Vayeitzei

Disclaimer: The world is a depressing place. And this is a semi-depressing parsha. Unless you're an optimist in which case this parsha is full of weddings and babies and Godly interactions. But that's not me.

We start out the parsha with Yaakov's journey to Haran and we hear about his wrestling match with an angel in which Yaakov is renamed "Yisrael" or "struggles with God." From here the struggling only grows more intense. Of course we know about the trials and tribulations of Leah and her weak eyes from all her crying. We know she isn't the favored wife and her seemingly never ending child bearing doesn't even seem to cheer her up that much. She's constantly comparing herself to her sister and attempting to gain dominance with her ability to produce male children. But surely Rachel's story is much happier? Sure, she doesn't have any children until the very end (even then only a modest number of two boys)..but Yaakov loves her from the second he sees her.

Rashi brings down from the midrash that Yaakov wept when he saw Rachel because he foresaw that she was going to be buried separately from him. Later in the parsha we find out why Rachel receives this destiny (according to the midrash as cited by Rashi). If we read the parsha through the lenses of the midrash we are constantly haunted by the knowledge that Rachel is going to die and she won't have the honor of being buried with the others in Hevron.

Struggle, struggle, struggle. That's like 90% of this week's parsha. However, it can't be that bad. We are all descendants of Yaakov so his struggles must have been important. For the first time in my life I went to Kever Rachel (on Erev Sukkot). There I read the Tikkun Rachel which is one of the most horrifying things I've ever read in my life..full of talk of destruction and exile. When I looked around I saw a lot of women in pain. I don't know any of their stories or why they were there but one could feel the collective grief in the room. Being a part of Am YISRAEL means being human. It means living in a world where we'll struggle and sometimes fail. But to have those struggles and still turn to Hashem and trust that it will all work out the way it is supposed to is what it really means to be a Jew.
That and bagels and lox (unless you're Sephardi).