The Search for Tranquility
“And Jacob dwelt in the land in which his father had dwelt, in the Land of Canaan” (Genesis 37:1). Rashi’s comments on this verse taken from the Midrash are both unsettling and profound: “Jacob sought to settle in tranquility but the incident of Joseph thrust itself upon him. The righteous seek to live in tranquility [yet] God says: “Is it not enough for the righteous what is prepared for them in the World to Come that they seek to sit in tranquility in this world [as well]?!”
Abraham’s ten tests, Isaac’s challenges, and Jacob’s seemingly never-ending ordeals force us to reconsider what we would expect the life of tzaddikim – righteous and holy individuals – to be like. One might have thought that as people grow spiritually, climbing to ever higher levels of purity and holiness, they would either become immune to life’s tests or God would grant them respite from life’s ordeals as a reward for their earlier achievements. Yet here we see that the patriarchs were faced with one trial after another and instead of these trials becoming easier, in a sense, they became even more challenging. If we fail to understand this state of affairs properly, we could be left with a feeling of futility at life’s constant ordeals.
The name Israel, as we discussed in the previous portion, means to “contend with God and man and prevail” (Genesis 32:29). Although constant struggle can wear us down, paradoxically, it also provides us with the opportunity to go beyond merely prevailing to emerging triumphant. The modern catchphrase “No pain – no gain” was preceded by the son of Hei Hei’s statement in Pirkei Avot (5:26) two thousand years ago: “According to the effort is the reward.” Very few things in life come on silver platters. Yet we need to make a paradigm switch. Having to exert one’s self is not a punishment; rather, it is a blessing. God has created a world in which people must work to earn their own rewards and consequently experience the satisfaction of having done so. Indeed, even though the earth was cursed because of Adam’s sin of eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil – and as a consequence he was forced to exert himself to earn his daily bread (“by the sweat of your face you will eat bread” [Genesis 3:19]) – this too was a blessing in disguise, as the “curse” becomes an opportunity for rectification.
In the section devoted to “Run and Return” above, we learned that there is no rest for the righteous, neither in this world nor in the World to Come, for the soul and the spirit constantly strive to ascend. Indeed, the soul as “an actual part of God above” shares in the Divine aspect of infinity, so there really is no end to our potential for spiritual elevation. How we view the trials and tribulations of life becomes a matter of perspective. Some of us view them as unwanted struggles and others view them as opportunities for spiritual advancement. The Midrash’s unsettling vision of perpetual struggle in this world ironically prods us to turn adversity into hope.
Rabbi Ari Kahn in his book Explorations recalls a very different reading of this Rashi offered by Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik. Rabbi Soloveitchik explains that God’s proclamation – “Is it not enough for the righteous what is prepared for them in the World to Come that they seek to sit in tranquility in this world [as well]?!” – is not a question or exclamation, but a statement. Despite the challenges of this world and the seemingly endless stream of tests that confront us daily, the righteous seek to bring a sense of tranquility and calm to every situation. The righteous want to bring heaven down to earth and it is in this sense that what awaits the righteous in the World to Come is not enough. Although struggle ultimately has a positive role to play in this world, life can still be experienced with a sense of inner tranquility and peace of mind. These two seemingly antithetical ways of experiencing life need not be mutually exclusive.
The root word of Vayeishev, the name of this Torah portion, means “to sit” or “to return.” The word “Shabbat” stems from the same root. Although we know that the world continues to function on Shabbat, replete with all its trials and tribulations, nonetheless for millennia the Jewish people have managed to transform the seventh day into an island of true peace and tranquility. Every Shabbat we express our longing for an era that will be eternally Shabbat, when heaven and earth will no longer represent antithetical realities and states of mind.
In the Zohar a tzaddik is referred to as “Shabbat.” This does not mean that the tzaddik has an unrealistic, naïve, or escapist view of reality; rather, this appellation connotes a certain inner peace the tzaddik maintains when dealing with the never-ending barrage of tests and turbulent fluctuations of life. Perhaps this was Jacob’s and our greatest test – to embrace the challenges of this world while maintaining an inner sense of peace and joy.
