Monday, November 26, 2012
Shabbat Vayishlach
Genesis
32:4-36:43
17
Kislev 5771 / November 30- Dec. 1, 2012
MY NAME IS… WHAT? MY NAME IS…
WHO?
by Rabbi Dan Horwitz, MH Director of Immersive Learning
by Rabbi Dan Horwitz, MH Director of Immersive Learning
“What
is your name?” – Genesis 32:28
“A
good name is preferable to great riches…” – Proverbs 22:1
In
this week’s Torah portion, Vayishlach, we find
Jacob preparing for a potentially dangerous reunion with his bother Esau (whose
birthright and paternal blessing Jacob had taken). Jacob splits his camp into two (lest
everyone should be wiped out upon an attack), and sends gifts via courier to
his brother, hoping to quell Esau’s anticipated anger.
The
night before the encounter, Jacob separated himself from his camp and his
family.
“Jacob
was left alone... and a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn.” - Genesis
32:25
This
is the well-known story of Jacob wrestling with an angel.
At
the end of the struggle, having been defeated, the angel wished to
depart. Jacob refused to
let the angel leave until he gave Jacob a blessing. The first thing the angel did was to
ask a simple question to Jacob:
"What is your name?"
It
is important to remember that while this question may sound simple to us, to
Jacob, it carried a lot of weight. The
last time Jacob was asked this question,
he answered falsely, saying “I am Esau” in order to steal his brother’s
paternal blessing from Isaac. This
time, Jacob redeems himself by answering the angel’s question truthfully,
saying “I am Jacob.”
At
this point, the angel gives Jacob
the new name “Israel” (which translates roughly to “having prevailed over the
Divine”), blesses him, and departs.
The
ancient rabbis have different opinions as to the role this angel played. Some felt the angel was acting maliciously toward Jacob, as Jacob was physically injured in the
scuffle, while others contend that
the angel was not evil, as struggling with the angel and defeating him gave
Jacob the confidence to face Esau the next day. My personal take is that the angel and
the accompanying struggle represent how we as human beings wrestle with our
shortcomings and misdeeds, and our potential to overcome them.
Our
Jewish tradition makes clear that having a “good name” – better understood as a
“good reputation” – is priceless. We
find this, for example, in our texts (see the Proverbs quote above), as well as
in our rabbinic commentaries, such as those admonishing people who speak badly
about others (using negative speech commonly referred to as “lashon harah”). Jacob was far from perfect in his
actions, and as a result, his name and reputation at the time may not have been
the greatest. Jacob was
deceptive towards his father and took advantage of his hungry brother. Jacob’s reputation was certainly not
one that Esau and his community would have found favorable.
Jacob’s
name change to Israel signified a rebirth of sorts. It provided him with the confidence to
confront his brother the next day as “a new man,” and with the ability to leave
his misdeeds in the past and move forward. It also provides us as Jews with the
comfort of knowing that for millennia we have been known as the “Children of
Israel,” rather than as the “Children of Jacob,” so that our reputation as a
nation would not be tainted throughout the generations.
What
is your name? What does it
mean to you? Who are you
named for, if anyone?
What
associations do you hope others make when they hear your name?
When
it comes time for someone to offer your eulogy, what do you hope s/he will say?
We
are all imperfect (despite what your mother may tell others about you). We all have struggles, make mistakes,
and take actions that have the ability to harm others and tarnish our own
reputations. But when given
the opportunity to improve, like Jacob, we need to seize it.
Just
as Jacob wrestled with the angel, so too do we have the ability to wrestle with
our own misdeeds, to come clean, to prevail over our own shortcomings, and to
build reputations befitting of those as blessed as we are.
This
Shabbat, take some time to reflect on your name, on some of your own perceived shortcomings,
on what you want others to be saying about you once you’re gone and the actions
you can take to help make it so.
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