Thought for the Week

In this week’s Sidra, Jacob flees his birthplace. As he sleeps for the first night alone and away from home, he has a dream that God appears to him and promises to take care of him wherever he goes.

When Jacob wakes, he says, ‘God was in this place and I, I did not know it.’ Jacob realises that God is not only in the home he left. Nor is God only in heaven. God is with him wherever he is. Jacob also realises something else. The repetition of ‘I’ in the Hebrew has led to many interpretations. One is that Jacob also realises that he did not know who he was himself.

Jacob’s whole journey to his uncle Laban in Aram, his sojourn there and his return are a process of self-discovery. When he comes to Aram the ‘simple dweller in tents’, as he was described in last week’s Sidra, discovers the strength to roll a stone off the mouth of the well so that Rachel can water her sheep. He becomes a shepherd, a man of action. He also discovers what it is to be deceived, as he in turn is deceived by his uncle.

On his journey back home, Jacob is given a new name, for he is not the same person who left his birthplace so many years ago. His name also represents a new relationship with God. The name is ‘Israel’, meaning ‘one who has struggled with God and human beings and prevailed’. Arthur Waskow, an inspirational teacher and rabbi who died this October, wrote about ‘God-wrestling’ as the central task of the Jewish people. To wrestle with God is both to discover what God means to us and to challenge what God demands of us.

Liberal Judaism offers two very special ways for our young people to discover who they are, and to wrestle with the idea of God. One is LJY-Netzer which, with its sister movement RSY-Netzer, offers them the opportunity to leave home, as early as the age of 8, as Jacob did. Unlike Jacob, they are supported on the way. They explore Judaism through residential weekends and camps with their peers, and in doing so discover themselves. Studies show that, after families, youth movements have the greatest influence on a young person’s Jewish identity. It is no wonder that so many of our rabbis and communal leaders have come through our youth movements, from ULPSNYC and YASGB to their successor Netzer movements.

The second way our young people can discover Judaism is through Kabbalat Torah. This has its origins in Confirmation, which was a feature of Progressive Judaism from its beginnings in Germany. Kabbalat Torah offers young people a place in our synagogues where, after Bar and Bat Mitzvah, they can learn about Judaism in a deeper way, with space to question and express ideas of their own. Kabbalat Torah offers a powerful group experience which can stay with a young person throughout their lives.

Kabbalat Torah, of course, does not mean the end of questioning and discovering ourselves. This is life-long. Abraham was called by God to leave his home at the age of seventy-five. Moses was eighty when he led the Israelites out of Egypt. To be Jewish is to question and to wrestle – with our own identity and with God. As we do so we can discover, as Jacob did, that God is with us and God’s presence can sustain us on our journey.

May we continue to encourage our young people to discover and question, and may they, and we, be blessed on the journey by a sense of God’s sustaining presence. May the words which God addressed to Jacob be fulfilled: ‘Behold I will keep you wherever you go, and I will not depart from you.’