Drashot for Vayetzei

Jacob's Ladder, by William Blake

The Power of Dreams

Friday, 23 November 2012

The Reverend, Doctor Martin Luther King, Junior, the American civil rights icon, famously declared to the world:  I have a dream.  His dream was of an America where people of all races would live in harmony and friendship.  It was of an America where negative stereotypes of people of other races would disappear, enabling each American to rise to his true potential.  It envisioned a society thus benefitting from the collective creativity and initiative of all people.

                Dr. King’s dream described a utopian society, and America is no utopia.  Even so, it is hard to argue in the wake of the decisive re-election of the country’s first mixed-race president, that the essence of Dr. King’s dream has not been realised.  And I can tell you first hand, that in America many racial barriers have dropped at least to the point of insignificance.  Wherever you look, you see inter-racial couples, as well as multi-coloured groups of mates out enjoying themselves.  In every sphere of employment, you see teams of workers and professionals of all colours, working together for the benefit of their business or organisation.  It’s in the greater public sphere, particularly politics, where race becomes a source of tension.  But then, it can’t be that bad; as evidence…President Barack Obama.

                As with America, so too with the rest of the Western world.  Yes, even here in Australia!  It doesn’t take an eagle eye to see the way that, for so many Australians, the colour of one’s neighbour’s skin is just not a consequential issue.  Utopia?  Again, no.  But compared to where we were 50 years or even 20 years ago, probably quite breath-taking.

                Tomorrow, in our Torah reading we’ll hear about Jacob’s dream.  It’s also a very famous dream.  In it, there is a ladder planted on the ground and reaching for the sky.  Angels were ascending and descending the ladder.  G-d stood next to Jacob.  He identified Himself as the G-d of Abraham and of Isaac – Jacob’s grandfather and father.  He promised Jacob that He would be with him through his journey, and that in the end he would inherit the land upon which he lay sleeping.

                The context of Jacob’s dream, of course is that he is running for his life.  Having gotten his older brother Esau to sell him his birth right for a pittance, Jacob then tricked is father Isaac into giving him the blessing intended for Esau.  His mother Rebecca, a co-conspirator in the deception, has told Jacob to travel to her family in Haran, ostensibly to find a wife, but really to escape murder at the hands of Esau.  Jacob is running for his life.  He is about to depart the Land of Canaan for his ancestral land, and he has no idea what will be his ultimate destiny.

                Given this context, it is not surprising how the Rabbis have interpreted the symbols in Jacob’s dream.  The most popular interpretation is that the angels ascending and descending represent the nations of the world.  Over the times to come, many nations’ fortunes would rise and then eclipse.  Some would rule of the people Israel.  But such rule would be impermanent.  Through all sorts of adversity, the people Israel would endure.  And they would continue to possess their land, promised by G-d to Abraham.

                Jacob’s dream, like Dr. King’s is therefore seen to contain a message of hope.  Both dreams are seen as expressions of the most profound longing.  They lend much credence to the postulations of Sigmund Freud in his famous work Die Traumdeutung (The Interpretation of Dreams). Freud believed that all dreams represented visions of the dreamer’s sub-conscious wish fulfilment.

                Freud is still closely studied in psychology today, and most of today’s students acknowledge a certain timelessness to his wisdom.  Even so, it is almost universally acknowledged that he’s not the Last Word on everything, about which he wrote.  Most psychologists would agree that a large portion of dreams represent the deep-seated longings of the heart in the way that Freud believed.  But today, many would say the issue is more complex.  Freud dismissed the idea of dreams as windows into psychic visions, as useless parapsychology.  But others would argue that there is a world beyond the rational, where we are offered glimpses into the future.  In that world, dreams do have a role beyond that of vehicles for our deepest longings.

                While I’m not completely dismissive of this role of dreams and visions, I am sceptical.  For example, when someone comes to me and says she is plagued by demons that taunt her and terrorise her neighbourhood.  My immediate reaction to this person is that she doesn’t need a rabbi…she needs a pshrink!  And indeed, the job of the pshrink – the psychiatrist or psychologist who practices psychoanalysis – is to delve into the deep recesses of people’s subconscious.  To probe inside and decide what is really there.  It’s true that there is some overlap between psychology and religion, but not that much.  Even my Catholic colleagues don’t do many exorcisms these days.

                So my reaction, when someone tells me they’ve had a dream, is usually quite Freudian.  My first instinct is not to see it not as a psychic vision of the future.  Rather, my gut instinct is to place the dream in the realm of the person’s deepest wishes – whether conscious or unconscious.  In that case, the difference between a dream and destiny, is nothing more than initiative.  It’s true that the fulfilment of Jacob’s dream, or that of Dr. King, required far more than one person’s initiative.  But in both cases, the fulfilment surely began with one person’s initiative.  With the translation of the dream-concept to hard work.  With the charisma to bring other people on board, to get them to also dream the dream and be motivated to work towards its fulfilment.

                Theodore Herzl, the pioneer of Zionism, put it so well.  Im tirzu, ein zo agada.  If you will it, it is not a dream.  The difference between a dream and a reality is the will to pursue it.

                Yesterday, a truce ended eight days of exchanges of fire between Hamas and presumably, other factions in the Gaza Strip, and Israel.  This latest exchange of fire began with two unprovoked attacks by Hamas on Israeli forces across the border fence.  It ended with intervention by the Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  The entire world – at least those who care about the destinies of the Israeli and Palestinian peoples – is holding its breath to see if the truce holds.  To see if it will lead to a more substantial easing of tensions.  Or even, a lasting peace.  Peace in the Middle East is, for now only a dream.  But if the Palestinians will it – if they ever come to terms with the reality of Israel and her continued existence – it will not be but a dream.  Will that day ever come?  May it be more than a dream.  Shabbat shalom.

Rachel at the Well, by henry Ryland

The Meaning of Destiny

Saturday, 24 November, 2012

Perhaps you know the Yiddish word beshert.  It means fated, or destined.  Its most common use is with regard to how those who will become a couple, happened to meet.  It was beshert that I met my wife.  Or the word is used as a noun.  She is my beshert.  That is to say, she is my destiny.

                When you meet the one whom you will love for your life, or at least foreseeably, it is completely natural to think that it was destined.  I don’t know about you, but when I was single, I met many women.  I dated some of them.  I was attracted to them.  I enjoyed being with them.  But not until I met Clara did I feel I was destined to be with any of them for life.  It is easy, and commonplace to be instantly infatuated with someone.  It is another thing entirely to see one’s destiny as being with another someone.  I’m sure there are others in the room this morning who experienced this instant recognition of their destiny with the one who came to be their partner.  It is not at all uncommon to find such a person.  But that doesn’t mean it is not a very special find when it does happen!

Last night I spoke about the power of dreams.  Anticipating this morning’s Torah reading, in which we read the narrative of Jacob’s dream, I spoke about the difference between dream and reality.  And the difference is will.  As Theodore Herzl famously said, If you will it, it is not a dream.  A dream is fulfilled when the dreamer has the will to realise it.  Of course, if it is a big dream, its fulfilment requires the will – and the initiative – of many.  Such was the case with, for example, the dream of the Reverend, Doctor Martin Luther King, Junior.  He dreamt a dream of a colour blind America.  While the entirety of his dream has not been realised, it is hard to argue that its essence has not come to pass.  After all, my home country elected a mixed-race president in 2008.  And re-elected him recently.  Decisively.  Who’da thunk 50 years ago, that this would happen?  Now, many of you know of my own political preferences.  If you do, you know that I am a conservative.  You know that President Obama was not my choice.  An American conservative would not vote for someone in the Western European, Social Democratic mould like President Obama.  Still, despite my not thinking he was the man of choice, it is difficult to argue that his election and re-election bodes for optimism with regard to progress on the long march toward achieving Dr. King’s dream.  My country has survived bad choices in presidential elections.  I’m sure Australia has had good prime ministers, and no-so-good ones, and it has survived the latter ones.  But evidence that the power of knee-jerk racism is on the wane – that’s really important.  And that’s a gift that Barack Obama, perhaps unwittingly, has given to the American people, and the world.

Was Obama’s election beshert?  Nu, let’s not get carried away…

But it is hard to argue that, for Jacob, Rachel was not beshert.  In this morning’s reading, we read the narrative of their first meeting.  Upon arrival in the ‘lands of the east,’ Jacob joins a group of shepherds at a communal well, and inquires of his mother’s brother, Laban.  It happens that, at that very moment, Laban’s daughter Rachel is arriving on the scene, leading her father’s flocks.  Jacob immediately recognises that Rachel is his beshert.  As the narrative continues beyond where we read this morning, we learn of the trickery and adversity that Jacob must endure, in order to be married to Rachel.  But if you know the story, you know that he does it.  And the two sons whom Rachel gives him, Joseph and Benjamin, end up as his favourites, because they are the result of his love for Rachel, his destined one.

Some would argue that destiny is an illusion.  That we create our own destiny by our attractions, our decisions, and our commitments.  All that may very well be true.  But I will never make that argument.  For me, there is always a side to life that transcends the rational.  There are phenomena that cannot be easily explained, or cannot be explained at all.  There are outcomes that could not have been anticipated, not in a thousand years.

Could Jacob have anticipated that, just because he was in the general vicinity of Haran, he would immediately meet his cousin and see in her his destiny?  Of course not!  Could I have anticipated that, on the summer day on the sidewalk in front of the terminal at Austin’s airport, I would meet the one for whom I was destined?  Again, negative.  But it happens, in ways that one cannot rationally explain.

Destiny is difficult to discern.  The radar that we use to sniff it out cannot easily separate it from the clutter of our desires.  From the distraction caused by the attractions of our eyes.  The eyes can and do easily deceive us.  That’s no secret.  Ask any lawyer or judge involved in criminal justice.  They will tell you that eyewitnesses, are the most unreliable kind of witnesses.

 When we read the account of Jacob and Rachel meeting for the first time, we can draw a number of lessons from the narrative.  The lesson I like to take away, and that I recommend for you is this.  Not everything in life can be anticipated.  There is mystery enough to delight or confound.  To some degree, our success in life – or our happiness – rests in our ability to recognise things for what they are.

Life has taught me to believe in destiny.  That we are born to fulfil a destiny or destinies that might be completely illogical given prior experience.  Surely, the desires of our eyes may prevent us from recognising those destinies when we see them.  We may fight them.  We may turn away from them.  The attraction of rational decisions is powerful.  It’s something I will never argue against.  But if we’re open to destiny, we may find it transcends rational decision.  It can produce result far more sublime than any possible when we follow our intellect.  Such was the case with Jacob.  The price he had to pay was far too great than that to logically be paid for any woman.  That is, for any woman except for his beshert.  For all of Jacob’s shortcomings – and they were many – he recognised Rachel for what she was.  And his steadfast will to realise his destiny, in that it produced Joseph, saw the realising of no less than G-d’s promise to Abraham.  Such is the power of destiny.  Such is the importance of recognising it, for what it is.  Shabbat shalom.