Vayishlach: Wrestling with Oneself

Vayishlach holds much ambiguity. First, there is the moral ambiguity around the story of Dina and Shechem. Then, there is the case of the figure Ya’akov wrestles with as he makes his journey home. Though the Torah identifies this being as an איש, a ‘man’ (Gen. 32:25), Ya’akov, towards the end of their struggle, identifies his adversary as divine, saying כי-ראיתי א-ם פנים אל-פנים, ‘because I have seen a divine being face to face’ (Gen. 32:31). Looking across Tanach’s corpus, R’ Sacks writes that in Hoshea this being is referred to as ‘an angel’, whilst for the Sages, he was ‘the guardian angel of [Esav]’.[1] I would argue that this being could, in fact, reflect divinity, Esav and Ya’akov himself all at once, but even this is ambiguous, as the three interpretations could yield different meanings. How we choose to define the figure, therefore, changes how we understand this episode in Tanach.

Beginning in media res, in the middle of the action, there is no formal introduction to this episode, no explanation of why it is taking place. One moment Ya’akov is helping his wives, children and possessions across the river Yabok, and the next he is ‘left alone’ (Gen. 32:24), the text ‘turn[ing] a pirouette and plant[ing] us in the midst of a struggle that lasts until dawn’ according to academic Steven Molen.[2] He notes that ‘the effect is jarring’, yet it does not seem down to a stylistic choice; far from it, this moment in Tanach is not preceded by ‘the biblical hallmark of [ויהי] “behold”’, as with Ya’akov’s other encounters with the divine.[3]Without this lexical marker, the text’s ambiguity is deepened, giving us as readers the chance to think about what this figure could mean, or represent, in the course of Ya’akov’s life and as the impending leader of the nation of Israel.

Let’s begin with the concept that this being is a representative of Esav, as the Sages suggested with their idea that this is a ‘guardian angel of [Esav].[4] From his first appearance in Tanach, Ya’akov is defined by sibling rivalry, grasping his brother’s heel to beat him to being firstborn. Molen writes that Ya’akov is ‘known and epitomised by [t]his first action’, his name reflecting this, literally translating as ‘heel-grabber’.[5] That this being asks for Ya’akov’s name specifically (Gen. 32:28) is suggestive of the fact that he is still defined by this action and the cascade of behaviour which followed – the brothers’ diametrically opposed personalities in a bid to outdo one another, Ya’akov’s deception for the birthright. Throughout his life Ya’akov has wrestled with his brother emotionally, yet he has spent years in hiding, having run away from his brother’s wrath. In returning home, Ya’akov is aware that he will have to face him, sending ahead presents for Esav to soften his brother towards him (Gen. 32:14). The night before he is to meet him physically, Ya’akov is forced to face up to his behaviour by wrestling with his brother’s representative, confronting the sibling rivalry that has marred their relationship and his life. It is a chance for Ya’akov to look squarely at his fraternal relationship and perhaps change its course. In fact, in winning this fight, he does just that. When the two brothers meet again, Esav runs to greet him, falling on his neck and embracing him, the two men weeping (Gen. 33:5). When they separate to follow their different paths, they part as friends, as brothers, Ya’akov going so far as to say that seeing his brother once more is like ‘seeing the face of G-d’ (Gen. 33:10). This phrase reinforces this interpretation of the wrestling figure as a representative, celestial or metaphorical, of Esav, given that Ya’akov describes his night-time wrestle as having been ‘face to face’ (Gen. 32:31) with the divine, variations of the word פנים echoing across the verses.

Another lens through which to understand this moment in Vayishlach is to explore the idea that this figure represents Ya’akov himself, or a part of his being, something which allows us to understand how Ya’akov can be both ‘alone’ and wrestling simultaneously. As we have already seen with the previous interpretation, Ya’akov’s life has been defined by sibling rivalry and deception, the latter manifesting internally and externally. Not only does he deceive his brother, but he, too, is deceived by Lavan, who marries him to Leah rather than to Rachel, trapping him in a cycle of work so he can eventually marry the woman he loves. In his psychoanalytic reading of this episode, Michael Abramsky reflects on this, writing that ‘the trickster dominates [Ya’akov]’, his character being ‘cerebral, clever, and goal directed […] aware of the frailties of others’.[6] He goes on to reflect that these themes of ‘deception, sibling rivalry, and [Ya’akov’s] refusal to accept the rules of the primogenitor […] create intergenerational conflict and resonate with other times’ in his life, the only way for him to shed these cycles being to transform how he approaches his life and purpose.[7]If this figure represents these parts of Ya’akov – the parts that have a tendency towards deception – then this moment is the chance for him to wrestle with that and alter his relationship with himself. Abramsky goes so far as to say that this episode of Tanach represents a moment of teshuva, repentance, in which Ya’akov recognises that the way for him to take on his ‘own assigned role’ in the ‘G-d-given relationship’ of the covenant is to stop chasing Esav’s role, his actions in this moment allowing him to open himself up to ‘G-d’s higher mission for [him], to [his] true authenticity’.[8] Following his night-time wrestle, Ya’akov is able to accept Esav as his father’s firstborn, his heir, and establish ‘his own unique identity as a patriarch’, giving him the chance to take on the name Israel and become the next father of the Jewish nation.[9]

When we combine these two interpretations – of the figure as being both a representative of Esav and a representative of parts of Ya’akov – we have a greater understanding of how Ya’akov is able to exit this fight as a completely different person, a person who is ready to take his place in the Abrahamic covenant. Overnight – quite literally – Ya’akov ‘escape[s the] wheel of repetition’ which has governed his life by entering a ‘different realm of consciousness’, a realm defined by the divine and the spiritual.[10] Though Ya’akov is physically maimed by this encounter – the figure wrenching Ya’akov’s hip at his socket so that he walks away from this fight limping (Gen. 32:26, 32), informing halachot of kashrut (Gen. 32:33) – he is transformed spiritually. Ya’akov understands this somehow; as Jeffrey Cohen writes, ‘[Ya’akov understands that he] is fighting for the meaning and worth of his life’.[11] He knows that ‘it is not simply a matter of victory or defeat, but of accepting his guilt or asserting his righteousness’, a matter of changing the cycles of his internal world so that he may truly take on the role of leader which he has unconsciously been chasing via deception.[12] Instead of stealing the role from his brother, he fights for it himself, and in return he is endowed with the human and the divine, renamed ‘Israel’ in acknowledgement of the fact that he has ‘striven with beings divine and human’ (Gen. 32:29). Ya’akov proves that if we are able to face up to our pasts, to the elements of ourselves that hinder us, and change them through working on ourselves and developing our approach to life, we are able to pursue our true potential and purpose. The ambiguity of who or what this figure is remains, yet in some ways it no longer matters. What matters is what the figure represents: the ability to transcend and transform, becoming the version of ourselves that can truly elevate our relationships with the world, with those closes to us, with ourselves, and with G-d. Each of us wrestles everyday as Ya’akov did, and it is in this fight that we truly live.

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[1] Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Studies in Spirituality, (2021), pg.33

[2] Steven Molen, ‘The Identity of Jacob’s Opponent: Wrestling with Ambiguity in Gen. 32:22-32’ in Shofar Vol.11 No.2, (1993), pp.16-29, pg.18

[3] Molen, pg.18

[4] R’ Sacks, Studies in Spirituality, pg.33

[5] Molen, pg.22

[6] Michael Abramsky, ‘Jacob Wrestles with the Angel: A Study in Psychoanalytic Midrash’ in International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Vol.29 No.1, (2010), pp.106-117, pg.108

[7] Abramsky, pg.111-112

[8] Abramsky, pg.114

[9] Abramsky, pg.114

[10] Abramsky, pg.112

[11] Jeffrey M. Cohen, ‘Struggling with Angels and Men’ in Jewish Bible Quarterly, Vol.31 No.2, (2003), pp.126-128, pg.128

[12] Cohen, pg.128