{"id":39679,"date":"2017-12-01T12:51:59","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T18:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=39679"},"modified":"2017-12-01T12:51:59","modified_gmt":"2017-12-01T18:51:59","slug":"off-the-pulpit-biblical-karma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/off-the-pulpit-biblical-karma\/","title":{"rendered":"Off the Pulpit: Biblical Karma"},"content":{"rendered":"

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE<\/p>\n

Jacob fools his father Isaac, disguising himself as Esau and taking the blessing.<\/p>\n

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Jacob pretended to be his brother. He was deceived by Leah pretending to be her sister. He fooled his blind father by touch, and could not himself distinguish the feel of Leah from the feel of Rachel while blinded in the dark of night. The result in one case was that he benefitted from the blessing. In the other case, he had to work an additional seven years.<\/p>\n

Our tradition calls this comeuppance, \u201cmiddah k\u2019neged middah\u201d \u2014 measure for measure. It has affinities to the idea of Karma. There is a moral order to the universe, and sooner or later, what we do will affect what is done to us. Learning this helped Jacob grow into Israel.<\/p>\n

(Rabbi David Wolpe is the spiritual leader of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles.)<\/em><\/p>\n

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