The Pshat Heard 'Round the World

“We came to Esav with your message, and he’s on his way – with four hundred men”! These words must have been enough to send shivers up Ya’akov’s …spine? So he prepares for the fateful encounter – gifts, prayer and a few rounds with Esav’s angelic sparring partner to toughen himself up in case he has to go mano a mano with his brother. I can understand all of Ya’akov’s anticipatory actions (especially after they have been explicated by our commentators” – except one – why did he bow to him? And not just bow – humiliate himself, kowtow, grovel!! Why did Ya’acov do this SEVEN TIMES! So much so that, in fact, Bechor Shor interprets Esav’s running toward Ya’akov as intended to prevent him from additional bowing! This behavior on Ya’akov’s part is not only disturbing from a perspective of Jewish pride, it would also seem to be problematic halachically. It is true that, as opposed to what many people believe, it is permitted to bow to another human being as...

Ya'akov is returning home after twenty-odd years in Padam-Aram in Lavan's household. He's brought in tow a large household acquired despite Lavan's deceit by years of honest sweat, toil, and, primarily, Hashem's blessing. He's faced down Lavan who pursued him and challenged him at Gal-ed. Now, as he re-enters Eretz Yisrael, he sends messengers/angels to Esav, his brother, his nemesis. He sends the messengers to the land of Seir , where Esav seems to have taken up residence (as is made explicit at the parashah's end). Why does he do this? Why not let sleeping dogs lie, asks the midrash in almost precisely those words? Yet it seems that Ya'akov cannot - he fled from before his brother's rage so long ago, a rage stirred up by Ya'acov's own actions which effectively supplanted Esav as heir to the Avrahamic legacy, and now it is time to do the tikkun for a relationship so badly damaged, even if those actions were taken under divine guidanc...