- Clergy
- Shabbat
Today is the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Kislev. On the fifteenth day of any month on the Hebrew calendar, there is a full moon in the sky. But when the full moon of Kislev arrives each year, it feels as if the light of the moon is wrestling with the darkness of the darkest season of the year.
That wrestling motif carries over into the famous wrestling match found in this week’s Torah portion. This encounter, between Jacob and an unidentified, mysterious ‘ish’ that wrestled with him all night until the break of dawn, left him forever changed - limping a bit, but also with the blessing of a new name: Israel, the one who wrestles with beings human and divine, and prevails.
For centuries, our sages have asked what it was that caused Jacob to prevail. To answer this question, we need to look not only at the wrestling match itself, but at what preceded it. Jacob, preparing to reunite with his brother Esau after a twenty-two year separation that was laden with deceit and threats of revenge, had taken time and effort to prepare. He sent messengers ahead to assess the situation. In an act of proactive defense, he divided his camp into two - so that if one part was attacked, the other would be safe. And then at last, he was left alone. He had made the physical preparations for this potentially painful encounter, but it was only now, in the solitude of the dark night, that he was able to prepare emotionally and spiritually. After all this, the Torah tells us:
Jacob was greatly frightened, and he was distressed.
(Genesis 32:8)
Is there any surprise that Jacob’s emotions were heightened? As is often the case, the rabbis of the midrash explain why both words - fear and distress - were used, when their meanings are so similar. “Rabbi Judah bar Ilai said: Are not fear and distress identical? The meaning, however, is that “he was afraid” that he might be killed. “He was distressed” that he might kill. (Bereshit Rabbah 76:2)
Jacob feared for his own physical safety and for that of his family. But he anguished about whether he would be able to meet the moment without losing his moral clarity that he had struggled so long to find. Our ancestor Jacob was desperate to bring the best of himself to a fraught encounter - strong enough to protect, yet steady enough to remain righteous.
Just two days ago, we at Wilshire Boulevard Temple faced a difficult encounter of a different sort. The hate-filled demonstration that took place outside our Glazer campus disrupted an event in the Audrey Irmas Pavilion when four registered guests brought their encounter inside. The good news is that nobody was hurt. Arrests were made, our campus community was safe, and students busily went about their day of learning and play. We are immeasurably grateful that our security team was prepared.
Now that the event is over and the social media storm that followed has begun to slow, what remains are an abundance of frayed nerves, necessary conversations about protocols and procedures, and the lingering question of how we can move forward from this encounter with the blessing of moral clarity.
This is the time for us to turn to one another, to acknowledge our shared investment in this sacred community and in the broader Jewish community, and to remind ourselves that being part of the people of Israel means that we, like the original Israel, have a responsibility to work to bring the best of ourselves to all of our encounters – no matter how easy or difficult they may be. That, our Torah portion teaches, is what allows the light to overpower the darkness.