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November 30, 2001/Kislev 15, 5762, Vol. 54, No. 12
Rachel unites hands of Esau, voice of Jacob
Torah Study
RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN
Vayishlach/Genesis 32:4-36:43
Our Sages teach us that "a woman's death is felt most profoundly by her husband, and a husband's death is felt most profoundly by his wife."
From this perspective, the greatest tragedy of Jacob's tragic life was the death of his beloved wife Rachel. The Bible even gives us the cause for Rachel's untimely passing; after all, an unsuspecting Jacob declares to his Uncle Laban, chasing after him in search of his stolen household gods, "the person with whom the gods shall be found, shall not live." And it was Rachel who took the household gods.
But the agonizing question of this passage is: Why did she take the gods?
We have previously analyzed the tension in Genesis between civilization and culture, scientific technology and intellectual ideology. The scientifically advanced farmer Cain murdered the more contemplative shepherd Abel, the materialistic hunter Esau is pitted against the introspective Jacob, and the politically astute cosmopolitan Joseph is sent into exile by the more Torah-oriented Judah.
Ever since Rebecca's insistence to Isaac that the "hands of Esau" must be joined to the "voice of Jacob," that civilization must become the handmaiden to culture, it has been the Jewish vision to co-opt the economic, scientific, military and political infrastructure as the matrix from which an embracing and all-encompassing Torah can emerge.
Hence the beautiful and powerful Joseph receives the materialistic blessing and the spiritual and intellectual Judah receives the spiritual scepter of the birthright; both must work together, with Joseph serving as Judah's hand-maiden, if Rebecca's messianic vision is to be realized.
Joseph was willing to "praise his brother" and accept the fact that the scepter of religious and messianic leadership would rest in Judah's authoritative voice.
This too Joseph inherited from Rachel, who allowed her sister to be the first wife to Jacob; after all, it was Rachel who gave over the secret signs to her sister Leah so as not to embarrass her when her father substituted her for Rachel under the nuptial canopy with Jacob.
From this perspective, we can understand Rachel's removal of the household gods from her father's house. According to the ancient Mari and Nuzi documents, the patriarch of ancient pagan families would bequeath the household gods to the first-born or favored son as a sign that he was to receive the birthright blessing. Rachel believed that Jacob was deserving of the rights of the first born. She therefore utilized her "hands of Esau" in order to acquire for her husband what she believed was rightfully his.
The Judah-Joseph combination of the voice of Jacob with the hands of Esau - Torah culture combined with civilization, is found in the personality of David, progenitor of the Messiah. He is after all described as the ruddy, red-blooded warrior with the goodly appearance who developed into the psalm-singing visionary Temple in Jerusalem. The midrash magnificently depicts the necessary relationship between the two ideals by prophesying the "messiah son of Joseph" as setting the civilization stage for the coming of the ideal rabbi-prophet-king, "messiah son of Judah."
And Rav Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook went as far as to say that Theodore Herzl, visionary of the Jewish State, was indeed the "messiah, son of Joseph." We now eagerly await his senior partner, the Messiah son of Judah.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is the spiritual leader of Efrat, Israel.
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