Yaakov’s all-night battle with the angel of Eisav was a foreshadowing of the ongoing battle of the Jewish People for all generations. As the UN again embraces Israel’s enemies, one only has to look into last week’s Torah reading for comfort. Indeed, the age-old scenario is unyielding: “And Yaakov was left alone”
In 1988 after Yasser Arafat delivered his victory speech in the UN — roundly applauded despite the murderous atrocities Fatah had perpetrated just a few weeks earlier — I penned the following article for the Israeli daily Maariv subsequently included in my book Parshah Ufishrah. The show put on last week by Mahmoud Abbas at the UN demonstrates how exactly 24 years later nothing has changed.
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“And Yaakov was left alone” (Bereishis 32:24).
The Ramban tells us that Torah is not only a history of our forefathers but also contains a message for all subsequent generations. “For everything that happened to our patriarch [Yaakov] with Eisav will always happen to us with the descendants of Eisav” (Ramban beginning of Parshas Vayishlach).
The narrative of the parshah is only the tip of the iceberg. It is like a picture on microfilm; only after it is developed and enlarged can we see what it bodes for the future. Look closely at the parshah and you will have a sign of what is yet to come; this says the Ramban is the deeper meaning of the Midrashic statement “The deeds of the fathers are a sign for the children.”
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