Two Minute Torah Podcast

Vayishlah 5773 by Rabbi Elyse Winick

Shalom, and welcome to KOACH's Two Minute Torah, a project of the Department of College Outreach of The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. This is Rabbi Elyse Winick, KOACH Director.

In one of my favorite college courses, a survey of American musical theater, Professor John Bush Jones described the technique of form follows function. In literature, this means that the setting of an event reveals important truths about the event itself.

I think of this often when reading Parashat Vayishlah. Anticipating his reunion with his brother Esau, and fearful that the grudge of their youth loomed large, Jacob sends gifts and family members ahead to reach Esau first. Then, in the deep of night, with his family already safely across the Jabbok River, Jacob encounters a stranger with whom he wrestles until daybreak.

The darkness of the moment is striking. The velvet of the night sky hangs above. That he is camped alongside the river suggests a thicket of trees, further obscuring the heavens.

The stranger remains unidentified in the text, an angel or a messenger as implied by the Hebrew. The struggle between them is narrated in pronouns and we, in turn, are left to struggle with sorting out with whom and why Jacob has battled.

Traditional commentators divide in two primary directions. The angel is just that, an angel of God and this coincidental encounter is the test of Jacob's mettle before encountering Esau. Or, alternatively, the mysterious man is really Esau, and the benevolent encounter described by the text just a few verses later is the result of this brotherly wrestling match, in which they settle the old score before moving on.

A third option, though, truly piques my interest. You'll note that the text tells us that Jacob is alone. It also notes his placement by the river, which could well have offered him his own reflection, even if under a moonlit sky. Might the man with whom he wrestled have been Jacob himself? If the darkness in which the encounter takes place is our clue, this struggle happens deep inside Jacob as he seeks to reconcile himself with the deceptions of his past and move forward with a greater sense of self and an ability to wholly function in a world without lies.

It's heady stuff, the transformation of the self. It doesn't come easy. But this Biblical endorsement urges us forward, to take on the challenges we must face in a quest for our better selves. Among Jacob's rewards? A new identity, framed by a new name, Yisrael, one who struggles. It is a badge of honor to struggle and to overcome. Jacob, at least on the surface, appears to do it all himself. But we don't have to. We are surrounded by the people and the networks to support us in our struggles -- and to catch us when we fall. Like Jacob, it is unlikely that we will emerge unscathed. But like Jacob, chances are we will emerge with a greater sense of whole ness and holiness -- and any battle in which those are the reward has got to be worth the effort.

Shabbat Shalom