Note
Idea for Shiur on Vayishlach (1990)
The scene of Jacob wrestling with a strange assailant has always been a source of wonder and mystery. The Sages saw in this stranger the sar shel Esav – and that, in turn, gave further cause for speculation. My interpretation is psychological–moral, and attempts to explain not only certain details in the verses describing the encounter, but also the position of this tale in the rest of the Torah’s narrative. Jacob, on that fateful night before meeting his brother Esau, was wrestling with his conscience – better, his bad conscience. And indeed, this may well have been what Chazal had in mind when they identified him as sar shel Esav. Consider Jacob’s native, indigenous character. He is described as ish tam yoshev ohalim – straight, totally honest, almost naïve. Yet – or maybe therefore – he was ochez ba-akev Esav, holding on to Esau for sheer survival. This, however, is precisely what gets him into trouble, the main trouble being that he is false to his own nature, his intrinsic character. When his mother suspects that Isaac is ready, wrongly, to award the Abrahamitic blessing to Esau, he willingly participates in the deception of Isaac – “stealing” the blessing from his brother. Later, when he works for Laban and devises a scheme to enrich himself and enlarge his flocks, he feels he is being wronged. There is something morally offensive about these two incidents, and they seem to have dogged his footsteps throughout history. Were they really immoral acts? That is precisely what worried Jacob. On the eve of his potentially disastrous meeting with Esau, Jacob must finally confront his nagging conscience. He “wrestles” with this conscience – the “angel of Esau” – until dawn (according to the Midrash, the dust stirred up by their struggle rose to the Divine Throne – i.e., this was a serious moral encounter, not merely a case of “Jewish guilt” or an “overextended superego,” but a genuine, objective case of right and wrong). Jacob must settle accounts with himself – bef…
