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?
