וישלח

Yaakov and the Angel: Who Won the Fight?[1]

Discerning Esav’s game plan

The Rashbam makes a fascinating suggestion related to this week’s Parashah. He argues, contra Rashi, that according to the ‘Ikkar Peshat’, Esav never intended to harm Yaakov. According to Rashbam’s reading, Yaakov misreads the situation and his fears about Esav were unfounded. We are accustomed to thinking that Yaakov’s multi-pronged strategy for facing off with Esav paid dividends and was successful in subduing Esav. But according to the Rashbam it all seems somewhat pointless as Esav had no intention to attack him.[2] Read in this way, instead of appearing shrewd, Yaakov comes across as insecure and paranoid. I will look to modify this approach but it is a useful framework to start with.

As interesting as the suggestion itself, is the Rashbam’s prooftext. The messengers sent by Yaakov to (greet?) Esav say very little when they return to Yaakov:

וַיָּשֻׁבוּ הַמַּלְאָכִים אֶל־יַעֲקֹב לֵאמֹר בָּאנוּ אֶל־אָחִיךָ אֶל־עֵשָׂו וְגַם הֹלֵךְ לִקְרָאתְךָ וְאַרְבַּע־מֵאוֹת אִישׁ עִמּוֹ  (בראשית ל"ב:ז)

The interpretive challenge is to determine whether the connotation of הלך לקראתך is conciliatory or aggressive. To address this point, Rashbam references a similar phrase, used to described Aaron’s joy upon Moshe’s return, where the friendly nature is not in doubt:

באנו אל אחיך אל עשו - ומצאת חן בעיניו כאשר אמרת וגם הנה הוא מתוך ששמח בביאתך ובאהבתו אותך הולך לקראתך וארבע מאות איש עמו לכבודך. זהו עיקר פשוטו. וכן: גם הנה הוא יוצא לקראתך וראך ושמח בלבו (שמות ד:י"ד).[3]

Though the Rashbam’s words are short and concise, the analogy runs much deeper than perhaps even the Rashbam imagined.[4] Both cases describe a reunion (and kiss) between two brothers after the younger brother’s prolonged absence in a foreign country. In both cases, the absence is caused by the younger brother needing to flee due the threat to his life. In both cases the younger brother develops roots abroad, gets married and has children and needs to be instructed by God to return ‘home’. Both have a mysterious struggle with a Divine being on the return journey, narrowly survive, and are renamed following the event. Both encounters are associated with the performance of a mitzvah being Gid HaNasheh and Brit Milah. These two mitzvot relate to proximate organs which are both associated with fertility.[5] Finally, in both cases the younger brother is apprehensive about the older brother’s reaction to the usurping of his position. The significance of the analogy requires separate study, but overall it lends strong support to the Rashbam’s position. In the same way that Moshe had nothing to fear of his older brother and wrongly suspected him of resenting Moshe, so to Yaakov had nothing to fear.

The night crossing

Where the Rashbam’s approach comes under pressure is the attack by the angel (=man). If we assume that the angel was a mystical representation of Esav,[6] then it would seemingly suggest that there was an aggressive aspect to Esav’s approach. To address this point, we need to consider another masterful stroke of the Rashbam. As we read the story, the sequence of events is extremely difficult to understand. Following Yaakov’s detailed preparations for the upcoming encounter with Esav, we are told (twice to be exact) that he lies down to sleep. Next, we are told that Yaakov arises in the middle of the night to traverse the Yabok river (32:23). But what is Yaakov doing crossing a river in the middle of the night? Apart from the danger of navigating a river at night, why is he so keen to cross towards Esav removing the only natural barrier between them?

Given these challenges, the Rashbam makes the bold suggestion that Yaakov was not crossing towards Esav but away from Esav to make an escape, presumably in a northward direction.[7] But this was not part of the original plan. Yaakov cannot sleep the night before the encounter and in desperation tries to give Esav the slip. Why did he get cold feet? Perhaps he was simply scared of being physically overpowered. Perhaps after running away from his brother 22 years ago having stolen his father’s blessing, he is scared to look him in the eye. It seems to be fear mixed with guilt.[8]

According to this suggestion, the purpose of the interception of the angel is clear. It is designed to prevent Yaakov from fleeing and force him to reconcile with Esav. The message God is communicating to Yaakov is that he cannot keep running away and must confront his past actions head on. This means addressing his deception in procuring the blessing of his father. Only by taking responsibility can he go from the name Yaakov to Yisrael; from crooked (עקב) to straight (ישר).

The above assumes that Yaakov made a fateful error to obtain the blessing through deceptive means. This is not the place to show how the theft of the blessing and its consequences are woven into the narrative at every turn.[9] I will simply refer to the climax of the story. As Yaakov approaches Esav, he repeatedly bows down to him multiple times symbolically reversing the effects of the blessing ‘and your brother will bow to you’ (27:29). When Yaakov eventually reaches Esav he says ‘take my blessing’ (33:11) which is a not-so veiled reference to the original blessing received from Yitzchak. There is no reason to assume Yaakov is being disingenuous here and an objective reading surely leads to the straightforward conclusion that Yaakov was righting a historical wrong.[10]

Wrestling the angel

With this backdrop in mind we can now turn to the actual struggle with the angel. We are accustomed to reading the story that the angel started the fight but then Yaakov managed to wrestle the angel into submission. When dawn breaks he has the angel pinned and manages to extract a blessing from him. Jonathan Grossman points to a number of problems with this version of events:

1) The upper hand in the battle seems to flip too quickly. The verse states the angel struck (or touched) Yaakov’s thigh, an injury which turns out to be debilitating. Yet the next thing we hear is that the angel is asking to be released without any prior mention of the fact that Yaakov seized the initiative.

2) If Yaakov was acting in self-defence why does he waste time holding on to the attacker (at this point Yaakov still does not know he is fighting an angel)? He has his family to attend to on the other side of the river with day breaking and Esav fast approaching. Why is the only sense of urgency coming from the angel and why should the angel care that it is dawn?

3) If Yaakov truly has the upper hand in the battle how can the angel refuse to provide him his name?

Based on these challenges and others, Grossman proposes a simple solution. It is not Yaakov holding on to the angel but the angel holding on to Yaakov. It is therefore Yaakov that is pleading to be released at the end of the battle.[11] This does away with the questions above and read in the immediate context makes perfect sense. Yaakov is anxious to get away from the attacker to rejoin his family as they try to slip away from Esav under the cover of darkness. However, his plan is thwarted as he is held up in the struggle with the mysterious man. As dawn breaks, he senses time is running out and desperately begs to be released:

וַיִּוָּתֵר יַעֲקֹב לְבַדּוֹ וַיֵּאָבֵק אִישׁ עִמּוֹ עַד עֲלוֹת הַשָּׁחַר׃ וַיַּרְא כִּי לֹא יָכֹל לוֹ וַיִּגַּע בְּכַף־יְרֵכוֹ וַתֵּקַע כַּף־יֶרֶךְ יַעֲקֹב בְּהֵאָבְקוֹ עִמּוֹ׃ וַיֹּאמֶר שַׁלְּחֵנִי כִּי עָלָה הַשָּׁחַר... (ל"ב:כ"ז)

If we pause at this point in the text, this is certainly the simplest reading. The reason no one thinks to read the verse in this way is because of the subsequent text:

...וַיֹּאמֶר לֹא אֲשַׁלֵּחֲךָ כִּי אִם־בֵּרַכְתָּנִי

Why would an angel demand a blessing from Yaakov? What does that even mean?

Before considering the nature of this blessing, I would like to suggest how this part of the verse can be used as further proof for the proposed reading. As mentioned before, there are a host of parallels between the reunion of Esav and Yaakov and that of Aaron and Moshe. One of those parallels is the struggle with a Divine character prior to the reunion. In the case of Moshe it is of course clear that it was God (via a snake according to Rashi) which was holding on to Moshe. It was then the requisite action of Tzipporah (i.e. Brit Milah) which caused God ‘to release’ Moshe (Ex. 4:26). If we map that sequence on to the episode of Yaakov’s struggle with the angel then we must conclude that it was the angel holding on to Yaakov demanding something (i.e. a blessing) in order to be released.[12]

If this reading is indeed correct, we must establish the significance of the blessing. For this we return to the fact that the motif of the blessing is central to the subsequent episode of the Yaakov’s encounter with Esav. With this point in mind, the request of the angel for a blessing from Yaakov becomes all important. Grossman suggests that it was crucial for the angel to convey to Yaakov that he already has the power of blessing because he is blessed by God. He therefore has no need to steal Esav’s blessing. The content of the blessing is not important here; what’s important is that Yaakov appreciates he himself is a source of blessing due to his direct relationship with God.

But perhaps we can go a little further. When Yaakov desperately pleas with his attacker to be released he is presumably shocked to hear that all his attacker wanted all along was a blessing. If we align with the well-established idea that the angel was acting as a representative of Esav, then what emerges is that the angel was communicating that Yaakov’s fear was self-inflicted and largely imaginary. Esav simply wanted the blessing rightly due to him. As mentioned before, Yaakov expresses his regret at stealing the blessing when he says to Esav ‘take my blessing’, but it is already alluded to in the build-up. Once Yaakov has symbolically returned the blessing, Esav’s affection is genuine. This is a mirror of the battle with the angel. The angel came to attack Yaakov, but once Yaakov agreed to bless the angel they parted in peace. To disarm Esav, all Yaakov needs to do is give him the blessing he is owed. The strategy Yaakov learnt in the struggle with the angel is deployed precisely in the real-life encounter. The end result is that the angel no longer needs to hold to Yaakov and Yaakov no longer needs to hold on to the heel of Esav. The circle is closed.

We can now return to the Rashbam we started with who claimed that Esav’s intention from the outset was peaceful. As strong as the Rashbam’s proof is, it cannot be denied that a contradictory impression is created by the approach of 400 men which is suggestive of a small militia. If the messengers intended to convey with their words that Esav had positive intention then Yaakov seemed to have missed the memo. What this means is that the ambiguity of the messengers is experienced by the reader who, like Yaakov, is left in the dark as to what Esav’s true intentions are. However, it seems that the ambiguity goes to the heart of the story. At the end of the day, whether Esav comes in peace or not is dependent on Yaakov’s own action to rectify the relationship and reconcile with his brother.

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] Notwithstanding a few points of divergence, this post is largely based on J. Grossman, Yaakov: Sippurah Shel Mishpachah (Tel Aviv: Yediot Ahronoth, 2019), 347-391.

[2] I should caveat that the Rashbam is interpreting what the messengers conveyed to Yaakov. Arguably this is not intended to reflect the objective reality.

[3] See also Ex. 4:27 in relation to the same event which is arguably even closer.

וַיֹּאמֶר ה' אֶל־אַהֲרֹן לֵךְ לִקְרַאת מֹשֶׁה הַמִּדְבָּרָה וַיֵּלֶךְ וַיִּפְגְּשֵׁהוּ בְּהַר הָאֱלֹהִים וַיִּשַּׁק־לוֹ (שמות ד:כ"ז)

[4] Rashbam may well have chosen this passage due to the wider parallels. Otherwise, he could have equally turned to an alternative verse for an example of an aggressive association of the same phrase (note this passage relates to Edom blocking the Israelites from entering Israel, reminiscent of the present episode):

וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו אֱדוֹם לֹא תַעֲבֹר בִּי פֶּן־בַּחֶרֶב אֵצֵא לִקְרָאתֶךָ (במדבר כ:י"ח)

[5] Within Tanach, children are sometimes referred to as יוצאי יריכו (see for example Gen. 46:26)

[6] Supported, inter alia, by Yaakov’s association of Esav with the mysterious man he fought:

וַיֹּאמֶר יַעֲקֹב אַל־נָא אִם־נָא מָצָאתִי חֵן בְּעֵינֶיךָ וְלָקַחְתָּ מִנְחָתִי מִיָּדִי כִּי עַל־כֵּן רָאִיתִי פָנֶיךָ כִּרְאֹת פְּנֵי אֱלֹהִים וַתִּרְצֵנִי (בראשית ל"ג:י)

[7] Rashbam’s prooftext here is also very strong. He refers to the episode of David fleeing from Avshalom where the text says that David crossed the river in the middle of the night (to arrive at Machanaim) (Sam. II, 17:22)

[8] It is worth noting that God does not overtly respond to Yaakov’s prayer as one might expect. In more ways than one Yaakov finds himself alone.

[9] Discussed here

[10] Compare to Rashi on the verse

[11] The verse in Hoshe’a is equally ambiguous. Who is beseeching who in the following verse? (See TB Chullin 92a which asks this very question)

וָיָּשַׂר אֶל־מַלְאָךְ וַיֻּכָל בָּכָה וַיִּתְחַנֶּן־לוֹ בֵּית־אֵל יִמְצָאֶנּוּ וְשָׁם יְדַבֵּר עִמָּנוּ (הושע י"ב:ה)

[12] Although the next verse opens with the angel speaking, this does not necessarily prove that the speaker in the prior verse was Yaakov. There are numerous attestations of double speech openings implying lack of response from the other side (due to hesitancy, shock etc). In this case it is readily understandable that Yaakov was shocked to find out that his attacker wished to procure a blessing from him.