THE SWORD OF ESAV
Ya’aqob Abinu returns to the land of Israel. He has many doubts. One of those doubts is whether his brother Esav still bears a grudge against him. Let’s remember that 20 years ago, Esav was determined to kill Ya’aqob. Now, Yaaqob’s question was: Does Esav still hate me, 20 years later? Maybe his resentments have changed, and he already forgot what happened so long ago…. Ya’aqob cannot be sure. And then he finds one more complication: he hears that Esav is arriving leading a band of 400 men: too many people for a welcoming committee…. Ya’aqob fears the worst, and feels the danger that lies in wait for him and his family. Ya’aqob prays and pleads for Divine intervention, with the famous phrase: “[HaShem], save me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esav.” When the brothers finally meet again, Esav does not attack Ya’aqob. Some biblical commentators explain that Esav came to meet his brother with the intention of destroying him and stealing his family and his possessions, but that at the last minute, there was an emotional change in Esau’s heart. Why? Because the previous night, Ya’aqob fought against an envoy of HaShem (“angel”, although the Tora describes him as a “man”). This individual hit Ya’aqob on his thigh and left Ya’aqob wounded. When Esav saw Ya’aqob limping, he was moved (or thought that Ya’aqob was no longer a worthy adversary …) and, according to this interpretation, what 20 years were not able to do in terms of forgiveness, “pity” for Ya’aqob’s vulnerability, did it in a matter of minutes. Following this idea, in a direct or indirect way, HaShem saved Ya’aqob from Esav, by making him fight against that individual.
THE INVITATION OF ESAV
In the following act, and now in a family-reunion atmosphere, Esav thanks Ya’aqob for his generous gifts and tells him: “I don’t need anything, my brother, I already have too much.” Esav is materially successful, he is the patriarch, founder and leader of the people of Edom. But Esav, as his mother had anticipated, did not follow the path of his grandfather and his father. The Edomites, led by Esav, abandoned the beliefs of Abraham Abinu and were idolaters, like the rest of the world. At this point, Esav no longer sees Ya’aqob as his enemy, but as his peer and friend. And here, ironically, a huge problem begins for Ya’aqob. Something more delicate and more subtle than Esav’s sword, but just as deadly. As a consequence of the new fraternal reconciliation, Esav does what any normal brother does when his sibling comes from overseas. Esav invites Ya’aqob to join his family. (Gen. 33:12) “nis’a venelekha”. Come on now! Let’s go together to my land Se’ir, and there we will live as one family. Your little children are going to play with my children: their cousins. And I already have in mind some of my daughters and granddaughters who could be very good candidates to marry your sons. Ya’aqob knows that if he accepts Esav’s invitation, his children will end up assimilating to Esav and becoming part of his family. And that would be the end of the legacy of Abraham Abinu (the end of “Judaism” of that time) by the inevitable dissolution of the “religion” practiced by Ya’aqob’s family.
THE “NO” THAT CHANGED HISTORY
And at that defining and crucial moment , Ya’aqob “heroically” said ‘NO’ to Esav. He said it in a very diplomatic way. Esav, you go ahead, and I will arrive, at the pace of my little children. Esav, who perhaps did not understand Ya’aqob’s way of refusing his invitation, insisted. If you wish, I’ll leave you some men to protect you on the way, until you get to my house. Ya’aqob, stoically, endured the tremendous psychological pressure of the moment and with great discomfort, but uncompromising firmness rejected for a second time Esav’s offer. Why should I find so much grace in your eyes?. Esav finally got the message and left. If I were to describe in our own words what Ya’aqob experienced in his intense encounter with Esav, I would say that in one and same event Ya’aqob confronted anti-Semitism and assimilation. God intervened “directly” (following the opinion we mentioned above) to save Ya’aqob from the hands of Esav, “his enemy” by sending the “fighting angel”. But when Ya’aqob confronts Esav “his friend” there is no Divine intervention. There is a human decision. Ya’aqob had to act on hos own and assume the consequences of his choice”. To clarify, in this second instance God does not intervene, but He expects Ya’aqob to make the right decision.
IF YAAQOB HAD NOT SAID “NO”….
We, contemporary descendants of Ya’aqob Abinu, continue to face very similar challenges. The gentile society is open to cultural and social integration without barriers or discrimination. Assimilation has already claimed millions of Jewish “souls”. Instances in which children –or parents or family– did not have the strength or the conviction to say ‘NO’ to Esav ‘the friend’. And the results have been catastrophic. Two numbers say it all: 1) 1927. 2) 4,200,000. In 1927 the Jewish population in the United States was 4.2 million souls. How many Jews should there be in the United States in 2021, almost 100 years later? There was no Shoah in America, no concentration camps, no anti-Semitic mega-massacres. And Jewish emigration to this country continued uninterrupted. I am not a math genius, but my intuition tells me that today there should be no less than 15 or 20 million Jews in the United States…. but there are less than 6 million today…. What happened to the millions of Jews who are no longer counted as such? To resist assimilation, we have to constantly improve and grow in our observance and knowledge of Jewish values. Educate our children in Jewish schools, and preach by example. And having the courage and conviction to say “NO” if ever a relationship with Esav has the potential to go from cordiality and respect, towards a social level in which we risk losing our identity and our Jewish future.
