francisco are said, the girl’s birth mother is found…she’s a night janitor at this same rehab center. Two situations; both incongruous. Or are they? The union of a gay couple, that knowledge of union no matter the barriers….could that have somehow influenced the mother/daughter meeting?

Maybe it seems impossible, outrageous, a bit new age or just plain out there…but the truth is…these situations and the way I have written them reflect a repeated Torah format. One action begins…then we meet with another that seems foreign to it…and then the first action is settled. We know that it isn’t this way without some intention. We know that each word and letter of Torah is divine. These stories in other words, and their organization, aren’t just thrown at us without rhyme or reason. There must be some kind of purpose to the choice of this format, and one purpose (in my opinion) is to focus on inter-connectedness.

Inter-connectedness is a strong piece and part of the Jewish construct. The kabbalists speak of the powerful interconnections between sefirot. Parallel and congruent themes from the psalms and the prophets form the fabric of our liturgy…from the morning blessings to Aleynu….and therefore connect the prayers beyond the linear. And no doubt, the conversations in Talmud reflect Torah in that they also seem to completely step over any so-called linear logic whatsoever. One question might be placed aside, another one seemingly unrelated might move into focus, and then there will be a sudden resolution of the first. The seeming contradictions in this world therefore end up being an intricate web of interconnections on another level.

If we open ourselves to these levels though or at least tune in to them we realize that this is how we humans heal others…take part in tikkun olam… Meanwhile, we hurt rather than heal if we try and control them.

It’s amazing how often we really believe we are in control. I am referring to small events now as well, even a catch of the breath. Suddenly we find our self mid-action. And it’s as if angels have led us to this place. It’s us. It’s our bodies. Yes, we take responsibility. But sometimes our piece of responsibility is simply that we have been open. Open to the universal cries and laughter, to words said that we haven’t even heard. So open that it’s as if our bodies are merely here to continually flush the energies of the world with all of its shadows and divine sparks, merge the seeming lack of connectedness in our hearts, process them, purify them, place them on earth and place them on earth again. In this scenario, not only is one man responsible for the whole. One man is the whole.

And so it happens in Toledot. For example a birth from generations ago spawns twins. The twins fight in Rebeccas belly. One represents the material, the other the heavenly. In literal reality therefore she herself is manifesting a dichotomy that was established at the time of creation, one not seemingly relevant to her day to day concerns, one that she could feel she has had little or nothing to do with. Disturbed by what is happening within her very body, she seeks out God and He says…Sheny goyim b’vitnach. V’sheny l’umim mimayach yipredu ul’om mil’om y’emetz v’rav y’evod tza’ir….Two nations are in your womb. Two peoples will separate themselves from inside you. And to one people from another people the older will be great and the younger will serve. In other words there will be a transference of greatness from the older to the younger, from the material to the spiritual (if we look at the character- metaphors for both Esau and Jacob).

Here we have two completely separated peoples interconnected through a same womb. We get the feeling that actions of these nations also must interconnect given the revolving-like quality of the description. What one does will influence the other and vice verse even if that influence is not direct or based on linear time.

Here’s another example of this type of inter-connectedness in action. In Genesis Rabbah we read that R Eleazer says that Isaac’s blindness is caused by looking at Esau but R Isaac says that the blindness is caused by the curse of Sarah (by the Pharoah) in Genesis 20:16. We also read that the reason for the blindness has to do with the angels crying during the akeda. As it says in Isaiah 33:7: Behold their valiant ones cry without, the angels of peace weep bitterly… And in Talmud we read: And tears dropped from the angels’ eyes into Isaacs leaving their mark and causing his eyes to dim when he became old. No doubt, none of the above really explains why Isaac is blind. They completely leave the situation at hand or only use the image of Esau (for example) symbolically. For, after all, we know that we don’t get blind just by looking at someone. Connections here are occurring on a supernal plane, one we have to work at to understand. And the work is worth it.

Now let’s look at the building of wells in Genesis 26:1. This re-establishing of the ancestral wells marks the transition from the selling of Esau’s birthright to the actual gaining of it by Jacob. Once again, this is our experience with Torah: First Esau sells his birthright to Jacob. Then Isaac digs wells that represent everything from challenge to wide spaces to the mystical number sheva…seven..that infers the height before completion. Then, Jacob, under the influence of his mother, manages to win the blessing of the birthright. This is the well known story in which Jacob places the fur of an animal on his arms and brings Isaac his soup…and Isaac, who is blind, thinks that Esau is standing before him and blesses him with the dew of the heavens and the fat of the earth.

This is a major action in Torah, a power shift on earth, a bringing forwards of the heavenly…in the person of Jacob who represents the God-piece in us all. And it happens not only because of what Esau does or Jacob does or the support from Rebeccah. It happens just as much because of the digging of the wells.

So in my opinion, and from what I glean of Torah, that house does sell partly because of that perfect ski-jump. And a mother and daughter are merged partly because of the vows of a gay couple in San Francisco. The world can be a seemingly crazy and beautiful place.

And now here’s another situation. You love someone dearly and deeply for lifetimes possibly and physical connection is impossible. Then suddenly one day you stare at each other and you know that the interconnections of the supernal worlds, those that so govern Torah, those that so often seem implausible and incongruous to us humans, have now reshaped our here and now reality. Your love for God and Torah is strong enough maybe. Or maybe you knew to remain open and accepting of these sacred energies and that’s why they suddenly flew in to shift the world a bit and open your bodies to each other.

This is true healing. Was it because of what you did? And only that? Our lives, our situations? Of course not. Somewhere in the white space of Torah lies a story similar to that of the wells, something seemingly completely incongruous to the meeting of two lovers. Something that we can’t know in our minds but feel in our hearts. Something that merges the two nations in Rebeccah’s belly and brings sight to blindness and a sweet promise of abundance to earth. It can’t be revealed to us yet. We can only have gratitude and recognize the blessing.

As Rumi writes:

Fall in love in such a way that it frees you from any connecting. Love is the soul’s light, the taste of morning, no me, no we, no claim of being. These words are the smoke the fire gives off as it absolves its defects, as eyes in silence, tears, face. Love can not be said.