Parshat Vayishlach: Walkthrough
Posted by Jack Kustanowitz on November 15, 2010 | Tags: Vayishlach
Loyalty to the literal text, with a modern voice [All editorializing in brackets]
[We pick up the story with Jacob on his way home after 20 years abroad.]
Jacob sends messengers to his brother Esav, with the following message:
“This is Jacob speaking. I’ve been living with Lavan and haven’t had a chance to get back until just now. It’s been a profitable time, and I thought I’d check in with you before I came home.”
The messengers returned with the news that Esav was on his way – with 400 people.
Jacob was fairly terrified, and he split his camp in two, figuring if one is attacked at least the other will survive. He prays: “O God, (and remember, coming home was Your idea in the first place), I really don’t deserve everything I’ve gotten over the years – PLEASE save me from my brother Esav, or he’s going to completely destroy me and my family.”
[Never one to leave things just in the hands of Heaven,] Jacob then prepares gifts of dozens of animals, sent in waves ahead of him as gifts to Esav. Just as one herd would arrive and Esav would receive the gift, the next herd would come over the horizon. And his servants would explain that these are all gifts from Jacob, who is bringing up the rear. Finally, he took his entire family across the Yabok river, and remained alone, where a man wrestled with him until dawn.
The man saw that he could not win, and so he touched Jacob’s hip as they continued to struggle. He said, “Let me go, as the sun is coming up.” But Jacob refused to let him go without giving Jacob a blessing [he must have realized this was not an ordinary man]. The man gave Jacob a new name of Israel, meaning one who wrestles with both God and man and is up to the challenge. Jacob asked his name but the man answered a question with a question and left it at that.
In the morning, Jacob is left limping which is why Jews to this day do not eat meat that comes from the tendon that Jacob had injured.
Jacob looks up and sees Esav and his small army of 400 people on their way, and splits his camp again – first the handmaids and their children, then Leah and her children, and finally Rachel and her son Joseph last.
He approaches Esav, bowing seven times as he goes. Esav runs to greet him, and embraces him as both men cry together. Jacob then goes on to introduce his wives and children, [still being careful] to introduce Rachel and Joseph last.
Esav wants to know what was with all the herds that had been sent his way, and tries to decline the gifts, but Jacob prevails, saying “Please take my blessing” [an interesting callback to his stealing of the blessing 20 years earlier].
Then Esav suggests they travel together, but Jacob begs off saying that with all the kids he’s travelling too slowly. So Esav goes home to Seir, and Jacob heads to Sukkot, which he names because of the huts that he built for his family. He then arrives in Canaan to a city called Shalem, where he buys up the land where he pitched his tent from Shechem and the other sons of Chamor.
Dina (Jacob’s daughter) was out and about at the time, and that same Shechem saw her and raped her. But he also fell in love with her, and petitioned his father to make her his wife. But at the same time, Jacob had heard about the rape, but kept quiet until they came to him.
Which they did – Chamor came to talk to Jacob, and Jacob’s sons came back from the fields furious that such a deed was done to their sister. Chamor comes with an offer: “Give Dina over to my son Shechem, and it can be the beginning of the joining of our peoples. Our children can intermarry, we’ll do business together, and you’ll be able to settle the land. Whatever you want, we can make it happen.”
But Jacob’s sons answered with deceit (because of the circumstances of the rape) and agreed in principle, as long as Chamor and his people would circumcise all the men. No circumcision, no deal, and Dina stays with them.
So Chamor & Shechem return to their city and appeal to all the men to make this sacrifice, in the interests of commerce and marriage possibilities, and their request is honored. Circumcisions commence.
On the third day when the pain was bad, Shimon and Levi approach the city and kill every male, including Shechem and Chamor, and bring Dina home. And Jacob’s sons went back on the decimated city and took whatever was left from the city that had dishonored their sister.
Jacob rebuked Shimon & Levi: “How could you do this – we are a minority here, and when word gets out all the local tribes are going to gang up on us and wipe us out!”
They replied, “So you would just let them treat our sister like a whore?”
At this point God suggests that maybe they should move camp, and head back to Beit El [recall, this was where Jacob had the dream of the ladder on his way out]. Jacob instructs his household members to remove all foreign gods [recall again, at a minimum we know Rachel took her father’s idols on her way out, and there were presumably others as well]. They did so and left them all in Shechem before they left. And as they journeyed, God protected them and they were not attacked [as Jacob had feared].
(At this point we also learn of the death of Devora, Rivka’s nursemaid, who had originally come with her when she left Betuel’s house. She is buried in a place they call Alon Bachut, tree of crying).
God now appears to Jacob again in Beit El, and renews the promise He had made to Abraham and Isaac, and again changes his name to Israel [the first time didn’t seem to take, and neither does this time, actually].
From there they left Beit El, and while they were still on the way to Efrat, Rachel gave birth but had a troubled delivery. As she breathed her last breath, she named the boy whose birth she lived to see “Ben Oni”, or “child of my suffering”, although Jacob renamed him “Benjamin”. Rachel died, and she was buried in Bethlehem on the way to Efrat. And Jacob set up a monument on her grave, which is known as “Rachel’s Grave” until today.
Israel [Jacob] moves again, and sets up camp. At that time, Reuven goes and sleeps with Bilhah, his father’s concubine. Israel finds out, too.
And finally, Jacob and his 12 sons [and the Torah here reviews them by name] return to Isaac in Kiryat Arba, also known as Hebron. And eventually Isaac dies as well, at the age 180 years, old and fulfilled, and Esav and Jacob bury him together.
[Shifting gears, we now learn about Esav’s side of the family.] Esav, also known as Edom, took two local wives (one Hittite and one Hivite), and then [recall, Isaac didn’t like the local women, and Esav wanted to please him after Jacob stole the blessing] Ishmael’s daughter as well. Esav and his family were also very successful, and there was no room for both him and his brother Jacob [again, note the similarity to Avraham and Lot], so Esav settles in Mount Seir.
We run through Esav’s children just long enough to get to a famous descendent Amalek [who we’ll hear more about after the Jews leave Egypt]. Esav IS Edom [who we’ll also hear more about later].
[We continue to learn about more specific names of locals, including people linked to stories that at some point may have been cultural touchpoints.]
Now we are presented with a list of kings “who ruled in Edom before the Israelites ever had a king of their own”. And with a final listing of Esav’s descendants, the parsha closes, mentioning once more that Esav is the father of the nation of Edom.
[And so, having traced Jacob’s trajectory back home, and Esav’s departure from Canaan to create his own nation of Edom, we will start next week with the next generation, the story of Joseph.]
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Jack KustanowitzJoined: July 15, 2007 Jack is an Internet professional living in Silver Spring, MD. He is a proud alum of the Frisch School in Paramus, NJ as well as Boston University, where he was active at BU Hillel. Divrei Torah (32) |
