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Parsha Toldot: The Age of Quarrel (Gen 25:19 – 28:9)

November 9, 2015 by Jeremiah

Parsha Toldot like many other Torah Portions has a sense of ambiguity to it. This ambiguity is what makes the Torah’s lessons relevant for people living yesterday, today, tomorrow, for both male and females, people of all ages, and for everyone scattered across this globe we call Earth. When I decided to try my hand at Dvar-ing (is that even a word?) I tried to forget everything that I know about our collective spiritual ancestors. I didn’t want to infuse each week’s reading with some socio-political agenda or pen a modern day discussion citing great Jewish minds past and present like Rambam and Elie Wiesel, who knows maybe the next cycle I will focus my Dvrei through that looking glass. As I sat down to once again read the story of Jacob and Esau’s relationship with each other and their parents all I could think about were the concepts of mind over matter and might makes right.

This portion is about twin brothers who when looked at as one person create a deep, complicated, driven individual. The Quarrel between the two is really the conflict we all deal with on a daily basis within ourselves. Jacob leaves his mother’s womb clinging to his brothers heal. This tells us that in Rebecca’s womb as each body split and grew into Esau and Jacob there was a struggle. Esau being the physically stronger was able fight his way out first, Jacob while physically weaker was mentally determined to never give up by clinging to his brother.

As they grew older Esau was manly, hairy, loud, an outdoors man or the extrovert. Jacob was delicate, smooth skinned, quiet, an indoors man or the introvert. The extrovert in the here and now is always dominant while the introvert is able to visualize a goal and piece by piece work towards it only to dominate later. When Esau ate Jacob’s soup he was dominating because he had the soup and was no longer hungry Jacob on the other hand knew what he ultimately wanted and while giving up his meal was able to take a step towards his ultimate goal by making a trade for Esau’s birthright. Later on he tricks his father Isaac into giving him what would have been Esau’s blessing and Esau Jacob’s blessing enraging Esau. Esau’s rage is not at his mother for conspiring against him with Jacob or at his father for going along with the charade, but at his other half Jacob and by default himself.

How often do each of us allow our thoughts and actions to clash within us. How often do you let insecurities stop you from simply just getting better. Better at physical pursuits and better intellectually. There are many times when I am my worst enemy when I quarrel within myself for not being the strongest, the most outgoing, the wittiest. What is your quarrel? How have you reconciled your extrovert and introvert sides?

Filed Under: Community Member Blogs, Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud) Tagged With: Circle Pit The Bimah, convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, esau, genesis, isaac, jacob, jeremiah, online conversion, parsha toldot, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, Rebecca

Parsha Vayishlach: “Think for the best or you will go down just like the rest!” (Gen 32:4 – 36:43)

December 5, 2011 by Jeremiah

A couple weeks ago Toldot was approached under the assumption, since Esau and Jacob are twins they are in essence one very deep, complicated, driven individual split between two bodies. This separation of one divine spark creates an unmovable object contrasted by the unstoppable force. Vayishlach is what happens when the inevitable ramming of the horns occurs.

In this week’s portion Jacob returns to his homeland worried, and reasonably so, dividing his estate into two camps in hopes that when he meets his twin brother Esau any revenge meted out will only be felt by one side. Jacob isolates himself during the night to prepare himself for his meeting with Esau. During the night Jacob is confronted by a stranger whom he spends the rest of the evening wrestling with. Some believe this stranger to be Esau others believe him to be an angle, or a manifestation of Hashem, or even Jacob himself. Whoever Jacob wrestled with is not important what is important is how this plays into to the reunification of a Divine spark which happens the next morning.

Esau who was the extroverted half of the two was always physically strong and being that way he never had to look past the present moment to satisfy his needs. Jacob representing the introverted side was intelligent enough to know he needed time to plan and strategize in order to move towards his ultimate goal. The years he spent away working and building a large family with his wives and maidservants afforded him the time to become physically and strategically strong enough to confront Esau.

As the sun slowly rose and the dawn crept up ushering in the ultimate day of reckoning one hurdle remained for Jacob. . .he must conquer the introvert. Jacob physically overcomes the stranger only to be permantly handicapped yet reborn as Israel.

Israel, not Jacob, limps back to his camp waiting to confront the rest of his Divine spark resting within Esau. Israel, not Jacob, bows to his twin brother seven times. Esau is overcome with what he sees and embraces his brother Israel who is no longer his enemy Jacob. What a great end to a heart breaking conflict.

Vayishlach really spoke to me this week, more than I can every remember it doing in the past. Shortly after starting Circle Pit the Bimah I was forced to come to a head with myself. I was at a point were I felt overwhelmed, in other words I felt like the Greek character Atlas on a bad day. One night I had a dream where I’m in a suit walking through a city which always acts as the backdrop for most of my dreams. I’m looking past the  high rise sky line into mountains covered by jungle, and I think to myself I need to walk over there for Shul since today is Friday and the sun is about to set. So I walk and walk and walk never really getting any closer to my goal, finally I get frustrated and give up, rationalizing that there will always be another Shabbat why worry about it. I then walk down a flight of steps into a basement resulting in me waking up.

The entire next day I am not my usual self, more than anything I am mad at my subconscious for giving in so easily the night before. I decided to work from home, didn’t shave or bath, really didn’t do anything except clash with myself. That night I had another dream. A huge floating albino snake slithered up to me. The serpent was approximately 10-12 feet in length and its red eyes just stared at me while its body swayed back and forth behind it. As much as snakes creep me out I just stood there and stared back. Then it happened . . .WHAM!!! the serpent strikes face first into my chest. My body sways like wheat during a breezy summers day but my feat remain rooted to the earth. Defeated the serpent flies off and in my dream reasoning I understand why it lost. During the entire confrontation its mouth was closed so it could not whisper to me and break my resolve. The next morning I reevaluated a lot of the things that where baring down on me. Those I could change I did, those I could influence to a degree I did, and those I couldn’t do anything about I just stopped obsessing over and I have felt great ever since.

The things I was wrestling with while trivial compared to what Jacob had to overcome still forced me to reconcile Jeremiah with Jeremiah. What is your biggest obstacle? How did you find peace within yourself? We want to know. Comment below or message me jeremiah@punktorah.org Twitter: @circlepitbimah.

Filed Under: Community Member Blogs, Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud) Tagged With: Circle Pit The Bimah, convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, esau, Israel, jacob, jeremiah, online conversion, parsha vayishlach, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier

Parshat Toldot featuring Girls In Trouble, Sarah B, Golem, FrumSatire, HeebnVegan and Matthue Roth

November 22, 2009 by Patrick Beaulier

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LUW_PiNf-c

The sacred connection between food and Judaism is powerfully displayed in Parshat Toldot.

In the early part of the story, Jacob tricks his brother Essau into giving up his birthright in exchange for a bowl of red lentils, which Essau mistook for meat. And later, Isaac is tricked by Jacob and his mother Rebecca into giving his blessing to Jacob instead of his brother, thanks to a meal.

Filed Under: Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud), Podcasts & Videos Tagged With: bible, Counterculture, esau, food, issac, jacob, Jewish, Jews, Judaism, Parsha, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, Punk, punktorah, Religion, seau, toldos, Torah, yaacov, yitzak

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