I Will Not Let You Go Until You Bless Me
Shabbat Vayishlah Sermon. Our spiritual work is to cultivate both agitation and appreciation– to live in the void between what is and what ought to be, and hold an awareness of the blessings and the beauty even still. Jacob, having wrestled with the angel, shows us the audacity of gratitude practiced in the face of profound suffering. He reminds us that sometimes we need to wring blessing from the struggle.