Ilustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio
Midrash מִדְרָשׁ
Yaakov wrestles with an angel all night long, and he gets named Yisrael. Then the Torah tells us (Bereishit 32:32): וַיִּזְרַח לוֹ הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ (the sun rose for him).
Why does it say that the sun rose “for him”? When the sun rises, it's not doing a personal favor for anyone - it's just doing its thing!
אוֹתָן שְׁתֵּי שָׁעוֹת שֶׁהִשְׁקִיעַ לוֹ הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא בִּיצִיאָתוֹ מִבֵּית אָבִיו וְאִמּוֹ הֶחֱזִירַתּוּ לוֹ בַּחֲזִירָתוֹ לְבֵית אָבִיו, לְכָךְ כְּתִיב "וַיִּזְרַח לוֹ" - זָרְחָה לוֹ ב' שָׁעוֹת בַּעֲבוּרוֹ קֹדֶם זְמַנָּהּ.
The Holy Blessed One had the sun set two hours early for Yaakov when he was leaving from his parents home. Now these hours were returned to him on his way back. That’s why it says “rose for him” – the sun rose just for him two hours before its time.
According to this midrash, God made a special kind of “daylight savings” miracle for Yaakov! This connects to another view of Hazal that God made the night come early for Yaakov so he would sleep in the special place where he dreamt of the ladder with angels going up and down it (Bereishit 28:11-22). Here, God brought the day a little early to make up for that lost sunlight.
- When Yaakov ran away from home because of Esav’s threat to kill him, what could the extra long nighttime have symbolized? Why might that have been an “extra dark” time in his life?
- Now that Yaakov has faced Esav’s angel and won (see Rashi on another midrash), what could the extra daylight symbolize? Why might this be a time of “extra light” in Yaakov’s life?
-------------------
-------------------
