single mass of letters – The Sefat Emet about devotion and unity in Parshat VaYetze.
In all of Parashat Vayetze there is no parashah petuhah or setumah. And so it is in the Mesora that there is no such parasha in the Torah except for Parashat Vayetze. And it seems that our father Jacob’s mind was not distracted from the moment he left the Land of Israel until the moment he came back “and angels of God encountered him…”. And this is what it says, “וישבת עמו ימים אחדים” (“stay with him for a few days”), that all his days should be in unity and devotion to his roots. (It is also possible that this is the interpretation of the verse “[So Jacob served seven years for Rachel] and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her” because by this love he was attached to unity. And it is known that his love for Rachel is the secret of the Divine Presence.) And that was the essence of the vow and the request “If God remains with me…” that he should not detach from the devoutness by Lavan the Evil and his tricks. (שפת אמת לפרשת ויצא, שנת תר”נ)
The Sefat Emet observes the shape of the Parasha’s text in the Chumash and sees a long and dense sequence of letters, not stopping, parallel lines aligned to both sides, without a crack or slot, each sentence pursuing the next: departure, lodging, dream, well, love, cheating, work, children, infertility, children, more cheating, sheep, pursuit, alliance, and finally - angels and Mahanaim. On either side of the continuum the white spaces stand out, and it is all full of black letters.
It is impossible to understand this design as if it is just a simple sequence of events, since beyond the fact that “there is no such parasha in the Torah”, it seems that this dizzying sequence of events could have deserved at least a few episodes in a high-quality drama series. In addition, beyond the dramatic density, the events described are the founding elements of the Jewish people; and beyond the historical importance, there is also a sequence of images loaded with meanings that develop throughout the generations - from the dream of the ladder to the dream of the sheep, from the stone at the mouth of the well to the jealousy of women.
The Sefat Emet notices that all this sequence of letters takes place outside Israel, and that white spaces belong here to the moment before the departure and to the moment after the encounter with the angels of the Land of Israel. This framing delineates all of Jacob’s journeys and adventures according to the contrast of the Land of Israel/outside of Israel, and the sequence of letters in the Sefer Torah is shaped in accordance with this emphasis - the whole journey is confined as one separate from what precedes and follows it. But beyond the delimitation of this piece as one that takes place outside of Israel, the Sefat Emet deepens his gaze to what takes place behind the lines, looking for a positive characterization of this exterior segment: what happens to Jacob at the moment of departure, which paints all the subsequent upheavals in a uniform dense black colour?
The Sefat Emet looks at this single mass of letters, which swallows in these organized, parallel lines all the drama behind it and sees it as devoutness. A moment before his departure from the Holy Land Jacob fills his lungs with the fresh air of the Land of Israel and holds his breath until he feels the breath of the angels’ Holy Spirit. This passage is written continuously because outside the Land there is no air to breathe, so the entire journey must be read in one breath. Between inhaling and exhaling, Jacob marries twice, begets children, gets rich, quarrels with his father-in-law, sets the foundation for the eternal people (who is not afraid of a long journey, for he has long breath), and all this does not distract him from his devoutness even for a moment. It seems that all the events happening to Jacob remain outside him - since everything takes place outside the Land - and they do not penetrate him inward, to the place where he revives himself from the holy air of the Land of Israel, which is closed in his lungs. (But parenthetically, a different possibility breaks out - perhaps the source of devotion is love, and precisely that which was found in a foreign land - and not in the tight grip of the Land of the Forefathers? Perhaps it is not the white between the letters, but a very real woman of flesh and blood, particularly Rachel, whose love is the secret of the Divine Presence? Parentheses closed, back to the main point.) Even when he sees Rachel, kissing her and crying, even when he wakes up in the morning and here is Leah, even when he rages and shouts “Can I take the place of God, who has denied you fruit of the womb?”, Jacob does not lose his long breath containing this pinch of air to which he is devoted. One can see the possibility here of practical instructions for a Jewish existence in exile, however long it may be.
But it is also possible to read in the words of the Sefat Emet a different possibility. Jacob is not adhered to devotion by the space left in front of “Vayetze”, and the sequence of letters should not be read with bated breath. The passage is written without interruption because the letters themselves are the material from which the devotion is made; unity does not hide in the white behind them, but it is the one that tells the whole story, in moments of joy and crisis. Before leaving, Jacob prays and swears, and prayers and vows give speech itself a depth of devotion. In contrast to the speech of Torah study, which is always “talking about”, observing from the outside the devotion and delimiting it (hence Hassidim’s reluctance to focus on learning only), the speech of prayer and vow is an actual occurrence in itself, in its very words, and it applies itself to the speaker at all time. Unlike the other parashot, and Torah study in general, in which the Hassidim imposed pauses for concentration and contemplation, in this kind of speech everything is in letters and words themselves. Indeed, outside of Israel there is no air to breathe, no place to look through things and letters, to be revived from the blank spaces between them; but the solution is not to hold your breath, but rather to live the letters themselves, to turn the whole story into a vow and prayer. Jacob, who sets out on his way, throws himself into the stream of words without a hold or a pause, petuhah (open) or setumah (blocked); and in the words of the story he finds his devotion, even those that tell about “Lavan the evil and his tricks”. And on the other side of the writing, the Sefat Emet finds its sermon in the same dense screen of dark letters and forms on the parchment and derives from it his devotion
