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Yaakov and his family are poised to enter into the land of Israel and Yaakov finds himself alone in the stillness of the night. At this point he finds himself embroiled in a conflict with an unidentified man. After an intense struggle, Yaakov emerges victorious and subdues his attacker. At sunrise he requests to be set free and Yaakov obliges after receiving a bracha from him, his new name of Yisrael. Rashi famously tells us that this was the 'sar shel eisav', Eisav's angel.

Esav’s angel or his spiritual essence is ever present when Israel attempts returns to its land. He attacks Yaakov here and after the exodus from Egypt he attacks us in the guise of Amalek. Amalek, the spiritual heir of Esav attacks us yet again in the Purim story as if to stop the return to Eretz Yisrael and the rebuilding of the second Beis Hamikdash. It is also cannot be ignored that Amalek in his most recent guise of the Nazis reared his ugly head in the most horrific fashion before our contemporary return to Eretz yisrael. Esav/Amalek is the antithesis of everything that the Jewish people are meant to be. His is the ‘hand on the throne of G-d’ that as it were prevents Hashem from being revealed into the world.

Eretz Yisrael is the arena for us to fulfill our national destiny of being a ‘Kingdom of priests and a holy nation’. It is from Zion that the values that we stand for are brought into the world.This is a world where the material is not an end unto itself but is elevated to a higher level where is has value for all of eternity. Eisav is constantly attempting us from achieving this ideal spiritual goal of life.

Yaakov and Esav were fighting over the Bracha of physical goodness, as represented by the bountiful land of Israel. It therefore makes sense that at the point where Yaakov or his descendants try and take hold of the land that Esav will try to prevent us. Yaakov emerges victorious from this battle, but not without sustaining an injury. Perhaps this teaches us that the path to our destiny will be a challenging and painful one and that we have to be prepared to make sacrifices for what we stand for. This exile has been a 2000 year long process of return with many casualties along the way, most of them at the hands of Esav’s descendants.

Indeed the Mitzva of Gid Hanashe, not eating the sciatic nerve from a kosher animal arises from this exact struggle and the Sefer Hachinuch amongst many others explain that this mitzva is to serve as a reminder of the battle Yaakov had with Esav and that this struggle still continues today. Rav Shamshon Rephael Hirsch further adds the spirit of Esav will never conquer Yaakov and his descendants, Esav will be able to hamstring Yaakov and prevent him from standing firmly on two feet. By having to remove the gid hanasheh, whenever Yaakov’s descendants sit down to eat meat, they realize that their continued existence is not dependent on their physical strength and stamina, but on spiritual factors which can never be weakened by Eisav’s might.

We can see that this struggle is the most noble one possible and that is the essence of our name Yisrael, one who struggles and prevails.

(based on ideas heard from Rabbi Roodyn, England)