Words Can Be Dangerous, A Lesson From Torah Portions "Vayeitzei," and "Vayishlach"

Torah Portion "Vayeitzei" which begins in Bereishit Chapter 28:10 tells the saga of Jacob after he left his parents' home. It includes his "nap" in Beit El, marrying his two wives and the birth of most of his children.

Two dangerous things are said, one by Jacob and one by Rachel, which foretell or cause a tragedy.

First Rachel blames Jacob for her barrenness, rather than praying to Gd. Very dramatically she states:

30 ל׳

וַתֵּ֣רֶא רָחֵ֗ל כִּ֣י לֹ֤א יָֽלְדָה֙ לְיַעֲקֹ֔ב וַתְּקַנֵּ֥א רָחֵ֖ל בַּאֲחֹתָ֑הּ וַתֹּ֤אמֶר אֶֽל־יַעֲקֹב֙ הָֽבָה־לִּ֣י בָנִ֔ים וְאִם־אַ֖יִן מֵתָ֥ה אָנֹֽכִי׃
When Rachel saw that she had borne Jacob no children, she became envious of her sister; and Rachel said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die.”

And later in the Torah Portion, when Jacob and his family are fleeing Lavan, Lavan chases after them angry about two things. One is that Jacob left, and the other is that his personal idols had apparently been stolen by someone in Jacob's entourage.

31

וַיַּ֥עַן יַעֲקֹ֖ב וַיֹּ֣אמֶר לְלָבָ֑ן כִּ֣י יָרֵ֔אתִי כִּ֣י אָמַ֔רְתִּי פֶּן־תִּגְזֹ֥ל אֶת־בְּנוֹתֶ֖יךָ מֵעִמִּֽי׃
Jacob answered Laban, saying, “I was afraid because I thought you would take your daughters from me by force.
עִ֠ם אֲשֶׁ֨ר תִּמְצָ֣א אֶת־אֱלֹהֶיךָ֮ לֹ֣א יִֽחְיֶה֒ נֶ֣גֶד אַחֵ֧ינוּ הַֽכֶּר־לְךָ֛ מָ֥ה עִמָּדִ֖י וְקַֽח־לָ֑ךְ וְלֹֽא־יָדַ֣ע יַעֲקֹ֔ב כִּ֥י רָחֵ֖ל גְּנָבָֽתַם׃
But anyone with whom you find your gods shall not remain alive! In the presence of our kinsmen, point out what I have of yours and take it.” Jacob, of course, did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

I'm sure that you all know the result. In "Vayishlach" Rachel dies after giving birth to Binyamin. Gd turned her threat around. Rachel died from giving birth, not as a result of being barren. Jacob predicted her death in his very "Yiftach* moment" by declaring that someone must die without realizing the power of his words.

Every word has power, and I also see shadows of Rachel's threat in the failures of her descendant King Saul. Contrast Rachel and the names she gave her children with her sister Leah, who recognized Gd's power in the names she gave her children. King David is clearly her descendant and the leader most fitting to lead the Jewish People and produce the Moshiach.

*Judges 11וַיִּדַּ֨ר יִפְתָּ֥ח נֶ֛דֶר לַיהוָ֖ה וַיֹּאמַ֑ר אִם־נָת֥וֹן תִּתֵּ֛ן אֶת־בְּנֵ֥י עַמּ֖וֹן בְּיָדִֽי׃
And Jephthah made the following vow to the LORD: “If you deliver the Ammonites into my hands,
וְהָיָ֣ה הַיּוֹצֵ֗א אֲשֶׁ֨ר יֵצֵ֜א מִדַּלְתֵ֤י בֵיתִי֙ לִקְרָאתִ֔י בְּשׁוּבִ֥י בְשָׁל֖וֹם מִבְּנֵ֣י עַמּ֑וֹן וְהָיָה֙ לַֽיהוָ֔ה וְהַעֲלִיתִ֖הוּ עוֹלָֽה׃ (פ)
then whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me on my safe return from the Ammonites shall be the LORD’s and shall be offered by me as a burnt offering.”

We Were Not Illegal Migrants in Egypt!

It is a total distortion of history and theology to claim that we must sympathize with and help the illegals, because we "were foreigners in Egypt."

“‘Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt,’ Exodus 22:21 — How should we treat our refugees?”
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin’s insights into the Holiday of Passover 

Biblical Jacob and family had been invited by the Pharaoh of the time to sit out the famine in Egypt where, due to Joseph's phenomenal administration, there was enough food. When the situation got better, our ancestors didn't rush back to the Holy Land. They felt too comfortable, and then afterwards, there was a new administration in Egypt. That new Pharaoh had forgotten that Jacob and family were privileged as a thank-you to all that Joseph had done. He enslaved them. And then the Jewish People were forbidden to leave. That's where the Passover Story begins.

I don't see how illegal migrants have anything in common with Jacob and family thousands of years ago. It pains me to see respected rabbis, like Rabbi Shlomo Riskin adopting Leftist ideology to Jewish History and Theology.



The illegal migrants come to Israel attracted by our high standard of living, a chance to live in a secure society with excellent healthcare and sympathetic, kind citizens, such as Rabbi Riskin. They know that they will be protected, their children educated and cared for. That's the type of society we have here in Israel. The illegals are also willing to take on jobs that very few Israelis want to do. But we didn't invite them and we don't owe them anything. The illegals are in no rush to leave Israel, because they know that they won't be enslaved.

We are not like the Egyptian Pharaoh. And the illegals are not like the Jews who were enslaved in Egypt. The neighborhoods in Israel in which the illegals live have become high crime areas. Veteran Israelis are in danger, and they are the ones we should be worrying about and caring for. Why don't I hear the rabbis, like Riskin, and politicians preaching that we must care for and protect Israelis from the dangers caused by the illegals?

Women in The Bible/Tanach, Josef's Progeny

Sisters! The Daughters of Tzelofchad
by Raise Your Spirits Theatre

Today, during our Women's Shabbat Torah Class, my mind did one of its little whirls and took something said a bit further. The topic was the Torah Portion of this Week, Vayechi. It is the very end of the Book of Bereishit, Geneis. It gives us the foundations of Judaism, what Gd wants from us.

In my title I promised you something about Women in the Bible, and that's what you'll get here.

Vayechi is the portion in which Jacob blesses his sons and gives a short description of their characters and what could be expected from them. Jacob's sons are the first group of siblings of which all are included in the inheritance and each has a role in the future of the Jewish People. There is one exception. Joseph is given a double portion. His two son are blessed as if they were Jacob's own sons. Ephraim and Menashe were born in Egypt but are given the same rights as Joseph's brothers. Why?

Sisters! The Daughters of Tzelofchad
by Raise Your Spirits Theatre

Why is the status of Ephraim and Menashe raised? Could it be to help them assimilate into the family and make sure that they will want to leave Egypt and enter the Holy Land with their cousins? If that was the reason, it seems to have worked, at least with the females. The six women who showed the most attachment to the Land of Israel came from the tribes of Ephraim and Menashe.

Many people are familiar with the story of the five daughters of Tzlofchad, of the Tribe of Menashe. Being that they had no brother, and their father had already died, they feared that their family portion of Land would be given to others. They petitioned Moshe to find a way for them to inherit the Land and pass it on to their children. Moshe consulted with Gd and was told that as long as the daughters married within the tribe their children could inherit the family Land.

Sisters! The Daughters of Tzelofchad by Raise Your Spirits Theatre

It's very possible that there were similar situations in other tribes, but only these sisters petitioned Moshe to preserve the Land.

There's another lesser known descendant of Josef through his son Efraim, a granddaughter, She'era who is mentioned in Chronicles I, Chapter 7:

22And Ephraim their father mourned for them many days, and his brothers came to console him.		כבוַיִּתְאַבֵּ֛ל אֶפְרַ֥יִם אֲבִיהֶ֖ם יָמִ֣ים רַבִּ֑ים וַיָּבֹ֥אוּ אֶחָ֖יו לְנַֽחֲמֽוֹ:
23And he went in to his wife, and she conceived and bore a son, and he named him Beriah, because during a time of trouble she was in his house.		כגוַיָּבֹא֙ אֶל־אִשְׁתּ֔וֹ וַתַּ֖הַר וַתֵּ֣לֶד בֵּ֑ן וַיִּקְרָ֚א אֶת־שְׁמוֹ֙ בְּרִיעָ֔ה כִּ֥י בְרָעָ֖ה הָֽיְתָ֥ה בְּבֵיתֽוֹ:
24And his daughter was Sheerah, and she built the lower Beth-Horon and the upper one, and Uzen Sheerah.		כדוּבִתּ֣וֹ שֶֽׁאֱרָ֔ה וַתִּ֧בֶן אֶת־בֵּֽית־חוֹר֛וֹן הַתַּחְתּ֖וֹן וְאֶת־הָֽעֶלְי֑וֹן וְאֵ֖ת אֻזֵּ֥ן שֶֽׁאֱרָֽה:

As you can see from the Bible, She'era must have been a very dynamic woman. She built three cities.

If you go through those chapters in Chronicles, you'll notice that only the male descendants are mentioned, except for She'era and the Daughters of Tzelafchad. It makes me wonder... What about you?

Sacrilegious? A Midrash That Makes No Sense to Me!

Joseph and Potiphar's Wife
(1631 painting by Guido Reni) Wikipedia

I know that some people will find this rather sacrilegious.  I'm not a great fan of "drash," lots of the Midrashim about the Bible. My way of studying the Bible is reading it, yes, even in translation, but I read the words. I first want to see what the Bible says, not what "could have happened."

Quite often I find the stories very clear, but it's the interpretations that don't make any sense at all. I find it worse than incomprehensible that Yosef's wife Osnat could be the child Dina had from being raped by Shechem. Those who like that interpretation say that Osnat (Josef's wife) who is also identified as Potiphar's daughter is really their adopted daughter and that when Potiphar's wife tried to seduce Joseph it was because she thought that she, not her daughter was supposed to marry him.

The abduction of Dinah, depicted
by James Tissot, Wikipedia

None of this makes sense to me. I honestly don't think that Jacob would have his granddaughter given to a high Egyptian official. And I certainly don't think that Dina would have given up her child, no matter how she was conceived. I also don't think that Potiphar would have taken a foreign child, a Jewish one at that, and adopted her to be his daughter. It's all too absurd.

What do you think? Please let me know in the comments, thanks.

This was written a few days ago and was scheduled to post.