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The following is an excerpt from the book Wrestling Jacob by our teacher Rabbi Shmuel Klitsner. He is currently teaching a course about the second half of Bereishit to our students. In R. Klitsner's reading of the Ya'acov stories, apologetic approaches to Ya'acov's masquerade as Esav are replaced by a literary psychological approach that also sees the scene of wrestling with the mysterious "ish" in this week's parasha as an internal psychological struggle:

I have tried to take a fresh look at the very old and familiar story of Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, and Esau.

In the Bible, it seems that one's redemption, one's wholeness, one's berakha (blessing), cannot come about by way of circumventions or by dubious moral behavior; the evolution of Jacob into Yisrael cannot bypass Jacob's being Jacob. It is precisely in the act of trying to accomplish the prophetic vision of "the older shall serve the younger" that Rebecca and Jacob falter and unwittingly send the Divine plan into prolonged remission. It is exactly because Jacob has relinquished his autonomy and identity by saying "I am Esau" that he reverses the very Abrahamic blessing that he is trying to receive, symbolically fleeing from Canaan back to Haran. One cannot "strive with God"—the meaning of the name Yisrael—without first confronting others and self face to face. It is the mistaken notion that God's plan supersedes the autonomous, judicious exercise of one's divinely imbued moral sense that repeatedly gets our biblical heroes into trouble. But how are the fragile but heroic biblical characters—with their fractured sense of wholeness—to balance the demands of self-mastery with their awareness of their role in the drama of a transcendent sovereign? The recognition that divine plan and human moral accountability proceed along independent routes—that paradoxically merge only when each path maintains its integrity and coherence—comes late in the book of Genesis. In the Joseph stories, that echo the Jacob narratives of jealousy, inability to communicate, and near-fratricide, the brothers act cruelly and deceitfully in trying to frustrate Joseph's dreams. When the brothers finally appear in Joseph's court, the latter, in turn, deals cruelly and deceitfully with them in what would seem to be an attempt to fulfill his dreams (of the brothers bowing down to him). At the initial reconciliation of the brothers, Joseph tries to whitewash the sordid events of the past by attributing everything to divine providence: "I am Joseph your brother whom you sold into Egypt. Now do not be grieved, nor angry with yourselves. . . for God did send me here before you to preserve life. . . . It was not you who sent me here, but God. . . ." (Gen. 45:5-8)

Ultimately, the whitewash is proven ineffective and the reconciliation revealed as hollow - as relationships, like individual identities, cannot evolve on the basis of evasions, repressions, or revisions of the past. There must be self-recognition and painful encounter with the other and with one's own accountability. Thus, when Jacob dies, the brothers once again fear the powerful Joseph's retribution (Gen. 50:15). This time Joseph understands that reconciliation requires a more credible recognition of the past. It seems he has also arrived at a more sophisticated teleological conception, in which flawed and misguided human endeavors interact with divine providence but often do not reflect it.

In the closing verses of Genesis, Joseph speaks again to his fearful brothers, saying: "Fear not, for am I in place of God?1 But as for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it for good. . ." (Gen. 50:19-20). This mode of rapprochement bears the potential for success; it is enabling. Though confrontational, it bears the stamp of sincerity and integrity and it avoids the perpetuation of conflict that is the fate of all circumvention and repression.

Both in terms of Joseph's own behavior ("am I in place of God?") and in terms of his brothers' culpability ("you thought evil"), Joseph has no longer justified human malevolence or treachery on the basis of its fortuitous coincidence with the divine plan. Yet, at the same time, he understands the human predicament as intimately and mysteriously connected to God's providential direction. The two, human history and the divine plan, will meet, but it will not be man's task to determine or anticipate in which way or at what moment. The only path out of the thicket will be blazed by our pursuit of the autonomous realization of the divine image within us. The biblical view has staked much on its belief in human autonomy and on the concept of covenantal destiny. Yet it does not do so from the perspective of an underestimation of the difficult, complex and heroic nature of the duality of the challenge. Because our repressions, resistances, and our carefully constructed false identities are so deeply and inextricably connected to our being who we are, it will require courage and tenacity to listen attentively to our souls, to build a bridge between voice and action—a ladder between one's internal heaven and earth. It is in the heroic moment of "I shall not set you free, for I need the blessing," and paradoxically in the recognition of one's own vulnerability (Jacob walked away limping) that one is enabled. With the painful but cathartic encounter with the self, comes the power to struggle. Jacob/Yisrael is "Everyman"—bisected, analyzed, integrated, and struggling to be blessed.

Rav Klitsner is a highly regarded educator with many years of experience and we are happy to welcome him to our staff this year. A student of the late Prof. Nechama Leibowitz, he has also served as Head of Jewish Studies at Emunah's School for Torah and the Arts, lectured extensively at the London School of Jewish Studies, and is the author of the two volume novel The Lost Children of Tarshish as well as a book of Biblical readings: Wrestling Jacob - Deception, Identity and Freudian Slips in Genesis. His film credits include the award winning Chanukah animation - "Lights".