In this week''s reading we witness the famous death-bed scene of Jacob, calling forth his sons to relay to them what will happen “b''aharit hayamim” in the final days. This is the first time in the Torah that we see any reference to the type of messianic visions that will eventually become such a major theme in the prophets and later Jewish thought. Jacob, though – unlike the prophets, never does give over the details of a messianic vision. His sons gather expectantly to hear the prophecy, and yet, it doesn''t come. After his teasing preamble, he turns instead to the topic of blessings for each son. We are left on the edge of our eschatalogical seats. Just as in our present reality, the future remains a dark continent of invisible inevitability. And yet what is visible in the text that might be revelatory to us? One thing which stands out in Jacob''s words is the stress he puts on his sons coming together. “He''asfu”, he says, “Gather together and I will tell you what will be”. And again in the next verse, he bids them, “hee''kavtzu v''yishmau”. Make of yourselves a group – a kevutzah - and hear your father! For Jacob, it seems that there is something intimately linked about the gathering and the telling, the grouping and the hearing. Indeed, messianic visions by their very nature gather us together, binding our hither-to splintered individual selves into one common narrative, one massive shared drama. Messianism at its best is about unifications, in-gatherings, national and eventually international oneness. What''s more, I would add that it is in our people''s very gathering together that the prophecies of the end of time are themselves brought closer to their fulfillment. It is as if we have an inbuilt propensity for gathering, for grouping...some genetically predisposed sense of nationhood, tribe and shared destiny. The messianic promise I hear in Jacob''s words is that when we as individuals make the move from separateness to togetherness, when we each access the depth and beauty of that sense of being gathered together, bonded in family and fraternity, then the prophetic vision is one person closer to being fulfilled. I am daily moved by the members of my community who have gathered here in Jerusalem; individuals who are called with an imperative to the fulfillment of our national destiny. Individuals who have chosen to leave behind the comforts and allure of the West, compelled to disentangle from the familiarities of exile, to forge a shared destiny in this complex land. We who chose to dwell here, to gather here, are – in essence - living on a prophecy. None of us know the details of the end of days, and yet we are drawn together with a sense of its immanence. The poem below is about that promising immanence of redemption. It is about the cultivation of a sense of shared destiny. Let us gather together, let us celebrate our familial bond, our commonalities. May we gaze in amazement at the ongoing ingathering of the exiles that is occuring before our very eyes and within our very limbs. 'Destiny we have danced' Destiny we have danced and with the wind of our will we have wiped away the tears that our destiny did spill and with our hands upon the wheel that holds our wheels upon the road we have driven our desire to our destiny''s abode and though the road stretches far from creation''s first flung light to the far dark destination of the future in the night we will stop – and take a walk beneath the sea of stars catching constellations in our net of dreams thrown far for destiny is glimpsed in and guided by our dreams while in waking hours our prayers mix with the reality it brings so let me recall a vision to you of a prayer thrown to an open sky how our people have watched up after it with long-enduring yearning eyes and suddenly it has come back down and hit the ground before our feet for fate has come to fulfill the wish that our shared dreams had dared to seek and we are thankful now not only for the grant of G-d''s permission but for the gift of witnessing the long path of prayers procession and thus I come to you offering this view of an in-gathering in an instant of a people living on a prophecy of community & commitment and we gather here to witness the long path of G-d''s own dreams We fulfill G-d's prayers with the reality we bring So let us wander Yerushalayim together and raise our thankful eyes like dreamers our mouths are full of laughter for the sight which fills the sky above our heads there blows a vision we had but beheld in dreams framed by flickering constellations a singular blue star beams It is a prayer shawl upon the wind for the spirit also prays It is a sign that day begins after weve dreamt the night away it is our flag ~ as fixed as fate and raised on high it dances with the willful wind with prayers and dreams and you and I
(photo credit: The Jerusalem Post)