Comentario sobre Génesis 33:18

שלם SAFELY (literally, whole, perfect, unimpaired) — unimpaired in body (health) because he was cured of his lameness; whole as regards his possessions for he was not short of anything even though he had given that gift (for his remaining cattle soon bore other young; cf. Rashi on Genesis 30:43); and perfect in his knowledge of the Torah for whilst he was in Laban’s house he had not forgotten what he had before learned (Shabbat 33b).

AND JACOB CAME IN PEACE … FROM PADDAN-ARAM. [This is stated here in the same manner] as a person says to his friend, “That man there has come from between the teeth of the lions and has arrived unhurt.” Similarly here, And Jacob came in peace, i.e., from Laban and from Esau. This is the language of Rashi. But Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra explained that the sense of the verse is that Jacob arrived in peace from his lengthy journey and nothing happened to him, as Scripture now begins to narrate the event of Dinah.
In my opinion Scripture speaks thus since for the length of his sojourn in Succoth⁹⁹Verse 17 here. he was fearful of Esau. Succoth — if it be the one mentioned in the book of Joshua¹⁰⁰Joshua 13:27. — was east of the Jordan, in the kingdom of Sihon, and if it be another city by that name, it was nearer to Se’ir. Thus until he entered the land of Canaan Jacob did not feel safe, for only then did he know that Esau would not touch him for his father was nearby, or because the people of the land would help him as his father was a prince of G-d in their midst, or because the merit of having entered the land would save him. And therefore, Scripture now said that he came in peace into the land of his father’s sojourning¹⁰¹Further, 37:1. since G-d delivered him in his travels out of the hand of all his enemies.¹⁰²II Samuel 22:1. And the Rabbis have said in Bereshith Rabbah¹⁰³78:20. that during all these months that our father Jacob stayed in Succoth he honored Esau with that present enumerated above¹⁰⁴32:14-15. by Scripture for he was afraid of him there, and monthly or annually he would send him a comparable present.

ויבא יעקב שלם, to the city named Shalem. The construction is similar to ותבאנה בית לחם, “they arrived at Bet Lechem.” (Ruth 1,19)

ויבא יעקב שלם עיר שכם, he reached the land of Israel unharmed. This was the fulfillment of the condition he had set in his vow in 28,21 ושבתי בשלום אל בית אבי, “and I will return in peace to the house of my father.” He did not wait until he had physically returned to the house of his father.

ויבא יעקב שלם, Jacob arrived intact. We need to examine the meaning of the word שלם in this context. The Talmud Shabbat 33 provides several homiletical explanations. We also have to know why the Torah has to mention the place where Jacob came from, i.e. Padan Aram. We all know that Jacob had been in Padan Aram. Rashi comments: כאדם האומר לחבירו יצא פלוני מבין שיני אריות ובא שלם, "it is just like a person who reports that someone had escaped from between the teeth of lions without suffering any harm." The problem with this commentary is that the Torah told us something we knew from previous accounts.

ויבא יעקב שלם, meaning that he had not incurred any damage or loss as a result of his encounter with Esau. He had not suffered any deterioration during his entire journey from Aram Naharayim. The matter is underlined to show that now that he had returned to the land of Canaan, his homeland, he suffered the indignity of his daughter Dinah being raped. Seeing that this happened at Shechem, the Torah mentions that town instead of telling us that he was 100% o.k. until he came to Sukkot and built himself a house. The Midrash understands the word שלם as a state of being, i.e. similar to when he had said יש לי כל,“I am blessed with everything,” in response to Esau having said יש לי רוב. “I have lots.”

ויבא יעקב שלם, “Yaakov arrived completely intact, etc.;” according to some commentators the word “Shalem” is the name of a place from which Yaakov proceeded to the city of Shechem, as we are told later that the men there were שלמים אתנו, the reference being to Yaakov and his sons as residing in “Shalem which is near us.” Ibn Ezra writes that the word שלם is an adjective, and describes Yaakov arriving there without mishap. The Torah mentions this as a prelude to the first major upset since he left Lavan, the rape of Dinah. Nachmanides writes that it would be too uncharacteristic for the Torah to report that Yaakov arrived somewhere without mishap, and that Shalem is another name for the city of Shechem. As long as he had remained in Sukkot, he was constantly afraid of Esau and his heart was not at peace. Once he had arrived in the land of Canaan he knew that he would shortly be reunited with his father and that he could enlist the help of his father or that the local people would help him out of respect for his father, and that the very merit of being back in the land of Israel, the Holy Land, would work in his favour. The G’d Who had protected him against all the dangers he had faced during his long journey home, would certainly continue to help while he was on the soil of Eretz Yisrael.

Safe in body, for he was healed from his lameness. [Rashi knows this] because it is written שלם, without specifying [in which way he was whole], implying he was whole in all ways. And [aside from lameness,] what is written in this vein? Before, it said he had property. And now it says, “He bought the part of the field,” implying he [still] had money. And whole in his Torah [knowledge] is learned from, “When he came from Padan Aram.” Why was this [phrase written]? To teach that even though he came from Padan Aram, which is utterly ignorant of Torah, he did not forget what he had learned. (Maharshal)

שלם,^ völlig harmonischer, ungeschmälerter Ganzheit, nicht nur in materieller, sondern auch vor allem in sittlicher Beziehung mit Hinblick auf die sittlichen Gefahren, denen ein Mensch in dem notwendigsten Streben zur Erlangung materieller Selbständigkeit ausgesetzt ist. (Siehe zu Kap.28, 20.) שם ist der Ausdruck der vollendeten Harmonie, insbesondere der vollkommenen Übereinstimmung des Äußern mit dem Innern. Daher verwandt mit צלם. Alle Erscheinungsformen der Dinge sind nicht bloß ein Äußeres, sondern sind vielmehr der höchste adäquate Ausdruck, in welchem sich das innere Wesen ausprägt: alle schöpferische Form ist die Überwältigung des äußeren Stoffes zur höchsten Vollkommenheit nach den von der Natur des Wesens gegebenen Bedingungen. Alle Vollkommenheit ist die harmonische Verwirklichung der Idee. Aller wahrhafter, des Namens שלום würdiger Friede ist, auch fürs bürgerliche Leben, nicht eine nach äußerer Schablone bewirkte, sondern nur von innen heraus dem Wesen und der Idee des bürgerlichen Lebens harmonisch gestaltete Ordnung der Dinge.

ויבא יעשב שלם, “Yaakov arrived intact at Shalem; he arrived at a town named Shalem, a suburb of Sh’chem, named after the ruler of that region. We find similar examples of capitals being identified with the names of their respective rulers, such as in Numbers 21,26, Sichon and Cheshbon. A different interpretation: The place called Shalem was actually the city Sh’chem. As long as Yaakov had not suffered the indignity of Dinah’s rape, his return to the land of Canaan, had been shalem, perfect, without incident. The “Shalem” mentioned here is not the same as the one we have heard about in Genesis 14, i.e. Jerusalem, over which Malki Tzedek was king, because we never found that Sh’chem ruled over Jerusalem.

עיר שכם — the word עיר is equivalent to לעיר to the city of. Similarly we have (Ruth 1:19) “until they came בית לחם” — “to Bethlehem".

AND HE ENCAMPED BEFORE THE CITY. He did not wish to be a transient lodger in the city, but rather he wished that his inaugural entrance into the land should be into his own property. Therefore he encamped in the field and bought a place for the purpose of taking possession of the land. This action constituted a hint that this place will be conquered by him first¹⁰⁵Further, 34:28. before the dwellers of the land would be driven from before his seed, just as I have explained in the case of Abraham.¹⁰⁶Above, 12:6. And our Rabbis have said:¹⁰⁷Bereshith Rabbah 79:7. “He arrived on Friday close to sundown [and was therefore compelled to encamp before the city as there was no time left to enter the city], and he set Sabbath limits [while it was yet day.” The verse thus teaches us that Jacob observed the Sabbath before it was declared on Sinai]. Now according to this opinion of the Rabbis the act of Jacob encamping there first was unintentional. However, in any case, the event hinted to the future as we have said. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra however said that Scripture mentions this in order to inform us that there is great excellence to the Land of Israel, and he who owns a part thereof has it considered as a portion in the World to Come.

עיר שכם, the city of Shechem (who subsequently raped Dinah) The description parallels Numbers 21,26 where Cheshbon is described as the city of Sichon, King of the Emorites. Anyone who explains Shechem as being the name of the city errs. We do not find anywhere that a city is described in such terms, i.e. as עיר ציון, or as עיר ירושלים. Invariably such cities are described with the appropriate definitive article ה i.e. as the word העיר following the name of the city in question. Even assuming that the city under discussion was Shechem, the town may have been renamed in commemoration of the heroism displayed by the sons of Yaakov. We know that the town Luz was renamed Bet El by Yaakov. (28,19) We find the same construction in Joshua 19,7 when the Danites renamed a city “Dan” to honour their tribal father and the acts of heroism by the soldiers of the tribe in capturing the city. Already the first builder of a city, Kayin, is described in Genesis 4,14 as ויקרא שם העיר כשם בנו חנוך, “he named the city in accordance with the name of his son Enoch.” Even the sages of the Midrash who understand the word שלם as an attribute, adjective, describing Yaakov at that point as “whole” in body, spirit, and material wealth, did not catch the plain meaning of the text if that was their intention. It is simply not the style of the Scriptures to express itself in such terms. There is no need for this. Did the Torah have to tell us that Yaakov’s wealth was not impaired as a result of the lavish gift he sent to Esau?

בבאו מפדן ארם, while he was still on the way to his father’s house. He began to fulfill the terms of his vow by building an altar This was in accordance with his promises והיה ה' לי לאלוקים. (the last words of his vow).

את פני העיר; in front of the town. The expression is parallel to Proverbs 17,24 את פני מבין חכמה, “wisdom is in front of (available) any discerning person.” Perhaps the town was small so that there was not enough room to accommodate Yaakov whose entourage consisted of two camps. His presence inside the town might have cramped their quarters. He therefore erected his tent outside the borders of the town on the piece of land he had bought. According to our sages in Bereshit Rabbah 79,6 the words ויחן את פני העיר mean that seeing he arrived on Friday evening shortly before the onset of the Sabbath, he made an Eiruv Techumim, delineating the area he could walk within freely on the Sabbath. We would learn from here that Yaakov observed the Sabbath legislation down to Rabbinic decrees before such a legislation was given to his descendants at Mount Sinai.

ויחן את פני העיר. “He encamped facing the city.” He had stayed there a while and acquired property, fields, vineyards, etc. He did not want to remain a guest anywhere again. His actions served to remind his descendants in the future that they should first conquer this city before moving on to dispossess the Canaanites of their land. Ibn Ezra explains that the whole verse was written to compliment the land of Israel, and to tell us that anyone owning property in the Land of Israel is as if he had already acquired a share in the world to come.

We feel that שלם means what we said earlier that Jacob's possessions were the same as when he set out from Padan Aram. G'd replenished the gift he had given to Esau so that he did not experience any loss. This then was the meaning of the blessing כל which Jacob had in mind when he described himself as having "כל."

ויחן את פני העיר, “he encamped next to the city.” One reason was that he had too many possessions to be absorbed inside the city, and he did not feel comfortable about mingling with the inhabitants of that city.

בבאו מפדן ארם WHEN HE CAME FROM PADAN-ARAM — This is stated here in the same way as a person says to his neighbour, “that man there has come from between the teeth of the lion and has returned unhurt”. Similarly here: he came whole from Padan-aram — from Laban and from Esau who had come to attack him on his journey.