Fulfilling Jacob’s Vow

Fulfilling Jacob’s Vow
D’var Torah for Parashat Vayetzei
By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman


Having to leave his home, his family and his land behind probably came to Jacob as a complete surprise and shock. After all, he WAS his mother’s favorite, and from early on in his childhood she had been telling him he was destined for greatness—far and beyond his twin brother Esau’s.

Yet, here he was, in the middle of nowhere, with only the clothes on his back and his staff, about to cross the border to a new land, in search of his own life—the life of a refugee.

It is perhaps possible, then, to forgive his attitude when, later that night, during the course of a bizarre dream, God appears to Jacob and promises to accompany him along all his journeys, to provide and care for him and ultimately to bring him back home in peace and glory. “IF you do all that,” Jacob responds, “then I will call you my God.” Then and only then. WHEN all those promises come true. This sulking teenager, sullen but ready to bargain.

Inwardly, however, Jacob believes he has no one to rely on but himself. So on he marches, towards the east, towards a new dawn.

To make a long story short—this portion (Vayetzei, Gen. 28:10-32:3) encompasses 20 years of Jacob’s life—it does all happen, just as God foretells. Yet, all the while, in real time as it all unfolds, Jacob still thinks it’s all his doing. His self-sacrificing hard work, his dedication, his devotion to his family—these are what got him to become such a success.

It takes Jacob nearly 21 years to come back to the home he had left behind as a young adult. He now has 2 wives, 12 children (11 of them sons), and herds upon herds of all sorts of animals—goats, sheep and camels, donkeys and other assorted domesticables. Not to mention 2 wives and 11 sons and the full family drama that unfolds around this scenario.

It also takes Jacob those 21 years to finally come to realize that God was always there, always watching him, always guarding him, just as God had promised in that earlier dream. At that time, Jacob came to understand that God has a Presence that appears at specific locations along one’s journey. Now he finally understands that God is within him wherever he is, all along the way.

Having come to that realization, Jacob has to fulfill a vow he made so many years ago—that if God does do as God had promised, Jacob will build a temple for God and there offer sacrifice and tithes.

Jacob’s journey—his own unfinished ladder toward tomorrow—marks the beginning of the story of Israel, the people. The name has yet to change (not till next week’s portion), but the character is set. Jacob’s story is Israel’s story. Refugees so many times, we struck roots at so many points along our journey. Everywhere we went, we sought—and found—God within us. Wherever we go, we still fulfill Jacob’s vow and build temples, shuls and synagogues.

The Midrash tells a tale of a king and a queen who couldn’t bear child. After so many years of longing and sadness, the king told his wife that she could go back home to her father’s house. As a kind of consolation, he gave her permission to take with her the most prized possession she wished for. Later that night, the queen threw a banquet and invited the king. With so much food and good wine, the king soon fell asleep. Quietly but quickly, the queen had him put on a coach and transported to her father’s house. When the king awoke the next morning, he realized where he was and asked for explanation. “But didn’t you tell me,” exclaimed the queen, “that I could take my most prized possession?”

So it is with God and Israel. Wherever we go, as far from home as we may wander, we always find God within us. Like Jacob, we raise our families as best as we can; we tend to our business, we are attentive and loving to one another as we can be. Practical and pragmatic, we shape our lives with our labor, conforming to custom and language as need be.

Like Jacob, the children of Israel, B’nai Yisrael, rely on themselves for a chance at success, only to realize, years later, that the hand of God has something to do with it from the start.

And so, still like Jacob, we fulfill Jacob’s vow. We build temples to our God where we can gather to thank God, to support one another at happy or unhappy occasions as needed.

How fortunate to be able to do that in the Land of Israel, as it was all meant to be. When I was in the Israeli army, I did my basic training at a base right near the Biblical Beth El. Shabbat there was one of those moments, an experience with the power to change one’s life. It did that to mine.

But it really can happen anywhere. Anyplace. At any time. Moments when God’s presence appears to us as though in a dream, and we know that we are indeed, Israel.

Shabbat shalom.


©2011 by Boaz D. Heilman