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Struggle, Blessing
Foreshadow A Nation
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ur sedrah this week
contains the story of
Jacob wrestling with
the angel as he was on
his way to be reunited with
his brother Esau. This story
has a spiritual meaning.
Jacob is terribly afraid to
meet Esau. He is worried that
Esau will remember what he
did to Esau 20 years ago.
Jacob's conscience troubles
him deeply. He cannot sleep.
He decides to get up and
transfer his entire camp, all
his family and animals, to the
other side of the Jabok River.
Now he is left utterly alone in
the dark, when a mysterious
assailant attacks him. He
wrestles with him until
daybreak. The patriarch
Jacob wants a blessing.
Up until now, Jacob as a
young man is not portrayed in
a very favorable light. After
what he did to Esau, he is
afraid that Esau will re-
member too well. Down at the
river bank, the struggle
comes about. Who was the
assailant? Some commen-
tators feel that the
mysterious creature who
assailed Jacob as he was
about to cross the future
border of Israel, was none
other than the celestial
patron of Edom, the in-
veterate enemy of the people
of Israel. This antagonism
makes the blessing that
Jacob wrestled from the angel
all the more meaningful.
Jacob's name now becomes
Israel. The promised land is
Jacob's rightful heritage. The
name itself, Israel, properly
means "God strives," or as
some interpret it, "He strives
for God." Philo thought that
the name Israel meant "the
man who saw a divine being."
Certainly Jacob saw a
divine being in struggling
with the angel, for the
bestowal of the new name
constitutes the essence of the
blessing and climaxes the en-
tire episode. Now, Jacob is
tacitly assured that he will
become the patriarch of a
nation named Israel.
Wrestling with the angel
was really an interruption in
the sedrah. The reconciliation
of the two brothers Jacob and
Esau, constitutes the
narrative.
No sooner does Jacob
Richard C. Hertz is rabbi
emeritus of Temple Beth El.
emerge from the night's
ordeal than he sees Esau ap-
proaching with 400 armed
men. What kind of reconcilia-
tion is this to be? The
reminder of possible ag-
gressive intentions on the
part of Esau is vivid in
Jacob's mind. Jacob went
toward Esau with gifts and
presents, bowed to the ground
before him seven times. Esau
ran to meet him and embrac-
ed him, for the Torah says,
"He fell on his neck and kiss-
ed him and they wept."
Esau, evidently, had an in-
stant change of heart. He had
come to meet Jacob accom-
panied by his 400 armed men,
but now as he saw Jacob,
Esau's hate turned to love.
Twenty years had evidently
Shabbat
Vayishlach:
Genesis
32:4-36:43
Hosea 11:7-12:12.
changed Esau, even as it had
changed the matured Jacob.
The reconciliation of the two
brothers in that fateful
meeting changed everything.
Jacob had brought many
gifts along to placate Esau.
But Esau was already a
wealthy man in his own right.
The reconciliation occurred
because now it was no longer
Jacob, but Israel, whom Esau
meets. This is a new man who
seeks forgiveness. The two
men are at peace; and Jacob,
now Israel, has no need to flee
from Esau's wrath. The two
brothers meet and part in
peace, each going his separate
way.
The story of Jacob wrestling
with the angel marks the
transformation of character
that took place in Jacob. The
dark side of Jacob now has
vanished and the new spirit-
ual figure of Israel emerges,
ready to go forward with the
tasks of establishing his
presence and his future pro-
geny in the Promised Land. ❑
All speculation, perhaps all
philosophizing, is but think-
ing spirals; we go higher but
get no farther.
—Arthur Schnitzler
cT: