Two weeks ago, in our Torah portion, Jacob, fleeing from his brother who wants to kill him, from his father who is betrayed, and from his mother and the only home he ever knew, Jacob a homebody, is out in the desert, alone, heading on foot to a far-off place he’s never been. Everything he has ever known is gone and he has no idea what lies ahead or if he will survive. He is in-between, and it is twilight, an in-between time.

As I’ve said, this week is Transgender Awareness Week and tomorrow is the Transgender Day of Remembrance for those killed by the frequent violence toward transgender people. This year, to date, 47 trans people in the US have been shot or killed by other violent means. Before Kaddish we will pause to remember them. We do so to show our solidarity with the trans community, and with the trans people who are members here at Temple Sinai, but we also do it because as Jews, we, too, know what it like to be attacked and killed just because of who we are. While we likely don’t all agree about every part of the Trans Community’s political agenda, surely we all agree that violence against this community is something that must be named and requires response.

This week was the 83rd anniversary of Kristallnacht, the violent anti-Jewish pogroms that broke out on November 9, 1938 across Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. Violent mobs, spurred Nazi officials, destroyed hundreds of synagogue and Torah scrolls. Acting on orders from Gestapo headquarters, police officers and firefighters did nothing to prevent the destruction. All told, approximately 7,500 Jewish-owned businesses, homes, and schools were plundered, and 91 Jews were murdered. An additional 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Nazi, playing to type, blamed the Jews and made them pay for the damages. 

This week’s Torah portion, Toledot, is a treasure-house of troublesome, intriguing, entertaining and iconic stories from the oldest part of the Torah.

In it, we read of Jacob and Esau wrestling in the womb, and Jacob being born grasping the hill of his twin.