A Thought on פרשת יוצא

"...v'shavti b'shalom el bais avi v'haya HaShem li le'Elokim..." (28:21) "...and if I return in peace to my father's home then HaShem will be my Lord..." Ya'akov, fleeing his brother and headed to an unfamiliar land, makes a vow. He pledges that if HaShem protects him on the journey and allows him to return safely home, then HaShem will indeed be his Lord. At first glance, this vow seems oddly worded. Yaakov is making a promise to HaShem and is in the Presence of HaShem. He is talking to G-d! Yet, as he wraps up his promise, he seems to make a condition. If HaShem protects and safeguards him, then HaShem will be his Lord. Isn't it clear that he has already acknowledged that HaShem is his Lord? Besides, who would make such a conditional vow? We usually pledge to give charity or to do some virtuous act if we are able to achieve or accomplish something. I do not know of anyone who has said to HaShem that he will accept HaShem if HaShem does something for him. I take that back. One of my chavrusas in high school later became involved in the 60s drug culture. Years later, he made a surprise appearance at my chasuna in Phoenix, Arizona and told me that he had been using LSD while at the Grand Canyon and had an epiphany, during which he said, "HaShem, I promise to believe in you if You will believe in me." He returned to Torah observance at that moment. But otherwise, who makes such vows? Now Rashi offers that Yaakov's intention with those words was not to stipulate a condition but rather his recognition that "protecting and safeguarding" him included the fulfillment of HaShem's earlier promise to Avraham that his descendants (such as Yaakov) would be a holy people. Being protected by HaShem meant that Yaakov would see fulfilled through his children that promise of having a family who would be known as HaShem's pious nation. That would demonstrate that HaShem was his Lord, the G-d of the patriarchs. Rabbeinu Avigdor, on the other hand, offers a very different interpretation. Yaakov meant that once HaShem would return him to the home of his father Yitzchak, he would be able once again to fulfill his own sacred obligations to HaShem. When a person is on the run, or in transit or traveling, there are many religious practices which can become a challenge or an impossibility. No sukka on the train, no minyan on the boat, no beggars to give charity to and so on...... Yaakov was declaring his advance awareness that being on the road and far away from his brethren would obviate his fulfiing various mitzvos. So, he vowed that upon returning home, he would once again be able to demonstrate that HaShem was his Lord through a fuller service of Him. On the basis of this p'shat, Rabbeinu Avigdor derives the p'sak that wayfarers are absolved from fasting on standard Fast Days. In order to serve HaShem as Elokim, it is understood that one must be, as Yaakov said, peacefully back in the Jewish home. Good Shabbos. D Fox