The "Evil Twin"

Today in class time we talked about Jacob's wrestling match on the bank of the Jordan River at the ford of Jabbok. Who was that mysterious man Jacob wrestled all night?

Jewish tradition teaches that this "man" was the guardian angel of Esau, or Jacob's "Evil Twin".  Jacob had to wrestle between the "material man", represented by Esau and his love of creature comfort, and the "spiritual man", represented by Jacob and his high value of the birthright and the blessing of the firstborn son.  To "give in" to this wrestling opponent would mean settling for the "good things" this world has to offer, and, like Esau, "despising the birthright" (Genesis 25:34)--which means placing little value on the things of God and great value on the things of this world.

Rabbi Burt E. Schuman, the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Israel in Altoon, Pennsylvania, offers these insights in his article, "Confronting the Sitra Ahra"on the website "myjewishlearning.com":

"We'd like to think of ourselves as decent, enlightened, and rational human beings, motivated only by the best of intentions.   Yet experience and honest self-examination tell us that even the most righteous and generous among us possess a murky and more hidden aspect of our psyches.   Our rabbinic tradition calls this the sitra ahra, the "other side."

"Our sitra ahra can lie deep within our subconscious and disguise itself as virtue.  Thus ruthless amibition can masquerade as "work ethic," cruelty and vindictiveness toward others as "honesty and sincerity," vicious gossip and backstabbing as "interest and concern," and two-faced hypocrisy as "keeping the peace." The human capacity for self-delusion is almost limitless.

"If the sitra ahra is to be confronted, we must first, like Jacob, ford a river.  For Jacob, it was the Jabbok, for us, it is the "River of Denial."  Then, like Jacob, we must have the courage to wrestle with the murkiest, seediest, and most offensive side of ourselves--the selfish boor within us, the ruthless schemer within us, the gossip and backstabber within us, the racist, sexist, homophobe, "looks-ist" and, yes, the anti-Semite within us.  Only when we have the courage to wrestle with the sitra achra until dawn can we acquire the blessing of becoming Israel and the battle decoration of a wrenched hip.

"Only when we confront our demons can we begin to free ourselves from their spell and become truly whole."

We'll talk more about Jacob's wrestling match tomorrow. For now, we have more than enough to ponder.

--Posted by Mama O.