"I have remained a stranger at Laban's" (Genesis 32:5). Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev reports his father's brilliant reading of Jacob's message to Esau. The Hebrew word garti (גרתי), "I sojourned," has the numerical value of 613, a signal that Jacob had observed all 613 commandments of the Torah even in Laban's corrupt household.
Jacob was not boasting. He was defusing a potential threat. Esau knew that their father Isaac's blessings, "May God give you from the dew of heaven and the fat of the earth" (Genesis 27:28), were conditional on Jacob's righteousness. Isaac himself had told Esau, "When you are aggrieved, you may shake off his yoke" (Genesis 27:40), meaning: if Jacob fails to keep the commandments, the blessings revert to you. Jacob's message was strategic: I kept every commandment, yet I own no land, so Father's material blessings were clearly not fulfilled through me. You have nothing to avenge.
When Jacob later prayed, "Save me from my brother, from Esau" (Genesis 32:12), the doubled language hints at a deeper fear. Esau represents the sitra achra (סטרא אחרא), the negative spiritual force, Satan, the angel of death. Jacob was not only praying for physical safety. He was praying that his brother should not become a vehicle for the evil inclination, which sometimes disguises sin as a mitzvah in order to trap the righteous.
Jacob then reminded God, "You have said: I will surely do good for you" (Genesis 32:13). The doubling, heitiv eitiv (היטב איטיב), means a specific kind of goodness: the kind that everyone can recognize. There are blessings only the recipient perceives. And there are blessings so obvious that the entire world acknowledges them as divine gifts. Jacob asked for the latter, a kindness so transparent that no one could mistake it for coincidence.
Genesis 32,4. “I have remained a stranger at Lavan’s” (all the time); my late father of blessed memory, commented on Rashi’s interpretation of Yaakov having chosen the word גרתי, that he referred to the numerical value of the letters in this word being 613, a symbol of the 613 commandments of the Torah that Yaakov observed even while in Padan Aram. He supposedly emphasized to Esau that in spite of his having acquired considerable wealth, none of it had been at the expense of Esau, as his father’s blessing which was: “may the Lord give you from the dew of heaven and the fat parts of the earth” (Genesis 27,28) had not been fulfilled. Should Esau counter that the reason Yitzchok’s blessing had not been fulfilled was that he, Yaakov, had not observed the commandments, this was not so. Esau knew that his father’s blessings were conditional on a certain mode of conduct by Yaakov, and that is why he had told him (Genesis 27,40) והיה כאשר תריד ופרקת עול מעל צוארך, (according to Rashi) “if the Israelites will fail to observe the commandment, you will be able to shake off his yoke from your neck.” Yaakov hints to his brother that in spite of having observed the commandments he does not own any land, so that his father’s blessings could not have been fulfilled. Yaakov reassures Esau that he has no reason to revenge himself for Yaakov having obtained this blessing. Genesis 32,11. “please save me from my brother, i.e. from Esau;” Esau represents the negative side of the emanations, Satan, the angel of death, the evil urge within us. Yaakov prays that his brother should not turn out to be a Satan in disguise, just as the evil urge sometimes portrays something sinful as if it were a good deed, a מצוה, so as to enable us to salvage our conscience when following his advice. Genesis 32,12. “seeing that You have said to me that ‘I will keep doing good for you.’” The meaning of the repetition היטב איטיב is that the “goodness” that G’d will perform for Yaakov is of the kind that everyone around him can recognize as such. There are acts of loving kindness performed by G’d for individuals who recognize them as such, as for instance, when G’d answered a prayer of theirs; on the other hand, prayers in which the petitioner asked for something that no one else was aware of as being an object of that person’s longing, even when fulfilled, will not be seen by outsiders as benevolent acts of G’d. Something that appears to be a curse when viewed by one person, is viewed as a blessing by another person. Yaakov reminds G’d that He had promised him the kind of help that would be recognized by one and all as a special blessing. Another way of understanding the line ואתה אמרת היטב איטיב עמך, is that even when G’d shares out His largesse to both the Jewish people and the gentiles, there is always a difference. When this “largesse” is bestowed on the Jewish people the intent is invariably for their benefit. When it is dispensed to the gentiles, the gentiles may see in it something positive, whereas in the long run it is something that works to the detriment of the recipients.Let us explain this apparent paradox by referring to Deuteronomy 7,10, where Moses speaks of G’d “paying” the sinner to his “face.” Moses touches on the subject known to us under the heading of צדיק ורע לו, רשע וטוב לו, “why does it appear often that the person we perceive as a just person suffers a great deal in this world, whereas the patently wicked person appears to enjoy every day of his life on earth.” Moses describes the reward in store for the wicked, for they too have performed some good deeds for which G’d owes them a reward,- as “payment,” משלם. He has to do it while the wicked person is alive as he has no afterlife to look forward to. The righteous who has an eternity of life on a different plane to look forward to, need not lose some of this by being ‘paid” by G’d for his good deeds while here on earth. Yaakov, when referring to היטב איטיב, refers to G’d bestowing such “good” on him for the sake of the good itself, not as “payment” for good deeds performed. Gentiles, i.e. pagans, have no claim to that kind of “good.” Genesis 32,17. “when my brother Esau will meet you and ask you to whom these herds belong, etc;” it is a rule that when a person approaches G’d with a request, that the evil urge within him tries to convince him that he is entitled to make whatever request from G’d that he has in mind, and that certain privileges on this earth are part of this entitlement as part of his serving the Lord. The evil urge, in its wisdom, acts as if it had been defeated by not immediately protesting that individual’s request by pointing out to G’d that person’s shortcomings. At a later stage, when such a person has already established a more intimate relationship vis a vis his Creator so that he realizes that his service of the Lord is not meant to secure him rewards on earth, but is meant to provide a sense of satisfaction for his Creator that one of His creatures fulfils his purpose in life, he has reached the stage where the evil urge, also known as Esau, encounters such a G’d-serving person head on. The “angels” of Yaakov, are a euphemism for this person’s thoughts. At that point, attempting to interfere with progress of such a personality towards spiritual perfection, Esau, i.e. the evil urge, asks these “angels” who are the creations of the person’s performance of G’d’s commandments, where they are headed, i.e. אנה תלך. The person is advised (the point of the Torah relating this encounter) to blunt such questions by saying that they have been created by “your servant Yaakov;” he is told to assuage the evil urge by saying that his good deeds are a “gift” to him (the evil urge), seeing that the evil urge is also one of G’d’s creatures and as such entitled to some recognition. Genesis 32,25. “when he realized that he could not overcome him he injured his hip joint.” The subjects alluded to here are the three parts of the universe, 1) the world of the disembodied spirits, angels, collectively known as שרפים 2) the inert “stars,” planets and galaxies in outer space, and 3) the living creatures in our own “lower” part of the universe. In our part of the universe, i.e. in man, the head represents the domain of the angels in the “upper” part of the universe, the part of man that enables him to recognize his Creator.The heart (within man) symbolizes the region we call outer space, home to galaxies in the domain known as עולם הגלגלים, the world of the orbiting planets and galaxies. According to the Sefer Yetzirah, heart, soul, enable man to recognise the recurring seasons, and what makes up a year by observing them in motion and realizing that a Creator must have directed their orbits. Finally, the thighs of man ירכים, represent the “lower universe,” a domain in which G’d must be served by means of His creatures having faith in their Creator. ירכים, thighs, are viewed as tools by means of which man is able to recognize the presence and power of a Creator. ירכים is another word for רגלים, which does not only mean “legs,” but is related to הרגל, habit, the danger that man serves G’d only from rote, lip service. When Yaakov is described as “the sun was shining for him”, ויזרח לו השמש, this is a hint that from that point on Yaakov worshipped G’d also by means of his intellect. His faith henceforth was more or less secure against arguments by the evil urge that could have confused him in his faith. The word י-עקב, was an allusion to his serving G’d as an עקב, an appendix, similar to the heel; once he had the name ישראל added to his name, he had acquired the letters ראש, (head) as part of his name, signifying the far loftier spiritual plateau that formed the basis of his faith. Genesis 32,26. “He said: ‘’let me go for dawn is breaking’”. A look at Rashi on this line reveals that he considers this a request by the spiritual alter-ego of Esau to take his turn in the heavenly choir praising the Lord in the world of the שרפים, disembodied creatures, every morning. The Midrash, (Bereshit Rabbah 78,2 and Chulin 91) commented that this “angel’s” turn to recite these praises of the Lord had not previously occurred so that he was most disturbed not to miss this opportunity of doing so. We need to understand why this angel’s turn to recite these praises of the Lord had come just then.It seems that the spiritual representatives in heaven of all the nations sing the praises of the Lord. The timing of their doing so, usually coincides with whenever one of the nations on earth whom they represent in the celestial spheres, had performed an act of kindness for the Jewish people. This enables their respective representative at the heavenly court to act as a powerful advocate on behalf of their charges down on earth. Esau at that time had done a kindness for Yaakov, which enabled his celestial representative to stake his claim to take his turn in the lineup waiting to sing these praises in the heavenly choir. As this had been the first time Esau had done something kind for Yaakov, his spiritual representative had never yet had an opportunity to be part of that choir. Genesis 32,28. “He said: ‘your name will no longer be Yaakov, but Israel, for you have contended both with celestial forces and with human forces and you have prevailed.’” There are people who constantly remain attached to G’d even while they are engaged in conversation with human beings. There are other people, who while engaged in a conscious effort to serve the Lord, concentrate on this to the exclusion of everything else; these people while engaged in mundane activities, such as business conversations with their peers, cannot at the same time remain conscious of their duties towards their Creator. The first type of person deserves the title: “Israel;” as the letters ישר, “upright,” as well as the letters ראש, “head,” are part of that title. The second category of person, (observant Jew) is called יעקב, i.e. י-עקב, meaning that his attachment to G’d is עקב, “secondary,” just as a heel is a secondary and not a primary organ. Esau’s celestial representative acknowledged that Yaakov was a person for the first category, since in his dealings with man he never lost sight of his primary duties to his G’d. Genesis 32,30. “Yaakov named the site of this encounter ‘Peniel’, for I have seen the Divine face to face and I have remained alive.” There are people who serve the Lord in order that He in turn will shower them with all His goodness. There are other persons, on a higher level than the first category, who serve the Lord because of their awareness that G’d, by reason of His greatness, deserves to be served, and that it is a privilege to be allowed to serve Him. They do not even think in terms of what they may stand to gain by doing so. As a result of their wholehearted devotion to G’d, G’d in turn “faces” them in acknowledgment of their selfless service, i.e. He relates to them פנים אל פנים. Surviving such an experience is something extraordinary, and that is why Yaakov, realising this, exclaims: ותנצל נפשי, “my life was saved.” The Torah writes in 33,20: ויקרא לו א-ל אלוקי ישראל, “He (G’d) called him ‘a G’d Who is the G’d of Yisrael.’” (Compare Megillah 18) How do we know that G’d bestowed such a “title” on Yaakov? Does it not almost sound blasphemous? [Rabbeinu Bachya, see my translation page 519 already deals with this problem. Ed.]In order to explain this puzzling verse, we must state categorically that the word א-ל is most certainly not meant to convey that the bearer of that title should be regarded as someone to be worshipped. We need to answer why the Torah chose this occasion for bestowing such a strange sounding title on Yaakov/Yisrael, and if so why only on this occasion? The word אל generally refers to someone powerful and aggressive.We have mentioned on several occasions that the tzaddik is powerful enough to bring about cancellation of decrees issued by G’d. (Compare also Moed Katan 16 on the subject where G’d Himself is quoted as saying: מי מושל בי? צדיק “Who has the power to rule over me? the righteous.”) This “ruling” over G’d, is restricted to the ability of the righteous to cancel evil decrees directed at the people of Israel by G’d. Accordingly, our verse answers the question: “who is it who called Yaakov “el,” i.e. someone righteous enough to be able to overturn harmful decrees against the Jewish people?” Answer; אלוקי ישראל, “the G’d of Israel.” Another way of understanding this line is: “who was it that called Yaakov “El”, i.e. someone equipped with the power to overturn Divine decrees,?” Answer: None other than the G’d of Israel Himself. The emphasis is on the limitation of the tzaddik’s power to nullify Divine decrees. If such a decree emanated directly from Hashem, a tzaddik may be able to overturn it. If the decree in question originated in the mind of a tzaddik or even an accredited prophet without the person having been commanded by G’d to relate this decree to the people, another tzaddik is not empowered to cancel it. [When Elijah decreed famine for the population of the land of Israel, seeing that G’d had not authorized him to do this, no other prophet could have cancelled this decree. (Kings I 17,1) Ed.] Genesis 34,1. “Dinah, Leah’s daughter left her house unaccompanied;” Bereshit Rabbah 79,1comments on this: “like mother like daughter;” this is a reference to the forwardness of Leah when she informed her husband Yaakov that it was her turn to host him, on account of the mandrakes of her son Reuven, etc. (Genesis 30,16). According to Rashi quoting B’rachot 60, the fetus from which Dinah was born was originally meant to produce a male child. Leah’s prayer was intended to prevent her sister from being put to shame, as if the fetus in Leah’s womb would be born as a male, Rachel would wind up with fewer sons than even Yaakov’s hand maids. As a result of her prayer Dinah, i.e. a female, was born בת לאה, these words, that on the face of it do not tell us anything we did not know, allude to this hidden aspect of Leah’s pregnancy on this occasion. It was her prayer that resulted in Dinah being born as a female. When the Torah continues with: וירא אותה שכם וגו', ”Shechem,son of Chamor saw her, etc;” this is an allusion to the fact that if Leah had not prayed for this child to be a daughter, the whole incident of the rape would have been prevented as Shechem would not have had an opportunity to set eyes on a daughter of Yaakov. Genesis 35,13. “G’d rose from over him from the site at which He had spoken with him.” Rashi comments that he does not know what the words “from the site He had spoken with him” are to teach us. [We would have known that G’d rose from that site without these words. Ed.]It would appear that we can gain an insight from the words of Bereshit Rabbah 47,6 on Genesis 17,22 when a similar term is used for G’d returning to the celestial spheres after speaking with Avraham. The Midrash there understands the word ויעל , as a hint that the patriarchs were the carriers, support of the Divine chariot, Avraham having been the first one. If so, our verse would indicate that Yaakov had by now also qualified to be another such support of G’d’s chariot. Our sages stated that in order to function as such “supports,” the patriarchs had to be on holy soil, in the Land of Israel. When G’d had told Yaakov to return to the land of his fathers, He had implied that once he did so, he too would qualify as one of the supports of the מרכבה, “the Divine chariot.” (Compare Rashi on 31,3)
