Jewish Life #30. Beresjiet serie 14. Transform physicality into a House of God.

In parashah Vayeitzei we read: ‘And this stone which I have set as a monument will be a house of God (Elohim)’ (28:22).[1] 

According to Rashi this is Jacob’s actual vow. Everything to this point, ‘God will be with me… keep me… bread to eat… a garment to wear… return in peace… and God will be a God to me’ (28:20-21), are the conditions Jacob requires in order to fulfill the vow. According to Nachmanides, the Ramban, the words ‘God will be a God to me’ are not a condition, rather this is too part of the actual vow. As if Jacob said: ‘If all the above is fulfilled and I return in peace to my father’s home, then I will serve God in this special land he has chosen at the site of this stone, which I will make my ‘house of God.’[2] According to the Ramban, a true relation with God can only be attained in the Holy Land. 
 
According to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, these two interpretations of Jacob’s vow represents two perspectives on the question: What is the purpose of life? The first perspective: the purpose of life is the elevation of the soul. The second: the purpose of life is the development and sanctification of the physical world. 
One perspective is that the soul’s journey down into the world is a ‘descent for the purpose of ascent.’ The soul descends from a state of spiritual perfection to an existence in a material world. By serving God under these conditions, the soul deepest potentials are roused. It encounters opportunities to broaden and deepen its relationship with God in a way it never could as a wholly perfect spiritual being. 
The second perspective is that the soul comes down to the psychical world not for its own enrichment, but because God desires a home in this material world. The soul’s mission is, in the words of Jacob, to transform ‘this stone (the psychical) into a house of God.’ Rashi follows the second perspective. The purpose of life is to transform the psychical into a house of God. Everything the soul does is a means to an end, the ‘conditions’ that enable the vow’s fulfillment. Nachmanides follows the first perspective, which sees the soul’s elevation as the purpose of life. 
 
Ultimately, the Rebbe says, both perspectives are simultaneously true. It is only in making a home for God in the psychical, material world that the soul achieves its ultimate elevation, and it is only through its elevation that the soul can build this divine home. A human soul is not some otherworldly force that swooped down into the material world to make it Godly, but only a transformation from within, by the ‘lowly realms’ themselves, a human is able to make a home for God. The soul therefore descends into the world, to be joined to a body and a psychical self. It is no longer a soul. It is a human being. 
The Rebbe: ‘It is only through the soul’s descent for the purpose of ascent, that God’s dwelling in the lowly realms is truly achieved.’
 
A soul needs a transformation into a vessel receptive to and expressive of the divine essence. If this transformation succeeds, a human being will be able to build a house for God.  
 
In addition to the above interpretations, I like to add an interesting theme in the vow of Jacob. Rashi stated: ‘Everything to this point, ‘God will be with me… keep me… bread to eat… a garment to wear… return in peace… and God will be a God to me’ (28:20-21), are the conditions Jacob requires in order to fulfill the vow.’ Will God only be Jacob’s God if God provides him basic needs? Dr. Erica Brown is right when she says: ‘We have of word for this: chutzpah!’[3] In Hebrew, chutzpah is used indignantly to describe someone who has overstepped the bounds of accepted behavior. In traditional usage, the word expresses a strong sense of disapproval, condemnation and outrage. Is Jacob overstepping the boundaries with this 'if-then' statement? Brown is referring to the sixteen-century Italian exegete Rabbi Ovadia Sforno and his commentary.[4]According to Sforno, Jacob asked God to provide him these basic needs to relieve him from prosaic pressures. Then, only then, could Jacob focus attention on the greater purpose God laid out for him. 

The presence of basic conditions, the well-known basic needs that we know from Maslow's pyramid[5], is a condition for achieving self-realization. Only when Jacob's basic needs are met can he return to his father's home in peace and his mission and the continuity of his grandfather's and father's legacy be guaranteed. An interesting interpretation, which makes me wonder whether Maslow used this parashah and the comments of thinkers such as Rashi and Sforno for his well-known theory.
 
[1] Inspiration and sources for this Blog can be found in Tauber, Y. (2024). The Book of Genesis. Open Book Press (p.329).
[2] A famous example of a so called ‘If.. then… - statement’, often used in Tanach and a key element in modern psychotherapy. 
[3] Brown, E. (2024). The Torah of Leadership. Maggid (p.28).
[4] Ibid.
[5] Maslow's hierarchy of needs is an idea in psychology proposed by American psychologist Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" in the journal Psychological Review.


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