"Beginnings are Definitive Moments.”
Beginnings set the tone for what follows.
When we encounter God today, we do so standing on the shoulders of giants, continuing the journey of our great ancestors who laid down the foundation
for us to draw on.
Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov; Sarah, Rivka, Rachel and Leah were our ancestors.
They are the formative founders of our people.
They paved the way forward by connecting to certain key values
that are central to how we serve God and
to the kinds of people that we have the potential to become.
We are their spiritual children receiving and inheriting their values.
"Blessed are you Hashem our God and God of our Fathers, God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob…"
We enter into a relationship with God not on our own merits,
but on the merits of our forebears.
We acknowledge the spiritual foundations that they built for us.
The lives they lived and the ideals they upheld brought the Jewish people into being, and the values they embodied are those we still live by today.
Avraham and Sarah were the first to reach out and connect with One God.
In a world filled with paganism and idolatry,
they re-established the idea of monotheism.
They reached out to the people around them, spreading these ideas, and
handing them on to their children and grandchildren.
God established His covenant with them and
and made pledges to them about the future blessings
which awaited their descendants.
Avraham and Sarah were the icons of acts of kindness.
They embodied compassion, giving, and love for all people.
Isaac and Rebecca were the icons of service to God.
Isaac willingly submitted himself as a sacrifice to God, and
embodied devout service and prayer.
Isaac privately embodied personal discipline, self-control,
personal integrity and self-sacrifice.
He embodied a deep, unwavering commitment to God.
And Jacob was the icon of Torah learning.
This week's parsha, Toldos, describes Jacob as a pure man who dwelt in "tents", which our sages understand to mean the tents of Torah learning.
Jacob was someone devoted to the pursuit of Truth,
who disseminated Torah to the world.
All three attributes are essential and
impact the world in varying degrees.
All three are vital components of true greatness.
Kindness and empathy.
self-discipline and personal integrity.
wisdom and insight.
May we be aware of these 3 pillars of the world.
May we benefit from the spiritual foundations that our ancestors laid down for us.
May we attach ourselves to these values and
character traits in our own unique and personal way.
Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom, Chodesh Tov,
Elissa Felder
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