Shabbos Parashas Vayeitzei - 5775
Shabbos Parashas Vayeitzei - 5775
Rabbi Hal Miller Then Yaakov took a vow, saying, "If G-d will be with me, will guard me on this way that I am going, will give me bread to eat and clothes to wear, and I return in peace to my father's house, then Hashem will be a G-d to me." Bereishis [28:20-21]
This is the first instance in the Torah where someone takes a vow. At first glance, it appears that Yaakov is making a deal with G-d: if You do things for me, I will do things for You. Sounds like chutzpah. Is that what is really going on here?
Rashi explains the simple meaning of the verse. "If G-d will be with me" means
"if He will keep for me these promises". Rashi points out what each of those promises was. All well and good, but it doesn't seem to answer our problem: is this a business deal, or does Rashi have a deeper meaning?
Ramban learns from here that "there is no guarantee for the righteous in this world."
Radak holds that the vow is conditional. Yaakov would do what he promised if and when G-d performed on His promises. Did Yaakov doubt that G-d could or would uphold His promises? That seems far-fetched. Radak continues, "The conditional nature did not mean that Yaakov doubted the promise G-d had made to him and G-d's ability to fulfill it, rather he was afraid that just as all of G-d's promises presume that the recipient remains worthy of them, so Yaakov was also afraid that some errors he might commit in the future would invalidate G-d's promises." The condition here is not whether G-d will fulfill His promises, but whether Yaakov would be allowed to fulfill his.
Rav Hirsch looks at the phrase "and will guard me on this way that I am going".
This can be understood as a prayer, asking G-d to keep him on the path of the righteous. Rav Hirsch says about the prayer, "It applied to the guarding of spiritual and moral possessions which he bore in himself." He notes that this precedes the requests for food and clothing, demonstrating the relative importance
of the spiritual and the physical. He says a common misunderstanding of this is evidenced by stories of people who, starting in life are of high moral fibre, fall once they get involved in earning a living. The lack of integrity so widespread in the materialistic and working world is exactly what Yaakov wanted to avoid.
Nechama Leibowitz thinks that Yaakov "doubted his own ability to withstand temptation." It was not G-d in whom Yaakov lost faith, but himself. His decades in Lavan's home wore him down and had negative impact on the strength of his
inner being. If G-d would keep Yaakov strong enough, Yaakov could continue to follow the pattern of serving the G-d of his fathers.
G-d promised Avraham [Bereishis 17:7], "And I will be a G-d to you and your descendants." Yaakov understood this to mean 'some of your descendants', but not necessarily all. Any who did not deserve it would not receive the benefit of what G-d had promised. He expected that some of his own descendants would eventually inherit this promise. That did not guarantee that he himself would.
We can look at this as a conditional promise, without worrying about a lack of faith in G-d. The vow is conditioned on Yaakov being granted the ability to fulfill it, not on G-d's performance of some tit-for-tat. Our verse can easily be read as a prayer: please grant me the ability to perform on my vow.
Ordinarily it is not a good idea to vow. Ordinarily it is not good to put a condition on your performance of a mitzvah. Here, Yaakov clearly planned to implement, and in our verse asked for help in ensuring he would be in a position to succeed.