CHASSIDIC PEARLS BY RABBI LAZER BRODY PARSHAS VAYISHLACH

"And he saw that he couldn't defeat him, so he struck the palm of his thigh" (Bereishit 32:26). Esav's guardian angel wrestled all night long with our forefather Yaakov (Jacob). The angel failed to subdue Yaakov; even worse, he was trapped in Yaakov's grasp and begged to be released. The above passage is allegorical to the good inclination – Yaakov, and the evil inclination – Esav's guardian angel. Hashem creates them – the good inclination and the evil inclination - with equal strength, for if a person's innate capacities for doing good or evil are not equal, there can be no context of reward and punishment. As such, Esav's angel and Yaakov wrestled all night long with neither defeating the other. But, the good inclination – if it fights hard enough – has the inherent capability of restraining and controlling the evil inclination. In light of the above concept, why does the Torah use such a seemingly strange expression as "the palm of his thigh"? Hebrew certainly doesn't lack adequate words describing every specific part of the anatomy. With the concept in mind that "Yaakov" is a reference to the good inclination while Esav's angel refers to the evil inclination, a particular teaching in Rebbe Nachman of Breslev's Likutei Moharan (I: 10.1) is especially intriguing: "When - heaven forbid - severe judgments hover over Israel, dancing and clapping of the hands mitigate them." Rebbe Nachman is telling us that in effect, dancing and hand-clapping are Israel's best defense.