The Wrestling Match

(25) And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. (26) And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was strained, as he wrestled with him.

(3) Rabbi Chama bar Chanina said, "He was the ministering angel of Esav. And that is [what he meant] when he said to him, 'For this have I seen your face as I saw the face of God and you have accepted me' (Genesis 33:10). There is a parable about an athlete that got up and wrestled with the son of the king. He lifted his eyes and he saw that the king was standing behind him and [so] he fell to the ground in front of [the son]. This is what [is meant by that which] is written, 'and he saw that he could not overcome him.'" Rabbi Levi said, "'And he saw' the Divine Presence 'and he could not overcome him.'" Said Rabbi Berachia, "We do not know who won, whether it was the angel or whether it was Yakov. And from that which it is written, 'and a man wrestled (vayitabek, the root of which contains the letters that spell dust) with him,' prove who was covered in dust - the man that was with him.' Said Rabbi Chananya bar Yitschak, "The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, 'He is coming against you and he has five charms in his hand: his merit, the merit of his father, the merit of his mother, the merit of his grandfather, and the merit of his grandmother - measure yourself [and see] if you can stand even against his merit.' Immediately, 'And he saw and he could not overcome him.' There is a parable of a king that had a wild dog and a tamed lion. And the king took his son and endeared him to the lion, [such that] if the dog would take him on, the king would say to him, 'The lion was not able to stand in front of him and you want to take him on?' So [too], if the nations of the world will come to take on Israel, the Holy One, blessed be He, will say to them, 'Your ministering angel was not able to stand in front of him and you want to take on his children?'" "And he touched the hollow of his thigh" - he touched the righteous men and women, the prophets and prophetesses, which were to arise from him in the future. And which is this? The generation of persecution (shemad). "And he touched the hollow of Yakov's thigh" - Rabbi Berachia and Rabbi Eliezer [disagreed about this]: Rabbi Eliezer said, "He pressed it down." Rabbi Berachia said in the name of Rabbi Assi, "He split it like a fish." Rabbi Nachman bar Yakov said, "He separated it from its place, as it is written (Ezekiel 23:18), 'and my soul was separated etc... like my soul was separated' [in which the context shows that the verb for touching also means separating]." Said Rabbi Chanina bar Yitschak, "That whole night both of them were striking each other, the shield of this one across from the shield of that one. Once the sun rose, 'And he said, send me away from here as the sun has risen.'

and Yisrael dominated an angel and was able to withstand Him at night [Genesis 32:25-30], and it was in the middle of the night.

(54) After Jacob had successfully confronted the spiritual power of Esau in his nocturnal encounter in Genesis 32,25 ויאבק איש עמו (compare Bereshit Rabbah 77,3), he finally obtained the consent of his adversary that he was entitled to the blessings he had received from his father. This is why Esau said in 33,9: "you may keep what is yours." Esau's spiritual counterpart had already acknowledged this during the struggle when he had bestowed a blessing on Jacob in 32,30: ויברך אותו שם, "He blessed him there." At that time Jacob was also informed about the forthcoming change of his name to ישראל. The Esau on earth, had previously called him Jacob as a slur when he had felt himself betrayed in 27,36.