14Y Selah Shabbat Dinner: The Blessing and the Struggle

At 14Y Selah, Toldot reminds us that wholeness isn’t about erasing one side of ourselves, it’s about making peace between them. Recovery, too, is a story of blessing: reclaiming what was lost, forgiving what was broken, and remembering that both our struggle and our strength are sacred.

From the very beginning, Yaakov and Esav are in motion two brothers wrestling even before birth, two lives intertwined by love, rivalry, and longing. Yaakov reaches for the heel of his brother as they enter the world, a gesture that becomes their lifelong dance: grasping, striving, seeking something just out of reach.

Esav is a man of the field impulsive, earthy, alive in the moment. Yaakov is quiet and reflective, drawn to stillness and contemplation. They represent two sides of the human heart: the wild and the disciplined, the instinctive and the intentional.

In the language of recovery, this is a familiar struggle—the tension between who we’ve been and who we’re becoming, between impulse and integrity, hunger and healing. Like Yaakov and Esav, we all wrestle with competing parts of ourselves. And like them, we learn that blessing doesn’t come from pretending to be someone else it comes from facing ourselves with honesty, courage, and compassion.

This Shabbat, we gather to honor the blessing and the struggle the tension that shapes us, the honesty that heals us, and the love that reminds us we are already enough. Join us for an evening of reflection, song, and connection as we bring our whole selves to the table, together.

📅 Date & Time:

Friday, November 21, 2025

7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

📍 Location: 603 St. Johns Place, Brooklyn NY