NOVEMBER 11 • 2021 | 51

SPIRIT

Crossing A Divide
I

n this week’s parshah, Jacob 
is fleeing the only home he 
has ever known to escape the 
wrath of his brother Esau. 
When he sleeps, he dreams of 
a ladder stretching between heav-
en and Earth. Angels are ascend-
ing and descending. To me, this 
moment represents the in-be-
tween, the blurring of the bound-
ary, the crossing of borders.
Ritual theory places tremen-
dous significance on the spiritual 
experience of boundary cross-
ing. Whether it’s the dramatic 
elements of Havdalah or the 
embodied awareness of threshold 
crossing the mezuzah invites, 
Judaism is certainly deeply con-
scious of it. 
I have long considered bound-
ary-crossing to be a primary 
spiritual practice of mine. When 
I visit inmates in prison, when I 

cross checkpoints between Israel 
and the occupied territories, and 
when I cross 8 Mile Road, these 
actions facilitate awakening and a 
profound sense of the unity of all. 
To be boundary-crossers is our 
lineage. The word ivrim, 
Hebrews, can be translated 
as “the ones who cross.
”
Ladders and bound-
ary-crossing come togeth-
er in a remarkable piece 
of Talmud. Taanit 28a 
recounts that when the 
kingdom of Greece ruled 
Judea, they forbade the 
practice of Judaism. In 
order to prevent the cele-
bration of the pilgrimage 
festival, they placed guards 
on the roads to Jerusalem. 
But the pilgrims outsmart-
ed the guards. They covered their 
first fruits and assembled the 

wood for the altar into ladders, 
lying to the guards about the 
purpose of their travel. The text 
concludes: “
As soon as they had 
passed the guards, they disman-
tled the ladders and took them 
up to Jerusalem. [...]”
What a powerful 
teaching. Not only 
are ladders a bridge, a 
mechanism for border-
crossing, but they are also 
a tool for thwarting an 
empire. The writer and 
activist Arundhati Roy 
once said, “Our strategy 
should be not only to 
confront empire, but to 
lay siege to it. To deprive 
it of oxygen. To shame 
it. To mock it. With 
our art, our music, our 
literature, our stubbornness, 
our joy, our brilliance, our sheer 

relentlessness — and our ability 
to tell our own stories.
”
About these brave border-
crossers the Talmud teaches: 
“The memory of the righteous 
shall be for a blessing” (Proverbs 
10:7). 
This Shabbat, as we tell the 
story of our ancestor dreaming 
of a ladder crossing the ultimate 
divide, let us ask ourselves: How 
can we live out the lineage we 
inherit as the ivrim, the ones who 
cross? How do our history and 
tradition compel us to challenge 
systems of oppression and 
domination? In addition to being 
the People of the Book, how 
might we be the People of the 
Ladder? 

Rabbi Alana Alpert is the 
director of Detroit Jews for Justice 
(detroitjewsforjustice.org).

TORAH PORTION

Rabbi Alana 
Alpert

Parshat 

Vayetze: 

Genesis 

28:10-32:3; 

Hosea 12;13-

14:10.

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