«Dr. Y. Israel DDS»- Vayishlach 5786

Esau ran to greet him. He embraced him and, falling on his neck, he kissed him; and they wept.

ויחבקהו AND EMBRACED HIM — His pity was aroused when he saw him prostrating himself so many times (Genesis Rabbah 78:8).

וישקהו AND HE KISSED HIM — Dots are placed above the letters of this word, and a difference of opinion is expressed in the Baraitha of Sifré (בהעלותך) as to what these dots are intended to suggest: some explain the dotting as meaning that he did not kiss him with his whole heart, whereas R Simeon the son of Johai said: Is it not well-known that Esau hated Jacob? But at that moment his pity was really aroused and he kissed him with his whole heart. (Sifrei Bamidbar 69.2)

“Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell upon his neck, and kissed him, and they wept” (Genesis 33:4).
“Esau ran to meet him…and kissed him [vayishakehu]” – it is dotted above it. Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar said: Every place you find the script more numerous than the dots, you expound the script; the dots more numerous than the script, you expound the dots. Here, neither is the script more numerous than the dots, nor are the dots more numerous than the script. Rather, it teaches that at that moment he was overcome with mercy and he kissed him with all his heart. Rabbi Yannai said to him: If so, why is it dotted over it? Rather, it teaches that he did not come to kiss him, but rather to bite him, and Jacob’s neck was transformed into marble and the teeth of that wicked one were blunted. Why does the verse state: “And they wept”? It is, rather, that this one wept over his neck, and that one wept over his teeth. Rabbi Abbahu in the name of Rabbi Yoḥanan derives it from here: “Your neck is like the ivory tower…” (Song of Songs 7:5).

They wept. At that moment love for Eisov awakened in Yaakov as well. Similarly, whenever Eisov’s descendants genuinely acknowledge Yisrael’s greatness, Yisrael reciprocates with feelings of brotherhood.

Then Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham’s [house] and God of my father Isaac’s [house], O יהוה, who said to me, ‘Return to your native land and I will deal bountifully with you’! I am unworthy of all the kindness that You have so steadfastly shown Your servant: with my staff alone I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; else, I fear, he may come and strike me down, mothers and children alike. Yet You have said, ‘I will deal bountifully with you and make your offspring as the sands of the sea, which are too numerous to count.’”

מיד אחי מיד עשו FROM THE HAND OF MY BROTHER, FROM THE HAND OF ESAU — from the hand of my brother who does not treat me as a brother should, but as Esau, the wicked.

Jacob also had in mind that if Esau were to use the fact that he was his brother as a trick to attack him after feigning brotherliness, G'd should save him from such machinations. He also needed G'd's help, however, if Esau proclaimed his hostility openly.

The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau; he himself is coming to meet you, and his retinue numbers four hundred.” Jacob was greatly frightened; in his anxiety, he divided the people with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps,

In distress I called on the LORD;
the Lord answered me and brought me relief. The LORD is on my side,
I have no fear;
what can man do to me? With the LORD on my side as my helper,
I will see the downfall of my foes.

But the children struggled in her womb, and she said, “If so, why do I exist?” She went to inquire of יהוה, and יהוה answered her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
Two separate peoples shall issue from your body;
One people shall be mightier than the other,
And the older shall serve the younger.”

Your neck is like a tower of ivory,
Your eyes like pools in Heshbon
By the gate of Bath-rabbim,
Your nose like the Lebanon tower
That faces toward Damascus.