פרשת וישלח
This week’s Parsha opens with Yaakov Avinu on his way to meet his brother Eisav after being away for nearly forty years. He is not sure whether he will find a friend in his brother, or a bitter foe who wants to exterminate him. However, on the way there, Yaakov remembered that he left behind some small vessels and decided to go back for them. During his retrieval of these trinkets, Yaakov found himself face to face with Eisav’s angel who wanted to engage him in combat. They fought the entire night, but the angel was unable to harm Yaakov in any way. As the sun was rising, the angel knew that he could not remain on earth because angels need to return to Heaven at daybreak to give praise to the Creator, so he begged Yaakov to let him go.
Just before the angel left, wounded Yaakov on his sciatic nerve. The Torah then teaches us that in commemoration of Yaakov’s overall success in his struggle with the angel, we are not to partake of the “Gid Hanashe” of any Kosher animal for the rest of time. I would like to try to explain why, out of all the outstanding deeds which were performed by the Avos, this is the one souvenir which the Torah chooses to leave us?
The Sefer Hachinuch explains very beautifully that being that Hashem knew that the exile would be a long and bitter one, and it would be very easy to abandon hope throughout the trials and tribulations that we have been forced to endure these past two thousand years. Because of this, He wanted to give us a clear and unequivocal reminder that the Jewish people would ultimately emerge victorious over Eisav. For this reason the Torah commanded us to refrain from partaking of the Gid Hanashe for all future generations. This law was to serve as our beacon of light which would encourage us throughout all the terrible events we were destined to go through due to our constant neglect of Hashem’s Torah. The commandment to not ingest the sciatic nerve would broadcast the message of hope that was so desperately needed by the Jews in the Diaspora that Hashem would never forget about us, and that one day, we will return to Him and take our rightful place again as His first born son.
However, as beautiful as this Sefer Hachinuch is, I believe that it has not satisfactorily answered the question. If the sole goal of this commandment was to encourage us, then the Torah should have picked something other then the Gid Hanashe, which was the only limb that Eisav was able to harm. That sinew is not very encouraging at all, because Yaakov walked away limping from that fight until the sun was able to cure him. If the Sefer Hachinuch is correct, perhaps the Torah should have chosen some Mitzvah which has to do with the sun, or another encouraging aspect to remind us of Yaakov’s success!
I once heard a very nice explanation of this Sefer Hachinuch which deals with this difficulty. We know that Eisav’s angel was essentially the angel of death and the Yetzer Hara. Ergo the fight with this angel was not focused on the physical skirmish, but rather on the spiritual one. Eisav’s goal is to hide the presence of God in this world. Meaning, he does everything he can to attribute the world’s events to the forces of nature, and to cover up the existence of a Creator. However, Yaakov’s unwavering faith in Hashem was absolutely impenetrable by all the arguments the angel of death used to attempt to shake that faith. This being said, the message of the Gid Hanashe becomes far more apparent. As the Rosh Yeshiva has said many a time, when the doctor tells you to get a lot of rest, and prescribes a rigorous regiment of medications, it is a lot more comforting that when he tells you to go home and make yourself as comfortable as possible because there isn’t much to do. The message of the Gid Hanashe is that although the struggle with Eisav will be a long and torturous one, we need to constantly remind ourselves that the primary struggle is not the physical one, but rather the spiritual one, and the minute we start to keep the Mitzvos properly, Eisav and all his glory will disappear instantly. Certainly in today’s atmosphere, where on the whole, we are not being mass murdered like we were in practically every other generation, this message could not be more appropriate. Eisav has removed his mask, and now only presents a spiritual threat to us. How wise we would be to look to this commandment of the sciatic nerve, and to take heed of this critical message, and strengthen ourselves to not learn from Eisav’s degenerate spiritual practices, and trust only in the Creator of the World!
It is interesting to note that the one limb Eisav’s angel was able to harm on Yaakov was on his thigh. The Ramban explains that this was to symbolize that while it was true that Yaakov had perfected himself to the point that he could not be harmed by this angel, his children were still susceptible to future spiritual attacks by him. In other words, although Yaakov had won the battle, this spiritual war would continue for all future generations until the coming of the Mashiach.
The Slonimer Rebbe explains the nature of this constant “spiritual” attack of Eisav’s angel throughout the generations. He begins by pointing out the interesting choice of words that the Torah uses to describe the struggle between Yaakov and the angel. The word is “Avak” which also means struggle, and also means dust. He says that Eisav’s angel, who is also the Yetzer Hara uses a very interesting tactic when he entices people to sin. He never begins by convincing a Jew to break the Shabbos or to eat at MacDonald’s, rather he starts off by telling us that we can do away with the “small stuff”. In Chazal, this small stuff is referred to as “Avak”. For example, Avak of slander, or Avak of taking interest on a loan. These are not necessarily forbidden by the Torah, but they are so close to the actual sin that they are forbidden by the Rabbis. The Yetzer Hara always starts with these “minor” infractions. He says, “What’s the big deal? These things are only forbidden by the “Rabbis“. I’m sure I won’t come to do the actual sin. And anyways, who are these Rabbis to tell me what I can or cannot do. They were probably just overly concerned obsessive men who took the law too far.” These arguments are the fodder for the Yetzer Hara and if left unchecked, they will inevitably lead to a complete abandon of Torah observance. How careful we must be to look toward the struggle between Yaakov and Eisav, and not let these insidious and poisonous arguments enter into our consciousness, and redouble our efforts to properly perform each and every Halacha with the greatest of care.
Perhaps another reason why the struggle with the Yetzer Hara is referred to as Avak, is because dust, after it settles, always gets kicked up again. The struggle with the Yetzer Hara is a constant one, and doesn’t end until the day we die. No one is immune to it, and even if a person has had many successes, if his is not vigilant every day of his life, the Yetzer Hara can sneak up on him even with areas which he though he had already overcome. Only someone who is willing to persevere in this long and tiresome struggle will ultimately emerge victorious. I feel that this principle would best be illustrated with the words of the Eliah Raba. He says (Siman 16) that a lot of people talk about love, and specifically, the love of Hashem, but what is an accurate barometer to ascertain whether or not somebody truly loves Hashem. He gives a parable of a king, who wanted to test the loyalty of his ministers. So he placed them all in a confined area, where they had no access to the king, and the only way they could see him was to dig a small tunnel under the wall, and to pass through that tunnel would be very uncomfortable. But they all knew that if they indeed got through the tunnel, they would have a special audience with the king. Only the ministers who really wanted to be with the king, and were truly fond of him were willing to go through the hassle to make it through to the other side. Such is the case with testing our dedication. It is easy to say that a person loves Hashem, but how many of us are willing to do what it takes when that love threatens our comfort level. If in order to portray that love, we need to sacrifice something that we hold dear, are we willing to express our love even then? The Eliah Raba concludes by saying that if the answer to that question is yes, and we are willing to go through the daily struggle with the Yezer Hara to serve God, then we can be assured that we truly love Hashem and will continue to grow toward Him.
May we all merit to serve Hashem completely, with unswerving dedication!