I want to share a special moment that I had while recently enjoying some time visiting former students, one of my mentors, and some vacation time.
My wife and I were walking in Muir Woods which is just north of San Francisco and is a forest of Redwood trees. In my opinion, it is one of the most beautiful places we have ever visited. There is a section there which is called the “Cathedral” which is a sanctuary of Redwood trees. There was a special meeting there to honor Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s memory and there was a gathering of those who were involved at the beginning of the United Nations. It is a very peaceful place where one is touched by the sounds of silence and opportunities for meditation.
During other visits to this special place, I have been comforted by the peace of the sanctuary of trees, but on this occasion, I was agitated and frankly didn’t feel like myself. As we hiked further and further into the woods, soon I began to feel better and subsequently realized that I was having a Jacob and the Angel moment. Many of us remember when Jacob wrestled with the angel in the book of Genesis and our traditional commentaries think that he may have wrestled with G-d, another man, the angel Gabriel, or his conscience. He emerges from the wrestling match wounded and limps away (this is why if we keep kosher, we don’t eat Filet Mignon because it is from the section of the cow that is the same section of Jacob that was wounded). We know that Jacob’s name changes to Israel which means to wrestle with G-d.
All of us wrestle with different issues in our lives and certainly I am no different. What I realized as we continued our hike is that perhaps that is what a sanctuary is supposed to help us do. Rather than feel relaxed and comfortable all the time in the sanctuary, maybe we are challenged to wrestle with ourselves and emerge as changed human beings. And maybe that is what college is supposed to be like….A place to wrestle with who we are and who we wish to be….
I hope that as we begin a new semester, each of us will wrestle with our dreams and visions of what we can accomplish. Each semester represents new hope and opportunity and although there may be some wounds along the way, we can change who we are and become the type of people we wish to become.
Enjoy a wonderful semester.
Rabbi Bruce Aft
GMU Hillel Rabbinic Advisor