Mateh of Light: The meeting of Avimelech, the heat and Yitzhak, the light

The Mateh leaned against the wall of the tent to witness this momentous meeting. For though it was indeed, a branch from the Tree of Life/Knowledge, it was not to be the center of this council. If wood could chuckle, laughter would have burst from the Mateh at the thought. For in the center of the tent, the center of the meeting, there was wood, bursting in flame, as it was being transferred from mass to the energy of heat and light. And that was the metaphor for this meeting.

Here sat the tribal chief of Gerar, a man named Avimelech, and his warriors. They were men of heat, the heat of battle the heat of anger and possessiveness. Across from them sat Yitzhak and his herdsmen, Yitzhak the leader of light, the seeker of peace. Avimelech had called the meeting after the challenge of the wells. The Mateh thought back over the events of the past few weeks. Yitzhak and his men had dug a well and struck water. When seeing their good fortune, Avimelech’s men claimed the well for themselves. Yitzhak called the well ‘Esek’ ‘to be deprived.’ But Yitzhak would not fight for the well. He and his men moved and dug another well. Again there was a quarrel and Yitzhak named the well ‘Sitnah’ ‘Enmity’ and moved on without a struggle. Finally Yitzhak dug another well but this time there is no fight. Indeed, now, amazed at Yitzhak’s maze of good fortune, the warrior chieftain Avimelech came to sit in council with Yitzhak. Avimelech, this man of heat and war was sitting in the tent of Yitzhak the man of light and peace. Between the two men was a fire of heat and of light. The Mateh knew that its own role was not that of the burning wood, for it was to bring only light as it lightened and enlightened the burdens of the two-leggeds.

Avimelech the enemy was invited into the tent of Yitzhak and they sat to negotiate, with no preconditions, a path to peace, a way to live together on the earth from which these earthlings were formed. Outside there is thunder and lightning (barak) as these men sat in a tent on a raised platform (bama) and elevated the confrontation of conflict to a gentle journey of justice and hope. These two men, the man of heat and the man of light swore an oath to strive not against each other but to live with one another in harmony.

And so the place of this meeting was given a name of hope for all future history; ‘Be’er Sheva’ the ‘well of the oath’ the well-spring of light and hope and peace.

Blessings and challenges: Jacob and Esau

Sometimes parents are blind. We can be blind to the blessings and failings our children. We want the best for them and, of course, we KNOW what is best for them. Sometimes, when one parent does not see, the other sees clearly. That is our story this week. Yitzhak is blind to the strengths and weaknesses of his two sons. He sees his strong, outgoing, warrior son Esav as the wise choice to become leader of the tribe, to receive the blessing of tests and lessons. He sees his softer, gentler, quiet son Yaakov as the weak choice. He does not see the wily ways of Yaakov blossoming into wisdom. He only sees the hairy strong arm of Esav who will bring meat to the table.

Rivkah sees things differently. She will use the wily ways of Yaakov to secure the blessing of tests and lessons for him. She sees that in the future, the thorny path of Yaakov’s guile will blossom into the thirteen petalled rose(1) of wisdom for the tribe.

Esav has shown his short-sightedness by selling his soulful soul-food birthright to his brother for physical sustenance. This is not the one to lead a people to holiness. And so, Emah(2) Rivkah devises a plan. Yaakov puts on the outer garb of the mighty Esav and Yitzhak, blinded by the might gives Yaakov the blessing/challenge of leadership. Yaakov is promised the dew of Heaven, the ‘do’ of G. If he can teach people the path of blessing, then they will be blessed, but if people can only find the path of curses then they will be cursed. The blessing is the challenge.

There is no getting around the fact that wily ways become thorny thoroughfares on the path to wisdom. This too is part and parcel of the blessing/challenge of Yaakov.

Yitzhak says as much to his older, warrior son Esav. The traditional translation of Gen. 27:35 is: “Your brother came with cleverness and took your blessing!” And the root ‘RMH’ blossoms into a thornbush; ‘Mirmah’. Some will translate this as deceit and delusion. One is aimed outward the other inward. Others will call Mirmah shrewdness, which can be shallow or deep. Rivkah sees the depth that will be, but Esav in his shortsighted seething, sees only the slight against him by his brothers slight of hand.

A father’s torment at the tears of his child, brings Yitzhak to give a blessing to Esav. The blessing starts on a similar path to that of Yaakov, but roars with an anguished anger as he calls out: “By your sword shall you live!” The blessing contains the curse, for if one lives by the sword others must die by the sword.

And so two brothers are given the blessing/challenge according to their ways. And the trails they will follow lead both to the heights and depths of human path.


(1) see the book of the same name by Adin Steinsaltz
(2) Emah means mother

Toldot: A powerful point along the line.

What a word of wonder is the name of our potion this week; ‘Toldot!’ One might simply translate it as ‘The annals’ but that meaning is pale and thin compared to the wondrous, thick, multi-colored, multi-dimensional meaning of Toldot. For Toldot speaks of past and future. Inside that word we find child bearing and childhood. Inside that word we find the opportunity to peruse the pages of the diary of our people. But most of all Toldot calls us to stand at this point and become aware.

I turn back to my dim memories of geometry to energize my understanding of the word and the potion, Toldot. In geometry, there are terms with very specific meanings; ‘line’, ‘line segment’ and ‘ray,’ among others that have long since left my memory.

A line has no end or beginning and the only true line is G who always was, who is in the moment and who always will be. We, the creation of G, exist as line segments, for we have beginnings and endings. We are part of the greater line, we are part of G. We are a segment of the greater line that is G. And yet, when we are young, we see ourselves as a ray, that which has a beginning but no end in sight.

All three concepts share a sameness in that each one is made up of an infinite number of points. Though we are a finite line segment, our lives are filled with an infinite number of moments offering an infinite intimation of meaning. Each point in our lives is a turning point, if only we will see that point and seize that moment.

In our story, in our potion this week, a magic moment is made manifest. It is one point among many to which Torah points. “Look at me,” it cries out, “let this moment move you!” We can stand on this point and we can look back and look forward. We can mount this moment and learn lessons that will ferry us into our future. This moment can be for us a point of powerful proliferation. If we will seize this moment, this point on our line segment, our life segment, it can point the way, a compass along our pathway, with meaningful messages from the line of which we are but a segment.

Mateh of the Midrash: Transcending realms

There is a fourth statement that floats in our potion like a lily pod floating in a tranquil pond. It gently attracts our attention. It is worth our while to sit by the pond and ponder the power and worth of words and tales and tellings. Our spirits are calmed as we hearken back to journals and journeys allowing them to guide our lives and our souls.

“I am a stranger among you (23:4).” The Mateh focused on that line. If it were possible for a staff of wood, even a staff formed by G from the Tree of Life/Knowledge to smile a melancholy smile, that is what would have happened. For something as special as the Mateh, time and space bend and flow in many directions and the Mateh can see downstream and upstream with ease. And it saw and heard and felt the words of a Rabbi some four thousand years later, trying to capture the continuous connection to this verse.

He was teaching that this verse was referring to the Jewish soul and hir(1) relationship to this world. A Jewish soul is part of the physical reality, for it is taught to inhabit and elevate it. Virtually all Mitzvot, all Sacred Connections are connections between this world and the higher realms. Virtually all Mitzvot are actions involving elevating physical objects. The challenge for the Jewish soul is to make a dwelling place for the Shehinah (the dwellingness of G) in the material realm, by making sacred everyday actions and mundane materials. And yet the Jewish soul is a ‘stranger’ in a strange land, the material world. Hir(1) true home, the secret inner home is higher and deeper than the material world. It is in the realm of the spirit. The home of the soul is the world of holiness, the wholeness of harmony. The Jewish soul yearns to return and yet remains through the physical body in the realm of the physical, learning its lessons, teaching its lessons until it is called to separate and return home.

This, the Mateh grokked, it understood. For the Mateh, this piece of staff this piece of wood is the symbol of the residing in, and elevating of the physical. The Mateh was not just a piece or wood. It was a piece of would, a piece of hope. It was the would of elevation. The Mateh is the physical reminder of what the Jewish soul, indeed what all souls could, should and would do and be. The soul would elevate the soporific secular into the stirring sacred. The Mateh felt justifiable pride in its place as the reminder to the two-leggeds of the connection between the material realm and the spirit realm. It felt the heavy weight of the honor of obligation. The Mateh was, is and always will be the symbol of hope. The Mateh of wood: The symbol of would. “Loo Yehi” (That it would be, that it will be)



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(1) I use 'hir' to replace the awkward 'his/her'