Parashat Vayetze (Veteran’s Day): A Wakeup Call to Honor

Sometimes we need a wake-up call to the world around us. 9/11 was my wake-up call. And in response to that wake up call, I eventually joined the Navy.

I made it through Basic Training because of one person. Derek Schultz. Derek was my roommate. He taught me how to polish and shine, how to crease and iron, how to keep my mouth shut. At the end of a long day, Derek used to make me run and run until I finally learned that running was a good thing. Derek and I became brothers.

We studied Bible together and taught each other about one another’s religions. I used to sit in his faith and worship circles and he used to come to sit and do havdalah and Shabbat with me. It was Derek who taught me about the different denominations of Christianity, about ministry and about shepherding a flock.

Derek was well on his way to becoming a Major in the Marine Corps when he got his wake-up call. In his words, he experienced the calling and decided to resign his commission as a Marine Corps officer and go to Seminary. Upon conclusion of Seminary, Derek was re-commissioned as an Ensign with the Naval Chaplaincy, starting at the lowest rank, with a goal to eventually minister to those Marines with whom he once served.

We read this morning about the famous nap our ancestor Jacob took, dreaming of the towering ladder, angels climbing up and down. When Jacob awoke he was taken aback by the entire experience. He realized he had experienced something unparallel…

Our teacher Rashi is not satisfied with Jacob’s declaration. He feels that there is something more. In fact, Rashi finishes Jacob’s thought. “God was in this place and I did not know it. Had I known, I would not have slept in such a holy place.”

On the surface, we might understand Jacob’s reaction to mean that if he knew it was such a holy place, he wouldn’t have inadvertently made it his bed for the evening. But really, there’s actually something deeper. Certainly, sleep and recharging our body is important. However, when we sleep, we miss out on the world around us. Jacob was saying if I had known that this was such an important place, such a holy place, I would not have risked missing it by sleeping. Jacob got his wake up call to the Divine and all that matters in the world.

Following basic training, Derek and I eventually lost touch over the years, but in the past few months, we finally reconnected. Derek, one of my personal heroes, was serving at Great Lakes, getting ready to go to Hawaii with the 3rd Marines for an eventual deployment to Afghanistan. After several hospitalizations, Derek was diagnosed with MS and was told that he would no longer be able to serve on Active Duty and would be medically retired. It was determined – and, yes, our military has assumed full financial responsibility for this – that Derek’s MS was “most probably” due to either the numerous vaccinations or potential exposures he may have had while serving with CBIRF, the Chemical Biological Incident Response Force, in the Marine Corps.

Derek is currently serving as the Lee’s Summit Medical Center Chaplain in Missouri—fighting to overcome his challenges and continuing to serve those in need.

Derek’s MS was yet another wakeup call for me. Even heroes sometimes don’t have the privilege to serve. But we all have the privilege and ability to give honor where honor is due.

Men and Women have served in the Armed Forces of these glorious United States since its inception just under 250 years ago. Men and Women have made great sacrifices, even as far as laying down their lives so that we may live ours. And men and women continue to protect the Great Flag of this country. Still, many Americans look at military service as a second class choice in life, as something about which a person should not be proud.

But we sit here in synagogue and we forget that our neighbors aren’t away for the weekend on vacation—they’re serving in Afghanistan, in Djibouti, in Iraq. We forget that the reason terrorist plots are foiled is because of intelligence gathered overseas. We forget that our land and our seas and our skies are safer because of our brothers and sisters at arms that stand guard.

And friends, many of us are fast asleep, forgetting that our brothers and sisters continue to perform the holy service of protecting our country and our interests so that we may sit here this morning and worship.

During Jacob’s dream, God said to him, “…I am with you, and will watch over you in all places where you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you…” (Genesis 28:15). And the midrash tells us that Jacob was surrounded by a safeguard of angels. These words that Jacob heard in his dream are the very same words, in principle, to which the men and women of our Armed Forces dedicate themselves. We are their Jacob and they are our guardian angels.

And if we are their Jacob then we must be like Jacob. When Jacob had his startling realization, he woke up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon its top (Genesis 28:18). This was Jacob’s monument – this was Jacob’s memorial. This was Jacob’s paying honor to his experience and to his wake up call.

I’m not encouraging everyone here to go off and enlist or seek a commission in our military. What I am hopeful is that we all finally wake up. I am hopeful that we all find an opportunity to place a stone, to erect a marker, to dedicate ourselves to the honor and the memory of all those who have served and continue to serve in our Armed Forces.

From patriotic gestures like the wearing or raising of an American Flag, to seeking to support our troops with care packages, Passover meals and dry socks, dvds and phone cards. Walking up to our brave guardians at the airport or on the street and saying “Thank you for serving. Thank you for keeping us safe.”

Just under a century ago, humanity thought the prophecy of Isaiah had been fulfilled. The War to end all Wars was at an end. And we celebrated Armistice Day. Friends, we know that is far from the truth. And Armistice Day is now Veteran’s Day. A time when we recognize that peace may be around the bend, but only because of our guardian angels engaging in the holy work of trying to bring peace to the here and now. We must take the time in the name of Veteran’s Day to remember those who have fallen. We must take the time in the name of Veteran’s Day to remember that potential peace. We must take the time in the name of Veteran’s Day to finally wake up and realize that our freedom has a price, and it is a price that our brothers and sisters in uniform have paid dearly for us.