Musar sobre Génesis 32:4

On (32, 4): וישלח יעקב מלאכים לפניו אל עשו אחיו ארצה שעיר שדה אדום,"Jacob sent angels (resp. human messengers) ahead of him to his brother Esau to the land of Se'ir," Rashi comments that these were "real" angels. If that were so, it is difficult to understand Jacob making use of holy beings for a secular, totally private mission. He could just as well have sent human messengers! We have an explicit ruling that even nowadays, when the כהן cannot perform sacred duties due to the absence of the Temple, one must not employ a כהן to perform mundane tasks. How then could Jacob employ angels for such a purpose? (gloss of the Mordechai on Gittin).

Let me now pursue my own path in explaining all the unusual phrasings in the text as listed earlier. According to the author of Bereshit Rabbah 74,4 the מלאכים sent ahead by Jacob were of the flesh and blood variety; unnamed other scholars claim that they were angels. Remember that the struggle between Jacob and his adversary occurred on two levels, the physical and the spiritual, with Esau in this world and with Samael in the Celestial Regions. The latter had an excuse to challenge Jacob's moral integrity for Jacob had married two sisters, as explained. We have mentioned that though Jacob had a legal excuse for what he did, it was not considered appropriate for a man of his stature, whose features were engraved on G–d's throne, to avail himself of such an excuse. Jacob's name on G–d's throne made a profound impression in the Celestial Regions. We know from the description in Chulin 91 that in Jacob's dream the two angels ascending and the two angels descending compared the features engraved on the throne of G–d with the features of Jacob on earth. They threatened Jacob's life because they found discrepancies between the respective features. As a result, G–d quickly intervened and placed Himself on top of the ladder in order to protect Jacob.

The words ארצה שעיר, שדה אדום, allude to both the physical and the spiritual domain. ארצה שעיר is an allusion to Samael, whose share in the world is the שעיר, the goat or scape-goat, which is offered to him "as a bribe" on the Day of Atonement, as will be explained in due course. Another reason he is called Se'ir is that Samael is identical with Satan, or the evil urge; to his people [those who are held in his sway, Ed.] he appears like a שער, as thin and insignificant as a hair. The message is that for צדיקים Mount Se-ir, i.e. the threat of the evil urge, looms large as a mountain, whereas for the sinners it appears as insignificant as a hair. To carry this hyperbole a little further: When the Torah described Esau-Edom-Se'ir as completely covered with hair, (25,25) this is an allusion to his being as full of sins as a fur coat is full of hair. When the Torah also described the destination of Jacob's emissaries as שדה אדום, it merely described Esau=Edom their destination on earth.