[I shared this teaching as the guest darshan Shabbat Vayetze 5784 at Congregation Agudath Achim in Alexandria, VA. It was a joy to be visiting my friend and rabbinical school classmate, Rabbi Steven Rein. The Shabbat was two weeks after the March for Israel in Washington, DC. It's there that I took this picture.

I want to also acknowledge some of my feelings that I imagine may be shared by others around the release of some of the hostages in the last day. I feel some relief over the return of those hostages. I am also left wondering what’s next? I want to trust there is a plan for the remaining hostages and have hope that we will see them out of Gaza. And I will continue to hold my breath. I have been holding my breath for the 40 plus days, and I’m a bit unsure what will make me feel like I can exhale. 
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Rabbi Mark Biller points out the way in which the Parsha starts with Jacob dreaming of angels moving up and down the ladder – they are distinct, separate from him. The parsha ends with the angels meeting him directly. The angels of God encountered him. Rashi explains the angels appear to help Jacob on his journey. Whereas at the beginning of the Parsha, Jacob stops and with the intention of resting – praying even – he encounters the angels in a dream. The end of the parsha, when Jacob is again on the move and still far from reaching his destination, is when he encounters the angels.
There is a great deal to be said by someone else in another sermon about what happens in between throughout the parsha. I want to focus on these two verses and share one midrash.

וַיִּפְגַּ֨ע בַּמָּק֜וֹם וַיָּ֤לֶן שָׁם֙ כִּי־בָ֣א הַשֶּׁ֔מֶשׁ וַיִּקַּח֙ מֵאַבְנֵ֣י הַמָּק֔וֹם וַיָּ֖שֶׂם מְרַֽאֲשֹׁתָ֑יו וַיִּשְׁכַּ֖ב בַּמָּק֥וֹם הַהֽוּא׃

“[Jacob] came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set. Taking one of the stones from that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place.” (Genesis 28:11)
 
וְיַעֲקֹ֖ב הָלַ֣ךְ לְדַרְכּ֑וֹ וַיִּפְגְּעוּ־ב֖וֹ מַלְאֲכֵ֥י אֱלֹהִֽים׃

Jacob went on his way, and messengers of God encountered him. (32:2)

What is this word וַיִּפְגַּ֨ע and what can it mean that it’s repeated in this way? Given that the text talks of these encounters, we can conclude Jacob was praying. He prayed when he stopped and rested, and he prayed on the move. He was constantly praying. The prayer is, one might say, what kept Jacob moving. Amidst the movement, the place where Jacob stopped is not at first named. It’s only a few verses later that the text tells us the name of the place.

The word makom appears three times. The first and last time the word used is ba’makom, and in the middle it’s ha’makom. Or HaChaim[i] – written by R’ Hayyim ben Moshe who was a Talmudist and Kabbalist – says ba’makom means Jacob arrived to a place that was inhabited. He came to a place that had a name and though he did not recognize it, was familiar to others. This is why at the end of the paragraph we’re told that the town had previously been named Luz.

What does Jacob do when he arrives there? In addition to the prayer, he rested. He takes a rock from the place, places it under his head and rests. The Or HaChaim explains that inasmuch as many dreams contain matters without significance, the Torah added the word ”והנה” to indicate that in this dream every detail is not only vivid and it is significant. Jacob had a complete recall of everything he dreamt and referred to each detail later. This is why ”והנה” is repeated before every segment of the dream. Jacob was, we might say, paying attention to the signs.

Returning to the stones for another moment, Jacob took from the stones of the place – וַיִּקַּח֙ מֵֽאַבְנֵ֣י הַמָּק֔וֹם – implying there were multiple stones and from these he made his pillow. (28:11) When he awakens in verse 18, it says that he took the stone – וַיִּקַּ֤ח אֶת־הָאֶ֨בֶן֙. Evidently the many stones that Jacob first had were now one. Noting this inconsistency, Rashi (b. Chullin 91b) comments “the stones upon which Jacob rested his head fought over which would have the honor of serving as his pillow”. “The stones began quarreling with one another. One said, ‘Let the righteous man lay his head on me,’ and another one said, ‘Let him lay [his head] on me.’ Immediately God made them into one stone.”

I like Rashi’s inventive approach and his desire to elevate the nature of the place where Jacob was staying. I also see this midrash as praising Jacob. Rashi is saying that by being there, Jacob brings kedusha – holiness – to the place. In the moments of fleeing his brother, perhaps feeling some abandonment of home and other family members and at the same time blessed and supported by some, Jacob is somewhere else. His body is in one place, and his mind in another. Other commentaries suggest that Jacob has been here before he just didn’t realize it. Perhaps this is the Torah’s first déjà vu moment.  

There is a multitude of emotions Jacob could be holding, and I am feeling like Jacob this Shabbat. Continuing to pray, looking for places to pray and hopefully have an encounter that will keep guiding us in the right direction. I hope that we will be reunited, experiencing the joining or strength of community that the rocks themselves symbolize when they give comfort to Jacob.

[i] Rabbi Hayyim ben Moshe ibn Attar (1696-1743) was a Talmudist and Kabbalist wrote his commentary Or HaChaim. 

Dear B.
Mom and I have been tasked with writing a note to go with this journal that you will have with you during your upcoming Israel trip. We’re so very excited for you, and we hope that you encounter Israel in the coming days with the love and enthusiasm that you did when we first took you and your brother to Israel a few years ago.
What do we write to you as you embark on this opportunity? What do we share with you when you already love Israel?
You love the food – most of it – and will enjoy eating with friends, second cousins during a host Shabbat, and a meal perhaps with your great aunt who lives in Israel.
You love the Hebrew language having demonstrated an ability to use it in your studies, leyning at school, and in our community at home. Your love for the language is apparent when you listen to Israeli music in the car. I know that you’d love attending an Ishai Ribo concert as much as me.
You love your memories and stories from our previous trip, even if it was a long time ago. You love talking about your visit to our cousins on a moshav and helping others at Pantry Packers. And you love reminding me that you climbed higher than me during a water hike near En Gedi.
Since you asked us what you could bring us home from you trip, there are a few things that come to mind and putting these into writing in your new journal is a good idea:
1) A.M. Rosenthal once wrote in The New York Times “To understand Israel and the road ahead, first read history. Then buy a map.” (July 4, 1989) Ben, buy a map or buy many maps! You’re a voracious reader and your ability to learn history through your individual reading as well as in school is awesome! And we know your interest in maps. Every time we explore a new place, you like to find the maps and have one for yourself. The land of Israel is complicated, and her various maps teach us a lot, so buy a map and keep seeking to understand as you forge ahead.
2) Keep loving Israel: Love the food, love the language, and love being with your friends and family while you’re there. Deepen your relationship by asking questions and listen to the myriad answers you get. Make good choices and take care during your visit. Treat Israel as you would your own home and ensure that you leave spaces in good care so that you and others can visit in the future.
3) Pictures: Your Zayde is fond of saying that the pictures we take with our minds are as significant as those we might take with a phone or camera – remember those?!. As you explore new areas and return to some places you’ve already seen, take pictures. See Israel for who She is through your perspective and via others lenses.
4) Use your journal: Now that we’ve taken over the inside cover of your journal, there should be a few pages left for you to write your questions, record a few answers, and deepen your relationship with Israel. One of my early mentors shared with me “the more you read and write, the better you can express yourself.” (Kevin Harlan, former voice of the KC Chiefs on 101 The Fox) Write in your journal, draw something, and use the space within to express yourself. That will be your greatest gift to us, to the world, and most important to yourself. Israel’s roots run deep and we’re so excited for you to strengthen your foothold in this part of your Judaism – your Zionism – and fill the spaces with as much as you can.
We love you so much and can’t wait to see you when you return.
Love Mommy and אבא
P.S. if you can find a KC Mahomes kippah in Hebrew, I’ll take that too!

For two weeks this summer, I was a visiting educator at Ramah Sports Academy. My responsibilities were fairly typical for a visiting rabbi at camp: leading classes for campers and staff, supporting a particular edah (age group). But I also had an opportunity to assist the summer mashgiah in assessing and repairing the eruv before Shabbat. The camp’s eruv—a ritual legal enclosure fixed for the purpose of allowing activities such as carrying from one domain to another on Shabbat—was constructed using some of the natural boundaries around camp. To identify the sightline of the trees at the far end of a field or a stream of water that connects one part of camp to another as part of the created boundary, string and small wooden posts (lehim) were affixed along parts of the camp periphery.

When it was my turn to get in the golfcart and check the eruv, I was expecting some fun along with a minimum of physical labor. Yet securing the eruv, and thereby providing others the opportunity to navigate a dimension of Shabbat, offered an occasion to think about the responsibility we hold toward others in our Jewish community. When the work was complete and Shabbat arrived, I had a newfound appreciation for the purposes of eruvin and understanding of kol yisrael arevim zeh ba’zeh: “all of Israel are responsible for each other.” Creating a ritual opportunity and peace of mind for an entire community is a sacred task and, having previously discussed these ancient words with campers, I now had a more personal connection to these safeguards.

I wrote this for JTS Community Learning parashat Vayehi 5781. I hope that you'll please check out the full commentary and more on the site here. 
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Just about anyone who has moved homes will agree that sometimes one place will take on outsize influence in our lives. Indeed, even environments in which we’ve only briefly resided can have a resounding impact on our upbringing and outlook.

I was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and lived there until I was nine years old, at which point my family moved to West Palm Beach, Florida. After three years in Florida, we moved to Overland Park, Kansas, where I had my bar mitzvah and completed middle school and high school. Following high school, I moved again to go to college in Boston. Ask someone who knows me well where I’m from and they will likely answer Kansas. To this day, I root for Kansas City sports teams and maintain an affinity for all things Midwest. Though the number of years I lived in Kansas City is less than my time in Charleston or in my current home, New York, my Kansas experiences and connections shaped me in ways that my other homes did not.

Parashat Vayehi opens with an invitation to recognize that Jacob’s sojourn in Egypt was not insignificant, even if he lived in Egypt for only a small fraction of his entire lifespan. “And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 17 years; so the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were 147 years” (Gen. 47:28). What is the text trying to impart to us with the distinction between the 17 years he lived in Egypt and the total 147?

Vayehi begins in a way that is unique among the weekly parshiyot: between every two other parshiyot in the Torah we can see a break—either a parashah petuhah, an “open” line break, or a parashah setumah, a “closed” extended mid-line space. Vayehi is the exception: it begins without any clear demarcation of the end of the parashah that comes before it, Vayiggash. Rashi’s very first comment on Vayehi addresses this, explaining that the difficulties of the Israelite slavery began when Jacob passed away. Rashi points out that the totally closed nature of the text, with no extra space, shows that “the hearts and eyes of Israel were closed because of the misery of the bondage which [Egypt] began to impose upon them.” Rashi wants us to take note of the continuation of the story of the people of Israel even in Jacob’s death. I’m reminded of my wife’s late bubbie who was fond of saying: “I try to live every day with my eyes wide open.” It’s as if Rashi wants us to read the text with our eyes wide open, finding meaning in every detail, despite the closing of the hearts and eyes of the people of Israel.  

Hizkuni (Hezekiah bar Manoah), a 13th-century French rabbi and Bible commentator, gives further reasoning for understanding Vayehi as inextricably interwoven with what preceded it in Vayiggash. Jacob’s provisional move to Egypt due to economic pressure and famine turned out to be anything but temporary. Once Jacob arrived in Egypt and was re-united with Joseph, the previous anguish and trouble of his life were closed.

Therefore, the later commentator Keli Yakar notes, immediately after telling us that Jacob lived in Egypt for seventeen years the text says, “The years of Jacob’s life were 147” (Gen. 47:28). It is almost as if these final years were so good to Jacob and his family that the past was forgotten and it was as if his whole life had been enjoyable. He may have intended his time in Egypt to be short-lived, but in the end it was more than a blip of his life. Jacob’s family took root in the land and prospered.

Hizkuni further suggests that “all the years of Jacob until he settled in Egypt could not truly be described as חיים— life”—seeing that they were all clouded by different kinds of anguish. “It was only during his last 17 years in Egypt that his mind was at rest and not beset by worries of one kind or another. According to Hizkuni, this verse was inserted in the Torah as a compliment to Joseph, who was the cause of Jacob’s last years being happy ones. During those years he repaid his father who had sustained him for the first 17 years of his life, by providing for him during the last 17 years of Jacob’s life.

As someone who has moved around, there are times when I am nostalgic for past experiences. I am at times compelled to try to piece things together and see how one place I lived, or one life experience, can directly link to another. I see the merit of each place and aspire to enjoy it to the fullest. Part of moving and settling in new places means determining what to keep with you and to leave behind. It means remembering your background while also paying attention to the present and the future.
As such, my Midwestern association contributes to who I am as a person and as a rabbi. When I first lived in New York following college, I would periodically visit my parents in Kansas, and on my return flight to NYC I used to feel a little anxious about the pace of life I would reencounter. Nowadays, more than ten years later, while my time in Kansas City has had a lasting impact on me, I am accustomed to the New York way of life.

Jacob’s story shows us that life is fluid, and it can change course at any time. How we manage the changes and the people around us is one way to determine a life well-lived. The “closed opening” of Vayehi reminds us of the need to pay attention because, as the saying goes, “life is in the details.”