Organization: Bar-Ilan University Computing Center, Israel
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 20:25:01 IST
From: Shaul Wallach <F66204@BARILVM.BITNET>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.arabic,soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: Jacob (was: Re: Jews and Ozir)

     Danny Keren has posted a scholarly exegis of the passage in
the Book of Genesis about Jacob's fight with the angel. With only
a few minor reservations, which I will outline below, I believe
his translation and explanation are accurate, and share his hope
for mutual understanding between Jews and Muslims.

In article <1993Jan26.053706.28975@cs.brown.edu>, dzk@cs.brown.edu
(Danny Keren) writes:

> ...
>
>So, here is the relevant paragraph from the Bible (Genesis 32:25-32):
>The story starts when Jacob returns to his previous camp site, to see
>if he did not leave anything behind.
>
>"And Jacob was there by himself, and a man fought with him until sunrise.
>And he saw that he could not beat him, so he touched his thigh and Jacob's
>thigh was dislocated while fighting with him [1]. And he said 'let me
>go because the dawn has risen' [2] and Jacob said 'I will not let you
>go till you bless me'. And he said to him 'what is your name' and he
>answered 'Jacob'. And he told him 'your name will no longer be Jacob
>but Israel because you have been with Elohim [3] and with people and
>you survived [4]'. And Jacob said 'please tell me your name' and he
>answered 'why should you ask my name', and he blessed him there. And
>Jacob called the name of the place Pneiel [5] because I have seen Elohim
>face to face and lived".
>
>Some explanations:
>
>1 - it was Jabob's thigh that was dislocated, not the angel's one, as
>    was erroneously written in a previous poster.
>
>2 - the explanation is: the "man" with whom Jacob fought was an angel
>    of Essaw (sp?), who cannot be seen by people during daytime.

    Here I may add, in answer to Ishaq's question, that Esau was
Jacob's twin brother. Esau was the firstborn but had sold his
birthright to Jacob (Genesis 25). With the advice of his mother
Rivqa, Jacob also took away the blessing their father Isaac had
planned to give to Esau (Genesis 27), and Esau wanted to kill Jacob
for doing this. Jacob therefore ran away to his mother's family in
Haran (Aram), where he married his uncle's two daughters and their
handmaids. After twenty years in Haran, God told Jacob to return
home to Isaac with his wives and children. On the way back, he
sent regards to Esau, but the latter came to meet him with 400
men with him. Jacob was afraid that Esau was coming to make war
with him, so he prepared himself and sent presents to Esau and
prayed to God. On the night before their meeting the angel
fought with Jacob. As Danny said, this was Esau's guardian
angel, and the significance of the fight was that Esau was
still not yet appeased.

>3 - this is more elaborate. In the Jewish tradition, there are different
>    words to describe various revelations of the almighty. ...
>
>    (rest of Qabbalistic explanation of Divine revelation deleted)
>

     This is indeed an elaborate explanation of Divine revelation
according to the Jewish mystical school of the Qabbala, of which
I am quite ignorant. I do believe, though, that there is a better
translation of the plain sense, for which see below.

>4 - 'Israel' is a combination of the words 'sharita' (you have been)
>    and "El" (short for Elohim).

     According to the Masora (the received text), the 's' in the
name Israel (Yisra'el in Hebrew) is a 'sin', not a 'shin'. The
word in verse 29 is therefore to be read 'sarita', and can be
understood in the sense of 'misra' which means 'position' or
'office'. Thus our Targum renders "you are a rav (great man or
head, master) before God". R. Saadia Gaon in his Tafsir translates
"tara'asta", i.e. "you have had a top position". I would similarly
prefer to translate the last word in the verse as "and you prevailed"
instead of "and you survived". A Midrash comments figuratively,
"you are the one whose likeness is engraved above." The idea is
that Jacob maintained his preeminence in his dealings with the angel
and with men.

     Even though the word "Elohim" does literally mean "God", there
are many places in the Torah where the word is meant figuratively
and is explained by the traditional commentators as "angels" or
"judges". Thus some Targumim render the word here as "angels of
God", and similarly in the next instance below.

     Although the plain sense of the verse has the word "sarita"
read with a 'sin', Rav M. Kasher in his Torah Shelema does quote
a Midrash which understands it as if it were a 'shin', and compares
Jacob's rank with that of the ministering angels (mal'akhei ha-sharet).

>5 - "Pnei" means "the face of", "El" as in [4].

     Here, too, the Targum translates "Elohim" as "angels of God".
This is fitting with what Jacob says afterwards to Esau (33:10):
"... for I have seen your face as seeing the face of Elohim, and
you have accepted me", which the Targum renders "the face of the
great ones", i.e. the angels. The Targum similarly renders many
references to God in order to avoid any possible anthropomorphism.

>Undoubtedly, there are better and more complete explanation... I hope
>this helped.

     The same goes for me.

>-Danny Keren.

Shalom,

Shaul Wallach