Unified in Diversity

by Rabbi Mordechai Rhine

Parshas Vayishlach begins with a description of how Yakov prepared for battle. The Torah relates that, as Esav approached him, Yakov was truly afraid that a major battle would erupt. Yakov divided the people that were with him into two camps, and said, “If Esav manages to be victorious over one camp then the other camp shall be for salvation.”

What kind of strategy was Yakov attempting to pursue? It seems odd to plan that half the people should be killed, and to find consolation in the other half escaping.

The Oznayim Latorah explains that the salvation which Yakov planned was not that one camp would manage to escape, but rather that one camp would  save the other camp in its time of crisis. Similar to the way Avraham told Lot, “I will be there for you,” so did Yakov strategize that each camp would be there to ambush Esav and to be a source of salvation for the members of the other camp.

This perspective is the mission statement by which Yakov lived his life. Yakov’s mission wasn’t to create tribes who were clones of one another. Rather, he forged tribes that were diverse in their roles, yet united as a family to the values of Torah. Yakov fathered a nation which could experience a crisis that affects only some, yet all members of the nation will unite to assist and to “be a salvation.”

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