This portion is the eighth of the Torah. The number eight throughout Torah represents eternity and transcendence, one above nature and the natural cycles of life, represented by the number seven. Therefore we are not surprised to find in this portion many alluded to and explicit meanings connected to the number eight and all it implies.
It is interesting to note that the previous portion of Vayetzei, the seventh in the Torah, contains many references to the number seven. The portion begins with Jacob leaving Beer Sheva, the “well of seven,” to journey to Haran to escape the wrath of Esau and to find a wife. On the way he has a dream of a ladder set in the earth and reaching the heavens. One opinion is that the ladder had seven rungs. There are many commentaries on the meaning of a seven rung ladder and the fact that he begins his journey from the “well of seven.”
After meeting Rachel he agrees to work for seven years in order to marry her. After Lavan tricks him by replacing Rachel with Leah he agrees to work another seven years to marry Rachel. Leah ultimately bears him seven children and much of the portion deals with Jacob’s life and trials in the mundane world.
The first allusion to the number eight in our portion Vayishlach comes in the first words, describing how Jacob sent messengers to inform his brother Esau that he was returning home after a twenty year absence. The word for messengers is the same as angels, and Rashi comments that he sent “real angels,” “malachim mamash.” This indicates that Jacob’s struggle with Esau will have to be fought on the spiritual plane, one level above the natural physical plane, represented by the number eight.
After sending gifts to Esau to appease him, praying to God to protect him and splitting his camp in preparation for war, he is left alone where he fights with a “man” till dawn. When the man saw he could not defeat him he injured Jacob in the thigh. He asked to be sent away, but Jacob refused till he blessed him. At that point he confers the new name of Israel on Jacob: “No longer will your name be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have contended with God and man and have prevailed” (Genesis 32:29). Jacob called the place Peniel – “For I have seen God face to face and my soul has been spared” (Genesis 32:31).
When looking carefully at the text and various commentaries it is not clear with whom Jacob was wrestling. On one hand it says he was left alone, yet the text mentions a “man.” Rashi brings the tradition that it was the angel of Esau. Most significantly, the name Israel is described as one who fights with God and man, and Jacob himself names the place according to his understanding that he had seen the face of God.
In truth, Jacob’s battle was being fought on many levels simultaneously. Jacob was wrestling with his own insecurities and self-doubts, with his past relations with Esau and how his whole life Jacob had, in a sense, been holding onto the heel of Esau. He fought him over the birthright, and then over the blessing, and now he would have to fight him once again. Jacob knew he must overcome a lifetime of emotional uncertainty and ambiguity to be able to face him one more fateful time.
Yet, Jacob understood that his battle with Esau was not just a physical battle, but was being fought at a higher spiritual level. For Jacob to defeat Esau physically he would have to defeat him spiritually. On this level Jacob was fighting with the angel of Esau, the higher spiritual root of who Esau was and what he stood for.
Even deeper Jacob was wrestling with his own destiny. His whole life had brought him to this moment when he would have to once and for all vanquish his doubts as to his worthiness and capability to fulfill his mission in the world. There could be no turning back – he would either be defeated or assume his true identity with no regrets or fear. Thus, the great significance of Jacob receiving the name Israel as a result of that awesome, all night struggle.
Ultimately, Jacob fought with not only man, but God. This is seen clearly in the explanation of the name Israel as contending with God and man and prevailing, as well as in Jacob’s own perception of who he was struggling with. Jacob’s struggle with God is all our struggles to understand who we are, why we are here and how to accept God’s Providence, especially when things don’t go the way we think they should. Even more it is the struggle to understand how to make His will our will.
This entire incident alludes to the archetypal battle of Jacob being fought on an eternal and spiritual level as represented by the number eight. The Talmud relates that all the nations are ruled by the stars, while Israel has the unique possibility of rising above the stars. Earning the name Israel as a result of his battle that night symbolizes Jacob rising above the natural order as represented by the number seven and assuming a new transcendental identity.
Later in the portion the Torah enumerates the lineage of Esau. As part of that description are the kings who ruled in Edom before a king ruled over Israel. This somewhat abstruse section is described in Kabbalistic literature to contain great secrets related to the creation of the world, the reality of evil and the ultimate rectification of the world. Eight kings are mentioned, seven who rule and die and an eighth who rules along with his wife, while no mention is made of their dying.
Kabbalah explains the first seven kings who ruled and died to represent the primordial world of chaos where the initial immature vessels shattered when they could not hold the initial light of creation. The results of this cataclysmic “shattering of the vessels,” which forms the basis of our present world, is rectified by the eighth king who is married, representing the rectification of spiritual balance the world needs to reach redemption.
The only difference in spelling between the Hebrew word for the kings of this section and the messengers or angels that Jacob sends in the beginning of the portion is the word for messengers or angels has an additional letter, an alef, whose numerical equivalent is one. Once again we see that Jacob was operating on the level of eight, just one above the natural world which is ruled by the stars and kings who rule and die.
