Five Merits Shielded Jacob and the Touch That Reached the Future

"And he saw that he could not prevail against him." Rabbi Chanina bar Yitzchak said: The Holy One, blessed be He, said: He comes to you with five amulets hanging upon him - his own merit, the merit of his father, the merit of his mother, the merit of his grandfather, and the merit of his grandmother. Measure yourself: can you stand even against his own merit alone? A parable of a king who had a fierce hunting dog and a tame lion. The king would take his son and incite him against the lion, so that if the dog came to attack the son, the king could say: The lion could not stand against him, and you seek to attack my son? So too, if the nations of the world come to attack Israel, He says to them: Your prince could not stand against him, and you seek to attack his children? "And he touched the hollow of his thigh" - he touched the righteous ones destined to come forth from him. And who is this? This is the generation of the religious persecution. "And the hollow of Jacob's thigh was strained." Rabbi Berekhiah and Rabbi Eliezer: Rabbi Berekhiah says he smoothed it flat; Rabbi Eliezer in the name of Rabbi Yose says he split it like a fish; Rav Nachman bar Yaakov said it was dislodged from its place, as you say, "My soul was dislodged from her" (Ezekiel 23:18). Rabbi Chanina bar Yitzchak said: All that night the two of them were striking against one another, this one's shield against that one's shield, until the dawn rose. What is written? "Let me go, for the dawn has broken."