The Shabbat service on December 5th is an experiment led by therapist-professor Justin Levitov and music-professor Vance Reese which will be at Sacred Heart (and on Zoom). They have enjoyed a dialogue about how this particular Parsha might be explored and folded into the Shabbat ritual itself. The focus is on the D'var and the Parsha, but the D'var/Parsha is the service. The word "liturgy" in pre-Christian ancient Greece simply meant, "the work of the people." You will find the necessary parts of the ritual that comprise Kabbalat Shabbat, and you will find yourself (we hope) working with the material with us. Jerry Mandel did a wonderful D'var based on this same text, and we will revisit it in the context of the evening.

The readings we will explore are the two episodes involving Jacob returning to his home after 22 years. In the first episode, Jacob prepares to meet Esau, who he fears will be hostile. During this time, he wrestles with a man (often interpreted as an angel) and is ultimately renamed Israel (Yisrael) — "one who struggles with God and human beings and prevails."

In the second episode, we explore Jacob's reconciliation with Esau. After a moment of apprehension, they embrace peacefully, and Esau forgives Jacob.

We invite you to take a deeper look at Gustave Doré's representation of "Jacob Wrestling with the Angel."

How do you relate to this wrestling match in the context of your life?

Given that Jacob and Esau wrestled in Rebekah's womb, what were you born to wrestle with?

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For the second episode, here is a link to "The Reconciliation of Jacob and Esau" by the Flemish master, Peter Paul Rubens.