(25) Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. (26) When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he wrenched Jacob’s hip at its socket, so that the socket of his hip was strained as he wrestled with him. (27) Then he said, “Let me go, for dawn is breaking.” But he answered, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” (28) Said the other, “What is your name?” He replied, “Jacob.” (29) Said he, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with beings divine and human, and have prevailed.”
In this story of struggle, we gain our name, Israel.
- How might we understand resilience in the context of this story?
- Why do you think Jacob asks to be blessed by the angel wrestling with him? What might it mean to bless one's struggle(s)?
(3) ....The evil inclination causes us to sin through despair. It forces us to see our shortcomings and inadequacies and makes us lose hope of fulfilling God’s service. We thereby fall into the net of sinfulness. We need to strengthen ourselves by acknowledging that we are precious to God and that each of contains a piece of the divine. Then, “His heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord. This is how we become distinctive – by recognizing our special connection to God."
- What, in your experience, is the connection between despair and sin/wrongdoing?
- What is so dangerous about despair?
- Why might the text stress that "we are precious to God and that we each have a piece of the divine"?
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
"We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed. For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one’s predicament into a human achievement. When we are no longer able to change a situation—just think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer—we are challenged to change ourselves."
This texts speaks to the reality that sometimes we are hopeless to change the actual circumstances of our fate, but we "transform our personal tragedy into triumph."
- Does this resonate? How does this relate to cultivating hope?
- If we aren't changing our circumstances, what are we hoping for?
Future Tense – How The Jews Invented Hope by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
"Judaism is a religion of details, but we miss the point if we do not sometimes step back and see the larger picture. To be a Jew is to be an agent of hope in a world serially threatened by despair. Every ritual, every mitzvah, every syllable of the Jewish story, every element of Jewish law, is a protest against escapism, resignation or the blind acceptance of fate. Judaism is a sustained struggle, the greatest ever known, against the world that is, in the name of the world that could be, should be, but is not yet. There is no more challenging vocation. Throughout history, when human beings have sought hope they have found it in the Jewish story. Judaism is the religion, and Israel the home, of hope."
- What do you think of Rabbi Sack's assertion that "to be a Jew is to be an agent of hope in a world serially threatened by despair?"
- Where does this feel "alive" to you in your practice of Judaism, and where does tension arise for you?
HaTikvah, Israel's National Anthem
As long as within our hearts
The Jewish soul sings,
As long as forward to the East
To Zion, looks the eye –
Our hope is not yet lost,
It is two thousand years old,
To be a free people in our land
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.