As for Esau, we marvel at his dignity and composure. He never wallowed in flatteries, as did Jacob. Jacob really did go too far; even his most vehement admirers concede that. He was wrong to speak of expiation, wrong to kneel seven times, wrong to address his brother as Lord. No man should humiliate himself before another, even his own brother and even if he is prompted by guilt or weakness. And no man has the right to reduce God to human scale when speaking of Him, just as no man has a right to attribute divine characteristics to man.

Why did Jacob humble himself before Esau? His self-punishment is all the more disconcerting because it took place after the struggle with the angel. We must deduce, then, that the struggle did not change him completely, after all. He was still incapable of breaking his bonds, of overcoming his fear. Something of Jacob must have remained in Israel.

• • •

He had been weakened by fear in the past. His most exalted dream, at Beth-El, had almost ended in disaster. Let us listen to the Midrash:

It is written that Jacob, in his sleep, saw a ladder that reached from earth into heaven and angels were going up and down.

Which teaches us that the Almighty, blessed-be-His-name, showed our father Jacob:

The king of Babylon going up and down,

and the king of Median going up and down,

and the king of Greece going up and down,

and the king of Rome going up and down.

And the Almighty, blessed-be-His-name, said unto him:

You too go up, Jacob!

But our father Jacob was afraid and answered:

They all have to come down,

and I might have to do the same.

And the Almighty, blessed-be-His-name, told him:

Do not be afraid, Israel,

if you go up now,

you shall never come down again.

But Jacob did not believe and hesitated,

unable to overcome his fear.

And then the Almighty, blessed-be-His-name, spoke

thus:

Had you but trusted Me,

and gone up,

you would have remained up there,

all the way up there;

but since you failed to trust Me,

and did not go up,

your children, in exile,

will serve four kingdoms

and pay four kinds of levies

just like slaves.

And Jacob, seized by an even greater fear, cried out:

Will it last forever?

No, said the Almighty, blessed-be-His-name.

Not forever.

Reassured or not, the fact remains that Jacob could not free himself of either his anxiety or his weakness. He was gnawed by doubts and dared not integrate himself into this vision and obey the divine commandment: the future victor of Peniel trembled with fear at Beth-El.

Even the grandiose dream of the ladder, one of the high points of his life, is used by at least one commentator to illustrate his mediocrity:

On that particular night when the angels ascended into heaven they found there Jacob’s image illuminated by divine splendor; it looked familiar to them. And so they hurried back down to admire the original. But they were disappointed and chagrined to find him . . . asleep.