להרגיש את הפחד

(2) והיה המחנה הנשאר לפליטה THEN THE REMAINING CAMP MAY ESCAPE in spite of him, for I will fight against him He prepared himself for three things: to give him a present — as it states (Genesis 32:22) “So, the present passed before him”; for prayer — as it states (Genesis 32:10), “And he said, ‘O God of my father Abraham”; for war — as it states in this verse, “then the remaining camp may escape”, for I will fight against him (Tanchuma Yashan 1:8:6).

(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.'

(1) אלה תולדות יעקב, intelligent people must remember that our sages taught us that in spite of all different methods of exegesis of the text of the written Torah, no verse may legitimately be explained in a manner which contradicts the plain meaning of the text. While it is true that the Torah, by means of allusions, grammatical anomalies, tone-signs, etc., teaches us far more than meets the eye when we look at the bald text, there are strict limitations even to these methods of exegesis such as the thirteen principles of Rabbi Yishmael and the 32 principles of Rabbi Yossi Haglili. Exegetes of former times, thanks to their piety, relied exclusively on the drashot i.e. allegorical and ethical interpretations of anomalies in the text of the Torah, thereby neglecting a thorough study of the text as it presents itself to the average, though not scholarly, reader. Seeing that our sages stated אל תרבו בניכם בהגיון, “do not burden your children overly with interpretation based on logic, on common sense,” and they also saidהעוסק במקרא מדה ואינו מדה, העוסק בתלמוד אין לך מדה גדולה מזו, “he who studies the written text of the Torah has accomplished something positive but has also failed to accomplish something positive, but on the other hand, he who has studied Talmud has chosen by far the best path in Torah study,” (freely translated), the result of such statements has been that students have not become used to studying the plain meaning of the text without immediately looking at exegesis. (Baba Metzia 33 and a source supposedly in Berachot 28, the correct text being מנעו בניכם מן ההגיון, prevent your children from indulging in speculative reason,” but this does not seem to have any connection with Torah exegesis in the context where the statement is made. Ed.] This principle has been illustrated in Shabbat 63; we read there in the name of Rav Kahane “I was already eighteen years old and had studied the entire Talmud, but had not ever been taught of the principle that אין מקרא יוצא מידי פשוטו, “that the text in the written Torah must not be interpreted in a manner which completely nullifies its plain meaning.” Also Rabbi Shlomoh, my mother’s father of blessed memory (Rashi) the brilliant exegete, who wrote commentaries on the entire Bible, was careful not to ignore the plain meaning of the text. I, Shmuel, son of Rabbi Meir, Rashi’s son-in-law, have argued with him, and he admitted to me that if he had the opportunity, he would compose an additional commentary in which he would concentrate on the plain meaning as it became clearer to him with each passing day.

(1)...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. ...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.

(29) Said he, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with beings divine and human,^-d and have prevailed.”