I ran into a rabbinic colleague of mine that I had not seen for a few years. It was great to catch up with him and hear about his life and the great works he is doing. We reminisced about the glory days and shared pictures of our families and cute stories about our kids, to bring some context to the faces in the photos. In seeing the face and hearing the stories, I saw and heard resemblances of the father within the child.

In life, sometimes we run away to avoid themes of our past. I know of numerous cases of second and third generation family members that choose to leave town and even turn down inheriting their mantle in the family business because they want a different fortune. Others in the same family accept that fate without fanfare and some embrace it with full spirit. Regardless of how we acknowledge our destiny, there are some themes and commonalities to our individual history that are inevitable.

In Parshat Vayetzei, we see some of the themes that Jacob is trying to run from, pop back into his life. His mother and father met at a well and he is attracted to his favored wife, Rachel at a well. The wife he is tricked into marrying, Leah, we are told, has weak eyes. Remember, Jacob tricks his father Isaac, who is blind and cannot decipher between his two kids, Jacob and Esau, into receiving the birthright. Both Jacob's mother and grandmother were barren and then blessed with children. So too, Rachel is barren and begs to God for a child and is blessed with Joseph and Benjamin.

I think Jacob is riddled with guilt and worry after he tricks his father and dupes his brother out of the birthright. That is why he runs away and why he wrestles with an angel in his dream and why he wanders and worries when he faces Esau instead of running to apologize. But, what catches my attention, is that even in Jacob's journey and in the realization of his destiny, he still cannot avoid many of the themes and coincidences that link his life and fortune to that of his ancestors and his progeny.

Parashat Vayetzei can teach us that no matter how far we run or how much we wrestle with our angels, in many ways we are predisposed to have things happen in our life that can feel like a time machine that moves backwards and forwards. In the pictures of our children and our parents, the way they look and the manner they behave. In some ways, our pictures and our past is the very blueprint, whether we avoid it or not, of the life we will lead and live.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabi David-Seth Kirshner