Things start splittin' at the seams...

Reuniting two brothers. Who was the ish(man) Yaakov wrestled with?

Genesis 32:24-30


24And Jacob was left alone. And a man(ish) wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26Then he said, "Let me go, for the day has broken." But Jacob said "I will not let you go unless you bless me." 27And he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." 28Then he said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed." 29Then Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And there he blessed him. 30So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered."




This is got to be one of the most fascinating passages in all the Torah. For thousands of years Jews and later Christians have pondered over the identity of this mysterious man.


General consensus holds that it was an angel that Yaakov wrestled primarily due to Hosea's oracle;


"In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his manhood he strove with God. He strove with the angel and prevailed..."
Hosea 12:3,4



Many Christians hold that it was a christophany(preincarnate appearance of Jesus).
Jewish interpretation holds, for the most part, that the ish was Eisav's Gardian Angel or sar in Hebrew. Every nation has an angel attached to it such as Daniel's "Prince of Persia". Eisav is the founder/father of the Edomites. Jewish legend holds that the Edomites are the early ancestors of Rome(Midrash HaGadol) which is represented as Christianity by many medieval and modern commentators.

In any case the struggle with the "man" is directly connected to the struggle he has with his brother. but through out history Esav has been making amends.

It was the Edomites after converting to Judaism(the only coersed conversion in Jewish history) During Khoshmonaim Period that they come to rule Judea. They built "Herod's Temple". Remember as well that it was Itzchaks intention that Esav be the physical leader of the family/nation(see earlier post). The same temple that Jews to this day daven/pray at its western wall. And Edom in the form of Christianity and the Christian west that gave them the freedom to worship and helped to give them back their homeland.

So the Ish, you could say, was the Guardian Angel of the Church... And now we look forward to a true reconciliation of the two brothers.

For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in; and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, "THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB." "AND THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS." From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God's choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

-Romans 11:25-29

Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo De Silos

יְדִיד נֶפֶש

Lover of the soul, Compassionate Father, draw Your servant to Your will. Then Your servant will hurry like a hart to bow before Your majesty. To him Your friendship will be sweeter than the dripping of the honeycomb and all taste.

Majestic, beautiful, radiance of the universe my soul is sick for your love. Please O G-d, heal her now by showing her the pleasantness of Your radiance. Then she will be strengthened and healed and eternal gladness will be hers.

All worthy One -- may Your mercy be aroused and please take pity on the son of Your beloved, because it is so very long that I have yearned intensely to see the splendor of Your strength, only these my heart desired, so please take pity and do not conceal Yourself.

Please be revealed and spread upon me, my Beloved, the shelter of Your peace that we may rejoice and be glad with You. Hasten, be loved, for the time has come, and show us grace as in days of old.

Dual natured Yaakov Part 2

Perhaps the reason why Yaakov retains both of his names throughout the Torah(unlike Avraham And Sarah) Is an indication of his two natures. His two struggles, one with Lavan and the other his brother Esav, was the way he received and/or perfected these two natures.

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Dual natured Yaakov

When Itzchak wants to give Esav his blessing is he intending to continue God's choosing process? If so why wouldn't he recognize the spiritual one, God's choice? What would give him the audacity to continue what only God had done up to this point?

It seems logical that Itzchak understood that at some point a whole family had to be chosen in order to become a nation and since both his children came from the same mother Rivka, in fact they were twins, both sons would carry on the chosen(bechira) line. As opposed to the two sons of Avraham with whom only one was chosen by God as Avraham was.

Itzchak understood God's choosing process. He believed that his two sons were bechira-chosen to propagate the nation. He did not receive the prophecy that Rivka had and apparently Rivka didn't tell him. Esav was "a man of the field". A man of physicality in charge of the physical needs of the family-food, protection, business, etc. He would be naturaly the king of the clan. The blessing(beracha) that Itzchak intends to bestow on him has very similar elements to the blessings that Yaakov later bestows on Yehuda and Yoseph(Bereishis49:8, 22ff) who at the time were present and future leaders/kings.

Yaakov's blessing is a bit more complicated but there are some similarities with the levitical roll (Devarim 33:10) and some similar word usages that Yaakov later says to Shimon and Levy in his blessing/curse to them such as congregation(Bereishis 49:5). Although Itzchak gives a Birchos Avrahom he does not grant him bechira but says, "May He grant you the blessing of Avraham". Perhaps at this point Itzchak is now beginning to understand what Rivka has known all along that the two sons are two nations.

So Yaakov is the natural spiritual leader. He is a man "abiding in tents". He represented the priesthood, Torah study-the clergy. Now that he stole Esav's blessing he has to become dual natured-a man of the field and a man who abides in tents. King and Priest. When he is complete it is his progeny that become the bechira nation.

wrestling with man and God

Esav's character trait was pride, haughtiness. he did not recognise his imperfect state as always needing improvement. He felt complete as his name indicates(Esav come from the word asu:complete- ein sin vav). There was no struggle in him.
Yaakov on the other hand was wrestler from the begining. He had hold of his brothers foot on their way out of the womb(Yaakov is possibly a play on the word ekev-heel). His wrestling was philosophical and emotional. He had a grasp of his "fallen nature". He was always in a struggle to better himself and to understand the world around him.

Maya Edan

Maya Eden

She arrived in a star shaped comet. Our newest addition to our family. she was born saterday at 8:33 pm. We are praying that she doesn't need a blood transfusion. She is as beautiful as her mother.

Point Defiance

Some thoughts on parshas toldos

Why did God "hate" Esav(Esau) and "love" Yaakov(Jacob) (Malachi 1:2-3)? Why was Yitzkhak's(Isaac) favor towards Esav and not towards God's "favorite"? Was Yitzkhak's intention to continue God's bechira(selection) process with Esav? Was the birthright(bekhoratehka) that Yaakov "stole" the blessing of the selecting of God's one chosen nation? What was the nature of the birthright? What was the nature of the beracha(blessing) that Yaakov "stole"? What was the nature of the last two berachot that Yitzkhak gives: one to Esav and the last to Yaakov?
Why is Yitzkhak's love connected to something ("...for game was in his mouth[befiv]") wherase Rivka's is unconnected?

semiconductor

Brilliant Noise from Semiconductor on Vimeo.

Magnetic Movie from Semiconductor on Vimeo.

The fact that we awake from sleep is some evidence for the resurrection.
Man in distress pledges himself to good deeds; man in prosperity forgets his good resolutions.
The righteous require no monuments; their lives and their teachings are their monuments.

Midrash, Genesis Rabba.

Money, freedom and Solomon.

A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer for everything." -- Ecclesiastes 10:19 ...

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. -- Declaration of Independence



The founding fathers understood freedom as a right and a responsibility. A right given by our Creator and a responsibility to choose to do what we ought. When men are free to live, be free and pursue happiness they tend to be industrious, entrepreneurial and ingenuitive. Out of that freedom we get capitalism. Capitalism is a byproduct of free individuals engaging in free Enterprise with little to no interference.



Why does Kohelet state that money is the answer for everything?
Is there a connection between the two statements?
I am hoping to explore this further in a later post. Let me know if you have any insight.

I am a conflicted man.

No place to hide.

Somewhere in the firmament

In the morning I am a believer. Walking through the park with the ground blanketed by frost, the rising sun beaming through the mist and trees I am filled with grandeur and the sublime. In the evening I am a skeptic. Night blankets the cosmos. My world is illumined by man made light, I am filled with fear and self reliance.

Shared values and social constructs.

As a non-Christian one thing keeps bringing me back to the arms of the Church. Charity, freedom and liberty- my whole value system. It is easy here in the west to enjoy these values as a non-Christian but how does this translate in foreign countries with different social values when it comes to philanthropy and foreign aid. Whether you are a Christian or not, if you are a westerner you have the same desire to help people. As our society becomes more secular the more powerless we are becoming at changing the conditions and circumstances of impoverished and oppressed people. Secular philanthropy has cessation of suffering as its goal where as christian charity has a deeper mission. One that aims at the heart of the individual and seeks to change the moral behavior(yes that is judgemental). That is why secularist make government their religion. And when their religion fails, as government will always do, they tend to make freedom and Christianity their enemy.
It is apparent to me now that these values are inseparable from the Church and cannot be effective in the hands of any other world view. My issues with the church are things like afterlife, hell and punishment. My skepticism with these have to do with social constructs rather than lasting values.

Letter from George Washington to the Roman Catholic Church

To the Roman Catholics in the United States. December, 1789.

While I now receive with much satisfaction your congratulations on my being called by a unanimous vote to the first station in my country, I cannot but duly notice your politeness in offering an apology for the unavoidable delay. As that delay has given you an opportunity of realizing, instead of anticipating, the benefits of the general government, you will do me the justice to believe that your testimony to the increase of the public prosperity enhances the pleasure which I should otherwise have experienced from your affectionate address.

I feel that my conduct in war and in peace has met with more general approbation, than could reasonably have been expected; and I find myself disposed to consider that fortunate circumstance, in a great degree, resulting from the able support and extraordinary candor of my fellow-citizens of all denominations.

The prospect of national prosperity now before us is truly animating, and ought to excite the exertions of all good men to establish and secure the happiness of their country, in the permanent duration of its freedom and independence. America, under the smiles of Divine Providence, the protection of a good government, the cultivation of manners; morals, and piety, can hardly fail of attaining an uncommon degree of eminence in literature, commerce, agriculture, improvements at home, and respectability abroad.
As mankind become more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those, who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community, are equally entitled to the protection of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations in examples of justice and liberality. And I presume, that your fellow-citizens will not forget the patriotic part, which you took in the accomplishment of their revolution and the establishment of their government, or the important assistance, which they received from a nation in which the Roman Catholic religion is professed.

I thank you, gentlemen, for your kind concern for me. While my life and my health shall continue, in whatever situation I may be, it shall be my constant endeavor to justify the favorable sentiments you are pleased to express of my conduct. And may the members of your society in America, animated alone by the pure spirit of Christianity, and still conducting themselves as the faithful subjects of our free government, enjoy every temporal and spiritual felicity.

George Washington
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I found this on Mundus Tranquillare Hic (Bede)

“Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.”

-Pope John Paul II-

Breaking the curse.

I wrote in an earlier post that Noach was the first messianic figure in the bible but perhaps there was an earlier attempt to break the curse. In the story of Kayin(Cain) and Hevel(Able)we have the first two sons of Adam and their vocations. Kayin, who's name comes from the word kinyan meaning possession or aquisition(Chava said "I have aquired a man with God) becomes "a tiller of the ground". He is connected to the ground that is cursed and he is reliant on his own labor, his own mastery of the land for his harvest.
Hevel, who's name means vapor, breath or vanity, becomes a shepherd like the greatest figures in Israel's future(Moses, David, ?). His vocation was very dependent on God for reproduction and even feeding the sheep. "After a period of time"(miketz yamim,literally-end of days, a curious phrase) the brothers bring an offering(mincha) to God. But the son that is stuck in the curse becomes jealous of God's acceptance of his brother's offering and kills him. Hevel's blood cries out for vengeance. Was this an attempt by Hevel to break from the curse that his father had ushered into the world?
Was Kayin's offering rejected because he was content to live in the curse?

"The purpose in life is to keep on making new mistakes"

-Bruce Stabbert

When is taking a life murder and when is it a medical choice?

There is a lot of disturbing news lately of mothers(and fathers who are statistically slightly more likely to kill there children) killing there babies. Although this sounds appalling to most of us it seems to be a growing pattern.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics- Over 500 children are killed each year by a parent. The Las Vegas Sun in an article from 2003 entitled, Young children more likely to be killed by parents than others states that "FBI crime statistics show that in 1999 parents were responsible for 57 percent of murders of children under 5, with family friends or acquaintances accountable for another 30 percent and other family members accounting for 8 percent."
Could a good part of this be linked to the abortion culture? Last week when the Tampa FL. woman(link here) went to have an abortion the baby accidentally came out alive and then was killed and thrown out with the trash. The pro-choicer's claim they are appalled as well but I can't help but think they are more appalled over the fact that the mother happened to see it than they are at the death of the baby. Yesterday the mother, who threw here baby into Lake Pontchartrain in Metairie LA told police that "she didn't want the child and had contemplated an abortion, but her pregnancy was too far along, Caraway said. She hid the pregnancy from her grandmother, with whom she lived.
"She said she was not ready to raise a baby," Caraway said. "She said it was the result of a one-night stand and she did not want it.""
Its easy to convince a pundit that ending the life of a baby in the womb is medical choice but I don't think its translating very well into an ever increasing secular culture.

Rabbi Nachman

Prayer is the root of all attachment and devotion to God. Prayer is the gate through which we approach God, and through prayer we may come to know Him.

Likutey Moharan II, 84

Sometimes pain feels good.

Jesus an antitype of Lamech?

Taylor Marshall at Canterbury Tales http://cantuar.blogspot.com has an interesting post about Lamech and Jesus. He writes:

" In the Old Testament, the Bible's first polygamist, Lamech, calls down a protective curse of vengeance:

"Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech!
For I have killed a man for wounding me,
Even a young man for hurting me.
If Cain is avenged sevenfold,
truly Lamech seventy-sevenfold" (Gen 4:19-24).
This pattern is corrected and reversed by Christ who said:

"Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven." (Mt 18:21-22).
The Old Testament's other Lamech is also a man of sevens. According to Genesis 5:25-31 he was 182 years old at the birth of Noah, and lived for another 595 years, making him 777 years old when he died. "

to take it a step further Lamech names his son Noach(see earlier post) nun chet which is connected to rest or comfort for "this one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands, from the ground which Hashem had cursed." So Lamech introduces man to the idea of a Man who will save us from the original curse(sin) and give us comfort(Paraclete)and one who found favor(chet nun)(this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased) in the eyes of God.

there will be more to come from possible messianic occurrences in bereishit.