This week’s Parasha Toldot, it describes the history of our forefathers Isaac, Rebeca and Jacob.
The Torah begins with a struggle that accompanies our ancestors throughout the Book of Genesis: infertility.
Isaac and Rebecca waited twenty years for the fruit of their womb, twenty years of prayers and anticipation, until Jacob and Esau were born.
Later on in the Parasha we learn that Esau sells his spiritual birthright in exchange for a hot and delicious dish of lentil stew. Our commentators explain that we too are faced with this dilemma in life: the important versus the immediate, the valuable versus the glittering.
At the end of the Parasha, Esau wants to kill Jacob, who received the blessings from their father Isaac, and Jacob flees the Land of Israel.
After years in the warm and homely tent of Isaac and Rebecca, he is suddenly forced to leave and flee. His brother Esau planned to kill him, and his mother Rebekah asked him to escape. One can guess that Jacob felt lonely and afraid, alone in the world.
Just before Jacob sets off, his father Isaac calls him. He blesses him and gives him a mission: Your time has come to continue the dynasty and build the Israeli nation. Leave the land of Israel for the region of Haran, and there you will find a wife and start a family, which will be the foundation of the entire people of Israel. In one moment, Jacob becomes a fugitive who runs away but with the ability to transform the situation and within him the feeling that he goes to fulfill a great mission. He does not just escape from his brother; he sets out to build his future.
Most of the time, life does not go as we planned. For better or worse, reality invites surprises for us. The most important is the perspective and what is the interpretation we give to the situation.
Mental flexibility and the ability to turn hopeless situations into a story of salvation are among the most prominent characteristics of the people of Israel – the children of Jacob, from that time to this day.
Let’s pray together that the changes that happened the last days in Israel will bring durable stability and security.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Refael Cohen