Who Was Jacob Really Wrestling?

Parashat Vayishlach (Genesis 32:4–36:43)

These ideas grew out of reading and meditating on Rabbi Sacks's 10 to 15 weekly essays on the parasha, and on his books and worldview.

One of the most perplexing scenes in the entire Bible is the wrestling of Jacob. It says Jacob was by himself, and then immediately it says he was wrestling with a man. So was he by himself, or was he wrestling with a man? And what was the wrestling about?

This is fundamental to who we are. This is where not just another letter was added to the name of Jacob. A complete new name was added, a new mission, a new destiny, and a name we bear till today: Israel, the man who wrestles with God and men and prevails.

To decipher this mystery, it's worth understanding what happened immediately after this.

Jacob was about to meet Esau, his brother, whom he hadn't met for 22 years. He prepared in three ways: in diplomacy, by trying to appease him and giving him flocks of animals; by praying to God to find grace in his eyes; and by preparing for war. He was afraid and distressed to meet Esau. Afraid for his life, and distressed because he knew Esau was not coming without a case.

He knew why he was coming, because Esau and Jacob had a complex relationship since they were born. Jacob was born grasping the heel of Esau, and later on he took his birthright and bought it from him, and he took a blessing from him. And when Isaac asked him, "Who are you?" he said, "I am Esau, your firstborn." Because Jacob wanted what Esau had, which was the love he thought only Esau had, the love that meant he would be the one to fulfill the covenant. And so he had to go and do some cunning and trickery and take the blessings of Esau.

And later on, when Esau came, he said, "Father, I brought you the food. I prepared the feast for you." Isaac said, "But someone was already here. I already gave him a blessing." And Esau asked him, "Is there anything else you could give me? Any blessing you could give me?" And he said, "Yes, I can give you a blessing." And he gave him a blessing to be a warrior, but not the blessing of the covenant.

Right before Jacob left and ran away from his brother Esau, who was about to kill him, Isaac gives him another blessing. He catches up to him and tells him: wait, I have a blessing to give you. And it's the blessing of the covenant. He blessed him to have the land of Israel, and to have offspring, to be Israel and be the people of the covenant.

He has two paths. The path of the blessing he stole from his brother, which is the blessing of wealth and power, or the covenant of the land of Israel and the peoplehood of Israel. Would he be the man of nature, the man of power and wealth and the blessing of Esau? Or would he be the father of Israel, and have the blessing of the nation of Israel and the land? Would he continue living a life of Jacob, wrestling between the two identities, between the identity of Esau and the identity of Israel? Would he continue wrestling with that? Or would he be a leader like Abraham, and rise to the occasion and accept the calling of being Israel, the man who wrestles with God and with men and prevails?

This was the fight he was having that night. He was by himself, but not by himself. He was with Esau there and God there. He was with man and God. And he was fighting between the two, between the two personalities, between the two identities. Am I going to be a man of nature, or a man who elevates nature? Am I going to be a man of conquering, or a man of blessing? Am I going to be a man of power, or a man of influence?

And so the next day he returns the blessing of Esau. He chooses to be the bearer of the covenant. He chooses the identity of challenging the world, of protest against the world and elevating the world that is, in the name of the world that ought to be. He returns the blessing he took, of richness and of wealth, and he returns flocks and herds back to him. He bows down to him seven times and calls him Adoni, and he calls himself a servant, to give back the blessing of power over him. And then, eventually, he tells him: take my blessing. He returns the blessing he took from Esau and gives it back to him, and tells him: I'm happy with who I am. I have everything. I don't want to take yours. I am the best that I can be. I don't need to be you to be me.

This is the wrestling of Judaism throughout all generations. Even Jacob himself goes back to his name Jacob; he does not stay Israel. He goes in and out between his personalities, because it's not an easy task to do. It's not easy to wrestle with God, and make mistakes and repent and always be closer to Him. It's not easy to wrestle with men, no matter the idol, no matter the age, fighting against the problems that we see. Fighting against paganism, idolatrous practices, child sacrifice, consumerism, materialism, all the different problems. It's not easy to fight against it. It's a higher calling. It's a difficult thing to do.

And that's why we're required to remember it. We don't eat the gid hanasheh; it's a tendon. But it's not about the not eating part. It's about remembering. It's remembering the fact that we are not called to be just Jacob, a cunning person who struggles, who has drama around him from every direction you look, who struggles with his personality of Israel: what personality am I? No, it's to be proud of who we are. To be Israel. To be proud, to show what we have, to tell a story only we can tell, to bring light to the world, to heal the fractured world, and to be a blessing to everybody around us.

It's not an easy task, but it's a task we must rise to. It's the task of Israel.