Jacob Sends Messengers to Esau and Why the Righteous Stand Firm

(Genesis 32:4-5) Rabbi Pinchas opened in the name of Rabbi Reuben: (Psalms 17:13) "Arise, O LORD, confront him" -- get ahead of the wicked one before he gets ahead of you. "Bring him down" -- tip him onto the scale of guilt; break him, as you say (Psalms 20:9) "they have bowed down and fallen." "Deliver my soul from the wicked, Your sword" -- from that wicked one who comes by the power of that sword, as it says (Genesis 27:40) "and by your sword you shall live." Another interpretation: from that wicked one who is destined to fall by Your sword, as you say "for My sword has drunk its fill in heaven." The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: he was going on his own way, and you were sending word to him saying, "Thus says your servant Jacob." Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon opened: (Proverbs 25:26) "A fouled spring and a ruined fountain is a righteous man who totters before the wicked." Just as it is impossible for a spring to be fouled and a fountain ruined, so it is impossible for a righteous man to totter before a wicked one. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: he was going on his own way, and so on. Rabbi Huna opened: (Proverbs 26:17) "One who seizes a passing dog by the ears is one who meddles in a quarrel not his own." A parable: a band of robbers was sleeping at a crossroads, and a man passed and woke one of them, saying, "Get up, evil is common here." The robber rose and began to beat him. The man said, "May the evil one be cursed -- he was sleeping and you woke him." So the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: he was going on his own way, and so on. "Do not grant, O LORD, the desires of the wicked" -- Master of the world, do not grant wicked Esau the thoughts of his heart. "His scheme do not promote" -- make a muzzle for wicked Esau, that he have no complete peace of mind. And what muzzle did the Holy One, blessed be He, make for him? These are the sons of Barbaria and the sons of Germania, of whom the Edomites are afraid. Another interpretation: "And Jacob sent messengers." What is written just above the matter? "And Jacob said when he saw them, This is God's camp." How large is God's camp? Twenty million, as it says (Psalms 68:18) "the chariots of God are myriads, thousands upon thousands." "And he called the name of that place Mahanaim," two camps -- why? This teaches that Jacob was given forty million ministering angels, and they all appeared as a king's troops: some clad in iron, some riding horses, some at the corners. He met those clad in iron and said, "Whose are you?" They said, "Jacob's." Likewise the horsemen, likewise those at the corners. This is what is written (Genesis 33:8), "What is all this camp that I met?" And Jacob too was mentioning to wicked Esau the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, in order to frighten and alarm him, as it is written, "for I have seen your face" and so on. A parable for Jacob and Esau: to what is the matter likened? To one who invited his fellow to a feast and recognized that he sought to kill him. He said to him, "This dish resembles the dish I tasted in the king's house." The other thought, "The king knows him," grew afraid, and did not kill him. So here, once he said to Esau "as one sees the face of God," wicked Esau said, "The Holy One, blessed be He, has brought him to this honor; I can no longer prevail against him." "Messengers" -- emissaries of flesh and blood. Rabbi Chama bar Chanina said: Hagar was Sarah's maidservant, and five angels were sent to her; this one, the beloved of the house, all the more so. Joseph, the youngest of the tribes, had three angels sent to him. "Before him" -- this one whose time had come to take the kingship before him.