Gen. 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 in childbirth. 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. 32:12 “Rescue me, I pray, from the hand of my brother.”
Rabbi Sacks discusses Jacob’s fear, and our own (Covenant and Conversation, 12/8/22). He calls the episode of Jacob’s fear “one of the most enigmatic episodes in the Torah, but also one of the most important, because it was the moment that gave the Jewish people its name: Israel, one who “wrestles with God and with men and prevails.”
Jacob is terrified by news of his brother’s approach with an armed band. He attempts appeasement, prayer (as in the cited verse) and divides his household to lessen the chances of complete demise, as he prepares for war. Still, he remains fearful, and wrestles with a stranger until dawn, when he is renamed “Israel.”
Rashbam, the grandson of Rashi, sees this episode as what modern commentator Robert Alter calls a “type-seen.” As is the case of man-meets-woman-at-the-well, or the birth-of-a-son-to-an-
Jonah, in particular, may hold the key to understanding the matter. Jonah sought escape from his mission, and fled for Tarshish. After being swallowed by the great fish, Jonah realizes that escape is not possible. Rashbam notes that Jacob remains afraid, but recognizes that escape was impossible only when he wrestles God’s messenger. Moses and Jonah were reluctant about their missions. So, too, was Jacob. This reluctance reappears again and again among the prophets as well.
Courage, Sacks reminds us, does not mean having no fear. It means having fear but overcoming it. We may feel inadequate to undertake the great mission of the Jewish people: being a light among the nations. He concludes with words which are so applicable today: “To feel fear is fine. To give way to it is not. For God has faith in us all even though, at times, even the best of us lack faith in ourselves.”
