Second Reading: Natural Consciousness
“Jacob remained alone, and a man fought with him until daybreak.”
PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF JACOB’S STRUGGLE
The central verse describing Jacob’s struggle with Esav’s angel reads, “Jacob remained alone, and a man fought with him until daybreak” (וַיִּוָּתֵר יַעֲקֹב לְבַדּוֹ וַיֵּאָבֵק אִישׁ עִמּוֹ עַד עֲלוֹת הַשָּׁחַר). First, we note the verse’s tripartite construct. First “Jacob remained alone” (וַיִּוָּתֵר יַעֲקֹב לְבַדּוֹ); then, “a man fought with him” (וַיֵּאָבֵק אִישׁ עִמּוֹ); and finally, “until daybreak” (עַד עֲלוֹת הַשָּׁחַר). These three stages correspond to the story of every individual’s life, ever since Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden.
ALONE WITH OUR PAST
First, there is the loneliness of existence, detached from God, disconnected from others, and made worse by carrying the pain of the past. This past also includes what Kabbalah describes as the reincarnations or the past lives of every soul, and they remain forever in the background of the struggle.
As Rashi, based on the Midrash comments, the setting which caused the struggle in the first place, which left Jacob alone, separated from his family and friends, was his search for “small vessels” that he had left behind when they were passing the River Yabok. These “small vessels” are symbolic of the “unfinished business” each of us carries from our past.
STRUGGLE IN OUR PRESENT
However, the more advanced teachings of the Ba’al Shem Tov prescribe that though the past affects the present, the crux of our work is in the present, thus the past should be demoted to our subconscious. Indeed, to conduct our struggle in the present with full force, might and dedication, we need to be able to ignore the transgressions, the “small vessels,” left behind in our past.
The second stage, that of the actual struggle—“a man struggled with him”—corresponds with the Divine service in the present moment that Judaism strives for. The paradigm Jewish mysticism uses to capture the nature of the process unfolding in the present is that of the “Work of Clarification” (עבודת הבירורים). It encompasses all our struggles to guard the Torah and its commandments, to develop our character, and to elevate the sparks of holiness hidden with the mundane. It is at this stage that Jacob’s hip is wounded. When studies and analyzed carefully, these three short words, “a man fought with him” (וַיֵּאָבֵק אִישׁ עִמּוֹ), yield many deep insights into humanity’s present condition and our trajectory forward.
Finally, the third stage describes the culmination of the struggle—at daybreak—when a complete transformation occurs. Esau’s guardian (also symbolic of our individual evil inclination) surrenders to Jacob. The pain carried from the past is sweetened and Jacob’s hip that was wounded during the struggle begins to heal. Daybreak alludes to the future consciousness taught and advocated for by the Ba’al Shem Tov—consciousness that no longer suffers the burdens of the past and does not leave us in a state of solitude, disconnected and detached from others and from God.
We have developed language to describe these three epochs in every individual’s personal history and in the history of mankind as a whole: self-consciousness, Divine consciousness, and natural consciousness.
LIVING WITH LABAN DURING EXILE
Before Jacob’s encounter with Esau’s archangel, he lived with Laban for 20 years in Haran, a location north of the Land of Israel. Jacob describes these years to the messengers he sends to Esau: “I have lived with Laban and therefore tarried until now” (עִם לָבָן גַּרְתִּי וָאֵחַר עַד עָכָה).
The Hebrew word for “lived” (גַּרְתִּי)—is a permutation of the same 4 letters used to indicate the total number of commandments in the Torah—613 (תריג). According to the sages, Jacob is hinting to his estranged brother that at Laban’s he had symbolically performed to their perfection all 613 commandments of the Torah. It was based on this spiritual perfection that Jacob, who had for years been known as a scholar dwelling in tents of spiritual pursuits, was now ready to challenge Esau and his dominion over mundane reality.
What is most surprising about this is that normally we might have expected Jacob to have perfected his pursuit of the Torah’s commandments (even spiritually) in the Land of Israel—not the house of Laban, which was both outside the Holy Land and a place of physical pursuits. Moreover, many of the Torah’s commandments include the conditional directive that they can only be performed in the Land of Israel. Furthermore, it was in Laban’s house that Jacob has 11 of his 12 children, who will eventually become the Tribes of Israel.
This conflict is solved when we note that in the bigger picture, the Land of Israel represents the final stage, when the process of rectifying reality reaches its apex. The Land of Israel is where natural consciousness is attained, implying that all preceding stages of the process of rectification must be completed prior to Jacob returning to it. In fact, Jacob leaves the land of his forefathers to pursue his livelihood and his family with Laban, because these objectives are more easily attained there. In the terminology of Kabbalah, the Land of Israel is where the partzuf—the spiritual persona—of Rachel, symbolic of natural consciousness, is perfected.
Thus, the paradigm of perfection based on the performance of the commandments as direct expressions of God’s will which ensure Jewish existence on the way to the Land of Israel. Performance of the commandments in this mode affirms the role of the individual Jew and the Jewish people as a people separate from all others. Only when Jewish mentality is ready to enter the Land of Israel, can it undergo a transformation, from a people seeking a safe harbor, protection, and survival, to a people whose duty it is to bring the word of God—the Torah—to the entire world and by doing so, to sweeten the millennia long conflicts and despair from peace.
Using the language of Chassidut: Jewish survival outside of our Holyland is “against the odds.” It is a constant uphill battle to surmount spiritual obstacles. But, when our Jewish consciousness acts in the context of the Holyland, it becomes capable of realizing what is known as a “Jewish nature,” a markedly Jewish existence, where living as a Jew becomes a natural trait. Jewish nature, and natural consciousness are not limited to life in the Land of Israel, but rather they flow from it to the entire world. An individual living with this nature anywhere on the globe (including in the Land of Israel) is said to be “living in the land of Israel.”
