The Accuser's Dust: Wrestling Until the Final Dawn

34aOr we may say that “And a man wrestled with him” speaks of Yaakov's accuser: this angel was his accuser. He wanted to do battle with him and catch him in some sin, but he found no sin or iniquity in his hands. So he began to accuse him over the dust that was in his hands. Yaakov Avinu did teshuvah at once, as tzaddikim do, and through this that dust was raised up to the Throne of Glory. That is what Chazal said: “This teaches that they raised dust up to the Throne of Glory.”¹ And so it always is: the Baal Davar, the adversary who accuses, keeps searching for some wrong in the tzaddik, and so the tzaddik always needs thoughts of teshuvah, to raise up that dust of sins. This is “until the rising of the dawn”: it is always so. The yetzer hara wrestles with a person and stands over him, as the verse says, “The wicked watches for the righteous … Hashem will not leave him …”² It lasts until, with Hashem's help, Israel rises on high and our redemption comes speedily. Then the spirit of impurity will pass from the earth,³ and the war between a person and his yetzer will end. That is “until the rising of the dawn”: shachar, dawn, speaks of seeking, until Hashem seeks us out.

34b“And he saw that he could not prevail against him … and he touched the hollow of his thigh …”⁴ The poskim, the halachic authorities, ask why no blessing is said over marital union, when it is forbidden to enjoy this world without a blessing. They answered that no blessing is said over it because it cannot be without some admixture of the yetzer hara. So the poskim hold that no union is free of some admixture. This is “and he touched the hollow of his thigh”: there the accuser had a hold, because there a person cannot fully guard himself. “And he said, ‘Send me away, for the dawn has risen’”:⁵ in the time to come the Baal Davar will ask Israel, “Leave me be in this, and send me away from you just as I am,” for he will no longer rule over us and will want to be let go like that. “And he said, ‘I will not send you away unless you have blessed me’”: that is, Israel will answer, “Give us back all the blessings you made us lose. Because of you we did not have these blessings, for you stood against us as an adversary and accuser.” “And he blessed him there”:⁶ the adversary did as Israel wished.