Dear Friends,
It is great to be Temple Beth Jacob!
At this time of the Jewish year, when we are reading from the middle of Genesis in our weekly Torah cycle, we are regaled with Jacob stories for several weeks on end.
This week we encounter one of the signal vignettes in the wider Jacob narrative: his dream of the ladder. You may recall that Jacob was traveling alone, fleeing from his murderous brother, Esau, Jacob came to a place to spend the night. He set a stone for a pillow, and lay down to sleep. Dreaming, he visioned a ladder from the earth to the heavens, with messengers of God going up and down upon it, and the voice of God offering a blessing to him.
And then, Jacob awoke from his sleep. (Genesis 28:16)
I found the phrase, “Va’yikatz Ya’akov,” “Awakening, Jacob…” (Jacob recognized that God was in that place, and that it was a place of God.) …recognized something sacred and special. But, Jacob’s recognition was contingent upon his awakening. It was not a realization which he could discover while sleeping, nor which he was out and about on a normal day. Rather, he had to awaken his senses to this discovery.
I dare say that most of us have had personal epiphanies and discoveries in the course of our lives. We encounter a person and discover something special and wonderful. We open a book and find a teaching which grabs us. We hear a piece of music and it changes our perspective. We turn a bend in the road and encounter a vista and we are spellbound.
Each of those moments occurs, however, because they break through our otherwise routine, or sleeping mindsets. We were awakened to that moment by the encounter, the musical notes, the view before us.
Thus, the genius of Jacob’s awakening from his dream was just that: he was shocked to self-awareness and to the presence of the Divine. Similarly, later in the Book of Exodus, Moses will have such a stirring confrontation when he is called from the Burning Bush (which had been TBJ’s ark ornamentation in our previous building, and continues as a logo on our letterhead).
We are taught in the Torah to allow and to welcome the awakenings which await us in life. Moreover, we are urged to allow them to move us and transform us. Then, we will continue to be children of the House of Jacob – Beth Jacob!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Doug Kohn
It is great to be Temple Beth Jacob!
At this time of the Jewish year, when we are reading from the middle of Genesis in our weekly Torah cycle, we are regaled with Jacob stories for several weeks on end.
This week we encounter one of the signal vignettes in the wider Jacob narrative: his dream of the ladder. You may recall that Jacob was traveling alone, fleeing from his murderous brother, Esau, Jacob came to a place to spend the night. He set a stone for a pillow, and lay down to sleep. Dreaming, he visioned a ladder from the earth to the heavens, with messengers of God going up and down upon it, and the voice of God offering a blessing to him.
And then, Jacob awoke from his sleep. (Genesis 28:16)
I found the phrase, “Va’yikatz Ya’akov,” “Awakening, Jacob…” (Jacob recognized that God was in that place, and that it was a place of God.) …recognized something sacred and special. But, Jacob’s recognition was contingent upon his awakening. It was not a realization which he could discover while sleeping, nor which he was out and about on a normal day. Rather, he had to awaken his senses to this discovery.
I dare say that most of us have had personal epiphanies and discoveries in the course of our lives. We encounter a person and discover something special and wonderful. We open a book and find a teaching which grabs us. We hear a piece of music and it changes our perspective. We turn a bend in the road and encounter a vista and we are spellbound.
Each of those moments occurs, however, because they break through our otherwise routine, or sleeping mindsets. We were awakened to that moment by the encounter, the musical notes, the view before us.
Thus, the genius of Jacob’s awakening from his dream was just that: he was shocked to self-awareness and to the presence of the Divine. Similarly, later in the Book of Exodus, Moses will have such a stirring confrontation when he is called from the Burning Bush (which had been TBJ’s ark ornamentation in our previous building, and continues as a logo on our letterhead).
We are taught in the Torah to allow and to welcome the awakenings which await us in life. Moreover, we are urged to allow them to move us and transform us. Then, we will continue to be children of the House of Jacob – Beth Jacob!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Doug Kohn
