{"id":38703,"date":"2018-08-26T14:11:35","date_gmt":"2018-08-26T11:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=38703"},"modified":"2022-03-20T23:36:47","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T21:36:47","slug":"jacob-wrestled-with-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/jacob-wrestled-with-himself\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacob Wrestled with Himself"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[542,490],"acf":{"old_id":"38703","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":38549,"related_cahpter":"32","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"And in so doing, gets a grip on himself and his legacy","content":"

In an attempt to appease Esau\u2019s wrath, Jacob sends him gifts that amount to quite a pay-off: \u00a0\u201c200 she-goats and 20 he-goats; 200 ewes and 20 rams; 30 milch camels with their colts; 40 cows and 10 bulls; 20 she-asses and 10 he-asses\u201d (Genesis 32:14-15).<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a convoy worth a fortune. According to the current price list – each cow costs about NIS 10,000, meaning the herd of cattle alone is worth about half a million shekels, the equivalent of about $150,000.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is meant to teach us:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. When making peace with enemies you have to be generous.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. \u201cBribe will blind the eyes of the wise\u201d (Deuteronomy 16:19), not to mention the eyes of the wicked like Esau.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    But Jacob still is not calm. He is afraid that Esau may not be interested in money but wants to see blood. Jacob\u2019s anxiety is overwhelming, and he cannot sleep. He takes his entire family and takes them to the other side of the stream, and then returns and remains alone. \u00a0It is very strange.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Why does he not stay with his children and his wives to protect them? They, too, are feeling anxious! Apparently Jacob actually considered running away. His \u201cJacobite\u201d character whispered to him, “Run away, leave everything and save yourself,” but then “a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn” (Genesis 32:25).<\/span><\/p>\n

    Suddenly a man comes up and begins beating him. \u00a0Or perhaps it was a heavenly angel who specialized in Jiu-Jitsu, or Jacob himself wrestling with himself?<\/span><\/p>\n

    The same man comes just to ensure that when Jacob is confronted by reality he will not run away from it. Jacob does some deep and painful soul searching. He beats himself up. And he gets injured.<\/span><\/p>\n

    At a certain point, the morning dawns, and things start to become somewhat clearer. Jacob gets a grip on himself and says to himself \u201cWhat is your name?\u201d He replied, \u201cJacob.\u201d Said he, \u201cYour name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel\u201d (Genesis 32:28-29).<\/span><\/p>\n

    Jacob takes control of himself. He is no longer Jacob, the cunning manipulative liar, but Israel, honest with his God, a pursuer of truth, fair and decent. <\/span><\/p>\n

    PS – We are all supposed to be children of Israel, and not children of Jacob.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Jacob Wrestled with Himself","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"And in so doing, gets a grip on himself and his legacy","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"old_create_date":"","links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38703"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38703"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103215,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38703\/revisions\/103215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}