Waking from his dream, Jacob realized he had gone to sleep in a very holy place. Each of Jacob’s comments in Genesis 28:16-17 emphasizes its holiness. In this midrash, the term Shekhinah is substituted for Yahweh, the Lord. While “Shekhinah” in talmudic-midrashic texts is used as a designation for God, without the later kabbalistic associations of the term as the Bride of God, it emphasizes God’s divine presence in this world, thus Jacob’s personal experience of God’s presence. Jacob also identifies this place as a sanctuary, leading to midrashic interpretations that identified this place as Mount Moriah, where Abraham took Isaac to be sacrificed, and as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Finally, Jacob says, This is none other than the abode of God, and that is the gateway to heaven. The phrase the abode of God reaffirms the idea of the place as a sanctuary, God’s dwelling place in this world, which is exactly how the Temple in Jerusalem is always described. Finally, that is the gateway to heaven suggests that there was some kind of direct link from that place to heaven, a logical conclusion considering the nature of Jacob’s dream, with the ladder reaching from earth to heaven, with angels ascending and descending on it. While the biblical verse may use the term “gateway to heaven” in a symbolic sense, the midrashic impulse is to identify it in a literal sense. Here the midrash states that the place corresponds to the Gate of Heaven found beneath the Throne of Glory. In other words, prayer offered on earth, in that holy place, would be as effective as prayer offered in heaven, right before God’s Throne. This confirms a key rabbinic/kabbalistic concept, “as above, so below.”
Sources:
Targum Pseudo-Yonathan on Genesis 28:17; Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael on Exodus 15:17; Y. Berakhot 4:8c; Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 35.
464. JACOB WRESTLES WITH THE ANGEL
Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he wrenched Jacob’s hip at its socket, so that the socket of his hip was strained as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for dawn is breaking.” But he answered, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” Said the other, “What is your name?” He replied, “Jacob.” Said he, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with beings divine and human, and have prevailed.” Jacob asked, “Pray tell me your name.” But he said, “You must not ask my name!” And he took leave of him there. So Jacob named the place Penuel, meaning, “I have seen a divine being face to face, yet my life has been preserved.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping on his hip. That is why the children of Israel to this day do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the socket of the hip, since Jacob’s hip socket was wrenched at the thigh muscle.
This is one of the most important and mysterious episodes in the Torah. Here Jacob, exhausted from his escape from Laban and facing a small army led by his brother Esau, remains alone on one side of the river Yabbok and wrestles with an ish all night. Ish means “man,” but all of the interpretations of this passage assume that Jacob wrestled with an angel or possibly even with God. The question is—which angel? There are many theories. Some assume it is Samael, who is identified as Esau’s guardian angel. Samael is another name for Satan, and suggesting that he was Esau’s guardian angel is a way of labeling Esau as evil. This interpretation assumes that Samael’s goal was to wear Jacob out, so that Esau could easily defeat him the next day. Other interpretations identify the angel as Michael or Uriel. One of the most fascinating explanations is that Jacob himself was an angel, and the angel Uriel was sent to tell him it was time to return to heaven. See “Jacob the Angel,” p. 364.
The suggestion that Jacob wrestled with God comes from the angel’s statement to Jacob that You have striven with beings divine and human and have prevailed (Gen. 32:29). Elohim, translated here as “divine beings,” normally means “God.” Jacob receives a new name, Israel, from the angel, and after this his behavior changes. He makes peace with Esau and takes on the role of a patriarch. Note that in Hebrew the name is Yisrael, which can be translated as “One who has wrestled with God.”
Because Jacob’s name and the name of the people of Israel is the same, there is a strong identification between Jacob and the nation of Israel. One result of this strong identification is that a great effort is made in the rabbinic texts to justify all of Jacob’s actions, including the bartered birthright and the stolen blessing. Another result is that some came to regard Jacob as a divine figure. See “Jacob the Divine,” p. 366. The entire cycle of Jacob myths is certainly one of the most compelling in all of Jewish tradition.
Sources:
Genesis 32:25-33
465. JACOB AND ESAU’S GUARDIAN ANGEL
The angel that wrestled with Jacob was none other than Esau’s guardian angel, and that angel was none other than Samael. By making Jacob expend great effort all night, Samael hoped to weaken him, so that Esau might defeat Jacob the next day.
But Samael did not prevail over Jacob, and before he let the angel take its leave, Jacob insisted that the angel bless him. And he said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed” (Gen. 32:29).
Why did Jacob seek the angel’s blessings? The truth is that he was not demanding that blessing for himself, but for his descendants, the people of Israel. It meant that Samael could not protest whenever God decided to liberate Israel in times of danger. For the blessing was not for Jacob, but for Israel, and that blessing made the Exodus possible.
This ingenious commentary by Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto, builds on the midrashic interpretation that the angel with whom Jacob wrestled was Esau’s guardian angel, none other than the evil angel Samael. He combines this explanation with the midrashic view that everything said about Jacob applied to the people of Israel, since Jacob became Israel. So here the angel’s forced blessing is said to have been intended not for Jacob, but for Israel, Jacob’s descendants, and it saved them during times of great danger and even made the Exodus possible.
In the following myth, “The Magic Flock,” the angel Jacob wrestles with is also identified as Esau’s guardian angel and as Samael.
Sources:
Esh Kadosh p. 13.
Studies:
The Holy Fire: The Teachings of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto by Nehemia Polen, pp. 124-126.
466. THE MAGIC FLOCK
When Jacob arrived at the River Yabbok, he sent his servants across first, then his wives and children. He himself wished to remain alone there, to rest from his escape from Laban, and to prepare himself for his encounter with Esau the next day.
Soon after everyone else had crossed the river, a shepherd arrived there with his flocks. He proposed to Jacob that they help each other in crossing their flocks, and Jacob agreed. They started with Jacob’s flock, and in a twinkling the shepherd succeeded in transferring all of them to the other side. Then they turned to the shepherd’s flock, and Jacob assisted him by carrying the animals two by two across the river. Jacob worked without pausing, but after he had forded the river with a great many animals, he saw that the flocks of the shepherd had not grown smaller but seemed to have increased.
Still Jacob continued to bear the flocks across the river hour after hour. But as the day began to grow dark, he saw that the flocks of the shepherd still reached to the horizon, with no end in sight. Then Jacob understood that this was no ordinary shepherd, but some kind of magician, and that all the flocks he had carried were only an illusion. In his fury Jacob accused the shepherd of enchantment and deceit. Then the shepherd touched his finger to the earth, and a great fire burst forth. But this display of his power did not frighten Jacob, and the two began to struggle, and they continued to wrestle all night.
During their struggle the magician wounded Jacob in his thigh, but Jacob still continued to fight. And as dawn approached, the magician sought to depart, but Jacob refused to let him go. In this way Jacob received his adversary’s
blessing, and his name was changed from Jacob to Israel.
Some say that shepherd was Samael, the guardian angel of Esau, who came to Jacob to weaken him before his encounter with Esau. Others say it was the angel Michael, who had been sent by God to show Jacob that he, like the angels, was made of fire, and that he had nothing to fear from Esau. And, in truth, after this struggle Jacob was a changed man, who put down his weapons and his pride, and bowed seven times to his brother, and Esau ran to meet him and embraced him (Gen. 33:4), and at last they came together in peace.
This legend is closely related to the account of Jacob’s wrestling with the angel in Genesis 32:25-33. The identity of the sorcerer thus depends on the identity given to the angel, or whoever it was that Jacob wrestled. Most accounts identify this figure as the angel Michael or as the guardian angel of Esau, who, disguised as a shepherd, first got Jacob to agree that they would assist each other in carrying their flocks across the river Yabbok, and then created the illusion of so many flocks, attempting to exhaust Jacob before they wrestled and before Jacob’s encounter with Esau the next day. This guardian angel of Esau is most often identified as Samael or as Sar shel Romi, the guardian angel of the Roman Empire, because of the close association between Esau and Rome. This story is of particular importance as it is an early example of an illusion tale, a type of tale that has a distinct and prominent place in Jewish lore. This theme was probably drawn into Jewish lore from oriental sources, where it also was very popular.
Sources:
Genesis Rabbah 77:2; Midrash Tanhuma, va-Yishlah 7.
467. JACOB’S ASCENT ON HIGH
It is said that the battle between Jacob and the angel did not take place on the shores of the River Yabbok, but in the palaces of heaven, for Jacob’s soul ascended on high and struggled with the angel there. For ever since Jacob’s dream of the ladder that reached from earth into heaven, his soul was able to ascend its highest rungs.
On the night that his body lay sleeping on the shore of the River Yabbok, Jacob’s soul did indeed ascend on high, and there he wrestled until dawn with none other than the angel Michael. Michael, the heavenly priest, led a choir of ministering angels in singing God’s praises every morning, and that is why he begged, “Let me go, for dawn is breaking” (Gen. 32:27).
Just then many bands of ministering angels arrived and said, The time of singing God’s praises has come (S. of S. 2:12). Michael pleaded with Jacob, saying, “Let me go, I beg you, lest the ministering angels incinerate me for delaying the song.” But Jacob insisted that he would not let him go unless he blessed him, and Michael said, Your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel (Gen. 32:29). And he added, “Blessed are you, born of woman, for you entered the palace above and remained alive.”
That is when God chose to reveal Himself to Jacob and the angels. Looking up, Jacob saw God face to face. At that instant a change came over him, and he became Jacob the patriarch, father of Israel’s twelve tribes. As for the angel Michael, in the presence of God his strength was depleted. Still, he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh and harmed him. But when God saw this, He said: “What right have you to cripple My priest?” Michael answered, “Master of the universe, am I not Your priest?” God replied: “You are My priest in the world above; Jacob is My priest in the world below.” Then Michael summoned Raphael, the Angel of Healing, and begged him to heal Jacob. And as soon as Raphael touched Jacob’s thigh, he recovered, and no sign of his injury remained.
This is an unusual interpretation of the combat between Jacob and the angel in that, unlike virtually all of the other sources, it suggests that it took place in heaven rather than on earth. During the battle a band of angels appears, who are anxious to have Michael join them to conduct the angelic choir. Finally, God Himself appears to defend Jacob and to accuse Michael of misbehavior for wounding Jacob in the thigh. This version also differs in that it states that Jacob’s wound was healed by the angel Raphael, while the biblical text clearly states that he was limping on his hip (Gen. 32:32).
One of the halachic requirements to serve as High Priest was to have no physical imperfections. Since Jacob had set up altars and made offerings to God, he had in essence taken on the role of a priest, before the appearance of Aaron, brother of Moses, whom the Bible represents as the first High Priest. According to the Halakhah, Jacob’s wound would have made him unable to serve as priest. Thus, in this version of the myth, Jacob is healed, and can thus continue his priestly role.
This version does offer a credible reason for Michael’s anxiousness—to be set free in order to conduct the heavenly choir. In fact, the angel fears that he will be incinerated by the other angels if he doesn’t join the choir at once. The appearance of the angels and finally of God Himself reinforces the heavenly setting, as does Michael’s comment to Jacob that “you entered the palace above and remained alive.”
This mythic version seems to echo the Hekhalot texts describing heavenly journeys into the celestial palaces, which were notoriously dangerous—the angel at the sixth gate would cut off the head of anyone who didn’t know the right answer. (Hekhalot literally means “palaces,” referring to the palaces of heaven.) But here Jacob, like Rabbi Akiba in B. Hagigah 14b, survives the dangerous ascent intact. See “The Four Who Entered Paradise,” p. 173.
God identifies Jacob as His High Priest because of the biblical accounts of Jacob setting up an altar and making an offering to God at Beth El (Gen. 28:18 and 35:6-7) and other sites. Michael is said to serve as the heavenly High Priest, making offerings in the celestial Temple. Their competing roles as High Priest suggest a possible reason for their conflict, although this is never made explicit.
Ironically, Michael is also identified in other sources as Jacob’s guardian angel, since Michael had been appointed the guardian angel of Israel from the day he visited Abraham to announce the coming birth of Isaac, and Jacob’s other name was Israel. In that case Jacob might be seen as wrestling with his conscience. After all, he has just escaped from the forces of his uncle, Laban, and now he faces the forces of Esau. The bitter harvest he has brought upon himself has become apparent.
In several sources the angel is not identified as Michael, but as Metatron, and the identities of the two angels are often switched. For more on the role of Metatron in these Jacob myths see the note to “Jacob the Angel,” p. 364.
Sources:
Midrash Avkir in Yalkut Re’uveni 1:132.
468. JACOB’S PILLOW
On his journey to Haran, Jacob came to the place where he rested. Before he lay down to sleep, He took stones of the place, and made them his pillow (Gen. 28:11). How many stones? Twelve stones, one for every tribe that was destined to arise from the seed of Jacob. The stones began to quarrel with one another, each wanting to be the stone on which Jacob would lay his head. Some say that God immediately made them into one stone to keep them from quarreling. But others say that as soon as the stones beneath his head beheld the glory of God, they dissolved into each other and formed one stone, just as the twelve tribes of Jacob would one day form the nation of Israel. Then the stone under Jacob’s head became like a feather-bed and a pillow under him.
Still others say that Jacob said to himself, “God has decreed that twelve tribes should spring forth. Now neither Abraham nor Isaac has produced them. If these twelve stones cleave to one another, I will know that I will produce the twelve tribes.” So it was that when Jacob rose the next morning, he found the stones had all fused into one. So he set up that stone as a pillar, and oil descended for him from heaven, and he poured the oil upon it.
What did God do then? God placed His right foot on that pillar, and sank the stone to the bottom of the abyss, and made it the Foundation Stone, the very navel of the world. That is the stone on which the Temple of the Lord was built.
This midrash about the fusing of the stones that Jacob used as a pillow into one derives from the problem created by Genesis 28:11, where it is stated that Jacob took stones of the place and Genesis 28:18, where
it is stated that Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head. The midrash resolves the apparent contradiction between “stones” and “stone” by stating that the stones fused into one, which Jacob then used as a pillow. And to explain where Jacob got the oil necessary to making the offering, it is said to have descended from heaven.
The striking image of God raising His right foot and driving the stone into the earth provides the origin of the myth of the Foundation Stone, which holds back the waters of the abyss. Jacob slept on a stone that is said to have formed out of twelve stones, representing the twelve tribes that would come into being. This symbolizes how the twelve tribes would become the nation of Israel. This stone is known as the spindle stone or foundation stone or pillar of the earth. See “The Foundation Stone,” p. 96.
The dominant myths about the foundation stone link its creation to the creation of the world. But here it is linked with Jacob’s sacred dream, and with the holy place to which he had come. In fact, it is called ha-Makom, the Place, and this term not only refers to that place, but is one of the names of God, since Jacob beheld God in the dream. This strange linkage of God with a place receives a mysterious explanation in Genesis Rabbah 68:9, which it asks, “Why do we call God ‘the Place?’ Because God is the place of the world. But we do not know whether God is the place of the world, or whether the world is God’s place. That is why it is written, The ancient God is a refuge (Deut. 33:27).”
Sources:
B. Hullin 91a-b; Genesis Rabbah 68:11; Midrash Tehillim 91:7; Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 35; Midrash Tanhuma-Yelammedenu, va-Yetze 1; Zohar 2:229b-230a; Zohar Hadash 27b; Rashi on Genesis 28:11.
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