Today is Rachel Imenu's Yahrzeit - Tzipporah Heller's take

ChossidMom

Tue, Oct 19 2010, 2:52 am

From an email sent by Rebbetzin Tzipporah Heller to Neve alumni (personal info removed):

Dear friends,

This week will be Rachel Imeinu's yahrtzeit. For those of you who wonder if Rachel Imeinu is someone who you knew back in Mechinah, what I just wrote is that the anniversary of the passing of our matriarch, Rachel, will take place this week.

One of the stranger things about Judaism is that we celebrate the anniversary of people's deaths with far more ritual than we use to celebrate their births. One of the reasons for this is that being born really doesn't require much from the baby. What's there to celebrate? Anyone can do it. In fact, all of the folks you see crowding onto the subway or highway during rush hour have one thing in common; they all were born. Who you are when you die is an entirely different matter. The day of your death is the day that your portrait, the one that you have been working at your entire life, is completed.

Because we live in time, of course we see the day of death in isolation. Most of the time, especially in the easily foreseeable passing of an elderly person, the "portrait" is difficult to see because the last act of the play is so dramatic that it makes you forget everything that came before. You just don't have the ability to see all the yesterdays when you look at today. When you look at the deaths of the great Tzadikim, and certainly when you think about Rachel, you have to be careful to see the entire spectrum of their lives (to the degree you can).

Rachel's greatest moment was arguably one that you can only grasp from the comfort of your armchair. You can't replay the scene with you in her place; the spiritual distance between you and her is just too great. She knew that her father, Lavan, was likely to try to pull a fast one over Yaakov who had worked for the right to marry her for 7 years. He wanted two things; one was (obviously) to get more work out of Yaakov. The other aspect of his opposition to the marriage is far deeper and more subtle.

Yaakov was everything Lavan wasn't. Yaakov dedicated his entire life to searching for truth. What this required of him was learning how to see the entire picture of reality whenever he encountered it, instead of its subjective and limiting step-sister, self-interest. That means if he were to see a beautiful sight (remember how the garden looks[at Neve when you walk down from the main building to the dining hall when the roses are in bloom? Now THAT is a beautiful sight, no?) He would see the outside (the roses, grass, sun, shadow etc.) but that would not be all that he would see. He would simultaneously see the life force that vivifies it moment by moment, and the unceasing creativity that brought the scene into being. He would also see himself as part of the scene, since there is underlying unity between every aspect of creation and its Source.

Lavan understood what Yaakov stood for, and saw it as a threat to his own perspective on life and life's purpose. To him, seeing the beautiful garden would necessarily take him to only one question. "How can I enjoy it/own it/use it/capture its mystique for my gain and self-empowerment?" His world had his ego and lusts as its center. Any thought of a higher force or underlying unity created problems, unless he could somehow "use" these concepts to get ahead. If you were to look around you for a more contemporary image, I would tell you to see the following;

Image one: Baba Sali, the famous Moroccan Kabbalist whose name was Rabbi Yaakov Abuchatzira. Baba Sali literally means "Praying Papa". People called him by that name because his home in Netivot was open to receive hoards of people coming for his prayers, blessings, food and the warmth of his presence. He would give them something to eat or drink, to open their hearts to the G-d who created the food and to make them aware (at least for the moment) that G-d could do anything; give them a healing, a child, a job or whatever else He wanted to give. The faith that he brought home to them, plus the profound power behind his own blessings, were often a catalyst for miracles and near miracles.

Image two: You go online and you discover that Madonna is offering "kabbalah strings" that supposedly come from Jerusalem for only $28 for a four-inch piece of string that came straight off a spool that cost her (or her agents) about $.50. Her motivation is gain, and her means include twisting truth to fit her agenda. The last thing she would want would be for Baba Sali to examine her site!

Lavan was threatened by Yaakov, but he needed Yaakov. Yaakov worked hard, brought him blessing, but could easily rob him of his power and credibility. For that reason, Lavan wanted Yaakov to marry the wrong woman, one with whom he would fail to build a people who would make Lavan and his entire worldview irrelevant. He wanted Yaakov to marry Leah, Rachel's older sister, instead of Rachel. To avoid this problem, Yaakov and Rachel made signs by which he would know if the heavily veiled bride he sees is Rachel or Leah. When Rachel heard the idea, she went for it, but something unexpected happened later. When it came to implementing the plan (and yes, Lavan had substituted Leah for Rachel as could be expected) she too saw "the whole picture". Her picture included Leah. It was a hard picture to see. Logic demanded that she filter Leah out. Her compassion demanded that she keep Leah in. She went with compassion. She did this knowing that she could be dooming herself to a life of horror with Yaakov's brother, Eisov.

The result is that her life expressed a dimension of truth that goes beyond logic, and for that reason the sages say that praying at her tomb, especially on the anniversary of her death, draws down Hashem's compassion more than any other place in the world. I will be going to Kever Rachel on Tuesday, G-d willing. If you want to give me any names, please send them ASAP to xxxxxxxxx

And a final note: Mazal Tov to xxxxx (of Pittsburgh whose last name I think is xxxx but in honesty escapes me, but then again, since she got engaged it is temporary anyway).

Love,

Tziporah