Dear TBZ Community:
Every year, as I stumble into this parasha (Torah portion), I am inspired and moved by the same verse. Perhaps like Jacob, who stumbles upon a place that opens up new possibilities and encounters with the Divine, each year this pasuk (verse) reminds me that this is not just Jacob’s experience but ours as well.
וַיִּיקַץ יַעֲקֹב מִשְּׁנָתוֹ וַיֹּאמֶר אָכֵן יֵשׁ יְהֹוָה בַּמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה וְאָנֹכִי לֹא יָדָעְתִּי
Jacob awoke from his sleep and said,
“Surely Adonai is present in this place, and I did not know it!”
Jacob has run away from his brother and his home, and comes to rest, his head upon a stone for a pillow. As he sleeps, he dreams of angels going up and down on a stairway that reaches heaven. He wakes from his dream in awareness and in amazement.
The sweetness and the power of that moment are conveyed in those few words: “Achen, yesh Adonai bamakon haze, va-ani lo yedati” – “Surely, Adonai is present in this place, and I did not know it.”
There are two inspiring messages in this one short verse.
יֵשׁ יְהֹוָה בַּמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה
Adonai is present in this place!
Here is the recognition that God is present and God is now.
I like to think about this recognition in the framework of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s teaching. He writes: “Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. ….get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.”
Can we live our lives knowing that God is in it? In every place? In every moment of our lives? Practicing radical amazement is not an easy task, but is an invitation to recognize the presence of the Divine in all moments of our lives, the simple as well as in the awe-inspiring ones.
The second part is וְאָנֹכִ֖י לֹ֥א יָדָֽעְתִּ
and I did not know it!
The moment that Jacob wakes up from the dream is surely an “aha moment” for him. It is his moment of recognition that God is there. It is the moment when everything changed for Jacob; when he became aware that God is present in his life and in the world before him.
These two inspiring teachings speak to our capacity to live a life of sacredness. Thibethan author Anam Thubten writes in his book, Choosing Compassion, how to be of benefit in a world that needs our love:
“Perhaps many of the problems that we face each day, both globally, and personally, come from disconnecting with the sacred. The experience of the sacred is something essential that we are missing right now in this world. We can awaken this experience by opening our hearts. When we open our hearts, the sacred is something we can all taste and feel. The experience of the sacred is not an idea or concept. It is not simply an esoteric belief. Of course, it can be turned into a concept or belief. When that happens, we are cut off from something very precious and vital. This can lead to a host of problems. We can forget nature, the environment that surrounds and nurtures us, is rare and precious. We can forget that it is sacred and forget that we ourselves are sacred too. Every human being is sacred. Can you imagine how amazing it would be if humanity suddenly woke up and realized and treated each other accordingly? We could live in a very different world, a much more loving, peaceful, and joyful world.”
The Biblical commentator Sforno explains the words ויפגע במקום (“He came upon a certain place”) from Genesis 28:11 saying:
קרה לו שהגיע אל מקום שלא כיון אליו
“it happened that he came to a place he had not intended to go to at all”
Life is like that! It takes us on journeys and to places that we did not intend. That is not always easy, accepting that we have no control, that we might wake up one morning with the intention to go to one place and end somewhere else, but what Torah comes to teach us is that every moment and every place are potential for the encounter with sacredness. That we should be open to the potential and not become numb to that which can surprise us. Our lives are so full – full of activities and information and worries – and too often we become numb. We become numb to tragedy and brokenness because it is hard to hold it all. And in consequence we become numb to beauty, amazement, and the sacredness that is just in front of us, in everything we do.
My invitation to all of us is to open our hearts and minds to experiences that can radically transform us into an awareness of God’s presence, in this place, in every place and every moment of our lives, and not to disconnect from the sacredness of our lives and all that surrounds us.
May this Shabbat bring renewal and blessings to all of you and your loved ones.
May we find strength, courage, and patience, and open our hearts with generosity.
May all those who are ill find healing. And may we have a joyful, sweet, and peaceful Shabbat.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rav Claudia