December 3, 2011 | 7 Kislev 5772

I don’t usually sleep very well. Sometimes I have a lot of things on my mind. Sometimes it gets stuffy in our bedroom. And sometimes, I just think it’s our pillows.  

Following the High Holidays this year, Susan and I took several days off and went to an area we have come to really enjoy in Panama City Beach, Florida. After our first night there both of us had the same impression. The pillows were great!  We had to get them for our bed back home!

We scoured the internet and couldn’t find the brand. We contacted housekeeping, and they gave us a copy of their bedding catalog. So we got the pillows, and I’m sleeping much better now… Well…not exactly.

According to the catalog, one has to buy a minimum of ten pillows! So Susan decided she would check the local stores for the pillows and buy the right quantity…which, of course, she hasn’t done since we returned well over a month ago. And the catalog excerpt that contains the pillow information…continues to sit on the floor of my study at home.

Someday I hope we will get around to buying those pillows. But even if we never do so, of this I am certain—our present pillows, which seem to be less than ideal, are much more comfortable than the pillow our patriarch Jacob placed under his head as he was departing the Land of Israel.

“Vayikach may’avnei Hamakom vaya’sem mira’ashotav” (Gen. 28:11). Jacob took some rocks from the area and placed them under his head. Ouch!  Not very comfortable at all! But that rock pillow didn’t impede the sleep of an exhausted Jacob because in the snap of a finger he was out cold and dreaming a vivid dream. You know the dream – the ladder stretching from the earth to the heavens, the angels going up and down on it and a vision of God plain as day to Jacob.

After God introduces God’s self to Jacob, the Holy One says, “Ha’aretz asher atah shochev alehah lecha etnena u’lezarecha” (Gen. 28:13). “I give the land upon which you are lying to you and your offspring.”

The medieval commentator Rashi saw this expression as more than just a reference to the immediate area where Jacob lay. Rashi cites a talmudic midrash – God rolled up the entire Land of Israel and placed it as a pillow under Jacob’s head!

It was all there, the entire Land of Israel, as a pillow under Jacob’s head! Boy that was some pillow! Of course, the midrash’s image of the entire Land of Israel as a pillow under Jacob’s head is a poetic one. But what a rich image! A pillow provides comfort and support as we sleep and replenish our bodies each night.

I believe that image of a pillow under one’s head is an appropriate one as we consider the place that the State of Israel can and should occupy in our lives as today. An ongoing positive relationship with Israel ought to be a supportive foundation of healthy Jewish life. That relationship ought to nurture our souls.

Is it like that every day? – No. Is the relationship always expressed in positive ways?  -- No. And that is a problem for many people in the Jewish community today. They expect Israel to act in accordance with their views.

They look at Israel in-the-moment and often find fault with Israel’s leaders – for example, the lack of progress toward peace or problems that center on the ultra-Orthodox community. As a result, they begin to dismiss the importance of Israel to their lives.

For other Jews, Israel’s physical distance is just a symbol of the distance they feel from it at all times – mental, emotional and spiritual distance. They don’t even think about Israel enough to dismiss its significance to their lives.

A Jew with proper perspective does not understand Israel’s importance to him or her in light of Israel’s leaders or their actions of the moment. A Jew with proper perspective recognizes that just as a pillow supports a person’s head during sleep, so the State of Israel supports and nurtures Jewish well-being and the fullness of Jewish identity.

“Ki mitziyon tetze Torah” – Torah continues to go forth from Zion every day.

Torah goes forth from Zion when Israel is among the first on the scene to help repair lives amidst devastating hurricanes and earthquakes throughout the world. Torah comes forth from Israel’s hospitals where doors remain open to all…even to those in need from among Israel’s hostile neighbors. Torah goes forth in the form of Israeli inventions that serve humankind throughout the world. The unique pride we feel that flows from this “Torah” supports and nurtures our Jewish souls.

Let me suggest one other way that Israel supports us today. As late as the 1980s and early 90s Israel was still perceived by many Jews primarily as a safe haven for Jews seeking protection from persecution.

Over the past nearly two decades Israel’s role as a safe haven has diminished. As a result, many Jews have begun to dismiss any connection between Israel’s well-being and the well-being of Jews around the world. But, just for a moment, I want you to contemplate the unthinkable – the demise of the State of Israel.

It is simplistic, of course, to suggest that the realization of the unthinkable would throw American Jews into our pre1948 state of powerlessness and imperil Jews around the world. However it is simply naïve to think that such a horrific occurrence would not affect our well-being and how we see ourselves as a Jewish community. Yes, in a very real and crucial sense, the State of Israel is a foundation and supports our well-being as Jews, even as a pillow supports our physical well-being.

Any organization or body that helps Israel to fulfill its unique role vis-à-vis the world Jewish community, not to mention its own citizens, is worthy of your support, and I hope you will offer it…especially in this last month of the calendar year.

As our patriarch Jacob was about to begin life outside the Land of Israel, the Holy One placed it, the very Land of Israel, under his head for support.

When Jacob awoke from his dream, he proclaimed, “Surely God is in this place, and I did not know it.”

In that moment, Jacob recognized God’s presence. Today we who live outside the State of Israel must recognize that its place in our Jewish lives is still a supportive one.

May we also find God in that recognition and always help Israel to maintain the unique and significant role it plays within our lives.

Amen.