Vayishlach 5774:        Tear Down the Walls

By Rabbi Joshua (combatively known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

In memory of Rabbi Dan Segal, a recent musmach of RIETS, who passed away today, the eleventh of Kislev.

In memory of my friend, Rabbi Raphael Marcus, son in law of Rav Aharon Soloveitchik, zt”l, whose yahrtzheit occurred the eleventh of Kislev. May his memory be a blessing.

            The Torah tells us that Yaakov, on his way back to his father’s house in Eretz Yisroel, sent “malachim” before him to Eisav. Rashi comments that these were literally angels, meaning, apparently, in contrast to messengers, which is another meaning of the term. How did Rashi know that they were, literally, angels? Rabbi Eliyahu Mizrachi explains, that Rashi, as he often does, is connecting the beginning of the parsha with the end of the previous one, in which we read that Yaakov, as he left Charan, encountered angels.  Rashi there explains that these were angels of Eretz Yisroel who came to accompany Yaakov into the land, as the angels of outside the land left him.  I once heard Nechama Leibovitz explain that this idea of different angels inside and outside of Eretz Yisroel is emblematic of the fact that different problems and situations confront people in the two different settings, and, consequently, different strategies must be used in dealing with them.  Perhaps, however, we can integrate this explanation with the view that we are dealing here with actual angels. 

            Rav Elimelech Bar Shaul, in his Min HaBe’er to Parshas Vayeitzei, cites a midrash which says that when Yaakov went to Charan to escape Eisav’s wrath, the entire world appeared to him as a wall.  Rav Bar Shaul explained that the wall symbolized a block in the road, indicating to Yaakov that he had only one path to follow, the one leading to Lavan’s home.  I would like to suggest a different explanation. The Talmud in Kesuvos (111a), based on verses in Shir HaShirim, says that God imposed three oaths on the Jewish people when they went into exile.  One of the oaths was that they should not converge upon Eretz Yisroel as a wall of force against enemy nations. Yaakov, then, as the paradigmatic Jew in exile, saw this wall in front of him, as indicating that he could not confront Eisav, at that time, through force, and, so he proceeded to Lavan’s house. 

            As is well-known, the oath mentioned in the Talmud has been brought as an argument against Zionistic efforts to reclaim Eretz Yisroel for the Jewish people. Over the years, many counter-arguments have been presented, some of which were collected by Rabbi Shlomo Aviner in an article in the journal Noam, in the 1970s. I once heard, from the great genius, Rav Chaim Zimmerman, a source not cited by Rav Aviner which is a midrash in Shir HaShirim Rabbah, which adds two words to the oath mentioned in the Talmud. The midrash says that the oath was to not converge as a wall “min hagolah” or “from the exile.” However, argued Rav Chaim, once the Jews were already in Eretz Yisroel, they were not restricted from doing so. 

            Rashi writes that Yaakov, in preparing to encounter Eisav, used three tactics: sending a gift, praying, and arranging for battle.  The angels, then, were the angels of Eretz Yisroel who accompanied Yaakov into the land, as the Mizrachi explains, and Yaakov used them to threaten Eisav with battle, a tactic that as not permissible outside the Land.  As others explain, the Torah says that he sent the angels before him, meaning that they were at his disposal, which, apparently Yaakov took as an indication that he was no longer restricted from acting with strength.