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December 6, 2024 - 6 Kislev 5785 Parashat Vayetsei - Proofs & Conditions
Dear Friends, Part of Jonah's math curriculum for ninth grade includes geometry. At this point, while I can often be of service to him and his brothers with their homework, he knows that geometry isn't exactly my strongest suit mathematically. When it comes to algebra and numbers, I can more than keep up, but when the topic veers into matters of spatial concern, my ability to be of assistance becomes extremely limited, especially when it comes to the challenge of writing proofs. As a high school student, I would look at a problem asking me to "prove that triangle ABC is a right triangle." And I'd look at it and say, "Well, look at it! It's a right triangle! Why do I need to prove anything?" It was difficult for me to start with the given information and, step by step with "if-then" statements, build an impenetrable proof. "If this angle is equal to that angle, then this side is equal to that side," etc. These are, of course, conditional statements, required for the building of a logical argument or case. I was thinking about this because, to me, these are exactly the kind of pronouncements made by Jacob in this week's Torah portion - Vayetze - as well as later on, which we might praise as being practical or pragmatic. Except, these declarations are made in reference specifically to Jacob's loyalty and allegiance to God. Sometimes they even sound like ultimata. In fleeing his brother Esau's chase into the desert, Jacob dreams of angels ascending and descending a ladder between heaven and the earth. As he marvels at the sight, God appears at the top of the ladder and declares to Jacob: "And here I am, with you: I will watch over you wherever you go...I will not let go of you as long as I have yet to do what I have promised you." God doesn't say that God will do these things if Jacob does something else. This is not a quid pro quo. Jacob awakens and exclaims, "How awe-inspiring is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!" He then took the stone that had served him as a pillow, poured oil on it, and declared it a monument to God. And yet, immediately upon doing so, Jacob lays down conditions of his allegiance to God: "If God is with me and watches over me on this path that I am taking, and gives me bread to eat and clothes to wear, and if I return safely to my father's house, then will the Eternal be my God, and this stone that I have set up as a monument shall be a house of God. And of all that You give me, I will dedicate a tenth to You." By my count, Jacob replies to God's pledges of presence and providence with five pre-conditions for his fealty to God. And I don't like it, especially as a response to God's unnecessary and truly unconditional revelation. This is like when we were kids and we would say something like, "God, if you're real, give me a sign...make the lights in the room flicker." But that's not how God works. So, we were destined to be disappointed, and we missed the larger point. Our tradition wants us, commands us, to be unconditional and unwavering in our love for, and faith in, God. This is, of course, quite the challenging demand to fulfill, much more easily said than done. But, we can look to our families, as parents and children, as a model of unconditional love. We don't tell our children that if they make the basketball team or the school play or get a good grade on their science test, that we will then love them. We don't tell our parents that we will take care of them only if they are nice or watch our children for an evening. (At least, I hope we don't!) With our family and friends, the love we feel and demonstrate is, like at the start of a proof, the "given." The good news is that, when unconditional love is the "given," we don't then need to build an argument based on "if-then" statements. We just know that it's true, it's there, it exists. And every aspect of our lives becomes at least a little bit better for it. May we be inspired to love God, family, and friends, with love that is untethered and unconditional. Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Joshua Strom
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