Wrestling with G-d

The term wrestling with G-d comes from this week’s parasha, when Jacob struggles with an angel of G-d and prevails. Not only does he prevail, but the event shapes him. He is no longer known as Jacob, his name is transformed into Yisrael, one who wrestles with G-d.

Wrestling with G-d is part and parcel of our inherited Jewish identity. We are allowed to struggle with our understanding of G-d, without feeling that we must cease being Jews in order to do so. Having questions about G-d or G-d’s presence in our world is not seen from a Jewish perspective as being indicative of an individual who is breaking with Jewish tradition. Judaism recognizes that as individuals journey through life, they will indeed have questions about life’s meaning, their relationship to G-d, and G-d’s relationship to the world. Judaism tries to provide a structure for dealing with those questions and ways to search for the answers.

I am often struck by how much questioning is encouraged in Judaism. Each time we read the Torah, we are encouraged to ask questions, find new ways to interpret the text that are meaningful to us. We look at what our sages said, but recognize that they also struggled with the text. Various times of the year encourage questioning. When we sit down at a seder , we begin by asking a question, “Why is this night different than all other nights?” and by spending the rest of the evening engaging in discourse that welcomes questioning and draws upon the questions asked by others throughout history who have engaged in a ritual that has spanned the generations. Even the tanach, the Bible, has codified texts that show individuals who engage in G-d wrestling. We read the book of Kohelet, Ecclesiastes on Sukkot, that shows King Solomon’s attempt to find meaning in life, and many of us find the inclusion of the Book of Job in our sacred literature as meaningful because it deals with the age old question of why the righteous suffer.

Even though we are encouraged to wrestle with G-d, think back to your own religious school upbringing….were you encouraged to even have discussions about G-d or did you even have Rabbis or other teachers who talked about their own journey in relating to G-d talk? Did you ever look at prayers and try to understand what they were telling you about G-d and our relationship to G-d? When were you encouraged to look at your own belief system and to compare it to what other Jews have written or to the world view offered by Jewish texts?

If we are indeed the Children of Israel…then we must use our legacy of wrestling with G-d without feeling that we must abandon our faith in G-d if we have questions. Ultimately we must let our children know that just because they outgrow a concept that they once held about G-d when they were little, that does not mean that they have to divorce themselves from having a different understanding of G-d as they grow and mature. Wrestling with G-d will undoubtedly happen on an individual level, but the process can be encouraged by recognizing that our Jewish identity depends upon it!