How Good Do We Have to Be? Part 1- A Story of Emergence

I've recently dusted off and began reading Harold Kushner's enlightening book, How Good do We Have to Be?, and so far I'm enthralled by it. In this book Rabbi Kushner addresses the issues of guilt and forgiveness before a compassionate, and understanding God.
Everyone knows the story: Adam and Eve, the parents of mankind, made one fatal mistake and we continue to pay the price for it. The story is often interpreted as detailing the origin of our Fall from Paradise and ever since then the divine has been harder and harder to reach. As you read along through the Old Testament, God distances himself further and further away from mankind as we struggle to hold onto that relationship. The writers of the New Testament wrote their books of the One who bridged God and man together again both by his actions and his being, Jesus Christ. As the followers of The Way began to flourish the early Christian community looked back into the scriptures for prophecies of Jesus and introduced a new creative spirituality to the world, Christianity. These are the lens in which the concept of Original Sin and the nature of Man are understood within mainstream Christianity. Kushner introduces the reader to questions which puts our previous interpretation of the Eden story under a microscope, not to tear it apart but because the old interpretation leads to too much guilt and an unreasonable quest for perfection.

"Isn't this a harsh punishment for one small mistake-- pain and death, banishment from Paradise, for breaking one rule? Is God really that strict?...And perhaps the most troubling of all, if the forbidden tree was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, does that imply that Adam and his mate had no knowledge of good and evil before they ate it? If so, how could they have been expected to know that it was wrong to disobey God? And why were they punished if they had no sense of good and evil before they ate it?" -How Good do We Have to Be, Chapter 2.

You may interpret and read the story as a historical retelling of literal events but I believe the questions should still be asked regardless of our beliefs. Atheist point to this story as an example that the God of the Bible is a petty, strict, and all around unloving God who does not deserve worship. Christians point to this story as proof that the gulf between Man and God is our fault and we deserve death for our sinfulness, for making that one fatal mistake. So how do we interpret this in the 21st century without falling into the trap of eisegesis? What does a 21st century listener get from these old tales? Rabbi Kushner reinterprets the Genesis story of not one of guilt, sin, and punishment but a tale describing our journey of evolution out of our animal life,

"It is the story of the first human being graduating, evolving from the relatively uncomplicated world of animal life to the immensely complicated world of being human and knowing that there is more to life than eating and mating, that there are such things as Good and Evil. They enter a world where they will inevitably make many mistakes, not because they are weak or bad but because the choices they confront will be such difficult ones...The story of the Garden of Eden is not a story of the Fall of Man, but of the Emergence of Humankind." [Ch. 2]

I doubt that the writers of Genesis knew about evolution (the sun did revolve around the Earth back then) but were at least aware of our differences between human and animal existence. Our lives are much more complex than theirs with the flexibility to commit acts of Good and Evil. The God of Vengeance no longer speaks to us in the 21st century not because we have outgrown the divine but because the vengeance, which took the form of natural disasters and illness no longer spooks mankind. We have studied the mechanics of the universe, the divine vengeance portrayed in the Bible is no more than mankind's limited understanding of nature in an age when everything was attributed to the gods. The curtain has been pulled back, and the Wizard has been revealed. Mankind understands now that things just happen, and God may not have the power to stop it. But as Rabbi Kushner expresses in his incredible book When Bad Things Happen to Good People, God may not have the power to stop it but he will sit with you through the darkest of storms.

God's decree of work, parenthood, and our sense of morality is exactly what separates us from the animals, what makes us human. Kushner points out that God gave mankind a cautionary warning about the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, as if saying "it will hurt to know Evil, but what joy it is to know Good." Is Rabbi Kushner's creative interpretation worth retelling? Does it speak to you, and if so what is it saying? How would history have turned out if we began with an interpretation of emergence instead of an interpretation of guilt, or was this interpretation only possible with the emergence of the enlightenment and our knowledge of the cosmos?

The second chapter ends with a beautiful retelling of Genesis as to how the story might have ended if Adam and Eve chose to remain in Paradise (i.e. living an animal life).

HOW THE STORY MIGHT HAVE ENDED

So the woman saw that the tree was good to eat and a delight to the eye, and the serpent said to her, “Eat of it, for when you eat of it, you will be as wise as God.” But the woman said, “No, God has commanded us not to eat of it, and I will not disobey God.”
And God called to the man and the woman and said to them, “Because you have hearkened to My word and not disobeyed My command, I shall reward you greatly.” To the man, He said, “You will never have to work again. Spend all your days in idle contentment, with food growing all around you.” To the woman, He said, “You will bear children without pain and you will raise them without pain. They will need nothing from you. Children will not cry when their parents die, and parents will not cry when their children die.” To both of them he said, “For the rest of your lives, you will have full bellies and contented smiles. You will never cry and you will never laugh. You will never long for something you don’t have, and you will never receive something you always wanted.” And the man and the woman grew old together in the garden, eating daily from the Tree of Life and having many children. And the grass grew high around the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil until it disappeared from view, for there was no one to tend it.

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Part 1: A Story of Emergence
Part 2: Guilt and Shame
Part 3: The Cycle of Guilt
Part 4: The Wholeness We Seek
Part 5: Is There Enough Love for Everyone
Part 6: Final Thoughts

The Dance of Ecclesiastes: Part 3- In Awe of God

Ecclesiastes 5:7 (NIV)

⁷ Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God.

This is the trouble with translations, the lay reader doesn't know what the original Hebrew meant, or even if it had one singular meaning (which it probably doesn't). I'm using the NIV version of Ecclesiastes 5:7 to make my point even though other versions (like the NRSV) are translated

7 With many dreams come vanities and a multitude of words; but fear God.

In English fear and awe emphasize two very different emotional responses. Although interestingly enough God is described as "the Fear of Isaac" in Genesis 31:42. Both do share a sense of smallness (for a lack of a better word) where one feels themselves humble and vulnerable. So what does standing in awe of God mean? Well that would depend on what we mean when we say God. After reading through Ecclesiastes I couldn't get the concept out of my head that the constant turning, motion, and breathing of the universe and all of reality itself is God. Kohelet probably could only envision God as the anthropomorphic, father figure God, but with a handful of references in Ecclesiastes God may have nothing to do with anything he teaches.

Take a minute (or better yet, take five) and consider the majesty and grandeur of the universe itself. The intricate and interdependent systems which allows the planet itself to breathe (plate tectonics, atmospheric circulation, hydrologic cycle, etc.), the relationship and cosmic systems which births new stars introducing new possibilities for life, or even take a step back and ponder what it means to be aware of it all. Everything. You, me, the computer screen, the people behind you, around you, beside you, the air in your lungs, the microscopic organisms living on your body (in your body), the environment, the complex macro and micro ecosystems, beyond beyond beyond. And finally try to imagine That which ties every single thing together, the interdependent cosmic tapestry which binds All to All.

Some may call the Universe a sign pointing towards a Supreme Being, a Grand Designer. I would argue why bother looking beyond (outside of) the vast and intricate totality of the universe before grasping its enormity and complexity? How is it that religion after religion contain schools of thought which point within ourselves and reality instead of outside of it towards a separate and elevated Creator? And not just within us physically but hiding just behind a thin veil, just beneath the surface where mankind can just barely make out an outline. What is behind the veil, connecting All to All? A cosmic chaotic rhythm, a wild creative force, a dance driving the Universe. Everything is in constant motion, constant change, constant flowing, constant vibration. If you take a minute and let it All soak in you might realize that the universe may not revolve around our microscopic lives. That we merely play a minute but integral part in the immense mechanism which we call the universe.

So what, then, do we do? We dance. We allow the universe to continue humming away without trying to shape and bend it to our will. The dance of Ecclesiastes does not contain esoteric or hidden mysteries, it's just a dance. There are no moves to learn or techniques to master, just a surrendering to the rhythm and standing in awe of it All.

Trembling before G-d

"How can you be queer and orthodox at the same time. I see a logical contradiction ...in order to maintain my sanity and my selfhood I had to leave, I had to rebel."
~Israel Fishman, a homosexual Jew living in Brooklyn.

I recently got a chance to watch Trembling Before G-d, a 2001 documentary on homosexual orthodox Jews. What? A homosexual orthodox Jew? I felt completely foolish for thinking that such a thing never existed because I've never really thought about it. But just because we don't think about it doesn't mean that people don't suffer through it daily. The film interviews several homosexuals living within orthodox Jewish communities around the world many remaining behind silhouettes for fear of being ostracized by their friends and family.



When it comes to Christianity, I'm assuming most homosexuals either leave the church or join a more liberal open-minded church to keep their sense of community. But this doesn't work the same within Judaism, which still has liberal communities, because Judaism is more about what you do than what you believe. The gays interviewed in the film want to retain both aspects of their identity: their Jewish orthodox roots and their homosexuality. They struggle to keep both without losing their sanity, and it's painful watch. I can't imagine people still think homosexuals are choosing to be who they are, choosing to "sin" and be apart from G-d while inflicting an enormous amount of pain on themselves. Homophobic Christians believe gays are living apart from G-d because "true Christians" would have faith to pull through their homosexuality, or as some would say, "pray the gay away". Celibacy is also encouraged as an alternative by a few of the orthodox Rabbis who genuinely want to help gays within their community, but struggle themselves to understand what G-d is telling them. The difference between conservative Christians and Orthodox Jews is that a homosexual Jew is still a Jew regardless of their beliefs because they are connected as a community through their actions. I can not identity with either Judaism or homosexuality but I can identify with pain and suffering. All these people want is to be accepted and remain loved. There was one scene where a 50 year old homosexual man, Israel Fishman, says that all he wanted was his daddy. That completely shattered my heart to pieces. I mean I began bawling big man tears. All they ask for is love, so why is it so hard to give? Because the community is affected by it and blaming the homosexual is an easier way out than wrestling with it. I highly recommend this film. If you have a Netflix account it is available as an online stream and can be viewed on your computer. It is also available in its entirety on Hulu with limited commercial interruptions. It's available on Amazon, for a small price, if you feel uncomfortable watching it on Hulu (which you shouldn't, Hulu's completely legit).

The Dance of Ecclesiastes: Part 2- Time to Breathe

Ecclesiastes 2:22-23 (ESV)

²²What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? ²³For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.

[Photo of the world’s most precise clock, based on the vibrations of a single aluminum ion, by J. Burrus/NIST, click here for the full article.]

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Our daily lives are ruled by the Almighty Clock. We are humbled by its constant ticking and follow it diligently. It tells us when to get up (yells at us if it has to), when to eat, when our favorite program is on TV, and when to sleep. There is a time for everything and as long as we follow it precisely we enjoy the day. Yet what do we do, we sleep in, we waste time in a bored stupor surfing the net, and worse we frustrate ourselves when we're late! Our body becomes tense, our heart rate and breathing speeds up and during this moment of anxiety we have the potential to make rash decisions. But why are we in a hurry in the first place? We become late either through our own actions (hitting the snooze) or through no fault of our own (stuck in traffic). And even when we're late through no fault of our own we continue in our state of anxiety, we blame and punish ourselves for random events outside of our control. This is where the wisdom of Kohelet comes through to help us understand the rhythms of the cosmic dance.

People are most familiar with Chapter 3 of Ecclesiastes than any other part of the book, and, in my personal opinion, is considered the heart of Ecclesiastes. It opens with a statement most people don't take into deep consideration. There is a time for EVERYTHING, this includes both the good and the bad.

Everything has its time and even more shocking God has made EVERYTHING beautiful in its time. Death, war, pain, suffering, all of the negative and painful moments of our existence are beautiful in its own time. What does this mean? Is the text (3:11) really saying we should really embrace the good and the evil equally? Does this also mean that both originate from the same source (i.e. God) or maybe that Good and Evil are more interdependent and intertwined than we believe? Regardless, all things are said to be made beautiful in its own time. Reading the second half of the verse...

Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. Ecclesiastes 3:11 (ESV)

Some may interpret this as describing a Divine plan interweaving the good and bad times in our lives for some greater purpose. But this is not only contradictory to the theme within Ecclesiastes but sounds incredibly disheartening. It's one thing to say that "sh!t happens" and we have no control over the chaos of the cosmos it's another to say that God has us suffer for a reason.

So if we have absolutely no control over what happens to us (well, I take that back, we do have some control), what are we to do? Kohelet weaves three concepts into Ecclesiastes which will help us to enjoy life through even the worst of times.

Learn how to Tell Time. There is a time for everything and if we learn how to tell time we can fully embrace the specific season and then let it go. Yes, sh!t does happen but not always. We may feel trapped and overwhelmed when bad things begin to happen in succession but they don't continue forever, just as the "good ole' days" don't always last forever (and aren't always as good as we remember them). What we must strive to do is to BE angry, happy, sad, and excited during it's time but to let go when that time is up. The letting go is, in my opinion, the hardest part of being human. We yearn for stability in an unstable world, something, anything that may give definition, guidance, or purpose in our lives. We want to control the music, the rhythm, the dance instead of flowing with it.

Vexation of Breath. Koholet likens this foolish clinging to the good times and bad to chasing the wind, ryut ruach, vexation of the breath. It's foolish to think we can hold onto to anything in life so why do we struggle so violently holding our breath? If everything is in constant cycle, constant motion, wouldn't it be easier to relax and breathe in rhythm with the universe? The rough times in our lives won't hurt forever, unless we allow them to, and will eventually fade away into memory as we begin to experience the happier times. Yet we can't fully enjoy the happy days if we're holding onto the pain of the sad, and vice versa. If we let go and stop fearing the inevitable, life will still suck but not as much without the stress and fear we add to it. Bad things WILL happen. Period. So why struggle? I'm not imploring defeatism, nor is Kohelet, but a sense of realism.

Eat, Drink, and be Merry (oh, and a few good friends wouldn't hurt). The first two helps us to understand and deal the flow of the universe, the ups and downs of life, yet they're hollow and bring no comfort whatsoever. Where then do we draw meaning, purpose, and joy?

¹²I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; ¹³also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man. Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 (ESV)

It is painfully simple yet rarely practiced advice. Millions of Americans struggle for a sense of happiness and search for it everywhere but the one place they fail to look, the here and now. You don't need to attain immense wealth, status, or wisdom to grasp that happiness is found within ourselves, it is here already! Good food, drink, work, and a few good friends make up the foundation to a joyous life. Many of us already have these but we fail to realize it. We're all looking outward toward our neighbor (and our neighbor at us) and assume that they have found something that we lack. So we toil and trade our precious time in the Now for time in the Future.

"After I get X,Y,and Z THEN I'll be happy."

So we rush out and we get X,Y, and Z and boy do we enjoy them, for a time. But why couldn't we be happy before we went out seeking? The only barrier preventing us from enjoying the here and now is ourselves, not God, Fate, Chance or your neighbor. No one is out to get you (well, maybe) so kick back take a deep breath, invite a few friends over, and have a party.

The Dance of Ecclesiastes: Part 1- Everything is Breath

Ecclesiastes 1:2-4 (ESV)

² Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
³ What does man gain by all the toil
at which he toils under the sun?
⁴A generation goes, and a generation comes,
but the earth remains forever.

[Ecclesiastes by Gustave Doré. 1866.]

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Last week in our The Bible: Origin and Content class we began reading through Ecclesiastes, and I was quickly reminded of the importance of scriptural translation and transmission. From the get go, Ecclesiastes, one of the wisdom books, sounds incredibly depressing when read from my NIV.

Meaningless, meaningless! Everything is Meaningless!

What's the wisdom of everything being meaningless? This book reads more like a teenage Jewish goth's diary entry than an inspired book of the Bible (I wonder if there are Jewish goths?).
Even those who question the existence of a Grand Designer can safely say that not everything is meaningless. Sure, I could go along with the basic Christian interpretation that every work of man is vain except for fearing God and keeping his commandments (Ecclesiastes 12: 13-14). Yet these verses seem almost tacked on by an outside commentator and this simple and literal interpretation comes across as cold, unconvincing, and contradictory to the message of Kohelet, the Assembler. Yet if the message isn't about fearing God and keeping his commandments, then this book would be very troubling to the religious/political system.

How then do we read this highly problematic text? Rabbi Rami enlightened the class, while simultaneously disturbing a few of my classmates by the look of their faces, by going over the various translation of verse two, which he argues is the key to unlocking the wisdom of Ecclesiastes. Take a look at my chicken-scratch notes.

The literal translation of the Hebrew word Hevel is "breath, vapor, or dew" which carries a connotation of emptiness or something insubstantial. It can be translated as "vanity, meaningless(ness), or futility" but when you take the the second phrase into consideration Ryut Ruach, "vexing of the breath", translated in my NIV as "chasing after wind", the text is cracked open like a window in a stagnant house. The writer uses the imagery of breath to explain the impermanence of life. This turns the entire text upside down, so instead of everything being

vanity of vanities! All is vanity!

The text now reads

breath of breath! Everything is breath!

Life, through the eyes of the Assembler, kohelet, is constant motion, turning, in and out, up and down, impermanence. Everything is constantly shifting. The sun rises AND sets, the wind blows north AND south, and water flows down stream only to end up in the sea, evaporate and rain down again on the land. Everything is cycling, turning, breathing not only in nature but in our lives. You can work hard your whole life building vast wealth only to pass it on to your children who may or may not squander it. You may live on in your writings only as long as people continue to read your work. There is nothing that can be done to secure a safe, comfortable, happy life eternally. We attempt to secure happiness by any means necessary even if it negatively impacts are fellow man either directly or indirectly. We always want to be content, happy, and have a full stomach but this is not always the case. The rich can become poor, the young will become old, and the loved can become heartbroken. Life is a chaotic wave and struggling will only cause a vexing of the breath.

Interpreted in this manner this book becomes contradictory to the message in the rest of the Bible. Is God not in control, or is God not all powerful? Do we pray in vain? Does God not bless the righteous and punish the wicked? Kohelet, doesn't focus on the afterlife and mentions God only in passing. His message is on the chaotic nature of existence. There is no foundation, nothing firm to hold onto, we're on a roller coaster ride and there are no seat belts.

So what does this mean? If nothing in life is permanent what can we do? It means there is a natural flow, a cosmic dance, which if we understood the rhythm and allowed ourselves to dance in unison with it we would enjoy the dance itself and not look towards the applause at the end. We may trip and fall but if we are fluid with the rhythm it would appear as part of the dance itself! Yet we shouldn't cling to repeating the same dance steps over and over again. By embracing the unknown we are thrust into the realm of continuous creativity. Even though fear is ever present, delving into the new and undiscovered realms of reality and chance outweigh that fear, at least for me. Ecclesiastes reads more as a book of celebration and liberation than one of utter hopelessness and misery. We just have to learn how to dance, and to dance properly we have to learn how to breathe.

Wrestling with God and Man: Part 5- Wrestles with God

^{Genesis 32:24-30 (NIV)
24} So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. ²⁵ When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. ²⁶ Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak."
But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

²⁷ The man asked him, "What is your name?"
"Jacob," he answered.

²⁸ Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."

²⁹ Jacob said, "Please tell me your name."
But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there.³⁰ So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."

[Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, By Gustave Doré, 1855]

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Jacob felt that he could not live a truly blessed life until he faced his brother once again. Throughout his life Jacob wrestled with the deceptive part of his personality, yet that did not stop him, and his wife when they cleverly swindled more wealth and blessings from Laban before departing. I found it interesting to note that in verse 3 of chapter 31 the Lord said to Jacob "Return to the land of your forefathers and to your birthplace, and I will be with you." Was God not with him during his stay at Laban's? In the following verses Jacob stated that God had been with him and was protecting him from Laban's mistreatment. Yet I believe there is something deeper meant by this verse than just a restatement of God's promise (how many times does God have to repeat himself before we get the message?). I believe the verse sums up the yearnings, hopes, and fears of Jacob returning home to his family. God is found in the love of a restored family, reconciliation, and forgiveness. God will be with us when we humbly approach those who've we hurt with our words and actions. Whether God literally spoke to Jacob or not is no importance, Jacob knew deep down that he would receive true inner blessing by returning home to face those he wounded.

As he nears home, Jacob is approached once again by the Divine (Genesis 32:2): angels, as Rashi comments, who are to escort him home. Jacob sent the angels ahead of him with a message to Esau, and they returned with news that Esau was marching at the head of 400 men. I enjoyed Karen Armstrong's summary of Jacob's response.

Then he took refuge with his God. No longer confident of his own cleverness and subtlety, he felt unworthy, too small for the divine blessing which had enabled him to return to Canaan a rich man. Yet he realized that he must go forward to confront the past; he had to come to terms with the complexities of his youth in a way that his father, Isaac, for example, had never done. Jacob was the first of the patriarchs to make a return journey. Henceforth the whole notion of return would become an important symbol of integration and reconciliation in the faith of Israel. It was no longer sufficient to "get up and go". The patriarchs had to learn that no one could move forward creatively into the future without having made peace with the past. (In the Begining: A New Interpretation of Genesis. Jacob Agonistes.)

His prayers before and after his journey are a window into the struggle and growth Jacob had endured. On his way to Laban's, immediately after his encounter with the Divine at Bethel, Jacob cut a deal with God: if God would watch over him, Jacob would accept him as his God only after his safe return home. Now after years of service and running from his past Jacob offered a prayer of humility when all hope seemed lost.

¹⁰ I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. ¹¹Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children.(Genesis 32:10-11)

An interesting Jewish interpretation I've come across states that Jacob wrestled with Esau's guardian angel, Samael, that night instead of God himself as has been interpreted by Christians. Jacob would then be both facing Esau on the spiritual and physical battlefields. An even more interesting interpretation states that Jacob was literally alone (32:24) and therefore wrestled with himself. Jacob had to conquer the Esau within before he could face his brother. The story of Jacob is an inner spiritual journey to discovery of the Self and reconciliation with his past life, and at the end of his journey he found God waiting to bless, forgive, and comfort him. However one may interpret the text, the heart of the tale is in the transformation of a man from a supplanter/deceiver to one who wrestled with both the physical and spiritual realms. Jacob could have easily lost to both the angelic being and Esau and his men, yet Jacob was given a new identity because he struggled. He was granted a new life (Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel...) to start over, another chance to undo the damage that had been done. Another chance for forgiveness and love.

Why We Suffer: Introducting Job and How We Respond to Suffering

I've been meaning to read, analyze, and ponder the issue of justice in the book of Job but only until I've read it at least twice in its entirety. Until then I've been reading Rabbi Harold Kushner's When Bad Thins Happen to Good People as an introduction to the theme of God's role in our lives when disaster strikes. In the Book of Job, the protagonist, Job, faces all sorts of horrors and yet remains a righteous man. Job the innocent cries out to God, and God enters in all his glory. God does not give a reason for Job's woes yet only responds by displaying his power over creation. How then do we deal with life's troubles when we're comforted by half-baked unreasonable answers? If we were to lose someone close to us is "it's all a part of God's Plan" a reasonable enough answer? Does that really brings us any comfort whatsoever? Can we find any love ringing from such a cold and distant response?

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In chapter one, "Why do the Righteous Suffer?", Kushner introduces five main responses (or excuses, for the truly cynical) given by those who attempt to explain why good people suffer in order to make since of life. I will briefly touch on each response and expand on it later in the series.

• We deserve it
  
• God has his reasons
  
• Educational
  
• Test of Faith and Spiritual Strength
  
• Liberate us from our mortal coil
  

We deserve it
Let's face it, we are sinful people and if we fail (even once) to please God in any way we could pay for it, eventually. But why good people? Of course we believe that bad people deserve what's coming to them, except we call it justice. Yet, if good people are trying as hard as humanly possible to follow God's will then we can't be punished for our fallibility, can we? Would it be Just to punish the good in the same manner as the bad? I don't punish my toddlers for using bad words that I myself accidentally let slip out (and believe me my son has been building a very colorful vocabulary). If people are truly trying to be as good as humanly possible then God's standards are too high for mortals, God is unjust (gasp!), or maybe God is not punishing us for our sins (gasp again!). If God is not punishing the good, what then is causing bad things to happen to good people (including faithful Christians)?

God has his reasons
"God works in mysterious ways" is the most common response I hear when it comes to events we can not explain. There is a reason but we live finite lives with limited brain power so we could never understand God's intricate tapestry. But when something disastrous as the loss of a child is used by God to further his will, this reeks of injustice. Why would God cut a new life just to further his will? Is it right for you to suffer to further the will of a God who sprinkles suffering on the good and the bad? Why can't we accept that these things just happen instead of tying every single event to God? If a hurricane wipes out a "sinful city" some may call it Justice. But if an earthquake were to take out the Vatican, what then? How can a loving creator God justify destruction of life as Good? Sure we can always look back after the horrendous event and say that people were brought together because of destruction, but this lacks compassion and love. The ends do not justify the means, even if we can not comprehend the end game.

Educational
Compared to the monotheistic, sittin' on a cloud God, us mere mortals have no greater intellect than a turnip. So a third response is that these bad things happen to good people to teach us something important about life. God gives a couple a baby with down syndrome to teach them and others to be kinder and more compassionate to people born with disabilities. But what about the kid? He's done absolutely nothing wrong (he never had a chance to sin) and already he will experience his life on earth in pain and torment. Kushner states that both the Educational response and the response on God's mysterious Will both have a bright side: the good will go to heaven in the afterlife, so it's all good. The sad fact is that we don't know that there is a heaven we just hope there is one and our energy is better spent in attempting to build a heaven on Earth instead of focusing on the one that might not be there after we pass on. And like the response on God's mysterious Will, this response also sounds downright monstrous.

Test of Faith and Spiritual Strength
Abraham is probably the most quoted Bible character when it comes to the topic of testing our Faith. Abraham having to sacrifice (God wanted a human sacrifice) his only son was a major test of faith. But what about Isaac? How is being sacrificed to a God his father speaks to a test of Isaac's faith? Poor Isaac didn't even know he was being sacrificed until the last minute. There is a Jewish Midrash that puts a twist on the story with Isaac running off to join his brother Ishmael after his crazy father tried to turn him into barbecue.

We use this response because 1) we believe God is in total control and 2) we believe he knows what's best for us. Yet the last thing ANYONE wants to hear after the loss of a child or news of terminal illness is that their faith is being tested. Again, it is simply monstrous that our pain and suffering is simply a way to test our allegiance. Rest assured that if I tried to "test" my family's allegiance in anyway similar to that of God in the Bible I would end up in prison or in the loony bin.

Liberate us from our Mortal Coil
The fifth reason is that if we're good anyway there's no reason to complain over earthly suffering when Heaven awaits us in the afterlife. As I stated earlier, anything that happens to bad people is justified by the belief that the good will get their reward after death. But the sad fact is that we don't know that there is an afterlife, we hope. Kushner calls this wishful thinking, and can you blame him? We want a reward, a reason for our suffering. Suffering in vain is too depressing to be an option so we have Heaven and Hell. Those who didn't learn from their suffering, did not pass their faith test, or those who questioned God's Master Plan will be sent into the hellfire. Everyone else will go to a lovely place and live forever with their loved ones. Sounds nice and reassuring, doesn't it? So why then do we cry at the loss of a child to a terminal disease, or mourn those who were killed in a terrorist attack? I believe it is because even though we may try to comfort ourselves with the notion of Heaven we are still human, with human emotions and we fear that death may be it.

Kushner brings up the most challenging, yet truthful common theme that underlies all of these responses to human suffering: "they all assume that God is the cause of our suffering, and they try to understand why God would want us to suffer, " (Kushner, pg. 29). This is not an attack on God but an honest questioning that millions, if not billions of people echo throughout history, "why?" If God is in total control why would he want us to suffer? Maybe we are just asking the wrong question. Instead of asking why do good people (or anyone) suffer, maybe we should be asking ourselves what do we do now that we have suffered? Where do we go? Suffering is a part of being human, instead of looking for a reason or someone to blame, maybe we should look forward with a new understanding of our humanity and see if there is something we can do to alleviate someone else's pain.

The Jewish Gospels: Part 2- Fall of Jerusalem

In my previous post I brought up the importance of Jesus' Jewish heritage. This is hard to grasp within Christianity because his attributed divinity tends to overwhelm his humanity. What aspects of Jesus stays within the realms of his attributed divinity and his humanity? If Jesus was Jewish how closely did he follow the Torah and Jewish rituals? If we take Jesus' Jewishness seriously should we not also take the Jewishness of his followers into account including their writings of him? At what point did the early Christian church begin departing from their Jewish roots?

[The sack of Jerusalem depicted on the Arch of Titus]

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Bishop John Shelby Spong greatly illuminated this subject for me in his book, Liberating the Gospels. Spong explains that it was the fall of Jerusalem and the fight over the Jewish Scriptures (the OT) that caused the early Christian church to begin moving away from their Jewish roots.

"It was the fall of Jerusalem, with its resulting destruction of the Temple and the priesthood, that raised the price of that uneasy accommodation to such painful levels that fracture was inevitable. The intolerable quality of this event did not appear all at once. Rather its intensity grew from the moment of Jerusalem's defeat over the next twenty years, until the separation was so total and so hostile that finally the Jewish Christians were literally expelled from the synagogues. As this tension built towards its climax, both Christian hostility toward heterodox Jewish Christians expanded. Echoes of this rising hostility can be found quite overtly in the Gospels. As the rhetoric heightened, the lines around what Jews could tolerate inside Judaism tightened considerably and those heterodox Jewish Christians, offended by this increasing hostility, began to move more and more into gentile circles." (Liberating the Gospels, "How These Jewish Books Became Gentile Captives")

With the heart of Jewish life demolished the one thing that kept, and continues to keep, the Jews together was their scripture. Judaism depended on their scripture as the final existing thread to their identity and their survival. Without it Judaism may have disappeared into history only to be mentioned in Christian history books. The post- 2nd Temple Jews also developed a new form Judaism, Rabbinic Judaism. In this new form of Judaism both the written and Oral Law took center stage, which caused a widening rift between Jews and the Early church, which at the time was growing into a Gentile majority, to become a full blown break over the battle over scriptural interpretation. The Jews protected the one link that bounded them together, while the gentile Christians found new interpretation in the Jewish scripture that they saw pointed to the Risen Christ. The Jewish Christians, caught in the middle, lost out in the end as the movement became overwhelmingly gentile the Jewish born Christians would eventually die out. Yet without the connection to Judaism through the Jewish Christians, Christianity may not have had a strong enough root to compete with the ancient Greco-Roman religions. It's tough being the new kid on the block, just ask the Mormons.

I agree with Spong that the destruction of the Temple and the subsequent battle over the Jewish scripture were the main causes of the Jewish Christian rift in the Early Church. Spong brought up an intriguing although highly controversial view of the development of the gospels: the gospels were written as "collections of expository teaching or preaching that had been created in the same way that the rabbis would create what came to be called the midrash rabbah." ("How These Jewish books became Gentile Captives", pg. 52) The gospels were written to help explain (and later remember) what they experienced through the Risen Christ by searching through the Jewish scripture for new meaning. To traditional Christians this translates as the early church invented Jesus as a vehicle for new teachings, yet this creative writing is riddled throughout Jewish literature. So the question then becomes how do we read the "eyewitness" accounts found in the gospels? How much of the gospels were elaborations made by the Christian church and how much are historical? All, some, none?

In this case, pronouncement stories, stories which surround a particular teaching or saying of Jesus, could have been written by the Jewish Christians as a creative foundation for a teaching of Jesus. The focus of the pronouncement stories is the pronouncement itself and not in the detail of the story, which gives the story flexibility when retold. A storyteller knows the basic structure of a story while she/he weaves his or her own creative aspects into the tale. This is how oral stories were told and retold until they were preserved in writing. It was when the story moved from the oral tradition to written, from Jewish to Greek that the words in the gospels moved from a new creative interpretation on experiencing God towards Christian Orthodoxy.

Wrestling with God and Man: Part 4- Sister Rivalry

Genesis 29:31-32 (NIV)

³¹ When the LORD saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. ³² Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, "It is because the LORD has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now."

[The Vision of Rachel and Leah – Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1899]

Jacob was indeed blessed but it came at the cost of two sisters wrestling for Jacob's love and blessing. Jacob believed that departing to Haran would lessen the pain he's caused, but being blessed by God isn't easy. On his journey Jacob will soon find that running away from his troubles only causes more grief. Here are the verses I will be referring to on the wrestling sisters, Leah and Rachel.

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Through Jacob, he blessed others in his 20 years in Paddan-Aram. Yet there were some who took advantage of his blessings, and in the end Jacob's blessings increased. There is a comical tale in Rashi's commentary which is telling of Laban's greed when he first greeted Jacob (Genesis 29:13).

13. Now it came to pass when Laban heard the report of Jacob, his sister's son, that he ran towards him, and he embraced him, and he kissed him, and he brought him into his house. He told Laban all these happenings.

יג. וַיְהִי כִשְׁמֹעַ לָבָן אֶת שֵׁמַע יַעֲקֹב בֶּן אֲחֹתוֹ וַיָּרָץ לִקְרָאתוֹ וַיְחַבֶּק לוֹ וַיְנַשֶּׁק לוֹ וַיְבִיאֵהוּ אֶל בֵּיתוֹ וַיְסַפֵּר לְלָבָן אֵת כָּל הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה:

Rashi's Commentary

that he ran towards him: He thought that he (Jacob) was laden with money, for the servant of the household (Eliezer) had come here with ten laden camels.[from Gen. Rabbah 70:13]		וירץ לקראתו: כסבור ממון הוא טעון, שהרי עבד הבית בא לכאן בעשרה גמלים טעונים:
and he embraced: When he (Laban) did not see anything with him (Jacob), he said, “Perhaps he has brought golden coins, and they are in his bosom.” [from Gen. Rabbah 70:13]		ויחבק: כשלא ראה עמו כלום אמר שמא זהובים הביא והנם בחיקו:
and he kissed him: He said,“Perhaps he has brought pearls, and they are in his mouth.” [from Gen. Rabbah 70:13]		וינשק לו: אמר שמא מרגליות הביא והם בפיו:
He told Laban: that he had come only because he was compelled to do so because of his brother (Esau), and that they had taken his money from him. — [from Gen. Rabbah 70:13]		ויספר ללבן: שלא בא אלא מתוך אונס אחיו, ושנטלו ממונו ממנו:

And so after a thorough cavity search, Laban announced that since he is kin that he could take him in (even though he doesn't have to). Laban asked Jacob to name his wages for working for him. Jacob said he would work 7 years for Rachel, Laban's younger daughter. Already the wheels of deception within Laban's head are turning as he "cooks" up a scheme to profit immensely from the one blessed by God. After 7 years, the hasty Esau within Jacob speaks up, asking for his wife. Laban pulls the old switch-a-roo and to Jacob's surprise, it was Leah! Karen Armstrong describes the misery he faced for the deceptions he has caused in the past.

"Jacob the trickster had been duped in his turn. With strong poetic irony, he was forced to acknowledge the rights of the firstborn child. Before he was given Rachel in marriage too, he had to agree to work for Laban for another seven years. But his marriage to the sisters did not bring peace to the household. Because Jacob loved Rachel and not Leah, he introduced the same sibling rivalry into Laban's home that had split his own family asunder." (In the Beginning, "A Blessing of a Curse?")

In Rabbinic tradition, Leah was destined to marry Esau and the description of her eyes as tender (or weak from crying, Genesis 29:17) is interpreted as Leah earnestly praying for God to change her destiny. God granted her wish, but not Jacob's heart. God makes up for Jacob's neglect, by opening up her womb. With each son she bore, Leah grew to make peace with Jacob's hatred towards her and thanked the Lord by her fourth child, Judah. I found Armstrong's statement on the forgiving, healing, and reconciliatory nature of Leah's thankfulness as foreshadowing of Judah's attempt to reconcile his family very touching. Although her thankfulness is momentary it is a peek into the hearts of our wrestling characters. Each of them have their own personal demons which they struggle with so that they may recapture Eden.

Back and forth the sisters wrestled for God's blessing and Jacob's love (Genesis 30). [Notice that God chose to bless one of them with fertility at a time.] When God would not bless her with children Rachel took matters into her own hands by offering her maidservant to Jacob, as Sarah did with Abraham. I wonder if this offer opened up any of Jacob's childhood emotional wounds since he must have noticed his father, Isaac, in silent misery caused by Sarah and Hagar's rivalry. Jacob yearned to keep his family together and feared that the Edenic promise of prosperity and blessing might slip through his fingers at any moment. The tension between the sisters became more hostile as Rachel named her second son, by her maidservant, Bilhah, after the struggle the sisters endured: "Then Rachel said, 'With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed'; so she named him Naphtali." (Gen. 30:8). Back and forth they wrestled, and Jacob tired of it all asked Laban to let him go home (30:25).

Jacob knew that he could never truly live at peace with himself and reconcile the members of his family until he faced Esau. The sibling rivalry between his wives was a daily reminder of his fear to his past actions. The man who would be renamed Israel (Hebrew: יִשְׂרָאֵל‎, "struggler/striver with God") could not even stand to face his wives struggling over his blessing and love. The man who through all others were blessed could not find any blessings within his own home. Jacob's story is a testament to the struggle each and everyone of us may face in life. Jacob is not remembered for overcoming his inner demons, but that he CHOSE to continue wrestling even if it meant wrestling with the Divine itself. It is the struggle itself that makes us who we are, not the demons we've overcome.

Wrestling with God and Man: Part 3- The Deciever Becomes the Bargainer

Genesis 28:10-15 (NIV)
¹⁰ Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. ¹¹ When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. ¹² He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ¹³ There above it stood the LORD, and he said: "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. ¹⁴ Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. ¹⁵ I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

[Jacob's Ladder, by William Blake, 1800]

The story of Jacob and Esau is an intriguing tale on self-identity, deception, struggle for power, and redemption. If you sit down and really read Genesis you may find that it is an amazing text which touches on several areas on the human experience. Here are the verses I will be referencing on Jacob and Esau.

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After deceiving both his father and brother, Jacob is sent to Laban's house for protection, at his mother's request, and marriage, at his father's. This seemed confusing at first since it's almost as if he is being sent away for two different reasons. I wonder if Rebekah finally spoke to Isaac about her encounter with God after the incident in Chapter 27 and had to come up with a reasonable solution to fix the problem. I also wonder how long Esau could have held back his anger out of respect for his father, but if Jacob stayed it may have been only a matter of time before his anger would have taken over. Esau may have even threatened the blind and aging Isaac by moving away with his family, taking the strength and any tribal protection he provided with him, if Jacob was not dealt with properly. One of the brothers had to leave and the tribe could not afford the loss of manpower and strength that Esau afforded them, so the weaker and younger brother was banished. This may have caused Isaac to counter this threat by reconfirming the "accidental" blessing he gave to Jacob with another blessing! Karen Armstrong puts it best as "the family that was supposed to reverse the curse of Babel and reunite dispersed humanity had itself been scattered and fragmented." (In the Begining: A New Interpretation of Genesis. "The Blessing of Jacob")

Yet, it is Isaac's second blessing, or rather Rashi's commentary on the blessing, which caught my attention.

Genesis 28:3

3. And may the Almighty God bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and you shall become an assembly of peoples.

ג. וְאֵל שַׁדַּי יְבָרֵךְ אֹתְךָ וְיַפְרְךָ וְיַרְבֶּךָ וְהָיִיתָ לִקְהַל עַמִּים:

Rashi's Commentary

And…the Almighty God: Heb. שַׁדַּי. May He Who has enough (שֶׁדָּי) blessings for those who are blessed from His mouth, bless you.		ואל שדי: מי שדי בברכותיו למתברכין מפיו יברך אותך:

Blessing is transmitted through the mouth, AND He (God) has enough blessing for everyone. This stood out like a sore thumb as a description of our very fallible nature. We CAN bless/forgive others immensely (Limitless blessing only after we begin to bless others) yet we struggle to open our mouths and we selfishly keep those blessing for ourselves (others don't deserve to be more blessed than us). Once we begin blessing others the only limits we have are self-imposed. Isaac's second blessing over Jacob was more than just a reconfirmation of the first, Isaac was telling Jacob that he was strong enough to undo the damage caused by their family and humanity. And the key to that strength dwells within us if we only learn to open our mouths.

It is with these words that Jacob leaves to Haran and arrives at a "place". No name is initially given to this unnamed place, but one of the Talmud commentaries associates this place with Mount Moriah, the Jewish axis mundi, which bridges the Divine and mortal realms. Mount Moriah is also said to have been the place where Abraham set out to sacrifice Isaac, the location of Solomon's Temple, linked by some Christian traditions to the location of the crucifixion, and within Islamic tradition Mount Moriah is associated with Mohammad's point of departure into the heavens during his Night Journey. Regardless of the actual location, the place he arrived at was to be considered holy. It is in this place that Jacob dreamt of a ladder to Heaven with angels ascending and descending as God reconfirmed the blessing Jacob had taken from his brother. Three times he had been blessed and yet after being blessed by God himself, and recognizing the holiness of the place where he experienced the Divine, Jacob makes a conditional bargain with God.

Genesis 28:20-22 (NRSV)

²⁰Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, ²¹so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, ²²and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one-tenth to you.’

Jacob, unable to forgive himself for what he has done to his family and what's been done to him is even cautious about receiving a blessing from the Mouth of One who has enough blessings for all. In their book The Torah: A Modern Commentary, W. Gunther Plaut and David E. Stein explain Jacob's anxiety and fear driven prayer.

"He is only at the beginning of his quest. This is his first experience with trial. Understandably, with anxiety he cries out that he will do anything if only someone will help. Jacob, to be sure, does not deliver a "proper" prayer. He prays realistically from the heart. The vow is his human response to the covenant that God has offered him."

During times of crisis we call out for help begging and pleading on our knees, willing to do anything for help to dig us out of our troubles. I've been in this state countless of times bargaining with God that if he helps me with my current woes I'll go back to church, pray more, etc,etc. Yet we fail to realize that this type of mentality is only a way out of claiming personal responsibility. If God does not answer our prayers, we become calloused towards asking for any help from anyone which in turn leads to more and more division and separation. Once we stop bargaining for help we can discover the strength and potential that has been tucked away within our inner being. Like Jacob, we all seek to redeem and reunite ourselves and humanity yet we fail to realize that paradise can be found if we simply open our mouths and begin to bless one another.

The Jewish Gospels: Part 1- Jesus, the Jew?

Traditional Christians believe Jesus Christ had a flesh and blood mother. Joseph and Mary followed Jewish practices and customs, so what about Jesus? He couldn't have been Jewish, could he? The Jews argued with Jesus and later tortured and crucified him, so how could he possibly be one of them? Well unless you're a Docetist, believer in Christ being fully divine, then I can't see any logical argument that could undeniably support Jesus being anything other than a 1st century Palestinian Jew.

[Jesus teaching in a Synagogue, Author Unknown.]

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Oh, people have tried to argue that he wasn't Jewish, which surprised me when I attempted to read their fear-induced propaganda. Now, I must confess that I never connected the dots between Jesus and his Jewishness until well into my teen years. In fact, I never really considered Jesus' humanity throughout my childhood because we were raised to believe he is the Son of God. The divine nature of Jesus was incredibly emphasized, overshadowing his humanity. Rereading the Gospels as an adult there is no escaping that Jesus was born and raised Jewish. I should probably attempt to clarify what it means to be Jewish. Today, you can be considered Jewish by birth (your parents, specifically your mother, are Jews), by nationality, and by religious status (converted to Judaism). I'm sure the lines were more black and white when it came to being a Jew in 1st century, Roman-occupied, Palestine. In fact, I can't think of any group/nationality/persons that would have been allowed to participate in Temple practices if they weren't Jewish. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Temple and all things Jewish was an exclusive enterprise: either you were Jewish or you weren't.

Luke 2 is riddled with Jewish traditions and practices that the holy family practiced during the early years of Jesus. There are plenty more examples of the Jewishness of Jesus scattered throughout the Gospels which begs the question, if Jesus was a Jew, and his disciples were Jews, then shouldn't we be reading the Gospels, which were written for Jewish Christians, with a modicum understanding of Judaism? Should we not read the Gospels as Jewish works? John Shelby Spong brings up this fundamental question in his book "Liberating the Gospels: Reading the Bible with Jewish Eyes". This excerpt summarizes the need to rethink and reread the Bible from a Jewish perspective.

"So the Jewishness of Jesus, the Jewishness of Mary, his mother, the Jewishness of the Apostles, the Jewishness of Paul, and even the Jewishness of the heroes of the Hebrew past was at worst systematically denied and at best subtly understated. It is thus easy for me to understand today that few people in the Christian West have been able to think of the Bible, including both testaments, as a Jewish book. If one cannot even embrace emotionally the Jewishness of Jesus, then why would one study the sacred scriptures of the Jewish people as the primary means of knowing and understanding this Jesus? How aware are people today, for example, of the fact that every author in the entire Bible was Jewish by birth or conversion and that there was only one convert? How often has the interpretive task of the Christian expositors of the Gospels begun with the suggestion that, since the books we call Gospels were written by Jewish authors, we might want to study just how it was that Jewish people wrote sacred narratives so that we might understand even the Gospels? Has it not occurred to anyone to ask, 'How can a Jewish work be understood if one ignores the Jewish context, the Jewish mind-set, the Jewish frame of Reference, the Jewish vocabulary, and even the Jewish history that shaped and formed the writer?' But that has been the reality of the Christian West for most of our history."(Ch. 2. The Gospels are Jewish Books)

Are we not ignoring the human nature of Jesus by ignoring his ethnicity, traditions, and culture? If Jesus was truly fully God and fully Man what aspects of his humanity are compromised or even dwarfed to obscurity by his divine nature within Traditional Christianity? If our religious beliefs, culture, traditions, and ethnicity helps to shape our individuality and are important elements to being human, what pieces from the enigma that is Jesus of Nazareth are we throwing out by excluding his Jewishness? Even though the Gospels are seen and read as Christian works I believe that even the most conservative of Christians could learn something important about Jesus and his teachings when understood through Jewish eyes. If we struggle to understand the world and culture that shaped Jesus of Nazareth, how can we come close to understanding his message?

Wrestling with God and Man: Part 2- Deciever and Decieved

Genesis 25:29-34 (NIV)
²⁹ Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. ³⁰ He said to Jacob, "Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I'm famished!" (That is why he was also called Edom.) ³¹ Jacob replied, "First sell me your birthright." ³² "Look, I am about to die," Esau said. "What good is the birthright to me?" ³³ But Jacob said, "Swear to me first." So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. ³⁴ Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.

[Esau Selling His Birthright, by Hendrick ter Brugghen, 1627.]

Jacob and Esau wrestled each other before birth. There is even a Jewish legend which state that "Each of them wished to be born first, and it was only after Esau threatened to kill Rebekah, his mother, if he was not permitted to be born first that Jacob acceded (Midrash ha-Gadol [ed. Schechter, Cambridge, 1902] on Gen. xxv. 22; comp. Pesiḳ. R. [ed. Friedmann, Vienna, 1880], p. 48a)Read more here.The story of Jacob and Esau is an intriguing tale on self-identity, deception, struggle for power, and redemption. If you sit down and really read Genesis you may find that it is an amazing text which touches on several areas on the human experience. Here are the verses I will be referencing on Jacob and Esau.

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Jacob (Hebrew: יַעֲקֹב‎, meaning “supplanted” or “held by the heel.”) was born struggling with and dependent of his brother. His flesh may have been weak but the soul was strong. It is in this struggle that Jacob is caught between fighting and loving his brother. Not much is said of Jacob's childhood outside of a short tale of Jacob swindling (or trading for) Esau's birthright. Unless brought up within a Jewish tradition, the tale sounds pretty straightforward. But when you take a closer look the tale becomes increasingly richer and more complex. It starts off innocently with Jacob cooking a stew. I've read a few commentaries referring to Jacob "cooking" a scheme. Clever but the more interesting part was the stew itself which the Talmud (Bava Batra 16b, sorry could only find the reference, no link) mentions are lentils which in Jewish tradition are cooked as a mourners meal alluding to the death of Jacob's grandfather, Abraham. The stew that Jacob was cooking was meant for Isaac sitting shiv'ah, (Hebrew: שבעה, "Seven") NOT Esau. Of course this is how later Jews interpreted the scripture but it is still important to understand how they read their own holy books instead of a just through the lens of Christian interpretation. So Esau marches back home after a day of hunting and demands to eat the mourner's meal meant for Isaac. The short-sighted Esau did not take Jacob's reply about his birthright seriously and wanted to devour anything that was immediately available. Esau probably didn't even take the oath seriously as some of us may have done as children while crossing our fingers behind our back (in Jewish tradition it's been said that they were both 15 at the time of Abraham's death). But the oath was said and Esau, who as firstborn thought he would still receive everything he deserved, did not worry that his timid, mild brother could take everything from him. Click here for a detailed and interesting analysis on Jacob and the selling of the birthright.

As we continue reading it is Rebekah who "cooks" a scheme to have Jacob claim both birthright and blessing. We see the real Jacob this time as he does NOT protest from going along with the plan, he is worried of getting caught! I wonder what the quiet twin was thinking while dressing up in his brother's clothes? Worse yet, try and imagine what Jacob was thinking during the last lines of the blessing.

Be lord over your brothers,
and may the sons of your mother bow down to you.
May those who curse you be cursed
and those who bless you be blessed."(Gen. 27:29)

Jacob, for fear of getting caught, must have been trembling as Isaac asked Jacob to come close enough to smell him. This, as Rashi states in his commentary, is what convinced Isaac that this was the right son because he smelled the Divine fragrance of Eden.

Is it not so that there is no odor more offensive than that of washed goat skins? But this teaches us that the fragrance of the Garden of Eden entered with him. [From Tanchuma Buber 16] (Click here to read Genesis 27 with Rashi's commentary.)

Immediately after the blessing Jacob runs off for fear of facing his brother still garbed in his clothing. When Esau comes back to finally receive his blessing poor Isaac realized that he may have passed on the Divine blessing to a total stranger. Yet after this fleeting thought he realized that it was indeed Jacob because the person he blessed smelled like paradise. But it also could have been that Isaac knew of Jacob's cleverness and realized that his strong-willed wife, Rebekah, had taken part in the scheme. I found Esau's response intriguing as he asked if this is the reason why his brother was named Jacob.

Did Esau think that the naming of Jacob was prophetic in some way, and that he (Esau) was destined to a lower status than his brother? In verse 37, Isaac does not respond to the first question but to the second he merely states what is done is done, Jacob is now the master over Esau. Isaac could only promise that at the time when he grows restless (or when he grieves) is when he will be released of this hold from his brother's yoke. Isaac understood Esau's pain and comforted his son by telling him that when he makes amends with his brother, Jacob, that he will be released of his pain caused by deception. Regrettably Esau, does not find it easy to forgive his brother for taking his birthright and blessing. The Deceiver and the Deceived have years to mull over this one event. Nothing is said of how Esau dealt with the deception as the text follows Jacob to Haran. The silence of the Genesis writers builds the suspense during Jacob's return. Had Esau forgiven him or had he held his grudge for years? Jacob endured much during his years away from home, and in the back of his mind he must wondered what his twin had endured. But before he can return, Jacob must come to find himself and discover his journey with the Divine before he faces his brother.

Wrestling with God and Man: Part 1- A Divided House

Genesis 25:21-23 (NIV)

²¹ Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. The LORD answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. ²² The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, "Why is this happening to me?" So she went to inquire of the LORD.

²³ The LORD said to her,
"Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger."

Christians who praise the Bible for supporting strong family values might need to reread Genesis which is riddled with families with serious issues. But that's a post for another day. The story of Jacob and Esau is an intriguing tale on self-identity, deception, struggle for power, and redemption. If you sit down and really read Genesis (look up a few Hebrew words) you may find that it is an amazing text which touches on several areas on the human experience. Here are the verses I will be referencing on Jacob and Esau.

[Isaac Blessing Jacob, by Gustave Doré]

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The story begins with Rachel questioning God about her jostling sons and God responds that they are fighting for superiority (one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger). Esau, the firstborn, was born incredibly hairy and Jacob was born holding firmly onto his brothers heel (that's one strong neonatal grip, or more likely symbolic of Jacob's weakness and dependence on the stronger brother). Esau grew up to be an outdoors man, a skilled hunter, and dearly loved by Isaac. As the firstborn he was energetic, a natural leader, destined for success, and the heir to Isaac's blessing and birthright. Jacob grew up being the quiet, stay at home brother. He may have helped the women in the camp with daily chores (he also cooked) and was loved by his mother, Rebekah. What initially caught my eye was that both parents admired their polar opposites. In Genesis, Isaac does not speak much (can you blame him after almost being sacrificed by his father?) as a second born himself, and does not carry the characteristics of a natural leader like his father, Abraham, who challenged God's justice and led men into battle (Genesis 14). The introvert Isaac loved his outgoing and energetic son, Esau. Rebekah, a strong-spirited and independent woman, loved her quiet, introverted son, Jacob. In chapter 24, Rebekah ran to water Abraham's servant (sent by Abraham to find a wife for Isaac) AND his 10 camels, and she also made the decision to marry Isaac despite her family's hesitancy. The weak father loved and admired the stronger son, and the strong mother loved and admired the weaker.

Rebekah doesn't say a word about her encounter with God (ch. 25) as Isaac was prepared to pass his blessing to Esau. This is where things got a bit complicated for me. What is the difference between birthright and blessing? I, who have yet to delve into Judaism and the Old Testament, thought they were one and the same. The Birthright dealt with inheritance after the father's death, with the firstborn receiving a double portion of the inheritance over his siblings. The Blessing was a designation of the head of the extended family/tribe after the father's death and also usually went to the firstborn although this was not always the case (click here for a more detailed explanation.) Yet even after Esau traded his inheritance for food and even after Esau married Hittite women, which was a source a bitterness between Esau and his parents, Isaac STILL decided to pass the blessing (leadership) onto his irresponsible eldest son. If Isaac knew about Rebekah's encounter with God then Isaac was deliberately opposing God's will for his own purposes. Click here for a very interesting explanation for Isaac's decision to bless Esau.

After Jacob craftily obtained Esau's birthright the strong-willed Rebekah noticed the prime opportunity to have Jacob also grab the blessing (more on both topics in Part 2). The uncertain Jacob worried that the disguise as Esau might fail and Jacob might receive a curse instead. Rebekah, throwing all caution to the wind, tells Jacob that the curse would fall on her, the schemer, instead of him. But if Rebekah was attempting to fulfill prophecy (the older will serve the younger) then why would God allow any curse to fall on her? Or was Rebekah merely scheming to have her favorite son has head of the tribe? Whatever her true intentions were poor blind Isaac was deceived into blessing the wrong son (or maybe the right son), leaving the twice deceived Esau desperately pleading for ANY blessing.

³⁸ Esau said to his father, "Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!" Then Esau wept aloud.

³⁹ His father Isaac answered him,
"Your dwelling will be
away from the earth's richness,
away from the dew of heaven above.

⁴⁰ You will live by the sword
and you will serve your brother.
But when you grow restless,
you will throw his yoke
from off your neck." (Genesis 27:38-40)

Esau, the hunter and defender of the land is left penniless to serve his weaker brother. Maybe Esau deserved it, or maybe he was meant to forever wrestle with the hardships of life so that he may learn to appreciate the beautiful things in life. Esau comes across as unappreciative, rebellious, and an unforgiving brother. Maybe as twins, and polar opposites, they must both allow the traits of the other brother to grow within themselves. In her book, In the Beginning: A New Interpretation of Genesis, Karen Armstrong states that Jacob too must wrestle with his deception and "until he [Jacob] was reconciled with Esau, his twin, and with the Esau within himself, he would find no peace." They must seek out and find their inner selves despite the meddling wills of their parents. The family is divided and will travel down separate paths only to conclude that peace can not be found until they seek to reconcile the differences both between and within themselves. Abraham's descendants, whom through the world would have been blessed, wrestle with blessing each other.