{"id":283,"date":"2013-11-21T02:40:54","date_gmt":"2013-11-21T02:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marcmangel.net\/?page_id=283"},"modified":"2013-11-21T02:40:54","modified_gmt":"2013-11-21T02:40:54","slug":"vayeitzei-5769-2008","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/?page_id=283","title":{"rendered":"VaYeitzei 5769 (2008)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A Drash for Va-Yetze 5769<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong>\u00a0Today I want to focus on one word in Ch 29, v 26: B\u2019Mkomo.<\/p>\n<p>Laban has clearly cheated Jacob \u2013 he knows that and Jacob knows that \u2013 but says \u201cWell, we don\u2019t do that around here\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Rashi is silent on this verse, but the Ramban asked \u201cwhy is it in the plural?\u201d\u00a0And he answers (updated for our day):\u00a0 A characteristic of a non-Godly person is the flight from personal responsibility by placing the deal, whatever it may be, on somebody else\u2019s shoulders.<\/p>\n<p>That person says \u2013 \u201cAm I to blame?\u00a0 No way. I am just a member of this community and so\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ramban, and many other sages conclude:\u00a0 <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">You are responsible for your own deeds<i>. <\/i><\/span>Not the organization, not the community, and not somebody backing you. You, and you alone.<\/p>\n<p>This thought is as valid today as it was 3000 years ago and let us all learn from it.<\/p>\n<p>About this teaching, Nehama Leibowitz writes:\u00a0 \u201cRamban shows us how a small grammatical point can have important moral implications [there are actually many, many Halachot derived from this pasuk].\u00a0 The grammatical questions and the idea are all part and parcel of the teaching of Judaism called Torah, and require study\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>About this reading, we may say:\u00a0 \u201cEvery day in our prayers we enunciate the one-ness and uniqueness of God.\u00a0 Because of that, it is our job to find a connection to the Godly in every event and every teaching \u2013because all flows from God\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Drash for Va-Yetze 5769 \u00a0Today I want to focus on one word in Ch 29, v 26: B\u2019Mkomo. Laban has clearly cheated Jacob \u2013 he knows that and Jacob knows that \u2013 but says \u201cWell, we don\u2019t do that around here\u201d. Rashi is silent on this verse, but the Ramban asked \u201cwhy is it &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/?page_id=283\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":53,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"full-width-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-283","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/283\/revisions\/284"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}