VaYishlach וישלך – Fighting the Satan

Just before he is to meet his brother Esau, Ya'akov sends his family and everything he owns, across the Yabok River. He, himself, remains behind alone. It is there that he encounters the Satan, who wrestles with him all night. When it is clear that Ya'akov will prevail, the Devil successfully lands a punch to his inner thigh. With dawn approaching the angel of death asks to be released. Ya'akov then demands that he bless him. In conceding the angel of Esav says that you have ministered (שר) to G-d (אלוקים) and man and shown yourself able. Therefore they will call you "He will minister to the Almighty (ישראל)".

Rembrandt - Jacob wrestling with the Angel

What follows shortly are three disasters involving feminine love. Ya'akov's daughter Dina is raped. Reuven, his oldest son, lies with his concubine, Bilah, and his beloved wife Rachel perishes in childbirth. Rachel is particularly tragic as Ya'akov worked fourteen years to acquire her, was only married to her for fourteen years, during which she was barren for many years. After that she dies young. Ya'akov never has a chance to introduce her to Yitzchak, his father, and she is not buried in the family crypt in Machpela Cave. 

To paraphrase the Kli Yakar concerning the fight the banks of the Yabok, most of the commentaries agree that this angel was Samael, the ministering angel of Esav. His total attention and all of his desires are to stun the eyes of man and to strike him with blindness, specifically to bewilder the eye of intelligence. His objective is that a person should not be able to perceive the truth and thereby see the face of Hashem, enter into the council of those that fear Him, and see what is hidden in the Torah. This is the Satan, he is the angel of death, and he is the evil inclination. One of his tools is intoxication and all of his schemes are to daze the perception of man until he can not see the image of the Almighty.

My rabbi Eli Chaim Carlebach discussed the fight with the devil. He said it was about if Ya'akov really believed the Torah. Noting the place of the injury, close to the organs or procreation, he explained that the Satan had a degree of success. The Jewish people, he continued, are the body of Ya'akov, and for that reason there is intermarriage.

When Rachel is about to die in childbirth she names the boy "Ben-oni" (בן אוני), literally son of my sorrow. Ya'akov, however, calls him Ben-yamin (בנימין). The Ramban notes that the word אוני also means "my potentials". Rashi explains yamin (ימין) as meaning south and sees a reference to Ya'akov's travels in the land of Canaan. He also sees a similarity to ימים or days, hinting that this child was the end product of his days. The Ramban understands ימין as an expression of the right side or the right hand as in "The right [hand] of Hashem is exalted", (Psalm 118:16). He continues that Ya'akov saw in Benjamin his might and success.

It seems that an ordeal involving lost love is the one most likely to cause a person to forsake the faith. However if a person focuses on things that will realize his hopes and goals, even if they are only in their infancy, he will be able to withstand this test. Benyamin was the only child of Ya'akov born in the land of Israel. The death of Rachel means that the Jewish people will experience bitter tragedies through out the ages. The birth of Benjamin portends that the children of Israel will possess the land of Israel in the glory of sanctity.

לע"נ אהרן בן יוסף ז"ל, סבא,  נלב"ע כז טבת תשכ"ו

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תרגום לעברית              

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