Vayishlach/He Sent - Shabbat 11/20/10
“No longer shall your name be called Jacob, but rather Israel (Yisrael),
for you have striven (sarita) with beings divine and human and have prevailed.” (Gen. 32:29)
After leaving Lavan’s household, Jacob prepares to confront his brother, Esau. That night he wrestles with a mysterious figure who ultimately blesses him and renames him Yisrael (Israel). Jacob overcomes his adversary yet his thigh is injured during the struggle; for this reason Jews to this day do not eat meat around the sciatic nerve. When the brothers finally meet, they embrace and part ways peacefully. Later they reunite to bury their father, Isaac.
Jacob relocates with his family to Shechem, where his only daughter, Dina, is abducted by the prince of the region. Jacob’s sons retaliate by convincing the men of Shechem to undergo circumcision and subsequently putting them to the sword and plundering the city. Jacob is displeased by their extreme reaction and, fearful that his family will be endangered, moves once again. En route to Efrat, Rachel gives birth to a second son who is named Benjamin. She dies in childbirth, and is buried on the road near Bethlehem.
In the section of the Mishnah called Pirkei Avot (or Ethics of the Fathers), the Sages teach, “Who is mighty (gibor) – one who subdues his own impulse (yitzro).” Jacob strives to be mighty – to be a gibor by getting ahead – from the time he grabs Esau’s heel in the womb. To reach his goals, Jacob succumbs to his evil impulse, his yetzer hara. He rarely lets a chance to be deceptive or manipulative pass; he takes advantage of his exhausted brother, tricks his blind father, and in last week’s portion even has the chutzpah to insist that God meet certain demands of his.
But after struggling with a mysterious, unidentified figure – perhaps the embodiment of his own yetzer hara – Jacob emerges with a new name, identity and outlook. He outgrows his earlier identity as Jacob the trickster and manipulator, and instead becomes Israel, who engages with spiritual struggle. He reconciles peacefully with his brother, and declares that he can see God in the face of others. Despite the injury he sustains, Jacob is described as “shalem,” which connotes “wholeness,” ultimately becoming what he always strove to be - a true gibor. May all of our struggles result in transformative growth, and may our mightiness stem from our ability to conquer our own impulses.
