Toldot
What is the language of blessing?
Reflection by Rabbi Genevieve Greinetz:
"Parshat Toldot is filled with deception and dishonesty. Jacob swindles Esau out of his birthright. Isaac lies to the Philistines, claiming that his wife Rebecca is his sister. Rebecca overhears Isaac promising a blessing to Esau and tells her favored son Jacob to steal the blessing by dressing as Esau, which he does.
While the parsha is rich with deception, it is also filled with the language of blessing. Years ago, in a class at Pardes, Rav Mike Feuer defined blessing as, `naming what is.` With this definition in mind, parshat Toldot reflects mindfulness practice. Similar to the parsha, much of our days are spent in the language of deception – our minds thinking thoughts that have nothing to do with reality, with what is true. We may not be actively lying like the characters in parshat Toldot, but there is a sense of dishonesty in the constant engagement with past and future that takes place in our minds.
When Isaac blesses Jacob and Esau, there is clarity and honesty to his words. He is unable to be deceitful; he blesses Jacob with abundance and leadership, and then when he turns to bless Esau, he can only speak the truth, so ends up `blessing` Esau to be subservient to his brother. As Rav Mike taught, the language of blessing is the language of naming what is, which is exactly what our mindfulness practice is.
While we have a whole mindfulness practice dedicated to blessings, mindfulness itself is a practice of blessing when we think about blessing as a phenomenon of naming what is. Our minds run wild between the past and the future, and when we practice mindfulness, we operate in the language of blessing; we practice being with what is.
May we have the strength to be compassionate as our minds operate in the past and future, and the discipline to take mindful moments throughout the day – moments of blessing in the craze of deception; time to be with things as they are."