Dear TBZ community,
In this week’s
Parshat
Vayetze
, Jacob has run away from his brother and his home, and comes to rest, his head upon a stone for a pillow. As he sleeps, he dreams of angels going up and down on a stairway that reaches heaven. He wakes from his dream in awareness and in amazement.
This moment is one of my favorite verses in the Torah -- Genesis 28:16 reads:
וַיִּיקַ֣ץ יַעֲקֹב֮ מִשְּׁנָתוֹ֒ וַיֹּ֕אמֶר אָכֵן֙ יֵ֣שׁ יְהוָ֔ה בַּמָּק֖וֹם הַזֶּ֑ה וְאָנֹכִ֖י לֹ֥א יָדָֽעְתִּי׃
Jacob awoke from his sleep and said,
“Surely Adonai is present in this place, and I did not know it!”
The sweetness and the power of that moment are conveyed in those few words “
achen, yesh adonai bamakon haze, va-ani lo yedati
” -- “Surely, Adonai is present in this place, and I did not know it.”
There are two inspiring messages in this one short verse.
יֵ֣שׁ יְהוָ֔ה בַּמָּק֖וֹם הַזֶּ֑ה
Adonai is present in this place!
Here is the recognition that God is present and God is now.
I like to think about this recognition in the framework of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s teaching who encourages to live a life in radical amazement. He writes: “Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement.... get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.”
Can we live our lives knowing that God is in it? In every place? In every moment of our lives? Practicing radical amazement is not an easy task, but is an invitation to recognize the presence of the Divine in all moments of our lives, in the simple moments as well as in the awe-inspiring ones.
The second part is וְאָנֹכִ֖י לֹ֥א יָדָֽעְתִּ
and I did not know it!
The moment that Jacob wakes up from the dream is surely an Aha moment for him. It is his moment of recognition that God is there. It is the moment when everything changed for Jacob; when he became aware that God is present in his life and in the world before him.
Such moments can be very powerful, moments of profound realization. In his “
Varieties of Religious Experience
”
William James
called them “Conversion moments.” Something happens that changes us. Someone we meet, something we see, a new connection, or even a moment of silence or prayer. The trigger can be very small, and still change us profoundly. What makes that aha moment so striking is that just a second ago-
lo yadati,
I didn’t know - but now
I know.
Our lives are so full -- full of activities and information and worries -- and too often we become numb. We become numb to tragedy, and brokenness, because it is hard to hold it all. And in consequence we become numb to beauty and to amazement. We forget, we lose sight of, and we become numb to
yesh adonai bamakon haze, God is in this place!
My invitation to all of us is to open our hearts and minds to experiences that can radically transform us into an awareness of God’s presence, in this place, in every place and every moment of our life.
May this Shabbat bring blessings to all of you and your loved ones.
May we know that God is in this place.
May we have a joyful Shabbat!
Shabbat Shalom,
