4 Feb

The brotherly relationship between Jacob and Esau has a lot more complications than in the one between Cain and Abel. Jacob and Esau are twins, and more information is given about their feuds. Cain acts against Abel in a fit of rashness, while we learn more about the premeditation and methodical nature of Jacob and Esau’s fighting. Jacob and Esau begin to wrestle even before they are born, which in some way foreshadows Jacob’s future wrestling match with an angel. I found this passage filled with mystery and brings up several unanswerable questions, depending on one’s interpretation. For example, is Jacob making the right decision to seek forgiveness from Esau? Is forgiveness always possible? Of course, who is this unnamed angel? According to Kass, a “purely symbolic” interpretation would offer Jacob’s real opponent as “his conscience or his fears”. This is compelling, but the keen description of the real physical injuries that Jacob suffers at the hands of his opponent suggest something more. Jacob and Esau’s relationship had been an intentionally physical one from the start. For instance, Jacob had been grasping his brother Esau’s heel at birth. The physicality of their relationship brings to mind once again the physical attack Cain brought against Abel. Neither Jacob or the man he fights seems to really win in the end. Jacob, I believe, learns something about himself after the encounter and his hip injury. For us, we are taught to never go about things alone, and we know it is impossible to do much of anything at all without invoking God. The opponent could be his inner self, or maybe it is even Esau seeking revenge. In any case, Jacob comes away a changed man and he and his brother are able to make amends in the following chapter.