Wrestling with Ourselves?

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.

Gen. 32:25 “And Jacob was left alone; and there he wrestled with a man until the breaking of day.”

            Who was this “man” who Jacob wrestles with? As noted in Etz Hayim, most of the earliest commentaries saw him as being evil, a “malign force.” Genesis Rabbah suggests that this was in fact Esau’s guardian angel, or even Esau himself. Rashbam suggests, to the contrary, that this was an angel sent by God to prevent Jacob from running away.

            A more modern interpretation is that Jacob was wrestling with his conscious. Jacob had faced difficulties earlier in his life with deceit and lies, or by running away. He changes during the battle from Jacob the trickster to Yisrael, “one who wrestles with God.” But he wrestles with God by wrestling with his own inclinations, and by overcoming them. It is perhaps a reminder that we all have within ourselves not only a yetzer tov and yetzer rah (a good and an evil inclination), but also that we have within ourselves the ability, like Jacob/Israel, to allow our better natures to prevail when faced with challenges.