Rabbi Philip Weintraub
Parshat Vayishlach
December 1, 2012
Our parsha this week opens with Jacob and Esau at the brink of war or reconciliation. Jacob is so nervous about what is to come that he divides his camp, ensuring that if Esau slaughters some of his family, at least he will have one wife and some children left. [Speaking with Roz yesterday, she reminded me that some parents never travel on the same plane, for fear of leaving their children orphaned. Not sure that makes much sense to me, but I try not to judge other people’s parenting with only a few weeks experience to my name.] At the brink of war or peace, Jacob goes to sleep.
http://www.pitts.emory.edu/dia/detail.cfm?ID=11766
Taken from the New JPS translation, Genesis Chapter 32 says:
23 That same night he arose, and taking his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven children, he crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 24 After taking them across the stream, he sent across all his possessions.
וַיִּוָּתֵר יַעֲקֹב, לְבַדּוֹ; וַיֵּאָבֵק אִישׁ עִמּוֹ, עַד עֲלוֹת הַשָּׁחַר.
25 Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. 26 When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he wrenched Jacob's hip at its socket, so that the socket of his hip was strained as he wrestled with him. 27 Then he said, "Let me go, for dawn is breaking." But he answered, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me." 28 Said the other, "What is your name?" He replied, "Jacob."
וַיֹּאמֶר, לֹא יַעֲקֹב יֵאָמֵר עוֹד שִׁמְךָ--כִּי, אִם-יִשְׂרָאֵל: כִּי-שָׂרִיתָ עִם-אֱ-לֹהִים וְעִם-אֲנָשִׁים, וַתּוּכָל.
29 Said he, "Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with beings divine and human, and have prevailed." 30 Jacob asked, "Pray tell me your name." But he said, "You must not ask my name!" And he took leave of him there. 31 So Jacob named the place Peniel, meaning, "I have seen a divine being face to face, yet my life has been preserved." 32 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping on his hip. 33 That is why the children of Israel to this day do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the socket of the hip, since Jacob's hip socket was wrenched at the thigh muscle.
Depending on our thought processes we might read this story in different ways. We might wonder with whom Jacob wrestles, why he wrestles and the significance of where he wrestles.
From a kashrut perspective, we might say this is here to teach us a reason for why we don’t normally get to eat filet mignon. since few kosher producers in this country bother with the expensive deveining process, preferring instead to sell the back of the cow to non-kosher producers!
From a literary perspective, we might notice that Shakespeare has dream sequences before major fight scenes, for example in Richard III and Macbeth.# (Thanks Everett Fox for that idea from his notes in his translation: The Five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy (The Schocken Bible, Volume 1) http://www.amazon.com/Five-Books-Moses-Leviticus-Deuteronomy/dp/0805211195)
From a feminist perspective, we might wonder why Jacob had to separate himself from his spouses to discover himself.
Thinking about this wrestling fight, which didn’t make it on pay-per-view, I found the commentary of a colleague of mine, Rabbi Michael Samuel, a Conservative rabbi outside of San Diego. He described various rabbinic perspectives. The Midrash sees the assailant as Esau’s guardian angel. Elsewhere it was seen as the archetypal battle between good and evil. Hellenistic Jews saw this as Jacob wrestling with himself, perhaps even in a dream. They felt that if he could conquer the enemy within, he could then conquer the enemy without. Rabbi Michael concluded with a quote from Sun Tzu’s Art of War:
Sun Tzu (6th–5th century BCE.) may have expressed this idea best in his Art of War, (ch. 3, Axiom:):
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”# http://rabbimichaelsamuel.com/insight/jacob-wrestles-with-the-angel/
This week I have struggled with the ability to see. On Monday, I had LASIK surgery, which has gotten my vision to be just about 20/20. Suddenly my world has changed. After wearing glasses for twenty years, I now have peripheral vision. I can see the clock when I wake up in the middle of the night. I can read at night and hold the book/Kindle/Talmud at any angle, without fear that I’m looking above or below my glasses. When I daven from the shtender here, I can see the Siddur from whatever angle I look! Of course it is not without drawbacks, I will have halos at night for a few weeks, and I am using more eye drops than I knew existed, but it is a powerful experience to be able to see with my eyes “au naturale.” I have been thinking about my vision and Jacob’s vision. While I have not seen an angel or Divine being with my new vision, I have seen the world differently. This is not just because I finally took off my yellowing transitions lenses, the world is a brighter, more colorful place! Rather it is a re-awareness of the miracle, the gift of sight.
Jacob’s gift, after he wrestled with the angel, was a new name: Yisrael, the one who wrestles with Gd. While I love being a Jew, being a descendent of Jehuda, who last week I mentioned has a linguistic connection to thankfulness and gratitude, I am a born Gd-wrestler. The intersection of faith and doubt defines my life, defines my work, defines my vision. I love being a descendent of Yisrael.
With Abraham the name change was static and singular. Avram became Avraham and never looked back. Jacob is different. In the rest of the Torah his name waffles back and forth. Sometimes he is called Jacob, sometimes Israel. Just like the tshuva process, the redemptive process, for many of us, we continue to struggle with our pasts as we work toward the future. I think of those that struggle with anything, whether it is as serious as addiction or as small as money or weight. For every two steps forward, there is the occasional step back or in more difficult times, vice versa.
In this way, Jacob/Yisrael, is far more of a role model for the modern human being. In this parsha we see him struggling to leave his deceitful past behind, but it comes out in the behavior of his sons after the seduction or rape of Dinah. Even as he changed his behavior, the aftereffects are seen in his descendents. Whether genetic or environmental, our behavior has an impact on those around us, our families, our children. This is something I am becoming more cognizant of now, since while I do not know what my daughter notices, I’m sure she sees more than I imagine!
I will conclude this morning with a mention of the other Israel in our minds, the State. The last few weeks have been tough for lovers of Israel, what with hatred all around, even in our own paper, even from Jews! The Israel of our parsha found a path to reconciliation with his brother, with the one whom he had antagonized! If Jacob and Esau can find a way to get along, I pray that we live to see the day when Arabs and Jews can get along. As I wrote in my letter to the paper (which we shall see if it gets printed), Jews, Christians and Muslims have far more in common that we have not in common. If only, peace would be taught rather than war. We can repeat Golda Meir, that peace will come when Arabs love their children more than they hate the Jews, but somehow we will also have to find ways to work with those that hate us. As Abba Eban said, "If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.” May we see the day when war and bloodshed cease, when a great peace will embrace the whole world.
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