Jacob S Contentment

Jacob’s Contentment Vayeshev

Our parshah begins, Va-yeshev Yaakov, Jacob sought to settle down. There is a Midrash, which explains this idea. The Midrash states: Vayeshev Yaakov, Jacob settled. Bikesh Yaakov leishev be-Shalvah, Jacob sought to settle down in tranquility, kafats alav rogezo shel Yosef, so the agitation surrounding Joseph jumped upon him. God said, “Lo dai le- tsadikim she-muchan lahem olam habah, elah she-mevakshim leishev beshalvah be-olam hazeh, Its not enough for the righteous to dwell tranquilly in the world to come, they need to also dwell tranquilly in this world?

This Midrash implies that God is punishing Jacob for his sin of desiring to live at peace and tranquilly in this world. This Midrash needs to be understood because on the surface it doesn’t seem that Jacob’s sin was so terrible. He had a hard life. All he wanted to do was to settle down. So why was Jacob punished for trying to live in peace?

This Midrash can be understood by comparing Jacob with his son, Judah. Especially by comparing this part of Jacob’s life, as seen in chapter 37, with the story of Judah’s life as seen immediately following it in chapter 38.

In chapter 38, we read the story of Judah and Tamar. It is a very confusing story, but it actually has a lot in common with the previous chapter, which is the story of how Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery. The two chapters have a lot of parallel events. For example: The two stories begin with a father trying to settle down; both stories have a father who is unable to protect a son; in both stories the father is tricked by a costume.

Let’s focus on a crucial point of departure between the two stories. When the brothers sold Joseph, they realized that they needed to come up with a story. So they dipped Joseph’s coat in blood and brought it to their father. They said, “Is this your son’s coat?” And Jacob said, “It is my son’s coat. A wild animal ate him, tarof, toraf, yosef, he was torn apart.”

1 Just because there was blood on the coat, Jacob assumed Joseph was dead. Why? Jacob just accepted that Joseph was dead, he didn’t perform any investigation. He didn’t try to find the truth.

I suspect that Jacob, whose very name means deception, had been so used to a deceiving and lying world that he had given up on the search for truth. He had all his shady dealings with his brother, father, father-in-law, he didn’t know what to believe anymore. He could have done an investigation, for Joseph but he didn’t think it would do any good. Jacob, simply, gave up and began to mourn incessantly.

Look at the contrast with Judah in the next chapter. He too, had some deception in him. When Tamar wanted to marry Judah’s third son, Shelah, he lied to her. He said, “Wait till he is old enough to get married.” But Judah never intended to give Shelah in marriage to Tamar. He was simply deceiving her. This was his mistake.

But look at the rest of the story. Its all about Judah searching out the truth; moving away from deception; looking for real answers.

Judah wanted to find the woman who was disguised as a prostitute. So he went down and conducted an investigation. He asked the people: Have you seen this woman? He tried to find the truth. Then Tamar went out to trial, and Judah stood up for the truth. He said: “She is more right than I am.”

Finally, look how the story ends. Tamar gives birth to twins. Jacob too was a twin. But about Jacob there was controversy, who was the first-born. Judah does not want such a controversy to exist. When Judah’s twins are born, he immediately puts a red thread on one son. He is trying to give a clear legal answer to which son is born first—that is the purpose of the red thread.

In summary: Judah began his life with deception. He lied to Tamar; he deceived her about his son. But Judah then recognized the error of his ways. Everything he did from

2 then on was about correcting his error. He would flee from deception. He sought the truth: about whom Tamar was, about Tamar’s trial, about which of the twins was older.

In contrast, Jacob had also lived a life of deception. But Jacob couldn’t change. Jacob thought there was no way to find the truth anymore in the world. He gave up; he didn’t even look. His son’s showed him a bloody coat…why bother doing an investigation… the world is evil…there is no truth, no justice, and no love.

This is why the Midrash criticizes Jacob. Va-Yeshev Yaakov. Jacob settled. He had had enough of life. He had given up. Why bother searching anymore. There was no hope. So God tells Jacob: The time to give up on life is not in this world. When you’re here you have to live. You have to hope and work.

Jacob was despondent and pessimistic. He settled. He settled for what life gave him.

But Judah…he was different. He always strove.

This is why the Kingship will come from Judah. His life stunk also. His two sons died. He had descended into a life of trickery. But he realized his life wasn’t over; its time to repair to rebuild, to look for truth and love in the world. This dedication to rebuilding life, to working on oneself even when the world looks horrible, that’s the source of greatness.

That’s the message I want to share in these days. Now is not the time to be walking around the world with gloom and despair. Now is not the time to say why work on the world, it’s such an ugly place.

Now is the time to realize that we should always be working on ourselves. Now is the time to correct the mistakes of the world. Now is not the time to give up on life. It is the time to create more life.

3 The source of greatness, the source of Judah’s kingship was that when the world looked bleak, he still believed in the world’s greatness. Recently I had the great honor of seeing a moment like that. On Thanksgiving day, I went with Nancy Spielberg to the home of Patricia Kelly, who lost her husband Fireman Kelley on 9/11/2001. There was Patricia with her two beautiful little children so touched by our visit. But there she was still breaking into tears throughout the whole conversation. And yet in the background there was her thanksgiving turkey. She was making the statement, that my life is going on. We are going to enjoy the beauty of the world. For Patricia it was a moment of Thanksgiving, but for me it was moment of Chanukah. A moment when despite the world’s darkness, we see the light in the world.

Shmuel Herzfeld