Parashat Vayishlach (Genesis 32–36): Summary and Commentary

Parashat Vayishlach (“and he sent”) is the eighth portion of the book of Bereshit (Genesis 32:4–36:43) and is read on the Shabbat of November 28, 2026. It is also spelled Vayishlach, Vayishlah or Vaishlach. It takes its name from the first words: “And Yaakov sent messengers before him to Esav, his brother” (32:4).

The tradition proposes reading each portion in four steps: what the text says, what it hints at, what the sages explain and what it conceals. Let us take them in turn.

Peshat: the simple meaning

Let us begin with what the text says, adding nothing to it.

The portion begins with a man preparing. When the messengers return with the news that Esav is coming with four hundred men, the text says: “Yaakov was very afraid and distressed” (32:8). And he does three things: he divides his camp in two, “if Esav comes to one camp and attacks it, the other will escape” (32:9); he prays (32:10-13); and he prepares a gift, which he sends in waves, with distance between one and the next (32:14-22). In his prayer he says: “I am unworthy of all the kindnesses and all the truth that You have shown Your servant; with my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps” (32:11).

The night scene is brief and mysterious. “And Yaakov was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn” (32:25). The man touches the socket of his thigh, and Yaakov is left limping (32:26). He says: “Let me go, for dawn has broken,” and Yaakov answers: “I will not let you go unless you bless me” (32:27). The name changes: “Your name shall no longer be called Yaakov, but Yisrael, for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed” (32:29). Yaakov calls the place Peniel: “I have seen God face to face, and my life was spared” (32:31). And the narrator closes with a custom: “therefore the children of Israel do not eat the sciatic nerve to this day” (32:33).

The meeting with Esav is the opposite of what was feared. The text describes it with five verbs in a row: “Esav ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, kissed him, and they wept” (33:4). Yaakov says to him: “I have seen your face as one sees the face of God, and you have received me favorably” (33:10).

After Shechem, the text tells, without embellishment, the tragedy of Dinah (34:1-2), the response of Shimon and Levi (34:25-26) and Yaakov’s reproach: “You have brought trouble on me” (34:30).

Chapter 35 is full of farewells. Hashem tells Yaakov to go to Beit El, and before going up, he asks his people to remove the foreign gods (35:2). Devorah dies, Rachel (“Ben-Oni,” she says as her son is born, and Yaakov calls him Binyamin, 35:18) and, at the end, Yitzchak, at 180 years old, and his sons Esav and Yaakov bury him together (35:29).

Remez: what the letters hint at

Remez means “hint.” Here the reading pauses on letters and numbers: on how a word, when the value of its letters is added up (gematria), coincides with another that illuminates its meaning. The great collector of these hints is the Baal HaTurim, Rabbi Yaakov ben Asher (13th–14th centuries), author of the Arba Turim. In Vayishlach he points out, among others, these eight.

The first, in Yaakov’s livestock. “Li shor” (לי שור), “I have an ox” (32:6), adds up to 546, the same as “shenolad Yosef” (שנולד יוסף), “that Yosef was born.” The Baal HaTurim explains that Yosef is Esav’s adversary.

The second, in the prayer. The initial letters of “hatzileni na miyad” (הצילני נא מיד, 32:12), “deliver me, please, from the hand of,” form, rearranged, Haman (המן): Esav and his descendant.

The third, in the struggle. “Vaye’avek” (ויאבק), “and he wrestled” (32:25), adds up to 119, the same as kisei hakavod (כסא הכבוד), “the throne of glory,” which adds up to 118, with the kolel. The Baal HaTurim reads it as their having raised dust up to the throne of glory.

The fourth, in the adversary. “Ish imo” (איש עמו), “a man with him,” adds up to 427, the same as “Esav Edom” (עשו אדום): the man who wrestled with him was Esav’s angel.

The fifth, also in the struggle. The final letters of “vaye’avek ish imo” (ויאבק איש עמו) form kasho (קשו), “his straw”: the Baal HaTurim relates it to the house of Esav being “straw” (Obadiah 1:18).

The sixth, in the thigh. “Bechaf yerecho” (בכף ירכו), “in the socket of his thigh” (32:26), adds up to 338, the same as “lifsolo mikehunah” (לפוסלו מכהונה), “to disqualify him from the priesthood”: the Baal HaTurim recalls that Yaakov had bought the birthright from Esav, to which the service belonged.

The seventh, in the blessing. “Berachtani” (ברכתני), “you have blessed me” (32:27), adds up to 682, the same as “hodah livirchati” (הודה לברכתי), “he acknowledged my blessing”: the angel was Esav’s, and in this way he admitted that Yaakov had received the blessing.

The eighth, in the kiss. “Vayishakehu” (וישקהו), “and he kissed him” (33:4), adds up to 427, the same as “lenoshchehu” (לנושכיהו), “to bite him.” The word is marked with dots above the letters in the Torah scroll, and the Baal HaTurim joins it with that reading: that Esav wanted to bite him.

Drash: the teaching of the sages

Rashi, with the Midrash and the Talmud, gathers here the lessons of the sages.

Fear and distress. “Yaakov was very afraid and distressed” (32:8). Rashi explains the difference between the two words: he was afraid of being killed, and distressed that, if he had to defend himself, he would kill others.

“I am unworthy.” In his prayer, Yaakov says that his merits have diminished “because of all the kindnesses.” Rashi explains it so: he fears that, since Hashem made him the promise, he may have sinned and therefore could be delivered into Esav’s hands (Shabbat 32a).

The man who wrestles. The sages identify the man with Esav’s angel. And Rashi adds a teaching about what Yaakov was doing alone: “Yaakov was left alone” because he had forgotten some small jars and went back for them (Chullin 91a). The righteous value what is theirs so much that they leave behind not even the small.

The new name. “It shall no longer be said Yaakov.” Rashi interprets: it will no longer be said that the blessings came to you with deceit and trickery, but with nobility and openly. And the angel tells him that Hashem will appear to him in Beit El, and that there He will change his name and bless him.

The sun. The text says that “the sun rose upon him” as he passed Peniel (32:32). Rashi takes it as a simple reading (day had dawned) and as another: the sun shone to heal his limp, and the hours in which it hurried to set when he left Beer Sheva, it now hurried to rise for him.

Esav’s kiss. The word “and he kissed him” carries dots in the scroll. Rashi relates that there is a dispute: some say that the dots indicate that he did not kiss him with all his heart. But Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says: it is a known rule that Esav hates Yaakov, but at that moment his compassion was moved and he kissed him with all his heart.

Sod: what is hidden

The Zohar

The Zohar opens the portion with a question about the angels: “And Yaakov sent messengers,” and Rabbi Yehudah cites the verse “For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways” (Psalms 91:11). When a person comes into the world, the inclination to evil accompanies him from the first moment, and it is the one that always accuses him, as the verse says, “sin crouches at the door” (Genesis 4:7).

On the struggle, the Zohar explains the word vaye’avek, “and he wrestled”: it comes from avak, “dust.” The Hebrew edition we use adds, with the words of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, that they raised dust with their feet up to the throne of glory, the place of judgment, and that the angel was Esav’s prince, Samael. And Rabbi Shimon adds a distinction: avak, “fine dust,” is what remains of fire and bears no fruit, whereas afar, “earth,” is where all fruits come from.

The attribute: humility versus pride

Rabbi Shimon cites the verse “Better is one who is lightly esteemed and has a servant than one who glorifies himself and lacks bread” (Proverbs 12:9), and says it of the inclination to evil: it always accuses people, and lifts their heart in pride, and goes on drawing them after it until it drags them to Gehinnom. It is the same lesson as Yaakov’s, who before facing Esav declares himself “unworthy.”

More weekly commentary in the list of parashiot.