Remove the Rock
When G-d gives us a mission He also gives us the energy and wherewithal to fulfill it.
Jacob’s Rebuke
Jacob sees a group of shepherds sitting idly next to the well that was covered with a huge rock and asks them why they are not working. Their response was that they could not remove the huge rock that covered the well until all the shepherds arrived to assist them with its removal.
Jacob did not initially ask them why they were not working. He first inquires of them where they were from and whether they knew his uncle Laban. After they responded that they were from Charan and that they did know him and that Rachel his daughter had come there, Jacob asked them why they were not working.
Why did Jacob wait to rebuke them for not doing their work after they responded to his inquiries about where they were from and whether they knew Laban? And then only after he saw Rachel did he take them to task for sitting around idly. Why?
Another question has been raised concerning Jacob’s criticism of these shepherds from Charan. Why couldn’t Jacob see that there was a huge rock covering the well and that it was impossible for them to remove it without the assistance of more people who were not yet present?
Furthermore, in the end, Jacob removes the rock effortlessly. If he was so strong, why did he not initially offer to remove it for them? Only after he saw Rachel did he demonstrate his physical prowess. Rather than criticize others, shouldn’t he have offered his assistance to them?
Make the Effort to Do the Impossible
The Chassidic Master known as the Sfas Emes addresses the question as to why he did not realize that it was impossible for them to remove the rock, because Jacob was of the mind that even when a task at hand seems impossible one must always make an effort to do it.
However, Sfas Emes questioned his own answer. How did Jacob know that they hadn’t made an attempt before he arrived? Why did he rush to judgment about them?
Sfas Emes answered that even when we try unsuccessfully to accomplish our mission, we must continue to try. Giving up is not an option.
One is, however, entitled to challenge this explanation. Granted, one must always make repeated efforts to accomplish something even if one failed initially. However, there are limits to a person’s capabilities. One cannot be expected to do something that is physically impossible. For example, if one is told to fly all the effort in the world would not make it possible. Since these shepherds were physically incapable of doing it why would he fault them for not making repeated attempts, or why would he not give them the benefit of the doubt that they could not do it?
Civilizing the World
Jacob’s question to them as to why they were not working was presumably not just prompted by curiosity or to make small talk but because he was genuinely put off by their idleness.
The Midrash tells us that Abraham chose to settle in the Land of Cana’an because he found that the people were not idle; they were productive citizens. And that is where, he understood, G-d wanted him to settle. Humanity, after the Great Flood, was charged with the obligation to work and be productive to contribute to the world’s stability. This objective of civilizing the world was crucial as the backdrop to the ultimate role and mission of the Jewish people to make the world into a dwelling place for G-d. One cannot introduce holiness in a place that is uncivilized. It is like building a foundation before the structure. Populating the world and making it a inhabitable world is a prerequisite to the Jewish people making the harmonious world into a holy and G-dly world.
Jacob’s purpose of coming to Charan was to establish a Jewish family that would be the progenitors of the Jewish nation to whom G-d’s Master Plan for the world would be given. Charan—with all of its deficiencies—was to be the stage upon which the unfolding drama of history was to take place. Thus, Jacob saw all of the events that would occur at this place, in particular, as integral to the unfolding of the Master Plan and for which a suitable foundation was a necessity.
He therefore expected that the people who were associated with Charan—especially if they knew Laban, the person in whose home he would establish the first Jewish family— would have at least a modicum of civilization. He expected them to be productive citizens who had respect for the work ethic that makes the world a habitable place. Jacob could not fathom how he could build a transcendent and G-dly world on the shaky foundation of idleness.
We can now understand why he waited to hear that they were from Charan, that they knew Laban and that Rachel had arrived to rebuke them for their idleness. It was at that point that he realized that this was the “place” upon which he was going to build a Jewish home and raise a Jewish family that would be the forerunner of a Jewish people who would pave the way for Moshiach. At this point he demanded to know why they were not fulfilling their mission to tame the world and make it suitable for the fulfillment of his mission.
If it’s Your Mission You can Do it
We can now also understand why he demanded of them to do what might have otherwise been impossible for them. In Jacob’s mind their mission was to be shepherds and tend to their flocks. That was their G-d given mission. When G-d gives us a mission He also gives us the energy and wherewithal to fulfill it. Jacob thus protested, “Make an effort to lift the rock! And if it didn’t work the first time, keep on trying.”
And, indeed, when Jacob saw Rachel—who was the one through whom he would establish a family and fulfill his mission—he immediately proceeded to lift the rock singlehandedly. Perhaps it was a miracle. Perhaps Jacob possessed super-human capabilities. But, the most likely explanation for his ability to lift the rock is that he sensed it was his G-d given mission to get closer to the time that he would marry Rachel. He thus reasoned that if lifting the rock would facilitate this goal, G-d would certainly give him the ability to do it. This elicited hidden potential from the reservoir of his soul.
Had he not connected the dots and seen these events as pivotal in the fulfillment of his mission he might not have been able to perform this feat. Using conventional powers one cannot do the extraordinary. But when we know how crucial our actions are in terms of their ability to fulfill our G-d given mission we discover hidden and heretofore untapped powers.
We can Lift the Rock!
We’ve been told that our generation is the final generation of the exile and will be the first generation of the Redemption. Our mission is to “welcome Moshiach” and prepare ourselves and all those around us for the final Redemption. Our mission is to literally transform the world. We are charged with the mission of singlehandedly removing the rock that blocks our ability to draw upon the refreshing waters of knowledge that characterize the Messianic Age.
However, when we realize that this is our special mission, we come to the conclusion that G-d has certainly given us the power to remove that rock. We then unleash unprecedented powers from within that we never knew we possessed. With those newly discovered powers we remove the very last impediment to the true and complete Redemption.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Vayeitzei by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
