Yaakov’s Fear and Our Thanksgiving
Adapted from Rabbi Braun’s sermon in 5771
When Esav came to Yaakov with 400 men, how afraid was he? Was this a moment of paralyzing fear or was he the one that was not afraid. I want to share a fascinating, if unusual place to search for commentary on our story and then connect it to thanksgiving which we celebrate this week.
Chapter 32:
7. And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to your brother Esau, and also he comes to meet you, and four hundred men with him.
- Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, in two bands;
- And said, If Esau comes to the one company, and attacks it, then the other company which is left shall escape.
- And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me, Return to your country, and to your family, and I will deal well with you;
- I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which you have shown to your servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I have become two bands.
- Save me, I beseech you, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he will come and strike me, and the mother with the children.
That sounds like fear but I don’t get the sense when we read these verses that we sense a mortal fear on Yaakov’s part and I think that is for three reasons.
- We know how the story ends; we know that no one dies and they hug and kiss, and I believe that information colors our reading of the anticipation as well.
- Text by its nature is dispassionate. It has no voice or tone and can be read in different ways. I could read Jacob’s entreaty to God as a desperate plea and I could just as easily read it as Jacob humbly demanding that God help him and fully expecting God to comply.
- We are influenced by the commentators and their reading of the text. Their take on Yaakov’s fear and his conversation with Hashem certainly impact our perception of Yaakov. Mind you that is not a bad thing but we should be aware of it.
Take a few examples:
Rashi, explaining the double language of fear in the verse explains that Yaakov was afraid to die and afraid that he might have to kill Esav.
Abarbanel similarly writes that Yaakov’s fear was the same fear that every soldier has when going to war.
That portrayal of Yaakov as warrior and soldier impacts our read.
Let me give you one last example: the Netziv poses the following question. If during the dream of the ladder God promises Jacob that he will take care of him and that he will have numerous offspring, how can Jacob now doubt God and be afraid. His answer is that Jacob could not doubt God and that compels him to read our story as follows- Yaakov was never afraid that he would die or that his wife and children would die- he was afraid only for the slaves and their children and that was the camp he was afraid he would lose. According to this Jacob was never afraid at all, not one iota!
All of these commentaries paint Yaakov in certain way, and why they do so is beyond us at the moment, but I would say that the plain reading of the text is that Yaakov was afraid.
That seems to be the reading of Eben Ezra who answers the question posed by the Netziv very differently. Eben Ezra argues that all the promise of God ensured was that not every one of Yaakov’s children would die. The promise tells us that eventually through his offspring there would be a great nation in the land, but the promise does not tell us through which son and when or how. According to this Yaakov was afraid that many would die which seems to be the better textual read. Close but not quite there.
The following commentary, if you will, struck me the moment I thought of it. The verse following Yaakov’s request/pleas for salvation reads as follows:
יג) ואתה אמרת היטב איטיב עמך ושמתי את זרעך כחול הים אשר לא יספר מרב
Save me, because you promised that we would be plentiful.
As soon as I read it, I knew that I had seen that phrase used somewhere else.
The 18th kinah, or lamentation, that we recite on Tisha B’av morning begins with our verse:
This is a harsh and angry accusation towards God. You said it would be good, then why did you let your children be slaughtered by the enemies. How could you let Nebuchadnezzar kill so many Jews, men women and children? We were ravaged; where was your promise.
Rabbi Eliezer Hakalir, the great Jewish paytan and author of many of the kinnot, chooses our verse and Yaakov’s words for this kinnah because he believes that Yaakov was feeling the same thing. He had just escaped the galus of Lavan and was now heading toward Esav, overmatched and petrified by the thought of a pogrom, a massacre of his family. And he turns to God with anger and fear and says- but God you promised, how can you let this happen?
In doing so – Hakalir puts in the mouth of our patriarch the words that so many Jews throughout the ages have felt and even uttered toward God- you promised, how could you let this rape and murder and massacre happen.
Hakalir provides a text commentary in an unusual way and gives a legitimate voice to persecuted Jews throughout the ages by attributing these thoughts and emotions to Yaakov Avinu.
Every year around thanksgiving- it is appropriate for us to recognize that America has provided a haven for Jews from that kind of persecution. Sure there is always anti-Semitism and we can argue about the governments inactivity post WWII or today’s peace process involvement but overall we have never had to turn to God here in America and proclaim – ואתה אמרת היטב איטיב עמך
And for that we must be so very thankful.
