Lately, I’ve been intrigued by the struggle between good and evil, light and darkness, Yaakov and Esav. The struggle between these two brothers became the prototype of the Jewish struggle, with myriads of forces and enemies that wanted to destroy us.
But before Yaakov re-met Esav he had an earlier struggle. He struggled the entire night with the “angel of Esav.” This struggle, I believe, was not a prototype of the Jewish struggle with the outside world but rather a struggle that Yaakov had within himself.
In order for Yaakov to live and to accomplish, he needed a little Esavkeit. Esav represented ambition, aggressiveness, understanding, and use of the “field.” Yaakov was the scholar who “sat in the tent.” But Yaakov needed to get out there and create a nation, to mold a people that would survive arduous challenges and persecutions.
That’s why Yaakov wanted Esav’s birthright, that’s why Yaakov wanted Esav’s blessing, and that’s why Yitzchak wanted to bless Esav even before he blessed Yaakov. (This interpretation is not mine. It is common in the Zohar, Ohr Hachaim, Vilna Gaon, the introduction to the Shev Shemateta, and many more works.)
How much Esavkeit is necessary? Where should Yaakov integrate Esav and where should he shun him? This was the struggle Yaakov had with the angel of Esav; this is the struggle we all face every day.
“And you should love the L-rd your G-d with all your hearts” (from the Shema) “Hearts?” asks the Talmud. Why the plural? How many hearts do we have? The answer, says the Talmud, is that sometimes we are of two hearts – a yetzer tov and a yetzer hara. Something is pulling us and driving us to the unknown. Use the power! We have to love G-d with both hearts.
My Rebbe, Rav Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, when asked for help in making a major decision, would often ask us if we were driven to one particular side of the equation. “If you are driven,” he would say, “it may be coming from the yetzer hara, because the yetzer hatov really doesn’t have much drive.”
“But that’s not bad,” he would continue. “Just capture the drive and use it for good.” “Who is a strong man?” asks the Mishna. “One who captures their yetzer.”
The struggle of Yaakov with the angel of Esav should be the struggle of every Jew. As we confront the world with its financial challenges, ethical challenges, academic challenges, and social challenges, we have to be careful not to accept Esav with two hands and not to push him away with two hands either.
“Accept with the right and push away with the left,” says the Talmud, to create perfect balance in our lives.
“Which is the straight path for a man to walk? That which is a tiferes for himself and a tiferes for others” (Pirkei Avos).
