“He said: If Esau will come upon the one camp, and smite it, the remaining camp will escape” (Genesis 32:9). “And Jacob said: the Lord of my father Abraham, and the Lord of my father Isaac, God who told me: Go back to your land and your birthright, and I will benefit you" (Genesis 32:10). “Deliver me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and smite me, mother, and children, alike” (Genesis 32:12).
“He said: If Esau will come upon the one camp, and smite it” – at that moment, our patriarch Jacob said before the Holy One blessed be He: ‘Master of the universe, it is written in Your Torah: “A bull or a sheep, it and its offspring you shall not slaughter on one day” (Leviticus 22:28). If this wicked one comes and eradicates my children and their mothers as one, the Torah scroll that You are destined to give on Mount Sinai, who will read it?
I implore You, deliver me from his hand, “lest he come and smite me mother and children alike,”’ as it is stated: “Deliver me, please.” “And Jacob slept there on that night, and he took from what he had as a present for his brother Esau” (Genesis 32:14). What did he [Jacob] do? He arose and sent him a gift in order to blind his eyes, as it is stated: “As the bribe will blind the eyes of the wise” (Deuteronomy 16:19), and the wise are none other than Edomites, as it is stated: “I will eliminate the wise from Edom and understanding from the mountain of Esau” (Obadiah 1:8).
“Two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams” (Genesis 32:15). “Nursing camels and their offspring thirty, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys” (Genesis 32:16). “He placed them in the charge of his servants, each drove by itself; he said to his servants: Go ahead of me, and maintain a distance between one drove and the other drove” (Genesis 32:17).
“He placed them in the charge of his servants, each drove by itself.” What is: “Maintain a distance”? Jacob said before the Holy One blessed be He: ‘Master of the universe, if troubles will befall my descendants, do not bring them one after another, but rather, create distance for them between their troubles.’ At that moment, Jacob lifted his eyes sand saw that Esau was coming from afar, and he directed his eyes heavenward, wept, and requested mercy from before the Holy One blessed be He.
He heard his prayer and promised him that he would deliver him22Him and his descendants. from all his troubles due to Jacob’s merit, as it is stated: “The Lord will answer you at a time of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob will fortify you” (Psalms 20:2).