JACOB FEELS UNWORTHY
[A religious fanatic is
arrogantly confidant that G*D is in his pocket. In contrast, Jacob is humbled in gratitude,
and concerned that he is unworthy of still more Divine help.]
Genesis 32:11 (28A:8 in the scroll's transition)
My own account of SCANTY, DINKY קטן QaDTaN (inadequately
small) credits has been overdrawn by all the
kind deeds 1 that you did for your servant 2 for with [nothing but] my walking stick did I
cross this Jordan River, 3 and now [I have so many possessions, that
even after my exorbitant gifts to Esau], I have two [fully-equipped]
encampments.4
1 the promised children and sustenance of
28:14-15
2 the
grandest title for which a Believer can aspire
3 over to the challenging side of exile and its
materialism
4 These
two camps echo the last word of VaYeTSAy, 32:3, even though the two MaK[H]aNoT/camps
there refer to the troops of guardian angels escorting Jacob out of,
then welcoming Israel back to, the Promised Land.
THE PATHOS OF
GENESIS 32:11
Jacob is finally
returning to Israel after decades of Laban’s hostile hospitality, and has just
learned that his brother Esau is coming to meet him with a large, murderous
army.
He knows that the
Lord has been with him in Exile, and has helped him go from a penniless refugee
with only his walking stick to a man of much cattle and family. Now, his large camp is split in two -- שני מחנות
SH’NaY MaK[H]aNoaT. If one of the
camps is annihilated, children butchered in sight of their mothers, the other
camp may be able to escape. (If European
Jewry is annihilated by the Nazis and their overt and covert allies, the other
camp in the New World -- the reason why there is a North America --
shall survive, and make a future in Israel possible.)
Jacob is not
smugly dependent on miracles. The key word is
קטנטי QaDToaNTeeY, “I have fallen SHORT [of the
merit of more divine intervention]… after all the kindnesses he’s received.
The Jews are
finally crossing their Rubicon, their ירדן YaRDeN (Jordan River), after millennia of waltzing
with Europe. There is strong faith that the miracles of surviving the Holocaust
and thriving in Israel will continue.
But קטנטי
QaDToaNTeeY. Perhaps
if the Diaspora camp continues to melt, or if the Israel camp is melted (Heaven
Forbid), Jacob-Israel’s mission will limp on. We must still cry out הצילני נא HaTSeeYLaiNeeY Nah (please save me now,
steal me away) as the missiles and armies of Iran and
her puppets in Lebanon, Gaza, and Syria, along with North Korea-China-Russia
and the fake humanitarians of the U.N. and Europe gather for the Last Dance.
This musical
interpretation of Genesis 32:11 by Yonatan Razel is worth 4 of your minutes. The translations and
transliterations above will help, even if you cannot yet follow the Hebrew.