Tuesday, January 3, 2012

PARSHAT VAYECHI - Yaakov blesses....we have potential...

If life were a chessboard, would you be a pawn who can travel only in one direction? Or would you be a queen, who can strike out in the direction of her choice?

Angels are unidirectional. Their characters are molded by G-d into single, predetermined profiles. Some angels serve G-d in love. Others serve G-d with joy. etc. Angels are described as stationary. It is incapable of doing things that are different from their nature.

But we are different. We are referred to as G-d's bride. If G-d is the king, then we are his queen. On the chessboard this means that the Jewish soul IS capable of multi-directional travel. We each have our own characteristics and prefer our own path of worship. Some of us are joyful, others loving. Some like to study, and so on. Our paths are unique to ourselves, but unlike angels, we CAN veer from our characters.

Just before his passing, Yaakov blesses his sons. Each son receives a blessing consistent with his character of spiritual worship.
After Yaakov blessed each son individually, he repeated all the blessings to each of his sons because he wanted his children to enjoy all forms of spiritual worship, not only those with their individual characters. He wanted them to engage in all mitzvot even those inconsistent with their personalities.

Jacob's blessing, which enabled his sons to transcend their limitations and enjoy all manner of spiritual worship, endows us, too, with that wonderful ability. Which means that no mitzvah is beyond our potential.

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