Jacob was a strategist, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the tactical cleverness of his gift to Esau (Genesis 32:17). He did not send one large herd. He sent flock after flock, and he gave a single instruction to his servants: "Put much room between flock and flock."
Think about what that does to a man riding toward war. Esau crests a hill and sees goats. He takes them and keeps riding. He crests the next hill and sees sheep. He takes them and keeps riding. Then camels. Then cows. Then donkeys. With every wave his anger has to reset, and each time a little less of it remains. By the time Esau actually sees his brother's face, he has already been softened by six separate encounters with Jacob's generosity.
The theology of the gap
The rabbis read this pacing as a spiritual principle. Rage cannot be argued out of a person; it has to be worn down. Jacob does not try to convince Esau of anything. He simply places gift after gift in the road, with rewach — space, breathing room — between each one. He lets time and beauty do the work.
The takeaway: sometimes the path to reconciliation is not a single grand gesture but a series of small ones, with patience between them.