Another amazing Parsha!
Another amazing Parsha! VaYishlach recounts the story of the dramatic and emotional reunion of Jacob and Esau, the brothers who had been estranged for some twenty years. The touching scene of their embrace and reconciliation can give us hope in light of the social estrangements that we are experiencing today.
No doubt Esau and Jacob must have gone through much soul searching to get to the place where they could embrace and where Jacob would be welcomed back into the land of his birth. As we know from the narrative, Jacob, in anxious anticipation of meeting his brother, accompanied by 400 warriors, could not sleep that night and finds himself wrestling with a “man.” Some interpret that it was an angel or messenger from God, others suggest that it was the “man” within him, wrestling with his past and his guilt. As dawn appears Jacob successfully emerges and asks for a blessing from this being, but first, the being responds by giving him the name Yisrael, “one who has striven with God and with humanity and has overcome…”
This past Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, I attended much of the J Street Leadership Summit. Held in person in D.C. and also virtually, I witnessed a few hundred Jewish leaders wrestling with the ever present and complex struggle between our people and our Palestinian brothers and sisters.
The plenaries and sessions included both Israeli and Palestinians leaders, heads of NGOs, US administration officials, members of Congress and J Street staff. The presentations are available through the J Street website, https://jstreet.org/. I highly recommend the analysis of the land issues surrounding Jerusalem by Dan Seidemann, an attorney who made Aliyah in 1973 and founded Terrestial Jerusalem - Foundation for Middle East Peace, https://fmep.org/grants/terrestrial-jerusalem/.
I’m impressed with the J Street vision and their success working with increasing members of Congress, their missions to Israel-Palestine, their deep concern for human rights and persistence in seeking ways to reconcile the national aspiration of two peoples.
Some of us may have doubts about the possibility of a two State solution but we should not have doubts about those who are trying so hard to create a shared society.
B'Shalom,
Reb David