Somewhere between Gaza and Jerusalem our ancestral mother stands to teach us how to contain complex realities, to demand new narratives of hope, and to let out the primal scream of our siblings so we can share both pain and peace, together.
Watch Rabbi Amichai’s radical re-reading of Genesis, mid war, to help us hear the hidden, heal, and hope.
Lab/Shul Sabbath Queen in Brooklyn
11/17/23
A pregnant woman stands on a hill somewhere between Gaza and Jerusalem and she says these words in her own language. I Look towards the mountain and the ancestors. Someone help. I want to say a couple words about how we are able to contain complexity and what it means for us to interrupt the narratives that we inherited when they do not serve us into the future we deserve and we demand. The woman that I am talking about is our ancestor. Is anybody here named Rebecca? Is there a Rebecca in the house? Well you, my friend, are named for that Rivka. Rebecca, our second matriarch. It wasn’t easy for Rebecca to become pregnant. She and Isaac tried a lot, and finally she became pregnant. And now she’s standing on a hilltop somewhere between Gaza and Jerusalem because that’s where our ancestors lived, next to the seven wells. And she’s pregnant. But it’s complicated. She contains complexity. She does not know this yet, but she’s the first mother,the first mother in our history,the first mother in our history with twins. And they’re kicking in different directions. And it feels like she’s got a whole world war inside and no one has prepared her for this. So the verse from the Torah that will be read tomorrow says:
The boys struggled inside her womb and she asks first existential question: If this is happening, if I am holding multitudes and complicated narratives that are fighting with each other, then who am I? How can I be me if I’m containing this complexity? So what does she do? She’s the first person in our history to go demand an answer from the creator: וַתֵּלֶךְ לִדְרֹשׁshe demands and creates the midrash,the first person in our history, a mother who creates commentary, creates imagination, creates the body of literature we know as midrash or midrash, which means I’m going to talk back to what reality is, to the text, to where I come from, because I deserve and I demand to know what’s on here because there is something going on inside of me and I don’t know what’s going on.
So Rivka, Rebecca,is the creator of midrash and she on some level is the creator of the existential question:
Who am I?
How am I when I contain complexity, she will give birth to twins, to Jacob and to Esau, and those twins will not get along and those twins will fight over the birthright. And those twins will end up being our ancestors who still squabble over the birthright. And we are in a binary situation of a Jacob and Esau or Issac, Ishmael, Cain and Abel, and so on and so forth. That’s the story we inherited. And Rebecca stands there with a belly full of complexity and asks, “How can I be me when I contain, my womb contains complexity?” Remember, that Sarah and Hagar were the mothers of the previous generation. Two different wombs gave birth to two different brothers, Isaac and Ishmael. The children of Abraham of Ibrahim. Still squabbling and more right now. But Rebecca is one womb containing both. Rebecca is us right now. She is our ancestor, the mythic mother, the one whose prayers we heard praying for peace, containing both because we as humans are hurting and are feeling and are both.
I do not care right now to talk about political positions. And I’m going to ask us to choose humanity as our mother did,to know that this is complicated and deserves a lot of information in the middle of the rage and hurt and tragedy. I want to go back to this moment when Rebecca, our mother, holds complexity in one big confused belly and is the mother of both. Now, here’s where we get to interrupt the story,which, my friends, we must. She goes to demand an answer from the Divine. We don’t know what that looks like. Did she go to a tarot reader? Did she go to some rabbi? Did she go to a witch? Did she go into a deep meditation? We don’t know. The Torah doesn’t tell us. We know. She went to get an answer from God, from Adonai, from Havaya. And here is what she got.
The next verse, please, Mariam. The Divine says to her, or so The storyteller tells us. Whoever wrote this down. Yeah. Guess what, Rebecca. Mazel tov. There are two nations in your womb. Two separate peoples will issue from your body. One shall be mightier than the other, and the older shall serve the younger. Now you go be the mother of them both. Jacob and Esau are born Esau is first, Jacob is second. It’s going to be a long saga of who’s on first and who gets what. And it is still going on. So here’s why I want us to interrupt the story,because I think we must. With all due respect,somebody wrote this story down because somebody had an agenda. And I daresay it’s our ancestors who had an agenda to say it’s us, the sons of Jacob, who will inherit the land and not the sons of Esau. And we deserve this land. And you do not. And therefore, they will tell the story of the mother who holds both. But they will tell. That one of them gets to inherit while the other doesn’t. And Esau, at the end of this parashah. And end of story. I’m looking at Stephen in the back. And last year when we told this story and our passage group came to tell the story back to us, and you were Esau and we together with, you screamed This scream of Esau was paid for being cheated of the birthright by our ancestor Jacob,because this binary of you’re going to get it and he won’t get it is what we inherited. And how Esav got cheated of a blessing that he too deserved.
We must interrupt this story. The Torah is written and is spoken. It came down in text. It comes down in speech right now. And even though it’s in our books, we can stop right here and say to whoever wrote the story. Not anymore. Not on my watch. I don’t want this story to end this way. Binary is over. Either is over. I’m with this one or this one is over. I stand with Israel. I stand with Palestine. Over! Clap. But can we walk this talk? Can we walk this talk on your social feeds and in your conversations and deeply in our hearts. And I’m saying that as somebody who will pay a price for saying this with my family and friends. But we have got to pay this price because if we don’t,the price is the bloodshed that will not stop. If we continue this story,we have to stop the sacred story. Now. We have to tell a different tale.
The Torah that we inherited is sacred and it’s flawed. And we are invited to be the תּוֹרָה שֶׁבְּעַל פֶּה The Torah of the mouth, the Torah of now,the Torah that talks back to our tradition that honors Rebecca,who holds both in her belly, as the goddess does, as the mother does. And let this verse say: “You know what? I don’t know who said this to you, Rebecca. God advised you or who was the oracle? But I think they got it wrong because it’s not working anymore. ”We need a new oracle and a new continuation of the story. I promised Libby that we would have a primal scream tonight. You did? I did. I did. And so I am going to invite just friends. And I’ll tell you what the invitation is. And if we shake Brooklyn to the ground, well, let it be. Yes. Last year, last year, when we told this story,we heard Esau’s cry. And the Zohar, the mystical text, tells us the redemption will come when we hear Esau’s cry and cry with Esau. In a moment, we’re going to scream. Scream, my friends,because we are Esau, too,because we can contain complexity. And yes, we must. But before we do so, I want to honor one more mother. I want to honor a mother who understood Rebeccaand who paid a terrible price for her being a peacemaker. I want to read one more quote tonight from Vivian Silver,who was buried yesterday. And this is what she said to one of the Palestinian friends who quoted it verbatim.
“What’s nice about being an old and sarcastic retiree is that I can say aloud what I think and I have nothing to lose. Our camp has lost quite a few times. We’ve taken many hits on the jaw, and I’ve been through plenty in my own life as well. I’ve learned a lot the hard way about Arab-Jewish partnership. And I know that when it succeeds, it succeeds because every side understands that the justice it seeks depends heavily on the justice of the other side. Closing the gap comes from collaborative work and not from struggling against one another.”
May you rest in peace and power. Vivian,we must stop the story. Those two boys struggling inside Rebecca—that is us and our struggle must stop now. Perhaps It’s not going to happen tonight, but if we remember that peace comes from within and that we are each other’s brother’s keeper. And slowly, slowly, Vivien’s legacy will be the future destiny that we will one day say. We changed the story. So I’m going to invite us before we sing this. As we look up to the ancestors. We’re going to go straight to wherever we’re going,but I’m going to invite us to scream. My friend, I want you to go inside and think and hear the pain, the rage, the frustration, the hope. I want us to hear the rage of Esau and of Jacob. I want you to hear Rebecca and Isaac every single ancestor and descendant. And when you’re ready, I’m going to count to three. We’re going to scream from the bottom of your belly. One, two, three.
