Parashat Vayishlah 5786

A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayishlah

By Cantor Sandy Horowitz (AJR 2014)

Our patriarch Jacob is a troubled soul who experiences three profound encounters with the Divine, each of which takes place at a significant moment in his life. This week’s Torah reading, Vayishlah, tells of the second of the encounters, bookended by those in Parshiot Vayetzei and Vayigash.

At the beginning of the Jacob narrative we read about how he takes sibling rivalry to the nth level. First, he tricks his ever-so-slightly older twin brother Esau into selling his birthright for a pot of stew. Dayenu that would have been enough for Jacob to earn the label “not a nice guy.” Yet he goes even further by convincing their aging and blind father Isaac to give him, Jacob, the blessing intended for the elder Esau. This enrages Esau to the point of threatening to kill his deceitful brother, so Jacob leaves home to go live with his uncle Laban.

As night falls, Jacob stops in Haran, utterly alone, and alone with his thoughts. We are not told what he is feeling at this point – defensive? Angry? Has remorse set in yet?

He sleeps and dreams of angels going up and down a ladder that reaches from the ground up to heaven. I imagine this scene as if the angels are staging a kind of intervention as if to say, “Snap out of it Jacob! You’re better than this, God has ordained it so!”

Jacob then hears directly from the Divine Voice:

אֲנִי יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵי אַבְרָהָם אָבִיךָ וֵֽאלֹהֵי יִצְחָק …

וְהִנֵּה אָֽנֹכִי עִמָּךְ וּשְׁמַרְתִּיךָ בְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר־תֵּלֵךְ…

“… I am Adonai, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac ….

And behold, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go …” (Gen 28:13,15)

Jacob the liar and deceiver experiences these visions and voices in the night with a profound awakening:

אָכֵן יֵשׁ יְהֹוָה בַּמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה וְאָנֹכִי לֹא יָדָעְתִּי:

God was in this place, and I did not know it! (Gen 28:16).

It is a seemingly transformative moment. Yet life goes on; twenty years go by. We don’t know whether he ever tells anyone about the lies and deceits of his early life, or whether he has chosen instead to live all this time in isolation with his guilt.

We now arrive at Parashat Vayishlah, the week of the great all-night wrestling match when our patriarch will be given the new name Israel. As Vayishlah begins, Jacob is about to meet his estranged brother Esau. He sends messengers ahead, and they return saying that Esau is heading this way with 400 men.

400 men!

וַיִּירָ֧א יַֽעֲקֹ֛ב מְאֹ֖ד

“Jacob became greatly afraid.”

The guilty Jacob can only assume Esau has remained angry through all these years and is waiting to make good on his threat to kill him. That night, Jacob sends his family across the river Jabbok; he is now once again alone in the dark of night, as in Haran years ago. An ish appears, and Jacob and the ish wrestle through the night.

Who is this ish? Much has been written on the subject – perhaps Jacob wrestled with an angel, a divine messenger, or with the spirit of Esau. On the other hand, the ish could represent Jacob’s guilt, as he wrestles sleeplessly all night long with his inner demons.

At the break of dawn, the two let go of one another and the ish gives Jacob a new name:

וַיֹּאמֶר לֹא יַעֲקֹב יֵאָמֵר עוֹד שִׁמְךָ כִּי אִם־יִשְׂרָאֵל

“Your name shall no longer be called Jacob but Israel…(Gen 32:29)

Here is Jacob’s second seemingly transformative moment. He calls the place where he wrestled Peniel,

כִּֽי־רָאִ֤יתִי אֱלֹהִים֙ פָּנִ֣ים אֶל־פָּנִ֔ים וַתִּנָּצֵ֖ל נַפְשִֽׁי…

“…for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” (Gen 32:31)

Jacob then has the dreaded encounter with Esau and discovers that Esau does not intend to kill him after all; instead, the brothers embrace.

Jacob tells Esau,

כִּי עַל־כֵּן רָאִיתִי פָנֶיךָ כִּרְאֹת פְּנֵי אֱלֹהִים

“…for to see your face is like seeing the face of God” (Gen 33:10)

Having heard the Voice of the Divine Presence twenty years ago, this time Jacob speaks of having seen the Divine Face – twice.

There’s a problem however, with Jacob claiming to have seen God’s face. Later, in Exodus, Moses will ask to see the face of God when they meet at the top of Mount Sinai. God replies,

לֹא תוּכַל לִרְאֹת אֶת־פָּנָי כִּי לֹא־יִרְאַנִי הָאָדָם וָחָי

“you cannot see My face, for one cannot see My face and live.” (Exod 33:20)

Jacob believes that in the encounter with the ish he did actually see God face to face, and in his encounter with Esau it was as if he had seen the very face of God. How can this be?

Years ago when my daughter was very young we went to our local playground, where she spent a few minutes in parallel play with another girl whom she had not met before. As we were leaving my daughter declared excitedly, “I made a new friend!” I thought to myself, well she didn’t exactly make a new friend, we don’t know this child’s name or whether they will ever even see each other again, you can’t call that making a new friend… (thankfully I kept these reflections to myself). In my daughter’s reality, her experience felt as if she’d in fact made a new friend.

In Jacob’s reality, particularly from the perspective of long-held guilt, his experience with the ish and the forgiveness of Esau each created a sense within him of having indeed seen God’s face.

This dual reality (“you can’t see God’s face and live,” and “I saw God’s face”) accompanies another dual reality as reflected in Jacob’s name change.

We are familiar with other name changes in the bible, including Jacob’s own grandparents, when Avram and Sarai became Avraham and Sarah. Once they are given their new names, their former names are never again mentioned. Jacob, however, retains both his old and his new name. In fact, following the giving of his new name and for most of the remainder of Parashat Vayishlah, he is still referred to as Jacob, not Israel.

Later in the parashah God repeats the giving of the new name:

וַיֹּֽאמֶר־ל֥וֹ אֱלֹהִ֖ים שִׁמְךָ֣ יַֽעֲקֹ֑ב לֹֽא־יִקָּרֵא֩ שִׁמְךָ֙ ע֜וֹד יַֽעֲקֹ֗ב

כִּ֤י אִם־יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ יִהְיֶ֣ה שְׁמֶ֔ךָ וַיִּקְרָ֥א אֶת־שְׁמ֖וֹ יִשְׂרָאֵֽל:

“And God said to him, your name is Jacob; your name shall not anymore be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name – and he called his name Israel” (Gen 35:10)

One comment on this dual reality of being both Jacob and Israel is offered by Ibn Ezra, who writes that this verse means “you shall no longer be called only Jacob but also Israel.”

In fact, the narrative continues to refer to him as Jacob. It is only after Rachel has died and is buried that he is called Israel for the first time (Gen 35:21). Throughout the rest of the Jacob narrative, he will retain both names.

Perhaps the new name Israel does not reflect an actual transformation as much as it represents a new aspect of his identity. Jacob the brother, son and deceiver now adds to his identities the name Israel, “divine wrestler.” He remains the imperfect Jacob, a deeply flawed individual who is also Israel, the one who wrestled and prevailed, the one to whom God speaks in the dark of night.

One more Divine Encounter occurs towards the end of Jacob’s life, when he leaves home for the last time and heads to Egypt to be reunited with his beloved favorite son Joseph, the one who he had long believed to be dead.

For the third time, a vision comes in the dark of night.

וַיֹּ֨אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ לְיִשְׂרָאֵל֙ בְּמַרְאֹ֣ת הַלַּ֔יְלָה וַיֹּ֖אמֶר יַֽעֲקֹ֣ב ׀ יַֽעֲקֹ֑ב וַיֹּ֖אמֶר הִנֵּֽנִי:  וַיֹּ֕אמֶר אָֽנֹכִ֥י הָאֵ֖ל אֱלֹהֵ֣י אָבִ֑יךָ אַל־תִּירָא֙ מֵֽרְדָ֣ה מִצְרַ֔יְמָה כִּֽי־לְג֥וֹי גָּד֖וֹל אֲשִֽׂימְךָ֥ שָֽׁם אָֽנֹכִ֗י אֵרֵ֤ד עִמְּךָ֙ מִצְרַ֔יְמָה וְאָֽנֹכִ֖י אַֽעַלְךָ֣ גַם־עָלֹ֑ה

וְיוֹסֵ֕ף יָשִׁ֥ית יָד֖וֹ עַל־עֵינֶֽיךָ:

God called to Israel in a vision by night: “Jacob! Jacob!” He answered, “I am here.”

“I am God, the God of your father’s [house]. Fear not to go down to Egypt, for I will make you there into a great nation. I Myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I Myself will also bring you back; and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.” (Gen 46:2-4)

(We note the dual reality as the narrator refers to him as Israel while God calls him by his name Jacob.)

This hineni moment* is a profound message of comfort as he heads into his future in an unknown land. God begins by telling Jacob not to be afraid and then reassures him of the Divine Omnipresence: even as Jacob prepares to enter Egypt, God will still be with him, and one day, God will bring him back home.

Perhaps God also is speaking to Jacob’s descendants who will one day endure great suffering in Egypt. In telling Jacob not to be afraid, there is a kind of Divine Whispering into the as-yet unborn ears of generations to come. Do not be afraid, I am with you, I will always be with you.

And perhaps the Divine Whispering of reassurance comes to us as well, we who are flawed and imperfect like our patriarch Jacob.  In our own quiet moments in the dark of night when we are alone, we too may hear the voice of the Divine Presence; it may come as a Quiet Voice, or in the form of our own inner knowing, our own unique truth. These moments may help us to carry on, to continue to wrestle with what is right and good in our life.

*There are multiple hineni moments in Torah, signifying a turning point in the life of the recipient – i.e., Abraham in the akeidah, Moses at the burning bush. The format is usually signaled when God calls out by saying the name twice, and the recipient replies, hineni, I am here, I am fully present to what You are about to tell me.