Parshat Vayishlach6 min read

The Angels Changed Guard as Jacob's Body Melted to Wax

At the border of Canaan one host of angels climbs and another descends to take the watch, and word of Esau's four hundred men turns Jacob to wax.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Watch Changed Where the Land Ended
  2. Two Camps Met Him at Mahanaim
  3. The Messengers He Sent to Esau
  4. His Body Turned to Wax
  5. God Set Michael and Gabriel at His Side
  6. He Made Ready for Prayer, Gift, and War
The Angels Changed Guard as Jacob's Body Melted to Wax Click for full size

The Watch Changed Where the Land Ended

On the road down from Paddan-aram, at the seam where the Land of Israel ends and the outer country begins, the air thickened with wings. Jacob did not see the first company leave. He felt the change the way a house feels different when one set of guests has gone and the next has not yet spoken. Above him the angels who had walked the fields of Canaan with him climbed the rungs of light and went up, and from the far side of the border a second company came down to take the watch. It had happened once before, years earlier, when he first fled toward Haran and lay with a stone under his head. Then he had seen a ladder set on the earth with its top in heaven, and the angels of God going up and coming down on it. Up first, then down. Anyone who descends has first to climb, so the order should have run the other way. It did not. The ones who had guarded him inside the Land rose, and strangers took their place to guard him in exile.

Two Camps Met Him at Mahanaim

Now, coming home, the exchange ran in reverse. The exile-angels who had kept him alive among the flocks of Laban went up. The homeland-angels came down to meet him. Jacob lifted his eyes and saw both companies standing on the road, the ones who had brought him out and the ones who had held the border while he was gone. He named the place for what he saw. Not "camp," in the singular, but Mahanaim, two camps, because two hosts of heaven stood there at once. A plan formed in him. He had more messengers on that road than any king could field, and he would take some from this company and some from that, and send them ahead of him.

The Messengers He Sent to Esau

So Jacob sent angels ahead of him to Esau his brother, into the country of Seir. If it seems strange that a man should command the hosts of heaven as couriers, consider the smallest and least of his house. Years later he would say to his youngest son, Joseph, "Go now, see whether it is well with your brothers." The boy went looking and lost his way, and a man found him wandering in a field. "What are you seeking?" the man asked. Joseph said he was seeking his brothers. "They have journeyed from here," the man told him, "for I heard them say, let us go to Dothan." That was no shepherd. He was an angel, and the name of the place he spoke, Dothan, held the reason he was standing there, for it sounds out dat Yah, the religion of God, and he was set to guard the covenant the boy carried. If a lost boy could be answered by an angel on an empty road, and if even Hagar the maidservant, cast out with her son and a waterskin, had angels call to her from heaven, three of them by one counting, then it was no wonder at all that Jacob could send them.

His Body Turned to Wax

Then the messengers came back, and the news broke him. Esau was coming to meet him, and four hundred men were coming with him. Jacob had bought a birthright and taken a blessing, and now the brother he had outrun for twenty years was on the road with an army. Fear went through him and did not stop at fear. His body began to soften and run like wax held too near a flame, the flesh losing its own shape on the ground. A voice, the Holy Spirit itself, called down over him a hard word: "If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small." It was not comfort. It was a rebuke aimed at the very center of the man who was pouring out of his own skin.

God Set Michael and Gabriel at His Side

In that hour the Holy One spoke to him. "Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yea, I will help you, I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness." Every clause was a body sent to stand beside him. "I will strengthen you" meant Michael, set at his right hand. "I will help you" meant Gabriel, set at his left. The wax cooled. The shape came back. And the promise he had first heard on the night of the ladder returned to him now at the border, in the same words: "Behold, I am with you."

He Made Ready for Prayer, Gift, and War

Then Jacob, a man again and no longer running on the ground, divided the people who were with him into two companies. He armed them under their clothes and dressed them in white on the outside, so that whoever met them would see peace and find iron. He made himself ready three ways at once. A gift went out ahead of him across the ford, drove after drove, to soften a brother's face. His hands made ready for war, if Esau came against the one camp and struck it. His knees made ready for prayer. "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac," he said, "I am unworthy of all the kindnesses and all the truth You have shown Your servant. Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau." The Holy One heard him out and answered the fear beneath the words. "You have called upon Me," He said. "By your life, I will deliver you." Two angels stood on the road where a man had almost poured out of his own body, and beyond the ford four hundred swords were still coming on.

JacobEsauMichaelGabrielGuardian AngelsMahanaimVayishlach
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From the tradition

Sources

2 sources

The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayishlach 3:1Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayishlach

Translation of the source text.Midrash Tanchuma (Buber), Public Domain, on Sefaria · CC-BY-SA

"And Jacob sent angels" (Genesis 32:4). This is what Scripture says: "For He will charge His angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways" (Psalms 91:11). When? At the time when a person is in the Land of Israel, the angels who are in the Land of Israel guard him. And from whom do you learn this? From Jacob. For at the time when he sought to go outside the Land, what is written? "And he dreamed, and behold a ladder," etc., "and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it" (Genesis 28:12). It should only have said "descending and ascending," for once a person descends, he ascends. Yet it says "ascending and descending." This tells you: those angels who had been guarding him in the Land of Israel ascended, and others descended to guard him outside the Land. He did not do otherwise: when he came from Paddan-aram, those angels who had been guarding him in the Land of Israel descended, as it is said, "And Jacob said when he saw them," etc., "and he called the name of that place Mahanaim" (Genesis 32:3). "Camp" (mahaneh) is not written here, but "Mahanaim", two camps: those first ones and those latter ones. What did Jacob do? When he wished to send to Esau, he took from these and from those and sent, and as it is said, "And Jacob sent angels." And do not be astonished, for behold, the youngest of his household spoke with the angel. Who is this? This is Joseph. For when he said to him, "Go now and see," etc. (Genesis 37:14), what is written? "And a man found him," etc. (Genesis 37:15). What did he say to him? "And the man said: They have journeyed from here," etc. (Genesis 37:17). What is "Dothan"? That this angel was guarding the religion of Yah (dat Yah). And you, do not be astonished about Jacob that he sent angels, nor about Joseph, rather, even with Hagar the angels spoke. What is written? "And an angel of God called to Hagar" (Genesis 21:17). How many angels spoke with her? Rabbi Levi said, and our Rabbis said: three. And if the maidservant converses with the angels, do not be astonished about Jacob who sent the angels. Therefore it is written, "And Jacob sent angels."

Full source
Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayishlach 6:2Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayishlach

Translation of the source text.Midrash Tanchuma (Buber), Public Domain, on Sefaria · CC-BY-SA

Another interpretation of "And Jacob was afraid" (Genesis 32:8): Our Rabbis said: His body became like this wax, and the Holy Spirit cries out, "If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small" (Proverbs 24:10). In that hour the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, "Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I strengthen you, indeed I help you" (Isaiah 41:10). "I strengthen you", through Michael; "I help you", through Gabriel; "indeed I uphold you with My righteous right hand" (ibid.); "Behold, I am with you" (Genesis 28:15).

In that hour, "And he divided the people who were with him" (Genesis 32:8). What did he do? He armed them on the inside and clothed them in white on the outside, and he prepared himself for three things: for prayer, for a gift, and for war. For a gift, from where? "And the gift passed on before him" (Genesis 32:22). For war, from where? "And he said, If Esau comes" (Genesis 32:9). For prayer, from where? "And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac" (Genesis 32:10). What is written after it? "I am unworthy of all the kindnesses and of all the truth... Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau" (Genesis 32:11-12). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: You have called upon Me; by your life, I will deliver you, as it is said, "He shall call to Me, You are my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation" (Psalms 89:27).

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