However the night before he was to encounter his known enemy, Esau, he was attacked by a mysterious stranger, described simply as Ish. Jacob attempted to learn the name of his opponent, but was not successful. His foe remained nameless. Their encounter was symbolic of all the subsequent battles throughout the generations when the Jewish People were confronted by mysterious, nameless enemies who make outrageous demands on us that we cannot comprehend.
More and more, the troubles of the world are blamed on the Jew. We have been accused of being at the center of socialism, communism, capitalism etc. We are forced into life and death struggles, yet we often do not know why they attack us. Jacob and the Ish struggled and kicked up dust in their battle, yet in the end Jacob did not know what his opponent wanted from him and why he attacked him. Jacob must have compared his 2 opponents to each other, thinking to himself that he understands what Esau wants and how to handle him, but what does this nameless foe want from him?
The Torah says that when the Ish realized that he could not defeat Jacob, he dislocated his thigh. The Midrash says that this is a reference to the generation of Shmad (apostasy) and assimilation. We are forewarned that even though we don’t understand why a battle is forced on us, the end result can be, Gd forbid, apostasy.
The struggle with the nameless Ish extends all night till the dawn as the Torah says, Ad Alos Hashachar. This is symbolic that our battle with the nations of the world and our nameless foes will continue until the coming of Moshiach. V’Ami Teluim was chosen over Chazon Ovadiah because it specifically does not refer to the battle with Esau, the known enemy, but to the mysterious Ish, the nameless foe of the Jewish People attacking us throughout the generations. This is the most important message of Parshas Vayishlach.
In a 1969 lecture on Kedusha and Malchus, the Rav noted that every individual and generation has a mission they have been empowered and enabled to fulfill. (He referred to this as the Doctrine of Assignment, a topic for another column.) Our generation has been given a two-fold mission. The first is to physically safeguard Jews in Israel and the Diaspora. Prior to World War II, governments (local and national) attempted to persecute and intimidate the Jew by restricting him economically and socially. The enemies of the Jews prohibited them to experience freedom, and restricted them physically and experientially to a ghetto. This approach changed in the post-Hitlerian era. The ‘democratic’ enemies of the Jews want to annihilate them physically, wherever they may be (look no further than the Hamas Charter and the countries surrounding Eretz Yisrael). Had the Arabs won the 1967 war, not a single Jew would have remained alive in Eretz Yisrael.
Today we see the nations of the world openly supporting those seeking to complete Hitler’s work. They use code words like Boycott, Divestiture and Sanction to intimidate the Jew, to soften us up for their cohorts to complete their joint nefarious intention, the destruction of the world-wide Jewish community. The Rav said that he recalled how the democratic, intellectual elite of Berlin dismissed the Hitler youth marches and songs as humorous children’s play. They laughed so hard that we ultimately cried bitter tears. It was a short distance from those ‘childish’ marches to the marches to the crematoria in death camps like Auschwitz and Majdenak. The Rav cautioned us, even in the Western Diaspora, to be vigilant for any statements from public officials, no matter how seemingly innocuous, that smack of Anti-Semitism and to protest them vigorously. We must do our utmost to remove such politicians lest history repeat itself and their humor again turns into our tragedy. How poignant are the Rav’s words in light of recent terrorist attack that claimed the life of his grandson, Rabbi Moshe Twersky HY”D, among the other Kdoshim.