Tzedek, Psalm 118, and Vayishlach

Image Description:
Artist: Jakob Steinhardt, 1887-1968
Born Germany,
Lived and painted in Germany and Israel

This piece is in the Israel Museum.

The photo of Jakob is in black and white and is of his head and face. He appears to have light/Ashkenasic skin, white or grey hair, big grey eyebrows, and a rather round face with a square jaw. His mouth is set in a serious line. A bit of light shirt color is also in the picture. His dark eyes are looking at the photographer.

The painting is Jacob and Esau, there are dark hills and a sky of deep blues behind them, but the majority of the frame is the two embraced figures. Their faces are in one another's shoulders. The one behind has darker brown hair, short in back, his neck is exposed, his skin is a light peach/beige. He's wearing a teal blue tunic awith no sleeves nd his left, muscular arm is wrapped around the other figure's neck. The other figure is wearing deep, rusty orange tunic with sleeves and leaning. The face is not visible, but the reddish facial hair is. There are vein lines in the neck. The left hand of each figure is holding onto the back of the other's neck in this embrace.

On The Importance of Image Descriptions

"Think of all the books that you have read for leisure, work or school in your lifetime. How many of your textbooks, novels, memoirs, and instructional books have images? Now imagine those books with all of the images omitted. Undoubtedly, this would make the experience of reading the books frustrating and challenging, especially if you need those books for employment and educational purposes.

This is the reality for many readers around the world who have a print disability (which includes individuals who are blind or visually impaired, people with cognitive and comprehension disabilities, and persons who have physical mobility challenges), but happily, there are ways to address this issue! Including image descriptions in your books is the best way to ensure that your publications can be fully understood, and fully enjoyed, by all readers."

I invite you to take a close look at this painting by Jakob Steinhardt.
What do you see in the relationship between the two figures? What is happening in the painting?
If you'd like, read the whole Jacob and Esau story up to this point in Genesis 25:19 - 33:20 again and then return to the painting. Now what do you see? What do you wonder? What questions do you have about these characters and this story and this relationship?

Genesis 33:20 wraps up the moment with:

Jacob has reconciled - perhaps - with his brother Esau he continues on his journey and purchased and settled on a parcel of land in Shechem. On that land, Jacob "set up an altar" - a mizbei'ach - and he named that atlar for El, God of Israel. God of "one who wrestles with God."

The wrestling is provocative, and we'll return to it.

First, what is a mizbei'ach? Sure, it's a place of sacrifice, a slab of stone on which Jacob can make an offering. Let's think about that more broadly, though. What is an altar really? What are the sacrifices intended for? To connect with God, right? Making an altar a place of connection with God. Do we have such places today?

As taught by Rabbi Ismar Schorsch:

". . .what became of the altar in Jewish consciousness after the destruction of the Second Temple. The Rabbis transposed it metaphorically into another sacred key: the Jewish home. The altar became the table at which the family gathered to eat its common meals. It is the consumption of food which connects the two institutions. Thus Rabbis Yohanan and Resh Lakish in third century Palestine conceived it to be a locus for reconciliation. “In the days of the Temple, the altar served to atone for us; now it is our table that atones for us (B.T. Hagiga 27a).” Rashi, in his comment on their assertion, suggests that the atonement is effected by inviting guests to our table, that is, in repairing our relations with people outside the family.

But I suspect that there are enough strains and rifts within the family fabric to warrant repairing. Atonement begins at home. I take the counsel of Rabbi Yohanan and Resh Lakish to mean that mealtime is to be used to reach out to loved ones, to share ideas and experiences, to show understanding and compassion.

It is even a time to bring God into our frenetic lives. The conversation around our surrogate altar is to be illumined with flashes of eternity."

https://www.jtsa.edu/torah/the-altar-at-home/


So a mizbei'ach, an altar, is a gateway to God, as it were. A place where we can illuminate our lives with flashes of eternity.

We continue . . .

Okay, so Jacob's altar here is a simple gateway, but a gateway nonetheless.
Returning to God-wrestling and Jacob's new name, once Jacob becomes Israel, becomes "one who wrestles with the Divine", according to some of our sages he also becomes representative of the human side of the gate. In some way, both offering a sacrifice and also engaging with and wrestling with God create pathways or portals between human existence and the Divine. It should not be lost on us that as the People of Israel, we are Jacob-as-Israel's descendants.

While we hold and reflect on this mystical proposal that Jacob is how the Divine Presence rests on earth and think about possible implications of that, let's also layer in that this parsha is read in Kislev in the weeks approaching Chanukah. Chanukah is, of course, a celebration of the rebuilding of the Temple. Yet, with the perspective of history we also know there were only about 235 years between the rededication and the ultimate destruction in 70CE. What's more, those 235 years were no picnic. The Maccabees regained the Temple and Jerusalem and established the Hasmonean dynasty. After leading the revolt for five years, Judah was killed in battle and Jonathan, his brother, succeeded him as general. In 153 or 152 BCE, Jonathan was made high priest in Jerusalem, beginning the high priestly Hasmonean line. The strict upholders of the Law, however, were alienated, because the Law held that no man should be high priest who was not of priestly descent from Aaron, the brother of Moses. From now on this group formed a strong opposition party, later to be known as the most conservative section of the Pharisees (the religious group whose interpretations and applications of the Law, written and oral, became accepted tradition in later Judaism). The story we typically tell is simple: The Greeks attacked and prohibited the Jews from practicing the traditions and rituals of Judaism, the Maccabees fought back - led, of course, by Judah the Hammer - and won and rededicated the Temple wherein there was found only enough oil for one day, but it miraculously lasted for eight. The problem is, it wasn't really "The Greeks" or even the Asyrian-Greeks - it was the Seleucids, and it wasn't just an attack. It was decades of internal disagreement about religious practice and politics. It was significant in-fighting within the Jewish community. It was years of siege in part because of where this Land is - look at a map and look at the empire of Alexander the Great.
https://digitalmapsoftheancientworld.com/digital-maps/the-hellenistic-world/alexander-the-greats-empire/

The map below is in blues - water, greens/browns - land. It shows a kind of a right facing shofar shape with the mouthpeace to the west and the horn to the east, but then there is a leg coming down through Israel (a skinny leg) and a big foot where Egypt is.

This actual military history is worth more of our time, but for now, let's take a look at part of the spiritual practice of Chanukah - Hallel.

Hallel is a prayer of gratitude added to the morning service on festive Jewish holidays.

Hallel literally means "praise" and it is made up of six psalms (113-118) that together complete an extended expression of thanks to God for the many kindnesses bestowed upon Israel.

We recite Hallel on the first two days of Passover, Shavuote, Sukkot, and Chanukah and a shortened version, known as "Half Hallel" on the last six days of Passover and on Rosh Chodesh, the celebration of a new Hebrew month. A version of Hallel is part of the Passover Seder.

Some folks also recite it on Yom HaAtzmaut - Israeli Independence Day and Jerusalem Day.

Thinking about Jacob and his mizbei'ach, his altar, his gateway, let's take a closer look at Psalm 118.

When I lead Hallel online, those verses look like this:

image:
Black writing in Hebrew, transliteration, and English on a peach background.

Min-hameitzar karati Ya; anani baMerchav Ya.

This narrow place reminds us of Egypt, Mitzrayim (which we can hear shares a root, a shoresh, with haMEITZAR in 118:5), but also, I think of Jacob. His life had been one of such scarcity for so long - the struggle to share space in their mother's womb, Esau's plea to Isaac about whether there wasn't a blessing for him, too, the favoritism, the running, the long years of work to marry his beloved . . . in so many ways despite the magnitude of what is happening to and around him, Jacob's life feels so small. So narrow. I can imagine him saying, "From a narrow place I called out to God, and God answered me from the expanse and brought me relief."

The image above is of one of the walls of the Old City in Jerusalem. There is a blue film over the image, and then in cream writing are the words that you also have above from Psalms 118:5. Let's continue . . .

I have an invitation.
What if the "enemy", the "nations" the "they" who have beset me are spiritually whatever gets between us and the gate, the connection with God?

Why do I suggest that? Well, let's look at 118:19:

Pitchu-li sha'arei-tzedek avo-va odeh Ya.

Zeh-haSha'ar l'Adonai, tzadikim yavo'u vo.

The image below is the same one with Min Hameitzar on it, on the bottom are the words of 11819-20.

What if the gateway to God is a gate of tzedek?

What if tzedek is somehow also a mizbei'ach?

What Is Tzedek?

This is the word we typically translate to justice.
It is about doing justice for ourselves and also for others in our community and in the world.
As I understand it, tzedek is about restoring the balance the world is meant to have.

For example, as taught by Earl Schwartz, when we have money or resources in excess, these things aren't ours, but rather, ours in trust. When we discover their rightful owner, it is our obligation - not only our option - to redistribute that money or resource to them. These are the corners of the field, marked off when we sow and when we harvest because they aren't ours to begin with. These are the gleanings that fall when we harvest, they fall and we leave them for the gleaners because even if the field is ours, the gleanings do not belong to us. Which also means if we are in need, we may be the rightful owner of what someone else is holding in trust. We should be grateful to them for holding that resource responsibly, but we do not become beholden to them for transferring it back to where it belongs.

As a near-aside, thinking about tzedakah and tzedek this way could inform our conversations about reparations.

Deeply rooted in the Torah, many mitzvot - commandments - emphasize its importance such as providing for those in need, seeking justice for people who are oppressed, and speaking out against wrongdoing. Difficult to define and challenging to accomplish, it can be helpful to explore some of the Jewish values and actions connected with tzedek to better understand it.

Hachnasat Orchim - welcoming guests with warmth and generosity.
Kavod HaBriyot - the respect and dignity deserved by all human beings without regard for social status or background.
Kol Yisrael Arevim Zeh BaZeh - every Jewish soul is connected and every Jewish soul is crucial to the soul of the nation.

Pe'ah - anticipating the needs of the vulnerable.
Anavah - humility/right place, right space, recognizing our own and one another's essential value.
Bitachon - trust in God.
Kiddish HaShem - the sanctification of God's name.
Tikkun Olam - repairing the world, it is our responsibility as human beings to actively work toward a world that is truly a place for all of the beings in it.

Olam Chesed Yibaneh - building the world with love, kindness, and compassion.

Avodah - work or service, both physical and spiritual.

Here is the painting of Jacob and Esau again.

There are dark hills and a sky of deep blues behind them, but the majority of the frame is the two embraced figures. Their faces are in one another's shoulders. The one behind has darker brown hair, short in back, his neck is exposed, his skin is a light peach/beige. He's wearing a teal blue tunic with no sleeves and his left, muscular arm is wrapped around the other figure's neck. The other figure is wearing deep, rusty orange tunic with sleeves and leaning. The face is not visible, but the reddish facial hair is. There are vein lines in the neck. The left hand of each figure is holding onto the back of the other's neck in this embrace.

In what ways might we bring all of these ideas together?

• Jacob's long journey
• The competing experiences of scarcity and abundance
• The struggle between the brothers
• Jacob wrestling with God and becoming Israel
• Jacob building an altar
• An altar being a place to connect with God
• An altar being a gate
• Jacob somehow representing God being in the world
• Jacob somehow representing the human side of the gate
• The wrestling itself maybe being a gate
• Our tables becoming altars
• Our homes being a gate
• Tzedek being a gate
• Tzedek being the intended, just balance in the world
• Chanukah being in some way our dedication to tzedek, to gates, to altars, and to the wrestling

Psalm 118 continues . . .

Ken yehi ratzon.

May it be so.