Jacob's Blessings, Jacob's Challenges:
A Lesson for America in the Wake of Sandy Hook
On a Friday night a Jewish parent has the opportunity to bless their children. For our daughters, we bless them in the name of our Matriarchs. However, for our boys, we invoke the names of Ephraim and Menashe, the children of Joseph. This tradition is based upon a scene in this week's Torah reading of Veyechi when Jacob blesses Ephraim and Menashe. However, you will be disappointed if you will expect to read a touching story of a tottering grandfather blessing his grandchildren. No, Jacob uses this opportunity to bless the younger in place of the older much to the consternation of their father Joseph. Yet, in this way Jacob offers us a powerful lesson on the power of blessings. Rather than see them as the positive wishes that one generation offers to the next, Jacob uses his words of blessing to challenge his descendants to better themselves and fulfill visions that go beyond them. For Jacob a blessing is not beautiful sentiment to be shared at a poignant moment but a life lesson to be taken from that day forward and learned over and over again.
Throughout this parasha we observe Jacob preparing for his own death by challenging his children through his words of blessing. Consider Jacob's blessing to Shimon and Levi:
5 Simeon and Levi are a pair;
Their weapons are tools of lawlessness.
6 Let not my person be included in their council,
Let not my being be counted in their assembly.
For when angry they slay men,
And when pleased they maim oxen.
7 Cursed be their anger so fierce,
And their wrath so relentless.
I will divide them in Jacob,
Scatter them in Israel. (Genesis 49:5-7)
While Jacob's words must have made his son's wince they are also well founded. Shimon and Levi are violent in nature. Whether in response to the rape of Dina or the plight of Joseph they are people who resort to the most base forms of violent behavior. Rather than gloss over this fact, Jacob addresses it directly. He forces his sons to look at themselves through his eyes and to predict a remedy. These two sons can not be together when Jacob's descendants eventually inherit the land of Israel. They will have to be divided within the body politic of Israel. In this way Jacob offers his sons a blessing of awareness which can ultimately become a positive life lesson for them: "live with an awareness of your penchant for violence and continue to address it in meaningful ways". If his children hearken to their father's words Jacob will have truly blessed Shimon and Levi.
I believe that Jacob's blessing to Shimon and Levi have something to offer us as Americans still mourning the terrible massacre in New Town, Connecticut. We are a nation which has long had a love affair with guns. Throughout our history as a nation we have chosen to read the 2nd Amendment as a forceful statement of every American to bear arms when it could have been interpreted otherwise. There are as many guns in the hands of Americans as there are people in this country. While calls for stricter gun legislation makes perfect sense the sad fact is that bans on assault weapons, stricter registration laws, or even armed guards in every school will likely not prevent other tragedies like Sandy Hook Elementary School. They have not in the past. If there is any blessing to be gleaned from the massacre of 20 beautiful children and their heroic teachers and administrators then it will come when Americans look in the mirror. Like Shimon and Levi, we have a penchant for violence in this country which is only heightened through the media and the entertainment industry. In the same way that Shimon and Levi needed to acknowledge their violent nature and be separated, we too must do the same and take comprehensive action to lesson the likelihood of such tragedies in the future. This must include a long hard look at how those with mental illness are being cared for in this country.
When Jacob came to the end of his life he understood that his children needed more than flowery words. What they needed was tough and honest love if they were to be the blessing that they could be in the future. To my mind this is the exact type of blessing we in America deserve today. It will begin when we choose to speak less of our individual rights and more about our national responsibilities to one another. This country has the potential to be a remarkable blessing to its inhabitants and the world. Like Jacob with his sons, let us challenge ourselves to be the blessing we have yet to become.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Michael Siegel
