My Weekly Drash (a mini D'var Torah) - Vayetze (2)
Posted by Daniel M. Kimmel on December 5, 2008 | Tags: Vayetze
"Surely the Lord is present in this place, and I did not know it," says Jacob in Parshah Vayetze, awakening from his dream of the angels going up and down a heavenly stairway. (Gen. 28:16) Jacob is described as "shaken" by the experience. It's a moment worth contemplating. We're too apt to think of God as someone we have an appointment with at shul and end up disappointed when He doesn't show up. Hey, we shlepped all the way to services. The least He can do is be there. Even if you recall - as the kids in the nursery school do - that "God is everywhere," what the Jacob story reminds us is God doesn't provide concierge service. He doesn't show up on demand. The burden is on us, not so much to be summoned into God's presence, as to recognize it when we're there. At the birth of a child, a recovery from an illness, discovering resources you didn't know you had within you - these, and many other moments, are times when we might echo Jacob and say, "Surely the Lord is present in this place, and I did not know it."
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Daniel M. KimmelJoined: October 2, 2007 Daniel M. Kimmel is a Boston area film critic, lecturer and author. He does these weekly mini-lessons for the Mishkan Tefila Brotherhood's newsletter. You are free to use them for similar purposes. Divrei Torah (117) |
