From an Israeli former Mishlei Student at Schechter

Dear Chevreh,

Reactions to the open letter from Bay Area Masorti regarding the resignation of Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum from Machon Schechter have ranged from rejection (mostly from American-born Conservative rabbis and American rabbinical students) to appreciation (mostly from Israeli-born Masorti Rabbis and Jews). 

This email (below) was just sent to the ShefaNetwork by Noa Raz (also available online here: http://shefanetwork.blogspot.com/2011/12/from-noa-raz-regarding-machon-schechter.html). For those who might remember Noa's name, she was the Israeli woman assaulted one year ago at a bus station by a Charedi man for having evidence of having put on tefillin on her arms. Her experience, reflected below, is important to consider, in that light and on its own.  This isn't about gay inclusion. It's about Israeli Masorti leaders aching to be trained, embraced, and empowered by a resonant Israeli institution whose mission is the support of the  Masorti Movement.

Again, it is natural and expected that any institution would protect itself. But the experience of students, Israei-born Masorti-raised students who would be the next rabbinic leaders of the Israei Masorti Movement, is not reflected in Rabbi Hanan Alexander's eloquent statement in defense of Machon Schechter. 

It is important to realize, as many do not, that the Jewish Agency's funding of Masorti is divided approximately in half - split between Machon Schechter and the Masorti Movement. Realize that Masorti communities are severely underfunded, and our heroes, the Masorti rabbis who are the next wave of Chalutzim, pioneers in a spiritual war to reclaim the fundamental pluralistic vision of Judaism from a fundamentalist Rabbinate. They can't make a living, and half of the funding that would secure their work (and lives) is being allocated to a school where only the rabbinical school purports to be connected to the Masorti Movement, and which claims a small handful of students. Many Masorti rabbis have lost their jobs, and many communities struggle to organize themselves without rabbis, which is certainly possible but far from ideal.

In other words, the Masorti Movement would be strengthened enormously by a correction to the Jewish Agency's policy, which is enormously influenced by American Conservative Rabbis whose understanding of Schechter is vastly different from the Israeli Masorti's. This isn't about JTS students studying abroad. This is about the Israeli Masorti Movement's welfare. Just think about what the Israeli Masorti Movement could accomplish with double its allocation.

In addition to Noa's email (pasted below) please also see this official statement from the Masorti Movement's chair, Emily Levi Shochat, online here: http://bamasorti.blogspot.com/2011/12/this-topic-will-continue-to-generate.html.

The original Jpost article has been taken down yet again. But it is archived here: http://bamasorti.blogspot.com/2011/12/jpost-rabbi-quits-machon-schechter-over.html.

Shavuah Tov,

Menachem

Re: [Shefa] "We Have a Problem" - An Open Letter from Bay Area Masorti

Boker Tov and Shavua Tov from Israel :-) i would like to drop my 2 cents to this discourse. I'm sorry for the lame English, i'm writing out of great frasturation. I'll followo Jonah's steps...

I was the onlyout LGBT student in Shechter. It was last year, when I atended Mishley, headed by Rabbi Tamar. At the end of the year I was expelled, I will collaborate more on that later. It wasn't homophobia, i think, but it surely was very disturbing behavior of Shechter's leadership.

1. I think Jonah is up to something. Raba Tamar did requested not to discuss the issue of her resignation. Even though i'll be the happiest person on earth to learn that this was indeed the reason, i still think we should respect her request.

2. The fact that Shechter didn't respond is just another layer in Shechter's dissability to lead something, let alone the most important institution is shoulb be.

3. As for Mishlei, last year. when my class enrolled, we were promised that this is a Masorati leadership progrem that will lead evantually to 2 extra years for Rabbinical ordination. About 50% of my class enreolled just for that. we want to be Masorati rabbis, and this was the way to do that. Sadly enough, at the end of the year everything changed. Mishlei now is nothing but a MA program for people that want to do it in the easy way, 2 days a week in Beit Midrash. It has nothing to do with Rabbinical aspirations or leadership, and my classmates who stayed are highly frasturated. The reason I was expelled together with two other students is that we don't have a BA yet (something that Shechter knew all the way and still enrolled us). I'm about to finish mine, but the other two are far from that and Shaechter knew it. It was perfectly fine for leadership-rabbinical program (dependong of coursr on us completing the academic demands), but it's not okay for MA program of Machon Shechter, so we're out. They told us that during summer vacation, without really letting us deal with it, discuss it, or ask our classmates how will they feel without a half of the class, three of its best students, all of them want to go on for ordination. As for now i'm working on my MA in the Talmud department in Bar Ilan University, studying torah from Rabbi Prof. Shama Friedman and Dr. Aaron Amit, i guess Bar Ilan now is more Conservative than shechter :-)

4. I'm glad to hear that. But please ask your Isreali classmates about THEIR experience as for now. You'll get a different picture. 

5. Gee, thanks Shechter for letting us use Ani Tfilati. Jonah just forgot to mention that students in shechter are not allowed to mention the Imahot in Amida, so in fact there's no reason to use Ani Tfilati, since the verses are orthodox. 

It's time for Shechter to ordain gays, but even before that, it's time for Shechter to be part of the Masorati movement in Israel, and to train its leadership. Without doing that, as it is now, it's time for the Rabbinical Assembly in Israel to initiate a real Conservative seminary in here, and let Golinkin's Shechter to be the modern-orthodox seminary it is. Without our students, and yes, without our money.

Shavua Tov U'Mvorah

Noa

---
Rabbi Menachem Creditor
Congregation Netivot Shalom  || Bay Area Masorti ||  ShefaNetwork 

Rabbis for Women of the Wall  ||  menachemcreditor.org 

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this topic will continue to generate heat - that is a good thing

Chevreh,

My thanks to all those who are in touch privately with me in response to the open letter from Bay Area Masorti.

There are a number of different problems many have with the original JPost article, which has been reposted by Jpost here: http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=248945&R=R5.  There are a number of problems others have with the letter I authored.

Reactions have ranged from rejection (mostly from American-born Conservative rabbis and American rabbinical students) to appreciation (mostly from Israeli-born Masorti Jews). This is not about who agrees or disagrees with any certain idea - not gay inclusion, not egalitarianism - but rather this is about whose vision for Masorti Judaism will lead others to see our Movement as their home. Rabbi Tamar Elad Appelbaum''s Torah does this. The loss of her is of enormous significance. But the loss, as the following official statement by Emily Levi Schochat, chair of the Israeli Masorti Movement, makes clear, is to Schechter, and not to the Israeli Masorti Movement.

אמילי לוי שוחט, יו"ר התנועה המסורתית:

"אינני בטוחה שאני רוצה להגיב, אך אני כמובן מצטערת מאוד על פרישתה של הרבה תמר אלעד-אפלבום מהנהגת בית המדרש לרבנים.רבים מאיתנו בתנועה המסורתית רואים ברבה תמר מורת דרך ומצפן אידיאולוגי. היא תוסיף להנהיג בתוך התנועה המסורתית, גם אם לא  בבית המדרש לרבנים עצמו, שהוא מוסד נפרד מהתנועה מבחינה ארגונית ואולי גם הלכתית. אנו,בתנועה המסורתית, מחבקים אותה בחום. אין ליספק שפרישתה תחייב את בית המדרש לחשיבהמחודשת באשר לדרכו."

"I'm not sure I would choose to respond, except to say that I am of course saddened by Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum's leaving the Schechter Rabbinical School.  Many of us from the Masorti Movement see in Rabbi Tamar a spiritual leader and inspiring thinker. She will continue to be a leader in the Masorti Movement, even if not in the Schechter Rabbinical School itself, which is a separate institution from the Masorti Movement institutionally, and perhaps halachically as well. We, in the Masorti Movement, embrace her warmly. I have no doubt that her departure will obligate Schechter to consider afresh its direction."

Again, I presume this topic will continue to generate heat. That, to my mind, is a good thing. The Masorti Movement in Israel is worthy of the attention, and the need for a resonant Rabbinical School for the Masorti Movement is worthy of discussion.  The response that suggests that there is no problem is predictable and wrong. Institutional self-protection is natural. But, as the Bay Area Masorti Open Letter said in it's title: we have a problem. Acknowledging it is the first step I pray is taken.

Shavuah Tov,
Menachem

---
Rabbi Menachem Creditor
Congregation Netivot Shalom  || Bay Area Masorti ||  ShefaNetwork 

Rabbis for Women of the Wall  ||  menachemcreditor.org 

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"We Have a Problem" - An Open Letter from Bay Area Masorti

"We Have a Problem" - An Open Letter from Bay Area Masorti

Rabbi Menachem Creditor, chair

http://bamasorti.blogspot.com/

It was reported, in the Jerusalem Post ("Rabbi quits seminary over exclusion of gays", Dec. 9) that Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum, former associate dean at Machon Schechter's Rabbinical School, resigned this week because Schechter allegedly reneged on a promise to ordain gay rabbis. (Jpost.com took the article down, and so it is currently posted it to the Bay Area Masorti blog.  It is also pasted below this message.)

Machon Schechter's Rabbinical School describes itself as "the international rabbinical school of Conservative Judaism, serving Israel, Europe and the Americas, prepares spiritual leadership for the Jewish people."  Though there is clearly more context to this story than is currently known, there's been no secret about the disconnect between Dr. David Golinkin, President of Machon Schechter, and the Israeli Masorti Movement. This has been true for a long time, and is manifest in:

• the long-standing banning of Va'ani Tefilati (the Masorti siddur, a bestseller published by Yediot and which features a powerful introduction by Rabbi Elad-Appelbaum) from being used for prayer at Schechter, 
• the non-engagement of Schechter with Israeli Masorti communities (one recent exception being the Schechter base in Tel Aviv, though it is a heavily-funded exception),
• the non-integration of the Masorti Movement and its North American Masorti Foundation within Schechter's fundraising for the Tali School System which Schechter purports to represent, let alone support.

Schechter is trying to avoid this painful conversation by claiming that this has nothing to do with gay ordination.  But Schechter's ongoing loss of amazing potential Israeli-born, Masorti-raised rabbis to HUC (the Israeli Reform Rabbinical Program) demonstrates that not only is Machon Schechter out-of-sync with the Israeli Masorti Movement, but it is also out of sync with its sister institutions, Ziegler and JTS. (This led to Ziegler moving its partnership program for its students to the Conservative Yeshiva, a move I believe JTS should make as well.)

Rabbi Elad-Appelbaum's departure points to a window of opportunity to make a change at Schechter - one that will bring it into line with the Masorti Movement.  Schechter's new program "Mishlei", created by Rabbi Elad-Appelbaum as a way to bring in new, Israeli students who saw in her Rabbinic vision the future of a Yehadut Yisraelit, a Masorti Judaism - born in Israel! - not as a slightly modified and antiquated American import. These Mishlei students would not have come to Schechter without her, and the intention that they would transfer into the Schechter Rabbinic program with their accumulated Mishlei learning is now likely complicated. Rabbi Elad Appelbaum's departure signals what might be a final blow to Schechter's claim of Israeli Masorti rootedness. 

JTS rabbinical students have, for a long time, been deeply disappointed in the Schechter experience. There have been financial, academic, and spiritual gaps in the experience that are not due to how difficult it can be to make a year abroad work.  Much of the disappointment is due to the deep disconnect between current thinking at Schechter and the real needs of emerging Masorti leaders in Israel and beyond. 

Now is the time to push - wherever possible - to make a change in Schechter for our Masorti Youth (NOAM and elsewhere) to learn religious leadership.  If this moment passes with no significant change at Schechter, there will be a great weakening of our Movement in Israel, with severe ramifications in the political pursuit of Israeli Jewish Pluralism.  Israeli would-be Masorti rabbis are going to HUC, and Conservative/Masorti rabbis from outside of Israel are, simply speaking, not Israeli Masorti leaders. We can learn, adapt, but each cultural translation is one more example of what Bialik called "kissing through a veil."  

Machon Schechter brought in Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum, a revered spiritual and academic leader, to change the appeal and culture of Machon Schechter, it knew there was a problem.  With her departure, we all do.

---
Rabbi Menachem Creditor
Congregation Netivot Shalom  || Bay Area Masorti ||  ShefaNetwork 

Rabbis for Women of the Wall  ||  menachemcreditor.org 

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Photo by: YouTube JPost.com: "Rabbi quits seminary over exclusion of gays" By GIL SHEFLER 09/12/2011 "Masorti seminary rejected gay applicants, wanted to expel gay students." http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=248788

A Masorti (Conservative) rabbi has quit the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem in acrimony over the exclusion of openly gay students from its rabbinical studies program, The Jerusalem Post learned on Thursday. Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum, former associate dean at the seminary, resigned this week because it allegedly reneged on a promise to ordain homosexual students, a source said. "She was promised two years ago when she entered the position that they will ordain LGBT students," the source said. "She learned this was not going to be the case two weeks ago and quit." Elad-Appelbaum did not answer her phone on Thursday but several sources verified the story. The Schechter Institute issued a response expressing regret over the rabbi's decision to leave, without elaborating on the circumstances of her departure. "The Schechter Rabbinical Seminary received Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum's resignation with great regret," said Rabbi Prof. Hanan Alexander, chairman of seminary's board of trustees. "Rabbi Elad-Appelbaum contributed enormously to the seminary during her tenure and we wish her every success in her future endeavors." The row between the seminary and the rabbi is part of a larger debate taking place within the Conservative Movement over its policy toward homosexuality. During the 1990s some of its rabbis embraced the gay community and welcomed its members into its ranks while others adhered to the traditional halachic ban against same-sex relations. In recent years two of its most important religious schools, the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles and the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, have opened their doors to LGBT students. But the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem under the presidency of Rabbi Prof. David Golinkin has refused to ordain openly gay students. Sources said Elad-Appelbaum decided to step down after Golinkin "rejected openly gay students who applied for admission next year and wanted to investigate the sexual identities of those already enrolled at the seminary." Amichai Lau-Lavie, an openly gay student at JTS and the scion of a renowned rabbinical family, sent an e-mail calling Elad-Appelbaum a "courageous and inspiring leader whose commitment to human dignity, tikkun olam and halachic progress is of international renown." Lau-Lavie said her departure presents a "painful reality check" but that he was optimistic it would eventually bring change to the Conservative Movement's policy toward gays in Israel and in general. The rabbinical student said he considered applying for admission to Schechter in 1997 but was advised against it "because of my sexual orientation." Other members of the movement on Thursday said the expected backlash over the resignation of Elad- Appelbaum – who they said was the third senior official to leave Schechter in as many years – may undermine Golinkin's position at the helm of the Masorti seminary in Jerusalem. "The news may hurt the institute's image and its appeal in the eyes of students, who may not want to go there, as well as donors," a source said on condition of anonymity. "Golinkin will either give in or have to leave." Golinkin on Thursday chose not to comment on Elad-Appelbaum's departure, saying "I have no response."

--
Posted By Rabbi Menachem Creditor to Bay Area Masorti: Supporting Masorti. Supporting Israel. at 12/09/2011 12:09:00 PM

JPost.com: "Rabbi quits seminary over exclusion of gays"
By GIL SHEFLER
09/12/2011
http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=248788



A Masorti (Conservative) rabbi has quit the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem in acrimony over the exclusion of openly gay students from its rabbinical studies program, The Jerusalem Post learned on Thursday.

Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum, former associate dean at the seminary, resigned this week because it allegedly reneged on a promise to ordain homosexual students, a source said.

"She was promised two years ago when she entered the position that they will ordain LGBT students," the source said. "She learned this was not going to be the case two weeks ago and quit." Elad-Appelbaum did not answer her phone on Thursday but several sources verified the story.

The Schechter Institute issued a response expressing regret over the rabbi's decision to leave, without elaborating on the circumstances of her departure.

"The Schechter Rabbinical Seminary received Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum's resignation with great regret," said Rabbi Prof. Hanan Alexander, chairman of seminary's board of trustees. "Rabbi Elad-Appelbaum contributed enormously to the seminary during her tenure and we wish her every success in her future endeavors."

The row between the seminary and the rabbi is part of a larger debate taking place within the Conservative Movement over its policy toward homosexuality. During the 1990s some of its rabbis embraced the gay community and welcomed its members into its ranks while others adhered to the traditional halachic ban against same-sex relations.

In recent years two of its most important religious schools, the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles and the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, have opened their doors to LGBT students. But the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem under the presidency of Rabbi Prof. David Golinkin has refused to ordain openly gay students.

Sources said Elad-Appelbaum decided to step down after Golinkin "rejected openly gay students who applied for admission next year and wanted to investigate the sexual identities of those already enrolled at the seminary."

Amichai Lau-Lavie, an openly gay student at JTS and the scion of a renowned rabbinical family, sent an e-mail calling Elad-Appelbaum a "courageous and inspiring leader whose commitment to human dignity, tikkun olam and halachic progress is of international renown."

Lau-Lavie said her departure presents a "painful reality check" but that he was optimistic it would eventually bring change to the Conservative Movement's policy toward gays in Israel and in general. The rabbinical student said he considered applying for admission to Schechter in 1997 but was advised against it "because of my sexual orientation."

Other members of the movement on Thursday said the expected backlash over the resignation of Elad- Appelbaum – who they said was the third senior official to leave Schechter in as many years – may undermine Golinkin's position at the helm of the Masorti seminary in Jerusalem.

"The news may hurt the institute's image and its appeal in the eyes of students, who may not want to go there, as well as donors," a source said on condition of anonymity. "Golinkin will either give in or have to leave."

Golinkin on Thursday chose not to comment on Elad-Appelbaum's departure, saying "I have no response."

Rabbi Julie Schonfeld on Haaretz.com: "Israelis lost sight of a meaningful Jewish identity in the Diaspora"

Rabbi Julie Schonfeld on Haaretz.com: "Israelis lost sight of a meaningful Jewish identity in the Diaspora"
The recent ad campaign by Israel's Absorption Ministry shows how Israelis fall short in trying to articulate a respectful way to relate to Diaspora Jews, because they don't know how to relate to themselves in this way.
By Rabbi Julie Schonfeld

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/israelis-lost-sight-of-a-meaningful-jewish-identity-in-the-diaspora-1.399883

The latest storm between American Jews and the Israeli government has passed. Americans bristled that the Israeli Ministry of Absorption would characterize the potential for Jewish life in America as so small that a child would not even know that it was Hanukkah. These flare-ups, triggered by the American Jewish sense that our identities are treated dismissively, seem to be more frequent and more easily instigated.

There is no insult in the ads' post-script, stating that children of Israeli parents who grow up in America will not be Israeli. That is a fact - they will be American children of Israeli parents.

These ads present an opportunity for understanding that that should not be missed. If we care about Jewish identity in the world, the Hanukkah ad ought not to make us angry - it ought to make us sad.The question is whether those children will see themselves as Jewish.

Hanukkah is about the enduring strength of Jewish identity in the face of host cultures. We have always been able to retain our traditions and our faith. Is Israeli society, home to half the world's Jews, unable to foster a Judaism that can survive in the Diaspora?

The Israeli authors of these ads do not even reach for the word "Jewish." Israeli and Jewish are treated as two distinct concepts. The ads make painfully clear the extent to which the concept of a meaningful Jewish identity in the Diaspora eludes Israelis.

Through the modern day miracle of absorption, millions of Jews found dignity and safety in the state of Israel. Absorption often subsumed Jewish religious identity, which meant a variety of things depending on community of origin, underneath the rubric of Israeli identity.

What happens when you need to unwind that? Can Israelis, not only expats, but those living in Israel, disentangle their Judaism so it is available to them to connect with other Jews and with themselves as Jews? The authors of these ads seem to say no.

Given the state of affairs in religious life in Israel, is this even a reasonable expectation? The Jewish "selves" of Israelis are the constant victims of coercion and harassment from a state-run religious monopoly that impinges on their most precious and private human affairs. Their marriages, their divorces, the burials of their fallen soldiers must be the rabbinate's way or no way. With no positive associations for Jewish religion, what will lead them to seek it out in America or anywhere else in the world? Outside of Israel, synagogues and religious or quasi-religious institutions are the most common way Jews connect to each other. Without a sense that they can encounter Jewish religion without coercion, where will they go to find a Jewish community when they are outside of Israel?

That is what I saw in the helpless looks on the faces of the Saba and Savta in the ad.

The post script that said: "They will remain Israeli, their children will not" is a trope we in America know well - continuity is personified in Jewish grandchildren. These ads were the Israeli "translation" of the continuity campaign where the "absorption of Jewish identity into Israeli identity" is a different version of the "assimilation of Jewish identity into American identity." These are really two sides of the same coin, both leave the Jew alienated from her Judaism, as the little granddaughter does not know it is Hanukkah.

Are American Jews insulted and demeaned as some said in response to the ad? Or do we feel that our love for our Israeli brothers and sisters as fellow Jews is unrequited and one-sided? Israelis fall short in trying to articulate a respectful way to relate to Diaspora Jews, because they don't know how to relate to themselves in this way.

Absorption is the wrong ministry to address this problem. The real questions belong to the Ministry of Education and to tackling the disastrous Ministry of Religious Affairs. It is not American Jews with whom this state of affairs must be reconciled.

Rabbi Julie Schonfeld is the executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly.

---
Rabbi Menachem Creditor
Congregation Netivot Shalom  || Bay Area Masorti ||  ShefaNetwork 
Rabbis for Women of the Wall  ||  menachemcreditor.org 
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VaYetzei 5772: "Facing Fear"

(c) Rabbi Menachem Creditor

The name of this week's Parasha is intense. "VaYetzei" (Gen. 28:10), often mistranslated into the lukewarm "Jacob left," is more accurately translated as "Jacob ran away."

What was he running from? Jacob has just lied to his father Isaac to receive the blessing due Essau, the elder brother. He's running from this lie. Jacob was pressured by his mother to deceive his father. He's running from his mother's manipulation. Jacob's brother Essau, upon learning of the deception and the loss of his birthright, has promised to kill Jacob.  Jacob is running for his life. This is only the preamble to this week's Torah portion.

The very next sentence in the Torah suffers a similarly common mistranslation. The JPS English reads: "He came upon [vaYifga] a certain place [baMakom] (Gen. 28:11)." But the Hebrew holds so much more. The word vaYifga suggests a sudden encounter and baMakom includes the mystical Divine Name "Makom." Following these closer readings, the verse would read "And Jacob slammed into God," a fitting development to Jacob's pell-mell run from the chaos of his family home. Jacob is running away from everything he knows and he crashes into the Divine. So exhausted is he that he chooses a rock for a pillow (Gen. 28:11) and, after the intense dream-encounter with God atop a Heaven-bound ladder (Gen. 28:12-15) he exclaims "Surely God is in this place and I did not know it! (Gen. 28:16)"

In short: Once upon a time, Jacob ran away from chaos, danger, and home, collapses in exhaustion and crashes into God. 

And that's just the beginning of our story. Given this tumultuous introduction, the unfolding mess of Jacob's marriages to Leah and Rachel amid ongoing torment and deception by their father Laban might feel like "just" more of the same hell. No peace, no pause, no safety. Not for Jacob. So the oft-overlooked close to the Torah portion stands out all-the more:

And Laban said to Jacob: "Behold this mound, and behold the pillar, which I have set up between me and you. This mound shall be witness, and this pillar shall be witness, that I will not pass over this mound to you, and that you shall not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, with hostile intent. May the God of Abraham, and the God of Nachor" - their ancestors' Gods - "judge between us." And Jacob swore by the Fear of Isaac. And Jacob offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his kinsmen to eat bread; and they did eat bread, and spent the night on the mountain. Early in the morning, Laban kissed his sons and daughters and bade them good-by; then Laban left on his journey homeward. Jacob went on his way, and angels of God encountered him. When he saw them, Jacob said "This is God's camp." So he named that place Machana'im [God's Camp]. (Gen. 31:51-32:2)

Given all the conflict that precedes these verses, the treaty-covenant between Jacob and Laban sounds, on the face of it, wonderful. No more hostile-intent allowed. "If you don't cross this line, I won't either." But it's awful in a different, deeper way. This is a family. Yes, Laban makes Jacob's family's life hard, and yes, Laban deceives Jacob. But he's also Jacob's uncle. And this mound and this pillar are the final wedge dividing them forever. Yes, good borders are important between warring factions. But this was once a family, and with this step, Laban kisses them goodbye forever. This should provide no sense of closure, nor does it. The deceit Jacob practiced upon his own father, was visited upon Jacob by his uncle, and will be perpetrated upon Jacob by his own sons during the forthcoming Joseph narrative. This, of course, is coupled by Rebecca deceiving her husband and Rachel stealing her father's idols - a complicated family with much hidden and much in need of healing.

Furthermore, consider the name of God by which Jacob pledges peace to Laban: "The Fear of Isaac." What a phrase uttered by the man whose father Isaac was almost sacrificed by his own father Abraham. Fear of Isaac. Oy. By invoking this particular name for God, perhaps Jacob relived his own internal clash with the God who commanded his father's death. Perhaps by naming this primal fear of his father, likely also buried deep within Jacob's own soul, he intensified the power of the physical mound and pillar by invoking the wedge within his own soul, demonstrating an ache for wholeness, a release from his fear, an unresolved spiritual barrier to his own growth.

But the God into which Jacob crashed headlong so long ago must be confronted, as Jacob does in a brutal, transformative battle with a Divine Being (Gen. 32:22-32). That sacred battle is an important turning point for Jacob, as it is an experience of intense engagement, of not letting go despite a terrible struggle. Fear mixed with commitment, with the conviction that something better could be possible if only you hold on. That battle ends with Jacob gaining a new name, a sacred identity granted by his exhausted former opponent. The treaty with Laban is about a permanent goodbye, of the dissolution of family, of drawing uncrossable lines. Family is never easy, but the model of Jacob's struggle with the Divine Being is a suggestion for personal growth without cutting off one's roots.

Yes, Jacob's individuation, his attempt to create his own identity, to completely separate from Laban is also perhaps a separation from Laban's connection to the Land of Charan, the ancestral home of Jacob's own father and his mother. Yes, Jacob's desire to find a measure of safety and closure through distance - all this is understandable. But it doesn't work. And it comes at a great cost.

The reward for facing your fear, naming your pain, and engaging in a shared struggle is a blessing worth the effort it takes just to hold on.

The "Within" Release Concert! -- Sat, Dec 10, 8pm!