Parashat Va'yish'lach

The eighth portion of the week, Va’yish’lach – literally, “and he sent,” as in “Ya’akov has sent agents to his brother Esav” – continues to reveal the fascinating story of our third Forefather, Ya’akov (soon to be named Israel).  Indeed, last week we reviewed Ya’akov’s twenty years of service with Laban, a period summarized by Ya’akov in a very moving monologue at the end of the portion. Now we enter a new era, one in which Ya’akov prepares for a meeting he dreaded (and escaped from) for twenty years – the reunion with his brother Esav.  The portion also includes the famous story known as the Rape of Dina, Ya’akov’s daughter. I will make a short comment on each of those subjects.

I. “And Ya’akov remained on his own…”

Careful and meticulous – that is how the text describes Ya’akov’s preparations for his meeting with his twin brother Esav for the first time in twenty years. To recall:  This is the same brother who said, even before their father Yitzchak passed, “Let the mourning period of my father end, and I will kill my brother Ya’akov.” (Gen. 27:41)   This is the same brother from whom Ya’akov escaped to the other end of the Middle East.  This is the same brother from whom Ya’akov bought (or stole, if you ask Esav) the precious right of the first-born, the birthright, and then received their father’s blessings for it (or stole it yet again, according to the same version).   

And Ya’akov knows – what proves to be right – that his homecoming ceremony cannot be kept a secret. Somehow, despite the lack of internet or cable news in those days, everyone seems to know that Ya’akov – with his vast amount of property, two wives, two midwives, and eleven sons – is coming back to town. So Ya’akov prepares, and he prepares well.  He is hoping for the best but planning for the worst.  He begins by what every good general would do: gathering intelligence.  So he sends a group of reconnaissance warriors to find out about Esav’s intentions and actions. ((A textual note: It is interesting to note that the warriors, who are no doubt human, are described by the Hebrew original as “angels” (“Mal’a’chim”; Gen. 32:4), while the “real” angel that appears later in the portion is described as “a man” (“Eash”; Gen. 32:26)). Ya’akov then asks these men to deliver a message to his brother – basically that he has been living with Lavan (a relative of both brothers) and that now he, Ya’akov, would like to appease Esav. But when these messengers return to Ya’akov they mention nothing about a message delivered; rather, their report is somewhat bleak: “We arrived at your brother, at Esav, and there he was – marching towards you and [a small army of] four hundred men with him.” (Gen. 32:7, my translation).  

Ya’akov, realizing the gravity of the situation, begins to prepare accordingly. He first divides his property, theorizing that if Esav would hit the first camp he would at least have the other to save.  He then prays to God and asks for salvation – something he hasn’t done, perhaps, in twenty years.  But our Third Father also realizes (and internalizes) the very important notion according to which God only helps those who help themselves: He thus prepares a major gift for his brother – hundreds of sheep, ewes, rams, camels, cows, and bulls – and then divides it, too, into several groups.  He instructs his slaves to keep a safe distance between each group of presents, such that every time Esav would run into one of them he – Esav – would hear the exact same text: “this is a gift from your servant Ya’akov.” (Gen. 32:19) Ya’akov then takes his two wives, two midwives, and eleven sons and crosses the Jordan into Israel.  So far for Ya’akov’s meticulous planning. [Consider, in that respect, Ya’akov’s previous encounters with his brother and how well prepared was he for those as well – as in buying the Birthright for a well-cooked stew, and receiving the blessings from father Isaac by wearing sheep’s skin on his bear arms; for Ya’akov, it has always been about preparation.]

And after all that preparation, after taking care of his family, his property, his men, and his brother – after all that, Ya’akov is left on his own: “…  And Ya’akov remained on his own” (Gen. 32:25).

And then he wrestles all night with an apparent Angel (the issue of the angel’s true nature is far from self-evident, but I cannot enter that discussion here). After Ya’akov insists on receiving a blessing, the Angel blesses him and changes his name to Israel, as he could be present – “sari’ta” – 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 Ya’akov’s – now called Israel.

The text does not explain why or how Ya’akov, 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 an angel.  But perhaps I may offer one direction to think about it; and that direction relates directly to the heart of the human spirit, to the ultimate understanding of the human mind. 

After all the careful preparations, after all the meticulous planning, after all the cost-benefit analyses, game-theory considerations, and damage-control scenarios – Ya’akov is left alone.  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 at night before the big event, the meeting with his twin brother after twenty years. It is he who has to find his own God and wrestle with him all night. 

And this, I am 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 (not only for the president who coined the term).  We may plan all we want, persuade ourselves that we have externalized all the risk in the world, hide behind the most cutting-edge theories and well thought-out doctrines; but at the end of the day, it is us – each and every one of us – who has to account for their actions, all on our own. 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.

And, in case you are still wondering:  The actual meeting with Esav went just fine. Esav ran toward his brother, hugged him, kissed him, and made peace (Gen. 33:4). All’s well between the brothers now.  [To be sure, things are a bit more complicated than that; but let’s leave it at that for now.]

II. The Rape of Dina

Dina’s rape is one of the most complicated stories in Ya’akov’s history.  According to the text, Dina – the only daughter of Ya’akov, who came from Leah (big sister) – went for a walk, when suddenly a young prince, the 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 Ya’akov’s daughter” and her brothers are called into action.  But then a sudden twist:  The rapist falls in love with Dina, which apparently was not part of the plan. And so the prince’s father, the local king, asks Dina’s father (Ya’akov) for permission to marry her.  Ya’akov, not a young lad, delegates the treatment of this delicate political issue to his sons.  They plot a revenge, whereby they would ask the men to circumcise themselves as a precondition to the wedding, and then kill them while still in pain from the procedure. The plan carries out flawlessly, and Shimon and Levi execute it to its last gruesome detail. They save their sister, and everyone’s happy. 

Or are they? Even Ya’akov himself start having second thoughts when he hears about the price this local tribe had to pay for sleeping with his daughter; their men are all dead, their property gone, their wives and children taken prisoners of war. Isn’t that too much, wonders Ya’akov even taking into account the horrific thing done by one of theirs?  (Gen. 34:30) The brothers answer with a single sentence – or rhetorical question, more accurately – which promptly ends all discussion. In fact, this same single sentence is still used today by angry brothers (and husbands) who wish to avenge their loved one’s rape: “Should our sister be treated like a whore?”  (Gen. 34:31)

You decide.

Shabbat Shalom.

Doron