Timeless Torah

The highlight of this week’s Torah portion is Jacob’s “wrestling match” with the angel of Esav. The narrative tells us that our patriarch remained alone whereupon the angel of evil attacked him. Superficially, the story is quite straightforward - the spirit waited until Jacob was defenseless and vulnerable, and then ambushed him. The Sages, however, give us another insight into the strategy of the wily demon. Our forefather’s aloneness represented the enemy to the angel because only then did he resemble G-d Almighty who is also unique and alone. Here we have a new element in Jacob’s isolation. He was as far removed from ordinary men as G-d is detached from the celestial beings. Man, by nature, is a gregarious animal. He craves company. He may be shy and withdrawn; nevertheless his mind is always involved with others, whether relating to family, business, or politics. Alone on a desert island, his thoughts still drift to human company and affairs. Jacob was different. He was above all that. This was the reason the heavenly foe assaulted Jacob. Had the father of our people been part of the crowd, the arch-angel could have ignored him. One more man named Jacob is no cause for concern for the forces of evil. It was Jacob’s G-dlike aloneness that the spirit could not tolerate. Generations later another powerhouse of wickedness, the sorcerer Bilaam, when we wished to curse the wandering Jews in the desert, declared the Jews’ source of strength as, “It is a people that shall dwell alone.” Once again, it was the quality of being above the other nations that impressed and frightened the magician. Today it would serve us well to heed the lesson of Jacob. This moral is one that even our enemies understand and fear. A Jew is different. He is above the fray, and because he is, he triumphs.