Parashat Vayetze
„As long as there was one path for the many, there was a desirable service of a single stone pillar, to hint at one power and one path; but afterward God desired that through the multiplicity of paths and the diversity of opinions, each one would conduct himself in Torah and service according to his own way, and all would intend for the sake of Heaven.”From Midbar Shur, 9
Our parashah begins and ends with the building of pillars and heaps of stones. At its beginning Jacob sets out on his way as a solitary, lone individual, and within a few years he finds himself in the heart of a large family being built up around him, with wives and children and struggles and joys and a constant movement of life. Over the course of the parashah we see that Jacob chooses a change of direction from what had been until his time. No longer a single son who will lead the continuation, but a diverse family from which will grow twelve tribes. The altar built from many stones is the image our Sages use to describe the service of God of an entire people, in which each one stands in his own way and yet all of us are directed toward one center. Jacob does not resolve this complexity at once, and it will continue to accompany him later on, but in Parashat Vayetze the first seed is sown of a family that is not an individual but a collective, not one path but a multiplicity that seeks unity.
*
From the community archive of Mishpetei HaRav Kook — studying Rav Kook's teachings since 2011.