Shabbat VaYishlah

This week’s parsha, Vayishlach, opens by describing the preparations that Yaakov makes to meet his brother Esav after many years. The verses describe in detail Yaakov’s fear and his attempts to appease his brother prior to their meeting. At first glance, his efforts seem superfluous and fruitless. On one side stands the head of a household with his 4 wives and 12 children; on the other side is an army of 400 men. One team is stacked; the fight is not fair. Although the two camps are headed by biological brothers, the picture had been irrevocably engraved and the situation shaped by the fateful determination that “there are two peoples in your belly, and two nations will depart from your insides…” – two nations locked in struggle.
As mentioned, Yaakov feared the encounter. He sent emissaries bearing gifts and instructs them to address Esav with honor and even humility: “So shall you say to my master Esav, ‘Thus says your servant Yaakov…to tell my master’” (Bereishit 32:5-6). The key words are “my master” and “your servant”, indicating that Yaakov presumed that such a gesture of respect would possibly appease Esav and end the conflict that broke out between them decades earlier, when Yaakov slyly obtained the blessings of their father Yitzchak.
Midrashim on the beginning of the parsha provide varying evaluations of Yaakov’s strategy and their instructiveness for future generations. Some see Yaakov’s methods as examples of sycophancy and capitulation: “The moment that Yaakov called Esav ‘My master’, God said to him, ‘You degraded yourself by calling Esav your master eight times, as I live, his descendants will have 8 kings before yours have one’, as it says (Bereishit 36:31): ‘And these are the kings who ruled in the land of Edom before there was a king over Israel’” (Bereishit Rabbah 75:11). According to this Midrash, not only was Yaakov wrong to project submission to Esav, he was wrong not to clarify that he and those with him were not just a regular family, but the foundation of a nation with its own land and Torah which would eventually reveal righteousness and justice to the whole world. Self-degradation and fear teach us that the nation of Israel was still immature, and it would not achieve full autonomy for an additional eight generations after they were supposed to. Moreover, several commentator believe that Esav was completely unaware of Yaakov’s approach, and only became aware one Yaakov began sending messages and gifts: “God said to him: ‘He was going his own way, until you sent for him and said to him Thus says your servant Yaakov’?’” (Bereishit Rabbah 75:2). Ramban (Nachmanides), who agrees with this opinion, shows how later generations also adopted Yaakov’s tactics, but it failed: In my opinion, this also alludes the beginning of our fall at the hands of Edom, for the Hasmonean) kings during the Second Temple Era entered into a covenant with the Romans, some of them even traveling to Rome, and that was the reason that they fell into their hands.” (Commentary to Bereishit 32:4) Others take the opposite approach. Rabbi Yehuda the Patriarch, who lived under and worked with the Roman authorities about a century after the destruction of the Second Temple, instructed his students to write a letter to Caesar what begins as follows: “From your servant Yehuda, to our master, Caesar Antoninus”. His students asked: Rabbi, why do you take your honor so lightly?” He replied, “Am I better than my grandfather? Did he not say ‘Thus says your servant Yaakov’?” (Bereishit Rabbah 75:6) I believe that there is room for both opinions. There are situations when Israel is ruled by foreign powers in its own and, in which case it is appropriate to flatter and self-efface in order to gain advantages. Much depends on the personalities and leaders faced. It is worth mentioning that Rabbi Yehuda the Patriarch indeed had excellent relations with the Caesar Antoninus, leading Our Sages to interpret “there are two peoples in your belly”, which we read last week pertaining to Esav and Yaakov, to refer to their great progeny, Antoninus and Rabbi Yehuda (BT Brachot 57b).
Other methods are more appropriate for when Israel lives independently on its land and begins building its national life as a sovereign state. During such an era, Israel must project an attitude which expresses its destiny and role. Like in the case of Yaakov and Esav, even a sovereign nation can occasionally find itself in a situation of ‘few against many’. The natural concern in this case is completely understandable. Nevertheless, when the nation believes in its chosen path, when it has a clear inner awareness which says where it comes from and where it wants to go, and knows the deep significance of the words “return to your land and birthplace and I will bestow good upon you”, then it will stand proud and announce its mission to the whole world.
-From Tzohar