To return to the new Peace Now website click here.

Peace Parsha: When he should have been Israel, he was Jacob

peace_parsha_logo186x140.jpg

Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Cohen is Associate Professor of Rabbinic Literature at the Zeigler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles. He is a founding member of the Shtibl minyan and the Interfaith Sanctuary at Occupy LA.

This week's parshah, the denouement to the Joseph story and the ending of the book of Genesis, continues with variations on the theme of disclosing and revealing. Even in the way it is written in the Torah scroll the portion is veiled. The first verse of every Torah portion is separated from the previous verse by a space of a certain amount of letters (sometimes more, sometimes less). The first verse of Vayechi, our parsha, continues from the previous verse with nary a missed beat. It is as if it is a stealth portion: "Nothing happening here. Just go about your business." The tradition teaches us that this is a sign that Jacob wished to reveal the mystery of the end of times to his children but his vision was clouded and he was unable to do so.

Jacob's clouded vision recurs with the central portion of the parsha--the final blessings to his children. Jacob begins his blessing saying: "Gather round that I may tell you what shall befall you in the days to come." (Robert Alter's translation.) Yet, Jacob's "blessing" is actually about the past and not the future. As Rashi, the greatest of the commentators, writes: "He wished to reveal the end [of days] and the Divine presence left him, and he started to say other things."

It is Jacob's sight and insight that we wish to highlight. When blessing his second and third-born, Simeon and Levi, Jacob unleashes a death-bed rebuke which would wither the strongest of heart.

Simeon and Levi, the brothers--weapons of outrage their trade. In their council let me never set foot, their assembly my presence shun. For in their fury they slaughtered men, at their pleasure they tore down ramparts. Cursed by their fury so fierce, and their wrath to remorseless.

However, this clear and piercing hindsight, I would suggest, occludes Jacob's part in the outrage to which he seems to be referring.

The "men" that Simeon and Levi "slaughtered" are the members of the clan of Shechem, the son of Hamor, who had kidnapped and raped Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob's clan. When Shechem, in an act of self-delusion or self-survival sued to be allies of Jacob's clan, Jacob's sons devised a ruse which enabled the slaughter of the Shechemites. Jacobs' sons demanded that the Shechemites circumcise themselves, if they wished to live in peace with Jacob's family. However, "on the third day, while they were hurting, Jacob's two sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took each his sword, and came upon the city unopposed, and they killed every male."

At the end of the story, Jacob reproaches Simeon and Levi, saying: "You have stirred up trouble for me, making me stink among the land's inhabitants.... If they gather against me and strike me, I shall be destroyed..." However, at the moment when Jacob could have averted the revenge slaughter he was silent. Early in the story (verse 5) Jacob heard about the rape. That was his moment to act, to take responsibility as the head of the clan, be decisive and demand appropriate justice and not sink into the depths of uncontrolled vengeance. At that moment however, when the sons were still in the field and had not yet heard, "Jacob held his peace until they came." Once they return, and hear of the crime, Jacob says no more. The sons and then specifically Simeon and Levi take over the negotiations, the plotting and the slaughter. Jacob's voice only returns after the deed is done.

Jacob has always had a split personality, symbolized in general by his two names: Jacob and Israel. As opposed to Abraham whose earlier name Abram is never mentioned once God changes his name, Jacob never fully embodies his new name. His is a split personality. At times he is Israel, the one who struggles with God and people and wins, and sometimes he is Jacob the trickster. The one who angles for the best opportunity.

And so it seems that Jacob's clouded vision is a reflection of his earlier hesitation. Now, with the clarity of hindsight he reproaches Simeon and Levi and preserves his deniability. However, when he could have done something, he did not act. When he should have been Israel, he was Jacob.

As we look out on the Israeli landscape, and the Middle Eastern landscape more generally, there are many things about which we can lament with anger and grief: "Why did you do that? Look where we are now?" About the Israeli government: "Why did you start the settlement enterprise? Why didn't you bargain in good faith? Why did you act unilaterally when you should have negotiated? Why did you materially and politically support the 'even more illegal outposts' behind the scenes while disavowing them in public?" About the chareidi community: "Why do you demand the invisibility of women? Why are you violent against women?" About the left: "Why do we never refer to settlements in the Golan as settlements?"

Screaming loud and often is cathartic. However, acting decisively and in a timely manner is the beginning of redemption (next week's parshah...). As we start the new year on the Julian calender, and as we start reading the Book of Redemption in Torah, it behooves us to ask ourselves: What am I doing now to promote peace so that next year I won't just be grieving more lost opportunities?