BS”D
LONG LASTING LUZ: PARSHAT VAYETZEI
Shira Smiles shiur 2016/5777
Summary
by Channie Koplowitz Stein
When Yaakov Avinu leaves his father’s home while fleeing from his brother Esau,
he initially runs past the area he remembers as being the holy place where his
father and grandfather Avraham had prayed. Realizing his omission, Yaakov
backtracks so that he can accord proper honor to this site. He then takes
stones and puts the stone under his head and sleeps. He dreams of the ladder
planted on earth reaching toward the heavens, with angels ascending and
descending thereon. Waking up, he names the place Beit El, the House of God,
the site where the future Temples would be built as the gateway for our prayers
to reach Heaven. Then the Torah digresses from the narrative and enigmatically
relates that the original name of this place was Luz. What is the significance
of this detail, and what is the symbolism in the name Luz, asks Mesillos
Haneviim.
Let us begin with the name Yaakov gave the site, Beit El, House of God. Our
tradition notes that each of our patriarchs called the site of connection and
prayer by a different appellation. Avraham prayed on the mountain, Yitzchak
went to the field, and here Yaakov calls it a house. Hashem chooses to retain
the designation of House of the Lord over the others, as Isaiah prophesies that
the nations will go up to the House of Hashem. What connection does Luz have to
the House of Hashem?
Luz in fact is the name of a city in ancient Israel that the Israelites
conquered. According to our medrash, it was a mysterious city reached
only through a hidden portal in a hazel nut tree and in which the angel of
death had no power. (When someone felt his time had come, he would go outside
the confines of the city.) In a tangentially related definition, luz is
also the name of an indestructible bone located at the human spinal chord. It
is a bone which receives its sustenance only from the food of a Melave Malka
after Shabbat’s end, and not from food eaten at any other time. What is the
relationship between these different ideas?
Rabbi Boruch Leff explains the essence of the Luz bone, including that it is
more of a spiritual entity than a physical one. As such, it can only be
nourished with a spiritual meal, the Melave Malka, which is eaten not
for satiety, fore we’ve just finished three Shabbat meals, but simply because
we want to extend the sanctity of Shabbat to the coming week. As such, one
might want to enhance the meal with a nicely set table or with special foods.
How did the luz bone attain such spirituality? Rabbi Leff continues by
citing several sources that explain this phenomenon. We are all familiar with
the first sin when, instigated by the wily serpent, Adam and Chava ate of
the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. All the body received nutrients, but
the luz bone refused to receive the food. As such, while everything else
was tainted by the admixture of good and evil, this bone alone retained its
innate purity. Therefore, it can continue to be nourished only with completely
spiritual food. It is through this bone that Hashem will implement techiyas
hameisim, the future resurrection. And because of its avoidance of that
first sin with its accompanying consequences, “feeding” it by eating a Melave
Malka, has the ability to help with parnassah (earning a living),
and with difficulties of childbirth. Because of its spiritual essence, the
place that reflects the same spirituality as this bone bore the same name
although Yaakov called it, appropriately, Beit El, the House of God.
Taking the mystical allusions further, Rabbi Pinchas Friedman, the Shvilei
Pinchas of Belz cites the Zohar and says that Yitzchak’s marriage to Rivka
at age forty alludes to the redemption process, that the resurrection will take
place forty years after the final redemption. Rivka is the daughter of Betuel
HaArami, and she represents the physical resurrection of the body while
Yitzchak represents the neshamah, its spiritual essence. In a somewhat
complex analysis, the Shvilei Pinchas explains how Betuel HarArami
means Betuel the deceiver rather than Betuel the Armenean. As such, referring
the luz bone to betuel here and associating it with Rivka is high praise.
Rabbi Friedman explains how deception played an important role in the eternal
survival of the luz bone. Citing the verse from Tehillim, the Shvilei
Pinchas writes that one acts righteously with the righteous, but one may
act cunningly with the cunning as a matter of self - preservation. Just as
Betuel and his son Laban were deceitful, so did Yaakov need to be deceitful
when dealing with him. But Hashem promised Yaakov that he would return whole
and pure, and deceit would not become part of his nature.
Similarly, the luz bone, seeing how the serpent/yetzer horo deceitfully
seduced Eve into eating the forbidden fruit, cunningly played along, appearing
to ingest the fruit while not actually doing so. Then, when Adam died, it
deceptively faked death as well, while in reality it continues to live on and
become the basis upon which God will eventually resurrect the entire body.
Rav Moshe Breslover in Lemochor Aatir tells us that this parsha
centers around the theme of stones, the building blocks of Yaakov’s family.
First there is the stone under Yaakov’s head, symbolizing Yaakov’s vision of
his family. Later he takes the stone off the well when Rachel arrives, opening
up the well of fertility and vibrancy. Finally, he uses stones to make a pact
with Laban that will preserve the family’s integrity. But in order to
accomplish this, Yaakov needed to practice deceit, notes Rabbi Grossbard. When
he introduced himself to Rachel, he identifies himself as her father’s brother
rather than her father’s nephew, implying that if Laban deals with him
deceitfully, Yaakov himself will be capable of acting as Laban’s “brother in
crime”.
Acting deceitfully while not actually becoming deceitful was a major test for
Yaakov Avinu. Rabbi Grossbard notes that each of our patriarchs was tested in
the very trait that most defines him. Avraham Avinu whose outstanding
characteristic was chesed, kindness, was tested if he would follow
Hashem’s command and go against his very nature by his willingness to offer his
own son on God’s altar. Yaakov, whose essence is truth, is constantly tested in
this regard. Soon he will be tested in his dealings with Laban, and earlier he
was tested with donning the identity of Esau. But even if it is necessary to
act fraudulently here, Yaakov desires to return to his father’s house in purity
and use this stone as the cornerstone for building the House of God. While
Yaakov understands that he is to build a family and house for God, he knows
that in order to preserve the destiny of that family, he must maintain
boundaries and separate from Laban and from those who would corrupt us.
While each of our patriarchs understood that in order to create and maintain an
intimate relationship with Hakodosh Boruch Hu, it is necessary to create a
private space where that relationship can develop, writes Rabbi Pincus in Nefesh
Shimshon, it was Yaakov’s conception of that place as the home that Hashem
found most appropriate. And what constitutes that home, that bayit?
Rabbi Zev Leff in Outlooks: Insights offers an understanding based on
using bayit as an acronym. The Bet
represents Binah, having the wisdom to separate what is
allowed within the house and what must remain outside its walls. The Yud
represents the holiness of God’s Name and the integrity and harmony of 10 which
must exist within that home. Finally, the Tuf is a sign to
the outside world of the Jewish home’s influence on the entire world. Given
this insight, Yaakov understood that the women would be the primary builders
and protectors of his home even as he himself must take on the deception of a luz.
Everything that exists must exist in three simultaneous dimension, notes Mesillot
Haneviim. These three dimensions form the acronym o-shon,
smoke (especially of the ketoret on the altar). First it must exist in Olam,
in the space of the world. It must also exist in time, shanah.
Finally, it must exist within the individual neshamah.
Citing Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz, Mesillot Haneviim continues that Luz
exists on all these levels. It exists in the place of the Kotel, the Western
Wall. In time, in the sanctity with which we infuse every morning as we
say Modeh ani and thank God for His continued faith in us and ours in
Him. Sleep is one sixtieth of death, and each day we awaken and are resurrected
physically and invigorated mentally and emotionally. It also exists in
time, with the meal of melave malka. Finally, it exists in the
person of Eliyahu Hanavi who never died, and within each of us who will be
resurrected through the luz bone at the end of days.
On Shabbat we are infused with an even greater life energy and sanctity,
represented by the neshamah yeseirah, the “additional soul” of Shabbat.
It is this blessing of Shabbat that we want to take with us into the coming
week. We want to be melaveh malkah, to escort the Shabbat Queen so that
it accompanies us as we leave Shabbat proper, writes the Chasam Sofer.
The time of Melaveh Malkah is a concentrated time of luz.
Yaakov is leaving Be’er Sheva, the well of seven, an allusion to the holiness
of Shabbat, the seventh day, and going out to Charan, to the emptiness of the
world where death exists. This vacuum of the world must be filled with
sanctity, writes Rabbi Avraham Schorr in Halekach Vehalebuv. Before he
leaves, Yaakov dreams of the sulam, the
ladder, and sees angels ascending and descending. This is the route the holy
angels take, and this is the seudat livuy malkah,
the melaveh malkah meal, the sanctification of the time after Shabbat as
the manifestation of the luz bone in time.
Mesillot Haneviim sets the Kotel as the luz concept in place, for
God’s presence has never left the Kotel. On Motzoai Shabbat we
tie the three together by singing Eliyahu Hanavi, the person who will be the
harbinger of Moshiach in the near future to signify the rebuilding of the Beit
Hamikdosh. In our parsha, Yaakov Avinu represents the immortal person of
the luz bone who sets the foundation for the eternal Third Beit Hamikdosh in
this place, for this is where Hashem’s presence lives forever. Even while we,
His children, are in exile, Beit El continues to exist.
The message of Luz to us as Jews is that a Jew never despairs. Hope is eternal.
The Angel of Death never enters permanently, Eliyahu never dies, and the melaveh
malka keeps the spirit of that hope alive within us. While the mission of
men is to seek truth, the mission of women is to foster and nurture the emunah,
faith in Hakodosh Boruch Hu and hope in the future. For it is in the merit of
righteous women that the Beit Hamikdosh will be rebuilt.
There is an undying luz in each of us. That belief encourages us, for it bears
witness that Someone believes in us, and no one can destroy it, and even death
cannot conquer it. How do you live forever? By building your personal Beit El
through living a life of sanctity, of Torah and mitzvoth, writes Rabbi Benzion
Sacks. This is further elaborated in Mishbetzet Zahav; you achieve
eternity by keeping your Torah life vibrant and fresh like the nut tree, by
keeping your devotion to Hashem constant. How can you achieve long life and
eternity? Guard your tongue by keeping your mouth shut, like the nut which has
no natural opening, but requires a tool to crack it open. As Yaakov consecrated
the stone, we need to consecrate our lives and our homes. We need to take the
message of Luz as the foundation stone of our own lives and of our own
homes.