By Rabbi Joey

Some say Jacob dreamed about angels ascending and descending a ladder because he was unevolved, even delusional. How many times have we heard it that he was a deceiver? How many times have novices in a synagogue protested against this kind of a role model? He ran from his brother, but he was also running from himself. He lived in an echo chamber and was susceptible to self-aggrandizing models of behavior. He didn’t have the physical traits of Esau, so he pretended to be like him. 

Think about it. Where was this lead character headed when the sun set and God came to him in a nighttime reverie? You guessed it – Haran. He was moving in a backward direction to Abraham’s place of departure, and there he’d immediately find himself in hot water with Laban the ultimate trickster. The rabbis despised Laban, thought less of him than of Pharaoh. 

I like it that Laban (Lavan, in Hebrew) means white.  And here we all are submerged in whiteness after an election that took us backward. So the hero of the story gets the keys (and the nuclear codes) and Jacob gets to see God, even though he was shocked and ill-prepared for an epiphany. 

Again, he’ll enter a period of whiteness. It’s all drudgery and the exploitation of women. After all, they serve as Laban’s bargaining chips. It’s bait and switch – first it’s Leah whom we learned in Hebrew school had “weak eyes” (derogatory), and yet a better translation might be “soft eyes” which connotes a gentle, less judgmental, gaze. Never mind – her story is submerged. Jacob really craves Rachel, who won’t be known substantively until it’s too late. She dies on the way home and symbolizes (in the Prophets) the endless path between exile and home. She embodies the circumnavigation of the text.

And what of us? We are up in the middle of the night too and looking for a stairway to heaven. The president-elect (I have trouble using his name) objectifies women. Some say he’s essentially a racist, a megalomaniac, a demagogue. But first and foremost, he is a misogynist. He is someone who never got past a pubescent understanding of men and women and the nature of desire. In the case of Jacob, he was smothered as a toddler by Rebecca, and I don’t write this to assign her blame for it, as much as to recognize that he lacked demonstrable skills and needed a boost. Otherwise, the kinds of prizes that usually come from unenlightened dads (Isaac was blind, don’t forget) who arrive at football weekends to celebrate sons on the field might not be rewarded. 

Jacob got a blessing he really didn’t particularly, at this point, deserve. Our president-elect inherited $200 million from his father’s estate. He’s an impetuous character, to say the least. 

Again, everything is white up ahead. There is little room for discernment – inclusionary politics is a matter of resentment, something to be scorned. Women are the key in which this song (can’t call it a symphony, a drinking song?) is played. There is no accountability, because he never showed us his tax reports. Like a magician, he hasn’t explained to us how his tricks work. But what we know for sure is that in this society that loves to hear what is soothing and self-justifying, we live in a hall of mirrors. We get the news stream that gives us what we already expect to hear. 

The person who cuts my hair tells me that "all those protestors" out there making a fuss about this offensive man we have elected are paid professionals. I encourage her to say more, because I’d like to get paid too. Actually, I want to ask her how she can be so enamored of a character that has made a career of routinely defaming and defacing her sex? 

But the angels go up and come back down.  It will take a whole chapter to get past this detour. Jacob will go the route of deception and asset-acquisition and women will be traded, used as pawns, to further the goals of a patriarchal narrative. 

I am left to wonder how we get beyond the imagery of manifest destiny. What will it take? This year Genesis is painful to read. We can only hope that after a period of time in a white house, it dawns on a grown-up man that leading a country like ours means waking up to the citizens who depend on one another to be hospitable and fair-minded. In the meantime, crassness requires whiteness to obscure its impact. But the world is colorful and imperfect, after all, and sooner or later conquerors come home to the realization that by sharing what we have, we learn about true joy. Okay, maybe joy is a lofty goal. Let’s shoot for justice, as Jacob will one day come home, make peace with Esau, and they will both allow one another to live and let live. 

I will not wait for this to happen, nor should you. We have work to do – let’s say we’ll edit the story. Too many lives are at stake, and I want to make sure the next chapter comes soon!

--Rabbi Joey