פירוש על בראשית 32:26

ויגע בכף ירכו HE TOUCHED THE HOLLOW OF HIS THIGH — The upper thigh-bone that is sunk in the hip is called כף because the flesh on it (on this bone) has the form of the hollow part of a pot-ladle (כף).

AND HE SAW THAT HE PREVAILED NOT AGAINST HIM. Ye angels of His, ye mighty in strength, that fulfill His word.⁶⁹Psalms 103:20. Because of this⁷⁰Although the angel’s strength was superior to Jacob’s, he was restrained by G-d from harming him. the angel could not prevail against him to harm him for it was not permitted to him to do other than that which he did to him, namely, to disjoint the hollow of his thigh. Now the Rabbis have said in Bereshith Rabbah:⁷¹77:4. “He touched all the righteous people who were destined to come from Jacob. This refers to the generation of religious persecution.”⁷²This refers to the religious persecution during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, 117-138 Common Era. The purport of this Midrash is that this entire event constitutes a hint to his generations, indicating that there will be a generation from the seed of Jacob against whom Esau [Rome] will prevail to the extent of almost uprooting his seed. This occurred in one generation during the period of the Sages of the Mishnah, which was the generation of Rabbi Yehudah ben Baba⁷³In Sanhedrin, 13 b, it is recounted how this Sage suffered martyrdom for the sake of ordaining his disciples, an act which the Romans had forbidden. and his companions.⁷⁴Possibly a reference to the Assarah harugei malchuth, the Ten great Rabbis who endured martyrdom rather than abide by the Hadrianic regulations. As they said:⁷⁵Shir Hashirim Rabbah 2:18. “Rabbi Chiya bar Abba said, ‘If a person were to tell me, “Give your life for the sanctification of the Name of the Holy One, blessed be He,” I would give it, providing only that they slay me immediately. But in the generation of religious persecution I could not endure!’ And what did the Romans do in that generation? They would bring iron balls and heat them in fire and then place them under their arm-pits and cause their death.” And there are other generations in which they have done to us such things as these and even worse, but we have endured and it has passed over us, just as it is hinted in the verse, And Jacob came in peace.⁷⁶Further, 33:18.

כי לא יכול לו, the angel did not succeed in preventing Yaakov from crossing and fleeing.