Parsha Vayishlach
December 6, 2025/16 Kislev 5786
Greetings friends:
In this week’s of Vayishlach, our mother Rachel dies in childbirth. She calls her son Ben Oni, son of my suffering in Rachel’s native Aramaic language. In Hebrew however, Jacob calls him Benjamin, son of my right hand. How is the same word a reference to both suffering and travails, yet also meaning strength and success? When I was thinking about what suffering and strength means to me, I thought about my grandparents who built their lives in America after the horrors of the holocaust. I thought of my mother-in-law who started over again after losing her family to the Biafran War and kwashiorkor (a disease of malnutrition). How did they manage to rebuild everything after losing so much?
Their strength comes not despite the hardships they experienced, but rather because of them. As we know, when we want people to develop strength, they need to work out and train, breaking down the muscle fibers so they can build them back stronger. We too have a responsibility to previous generations to build on what they have accomplished. We see this in Rachel’s death as Jacob builds a monument for her on the road, at her place of burial. The commentators discuss this though, why is it appropriate to build a monument for the dead when the Talmud states that the words of the righteous are their memorials?
The answer, particularly in the case of our mother, Rachel is that of course her righteousness was her memorial, as it refers to Ephraim as the whole of Israel in the book of Jeremiah, thus firmly establishing Rachel as the mother of us all. Yet her monument is described as a marker of her grave, not her. The marker is for the living, as Jacob knew prophetically that it would serve as a place of prayer for exiles in the future, that just when the Jewish people need strength, Rachel too weeps for her children (Jeremiah 31:14) and G-d grants us the strength to endure. The Torah notes that the memorial remains to this day. I have been to Kever Rachel (Rachel’s Tomb), as I am sure some of you have. There we are constantly reminded that we have yet to be redeemed but also that G-d continues to perform miracles for us as we channel the strength of Mother Rachel in our time of exile.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Josh
In this week’s of Vayishlach, our mother Rachel dies in childbirth. She calls her son Ben Oni, son of my suffering in Rachel’s native Aramaic language. In Hebrew however, Jacob calls him Benjamin, son of my right hand. How is the same word a reference to both suffering and travails, yet also meaning strength and success? When I was thinking about what suffering and strength means to me, I thought about my grandparents who built their lives in America after the horrors of the holocaust. I thought of my mother-in-law who started over again after losing her family to the Biafran War and kwashiorkor (a disease of malnutrition). How did they manage to rebuild everything after losing so much?
Their strength comes not despite the hardships they experienced, but rather because of them. As we know, when we want people to develop strength, they need to work out and train, breaking down the muscle fibers so they can build them back stronger. We too have a responsibility to previous generations to build on what they have accomplished. We see this in Rachel’s death as Jacob builds a monument for her on the road, at her place of burial. The commentators discuss this though, why is it appropriate to build a monument for the dead when the Talmud states that the words of the righteous are their memorials?
The answer, particularly in the case of our mother, Rachel is that of course her righteousness was her memorial, as it refers to Ephraim as the whole of Israel in the book of Jeremiah, thus firmly establishing Rachel as the mother of us all. Yet her monument is described as a marker of her grave, not her. The marker is for the living, as Jacob knew prophetically that it would serve as a place of prayer for exiles in the future, that just when the Jewish people need strength, Rachel too weeps for her children (Jeremiah 31:14) and G-d grants us the strength to endure. The Torah notes that the memorial remains to this day. I have been to Kever Rachel (Rachel’s Tomb), as I am sure some of you have. There we are constantly reminded that we have yet to be redeemed but also that G-d continues to perform miracles for us as we channel the strength of Mother Rachel in our time of exile.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Josh
