Congregation Beth Shalom

Torah Portion: Vayishlach
Book of Genesis
Chaps. 32:4-36:43
December 9, 2011

“Jacob was left alone.   And a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn.  When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he wrenched Jacob’s hip at its socket, so that the socket of his hip was strained as he wrestled with him (Gen. 32:25-26).”

What better metaphor for life than a “wrestling match.”  As young children, we wrestled with “good & bad”, “right & wrong.”  As adolescents, these same struggles were now informed by a more refined image of “self.”  As adults, we are challenged to replace the vocabulary of youth with the more sophisticated concepts of “ethical & unethical”, moral & immoral.”  The mature adult continues the struggle, but learns to effectively balance “selfish & selfless.”

Jacob’s youth was all about “me.”  What will make “me” happier, make  “me” richer, make me “greater.”  With the goal being the satisfaction of personal need, it was not difficult for Jacob to justify cheating his brother Esau out of his birthright and later his blessing as first born.  Even before Machiavelli, Jacob lived by the philosophy that “the ends justify the means.”  Only after years of cheating, and having been cheated, does he experience the existential loneliness of “self.”  Rabbi Brad Artson comments, “At night, left alone, Jacob suddenly finds himself wrestling with someone whom he cannot identify.  Is this a person or an angel, or is it the embodiment of his own doubts and failings?”

I am always wary of religious fanatics; those who profess the truth, and nothing but the truth.  For them there is no longer a struggle, but a way; the only way.  True religion does not teach “the” way, but provides the necessary direction to help us along our path.  The directions consist of a code of ethics, a concern for all God’s creations, and a course of rites and regimens to discipline and inform our actions.  To wrestle with God is to put in play the moral/ethical struggle suggested by the ancient Rabbi Hillel who asked, “If I am not for myself, who will be? But, if I am only for myself, what sort of person am I?”  With this we wrestle our entire lives.

Jacob finally attained maturity.  He understood his personal needs and wants were circumscribed by those of others.  He also realized this moment of epiphany, a wrestling match with God, or perhaps himself, was only the first of many to come.  In the end, one’s life is measured less by what one did, then the satisfying struggle to make it happen.

Rabbi Howard Siegel