Two Minute Torah Podcast

Vayetze 5772 by Rabbi Adam Kligfeld

Shalom.  My name is Rabbi Adam Kligfeld, Senior Rabbi at Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles, CA and I'm delighted to share this piece of Torah with KOACH this Shabbat.  So I want to start by saying that I remember the skip in my step as I finished my last exam during my first semester of college.  I remember feeling as light as air, unburdened, relieved, accomplished.  And I also remember the heaviness I felt as I walked to that first exam that year.  It was my first college final and I was scared and I think that my feet actually felt it.  I was dragging my toes.  Perhaps you've had such a moment in your life, where you're walking heavily towards something that you fear.  A moment that you dread, when anxiety replaces confidence.  One key to contented living, in college and beyond, is importing the lightness that you feel after a burden is lifted, into the moment of burden itself.  In other words, how can we walk confidently towards that finals room.

I don't have an easy answer, though I'm pretty sure that studying hard plays a part.  But I do know that it's something to aspire to, and I know that it is a stance that Yaakov, Jacob, had in his life.  Or at least he did according to a Hasidic commentary on this week's parashah, Vayetze.

The parashah opens with the words "Vayetze Yaakov miBe'ersheva." It seems plain enough:  Jacob left Beersheva.  Not so fast, though.  The Sfat Emet, who was one of the rabbis of the great Ger dynasty of Hasidim, knows that this was not such a simple walk.  Where was Yaakov walking to, where was he walking from and, more importantly, whom was he walking from.  He was walking from Esav, his brother, who wanted to kill him!  This was not a light stroll along the Beersheva Highway.  Yaakov was fleeing for his life.  He was in danger.  He was in distress.  The verse should have used the words "Vayivrah Yaakov," "Yaakov fled from there." And the Sfat Emet says that the calm, plain language of vayetze, he went, teaches us something about Yaakov's strength and his constitution.  It was a moment where panic could have taken over.  Where fear could have dominated.  And yet Yaakov stayed centered.  His trust in God, or maybe his belief in himself, calmed him.  If you use the imagery of brain science, he was in a moment of instinct, the kind that is controlled by the brain's limbic system, or the amygdala.  That's the part of the brain that makes you sweat, or have heavy feet, when you walk to a final.  And yet, Yaakov summoned his frontal lobes, his neocortex, the most advanced part of the human being, the most advanced part of his thinking.  And he summoned the ability to leave Beersheva with confidence and dignity, despite the circumstances.

All this from three short Hebrew words, "Vayetze Yaakov miBeersheva."  Yaakov left Beersheva.  It seems like a stretch, I know, but it's a piece of insight that's worth stretching for.  Because learning how to emulate this stance of Yaakov in this interpretation, it's an important part of growing, of maturing, of learning how to face challenge while staying centered.  Of learning how to respond to emotional situations with mental clarity.  Of learning how to walk with confidence and calm to your final, not just when you leave it.  It's worth a try.  Shabbat Shalom.