Connecting Jacob's Life to the Senate Seat Sell Off

So in my last video I talked about the scandal in the Illinois about the alleged effort by the current Governor to replace Senator Obama, who is now President-elect Obama, by selling the Senate seat. I talked about the Torah's prohibitions against bribery and to do justice, and the constraints we put around the king to have the Torah. But I want to take it from a different angle today. In Illinois, they have been calling this pay to play; the historical idea that you have to give bribes in order to participate in the process. That's why Governor Ryan is in jail, supposedly, and this is another example. I would like to change the phrase from pay to play, to pray to play; that the key here is about prayer. In order to use the Torah portion of the week, this week, the story of Vayetze and of Jacob's continuing journey and growth as a person. Last week, Jacob had a dream, as a young, immature adolescent running away from his father and brother, whom he had just cheated, and he basically makes a conditional prayer. Rabbi Harold Kushner in a wonderful essay on this, spoke about how the Torah portion today is set 20 years later, and Jacob is making the second prayer in the same place but 20 years later. He is now been through all the great deal. He is wiser, married, fathered children, made and lost and remade fortunes. He is apprehensive about the future. He is going to meet his brother Esau, who he parted from 20 years before, in a very dangerous way. His brother was very angry with him. His prayer now. He says, I am unworthy of all the unkindness that you have so steadfastly shown your servant. With my staff alone, I cross this shore and I have two camps. I pray, deliver me. I fear that Esau may come and strike me, and you said I will deal wontedly with you and make your offerings as the sands of the sea. Now, in this star portion, we have a wrestling match, where Jacob wrestles with some mysterious being. Some people say its himself, wrestling with his conscience, some say it's with Esau, as an angel. His hip gets wrenched by the end of the story in that wrestling match, and it says that I struggled with God and prevailed. So a struggle with God. So what is going on here and how can this help us? Rabbi Kushner says, this new prayer is not a deal, its not involving kickbacks. Jacob is saying in effect, God, I have no claims on you. Now, Rabbi Kushner of course writing this way before this Illinois pay for play business. No claims on you. I have no right to ask anything of you. You have already given me more than I have ever hoped for. I have nothing to offer you. I can only say, God, help me because I need you. This is Rabbi Kushner's writing. I am not sure I can do it by myself. You once gave me reason to believe I will grow up to be someone special, to do your purpose in the world, I want to be that person, so help me. He said, this is Jewish prayer, it doesn't ask God to change the world, it asks God to change the person praying. So I look at how interesting this is. It seems clear that God is being represented here. After contending with this angel, Jacob has called Israel, one who scribes with God. So Rabbi Kushner goes on to say, what can we learn about our own prayer life from Jacob's story? That prayer begins in gratitude, in vows, thanking more than begging. Most importantly, that we can do things with God's encouragement, that we can find ourselves incapable of doing it on our own. So, look, maybe it's true that the Governor of Illinois was going to try and sell a Senate seat. Maybe it's true that we are going to find a lot of people who are willing to offer a lot of money for that Senate seat. This is pay to play politics in Illinois, maybe elsewhere too. I am sure it is. Nothing new under the sun. But I think this idea that Jacob matured so much in his life, that 20 years later, now a mature man, he doesn't pray anymore conditionally. If God goes this, this, and this, I will be a good servant, but now he asks God from gratitude, a point of gratitude, to help him become the best person he can be. It's pray to play, not pay to play.