Summary by Channie Koplowitz Stein
One of the most famous scenes in the Torah is the scene of Yaakov fighting an angel, emerging victorious albeit with an injured hip, and demanding that the angel bless him. It is here that Yaakov gets the additional name of Yisroel, meaning he who struggled with both man and God and was successful. Yaakov called the place Pniel, I have seen the face of El/God. As the sun rises for him and Yaakov walks away limping, the Torah alters the place name slightly to Pnuel.
Our Sages tell us that underlying this struggle was Yaakov’s demand that this angel, the guardian angel of Esau, also called Samael and the guardian of Amalek, should acknowledge that the blesssings Yitzchak had bestowed upon him before his flight were rightfully his and not Esau’s. If that was the case, why was Yitzchak initially reserving those blessings for Esau instead of giving them to Yaakov immediately? Further, asks Rabbi Shlomo Kluger, why is Yaakov so impressed when he sees this angel that he names the place in commemoration. He had encountered angels shortly before when he left Lavan, and camps of angels accompanied him. Then he named the place Machanayim/Camps without invoking God’s name. Finally, the Torah implies that the sun rose specifically for Yaakov, and Rashi comments that it rose to heal him even though technically the sun rises for all earthly creatures.
The Shvilei Pinchas initiates a discussion on these verses by citing an incident recorded in the Gemarrah. Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yehoshua were accompanying Rabban Gamliel to buy meat for his son’s wedding when they were discussing this verse. Rabbi Yitzchak notes that the sun rose here prematurely to offset the lost hours that Hashem caused the sun to set previously so that Yaakov would sleep in the holy place of the Beit Hamikdosh, the place Yaakov had named Beit El.
While this answers the basic question, the anecdote raises even more questions with its details. Why does it matter whom Rabbi Akiva was with and where they were going? The Shvilei Pinchas here interjects that the experiences of our forefathers are harbingers of future events in the history of their descendents, the Jewish people.
Here Rabbi Pinchas Friedman, the Shvilei Pinchas, begins his actual discussion. He notes that Hashem tests His people with two opposites, with wealth and with poverty. When one is wealthy, the tendency is to attribute what he has accumulated to his own talents or business acumen and forget about Hashem. This attitude leads one to sin, as he becomes the center of everything and does as he would please. On the other hand, poverty is also challenging and can cause one to rebel against his Creator. Citing the Chasam Sofer and his son the Ktav Sofer, Rabbi Friedman posits that the challenge of wealth is easier to withstand than the challenge of poverty, and Hashem always tests the person with the easier challenge first.
Yaakov Avinu presents the perfect example of this thesis. When he fled Esau’s wrath and was on his way to Lavan, Esau’s son Eliphaz accosted him. Yaakov convinced Eliphaz to take his belongings rather than kill him, for a poor man is considered as if dead. Yet Yaakov throughout his sojourn with Lavan remained true to Hashem and withstood the challenge of poverty. Now, however, upon his return, Yaakov was prosperous with flocks, pack animals and even slaves. But now Yaakov was left alone for a short time, for he had forgotten a few small flasks and returned to retrieve them. Esau’s ministering angel here made an error in judgment, thinking that Yaakov was so infatuated with material things that he couldn’t even leave such miniscule belongings behind. He thought Yaakov would fail the test of wealth, and therefore the angel fought Yaakov. But Yaakov prevailed. When the angel saw that Yaakov would not be swayed in his belief, he shifted his focus from Yaakov to his descendents, symbolized by Yaakov’s thigh, and in fact, many Jews have failed the test of wealth and became assimilated.
The Shvilei Pinchas now understands why Yitzchak initially refused to give Yaakov the blessing of wealth. Esau was already corrupt, so giving him additional wealth would not cause much damage. But for the pure Yaakov, wealth might indeed be a tremendous stumbling block. However, now that Yaakov has withstood the test of wealth, Yaakov is justified in demanding to be acknowledged as the worthy recipient of his father’s blessing. Therefore, the angel blesses him by saying he will no longer be the lowly, heel-like Yaakov, but a sar, a prince of wealth and power. And now the rising sun represents his rise in station. Homiletically, the Shivilei Pinchas then explains that Hakodosh Boruch Hu first had the sun set, alluding to the trial of poverty that would befall future generations, and then the sun rose, alluding to the trials of wealth his descendents would face. Future generations would struggle with wealth, would limp along in their faith, but if they remained steadfast in their faith, the sun would shine upon them and they would be healed.
Now the Shvilei Pinchas explains that Rabbi Akiva related this to Rabban Gamliel at this time to hint to him that although marriage changes a person’s circumstances and often presents financial hardships, he should encourage his son to continue learning Torah in spite of any obstacles long the way.
Throughout our history we have remained a mostly poverty stricken people who have always retained our strong faith. Now, in America, we are faced with the challenge of remaining faithful in wealthy circumstances, writes Rabbi Frand. His hope, based on the prediction of Rabbi Volozhin, is that this is the last stop in our journey toward redemption, for Hashem has given us the trial of wealth, expecting us to rise above and prevail and prove that we can remain faithful with the wealth Hashem will provide us after the redemption.
Rabbi Moshe Teumim brings the point home. He cites Rabbi Yosef Nechemiah who writes that all night, while the struggle continued, Yaakov did not feel his injury. Only when the sun came out, when he was wealthy and things were going well, did Yaakov start limping. Historically, when Napoleon emancipated the Jews and they were able to accumulate wealth, the struggle against assimilation was often, unfortunately, a losing struggle. Taking much in often leaves God out.
This is the constant struggle of man ever since Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, writes Rabbi Brazile. Until then, the difference between the two was absolutely clear. After the sin, the line between good and evil became blurred and remained a constant struggle for mankind. This was the punishment for Adam, kotz vedar-dar yatzmiach loch – Thorns and thistles will grow for you. The difference between the Hebrew letters daled and resh is no more than a small thorn at the corner of the daled. Yet, if one is not careful, one can mistakenly interchange our belief in Hashem Echad, one God, with, “Thou shalt ot bow down to el acher – to a different god”. This is reflected in the struggle Hashem Himself has with Amalek midor dor – from generation to generation, with just the fine point separating what is good in the eyes of the One God from the evil inherent in other gods.
Rabbi Moshe Breslaver continues this theme by focusing on the change of the place name from Pniel to Penuel and noticing that while an Ish, a Man fought with Yaakov, Yaakov later recognized the “face” of Elokhim, of God Himself as the source of this battle. Indeed, the struggle with Amalek is constant. Amalek always tries to cloud the vision and muddy the waters of our recognition of Hashem. Yaakov recognized the purpose of this “Man”, that it was a trial sent by God, but he was successful in defeating this emissary of God and keeping his vision of God clear. Therefor the Torah changes the name to the plural, to remind all of us who are called Bnei Yisroel, not Bnei Yaakov, to recognize Hashem’s presence in every challenge we face. We are to be encouraged, that just as Yaakov defeated the power of evil he confronted, writes Rabbi Moshe Shapiro in Mimaamakim, so too will we defeat the powers of evil that confront us.
The aspect of the evil angel is personified in the Roman Empire, descendents of Esau, which valued physical strength, power subjugation of others as the highest ideal. They mocked the spirituality of Yaakov. Rabbi Feldman in The Juggler and the King relates the following from the Gemarrah. Every seventy years the Romans would display their sense of superiority by putting an able bodied man, representing Esau, on the back of a lame man, representing the limping Yaakov. They thus boasted that Yaakov and his ideals would be servile to Esau. They felt that the true beauty of the perfection of Adam was reflected in the outer beauty and glory of Rome and the physical world. Rome believed that the world revolved around them, whereas Yaakov and his descendents understand that the world revolves around God.
Rabbi Shapiro delves further into this legend. The Romans would dress the able bodied man in the clothes of Esau (which were the clothes Hashem had made for Adam in Eden). Esau was meant to inherit the external beauty and physical skills, while Yaakov inherited the inner essence, the tzelem Elokhim. Rivka understood that if Esau got the blessings of the outer world, he would destroy Yaakov. Therefore she clothed Yaakov in Esau’s clothing when Yaakov went in to receive his father’s blessings. Yaakov’s mission is to bring the inner essence of the tzelem Elokhim onto the outer, physical world. When we can do that, we merit the blessings of both the inner and outer worlds. While it is true that sometimes we limp along on our journey, ultimately the sun will shine on us and we will be able to infuse the outer world with the sanctity of the inner world.
Realizing that Rabbi Akiva lived during the time of the Roman Empire, and that he was the one who offered comfort during this trying era, helps us understand why Rabbi Akiva spoke to Rabban Gamliel this way precisely when Rabban Gamliel’s son was getting married, explains Rabbi Benzion Sacks in Menachem Zion. Rabbi Akiva was comforting his colleague and encouraging him for the continuity of our people and our ultimate victory. It is good that marriages will continue.
Yaakov saw God “face to face”. He saw the reflection of God within himself, and recognized that the outer world of the angel/man had nothing to offer him. It is with this understanding, writes Rabbi Schorr in Halekach Vehalebuv, that he can take the outer world and use it to serve God. The yetzer horo uses the confusion generated by constant busyness to keep us from seeing God clearly. Rabbi Schorr shows us that within the Hebrew letters of Yisroel is an anagram for li rosh; when my head is on straight and I can think clearly, I can recognize Hashem in all aspects of the physical world in addition to the spiritual world.
Yitzchak was afraid to give Yaakov the brachot of wealth, but Yaakov can be successful. He may struggle, but he uses his head and sees through the evil angels, and the sun can shine on him and on the whole world. He sees clearly the daled, that Hashem Echad ushmo Echad, that He is One.
May we also merit that the sun of clarity and healing shine upon us and on the entire world.