Torah Sparks
Genesis 28:10 – 32:3
Jacob has to flee Beersheva, his home, because it has become too dangerous for him. He hopes to find safe haven with relatives in far-off Haran. But he has to cross hundreds of miles of foreign territory to get there.
Jacob is a refugee.
God comes to Jacob in a dream in order to calm Jacob’s fears. God promises Jacob that he will be safe. That he will not starve. That he will have clothes to cover him.
As Jacob falls asleep, exhausted, he is beset with the fears and concerns of every refugee. But he is blessed to dream a dream of comfort and reassurance, rather than dreaming a nightmare of terror. He awakens to proclaim that such a place that offers hope and security along the way is “none other than the Gate of Heaven.” (Gen. 28:17)
In the wake of the tragedies that we have witnessed over these last weeks, there is a fierce debate swirling about how to cope with the modern phenomenon of hundreds of thousands of “Jacob”s, refugees fleeing the threat of death. The newspapers report, and I have heard as much from family, friends and students in France, that an important way to resist the evil terror launched against us is to refuse to stop living our normal lives. Images of café life in Paris celebrate the resilience of the human spirit, of the refusal of decent people to be cowed into hiding.
But this cannot become the sole means of our resistance. We are called upon to read the story of Jacob’s dream so that we may take courage and inspiration from it and make sure that we, too, offer the fleeing refugee a safe place, respite, food, security, clothing. We need to use our considerable resources of material and intellectual riches to figure out how to open our gates, responsibly and safely, so as to rescue people fleeing from hell on earth. We must work together to open for them a “gate of heaven” on earth.
Some voices in this country, so fortunate to be spared the brunt of this crisis, have decided to act like the residents of Sodom who, as we read a couple of weeks ago, were adamant in refusing to offer shelter to any stranger, even if they were angels! Those voices must be countered with “the voice of Jacob.” An important organization that is fighting for this holy value is HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, an organization with a generations-old history of working for the welfare of refugees, in the name of our Jewish values. Please go to their website – http://www.hias.org/ – to find out how you can help open up heaven’s gates.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi David Greenstein
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