It might seem unlikely, but as I sat down to ruminate on the November Torah portions, the first thing that came to mind was a similarity between the Book of Genesis and social networking.
Your eyes don’t deceive. Studying Genesis led my mind to Facebook.
Through the birth of Facebook and other social networking sites, we are able to keep in touch with friends and family all over the country. With just a click of the computer or smartphone, status updates fill the screen.
We can find out who has a birthday, and the plays and sports in which friend’s children are participating. Recipes are exchanged. We can “like” someone’s status and share moments in life from miles away. Family pictures, a part of social networking, can allow us to feel closer to our loved ones by viewing frequent new photos.
It’s a crazy phenomenon, but when reuniting with colleagues at conferences and out of town family, we may feel like we’ve just seen one another, instead of the number of years it has actually been. Social media can make our friends and family closer.
So too, when we pick up the Book of Genesis every year, it is like greeting an old friend. Genesis is filled with stories and relationships — Abraham and Lot, Jacob and Esau, Rachel and Leah, even Dinah and her brothers.
Many of the stories are familiar and stay with us through the years. One might not be able to list all Five Books of Torah in order, but if pressed, could tell you that Jacob tricked his brother Esau out of his birthright blessing. Or one might recall that Rachel and Leah were sisters who were married to the same man.
For me, and for many others, Genesis is comforting because of the people connections contained within. We can relate to stories of mothers and sons, brothers, sisters and yes, sibling rivalry.
No matter where we are in our lives, we can pick up where we left off in this collection of Torah portions as though no time has passed.
Yet we know, no matter how frequently we use Facebook or other sites, status updates are no match for real contact and reunions. Our “friends” Jacob and Esau demonstrate such a pair.
When they last met after Jacob tricked Esau out of his blessing, Esau vowed to kill his brother. Jacob fled his family and Esau followed suit in another direction not long after. Time passes, both have families of their own and eventually, their paths cross again.
How might we feel if we were Jacob? Would we be nervous about seeing our brother for the first time in years? Or, fearful for our lives for what may be to come from the encounter?
Perhaps even a subtle excitement for a twin reunion — after all, they did share a womb and some element of closeness for many of their earlier years.
This moment of reconciliation is such a powerful one, and also intriguing. Instead of the malice with which they parted, none of that is present in the moment.
“He [Jacob] bowed down to the ground seven times as he approached his brother. Esau, though, ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him. And they burst into tears” (Genesis 33:3-4).
The brothers kissed as they reunited. The Hebrew text has dots over each letter over the word kiss.
“One tradition says that this means that Esau’s kiss was not genuine, while another holds that it was because in the meeting Esau’s latent love broke through” (Rashi as cited in “The Torah: A Modern Commentary,” p. 236). Could it be that Esau simply missed his brother?
Dr. Norman Cohen, a scholar of Midrash, relates: “But now there were no feelings of hatred, jealousy or revenge. All he [Esau] could focus on was how much time had been lost; much of the past had been forgotten. And so he ran toward his brother, the same one with whom he had wrestled from the beginning, in real life and in his dreams. They had struggled in their mother’s womb, but now he found himself running towards Jacob with arms open wide. It was indeed possible to move from conflict to unity; from struggle to embrace” (“Self, Struggle and Change,” p. 118).
Jacob and Esau are a classic example of our need for people, our need for family, and inherently, our need for close personal connections in life.
Whether through the ancient words of Torah or the modern updates on Facebook, as we approach the book of Genesis this month, let us reach out to our family and friends and see the beauty that is our relationships.
Rabbi Shari Shamah is Jewish family specialist at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center.
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