Comentario sobre Génesis 32:32

ויזרח לו השמש AND THE SUN SHONE UPON HIM— This is the expression that people use: “When we reached such-and-such a place the dawn broke upon us”. This is its literal sense. But the Midrash says that לו means, “for his needs” — to heal his lameness. Thus, too, you read in Scripture a similar metaphor (Malachi 3:20) “the sun of righteousness with healing in its wings”. The hours that it had set before its time for his sake when he left Beer-Sheba (cp. Genesis 18:11) it now rose before its time for his sake (Sanhedrin 75b).

והוא צולע על ירכו, now that the sun was shining he realised that he was walking with a limp, a belated discovery, just as when he discovered that he had spent a night in bed with Leah thinking that she was Rachel (29,25).

The sun shone upon him. This verse must be inverted — after he passed Penuel, still limping, the sun shone and healed him. Similarly, in the time to come the “sun” of the redemption will shine and heal the righteous.

כאשר עבר את פנואל, as he passed Pnu-el. Perhaps Jacob was the only one who called that place Pni-el instead of Pnu-el. We find the name Pnue-el also in Judges 8.

ויזרח לו השמש, an expression similar in principle to Samuel II 2,39 ויאור להם בחברון, “it became light for them in Chevron,” when Yaakov passed Penuel the sun had just risen. An aggadic explanation (Bereshit Rabbah 78,8) of the wording, based on the word לו, “for him,” is that the sun had a therapeutic effect on Yaakov’s limp. Rabbi Berechyah explains the wording to mean that whereas everyone in Yaakov’s retinue appreciated the sun for its light, Yaakov appreciated it for its therapeutic effect on his injury. Rabbi Hunna says whereas the heat of the sun’s rays had a therapeutic effect on Yaakov, it had a debilitating effect on Esau and his hordes. He quotes Maleachi 3 10-20 “For lo! The day is at hand, burning like an oven. The arrogant and all the doers of evil shall be straw, and the day that is coming-said the Lord of Hosts- shall burn them to ashes and leave of them neither stock nor boughs. But for you who revere My name a sun of victory shall rise, a healing” You shall go forth and stamp like stall-fed calves and you shall trample the wicked to a pulp for they shall be dust beneath your feet on the day I am preparing, said the Lord of Hosts.

ויזרח לו השמש כאשר עבר את פנואל, “the sun shone for him as son as he had passed Penuel.” The Torah means that the sun had risen already long before Yaakov reached Penuel. The reason why it took him so long to get there was that he now had a limp to contend with. Another interpretation of the words והוא צולע על ירכו, “he was limping on his thigh-joint,” is that he walked deliberately so slowly that onlookers did not even notice that he was limping. During the extra time it took Yaakov to reach Penuel the sun had already long risen and begun to shine. Only now did his limp become recognizable, due to the bright light of the sun.

Those hours that the sun prematurely set ... it prematurely rose for him. Rashi is answering the question: Even if we say that the sun shone for him [to heal him], did it shine only “for him”?

Vor zwanzig Jahren, bemerken die Weisen, als er auf die Wanderschaft gegangen war, war ihm an der Grenze des Heimatlandes die Sonne untergegangen, die ganze Zwischenzeit waren nächtliche Zustände, jetzt bei der Heimkehr ging sie ihm wieder auf — er war nicht geschlagen, nicht gebrochen, aber hinkend.

ויזרח לו השמש, “the sun shone for him.” In the In the Western hemisphere, the sun’s rays rise earlier and became stronger on a daily basis starting in the month of Tevet, until in the month of Tammuz the days again start to become shorter and the sun’s rays weaker. Our author tries to show how the season’s variations are hinted at in the words of the Torah here. The reason why the author does this is because he was troubled by the Torah in our verse making it appear as if the sun shone only for Yaakov and not the rest of the world. He uses the numerical value of the word: 36=לו, as the basis of this exegesis. [I have decided to omit the details of this astronomical part of his exegesis of this verse. Ed.]

והוא צלע AND HE LIMPED — He was limping when the sun rose.

והוא צולע על ירכו. When he passed Peniel he felt the injury as more painful and found himself forced to limp.

He was limping when the sun rose. Rashi is saying he was limping when the sun began to rise, but he was cured right afterward.

והוא צולע על ירכו, “and he was limping, i.e. dragging his feet.” He had not been able to leave Peduel before the sun was shining strongly and its healing rays enabled him to walk. An alternate exegesis: no one had noticed his limp until the sun shone. The grammatical construction of our verse would be parallel to Genesis 29,25 when the Torah writes: ויהי בבקר והנה היא לאה, “it was morning when he found out (Yaakov) that it was Leah (in bed with him)”.