Because many of us are not able to attend shul in person, the Rabbi has agreed to share his shabbat morning drashah in advance. Here is the first half of it. To read the full drashah, click here and it will take you to what will become a rich archive of all of Rabbi Staller's drashot.
One of the Torah’s more puzzling stories, Jacob’s struggle with an angel before meeting his brother Eisav poses many difficulties. Why is an angel mysteriously appearing just to wrestle with Yaakov? Why is his name changed? What was Yaakov doing alone at night? Why is Yaakov injured, why is that injury so momentous it is commemorated for all of Jewish history in the laws of Gid HaNasheh, the prohibition to eat the sciatic nerve? The entire story begs for explanation.
Our rabbis picked up on this ambiguity and tried to fill in some of the blanks. One famous Midrash explains that Yaakov had crossed his entire family over the Yabok river, but had forgotten some small jars for which he would have to return. While the imagery of Yaakov returning in the dark of night for small jars invokes the later themes of the Maccabees lighting up the long winter night with a small jar of pure olive oil, the text does not seem to be as supportive of the seasonal connection. Indeed, the text seems to indicate that Yaakov and his entire camp went to bed that night, and Yaakov alone awoke in the middle of the night to cross the Yabok river. The text tells us that Yaakov went to sleep with the rest of the camp and awoke in the middle of the night. Unless Yaakov was so wracked with anxiety over those jars that he couldn’t fall asleep, this hardly seems like the description of a quick trip to pick up a forgotten jar. So why is Yaakov sneaking around at night?
The Rashbam sees Yaakov’s sneaking around alone at night as the key to understanding this entire story. According to the Rashbam, the Torah emphasizes that Yaakov is alone at night as a way of communicating that Yaakov was trying to flee from Eisav in the middle of the night, when no one would see him run. Indeed, this read makes sense with the flow of the story as, until Yaakov’s unexpected nighttime river-crossing, the reader had been given a very clear and detailed description of Yaakov’s preparations and three-part plan for meeting his brother Eisav. After detailing that meticulous plan and its reasoning, all of a sudden we are surprised with an impromptu scene of Yaakov sneaking around at night. Rather than assume that this too was part of the plan, but we merely didn’t hear about it, it makes sense to read this passage in light of the Rashbam. Yaaov wakes up in the middle of the night in a panic, and, despite his planning and previous composure, gives in to his weaker urges and attempts to flee in the cover of dark, leaving his family behind him..... continued
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