Toldot: A Refuge In The Storm

A bartered birthright. Stolen blessings. Soup. A savory meal. Our Parsha is loaded with ideas, symbolisms, and the fleshing out of the archetypal characters of the Bible: Jacob and Esau. In these days after the bloodbath in Jerusalem, it’s the description of Jacob as one who dwelled in tents that most rings in my ears. A tent, a temporary, mobile structure affording us some, but not all, of the basics of home as we explore the universe. A tent, a flimsy one-room contraption that brings us together, to warm each other. A tent, a place to raise a family, a tribe, a nation, an entire humanity. As evil swirls, lets remind ourselves of each other that we are tent dwellers: our time is limited but we have each other and in this tent we can build the greatest enduring beauty of the universe: a family.

Shabbat Shalom and Am Yisrael Chai!

Josh