Jacob’s Journey to Israel: Torah Lessons on Struggle, Blessing, & Transformation (Vayishlach)

our forefathers, the patriarchs, are going through these tremendous growth processes of becoming who they're meant to be. And I think it's a really incredible aspect of the Bible in general that none of our role models, our our our holiest people that we hold in the highest esteem are ever born and never do they show up on the scene fully baked. Not one of our leaders, our patriarchs, our our teachers is flawless. Every single one falls and picks themselves up. And I think that following the arc of their growth is really our source of strength in and and our source of courage in studying in studying the Bible for the journeys that we're on. So in the Jacob's story, we have this heroic journey of Jacob going to be Jacob where he's pretending to be Asov and from there sets out on this arduous adventure that culminates in becoming Israel and ultimately in restoring his relationship that had been lost with his brother. And without saying it, it seems that that's kind of the closure of the Jacob story. He doesn't finish his life here, but the spotlight at that point seems to move to the stories of the children of Jacob. And Jacob is still there, but not really as the main character. So the arc of his process as a main character seems to start in the struggle with his brother over the blessings and the firstbornhood, the firstborn ship and ends in the story in the end of Vayish in this meeting and reconciliation with his brother. And it would seem that the lynch pin to understanding this is, as Jeremy said, this mysterious fight that he has with the angel. And I want I want to try to unpack these stories for a second from the perspective of Jacob's journey and see what's going on here. So when he starts off in the beginning, what's really interesting about Jacob is that he seems to know intuitively that he's very that he's important, that he has an important role ahead of him, a real mission in the world. He seems acutely aware that he's supposed to be doing something because we have the whole soup episode where Asov sells him the first born ship and he's like, "No, swear to me." we could see it's really important to him to get this to get this you know continuity that he's supposed to take into the world into the generations and as at this point he just disdains the blessings like why do I even need this I'm going to die anyway and from that disdain he actually loses his name it says at that story that he becomes Edom it's like at that intersection because that soup which seems kind of odd reason to give somebody a name it's his defining life moment because he cares more about material things and material enjoyment than than this mantle carrying this mantle of blessing. He just doesn't care. So from this young age, Jacob is kind of grasping at the heels of Isaac, holding out for this thing that Asov is just shrugging off. And then comes the episode with Rifa. And I think something very, very hard happens to Jacob. We often kind of look at this from the perspective of like, well, was he right? Was he wrong? Should he have tricked his father? Should he have not tricked his father? And we go back and forth kind of looking at this. But try to look at it from the perspective of Yakov. She what does his mother say to him? Now, this is somebody who's walking around with this knowledge up until now that like, okay, yes, I I'm I'm going I have, you know, I'm on this trajectory. His mom says quickly, his mom, who obviously loves him very much, says, "Go pretend to be Asov so you could trick your father into blessing you." She's meaning well. He wants him to to get the blessing that he needs that he deserves. But what do you hear if you're Yakob? There's so many things he could have said to his father. He could have said, "Father, I really think I'm being called to this mission. I feel like Hashem really wants this to me for me in my life." Or, "Father, you should know I made this oath with Asov." And he said that he's going to bring the firstborn blessing to me. But the message he's getting from his father and the message he's getting from his mother is that unless he pretends to be Asov and hides who he actually is, he's not going to be blessed. That has to be very very difficult and painful. [snorts] And from that really painful moment of getting the right blessing but for the wrong reason that leads and and in the wrong methods seemingly in the wrong actions. He then goes into this whole cascade of challenges and suffering because as of wants him dead. So then he leaves never gets to see his mother again seemingly he has his own wives switched. He can't really complain about it to Lavan because what's he going to say? It's not moral to switch the older child and the younger child. Lava knows he doesn't have a leg to stand on to complain about it. And then he sees all of these blessings coming onto his sheep. His sheep are multiplying [snorts] like well beyond the natural order of things to the point that everyone is starting to hate him. You can imagine Yakov being like, "Wow, that's a lot of blessing that I got. I didn't need all this blessing." So much so that when he goes to meet Asov, he's like, he has so much sheep. He's like, "Please take my blessing. I can't handle this blessing anymore." He never even cared that much about material blessing. So what is the resolution for this challenge that he faces? All these years go by and he's returning to the land and the story ends in this showdown with Asov that obviously us as the readers we know is about to be a resounding success of hugs and kisses. But Asov seems to be coming toward him very aggressively. It doesn't look like he's bringing 400 men to like have a friendly like family reunion barbecue. As seems to be coming aggressively and then shockingly hugs him and kisses him and they part peacefully as brothers. Now, traditionally, what do we always say? The traditional approach is that there were three things that Yakov did. We say he prayed, he sent gifts, and he divided the camp to prepare for an attack. Every child can say these are the three lessons that we learn here. When you're facing a threatening situation, you prey obviously you be proactive trying to settle things peacefully, sending gifts, being kind, but you also prepare yourself for the worst. Prepare yourself for battle. Every child in kindergarten can tell you this, right? Jacob does all these things and all, you know, all of his problem with Asab seems to resolve, but when you look, it's actually not obvious that any of these methods that he took worked. He prays a long and moving prayer. Have you guys noticed that there's something missing in his prayer? An answer. He's I see Suzanne. Yes. An answer. There's no answer. Hashem leaves him in silence. He sends all these gifts, but we know that Asab's like, "I have plenty of things. I don't even need your gifts." And YaKob's like, "No, no, please take it." But that's after all the hugging and kissing. meaning it's not clear that Asaf even knows that he's going to keep the gifts. He's planning on offering them back. So that doesn't seem to be his motivating factor. And with all due respect, preparing for war by dividing the camp, the first thing Asaf says when he sees Jacob is like, "Hey, who are all those guys?" And then he's like, "My wife and my children." So whatever he was hiding them behind, it was four moms and babies versus 400 warriors. It was not the most um impressive uh battle plan. What is really the key to the resolution here that happens? There's one other story before the resolution, and that's this fight with the angel. Now, he makes all of these preparations, but then he fights with the angel all night, and the morning comes, and it's truly one of the weirdest conversations in the Bible because they're fighting and fighting and fighting and fighting. And then it says, Jacob says, "I will not send you away unless you bless me." What does that even mean? They've been fighting. Why would he bless him? And then the angel doesn't answer that obvious answer. He says, "Well, what is your name?" And then he answers, "Jacob." And then the answer says, "You will no longer you will no longer be named Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with an angel of God and with men, and you have prevailed." And then Jacob asked him, "What's your name?" He says, "Why do you ask me my name?" And the angel blessed Jacob. I have never understood this conversation. It doesn't seem like anyone is responding coherently to what like what does a blessing have to do with your name? I never understood this. My sister-in-law Agile illuminated this for me this week. What's seemingly just in plain sight, it's been maybe it's obvious to all of you, but to me it was actually quite stunning. This conversation is actually YaKob reliving the worst day of his life. He got this blessing that he was so waiting for in the worst way based on this false pretense. And he's carrying that around. And in this struggle, he's been essentially given a chuva moment, a repentance moment. Because when is true chuva? It's when you're able to be in the same situation where you mess things up and to do it properly. In the original blessing, it seems that Jacob felt like he he originally knew that he really did deserve the blessings. And at the last moment, he just says, "Oh, maybe it's not me. I'm not going to be authentic. I'm not going to say maybe I have too many shortcomings. I I'll have to pretend to be my brother. I'll have to pretend to be a man of the field. I'd always thought that Hashem had something for me and that my my parents had something for me. I can't believe I thought it's me. Maybe I'm just a loser. Maybe I don't even deserve blessings. I'm not enough for blessings. I'm going to have to pretend to be Asov." And then here he is fighting the angel where he's actually become someone strong enough to fight with an angel. But beyond that and more importantly he's a person that could actually look into the face of the angel and say yes I want a blessing. Please bless me. And the angel has to check and make sure what has happened to him over all these years. What is your name? You have one more try. What is your name? And then he just says I'm Jacob. He just says the truth and then he gets a blessing. He blesses him but also changes his name. Those aspects that you were missing that you had to fake what you had to fake so that your father those things that your father saw in Asa, it's in you now too. Not because of pretending, not because of tricking, not because of being inauthentic, but because you actually became that. So, everyone talks about these prayers and gifts and preparations that were made to meeting Asa, but I think there's actually a fourth preparation, and it's seemingly the most important and seemingly the one that's actually effective. He prays and he gives gifts and he prepares for war, but most of all, he does chuva. And I think that we're taught that all of these about all these preparations, not because they're so powerful or effective, but because until the very last minute, he was missing the real closure that he was supposed to achieve. the real chuva. And his chuva was to honestly say, "Please bless me whatever blessing is right for me." He doesn't say, "Bless me with this or bless me with that." He just says, "I'm Jacob. Bless me with whatever is right for me." And then his own name changes, not because he's fake, but because he earned a new essence. He had actually fundamentally changed himself. As had the ability to be a vessel for blessing, but he didn't want to do the work that was involved with that. So, his name changed to a name that just means, "Yeah, give me that soup." you know, give me the immediate gratification. Yakov understood the important of the blessing. He was willing to do the work and his name changed to make him the true deserving vessel to receive those blessings. So with that, I just bless us that we can all say to Hashem, bless me as me. I'm me. I'm not pretending to be someone else. I'm not claiming to be something that I'm not. I'm Tahila. I'm all of you guys. We're all of who we are. And Hashem, please bless me by sending me on the mission that you've chosen me for. This is me and I'll do my best to earn whatever name you choose to give me as I become a vessel for your guidance and your blessings. So with that, bye guys. Shalom. My name is Jeremy Gimpel. 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