VAYETZE 1990

In the Torah portion Vayetzai we learn how Yaacov flees from his brother.  We learn how he lights at a place, he takes a stone from the place and puts it under his head, and he lies down there, and he has a wonderful dream of angels ascending and descending, and in this dream G-d tells him that "the land that he lies upon it it will be given to him and his children and his children will be like the dust of the land they will spread eastward and westward and northward and southward and they will be blessed by him all the families of the earth," and G-d also promises that He will be with him, etc.  Jacob wakes from his dream and he erects a monument to the place that he had this dream, and he makes an oath.  In this oath he says that if G-d will be with me and will watch me on this road that I am going and will give me bread to eat and clothes to wear and I will return in peace to the house of my father and G-d will for me as a G-d and then I will give 10% of everything I have to G-d.  This seems a very strange oath.  We can understand how he says if G-d will be with me and guard me and so forth and give me food to eat and clothing to wear and I will return in peace to the house of my father.  After all, if he does not have anything he cannot give anything. Why does he say, "And G-d shall be for me as a G-d"?  What does he mean?  Is it possible that G-d will not be for him as a G-d?
The answer the rabbis give is that yes, it is possible.  Jacob, at this junction in his life, is very shook up.  Here he was the student, the person who never harmed anybody, who kept to himself, the person who was, in a certain sense, the observer of life.  He was not the rowdy, violent fellow that his brother Esau was.  All of a sudden his whole world collapsed.  All of a sudden he got involved in a dubious plot to take the brother's blessing from him, and although technically he really deserved the blessing because he bought the birthright, yet, there was a great deal of moral ambiguity here.  The rabbis say that for every tear that Esau shed because he did not get the blessing the Jewish people paid many times over.  In fact, the rabbis also say that Jacob got punished measure
 
for measure.  Just as he tricked and deceived his brother and father so he was
tricked and deceived by Laban, his uncle, many times.
We see from this that Jacob is befuddled.  He does not have the confidence anymore to know what is happening to him.  He is completely overwhelmed.  That is why it says, "And he alighted in the place."  "Vayeefka" in Hebrew can also mean that he was wounded.  Jacob was wounded.  He did not know where to turn anymore. How could he have done these things, swindled his brother, deceived his father, been forced to flee for his life?  He no longer can be the student that he was before.  What happened all of a sudden?  It says, "And he lay down in that place." "Vayeeshka" in Hebrew can also mean that he was sick.  Later after he has the dream it says, "And Jacob woke up from his sleep," and that word can also mean from his learning.  He woke up and he found that he was a human being just like all other human beings.  He found out that he could get in morally compromising situations.  He realized that he was human just like everybody else.  Up to this time he made the mistake that many people today make, and that is that people think today that because they understand the process that, therefore, they are immune from it.  I remember many times going to doctors who tell their patients to quit smoking and to lose weight and they are puffing away on their cigar with a big pot belly.  Many times people, when they feel they understand the process, somehow feel that they are immune from it.  This is true especially in interpersonal relationships.  They say nothing will happen to them.  If you get involved in a certain situation things are going to happen to you, too.  We know that in a physical sphere we do not say that.  Just because I understand the laws of biology does not mean that if I cut my finger I will not bleed.  Just because I understand the laws of physics does not mean that if I jump over a cliff I will not get hurt.  Understanding a process does not mean that you are exempt, but Jacob, up to this time, thought that he was exempt from these things.  All

of a sudden he got involved in all these types of machinations.  Usually it happens to people that when they get involved in these types of problems in life they immediately look for a scapegoat.  He could have blamed his mother or other things. Instead of facing the problem and trying to solve it people look for scapegoats. Of course, that does not solve anything, and the more intelligent a person is the more that person can come up with interesting and credible rationalizations. Usually when a person gets fired he does not look and try to figure out what caused him to be fired.  He says the boss' wife does not like him, etc. and comes up with other roundabout  reason when really there is a basic reason why you are fired. Many people do not want to face the fact.  They do not want to look for the fault within themselves.
Jacob is known in our tradition as truth.  We know that Abraham gave the world deeds of kindness.  He is known for his deeds of kindness.  Yitzchak was known for his mysticism, and Jacob was known for his truth.  Why was he known for his truth?  He was known for his truth because he did not fool himself.  He, at this time, was no longer assured that he could maintain his faith.  He was only assured that would not get once again in these morally compromising types of situations.
In the rest of the Torah portion we learn what Jacob did in order to make sure that he would not involve himself in these types of morally compromising situations again.  We learn, first of all, that he always consulted with his wife.  When an important situation came up he consulted with Rachel and Leah.  When we involved ourselves in morally compromising situations we should not just flip a coin and say, should we do it or shouldn't we do it.  We should take advice from people and investigate it thoroughly because sometimes our own self-interest is so strong that we cannot see the forest for the trees.  Sometimes we are able to convince ourselves that right is wrong and wrong is right.  So the first that he did was
 
to make sure that he consulted with somebody.
The second thing is that he did not get mad.  After all, many times people, because they get mad, their judgment becomes cloudy.  When Laban tricked him and gave him Leah instead of Rachel he could have just walked out, but that would not have solved anything because he wanted to marry Rachel.  What was his goal? What did he want to achieve?  There is a phrase that says, "Don't get mad; get even," but we would not agree with that either.  It is not important to get even. The important thing is to achieve the goal that you want.  If he would have walked out on Laban or if he would have done some violent, destructive act he would not have been able to marry Rachel, and what he wanted to do was to marry Rachel. Always know what your goal is.  Don't worry about getting even.  Don't worry about getting mad.  That just clouds your judgment and does not allow you to do what you should be able to do.
Then, also, we learn here that when Jacob saw the face of Laban that it was not like it had been before, then that was a signal to him that something was wrong. Why?  Because he realized that he no longer had the moral bearings that he should have had.  Laban's face started to look pretty good to him.  What Laban was doing seemed pretty good to him.  When a person gets involved with ruffians, then pretty soon he thinks that what they are doing is right.  He had better be careful and examine his own morality.  When a person who usually would shy away from all sorts of dubious situations all of a sudden starts to admire people involved in dubious situations, be careful.  It is the same thing as when people came to this country.  They could not understand how certain Jewish norms were violated and certain business ethics were not the way they should be, but pretty soon they started to look pretty good to them.  When these business ethics and failure to follow Jewish norms started to look good to them then, of course, they knew
 
that they were losing their faith and their morality.
Also, Jacob when Laban used to switch his wages all the times he figured out a genetic way in order by feeding the animals at certain times with certain types of rods they had to produce certain types of animals.  It is interesting to note that the weak animals in Hebrew are called "Atoofeem" and the strong animals are called "Makushorot".  Atoofeem means someone is wrapped in themselves. Makishorot means those that are tied to others.  Jacob knew that in order for him to survive he had to have strong bonds to a moral system that is outside him.  He could not make everything objective, everything just wrapped up in himself.  That, unfortunately, is what many people do today, and that is why they get into all sorts of moral dilemmas.  Businessmen, like in the S&L's who made all these bad loans convincing themselves they would recoup the money when they were really cheating the government and cheating the depositors and helping out their cronies that they were doing things because they were all wrapped up in themselves and their own problems.  They did not see any right and wrong out there.  Many kids who get involved in drugs it is the same thing.  All they can see is their own pain.  They do not see that the drugs will give them worse pain.  In fact, it is heartbreaking.  I saw a 13-year old girl on television the other day when they were doing a series on an inner neighborhood who said that she would not be a prostitute if she was not on drugs so she advised all the young people to stay off drugs, not to become a heroin addict like she had become.  She got so wrapped up in herself that she forgot that unless she had strong moral values the problems would get worse, not better.
So Jacob, when he took the oath, said, "And if G-d will be for me a G-d I am not sure that G-d will be for me a G-d.  I am tempted like everybody else." The rabbis man can withstand everything except temptation.  Jacob said he was
 
going to try to maintain his faith and his morality.  There were certain guidelines
he gave himself in order to make sure that he could maintain his faith and reality.
One, when I come to dubious situations I should discuss them.  Don't just plunge
in.  Discuss them with people I trust.  The second thing is I must make sure
that I have strong moral values that are outside myself and don't be so wrapped
up in myself that I don't look at my problems.  I don't fake balance sheets.
I don't take shortcuts when I manufacture items, etc.  I have to also make sure
that I don't start admiring people who in the past I would abhor because of their
lose moral standards.  I must remember these things.  If I will remember these
things then I will be able to stay out of morally dubious situations.  Jacob
should have probably told his mother no when she told him to dress like his brother.
We see that in life it is easy to rationalize, especially if you are a smart
person.  It is easy to come back with a smart aleck remark.  When a child gets
a bad report card it is easy for him to say the teacher does not like him because
he is a redhead instead of figuring out what he did wrong so that he could improve
to make sure that these things would not happen again in the future.  Also, we
should never let our judgment be clouded by anger or the desire to get even.
If we do that then we will always end up in morally dubious situations and lose
our faith and lose our morality.  Jacob here is telling us something very important,
and that is that even a student like him, even a righteous man like him, after
all, who is on the level of Jacob today, can fall and do evil things if he fails
to consult, if he fails to have strong moral values, if he fails to stop, if
he fails to stop abhorring those people who personify bad values even though they
are wealthy, and if you put getting angry and getting even ahead of the goals
you are trying to achieve.  Let us all hope and pray that all of us will maintain
our moral values so that G-d shall truly be our G-d so that we will neither lose
our faith or our morality.  If, G-d forbid, it should happen that we should fail
 
that we realize the truth and do not try to rationalize but try to return to the path of honesty and morality and faith that we know we should all trod.
I am reminded of the story they tell about a man who was fired from his job. His friend asked why he was fired from his job.  The man said, "Oh, you know foremen.  They stick their hands in their pockets and walk around all day watching everybody else work." The friend agreed that that was true but still wanted to know why he was fired.  The man replied, "All the other workers thought I was a foreman."  In life we must face the truth.  If we face the truth without rationalization we can regain many times our faith and our morality.  Let us always maintain our faith and morality so that the Mashiach will come.  Amen.