Brothers Go Separate Ways...

11-17 Torah Study with Rabbi Sara Wolf
Genesis 33:12-17
Reunion ends... And they go separate ways
Esau wants Jacob to travel with him...Jacob declines.

Gifts... Both say they don't need anything...Jacob insists...Esau finally accepts.
But back to reality they go separate ways.

Did Jacob really intend to go to Esau?  Some midrash says that he doesn't go to Esau's home and thus..they can only really be reconciled in the messianic times.

V16. "le darkov" ...on his way... Esau back to his usual ways and they cannot walk on the same path.  So they go their separate ways.

Contrast...wants reconciliation but also holds back.

Leon Kass…book Beginning of Wisdom.  Brotherly rivalry...a problem that repeats itself again and again.
Jacob & Esau - This is the best they could have done..not like the Cain &Abel tragic conclusion .

Jacob arrives shalem...whole.  Interpreted differently.

Jacob buys land and pays for it...proof of ownership and settlement.

Sets up an alter...odd grammar ...called for/to self.
Tradition from this ...being called up to to Bimah.

Transformational moments don't stick!

Torah does not refer to Jacob by the name Israel so this name change is different from Abraham's name change.

Is this reconciliation related to the need and process of tshuvah?