אמר כה לעשו לאדני תאמרון כה לאמר אותם ויצו" (ה לב) "עתה עד ואחר גרתי לבן עם יעקב עבדך
Harav Elimelech of Lizhensk explained:
When a tzaddik wants to prevent the hostile forces from preventing his tefillah from being accepted, he davens in a way that his tefillah should sound like he is speaking to someone else, as Nechemiah Hanavi said (2:4-5 see Maharsha Rosh Hashanah 3b): "V'espallel el Elokei Hashamayim; v'omar lamelech."
Yaakov did this as well and therefore he instructed the angels: "Thus you should say to my master" – when you say it have in mind to advocate for me before the Master of the World, but in order to prevent the hostile forces from blocking your tefillah, say it in a way that it sounds that you are addressing "Eisav."
The rest of Yaakov's words can also be explained with a double meaning – as a tefillah to Shamayim and as speaking to Eisav. Rashi explains the term: "עם לבן גרתי" in two ways: 1. "garti" is from the term "ger" to say that when he was at Lavan, Yaakov remained a ger, a stranger, and the brachah of his father was not fulfilled, and 2. גרתי is numerically equivalent to 613.
We can say that the first way, the words are explained to be speaking to Eisav, in order to assuage his anger at having the brachos taken from him. But in the second way, it is directed to Hashem, to advocate for Yaakov, that despite the twenty years of living with Lavan, he did not learn from his deeds and kept the 613 mitzvos.
Noam Elimelech
