And Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. When he saw that he could not prevail against him, he touched the socket of his hip, and the socket of Jacob's hip became dislocated as he wrestled with him. And he (the angel) said, "Let me go, for dawn is breaking," but he (Jacob) said, "I will not let you go unless you have blessed me." So he said to him, "What is your name?" and he said, "Jacob." And he said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, because you have commanding power with [an angel of] God and with men, and you have prevailed.
(Genesis 32: 25-29)
Jacob bumps into an angel with an anger problem! Just his luck. Our Sages teach us that this angel was the guardian angel of Esav, Jacob's brother, and all of his descendants. And that this wrestling match was not by coincidence, but signified something much greater. Let's gain deeper insight into one aspect of this story. In order to do so, we must examine its significance in the wisdom of Jewish Mysticism.
The teachings of Jewish mysticism, the inner dimension of the Torah, relates all of life - from the vast expanse of the universe to the minute fingernail of a child - to a G-dly source, and therefore of deep significance in what it symbolizes. For every physical thing we see, is a lower manifestation of a higher spiritual level that precedes it. A major foundation of Jewish Mystical teaching, is the 10 Sefirot: The 10 ways in which G-d Decided to Reveal His Will in the higher and lower worlds, and ultimately in our souls. These are (loosely translated): The Intellect - Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge. And the Emotions - Kindness, Severity, Compassion, Endurance, Humility, Connection, and Sovereignty. These Sefirot correspond to the limbs of the human body as well: Kindness - Right arm, Severity - the left, Compassion - the mid-section. Endurance - the Right thigh/leg, Humility - the left, etc. The Jewish leaders that exemplified these Divine emotions as found in this world, in order, are: Avraham (kindness), Issac, Jacob, Moshe, Aaron, Yoseph, King David.
So what connection does all of this have with Jacob wrestling with an angel in this week's Torah Portion?
There have been 4 exiles in the history of the Jewish People: The Egyptian, the Babylonian, the Persian, and the Roman - which we are still in today. This 4th & final exile, caused by the Roman destruction of the 2nd temple in Jerusalem, will last until Mashiach comes & the temple is rebuilt. It's taught that the Romans were descendants of Esav. When Esav's guardian angel was wrestling with Jacob throughout the night, it wasn't just a UFC styled fight. This encounter symbolized the long and arduous exile that we find ourselves in for the last 2,000 years, caused by Esav's descendants. Life for a Jew in exile is a struggle. We will ultimately vanquish the evil in the world, and have been quite successful so far. But what is the final action that must be done to fully vanquish Esav's guardian angel and free ourselves of the Roman exile? We see that Jacob, right before dawn and his victory, is struck by the angel in his hip and is hurt.
As we learned in Kabbalah earlier, each part of the body represents a Jewish leader, as well as a spiritual attribute. The lower side where Jacob was hit was the left, symbolizing Aaron, the brother of Moses. What was Aaron most known for in the Torah? Besides for humility, Aaron was the ultimate lover of the Jewish people. It is known that he would seek peace between each man and his fellow, between husband and wife. We are told that Aaron was mourned for after his death by all men and women, while Moses was mourned less so. Why? Because Aaron brought peace between everybody. Out of his great love for each person, he strove to avoid all conflict between them. Perhaps the lesson here is this: As we near the end of exile, the end of the battle with our spiritual and physical enemy, the hardest test, the one which will try and stop us most from reaching redemption, is the love and sensitivity to our fellow Jew.
Like Aaron, we must strive to make peace between those in our community, in our household, with those around us, and focus on the good in our fellow man and woman.
And with that, may we merit the ultimate redemption, where we will see only the good in each person, their soul, speedily in our days!
Shabbat Shalom!
-Daniel
{To learn more about the Sefirot in depth, click on: 10 Sefirot}
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