Vayishlach 1995

In the Torah portion Vayishlach we learn how Yaacov confronts his brother Esau.
He learns that his brother Esau is coming toward him with a band of 400 men.
He responds by sending him a gift, by praying to G-d, and by preparing for war
by dividing his camp in two. We learn that he goes over across the Yabat to fetch
a few little jars and there he has an encounter with an angel and with that angel
he wrestles all night until finally at the dawn the angel requests to go. Actually
in the Torah it is not referred to as an angel but a man. It says, "And Jacob
was left alone and he struggled a man with him until the rising of the dawn and
he saw that he was not able to overcome him and he touched his thigh when he struggled
with him, and this man said, 'Send me because the dawn has arisen,1 and Jacob
said, 'I will not send you except if you will bless me.1 He said, 'What is your
name?' and he said, 'Jacob,' and he said, 'No longer Jacob will be called your
name but Israel because you wrestled with G-d and with men and you have prevailed1.11
It seems a very strange encounter. The Rambam explains that this was really a
dream, that Jacob was really wrestling with himself because up to this point Jacob
had always solved his problems by running away. When his mother told him to go
to deceive his father and receive his brother's blessing he ran away morally.
After all, he was an adult. He did not have to fulfill his mother's desire at
that particular time. Later on when he heard that his brother was to kill him
he ran away. When he had trouble with Laban and he decided that it was time to
leave he did not confront Laban but ran away. The Rashbam said that at this particular
time, too, Jacob was really thinking about running away, but he wrestled with
himself. He wrestled with what he had done to his brother. He had wrestled with
his past and he came up victorious, and his name was changed. He was now blessed
because Jacob knew that it was a difficult encounter that he had, an encounter
with himself and that he had to overcome and that had wounded him. It made him
limp but, yet, he was able to rise to greater heights. His name was changed from
Jacob to Israel but throughout the Torah he is still referred to as Jacob, not

just Israel. When Avraham's name was changed, changed to Avraham, no longer does
the Torah refer to Avraham as Avram. In fact, the rabbis say that you are committing
a Biblical offense if you refer to Avraham as Avram after his name has been changed
because there is a difference between Avraham and Yaacov. When Avraham's name
was changed it referred to an outer mission. Before he was just the father of
Ram, but now he became the father of many nations. The Jewish people have a responsibility
to the whole world. We are supposed to be a moral example to the world. We are
supposed to bring moral redemption to the world by our actions. We are not just
to be concerned with Jewish causes but also with universal causes. Of course,
we cannot also by the same token disregard Jewish parochial interests because there
will not be any Jews left if we neglect our own interests and are just concerned
about the world, but we also have to project the image of G-d and morality to the
total world so they will learn from us by our example so the world can be redeemed.
So Avraham could never go back to just Avram, the father of Ram. He had to be
the Av of many nations, but Jacob's mission was altogether different.
Jacob teaches us how to overcome ourselves because we have not only to struggle
against outward enemies but we have to struggle with ourselves. We have to overcome.
We have to overcome our own idiosyncrasies, our own tendencies to slough off responsibility,
our own tendencies to run away from challenges, but Yaacov, after the struggle,
was able to face his brother. Miraculously, his brother did not attack him. Instead
he hugged him and kissed him. The rabbis also explain that one of the reasons
for that was that when he saw that Yaacov was limping, he was surrounded by women
and children, Esau thought, "What did I hate him for? What type of a blessing
does he have? He doesn't seem to have any blessing at all. Why should I have
envied him all these years?" And he reconciled himself to him. Esau did not understand
what Jacob's blessing was because when Jacob turned to the angel with whom he was
wrestling the man with whom he was wrestling said, "Bless me." His blessing was

that he could rise above himself. Esau thought that a person is who he is. I am who I am. You take me the way I am. I am not going to change and I cannot change, but Yaacov knew that man can be more than himself. He can realize his potential but Yaacov also knew that we can slip back, that in life there is no such thing as fighting the last battle and then staying on a high plateau. The next battle will come around, the battle with ourselves and we once again have to fight with ourselves to do the right thing, the honorable thing, the correct thing, the thing which will make us proud and our families proud, the thing which will allow us to be tied to our families, to our tradition, to honesty, and to morality. It is a hard struggle because it is so easy to deceive ourselves. That's what Yaacov means: the deceiver. Sometimes we think that the wrong thing is really the right thing. Sometimes because we are challenged by others and called cowards and called shirkers we do things we should not do.
Perhaps in Israel the Mizrachi, the Bnai Akiba youth, because they were mocked so much by the left that they were not pioneering enough, that they were not good enough soldiers. They went from one extreme to another. Because the religious are called cowards by some people they had to prove that they were supernationalists, but we have to struggle with ourselves and we have to realize what the right path is and we can then rise to the level of Yisroel, but it is not easy. It is many times difficult.
We learn after this encounter how Yaacov goes to Succos and Esau goes to Sayer, that Yaacov turns down Esau's offer to send a guard to accompany him and he goes to Succos to try to immerse his whole life into Jewish living. However, he does not go see his father right away. Instead he goes to Schem, and it says, "And Yaacov came whole to the city of Schem." He had recouped that huge investment of money that he had given to his brother, that huge gift. He had recouped his health. He had recovered completely it seemed. He was whole, but it says Yaacov;

it does not say Yisroel because he still had to face another challenge. He had gone to Schem, probably because he thought his father was too passive. His father always withdrew from problems. His father, when he was challenged, never tried to stand up for his rights, and perhaps he thought that his own children would become too passive if they were influenced by the tradition of his own father, so he went to Schem. What happened there? His daughter, Dena, went out to see the daughters of the land and then she was seen by Schem, the son of Hamor, the prince of the city of Schem, or Nablus, and she was raped. The brothers took their revenge upon the whole city, and Jacob knew that he had made a mistake, and he immediately took his family and he went to Beth El and he made them change their garments. He made them get rid of all their foreign ideas that they had held before, all their strange gods, and he returned them to his father's home. Many times we are also challenged by our children. We sometimes regret that we have not given our children the education that we should. We have not given our children the opportunities that we should. Many times we cannot rise to Yisroel because we have not taken enough time to give our children the kind of education that we should have given them, and, therefore, we sink to the level of Yaacov, but Yaacov knew that it was not too late, that he could always come back and instill into his children the right values by giving them the right experiences. That is why I believe NCSY is so valuable because along with an objective Jewish education you have to give children subjective experiences. You have to allow them to feel the joy and happiness of Judaism. If they feel this joy and happiness of Judaism they will realize that it will give them the strength to become who they could become. It will give them the strength to reach their potential. All of us can rise. None of us has to stay at a low level. We do not believe, like Esau said, I am who I am and you accept me the way I am. We believe we can rise and develop our potential. We can be more than we are right now, and we can get the inner strength in order to overcome all the difficulties that lie ahead of us. We do not have to sink to levels of despair.

We do not have to indulge in all sorts of drink or drugs or other types of things to assuage our pain because we know we can arise to a higher level. We can struggle with G-d and with man and we can prevail. We can become Israel, and we have to teach our children this, that there is joy in Judaism. Judaism never promises us that if we practice our religion we will not have problems. It only promises us that we will have the strength to overcome our problems. We must forget about the tinsel. So many of our parents give their children only tinsel. They do not teach them the real thing. It is like the story that is told about a person who was once passing a store and the store was selling books, Chumashim, that the children needed and underneath that sign that said Chumashim for sale and it gave a telephone number, 7345678 Chumashim, telephone number for sale. The fellow asked his friend, "Well, do you want some?" He said, "What do I need it for? I already have a telephone number.11 Many times we are too concerned with incidentals and we are not concerned with the real things. NCSY gives our children a taste of the real thing. That combined with a good Jewish education should give them the strength and the courage and the insight and the guts and the knowledge in order to rise from a Yaacov to Yisroel. Let us all hope and pray that our children will all rise from a Yaacov to become a Yisroel so the Jewish people will live good and full lives so the Mashiach will come quickly in our day. Amen.