[see more in "My Life's Harvest"] JACOB/YA'AQOV - WRESTLING WITH HIMSELF [3 Pages] 2003_02_27 ; last update : 2012_03_02 - prompted by Communication with Deity on 2003_02_16 and the overwhelming daily wrestling between me and my grandson Tomer-

Finally this jewel in the crown of my biblical interpretation has attracted a tune [2012]                

[adapted to the tune I heard at the end of a doc about the Paskha Islands] Phillip Ratner's sculptures I discovered on Oct. 21, 2013, see his earlier sculpture further down]

The inspiration I draw from Biblical stories,
helps me to cope with my life day by day.
But two of the most precious diamonds in a crown of jewels
are the complementary stories about the rivalry between two brothers:
The story of Kayin and Hevel, which ends with murder and victimhood,
and the story of Ya'acov and Esau, which ends with peaceful separation.
The diamond of the latter radiates strongest, when the story reaches
Ya'aqov's so-called "Wrestling with the Angel",
as interpreted by so many artists like these three:
Rembrandt, Delacroix and Chagall.

In 1986 I roamed through Paris until I found the church of St. Sulpice. I wanted to physically plunge into Eugene Delacroix's understanding of the wrestling. It was his last masterwork. So much could be said about how much the artists on this page differ in their perception of the two roles of the two wrestlers. But why should the language of my mind spoil the message of the paintings and sculptures?

Gauguin's sarcasm as I understand it, suits the part in me, which is bitter.
"How can millions and millions of Jews and Christians hear and read this drama,
and - since they never saw an angel - disconnect their being from its message?!
And how can thousands of professional biblical interpreters miss the fact,
that the scene must not be severed from its context!
This mystical wrestling is tied into a physical-psychological reality:
the drama, of which Ya'acov is the writer, the producer, the star
and to which he has cast a role for Esav and invited him as his main co-actor."

From "All the World's a Movie Set" "Although it's not part of ordinary awareness, you're the producer, director, writer and star of the movie of your life. At a deep unconscious level, you've hired' the people in your life to play various roles in your drama, and you've done so based on how convincing you thought they'd be as the characters in the roles you've cast them. When they're off the set of your movie, all of these people have lives of their own. When they come to work here, however, they leave behind who they are when they are alone and each becomes the character in the role they have agreed to play for you. "Each person in your life is reflecting a part of yourself. As long as they are guests in your venue, whatever they do or say, they are doing so from the 'script' you've written at a deep unconscious level."

Gauguin 1988- Visitation after the sermon about Jacob wrestling with the Angel

It's only in one of the prophetical books [Hosea 12:5],
that Ya'aqov's partner is transformed into an "angel", i.e. a "messenger".
In the original story in Genesis [32:25 ] it is just "a man" ['ish'],
by Buber-Rosenzweig rightly translated as "einer", i.e. "someone".
And as I understand the mystical scene in its Ya'aqov-Esav context:
the "someone" is Ya'aqov's own self,
[January 9, 2012 - as to the wrestling with "my" Ya'acov,
see in"RedSeaPartnerSHIP" and see "My Story with Ya'acov"]



What helps me with Tomer is Phillip Ratner's sculpture

Names in the Bible are clues to personalities and vocations.
Following the wrestle, Ya'aqov's name is changed into 'Israel'
"for you have fought with God and men and have prevailed".
Ya'aqov is the 'Heel-Sneak', the bypasser, cheater, deceiver.
The story is a parable for what has to be learnt by us all..
Neither the biblical individual Ya'aqov,
nor the biblical and post-biblical people of Israel,
nor I myself
have yet learnt to wrestle/embrace,
instead of
succumbing or overriding, denying or fleeing.

I guided my grownup pupils through this outrageous parable many, many times in Hebrew, and once - when I was a guest lecturer in Berlin in winter 1986/7 - in German. It's the first time, I'll try to do it in English. How can I convey all the puns with words and letters in the Hebrew text? Since Ya'aqov is presented as the one who became 'Israel', he is meant to be the culmination of Abraham~Isaac~Ya'aqov. What is said to Abraham [Gn 12,3] is repeated to Ya'aqov [28:14] "All  the  families  of the  earth  will  be BLESSED  in you!" Unlike Kayin, who serves the 'adamah, as any 'adam is supposed to do, and even gives an offering from the fruit of the 'adamah =[land , Gn 4,2-3], Ya'aqov's sneaky, stealthy "character" is far from "ideal". In fact, it's even below the moral standard of an average human being. Thus we learn, what that wishie-washie word "blessing" really means.

From the introduction to the Ya'acov cycle in the translation of Everett Fox: "But he is the most dynamic and most human personality in the book of Genesis. The stories about him cover fully half of Genesis, and reveal a man who is both troubled and triumphant. Most interestingly, he, and not Avraham, gives his name to the people of Israel... throughout the stories human beings act according to normal (though strong) emotions, which God then uses to carry out his master plan... "Two stories of sibling confrontation begin the Ya'acov cycle (Gn 25:19-34). Struggle in the womb [forshadowing Ya'acov's wrestling match] , God's plan for the younger son to outdo the older one, ... The second story vv29-34 is Ya'acov's first act of stealth, and sets the pattern for his whole life. Note at the same time the text's emphasis on Esav's role (v.34): "Thus did Esav despise the firstborn-right."

 

2005_08_12
Before I'll present the rest of the pages
-"Ya'aqov wrestling with himself"-
I want to quote, what I wrote in 1982:

From my lecture at the Symposion of "Medicine and Bible" in Jerusalem in 1980

"But there is one situation of wholeness depicted in the Bible, which implies,
that "being whole" means first of all -
to accept responsibility for whatever happens to me.

YA'AQOV/ISRAEL - "SHALEM"
"And Ya'acov came whole, shalem, to the city of Shechem" (Gn 33:18)

This is a unique moment in the life of Ya'aqov.
Never again defines the Torah the state of mind of a person as "whole".
And it is a fleeting moment too,
for soon afterwards,
when the people of Shechem consent to the painful procedure of circumcision,
in order to become an integrated people with the strangers,
assuming, that "these men are   w h o l e   with us, shlemim",
the assumption turns out to be a fatal illusion:
the wholeness of Ya'aqov and his sons was already lost and gone (Gn 34:20)

Judged by the values of that time (and ours too),
Ya'aqov was a man,
whose character was even below the average weakness of human beings.
But it is his glimpse of wholeness,
which for a moment transformed him from Ya'aqov into "Israel",
and it is the process of integration, which Ya'aqov went through,
that might serve as a model for any human being.

 

Three times Ya'aqov had tried to outwit his brother,
in order to shortcut the path to the blessing that was meant for him.
Three times he could have produced excuses for not being responsible for his action:
the first time it happened,
while he was still unconscious in his mother's womb (Gn 25:26),
the second time it was a proper deal,
accomplished with the conscious collaboration of his brother (25: 3-34).
The third time it was his mother, who manouvered him into the deceit (27:6-36).

But the excuses have no bearing on the consequences that Ya'aqov has to bear:
twenty years of exile, of slavery
and of being cheated
the very same way that he had cheated his brother (Gn 29,25f; 31:6f: 38ff)
and twice the necessity to flee,
which is "brekhah", flight,
and not 'brakhah", blessing
(Gn 27:34;Gn 35:1.7 and Gn 31:20.21.22.27)

These twenty years taught him, that there was no short-cut to his blessing.
But even when he was mature enough to return home,
the obstacle, which he himself had put in his own way,
was still ahead:
he was still dependent on his enemy in order to enjoy his blessing.

Since the alternatives of fight or flight are out of the question
(the balance of power is to the disadvantage of Ya'aqov
and the contract with Lavan allows no going back to Haran),
he has no choice but coping with the enmity in his brother's heart.

Sure, before he becomes fully aware of this situation,
he makes three attempts of finding an easy way out:
1) Naively announcing his return without relating to the past;
2) focusing on rescuing at least part of his family,
thus in fact surrendering to defeat in advance;
3) trying to manipulate his god to do the job for him (Gn 32:3-12).

but the attempts don't work!

 

He was engulfed by darkness (Gn 32: 13.21.22) and all alone (24),
when he finally accepted responsibility
for coping with the present consequences of his past shortcuts,
-for "wrestling" instead of cheating and fleeing.

On the exterior scene he invents a maneuver which is highly sophisticated psychologically,
but he also sincerely acknowledges,
that he is in dire need of his brother's forgiveness (14-20).
By both means, the tactics and the confession,
he transforms his enemy's feelings (Gn 33:4).

 

What is even more surprising is the interior scene,
which clearly depicts the process of integration of past and present,
which takes place in Ya'aqov's heart,
and through this integration Ya'aqov's own transformation:
a man "wrestles"
(the unique use of this root: "avq" is an exchange of the sounds in the root "aqv",
underlying Ya'aqov's name; cp. Buber)
with Ya'aqov at night,
but soon roles are exchanged
and it is Ya'aqov who wrestles with the man.
By dawn the defeated man assures him
that now "Ya'aqov, Heel-Sneak", has become "Yisrael, Fighter of God"
((Gn 32:28, translation: Fox).
When he receives the blessing, he has yearned for so long,
he realizes that he has faced "the face of God" (Gn 32:30)
or as he interprets it on the exterior scene:
"I've seen your, Esav's, face as if seeing the face of God!" (Gn 33:10).
C.G. Jung would say, that he faced "Self"
overcoming the conflict between Ego and Self, and thus becoming whole.

By externalizing the interiour process,
Ya'aqov urges Esav to take from his material blessing,

for only by giving back the blessing he has stolen he can really receive his blessing Gn 33:11)