vayishlach: fear
sholem aleichem,
Fear wants to control us. As the pasuk says
וַיִּירָא יַעֲקֹב מְאֹד וַיֵּצֶר לוֹ
Yaakov was very afraid, and it created straits for him
Fear narrows our options, it wants us to shrink into ourselves and walk between its walls.
This is all it knows, this is all it can do.
Yaakov took years learning how to live beyond fear. “I first crossed this river with just my body, by myself” he says (as explained by the Baal haTurim). “But now, I have become two camps.”
Fear wants us to think we’re alone, confined to ourselves, separate from each other.
But we’re not alone.
In a recent interview with Dean Spade, Tuck Woodstock comments (46 minutes — transcription mine):
I am finding it so hard to get people to focus on anything right now, because they’re so stressed out about everything that’s going on, with good reason (like, same). It’s really hard to keep someone’s attention on one particular crisis or one particular person in crisis […] [E]ven in terms of “okay, can you throw $5 at this issue” […] it went from, like “yes, here’s my money” to “no, I’m actually giving all my money to Gaza” (which, totally) to, now, “I’m also not giving any money to Gaza”. And I think a lot of it is because everyone can see that, y’know, something terrible is approaching, and it’s sort of like a squirrel hoarding mentality, right, of like, I’m gonna bunker down […]
And Spade’s response:
Yeah, I mean, what I hear you saying is that people feel unsafe […] if someone’s saying that to me … I’m like “we’ll be safer if we have each other’s backs.”
When fear comes we pull into ourselves, we try to hide in the narrow spaces fear makes for us.
But if we want liberation, if we want safety b’emes, we have to be Yaakov. Not Yaakov in his body, cut off from his brother. Not Yaakov crossing the river by himself.
Yaakov, becoming two full camps.
Because twice יעקוב is שלום. Twice יעקוב is יי ימלך לעלם ועד.
good shabbos,
ada
p.s.
Mekom Torah is starting two year-long Hebrew classes in January (pay-what-you-can!), and there is room for more students in both of them:
Biblical Hebrew for Everyone is the more intensive and of the two, recommended for people who have already made some forays into Hebrew. It meets on Tuesdays at 7:30pm Eastern, 40 sessions over the calendar year. The teacher is Rabbi Helen Plotkin.
Introduction to Prayer Book Hebrew is the more gentle class, designed for people who know the letters but are just getting started. It meets 25 times over the calendar year, on Sundays at 4pm Eastern. The teacher is Laura Lee Blechner.