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		Living in Exile     Vayishlach   (Gen 32:4 - 36:42)

B'resheet/Genesis 32:32   And the sun rose for him just as he passed P'nuel and he was limping on his thigh.

View whole verse and interlinear translation ...

Coming towards the end of what is perhaps one of the most enigmatic and most commented upon passages in the book of B'resheet, Ya'akov's all-night wrestling match with someone or something that the Hebrew text identifies only as "אִישׁa man" (B'resheet 32:24), our text tells us two things: that it was now daybreak and that Ya'akov was limping. The Hebrew root צָלַע means "to curve" and also provides the noun צֵלָע, tzeyla, 'rib' in the narrative of The Name ...

HaShem: literally, Hebrew for 'The Name' - an allusion used to avoid pronouncing the Tetragrammaton, the so-called 'ineffable' name of G–d
HaShem taking a rib from Adam to make Hava - each curved towards each other - hinting that Ya'akov has been curved at the thigh, so must always walk on one side.

Was Ya'akov's injury permanent? The Jewish tradition is undecided. Rabbi Yitz'khak reports that "the sun which had set on Ya'akov's account now rose on his account too" (b. Sanhedrin 95b). Rashi quotes "But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings" (Malachi 3:20, ESV and claims that the sun rose specifically to heal his limp, so that he was limping when the sun rose. Who Is ...

The Re'em: Rabbi Elijah Mizrachi (c. 1455-1525/6), born in Constantinople of Ottoman Greek stock; a Talmudist, astronomer and mathematician, he became Grand Rabbi of the Ottoman Empire; most famous for his supercommentary - called Sefer HaMizrachi - on Rashi's commentary on the Torah.
Mizrachi adds that "it does not mean that he was limping after the sun rose, for the sun healed him." Don Who Is ...

Abravanel: Don Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508 CE), Statesman and biblical commentator; born in Lisbon, died in Venice; wrote commentaries on the whole of the Hebrew Scriptures
Abravanel reports that "as for the limp, Ya'akov could actually not move a muscle after his hip was wrenched out of its socket, until (to paraphrase Malachi 3:20) 'the sun of victory rose to bring healing.'" The Who Is ...

Sforno: Rabbi Ovadiah Sforno (1470-1550 CE), Italian rabbi, philosopher and physician; born in Cesena, he went to Rome to study medicine; left in 1525 and after some years of travel, settled in Bologna where he founded a yeshiva which he conducted until his death
Sforno too is adamant that "after he passed Penuel limping, the sun rose and its rays healed him, as it will come to pass in the future" and quotes the same verse as if to apply it to the world to come. More cautiously, the modern commentator Nahum Sarna observes: "the rising sun may also betoken the healing of Jacob's injury."

Perhaps, on the other hand, the mention of the sun was just a way of showing that time had passed: one of the things everyone says. Terence Fretheim suggests that "the references to dawn" - this actually the third in the story, verses 25, 27 and 32 - "make clear that G-d and Ya'akov parted company before the full light of day." Does this mean, he asks, that "seeing G-d's face was for Ya'akov at best a twilight experience."¹ Rabbi David Who Is ...

The Radak: Rabbi David Kimḥi (1160-1235 CE), rabbi, biblical commentator, philosopher and grammarian; born in Narbonne, France; best known for his commentaries on the Prophets, he also wrote a philosphical commentary on Bresheet that makes extensive use of the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel; influenced by a strong supporter of Ibn Ezra and Maimonides
Kimchi says that Ya'akov only noticed that he was limping when dawn came up. The Who Is ...

The Rashbam: Rabbi Samuel ben Asher (1085-1174 CE), a grandson of Rashi; lived in Northern France; worked from the plain meaning of the Hebrew text even when this contradicted established rabbinic interpretaton
Rashbam tells us that "it was not that he started limping then, but that once the sun rose people could see that he was limping" and invites us to compare this with the Torah's earlier comment, "When morning came, there was Leah" (B'resheet 29:25). "It was Leah all night long," he points out, "but this only became apparent when it grew light."

Another way of considering the sun rise as Ya'akov moves forward on his journey home is to reflect on the two events that the Torah reports happening when crossing the borders. When Ya'akov leaves Be'er Sheba on his way to Haran, it records that "He came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set" (28:11, NJPS), while our text records his return. Sarna suggests that: "Ya'akov's ignominious flight from home was appropriately marked by the setting of the sun; fittingly, the radiance of the sunrise greets the patriarch as he crosses back into his native land." Yet, significantly, Ya'akov returns a different man from the one who set out so confidently twenty years before. Carrying the burdens and responsibilities of being a husband, a father and head of household, certainly; experienced from twenty years of hard outdoor work in all weathers with Laban's sheep, undoubtedly; repaid a thousand times for his dishonesty by Laban's cunning and craftiness, surely. But there is something even more important: he has learned about dependence on HaShem! Now he knows that he is HaShem's man.

Leon Kass puts it this way: "Ya'akov, who long ago mentioned G-d in a doubly impious lie to his father, 'The L-rd your G-d has sent me good speed' (27:2), will forever remember that the L-rd has slowed him down. ... A man who limps is slowed down, made conscious of his gait, mindful that his plans cannot fully succeed because the perishable body does simply execute that reason and will command. ... Made to feel a perpetual stranger, he knows he is always in need of gifts and forgiveness. The man who limps gets along only with the help of grace."² Gordon Wenham observes that "the rising of the sun marks the passing of time and the dawn of a new era in Ya'akov's career. But he limps past Penuel, witnessing to the reality of his nocturnal encounter and showing that although in one sense he was victorious, G-d had left His mark on him. He was not totally self sufficient."³

Can we see in Ya'akov's limp - a paradoxical theology of weakness in power and power in weakness - a background to Yeshua's conversations with the disciples? Immediately following the third prediction of His crucifixion and resurrection, James and John the sons of Zebedee come up to Yeshua and make a request: "Grant us to sit, one at Your right hand and one at Your left, in Your glory" (Mark 10:37, ESV). It is unclear whether they see their current journey to Jerusalem as being the moment when Yeshua will establish His kingdom - there and then in 1^st century Judea - or whether they have correctly grasped the idea of the end-times kingdom when He is enthroned as the judge of all the earth; either way, it is a colossal thing to ask as their fellow disciples will shortly make clear! Yeshua seems to suggest that the brothers have had a temporary mental aberration: "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" (v. 38, ESV). Walter Brueggemann notes, "They want thrones; Yeshua counters by asking them about cups, baptisms and crosses."⁴

But what is Yeshua really saying? Perhaps an early echo of the opening line of the Simon and Garfunkel song: "Slow down, you move too fast."⁵ Entirely apart from the propriety - "to sit at My right hand or at My left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared" (v. 40, ESV), this is the Father's call - James and John have no idea of what is involved in getting to that point. Ben Witherington explains that "[Yeshua] will tell them that the road to such glory must go through suffering, and so He must ask them if they are willing to pay the price to get to the position of glory."⁶ Yeshua uses His own life as an example: "even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (v. 45, ESV). Back to Brueggemann: "Like Ya'akov, they are invited to be persons of faith who prevail, but to do so with a limp."⁷

Ya'akov's encounter turned his life upside down. Our text makes it clear that even after seeing, wrestling with, G-d face to face, muscle to muscle, Ya'akov still lived. But that is not the same as unscathed. He lives, but now he lives in a new way, with new power and corresponding new weakness. He has the certainty of relationship and promise with G-d, but he also has a limp to remind him every day of that weakness. And a limp, as Bruce Waltke writes, "is the posture of the saint, walking not in physical strength but in spiritual strength. G-d's severe mercy allows Ya'akov a victory, but it is a crippling victory. Paul expressed a similar truth in another oxymoron: 'when I am weak, then I am strong' (2 Corinthians 12:10)."⁸ When Paul asked for his physical weakness - the thorn, given to keep him from being conceited - to be removed, he was refused: "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness" (v. 9, ESV).

Living in exile is for us a time of weakness, a time of always walking with a limp. We talk, but don't always share the same language or shared values; we shop, but not always for the same things; we strive but not for the same goals - we are marching to a different tune, the song of Yeshua and His kingdom. We are waiting not for the sun of righteousness, but for the Son of Righteousness to rise on us, with healing in His wings. In the midst of the present darkness of exile, we see the sun rising on the horizon - Yeshua coming to greet us and heal us. Those in exile are - by definition, so to speak - always limping when compared to the majority population, always slightly distanced and 'other'. But just as God's "makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matthew 5:45, ESV), so He makes His Son, Yeshua, rise in the hearts of His disciples that we may we be warmed and empowered for the work of the kingdom. Just as photosynthesis uses the sun to generate life-giving energy in the plant world, so the Son generates spiritual energy and light by the Spirit in the members of His body. Yeshua says that "the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear" (Matthew 13:43, ESV). Are you listening?

1. - Terence Fretheim, "Genesis" in The New Interpreter's Bible Commentary, Vol I, edited by Leander E. Keck, (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2015), page 204.

2. - Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 2003), page 463.

3. - Gordon Wenham, Genesis 16-50, Word Biblical Commentary, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1994), page 297.

4. - Walter Brueggemann, Genesis, Interpretation, (Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1982), page 271.

5. - Simon and Garfunkel, "The 59^th Street Bridge Song" from the 1966 album, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.

6. - Ben Witherington III, The Gospel of Mark - A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001), page 287.

7. - Brueggemann, page 271.

8. - Bruce K. Waltke with Cathi J. Fredricks, Genesis: A Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), page 450.

Further Study: Proverbs 4:18; Daniel 12:3; Acts 14:15-17

Application: Are you shining with the heat, warmth and light of the Son so that others can see, acknowledge and appreciate the kingdom of G-d? Invite Yeshua to slow you down and work with your limp rather than rushing around pretending that it isn't there. Accept your own weakness and offer it to Him, so that you may be strong as the Spirit works in you to bring glory to the Father!

Comment - 11:58 08Dec24 CJ: This is brilliant. Thank you. So appropriate to think of our position, full of hope yet walking with a limp. Keep up the good work!

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© Jonathan Allen, 2024

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