Later on, upon Jacob arriving to his uncle’s house, the author of the Midrash Genesis Rabah brings a more revealing story, when commenting on Genesis 29:12.

He assembled all the men of the town and said to them: ‘You know how we were short of water, and as soon as this righteous man came the water was blessed.’ ' (Midrash Rabbah - Genesis LXX: 19).

Now, this is the question that comes to my mind:

Are RaSHI and the Midrash talking about the same man, we know? Is this righteous Jacob the same one, who last week disguised himself as his brother in order to steal his blessings and then fled as a coward? Where is his righteousness?

Someone, recalling my Devar Torah on Shrek, asked me if I was planning to do one on Harry Potter. I answered "No", just because when I was asked, I haven’t seen yet the movie.

However, I saw Harry Potter last week and I am going to talk today about him, hoping that his story will help us understand a little better, what’s going on with Jacob, in our story.

I am not going to tell you very much about Harry Potter and certainly I won’t tell you how he died at the end… Ups! (NO, I am just joking). Anyway, there are some things I feel I can tell you about the latest Hollywood hero, without ruining your next Saturday night program.

Harry Potter is a special child, like our forefather Jacob. Why is he special? Did he go to a special school? Did he train hard? Is he taller or bigger than the other kids are? Certainly No!

So what makes him special? Why is everybody respecting and honoring him even before he himself knows who he is?

Just because his parents and because he has a special mark on his skin.

Because his parents, for his parents were brave, and good, and wise; and because the mark he carries on his skin, for it reminds him and everybody else, that he is special, without any apparent reason, because it is in his genes.

Harry Potter, as well as our forefather Jacob will show later that he is brave indeed, and strong and wise.

However, according to the Midrash and to the Jewish tradition, when Jacob escaped from his brother, before he proved himself brave and strong and wise, he still was blessed with special powers. Jacob, the immature and spoiled Jacob was still able to become a source of blessings in such an extraordinary way, that even the stones and the waters, and the wicked Laban, recognized that.

And why is that?

Because he carries the blessings from his father and his grandfather, because his family history, and because he carries a mark in his skin, since he was eight days old.

The Torah has two approaches that coexist side by side. The first one tells us that you are special only if you are ready to become special, if you work hard, if you study, if you toil. In this regard, being chosen is to choose being chosen.

The second approach, more mystical and less rational, tells us that some people are special, because they were born special, because they carry that in their genes. According to this approach –that I know is very complex - Jacob is certainly one of these persons, and we, the Jewish people, are his heirs. In this approach someone is chosen because someone bigger than he, so decided. As we read by the Prophet Jeremiah:

The idea of the Chosen people, for good or for bad, with its complexity and difficulty, is an intrinsic idea in Jewish theology and since we can not ignore it, we should be able to accept its challenges and to make it part of our Jewish lives.

Shabbat Shalom!