Kaisipang Hudyo sa Genesis 32:2: Derashot HaRan & Guide for the Perplexed

In any event, it is clear from the words of Daniel that the fourth creature is Amalek. For he reckons those peoples symbolized by the creatures, each of which seized the reign from its neighbor, and it is known from the words of our sages that Amalek [Rome] seized the reign from Greece and asserted its power over her. And it is Amalek that exiled us from our land, which is the domicile of the Shechinah, as revealed to Jacob in his prophetic vision of the ladder and by the singling out of that place Beth-El [the house of G-d], for the vision. For He showed him when he left Lavan and returned to the land of Israel that that land possessed a great eminence over other lands and that the soul was there disposed to cleave to the Celestial Light, as it is written (Genesis 32:2): "And Jacob went on his way and angels of G-d met him." "met him" implies that angels always walk in that land and so are to be met by one who enters it. And it is for this reason that Jacob called that place Machanaim [camps]. For there are three levels of habitation: the habitation of the celestial encampment, the heavens; the habitation of the terrestrial encampment, the entire earth — with the exception of the land of Israel; and the land of Israel itself, which is both the habitation of the terrestrial encampment (human beings dwelling there) and the habitation of the celestial encampment ("for I have met there a camp of angels"). That place, then, was well worthy of the appellation "camps." And this is the intent of (Ibid 3): "And Jacob said when he saw them: 'This is the camp of G-d,' And he called that place Machanaim."

THE term halak is likewise one of the words which denote movements performed by living beings, as in “And Jacob went (halak) on his way” (Gen. xxxii. I), and in many other instances. The verb “to go” was next employed in describing movements of objects less solid than the bodies of living beings, comp. “And the waters were going on (halok) decreasing” (Gen. 8:5); “And the fire went along (va-tihalak) upon the ground” (Exod. 9:23). Then it was employed to express the spreading and manifestation of something incorporeal, comp. “The voice thereof shall go like a serpent” (Jer. 46:22); again, “The voice of the Lord God walking in the garden” (Gen. 3:8). It is “the voice” that is qualified by “walking.”

The same, I hold, is the case when it is said in reference to Jacob, “And a man wrestled with him” (Gen. 32:25); this took place in a prophetic vision, since it is expressly stated in the end (ver. 31) that it was an angel. The circumstances are here exactly the same as those in the vision of Abraham, where the general statement, “And the Lord appeared to him,” etc., is followed by a detailed description. Similarly the account of the vision of Jacob begins, “And the angels of God met him” (Gen. 32:2); then follows a detailed description how it came to pass that they met him; namely, Jacob sent messengers, and after having prepared and done certain things, “he was left alone,” etc., “and a man wrestled with him” (ibid. ver. 24). By this term “man” [one of] the angels of God is meant, mentioned in the phrase, “And angels of God met him”; the wrestling and speaking was entirely a prophetic vision. That which happened to Balaam on the way, and the speaking of the ass, took place in a prophetic vision, since further on, in the same account, an angel of God is introduced as speaking to Balaam. I also think that what Joshua perceived, when “he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold a man stood before him” (Josh. 5:13) was a prophetic vision, since it is stated afterwards (ver. 14) that it was “the prince of the host of the Lord.” But in the passages, “And an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal” (Judges 2:1); “And it came to pass that the angel of the Lord spake these words to all Israel” (ibid. ver. 2); the “angel” is, according to the explanation of our Sages, Phineas. They say, The angel is Phineas, for, when the Divine Glory rested upon him, he was “like an angel.”