Last time we discussed Jacob’s twenty years with Laban – a period summarized by Jacob in a very moving monologue. Now we enter the eighth portion, the one dedicated to his meeting with his brother Esau – the first in twenty years. It is also dedicated to the story known as the Rape of Dina, Jacob’s daughter. I will make a short comment on each.
“And Jacob remained on his own…”
Careful and meticulous consideration – that’s how the text describes Jacob’s preparation for his first meeting with his brother Esau in twenty years. To recall: This is the same brother who said, even before their father Isaac died, “Let the mourning period of my father end, and I will kill my brother Jacob.” (Gen. 27:41) This is the brother from whom Jacob escaped to the other end of the Middle East. This is the same brother from whom Jacob bought (or stole, if you ask Esau) the birthright, and then received their father’s blessings (or stole it yet again, if you’d ask his brother).
And Jacob knows – what proves to be right – that his homecoming ceremony cannot be kept secret. Somehow, despite the lack of internet, everyone seems to know that Jacob – with his property, two wives, two midwives, and eleven sons – is coming back home.
So Jacob prepares, and he prepares well. He is hoping for the best, and planning for the worst. He begins by what every good general would do: gathering intelligence. So he sends a group of reconnaissance warriors (in the Hebrew original: Angels (“Mal’achim”) Gen. 32:4) to find out about Esau’s intentions and actions. He asks them to deliver a message – something about him living with Laban (a relative, recall – their uncle), and that now he, Jacob, would like appease Esau – but when the messengers come back they mention nothing about any message delivered. All they say is: “We arrived at your brother, and here he is – walking towards you with [a small army of] some four hundred strong.” (Gen. 32:7).
Jacob then divides his property, explaining that if Esau would arrive at the first camp, at least the other would survive. He then prays to God and asks for salvation – something he hasn’t done, perhaps, in twenty years. But our forefather also realized that God only helps those who help themselves. He thus prepares a huge gift for his brother – hundreds of sheep, ewes, rams, camels, cows, and bulls – and then divides it into separate groups. He instructs his slaves to keep distance between these groups, such that every time Esau would run into one, they would say – “this is a gift from your brother.” He also instructs each of the group leaders to repeat the exact text: “perhaps by this gift your slave Jacob would carry favor with you.” He then takes his two wives, two midwives, and eleven sons and crosses the Jordan into Israel. So far for meticulous preparation. [Consider his previous encounters with his brother, and how he prepared for those – buying the birthright for a well-cooked stew; receiving the blessings by wearing sheep’s skin, etc.]
And then he remains on his own.
And then he wrestles all night with an Angel (this is complicated, but I won’t go into it here), and that Angel – after Jacob’s insistence on receiving a blessing (some things never change) – blesses Jacob and changes his name to Israel, as he could stand with both God and Men. (Gen. 32:25-33) And so the name of our people was created – “Am Israel,” the nation of Israel. We are not the nation of Abraham, nor of Isaac, but of Jacob’s – now called Israel.
The text does not explain why or how Jacob, who was accompanied by a huge entourage of a few hundred men and women, was “left alone” in the middle of the night to fight with the Angel. But perhaps I may venture to guess.
After all the careful considerations, after all the meticulous planning, after all the cost-benefit analyses, game-theory considerations, and damage-control scenarios – Jacob is left alone to himself. It is he – and no one else – who has to wrestle with the consequences of his actions. It is he who has to fight his inner demons. It is he who cannot sleep the night before the big event, wrestling with his god all night.
And this, I’m afraid, is true for every one of us as well. Indeed, at the end of all ends, “the buck stops here” for each and every one of us as well, not only for the president. We can plan all we want, persuade ourselves that we externalize all the risk in the world, hide behind the most cutting-edge theories out there – but at the end of the day, it is us – each and every one of us – who has to account for our actions, alone. It is us who need to wrestle with our inner Gods all night. And only if we are still standing in the morning, we can be truly feel “Israel” – like someone who stood with both men and gods and was not defeated.
Oh, by the way – the meeting went just fine. Esau ran toward his brother, hugged him, kissed him, and made peace (Gen. 33:4). All’s well between the brothers now. [Well, of course things are a bit more complicated, but let’s leave it at that.]
The Rape of Dinna
Dinna’s rape is one of the most complicated stories in Jacob’s history. According to the text, Dinna – one of Leah’s (big sister) daughters – went for a walk, when suddenly a young prince, son of a local king, saw her. He took her to himself, slept with her, and tortured her. The story quickly spreads – “an outrage has been done: someone slept with Jacob’s daughter” and her brothers are called to action. But then a sudden twist: The rapist falls in love with Dinna, and so his father, the local king, asked her father (Jacob) to marry her. Jacob delegated the treatment of this request to his sons. They plot a revenge, whereby they would ask the men to circumcise in order to marry Dinna, and then kill them while in pain. The plan carries out flawlessly, and Shimon and Levi executes it to the last gruesome detail. They save their sister, and everyone’s happy.
Or are they? Even Jacob himself begins having second thoughts when he hears on the price this local tribe had to pay for sleeping with his daughter – they are all dead, their property stolen, and their wives and children taken prisoners. Isn’t that a bit too much, even taking into account the horrific thing done by one of them? (Gen. 34:30) The brothers answer with one sentence ending all conversation, which until today is used all too often by angry brothers (and husbands) who wish to avenge their loved one’s rape: “Should our sister be treated like a whore?” End of conversation. Or is it? You decide. [I will not even venture to assume here that the encounter was not a rape; let us believe the biblical author.]
Shabbat Shalom.
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