Unfinished business



Zhou Enlai, one the Communist leaders of China in the 20th Century was once (quite famously) asked his opinion on the ramifications of the French Revolution of 1789. His wonderful answer was “too soon to say.” Us Jews, like the Chinese, have been around for a long while. And with that, comes an understanding of the long arc of history. What looks like a historical shift to the person on the street, is, too the individual steeped in history, a small tremor on a graph – a graph which could very well be flowing in the opposite direction of that very shift.

Yaakov was different to his father and grandfather. Both men achieved much whilst in the land of Israel, in a spiritual domain, whilst Yaakov’s main accomplishments occur in the house of his uncle Lavan in Charan - the diaspora, a place of crass materialism. While Avraham and Yitzchak accessed truth as it is in heaven, Yaakov’s task was to bring this truth down to earth. To struggle with opposition, and to overcome it. Interestingly, while Yaakov did this to a some extent, it was his son Yosef, who encapsulated this mode of being to an even greater extent than he. Yaakov confronted the diaspora as a fugitive, while Yosef entered as a slave. Yaakov attained the status of a successful businessman, while Yosef became a national leader.

What this means to me is something quite simple – the impact of a life cannot be measured by the successes one achieves within it. Our role is to set a chain reaction in motion, to set the arrow on its path so that it will eventually reach its target, no matter the distance. Our innovation, may be the trickle that our progeny converts into a stream.

Based on Lekkutei Sichot vol. 16 pp310-317

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rose Coloured Glasses

Image
For the contemporary minded, there’s a deeply troubling introduction to a deeply troubling episode in Parshat Vayishlach. The tragic saga of Dina’s violation by Shechem, followed by the retributive massacre of the city, raises the eyebrow of the critical reader at a rate of something like twice per verse. Resolutions remains a touch out of grasp. What this a case of love or lust (see Bereishit 34:2-3)? Where Shimon and Levi even remotely justified in their vengeance? What was Ya’akov’s opinion on the matter? What outcome would Dina have wanted? Perhaps most perplexing of all is the introduction to the debacle – “and Dina, the daughter of Leah who had been born to Ya’akov, went out to see the daughters of the land.” Rashi, the foremost commentary on the Torah focuses on the superfluous rendition of her lineage and writes “due to her outgoingness she is labelled ‘the daughter of Leah’, for her mother too was an out-goer, [evidenced in the episode of the duda’im flowers (see B
Read more

Nocturnal Iconoclasts

Image
Dream interpretation seems somewhat out of vogue these days. Talmudic wisdom seems to have it that dreams are simply a concoction of what one experiences over the course of their waking hours (Berachot 55b). However, beneath the nightmare of thirsty sea-creatures meandering upon dry land, gulping from giant bottles of gurgling goop, there lies our most primal fears, anxieties and aspirations. Our subconscious lets loose as it weaves metaphors of childhood neglect (the thirsty sea creatures) which drives our insatiable appetite for approval at work (the giant bottles of gurgling goop). Obviously, this matter requires copious therapy if its seemingly far-fetched significance is to be fully unravelled. No different are the dreams that abound in Genesis. The colourful characters of the Bible were as iconoclastic in their sleep as they were in their waking hours. Jacob dreams of ladders, angels and sheep, Joseph dreams of stalks and stars, the butler and baker dreams of wine and b
Read more

The Price of Inspiration

Image
How do we look when we are uninspired? Do we let go of the values that define us, throwing in the proverbial towel, or hang on to them for dear life, praying for our next spiritual uplift? Inspiration, by definition, is short-term. It’s a burst that needs endless replenishment. Important, but not reflective of our real selves. What’s truly worth our time and energy is identifying   and shaping our lowest common-denominator, the person we are when our role models are on holiday and our texts don’t speak to us. Midrash on Parshat Vayechi tells us that Yaakov wished to reveal the date of the final Redemption to his children, yet he reneged in the last moment. What was the rationale for the change of heart? Knowing the potential date of Redemption is inspirational, it gives us the push we need to keep up our commitment, knowing that we only have a short distance still to cover. However, the very notion of the final Redemption is one of a fundamental change to reality. A c
Read more