Dr. Yitzhaq Hayut-Man. vaYishlah Ya’aqov Mal’akhim וישלח יעקב מלאכים The Parashah starts abruptly, in a middle of a paragraph. Ya’aqov has just seen a band of angels – Mal’akhim מלאכים- and called them “The Camp of God”, now he sends Mal’akhim to try appease his rival brother.
Commentary One
Why was the text cut this way? Presumably to emphasize the concept denoted by the first word of the Parashah, which thus makes the name of the Parashah – vaYishlah. By common translation this means “He sent”. But by our system – that the Torah is a prophetic text that is written in “Extended/turned around Future” – the possible translation is “he would send” – at the appropriate time. In the Parashah we can learn something about making and sending representative envoys/messengers. The Parashah tells of three different types of representatives with almost identical names – Mal’akhim-מלאכים and Melakhim-מלכים. The first may mean two types of entity, while the last differ from the first in just one extra letter – but it is a crucial one.
There is a creative confusion here about Mal’akhim. It is used in the Torah mainly for Angels and in the former sentence, which is in the former Parashah, there is little doubt that Ya’aqov became able to see angels in this waking state, just as in the dream on his way to Haran he saw the Angels of God (Mal’akhe Elohim מלאכי אלהים ) going up and down the ladder. But the second time, in the first verse of this Parashah, the word Mal’akhim can mean either angels or human messengers. Thus the great commentator, Rashi, wrote: Mal’akhim Mamash – real heavenly angels.
So Ya’aqov sent Mal’akhim – either he acquired an influence over angels, or he had human messengers at his disposal. Their role was that of Shali’ah-שליח. In either case, he was afraid of his brother Esau and wanted a third party to come and appease him. And in either case these Mal’akhim must have moved fast, because when they returned, they knew of Esau’s moves, though they arrived at least a day before Esau got there. The answer they came with was just what Ya’aqov was afraid of.
More about names of Angels
In the Hebrew Bible, an angel is sometimes called Mal’akh, but just as often on encounter with people an angel looks like a human being and is referred to as Ish-איש and in plural Anashim-אנשים or Ishim-אישים. In later Jewish angelology (much like in the Christian angelology), angels are distinguished by several degrees – Mal’akhim, Krubim -כרובים(Cherubs), Seraphim-שרפים and Ishim-אישים. It is this last term which is mentioned in the subsequent encounter with Esau. There is a certain (at least phonetic) affinity between Ishim, Esau-עשו and the English word Issue. The agency of Ishim is to settle Issues – one way or the other.
Esau’s response and retainers.
The Messengers came back from “the Field of Edom” to Ya’aqov with a message – ” We came to your brother Esau, and also he comes to meet you, and four hundred men – Arba me’ot Ish ארבע מאות איש – with him” (Gen. 32:7). This can thus also be read that Esau had his own angels with him, a mighty camp of 400 Ishim . In any case, this was an objective-behavioral report, no added interpretation of feelings and motives. Maybe Esau brought all these retainers to give a great honor to Ya’aqov on his return – as what actually happened – or maybe he came in order to destroy his brother’s clan completely and thoroughly. But Ya’aqov could only see the negative interpretation, the dire threat and he prepared for the worst.
The report of Esau and his retinue is in the singular form- four hundred Ish and not Ishim. This would mean that they could act as one person. And indeed, soon Ya’aqov meets a mysterious foe who represents and embodies the resistance and fear of Ya’aqov. As it is written “And Ya’aqov was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day (Gen. 32:25), in Hebrew va’Ye’aveq imo Ish. Like with the angels that met Abraham
Who was this mysterious person? Most commentators see him as a mighty angel, whom they call “Saro shel Esau” – the heavenly potentate/prince of Esau and all that he represents. In his now classical book “The Thirteen Petaled Rose”, Rabbi Steinsalz discusses angels and mentions the type of angel that gets created when a person did a good deed – or a destructive angel if the person performed a sin. It is possible that this angel was a part of Ya’aqov himself, who had to contend with the fiend that he created.
I is through this struggle that Ya’aqov’s name – and with it his identity – changes to that of Yisra’el – from the root SRH, that means contention and this is the explanation given of the name ki sarita im im Elohim ve’im Anashim-כי שרית עם אלהים ועם אנשים
At the very end of their encounter, Esau lives the Land of Kena’an and goes back to the Land of Se’ir East of the Jordan. Seems that with all his might, Esau knew he could not contend with the seven nations and scores of kingdoms of Kena’an and left it to Ya’qov to contend with them and went to the more marginal place which he could conquer.
Commentary Two
The Ancient Kings of Edom
The Parashah ends with a short but detailed account of the offspring of Esau (Gen. 36:1-43). Much the same account is given again in the 1st Book of Chronicles. This section looks like a far away story that has no connection to us, not just even with the sages, who asked “what do we care if King Hadar’s wife’s name was “Mehetaver bat Matred bat me Zahav”? What has this to do with Torah and commandments? (Note that at that time, the sages already equated Esau’s Kingdom of Edom with the Roman Empire, yet as the pre-Christian Pagan empire). But over the generations the view of the Torah has changed much, mystics were looking for clues for a more sublime world beyond the simple stories and genealogies. The less that a section seemed necessary for a story, the more likely it seemed that it contained some sublime clues and hidden coded secrets.
At the wane of the Crusades when the Christian Kings of Jerusalem where getting bitten by the Muslims, the more that the sentence “And these are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom, before there reigned any king over the people of Israel” (36:31) assumed prophetic and messianic meanings. There were eight kings of Edom mentioned in this list – and there were in fact eight Christian Kings of Jerusalem and there were eight (main) Crusades to Jerusalem, ending with Christian surrender. So at those times of the 13th century the mystical Book of the Zohar started hinting that there are major secrets encoded in these sentences of the names of those kings who “reigned and died, reigned and died” – all seven, but the eighth is not reported to have died. In the most mysterious sections of the Zohar there come hints that the story of the Kings of Edom are the key for the mysteries of the Godhead – all with His (even their) eyes, nose and hair.
While the Crusader kings waned and no king Messiah yet came for Israel, these most intriguing sections remained, and at length, at the 16th century Rabbi Yitzhaq Luria made them the keys for a whole new cosmology of breaking, exile and redemption of the Godhead itself, with a cosmic role of the Children of Israel to make amends (Tiqqun) for the whole universe. The death of the Kings of Edom, Claimed Luria, meant the shuttering of the divine vessels of light, that we live in a cosmic exile and got to collect the shreds of light that got entangled in material complexes.
In his commentary on Genesis “In the beginning”, Rabbi Steinsalz starts with explanations of the World of Tohu (Chaos) and the World of Tiqqun (Correction) and summaries the story of those Kings of Edom . They were mighty mono-manic potentates who ruled by just one single-minded quality, be it Love or Judgment or whatever. They could not integrate plurality, and therefore their rule did not last. Just the last one, Hadar, the only one who married the lady whose name we just mentioned – Mehetavel bat Matred bat me Zahav – he endured.
Kings and Angels
As mentioned, the only textual difference between Angels Mal’akhim-מלאכים and Kings Melakhim-מלכים is the letter Aleph-אלף. One of the meanings of the name of the letter is instruction. In the Book of Job, he is advised, “haharesh ve’aalphekha Hokhmah” – be quite, and I’ll instruct you Wisdom. Those kings did not espouse Wisdom, but only Might in a certain emotional quality, whereas the angels, vehicles of God’s command, were guided by Wisdom, and were in the level of superior persons instructed in Wisdom, thus called Alufim-אלופים. Now the word Aluf-אלוף appears no less than 32 times in the section that we are examining and several more times as Alufe-אלופי “the Alufim of…”. This is far more than the number of appearance of this word in all the rest of the Tanakh (“old Testament” for Christians).
So the ancient regime of Esau was based on Wise men – Alufim but then degenerated and got dominated by single-minded powerful kings who founded an emotional rule of one type or another.
Christianity and Judaism
Whereas the Jewish sages likened Israel and Jewish way as being Ya’aqov and Rome as being of Esau, some of the Church Fathers saw it just the other way. They identified what they considered as their spiritual Christianity with Jacob and the earthly minded Jews as Esau. With this reading of the Parashah we may get deeper understanding of the relations of Judaism and Christianity.
The one King of Edom whose name still rings relevant is Sha’ul-שאול. This was indeed the name of the first King of Israel – and that was the name of the man who really made up Christianity – Saint Paul of Tarsus, whose Jewish name was Sha’ul.
Now the word Sha’ul means literally “borrowed” or “temporary” or “taken for a temporary mission”. King Sha’ul-Saul was a temporary king before the reign of King David, the Messiah. The Pauline layer of Yeshua’s teachings might also be a temporary formulation, which was good for spreading the word among the pagans, but no loner needed. Maybe the time has come for Christians to attend just to Yeshuah’s original Hebrew teachings?
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