by Rabbi Avi Billet
The word ויחץ, “and he divided,” appears twice in the entire Torah. Both times are in our parsha, and they come as a clear contrast to how Yaakov planned and ultimately acted in response to the news that his brother was coming to greet him with 400 men.
When he first heard of Eisav’s pending approach, ויחץ את העם אשר אתו... לשני מחנות (32:8). He divided the people and animals that were with him into two camps, with the thought being that if one camp were to be attacked, the other would have the chance to flee.
The second ויחץ comes at the beginning of chapter 33, as Eisav and his companions show up: ויחץ את הילדים על לאה ועל רחל ועל שתי השפחות. Yaakov splits the children up, with each child assigned to his mother – Leah has her 6 boys (and Dinah?), Bilhah and Zilpah each have their respective 2 sons, and Rachel is with Yosef.
While it is true that Yaakov’s initial reaction of fear was based on a lack of knowledge of Eisav’s intentions, whatever happened to that original division-into-camps plan?
One could argue that Yaakov’s preparations of appeasement gifts, his prayer, his plans for military confrontation, as well as the fight with the mysterious man (/angel) all gave him a different perspective on how his encounter with Eisav might unfold. Maybe he had confidence that Eisav received his gifts. Perhaps he felt his prayer had hit the right mark. Possibly the camp of people accompanying him demonstrated their ability and willingness to stand at his side should they come under attack. Many commentaries note that the struggle with the angel was meant to either symbolically or physically show Yaakov that Eisav couldn’t defeat him and shouldn’t even scare him – if an angel couldn’t defeat him, surely Eisav was no match for him. Could these votes of confidence have pushed him over to abandon his original ויחץ plans?
Even if he did scrap those plans, he nevertheless reverts to ויחץ when he finally does see Eisav face to face. The division can be described as each son is attached to his mother, respectively, and no one is going anywhere. What is the point of this division, if no one is intent on running?
The commentaries have such varied views on Yaakov’s plans, it is hard to imagine they are looking at the same narrative.
Netziv notes that the encounter with the angel indeed gave Yaakov the impression that Eisav would not harm him in a significant way, thus he abandoned his first ויחץ plan.
On the other side, Seforno and HaKsav V’hakabbalah are of the view that Yaakov proceeded with ויחץ because he discerned that his appeasement gift had not impressed Eisav at all – they seem to argue that Yaakov’s plans, in fact, never changed. Along similar lines, Rav S.R. Hirsch also feels Eisav was not mollified, as evidenced by his still having the 400 men with him, and his lesson is that no matter what happens, and no matter how much we want to trust in God for everything, we must put in our own efforts and never rely on miracles.
Contrast that to the Midrash Sechel Tov who quotes R Simōn who has Yaakov feeling his tefillah working, R Levi who has Yaakov expressing confidence in his military preparations being up to snuff, and then Yaakov facing reality when the encounter took place, that each person would have his/her own merit (זכות) serve as their own defense.
There are many interpretations of what lesson Yaakov was to take from his fight with the angel. In a positive light, just as Yaakov can not be defeated by an angel, he can not be defeated by the mortal Eisav (Radak). The angel was sent specifically to cripple Yaakov, to prevent him from opting to run from Eisav, so God’s promise of protection could be fulfilled (Chizkuni). The angel was sent on a mission to fight with and lose to Yaakov, to teach Yaakov to be confident in his strength so he can overcome the adversity he faces in his conflict with his brother (Yalkut Shimoni). In a more negative view, once he saw that the angel had injured him in the thigh, he feared that Eisav would overpower his descendants and his children – and therefore he split the camp again (Malbim).
The fact is that Eisav does not attack, leaving his intentions unclear, and all we have is the fear that prompted Yaakov to split his camp in two at the beginning, and his reaction to actually seeing Eisav which is played out in a different form of a split – mothers with their respective children. Radak suggests that each mother is most concerned for her own children – if she can save them she will (by running away – (B’chor Shor), and if not, no one will plead for mercy on behalf of her children as she will.
Alshikh ignores the entire question about Yaakov’s original plan, focusing on how the Torah presents Yaakov’s placement of his family. He put the children “on Leah, on Rachel, and on the two maids.” Then “he put the maids and their sons first, then Leah and her children behind, and Rachel and Yosef behind.”
Alshikh describes how his assigning each mother to her sons indicated that he cared for all the mothers equally, and the placement of the maids in front was because he was still dealing with them when he started to put everyone in place. Leah was “behind” and Yaakov was closest to her (the first mother of the tribes), even though he might have preferred to be closest to Rachel, who seems like an afterthought in his placing her last.
Yaakov, according to Alshikh, was playing politics in the placement of his children, so no one would feel slighted as if they were considered more expendable.
It seems that the term ויחץ is used to describe the kind of division of the family that Yaakov ultimately utilizes, but it does not seem that his initial intent is the one he uses when he splits people up. Why? Very simply. We can plan every stage of our lives, but we can’t always anticipate how other people will play their roles, or how God will play His role.
When the facts on the ground change – whether it’s the outcome of Yaakov’s preparations, prayers, struggle with the angel, etc, or Eisav’s acceptance or non-acceptance of Yaakov’s gift, or Eisav’s choice of how he truly wanted to meet Yaakov – Yaakov went through with a plan of ויחץ, but it was no longer a plan to have one group flee.
If Yaakov abandoned his plans to flee, he must have had a tremendous faith, אמונה, and trust, בטחון, in the Almighty, that somehow things would turn out alright. But Yaakov wanted to keep his word as well, and so he divided the people up, though a little differently than originally planned.
How do we roll with circumstances that go beyond our control? When our plan is thwarted? When it no longer works to do things in the way we intended? Are we able to adjust? Do we do our best to keep our word? And where do we view God in all that transpires? Do we still trust in Him? Have faith in Him? Communicate with Him?
If the answer is yes, or that we manage to adjust and make things work, we are worthy of bearing the name of Israel, “you have struggled with God and with Man and you have overcome.”
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