Vayishlach, וַיִּשְׁלַח "And He Sent Out" Genesis 32:4-36:43

Vayishlach / Jacob's Return With Dinah

Poetic notes on the parashat Vayishlach*

While Jacob was in exile,

it was as if the promised land was itself in exile

The whole land promised to Abraham

had been during that time

like the kingdom of Esau

But Jacob was returning

His force was like the force

of a galaxy turning

He returned slowly on the divine chariot,

returning from the old world to the place

where the legs of the ladder from heaven

had come down to surround him

The ladder from heaven

had come down to meet him,

joining the city of Luz and the site of Jerusalem

It was when he had crossed the river to Haran,

and before he had gone on to face Laban,

when he went back to pray at the site of Jerusalem,

Before going on to meet Laban

he desired to come close to God on Mount Moriah,

where Isaac had been offered,

In the twinkling of an eye

God had moved Mount Moriah north

to meet him at the city of Luz,

drawing together the legs of the ladder of light

to where north and south and west meets east

to the place Jacob would call, Bethel

And now he was returning there

He was returning to Bethel

He had met Laban and had defeated him

He had defeated the empire of Laban

and the empire of three beasts

Finally, with the birth of Joseph,

he had defeated the beast of the north

He could finally return to the land of his promised home

He looked across the Jordan and saw the promised land

His heart was burning like the sun

He had descended into exile weakened,

alone as one,

one man with his God

He rose up upon his return,

with expansive beauty and health,

graced with a tent of peace and love,

the flower of a nation budding from his side,

his God was carrying him

on the winds of revelation,

on the wings of a covenant

What need had Jacob of angels?

Of sending angels

to his ungodly brother?

Nevertheless, he sent angels

to explore how volatile his brother's

volcanic temper might still be?

Why go near at all to Esau?

Would Jacob not take precious Dinah

straight to Bethel,

to Luz, the Almond Tree City of Life,

the hidden door to Mount Moriah?

Was not that the place of God,

the place of the light ladder of angels,

the place where a holy daughter should be?

There, God had given His word to Jacob,

to bring Jacob back to that very place in safety,

that place with its legs in Luz and in eternal Jerusalem

It was there in the city of Luz Jacob would make

hidden and revealed Jerusalem

to become Bethel,

the House of God

This Jacob had promised,

he gave his word

And now his wives and sons,

especially his righteous daughter,

could help him keep his word

and build the House of God

starting there at the miraculous door

to the miraculous mountain of God

But he did not go directly there

Instead, he went by way of the south,

the southern border of the land

He went south toward Hebron,

because his parents were there

He would include his parents

in his ascent to Bethel

the place of the vision of the House of God

Jacob knew his covenant with God

was the covenant of Abraham and of Isaac

But Esau, like a mountain of enmity with God,

might stand in the way

And, indeed, along the way

he wrestled by himself with the Angel of Time

through the whole night of history

The night was long but Jacob stood strong

The Angel of Time might have killed him,

but could not even touch him without permission

Near the dawn

he touched him and Jacob’s hip was gone

He did not give up his faith that God was with him

So long as he kept his faith

and continued to fight,

the Angel of Time could not kill him

He could not even break Jacob’s hold

The angel had to plead with him to let him go

The long night of history was almost over

Jacob knew that he had won

and demanded that the Angel of Time should bless him

"Now you are called Jacob," the angel said,

"In your victory you will be called Israel "

Jacob had passed the test

Now Jacob would test Esau

Dividing his livestock into groups

Jacob sent one after the other

to meet Esau and Esau's army

"This is a gift of appeasement,"

he told his servants to say to Esau

"For reconciliation,

to appease you for the pain and loss you suffered

when God took away from you your natural birthright

and gave it to me, your brother"

Then Jacob met Esau himself,

with his own family divided into groups

and with Dinah hidden from Esau’s sight

For Dinah personally carried with her the Shekinah

She had the potential to reform Esau,

to turn him to true repentance

But only if he was prepared,

as her uncle, to humbly receive Dinah

Dinah, the daughter of the righteous Leah

Leah, whom Esau had lost

because he lacked the faith to redeem her from Laban

It was Dinah whom Esau now desired to possess

But when Jacob approached

Esau said, with the subtlety of a serpent,

"Who is this?"

As if Jacob was offering him Leah and her sons

as an appeasement

And Esau feigned even more and said,

"I have enough," as if to say,

You keep Leah and her sons,

because he only wanted Dinah

He thought to frighten Jacob into giving Dinah to him

He desired to possess her

by the force of his position and intimidation

Jacob heard his subtlety

He understood that Esau

was full of deceit and feigned civility and humility

but was filled with violent arrogance

towards him and his daughter

Jacob responded to Esau

as if Esau had been speaking with honesty

about accepting Jacob's appeasement offering,

about his offering of the gift of livestock

and not about Leah and her sons

and not about Dinah,

Jacob insisted that Esau

receive the actual gift he offered

And so Esau did

And so, in doing so

Esau formally accepted

that his having sold his birthright to Jacob

was a settled legal matter and irrevocable

And with this Esau formally accepted

that therefore Jacob had deserved

the blessing of the firstborn from their father

It was settled

But then Esau immediately followed up

by betraying his true intentions to Jacob,

by offering for his army to escort Jacob and his family

to where he, Esau, lived in Seir

The pretence was protection

But it was a protection racket

Esau would require Dinah as his payment

In the end

Esau was not appeased at all

He would be appeased only if it was on his own terms

Jacob was not deceived

Desiring to keep Dinah far from Esau's lust,

he kept her within the safety of the covenant of his return

He had entered through the south

For Isaac lived in Hebron to the south,

And Jacob had headed there first

But Esau had ambushed him there

But now he convinced Esau

that he would follow him to Esau's place in Seir

But as soon as Esau had gone,

Jacob abruptly turned north

And so it was

that Jacob turned away from Esau

to put as much distance

between Esau and Dinah as possible

And the family of Jacob came to Shechem

Over the long years

while Jacob had been in exile,

the whole land had become like the land of Esau

Instead of the Canaanites being tempered

by the goodness of Abraham and Isaac,

they had been emboldened to be arrogant,

their sins becoming ever more demonic,

with their philosophy justifying violence,

due to the protection racket of the army of Esau

When Jacob camped near the house of Shechem

The ear-worm of Esau's lies and envy toward Jacob

had been planted in Shechem's father

and in all the rulers of Canaan

When Shechem saw Dinah

and that the Shechinah was with her,

having a spirit from Esau,

a shadow soul was stirred within him

He desired to take Dinah by force and marry her

He felt a lust for the innocent beauty of Dinah

a lust to conquer the glory of the Shechinah,

to establish the kingdom of Edom

He took her by force,

and he came to Jacob claiming the right to marry his daughter

Then Dinah's brothers by pretence

came and defended her honour,

slaying Shechem and all that was his

But to Dinah her honour needed no defence

for she received her honour

from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,

who were as one father of faith to her,

and from Sarah, Rebekah, Leah and Rachel,

who were as one mother of faith to her

and that honour could never be violated by force

And Jacob said to his sons

you have dishonoured me

Then Jacob provided for Dinah to be concealed in Luz

until such time that Esau would be judged

After this Rebekah's nurse died

and was buried beneath the Oak of Weeping

This is where God said to Jacob,

"You are Israel,

I am El Shaddai,"

For He is the God of abundant provision

And He said to Israel,

"Be fertile and multiply abundantly"

This is where Jacob anointed the pillar of the promise,

the promise that God will redeem all the seed of Abraham

in the day of the resurrection of Israel in Bethel

Then Rachel, dying in labour, began weeping,

crying out in pain, "Benoni, Son of My Suffering"

even while Jacob took his son into his arms

and said, "Benjamin, Son of My Right Arm"

For he spoke with faith in the promise of the world to come

In that day

there shall be no Canaanite or Edomite in the land

But through the righteousness of Dinah

a remnant of the seed of Edom shall be preserved

and shall belong to Israel

Dinah and Rebekah shall be locked in embrace,

and Dinah and Rebekah's nurse, the gentile,

shall sit in the circle of mothers with Rebekah in Bethel

Their circle shall surround the garden of the Tree of Life,

and Bethel shall be found everywhere in Jerusalem,

and Jerusalem shall be found everywhere in the Holy Land

And the nations of the earth

shall come to the circle of mothers in Bethel,

to receive the wisdom of the healing of souls

And the knowledge of HaShem shall fill the earth

as the waters fill all the oceans and seas

*Being a meditation on the Torah portion Vayishlach, with reflections on a Torah class on parashah Vayishlach, delivered by Rabbi Baitelman of ChaBaD Richmond, B.C., based on the series, Torah Studies, by Rohr Jewish Learning Institute. Neither Rabbi Baitelman nor the JLI have reviewed or approved of the content of this post.