Life is a Struggle

Vayishlach

Genesis 32:4 - 36:43

Précis: As he nears his return to his homeland, Jacob sent (vayishlach) messengers to Esau to ascertain Esau’s state of mind after their 20 year separation. While he awaits a reply, Jacob encounters an “adversary” (most assume an angel) with whom Jacob wrestles through the night. As dawn breaks, the adversary announces that Jacob’s name is to be changed to Israel: “He who wrestles with God.” On the following day, Esau approaches, and despite Jacob’s fears, there is a happy reunion.
     We then read the story of how a local prince rapes Dinah, Jacob’s daughter, and then asks to marry her. Jacob agrees on condition that all of the men of the city are circumcised. While the men are recovering, Jacob’s sons Simon and Levi attack the city and kill all of the inhabitants in revenge for the insult to their sister.
     Jacob soon travels to Beth-el (the site of his ladder dream), and on the way, Rachel gives birth to Benjamin and dies following her labor. Thereafter, Isaac’s death is noted, as is his burial by Esau and Jacob. The parasha ends with a genealogy of Esau and his descendants.


Genesis 32:25–30 “Jacob remained alone. A man struggled with him until dawn. He realized that he could not overpower him, so he struck at his hip-joint, dislocating it during the struggle. The man said, ‘Let me go, for dawn has arrived!’ Jacob replied, ‘I will not let you go until you bless me.’ He asked him, ‘What then is your name?’ ‘Jacob.’ He said, ‘You shall no longer be called Jacob, but rather Yisrael, because you have struggled with gods and with men and prevailed.’ Jacob said, ‘Tell me your name.’ The man replied, ‘You must not ask my name!’ He then blessed him.”

Since the Jewish People are by tradition descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we can wonder at times about why we most frequently refer to ourselves as the “children of Israel.” ("bnai Yisrael”). This verse is an important clue to the answer.

As Jacob is about to face Esau in a potentially fatal encounter (which the text implies with its description of Jacob’s careful defensive preparations), Jacob has a fight with a “man” that results in the change of his name from Yaacov to Yisrael.

The text reveals an echo of a prior story. By asking for the adversary’s name, Jacob repeats his father Isaac’s question about who was bringing him food before the bestowal of the blessing. For a second time, Jacob (Yaakov) seeks a blessing. The first blessing provided by his father gave Jacob the primacy in the continuity of Jewish tradition. Here, the “blessing” is not in itself specific, but is rather a name change from Yaakov to Yisrael (translated as “struggles with God”). We observe in the text that the result of hand-to-hand combat between Yaakov and the mysterious “man” is actually a struggle over peoplehood. (Parenthetically, this may be why some commentators suggest that the "man" is actually Esau himself!) Until this dramatic scene, we could not be certain which of Isaac's sons would become Yisrael, but with this story, it is clear that it will be Yaakov. Yaakov had the birthright and his father’s blessing, but it was not until he wrestles with the adversary that he is renamed Yisrael. This renaming through struggle is the origin of our People’s own name.

To be an inheritor of Yisrael means that we ourselves must engage in struggle: struggle with text, struggle with God, and struggle with others, whether within the family, the congregation, the community, or among nations. We can only hope that like Jacob, our struggles bring lasting achievement.