Vayishlach: Fear

Vayishlach: Fear

The parsha reveals the ambivalence of Yaakov/ Yisroel., the mixture of fear and courage, principle and compromise that characterizes our ultimate father. 

Forshadowing  later events ( recalled in parsha Shleach), Yaakov sends messangers ( spies?) into the Promised land to evaluate his adversary, his brother Esau. Like the later spies, they return with a threatening report.( job security for spies, always a safer position for them to take). The spies were sent out of fear and their report magnifies the fear.  Fear is the rational response, And the fear prompts action: send a good will offering (bribe), divide the camp so that a portion can survive.  (How sad, our foundation story is concerned with suviving  decimation )

Then Yaakov  is called upon to fight.  He fights with valor an elicits a name changing blessing ( which does not seem to take hold on him personally, but changes the appellation of his descendants)

Yaakov and his family fend off Esau and his attempt to assimilate them into the local people. (33;15)

The rape of Dinah has many facets, including the battle against assimilation. The people of Shechem ( the Hivite relatives of Esau's wife) invite the Israelites to trade among them, become peddlers  and money-changers, rootless inhabitants of their land..  They invite the Yaakov family to become Jews in exile. 

The tables are turned, but the massacre terrifies Yaacov, both in terms of his logistics for survival as a small minority in the Land and because of the violence itself ( reflected in his blessings later )

Yaakov musters the courage to move on.  It seems that Yaakov's courage usually stems from fear of the alternative. 

Gd now changes his name ( it still doesn't stick).  Perhaps this man who calculates everything down to the heel cannot muster the recklessness it takes to fight with the angels ... unless there is no better alternative. 

The strongest thing that my father told me was not to fear.  It helps me alot, but I still fear.  He fearsd  too, unless fearlessness was the better alternative.