ויפגעו בו, in order to protect him, as in 28,15 “and here I will be with you.”

ויצו אותם לאמור, he commanded them and said to them: כה תאמרון, the messengers were oblivious of what it was that troubled Yaakov.

עם לבן גרתי, as you are aware of, I was there at the command of my father and mother. He said this so Esau would not think that he had run away on his account.

ואחר, the construction is similar to ואאחר, or as in Maleachi 1,2 ואוהב את יעקב “I displayed love for Yaakov.” In both instances this is an abbreviation for ואאהב. We have similar constructions in vaochal, vaomar, in both instances the first root letter is missing.

באנו אל אחיך אל עשו, and you have found favour in his eyes, just as you said you would;

ויירא יעקב, in his heart; Although he had pretended to his messengers that Esau approached with a large delegation in order to honour him, he did not believe this himself, but he was convinced that Esau’s intentions were hostile.

ויצר, a word derived from the same root as Numbers 25,17 צרור את המדינים, “harass the Midianites.” The construction is not unlike that of the word ותקל in Genesis 16,4 which describes Hagar’s attitude to her mistress after she had become pregnant by Avraham. The word there is derived from the root קלל.

ויחץ, from the root חצה, to divide into half. We find this word in this sense in Numbers 31,42 describing Moses as having divided the booty from the Midianites into two halves.

לפלטה. The two camps were positioned quite a distance one from the other, so that if it would become obvious that disaster struck one camp the other would have a chance to flee.

המחנה האחת, a feminine mode, as occurs also in Psalms 27,3 אם תחנה עלי מחנה, “should an army besiege me.”

הנשאר, now we have the masculine mode. This is one of many instances in which a noun appears sometimes in the masculine mode and sometimes in the feminine mode. Well known examples are Genesis 19,23 השמש יצא על הארץ (where the word שמש is treated as masculine), and Jonah 4,8 ' where it is treated as feminine, i.e. ותך השמש. (whereas in the beginning of the same verse it is treated as masculine, i.e. ויזרח). Compare also Psalms 148,8 and Job 1,19.

אלוקי אבי אברהם ואלוקי אבי יצחק, Who has made me promises using these words to identify Himself to me when I had departed from Beer Sheva. (28,13.)

קטנתי מכל, from qualifying for all the

החסדים, the loving kindness as expressed by promises. We have a parallel to this in Kings I 8,64. Seeing that You have performed for me both חסדים and אמת, although I have not yet redeemed my vow to establish an altar at Beyt El and to sacrifice to You there, I am now afraid in spite of the assurances You have given me. I am aware that You do not judge man according to his good intentions but according to his carrying out such intentions, and I have been remiss in this respect. We find in connection with Chizkiyah, King of Yehudah in Kings I 20,1 that when the prophet had told him: “you will die and not live,” that the king prayed to G’d and was granted an additional 15 years of life on earth. [he was given this extension as in his prayer he had enumerated his merits, although G’d justified the extension with reference to King David, Chizkiyah’s ancestor. Ed.]

פן יבא והכני, because I am not worthy of all the loving kindness G’d has already shown me, (as I explained on verse 10)

ואתה אמרת היטב איטיב עמך; even though You are under no obligation to keep the promise You have made to me seeing that I am not worthy of it, do it for the sake of Your Holy Name which obligates You to keep Your promises (as Moses argued when he reasoned with You not to destroy Israel in spite of their having sinned with the golden calf. His argument had been: “Why should the impression be created that You are unable to keep promises You have made?”) The argument used by Moses he used more than once when he repeated it after the sin of the spies (Numbers 14,16)

ובניהם, according to the plain meaning the males which the camels were suckling. When there are both females and males, the Torah does not mention the females separately.

וריוח תשימו, a device to make each gift appear as a sign of Yaakov’s respect. When someone receives a number of gifts at intervals he appreciates them all the more.

למי אתה, the word עבד is implied, i.e. Esau would ask: “whose servant are you?”

מנחה, we explained this term in connection with Genesis 4,3.

כי אמר אכפרה פניו, this is not what Yaakov said but what he thought in his heart. This line does not belong to the instructions he had given to his emisssaries.

וגם הנה הוא אחרינו, actually Yaakov had intended to flee in a different direction during the night if the angel had not delayed him. At the time he issued the instructions to his emissaries this had been intended as a stratagem to make Esau think that he was following on the heels of his gift whereas in fact he was not.

ויקם בלילה ההוא , he crossed the river at night because he intended to change direction to avoid a meeting with Esau. We find that David did something similar when he was fleeing from his son Avshalom at the same location of Machanyim as reported in Samuel II 17,21-24. At that time, coming from the direction of Jerusalem, David crossed the river Jordan, a more formidable river than the Yabbok, a mere tributary of the Jordan which could be crossed relatively easily. [flight by crossing a river, eliminating footprints and wading along the bank before crossing to the other side slows down the pursuers who first have to find in which direction the fugitive continued. Ed.].

ויותר יעקב לבדו, after he had transferred all his belongings to the other side of the river, so that the only one still to be brought across was he himself. The reason that he wanted to cross only after everyone else had already crossed was that he intended to flee in a different direction so as to avoid a face to face encounter with Esau.

ויאבק, an angel engaged him in a physical fight, his purpose being to prevent Yaakov from fleeing. Only in this way could G’d’s promise to Yaakov that Esau would not harm him be fulfilled.

כי לא יכול לו, the angel did not succeed in preventing Yaakov from crossing and fleeing.

ותקע, was dislocated, separated. We find the word as having a similar meaning in Jeremiah 6,8 פן תקע נפשי ממך; “lest My essence not become separated from you (Israel).” Whereas in the words ירך the emphasis is on the first syllable, in verse 33 in the word הירך the emphasis is on the letter ר, seeing that there it is used as a noun, whereas here it appears in an adjective mode. Whenever ירך appears in a construct form (Exodus 40,24, i.e. as something subordinate, its stress is on the first syllable) Also the kametz changes to a segol, as the word in unadorned mode is yarech and not yerech. [the author quotes parallels from the word gezel and gazel, respectively, claiming that the unadorned noun for robbery is gazel not gezel. He makes the same claim for the words geder and gader (fence) respectively. [In modern Hebrew the latter is accepted whereas “robbery,” גזל, does not appear with a kametz, but the difference between the construct mode and the unadorned noun is merely that the latter has a chataf segol instead of a regular vowel segol. Ed.]

כי עלה השחר, seeing that it is daylight already it is time for you to be on your way. (to the meeting with Esau).

כי אם ברכתני, as a sign that you have parted from me in peace, that I will not suffer harm or damage through having been in a struggle with you.. Now that it had become daylight Yaakov realised for the first time that his adversary had been an angel.

כי שרית, the word is derived from שרה in Hoseah 12,4 ובאונו שרה את אלוקים, “and with his might he fought with a Divine Being (reference to Yaakov).” The construction is parallel to קנה-קנית, or עשה-עשית. However, in the same chapter, verse 5 in Hoseah, the word וישר in the line וישר אל מלאך ויוכל, “he wrestled with an angel and prevailed,” is not derived from the root שרה but is of the same category of verbs as קם, שב, רץ all of which have a letter ו in the middle in the infinitive. The corresponding construction to ours of those examples would be ויקם, ויקב, וירץ, as in וישר from the root שור, ”to wrestle.” As to the fact that in spite of his victory, Yaakov was injured in that struggle, this was a punishment for his attempt to flee, in spite of his having been assured by G’d that He would help and protect him. We find other examples of great people who pursue a path that does not conform with G’d’s will that as a result they experience punishment for ignoring G’d’s will. As soon as Moses refused the mission and told G’d to send someone else, (Exodus 4,13) we find that G’d became angry at him. According to the plain meaning of the text there, although the sages say that wherever G’d’s anger is mentioned the subject at whom G’d is angry is visibly punished, whereas there is no word about Moses being punished for his words שלח נא ביד תשלח, Aaron who was meant to function only as a Levite, became the High Priest, a role which Moses would have filled but for his improper refusal to accept G’d’s mission without demurring. This is an explanation based on an allegorical approach, whereas the plain meaning is that at the inn, when on his way to Egypt, Moses was almost killed for having been remiss in not circumcising his son Eliezer before setting out on his journey. Jonah, too was punished for trying to circumvent the will of G’d and spent three most uncomfortable days inside one or more fish. Similarly, G’d’s anger resulted in Bileam being harmed by his ass when contravening G’d’s will and setting out on his way to curse the Jewish people (Numbers 22,22 indicates that he walked with a pronounced limp, presumably due to having his leg squeezed against the wall by his ass as per Numbers 22,25.

והוא צולע על ירכו, now that the sun was shining he realised that he was walking with a limp, a belated discovery, just as when he discovered that he had spent a night in bed with Leah thinking that she was Rachel (29,25).

על כן לא יאכלו, as a reminder of the heroism displayed by Yaakov, as well as a reminder of the miracle that G’d performed for him as a result of which he did not die.