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Parshat Vayishlach
2005
The Personal and the Political
The Torah reading of Vayishlach focuses on the second half of the life of Jacob. In the past few weeks we have read about his early life; his feud with his brother Esau and his flight to his uncle, Laban, whose daughters he marries. Now Jacob is an established chieftain, returning to his home with four wives, eleven sons and one daughter and much wealth. In this parsha (portion) he returns to Canaan and is forced to face his past and to establish himself, his family and his legacy for the future.
The various episodes in the parsha provide us with two ways of understanding Jacob and his family at this stage in their history. First there are the episodes in which the characters, especially Jacob, are presented to us primarily in a very personal way as individuals. They experience events in which their own emotions, especially fear and pain, are center stage and the text focuses on the personal drama. And then there are episodes in which the story focuses on the larger political arena, the way in which this single family is evolving into a tribe, and then into a nation. It is facing new experiences that challenge it as a collective, events that deal with the political, not just the personal.
The first main event of the parsha, Jacob's lonely fight with the "man" on the night before he meets Esau, across the river of Jabbok, is the epitome of a personal encounter. The traditional commentators debate the nature of this encounter; Maimonides believes it is a symbolic representation of an internal conflict in which Jacob faces his mental fear of Esau; Nachmanides argues that it is a physical encounter. But, either way, Jacob is alone. He faces his own darkness and his own fears, and must fight, and win, using his own strength. The power of this story is in the image of a single man emerging victorious out of the darkness after a difficult struggle, and we can see our own individual selves in this archetypal event.
This personal tone changes immediately afterwards, when Jacob meets his brother Esau and the story takes a wider, less personal, focus. The brothers approach each other as tribal chieftains. They are surrounded by their families, their flocks and their servants. Their language is formal and the meeting has the feeling of a ritual meeting between rulers who are establishing a formal truce. Jacob gives Esau gifts, and addresses him repeatedly as "My Lord." Apart from the first moments of the meeting, in which Esau and Jacob embrace, this is not a meeting of two individuals, but two tribal units and all they embody.
The next episode in the parsha deals with the rape of Jacob's daughter, Dina, and the resulting revenge taken on the rapist, Shechem, and his whole city. In this story we might expect to see the personal drama take center stage; hear the pain and anger of Jacob, responding to the violence against his daughter as a father, or learn about the terror of Dina as she is victimized. But the story focuses on the political elements of the story. We know nothing about Dina's feelings, nor do we see a father dealing with tragedy. Rather, Levi and Shimon, Jacob's sons, take revenge on the whole city of Shechem and utterly destroy it. Jacob is concerned, not with the damage done to his daughter, but to the political ramifications of Levi and Shimon's actions and the damage that may be done to the reputation of the tribe of Israel as a result. The personal facets of this story are absent, perhaps jarringly so, and it is up to the midrashim, both ancient and modern, to fill in the personal gaps of the story.
The movement between the personal and the collective, or political, focus is evident throughout this parsha (read it yourself and you will see several other examples) and is symbolized by the core event, the change of Jacob's name. The man (or angel) who fights with Jacob blesses him with a new name. Later, God repeats this change of name, from Jacob to Israel. Jacob, the name that defined him as an individual, is no longer accurate. Jacob is the name of a single person. Israel is the name of a collective entity, a nation. It means, "one who struggles with God." Now he is "Israel," a name by which all his descendents will be called, "the children of Israel." It is interesting to note that after Jacob's name has been changed he is still sometimes referred to as Jacob, and sometimes as Israel. The change of name does not wipe out his individual identity. On one hand, he is still an individual. The name he was born with reflects his identity and he continues to be defined by it. But, at the same time, from this parsha and onward Jacob is not just Jacob. He is also Israel, representative of a collective history and destiny, a nation.
This is an important lesson for each of us. We are all individuals, with our own names and unique identities. But, each of us is also part of something greater than ourselves. We are part of a group, a nation, something that defines us as "we." The movement between the "I" and the "we" is found in the individual names our parents gave us, and the name "Israel" that we also carry with us. The relationship between these two identities is sometimes expressed peacefully and sometimes it is a struggle. It begins in this week's parsha and continues to this day, and in my opinion it makes life richer and more creative for each one of us and the whole Jewish people.
Prepared by Clare Goldwater, director of Hillel's Joseph Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Learning.
Learn More
Additional commentaries and text studies on Parshat Vayishlach at MyJewishLearning.com.
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