This week’s parsha – Va-Yetzei - touches on a lesson that seemed especially appropriate for the week of thanksgiving. It covers the concept of a sacred spot. Jacob has several moments where the ground is used to mark a special spot. First (and most famously) with his dream on the mount of the angels rising and falling and then when Jacob leaves his father-in-law after toiling for many years, finding his wives and building his fortune. Both moments are marked with setting stones in the ground marking otherwise innocuous pieces of land as special to them.
A location is sacred because of the touch point it becomes in our lives. And this is true for Jacob as well. On the mountain he arises after his dream of the angels and ladders to realize he is the presence of HaShem. He makes a prayer and sacrifice to mark the spot – and in doing so also further cements the idea that HaShem is located wherever we are willing to recognize the holy presence. The idea that god is not everywhere but can be anywhere. Many rabbis point to the prayer Jacob makes here as the early formula that most of our modern prayer is modeled on. What it is significant as well is this special and meaningful location is referred to simply, and generically, as “the place”. In lacking details the torah is telling us that any place can become holy and sacred if we feel it is that way to us.
With his father in law the land they mark as a special sign of the agreement between Laban and Jacob is again a piece of land with no description or significance. But it is the deal that Jacob makes that allow him to leave with his family, his fortune and return to Israel that makes this spot special. So that leads us to thanksgiving where we should take a thought and have a hope.
As we review that which we are grateful for we should think of the many sacred spots in our lives. Whether it is Shabbat, family memories places in our homes there are many places we return that we should recognize and treat as a sacred spot. We never stop to look at a Shabbat table or family gathering as a sacred spot, but if we look at the meaning they can imbue in us makes these locales amongst the most sacred we have in our lives. On this thanksgiving we should remember these spots as thankful and stop and be thankful and pray for being aware of the fortune of such spots.
And I hope that we all not only become aware of these sacred spots but recognize that we have the ability to find and make sacred spots with our loved ones. If we are with people whom we love, and realize that we are in the presence of HaShem, than we have the potential to find a sacred space.
On this thanksgiving we should all be grateful for all of the sacred spaces in our lives, the people and beliefs that have led to them and the ability to have the perspective to recognize them and create more sacred spaces in our lives as we continue on our journeys.
"Blessed are You, LORD, our God, King of the universe, Who has kept us alive, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season."
For this moment and for all of our moments that create our special and sacred places.
Shabbat Shalom
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