This is an idea I was thinking about over Shabbos and felt the need to write down and share.
Yaakov splits his family into two machanos. On paper, nothing changes: same people, same number. So what actually shifted?
My local Rav, Rav Jeff Wohlgelernter, explained that this became the template for Jewish history.
Klal Yisrael is one people living in at least two camps. Some in Eretz Yisrael, some in chutz la’aretz. When one camp is in danger, the other carries the story. We are never stuck in one place; Hashem always leaves another door, another camp, open.
This is where it gets uncomfortable:
Recently there has been a toxic obsession with guilting people into moving to Eretz Yisrael, whether because of antisemitism, or ruchnius, or whatever the slogan of the week is. Yaakov’s two machanos remind us that Klal Yisrael has always existed in more than one place, and that this is part of the design, not a failure of faith.
Living in Eretz Yisrael is a tremendous zechus, but it is not for everyone in every stage of life, and a move built on guilt rarely becomes a life built on stability. If your neshamah is calling you here, beautiful. Come with strength. But if the only reason you are considering it is because someone shamed your life in Chutz La’aretz, do not fall for it. Better to live an honest, grounded life in the “other” machane than to uproot your family, struggle, and end up moving back when it does not work out.
The two machanos are a national model, but they hint at something personal. We survive as a people by avoiding forced sameness. We survive as individuals the same way. This brings me to another idea I learned from Rav Elya Weintraub zt”l’s sefer Nefesh Eliyahu (which I shared in my previous post).
In the story of Creation, almost everything is described the same way. Each part of the world is brought into being למינהו, according to its type. Trees follow trees, animals follow animals, every species repeats its own pattern. There is only one exception. When the Torah speaks about the creation of human beings, it does not say למינהו.
Humanity is not presented as “according to its kind,” because we are not meant to be copies. We are meant to grow into our own inner shape.
Rav Elya Weintraub zt”l explained that our nature is to absorb the world around us and to blend into whatever environment we find ourselves in. Our avodah is to discover and protect the part of ourselves that is not defined by the crowd.
This is the levado of Yaakov. He stood alone, and that loneliness was not a flaw. It was the space that allowed him to become fully himself.
All of this leaves me with one simple point:
If there is one thread running through these ideas, it is this: be yourself. The pressure to conform has never made the Jewish people stronger. Whether it is the toxic guilt around moving to Eretz Yisrael or the subtle pressure to live someone else’s version of a meaningful life, none of it leads to real growth.
The pressure to conform has never made the Jewish people stronger.
Yaakov’s levado teaches that individuality is holy. We become who we are meant to be when we stop copying and start listening to the voice inside that tells us who we already are.
I will leave out what specifically prompted this for now. If you work it out, do not rush to one side of the noise. Be like Yaakov and live above the noise, levado.