Parashat Vayishlach

Parashat Vayishlach 

Kislev 17, 5773 ~ December 1, 2012

by  Joanne Jagoda

The parasha this week is filled with many themes. It opens with Jacob “sending” angels, to his estranged brother Esau, hence the word Vayishlach. This was not a simple reunion of two brothers, as Jacob was very apprehensive as to how this might play out. He took preparations in three areas:  prayer, gifts and battle.  When Jacob heard from the angels he had sent that Esau was going to approach him, he divided his clan into two camps including his herds and cattle. Then he prayed to God to be rescued from the hand of his brother. He instructs his servants how to approach Esau and divided his herds into droves. Jacob had sent along his wives, handmaids and sons and was alone.

This concept is interesting…to be alone. Here was Jacob, no entourage, no family, no possessions, just by himself.  This was a perfect time for self-reckoning where he had to strengthen his own resolve before confronting his brother. Being alone meant Jacob has to struggle with his identity. Since taking the birthright from his brother Esau, who had he become? Had he begun to look like Esau? Had the fulfillment of the stolen blessings actually turned him into Esau? Rabbi Shlomo Riskin concurs, “After all, hadn’t he, the wholehearted dweller in the tents of Torah study, garbed himself in the hunting attire of Esau and utilized the crafty hands of Esau in order to wrest the blessings from his father and outwit his uncle Laban?”

In the text, Vayishlach (Genesis 32:4-36:43) we read:

Jacob remained alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. He [the man] saw that he could not defeat him, and he touched the joint of his thigh. Jacob's hip became dislocated from wrestling with him. And he [the man] said, 'Let me go for dawn is breaking.' He [Jacob] said, 'I will not release you unless you bless me.' He [the man] said 'What is your name?' He said, 'Jacob.' He said, 'Your name shall no longer be called Jacob rather Israel, for you have struggled with God and with man and you have been victorious.' Jacob asked, and said, 'Please tell me your name.' He said, 'Why are you asking for my name?' And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the place Peniel [God's face], 'for I have seen God face to face and my soul was saved.' The sun rose as he left Peniel. And he was limping because of his thigh. Therefore the children of Israel do not eat the hip tendon until this very day, for Jacob's thigh joint was afflicted at the hip tendon.

There are many questions raised by this passage and many different interpretations from our commentators. If Jacob is truly alone, who is wrestling with him? Rabbi Shlomo Riskin explores this question,” Who was this mysterious, anonymous assailant who wrestled with Jacob all that long night before his confrontation with brother Esau? Was it a heavenly angel, the spiritual power of Esau, as is suggested by the midrash (based on Daniel 10), or was it G-d Himself, as the verse immediately following the wrestling match would infer, “And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, ‘because I have seen G-d face to face and my soul has been saved’” (Genesis 32:31)?

I also find it fascinating that Jacob wrestled. The word wrestled implies a struggle, a difficult physical confrontation. Rav Michael Hattin of Yeshiva Har Zion regards the commentaries of Rashi and Radak, that “the Radak (R. David Kimchi, 13th century, Provence) who…”both understand that the struggle with the mysterious figure actually portends the confrontation about to ensue with Esau.   This man who appears out of the darkness of night and vanishes at sunrise, is actually an angelic figure identified with "Saro shel Esav" or "Esav's guardian angel. From the confrontation, Yaacov will gain the knowledge that he will prevail against his brother Esav.  In the end, he will acquire title to the birthright and the blessings by legal right, and will be regarded as a deceiver no more.  "Your name shall no longer be called Yaacov, but rather Yisrael, for you have striven with 'elohim' and with men and have prevailed.

According to Rashi, the “man” who wrestled with Jacob was the guardian angel of Esau sent in the form of a man. I was curious about this. Why would Esau have sent an angel to wrestle with Jacob? Some commentators see that the angel is the epitome of evil, Satan himself and the struggle represents a symbolic eternal struggle between the forces of good and evil, man’s quest for spiritual growth and the determined efforts of Satan to undermine him. Rabbi Abraham Twerski in Living Each Week writes, “The angel that wrestled with the Patriarch Jacob is the personification of the forces of evil that seek to overpower the forces of righteousness. In asking what the angel’s name was, Jacob sought to identify this power, so that by recognizing it we might be aware of it and more capable of guarding against I and defending ourselves.”

 It has also been suggested that the angel represents the materiality of Edom and the night symbolized the “Galut”, exile of the Jewish people. The Struggle was conducted on two planes, both with the divine and with man. While the Jewish people have had to wrestle with many civilizations trying to wipe them out, we have prevailed.

Why would Yakov say to the angel, “I won’t let you go until you bless me” and why would the angel say “what is your name?” It is so curious that the angel wouldn’t know his name. It was not enough that Yakov was wounded by the angel, but he also required a blessing from him. In changing his name, this angel declared that he was no longer “holding on to the heel of” his birth name, but now was Yisrael, for you have striven with the Divine and man and you have overcome.

Rabbi Riskin explains, “Clearly the anonymous “man” who wrestled with Jacob was the divinely-given and heaven-originated “power of Esau,” thereby Biblically confirming the initial prophecy which established the struggle between the twin fetuses in Rebecca’s womb as mirroring the universal-eternal battle between the two antithetical forces of spiritual Judea and militant Rome: “There are two nations in your womb, and two peoples who will separate from your innards; nation will struggle against nation, and the elder will serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23). The wrestling match mirrors the cosmic tension between these forces. Once the spirit of Jacob emerges triumphant - for Israel is guaranteed to ultimately prevail - the two brothers can play out their temporal meeting in relative ease and equanimity.

This too was Jacob’s fear as he prepared for his encounter with Esau. After all, hadn’t he, the wholehearted dweller in the tents of Torah study, garbed himself in the hunting attire of Esau and utilized the crafty hands of Esau in order to wrest the blessings from his father and outwit his uncle Laban? Was it possible that Jacob would win the external battle against his rival Esau in his father’s home, only to find his very self overtaken by Esau in personality and activity until the voice of Jacob would be completely silenced and all that would be left of the younger son of Isaac and Rebecca would be another incarnation of Esau?!

The anonymous wrestling match, where “Jacob remains alone”, is therefore also an external struggle within Jacob to retain his own soul, to reclaim his pristine persona. And whenever one struggles to reclaim his true self, he is struggling with and for G-d, that image of the Divine which informs each of us and gives us our truest essence. Jacob had embraced Esau, or Esau-ism, for too long a time; and two individuals locked together may be embracing, may be wrestling, and may be struggling to become free of an interlocking relationship which could well turn into a kiss of death.

Jacob’s success in returning home to his original self is also his success in re-discovering his G-d and the G-d of his fathers. During that fateful and faithful night, Jacob met the power of Esau as well as the face of G-d - the forces of Rome as well as his own Divine Image. And only after successfully defeating both the external and internal Esau, could he establish an altar which he called, “G-d, Lord of Yisrael,” the G-d who emerged triumphant.

Don’t we all need moments of reflection when all the noise around us is shut off?