By Sydney Switzer
This week's parsha is parashat vayishlach. We start off with Jacob and his family coming back to the land of Canaan to reconnect with Jacobs brother, Esau. When they enter Canaan, Jacob sends ahead a messenger to Esau, and the messenger comes back saying that Esau is coming to greet Jacob with a troop of 400 men. Fearing for his family, Jacob splits his family into two camps, so if one is attacked, some people will still survive.
Jacob sent ahead hundreds of camels, sheep, rams, cows, and donkeys for Esau in order to appease him. Jacob then crosses the Jabok river with his family, but after they've all crossed but him, a man (supposedly an angel) appears and wrestles with Jacob. They fight until dawn, and the angel can't win, so he dislodges Jacobs sciatic nerve. Jacob won't let the angel go, so the angel blesses him, and changes Jacobs name to Israel.
Then they finally meet Esau, and Jacob and Esau cry and make up and it's lovely.
Now that the brothers are friends, Esau goes home, and Jacob and his family go to Shechem, where Jacob builds an alter.
Jacob's daughter, Dinah, went out into Shechem, and was captured and violated by the prince, also named Shechem. Shechem (the person, not the city) fell in love with Dinah, and his father went to ask Jacob for Dinah's hand in marriage. Jacobs sons agreed only if every male in Shechem got circumcised, Because they didn't want Dinah to marry a non Jew. So Shechem and his father agreed, and three days later when the men of the town were in a lot of pain, Jacobs sons went and killed every male, and took their sister back. Jacob was afraid that the other Canaanites would retaliate, but they were all too afraid of the Jews.
Jacob's wife Rachel gave birth to Benjamin and died due to labor complications, and was buried on the path to Bethlehem. Isaac was 180 years old, and he also died.
I want to talk a little more about Jacob's journey. The reason that Jacob left Canaan in the first place is because after he took his father's blessing that was meant for Esau, his mother, Rebecca, told him to leave or else Esau would kill him. So he left. Jacob raised his family outside of Canaan, because he lived in such fear of Esau. The desire to come back and reconcile his relationship with Esau brought Jacob back into Canaan. You can see his genuine wanting of that relationship through his generous gifts. Even when Esau says that it's enough that Jacob has come back, and he should keep the gift, Jacob refuses and demands that Esau keep the animals. Their emotional meeting is also evidence of how happy Jacob is to reconcile this relationship. But in some ways Jacob also seems reluctant to open himself up to the vulnerability of repairing relationships. When he is about to approach Esau, he walks with his maids and their children first, with Leah and her children next, and with Rachel and Joseph, his favorites, at the back closest to him. He does this because he is expecting Esau to be aggressive, and wants to keep himself and his loved ones safe. He wants to repair his relationship with his brother, but not if it involves putting himself in danger