Vayeishev

Genesis 37:1−40:23

God Was In That Text

It is important to seek God in times of fortune, and to hear the divine voice in our texts.

By Rabbi Matthew Berkowitz

Provided by the Jewish Theological Seminary, a Conservative rabbinical seminary and university of Jewish studies. Reprinted with permission of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

God's presence in our world is truly in the eye of the beholder. While there are times we feel an acute absence of God in our lives, there are also times that we are keenly aware of God's Presence. More often than not, it is in times of distress and tragedy that we turn to be discovered by God rather than in times of blessing.

Our patriarch Jacob is the quintessential model of such relationship. When Jacob leaves home and again when he is about to confront his brother Esau after 20 years, Jacob prays to God--for protection and blessing. Yet when we arrive at this week's parashah, Parashat Vayeshev, and read the opening lines of the Torah reading--namely that "Jacob was now settled in the land where his father had sojourned, the land of Canaan"--one would expect Jacob to utter some prayer of thanksgiving. After pulling through tragedy after tragedy (stealing the blessing from his brother Esau, fleeing home, suffering from the deceit of his uncle Laban, wrestling with a mysterious assailant, and living through the rape of his daughter Dinah), one would expect at a minimum an acknowledgment of God's work in his life, especially when he is settled.
Where is God?

Sadly, the entire opening chapter of Parashat Vayeshev contains not one mention of God. We know God is acting in the background, but at same time, there is no explicit reference to God. So where and how do we find God?

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