spirituality » to rah por tion

The Blessing
Of New Life

I

Parshat Vayetzei:
Genesis 28:10-32:3;
Hosea 12:13-14:10.

t is the first commandment. And
yet p’ru ur’vu, be fruitful and mul-
tiply, felt out of reach for Sarah, for
Rebekah and for Rachel.
In parashat Vayeitzei, as Leah gives
birth to her children, her sister Rachel’s
inability to create new life consumes
Rachel to the point of declaring to Jacob,
ers; and jealousy seeps into the divide
“Let me have children; otherwise I am a
between women. A frustrated and
dead woman!”
Jacob attributes her infertility to God’s exhausted friend once said to me, “I see
the world divided into women
will, a common understand-
who have struggled with infertil-
ing in the Bible. Some inter-
ity and women who haven’t.”
preters have suggested that
If we listen, we can hear our
God’s ability to control fertility
matriarchs’ plea in our friends
heightens the significance of
and in our congregations. We
a child born to a previously
need to fully welcome singles and
infertile woman, underscoring
couples of every age who don’t
that Isaac, Jacob and Joseph
have children. We should never
exist due to God’s direct inter-
Ariana
assume that if someone does not
vention.
Silverman
have a child it is because they
God is also responsive to
do not want to. For some, it is a
the heartbreak and efforts of
choice; for some, it is not.
our matriarchs. Rachel tries everything
We need to meet the needs of families
she can. Like Sarah before her, Rachel
that were created through adoption and
instructs her husband to have a child
families of every configuration, under-
with her servant. That baby could be
standing that “parents” are not always
attributed to Rachel, so when the cou-
created through biology and, as adults,
pling produces Jacob’s fifth son, Dan,
we can create our own families through
Rachel states “God listened to my plea.”
love if not genetics.
She then bargains with Leah, offering
When Isaac was born, Sarah said,
what she has and Leah lacks — intimacy
“God has brought me laughter.” I pray
with Jacob — in exchange for Leah’s
that anyone struggling to create a family
mandrakes, believing the mandrakes,
will soon laugh with joy. And that we
a fruit often used in ancient times for
will all create joy through the recognition
medicinal purposes, could be an aid to
conception. Rachel hopes God will be on and celebration of our multiplicity of
her side in her “mighty rivalry” with her families.
sister.
Ariana Silverman is the rabbi of Temple Beth
Ultimately, Joseph’s birth affirms that
Israel in Jackson and the Isaac Agree Downtown
“God now remembered Rachel; God
Synagogue. She lives in Detroit with her family.
listened to her and opened her womb,
so she became pregnant and bore a son.”
Joseph’s name reflects both the removal
(asaf) of Rachel’s past disgrace and the
Questions
addition (yoseif) of another son attrib-
• What does it mean to be a
uted to her.
“family?”
In 2016, so much has changed, and
• What was my/our journey to
much has remained the same. Women
becoming part of a family?
are wracked with emotional pain when
• How can we support people
unable to have children; women go to
struggling to create a family?
extraordinary lengths to become moth-

*

It
on the
the
It may
may be
be beautiful on
outside
what's on
on the
the
outside but
but it's
its what’s
inside
counts
inside
that that
really
counts.

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December 8 • 2016

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