Summarized by Eitam Siva. Translated by David Strauss
Our parasha is one of the four parashot that deal with the life of Yaakov – Vayetze, Vayishlach, Vayeshev, and Vayechi. While in the other parashot Yaakov is in a static state (Vayetze – exile in Charan, Vayeshev – residence in Eretz Yisrael, Vayechi – exile in Egypt), our parasha deals with Yaakov and his family in a state of wandering and movement from one place to another. This state of constant movement allows us to view the figure of Yaakov in a purer and more refined manner, detached from the specific contexts of Charan, Canaan, and Egypt. Yaakov in our parasha functions "independently."
From a perusal of the various stories in our parasha, it seems that one of Yaakov's most prominent characteristics is his lack of confidence, his feelings of doubt and apprehension.
Distant Providence
The parasha opens with Yaakov's great fear in anticipation of his encounter with Esav:
And the messengers returned to Yaakov, saying: We came to your brother Esav, and moreover he comes to meet you, and four hundred men with him. Then Yaakov was greatly afraid and was distressed. And he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two camps. And he said: If Esav comes to the one camp, and smites it, then the camp which is left shall escape. And Yaakov said: O God of my father Avraham, and God of my father Yitzchak, O Lord, who said to me: Return to your country, and to your kindred, and I will do you good; I am not worthy of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which You Have shown to Your servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I have become two camps. Deliver me, I pray You, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esav; for I fear him, lest he come and smite me, the mother with the children. (Bereishit 32:7-12)
Later, Yaakov is caught up in a struggle in the middle of the night with a "man" who turns out to be an angel. We are not told explicitly about his feelings during the struggle, but at the end he names the place of the encounter Peniel, and explains:
And Yaakov called the name of the place Peniel, for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. (32:31)
That is, Yaakov's feeling at the break of day is "and my life is preserved" – after fear and apprehension throughout the night's struggle.
A final example of Yaakov's sense of fear and transience is his reaction to Shimon and Levi's attack of Shekhem:
And Yaakov said to Shimon and Levi: You have made me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizites; and I, being few in number, if they gather themselves together against me and slay me, I shall be destroyed, I and my household. (34:30)
Yaakov does not address the act of Shimon and Levi itself at all – neither their desire to rescue Dina nor the way they did it – but is only concerned with the reaction of those around him, which would endanger him and his family.
It seems appropriate to mention in this context the famous dispute between the Ramban and the Ibn Ezra[1] regarding the economic status of the three patriarchs. According to the Ramban, "the patriarchs were all like kings," wealthy and honorable. However, the Ibn Ezra maintains that the patriarchs were sometimes poor and destitute – and even the great wealth that is reported to have been theirs was liable to be lost in the wake of various crises. It is interesting to note that the Ramban's proofs for his position are verses concerning Avraham and Yitzchak, while the Ibn Ezra relies primarily on Yaakov's actions as proof of the poverty of the patriarchs.
It seems possible to distinguish between the three patriarchs in this matter: the lives of Avraham and Yitzchak were lives full of visible Divine inspiration, which was expressed, among other things, in their great wealth and in the fear that other peoples had of them. For example, this is what Avimelekh, king of Gerar, said when he wanted to enter into a covenant with Yitzchak:
And they said: We saw plainly that the Lord is with you; and we said: Let there now be an oath between us, between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you: that you will do us no harm, as we have not touched you, and as we have done nothing to you but good, and have sent you away in peace; you are now the blessed of the Lord. (26:28-29)
It is undeniable that God is manifestly present in the lives of Avraham and Yitzchak. Yitzchak finds wells and builds gates during a period of severe austerity, and it is clear to all that he is enjoying supernatural success; and Avraham defeats world empires and all the surrounding nations bless him.
In contrast, Yaakov does not have the same aura. He is hard-pressed time and again, and the nations around him feel no awe at all. This emerges, for example, from Lavan's words to Yaakov after he pursued him and caught up with him:
I have the power to do you harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying: Be careful not to speak to Yaakov either good or bad. (Bereishit 31:29)
Lavan is not naturally afraid of harming Yaakov, and only spares him because of a special command from God. Yaakov is a target for persecution, and he navigates his way from one calamity to another – both with strangers who may harm him and in crises with his children.
The Ramban took the rule that "the deeds of the fathers are a sign for their children" as a fundamental rule for all the stories of the patriarchs[2] – in their actions they reflect and echo the events that will happen to the entire Jewish people. It seems without question that Yaakov represents the life of the Jews during the years of exile – distant providence, fear of the threatening external environment, and many difficulties.
It is precisely in view of these many difficulties that we are exposed to the greatness of Yaakov, who does not stop believing in God and calling out to Him. It is precisely from him that the impressive dynasty which officially begins the nation of Israel emerges.
The Sin of Shimon and Levi
The feelings of wandering and lack of rootedness in our parasha are expressed not only in Yaakov's behavior, but also in the behavior of his sons, Shimon and Levi. When they settled in Shekhem, Shekhem raped Dina, and Shimon and Levi went to Chamor and offered him Dina in marriage on condition that he be circumcised like them. After Shekhem agrees to circumcise himself and his entire city, Shimon and Levi take advantage of the weakness of the people of the city and attack them by the sword.
Here we encounter a cynical exploitation of the commandment of circumcision and an excessive use of deception and force. We are left to wonder: How do the sons of our forefather – a simple man, dwelling in tents – behave in a manner so inconsistent with the behavior of their father? It seems that this question must be answered by understanding the characters in the story – Yaakov himself, and of course Shimon and Levi.
Let us begin with an explanation of the behavior of Shimon and Levi, which at first seems inexplicable to us. We are familiar with stories of the children of the patriarchs who deviate from the path of their fathers – Yishmael, who eventually returned, and Esav – but with the children of Yaakov it is not so: they follow in the path of their father without any real divergence or distinct character. It would appear that what brought them to sin was not rooted in their personalities, but in what they experienced in their childhood and youth.
It is worth recalling the figures that Shimon and Levi encountered during their lives: in their youth, Shimon and Levi grew up in Charan with their grandfather Lavan, who was a swindler and a thief, a man who would stop at nothing to achieve what he wanted (as we see in the trick he perpetrated on Yaakov with Leah, and again in regard to Yaakov's wages). As children, Shimon and Levi see the legitimacy that Lavan gives to immoral acts, and learn from him.
After the escape from Charan, Shimon and Levi meet their uncle Esav – a powerful and violent man. From him, as well, they receive a wicked example of violence and moral corruption. The foreign influence on Shimon and Levi seeps into their personalities, and in the end they acquire for themselves the characteristics that they saw in Lavan and Esav.
The deception with the circumcision and the murder of the city's inhabitants shocks Yaakov and shows him the dark side of Shimon and Levi. Yaakov reprimands them for their behavior, both from a security perspective – that now the nations will kill him – but also from a moral perspective:
And Yaakov said to Shimon and Levi: You have made me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizites; and I, being few in number, if they gather themselves together against me and slay me, I shall be destroyed, I and my household. And they said: Should one deal with our sister as with a harlot? (34:30-31)
Yaakov does not even bother to answer Shimon and Levi – from their response he sees that they are full of rage and violence – but in his words to them before his death, he criticizes them most scathingly:
Shimon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence their kinship. Let my soul not come into their council; to their assembly let my glory not be united; for in their anger they slew men, and in their self-will they hamstrung oxen. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel; I will divide them in Yaakov, and scatter them in Yisrael. (49:5-7)
Beyond understanding the sin of Shimon and Levi, we should also wonder about Yaakov – how could such an act have come to pass from under his hand?
We must understand Yaakov's point of view: Yaakov fled to Charan, and for years upon years his only desire was to return to Eretz Yisrael. Upon arriving in Eretz Yisrael and settling in Elon Moreh, Yaakov felt that he had arrived at his final destination. The sense of success leads to complacency in Shekhem and causes him to turn a blind eye to the behavior of the sons. Indeed, after the sin and in response to it, God demands of Yaakov that he make sure that his sons will not influenced by the foreign cultures that they have absorbed over the years:
And God said to Yaakov: Arise, go up to Beit-El, and dwell there; and make there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you did flee from the face of Esav your brother. Then Yaakov said to his household, and to all that were with him: Put away the strange gods that are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your garments. (35:1-2)
Postscript
As has already been mentioned, it seems that Yaakov has much in common with the people of Israel throughout the ages – the nation that has undergone many tribulations, and that does not experience God's manifest providence, but rather a more distant and hidden providence. But Yaakov dealt with all the external threats and emerged unscathed, and it was precisely within his own home that sins and tensions emerged that created a real risk to the continuity of the family remaining on the right path.
This point is part of a general message that emerges from the book of Bereishit: external threats can be dealt with, but an internal threat can bring down the house. It seems that in our time, too, although we are surrounded by external threats, our main attention should be directed towards our moral behavior. We must carefully examine our relationships with the foreign nations that surround us, and guard against the influences of foreign sources that encourage violence as a way of life and ideology.
[This sicha was delivered by Harav Mosheh Lichtenstein on Shabbat Parashat Vayishlach 5783.]
[1] In their comments on Bereishit 25:34.
[2] In his commentary to Bereishit 12:6.
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