Jacob meets God

5 May 2012 – Rabbi Sarah Wolf

• 1^st time God spoke to Jacob, but He adds something more to what He said to Abraham. See last week’s notes.
• 28:15 - אִם in this context is no the conditional “if,” but “when.”
• Avivah Zornberg [The Beginning of Desire: Reflections on Genesis] on the promise, “I am with you”
• Jacob is no longer alone. He his a partner to God; the divine presence accompanies him.
• Also relates to loneliness …
• Metaphor of meeting God in darkness is apt because he is in a dark lonely place after leaving his family.
• 28:16-17
• וַיִּירָא – awe or fear; Jacob was afraid, had an intense reaction; no other patriarch had this type of reaction. When God tells Abraham, lech lecha, he is silent. Why does Jacob have such a “human” reaction, why does he appear shaken? Two possible reasons:
• It was a dream. Elsewhere, God speaks to patriarchs when they are awake.
• Not prepared for the prophecy; he laments that he should have been awake in such a sacred place (Rashi). Falling asleep is embarrassing and shameful.

Rashi writes on the text of 28:16, “And Jacob awakened from his sleep, and he said, "Indeed, the Lord is in this place, and I did not know [it]:"

and I did not know [it]: For had I known, I would not have slept in such a holy place. [from Bereishith Rabbathi , attributed to Rabbi Moshe Hadarshan]

• 28:18-19
• Jacob gets up early, like Abraham, to do God’s will; that’s how eager and righteous he is.
• He anoints the stone and names the place Beth El. Perhaps formerly a sacred place to worship Canaanite God El.
• 28:20 – Jacob’s weird vow
• It’s conditional! After God gives Jacob an apparently unconditional covenant.
• Perhaps Jacob doesn’t trust his dream and is skeptical that it was a real prophecy.
• Challenging God is not unprecedented – Abraham did it a few times…
• Yet Jacob asks for reasonable things: clothing, safety, and food, to help him live. If he doesn't’ survive his experience and dies , then he cannot fulfill the covenant.
• אִם, here translated as “then” can also be interpreted as “and” (or possibly “because”).
• Bereshit Rabbah – on order of elements in the vow – two views:
• Vow came before Jacob’s dream.
• Order is correct as stated.
• However, the vow becomes invalid if Jacob sins; the “condition” is actually Jacob’s behavior.
• I-thou relationship is for God only; Jacob is wants an I-it (transactional) relationship, because he has so little experience with the divine presence; he doesn’t know God too well. In verse 22, he states that God is in the stone.
• Nehama Leibowitz [Studies in Bereshit] – Jacob’s own failings are represented here, recalling his experiences with Lavan and his own deceit with Isaac.
• In verse 15, the word וַיַּחֲלֹם, and he dreamed, is close to root of other Hebrew words: bread, angel, collective memory, … - all of which are ways to make physical things happen …[?]
• Jacob is getting ready to evolve into a tzadik. He asks for only the bare necessities; his humility shows. Later on he will get it all.
• Robert Alter [The Five Books of Moses] – Jacob’s nature is to be suspicious; he drove a hard bargain with Esau and Laban; he’s shrewd.
• Big picture issue: what do we ask of God? What proof do we need that God exists?
• Micah – what God asks of you
• God should hear us.
• Ask us what He wants.
• Hashkiveynu prayer - keep us safe and tell us the right thing to do
• Wisdom to understand
• Petitions during daily Amidah
• Other parts of liturgy in which requests are made …

NOTE: all of the references mentioned – Bereshit Rabbah, Rashi, Zornberg, Leibowitz, Alter – are in the Beth Am Library