WHICH WAS THE real fight, the one with the “stranger” the night before, or with Eisav the next day? Clearly the one with the stranger since the confrontation with Eisav lasted very little time, was only a short conversation, and Ya’akov was on his way in peace in no time. He struggled with the stranger the entire night, and walked away limping.
Why were there two fights in the first place? Who was this stranger, why was he so violent, and what right did he have to change Ya’akov’s name, or least prophesy that it would later be changed? But we already know the answer to those questions, don’t we, after Rashi explained it all. The stranger was none other than Eisav’s ministering angel who had come to admit the blessings belonged to Ya’akov and not to Eisav, and that his name would be changed because he “fought with an angel and with men, and prevailed.”
That makes the name Yisroel a warrior name, doesn’t it? Yes, but not in the classical sense of the term, evident by how the angel put himself first before Eisav, Lavan, and Shechem. The way the angel phrased it, he said, “You not only fought with an angel and won, but you also fought with bad guys too, and yet you still prevailed! That makes you Yisroel!”
But is it really easier to fight with an angel of God than with human beings? Perhaps not physically, but spiritually? For sure, if victory is defined in terms of spiritual success, not physical achievement. It’s not hard to remember that an angel works for God and has no power of its own. It is easy to forget that human beings also work for God, since they have free will and tend to get away with things we would have thought God would have stopped.
For example, we have little problem calling the Sitra Achra, despite all the evil he has caused, an agent of God. It is not so easy however to also call Hitler, et al, ysv”z, agents of God. We tend to look at the evil they do as their own, things that God Himself does not support, and for which they will later be punished but good…even though in the back of our mind a little voice might be saying, “a person doesn’t even hurt their finger if it is not first decreed in Heaven” (Chullin 7b).
How much more so when what happens it is so much worse.
I recently saw in a sefer based upon the teachings of the Mussar giant, Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe, zt”l, that when the Torah says, that God placed before us blessing and curse for us to choose one of them, it really means that a Jew can never except mediocrity. Either choose blessing, which means excelling spiritually, or curse, which means failing miserably. We may try to find some kind of balance between the two, but it doesn’t really work because it is not meant to work, at least for a Jew.
Why were there two fights in the first place? Who was this stranger, why was he so violent, and what right did he have to change Ya’akov’s name, or least prophesy that it would later be changed? But we already know the answer to those questions, don’t we, after Rashi explained it all. The stranger was none other than Eisav’s ministering angel who had come to admit the blessings belonged to Ya’akov and not to Eisav, and that his name would be changed because he “fought with an angel and with men, and prevailed.”
That makes the name Yisroel a warrior name, doesn’t it? Yes, but not in the classical sense of the term, evident by how the angel put himself first before Eisav, Lavan, and Shechem. The way the angel phrased it, he said, “You not only fought with an angel and won, but you also fought with bad guys too, and yet you still prevailed! That makes you Yisroel!”
But is it really easier to fight with an angel of God than with human beings? Perhaps not physically, but spiritually? For sure, if victory is defined in terms of spiritual success, not physical achievement. It’s not hard to remember that an angel works for God and has no power of its own. It is easy to forget that human beings also work for God, since they have free will and tend to get away with things we would have thought God would have stopped.
For example, we have little problem calling the Sitra Achra, despite all the evil he has caused, an agent of God. It is not so easy however to also call Hitler, et al, ysv”z, agents of God. We tend to look at the evil they do as their own, things that God Himself does not support, and for which they will later be punished but good…even though in the back of our mind a little voice might be saying, “a person doesn’t even hurt their finger if it is not first decreed in Heaven” (Chullin 7b).
How much more so when what happens it is so much worse.
I recently saw in a sefer based upon the teachings of the Mussar giant, Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe, zt”l, that when the Torah says, that God placed before us blessing and curse for us to choose one of them, it really means that a Jew can never except mediocrity. Either choose blessing, which means excelling spiritually, or curse, which means failing miserably. We may try to find some kind of balance between the two, but it doesn’t really work because it is not meant to work, at least for a Jew.
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