This week’s Torah reading speaks of Yaakov's final years of life, the seventeen years he spends reunited with his family and the blessings he gives them for the future.
Throughout his life, Yaakov is continually being taken by surprise; him taking the blessings from Esav, then needing to run away, being tricked into marrying the sister of the woman he loves and then the disappearance of his beloved son, Yosef. But at the end of his life he is peacefully reunited with his family, and in these final years, he is able to recognize the patterns of his journey through life. He sees the intent of each step along the way, realizing the bigger picture. It becomes clear to him that all the details of his life were bringing him to this place he was now at.
In life we have the ‘big picture’ vision and ‘small picture’ vision. Very often we find ourselves stuck in the ‘small picture’ reality. We get bogged down by the small picture vision of life that we forget the big picture. We see the trees and not the forest, as it were. Our lives have a route, yet, we often lose ourselves in the minutiae, “this and this person did this to me, i can’t believe this is happening to me now, etc . . ." It is because of this that we forget the bigger picture, and we veer off course.
This week’s Torah reading gives us the ability to step back from the details and recognize the little fragments as integral parts of a whole. And This way, we recognize the minutiae for what it is and we dont get stuck in the smallness of events and/or emotions.
This week, let's keep sight of our greater goals and purpose, and not get bogged down by the details.
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