A Soulful Journey

"Abraham was unable to save Ishmael. Isaac was unable to save Esau."  - Talmud, Sanhedrin It is up to us to do our best to encourage everyone to do teshuvah, to help them turn their lives around.  Yet, the Torah tells that sometimes we are incapable of doing so.

In an Iroquois story, twins -- Plant Boy and Flint are born.  Flint in being born damages the mother so that she dies.  Flint kills the animals: he is the hunting tradition.  Plant Boy is the agrarian principle.  - Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth In Torah, Jacob and Esau represents both extremes: one is the hunter and the other is the farmer. The same can be said for Cain and Abel earlier in the Torah. Maybe the same can be said for the members of your family.

It is not a birthday cake or big party.  It is not a haftara or speech.  It is all about reaching the age of personal responsibility.  Here is the text: "And the boys grew." -Genesis 25:27 Rabbi Pinchas said in the name of Rabbi Levi, "They were like a myrtle and wild rose growing side by side; When they grew to maturity, one yielded fragrance and the other thorns. So for 13 years both went to and from school. Afterward, one went to the Beit Midrash (House of Study) and the other went to idolatrous shrines." Said Rabbi Elazar ben Shimon: "A man is responsible for his son until he is 13.  Then he must say, "Blessed is he who has freed me from the responsibility of this one.." - Beresheet Rabbah 63:10

Midrash relates that when the trees of the forest first heard the clanging of iron implements they trembled with fear. “Woe is us,” they moaned in distress. “They are preparing to cut off our young loves,” one tree called out. “If it is only the iron we hear,” another tree said, “we have nothing to fear.   After all, they cannot chop down a tree with a piece of iron.   It only is dangerous when the iron is attached to something which comes from our own kind – a wooden handle.” Moral: If we Jews are only concerned with the prayer, “Deliver us from the hands of Esau,” our tragedy would not be so great.   The misfortune lies is a handle of our own kind being held by the hands of Esau.   Often we find one of our own kind being used by the enemy’s hands.