Vayetze - 2023

Chevre, this week’s parsha is Vayetze (וַיֵּצֵּא). I have to admit, I’ve been severly distracted this week. I’m in the US and watching the news today in Israel regarding the hostages. A few days ago, I went over to Canada across the Rainbow Bridge and then saw the car explosion there. I thought I had left the fear of war and explosions behind for a couple weeks as I tour around the US visiting family and heading to re:Invent.

The parsha starts with the story of Jacob’s ladder. He saw (in a dream?) angels going up and down on the ladder. This would seem to be the perfect cloud connection. I guess the angels in this case would be IP packets going in and out of the cloud to/from the Internet.

Jacob goes and finds Rachel, works for her for 7 years, but then is tricked into marrying Leah. He then marrys Rachel and works another 7 years. Then he works again for flocks. But in a passing comment it’s mentioned that Lavan changes the working conditions constantly, but each time, Yaakov (Jacob) succeeds and growing more wealthy. Today this back and forth, negotiations and possible double crossing is reminicscent of the negotations with Hamas.

We also have the theft of Lavan’s idols by Rachel and her hiding them. Yaakov said who ever found them will be punished and she later died on the way. Are these related? Has anyone here ever set a S3 lifecycle policy, had it delete something by accident and oops, it’s gone? You can’t compare data to a human life, but we learn here to be careful what we say and promise.

And we also have the story of the conflict between the sisters and who produces more offspring. Leah is hopeful that producing more offspring will finally make Yaakov love her. Rachel can’t produce offspring for a long time and is sad at this. Yaakov in this case appears to be completely passive, no bias for action.

Finally, Yaakov makes amends with Lavan. It appears it’s the start of his maturing process and learning how the world (cloud?) works.

I know this is a bit longer than normal and a bit more rambling, unfortunately, it’s how I feel today and at this time. I bless you all for serenity and clarity and please bless me back. Am Yisrael needs it. Shabbat Shalom.