Machshavot HaLev - Yeshivat Lev HaTorah

53
Vayishlach
The Hip and the Yetzer Ha-ra
Rav Natanel Lebowitz
T he Torah (32:25) relates that while Yaakov was returning home, he was intercepted
by an ish who struggled with him all night. Many explain that this ish was actually
an angel and more specifically it was the angel of Esav otherwise known as Sama’el.
During the struggle, the angel was only able to hurt Yaakov at his hip bone. The Torah
tells us that because Yaakov came away from the struggle limping, we are not able to
eat the gid ha-nasheh, the sciatic nerve, of an animal.
Why the hip socket? As Sama’el is associated with the Yetzer Ha-ra, is there something
we can learn about the nature of the Yetzer Ha-ra from Sama’el’s smiting the hip socket?
Toras Shlomo (footnote 129) writes that the reason the angel went for the hip socket
was because it is the most accessible place on a person’s body. Right when Yaakov was
about to achieve absolute victory over Sama’el, out of desperation, Sama’el reached for
whatever he could grab.
Even at the times when we feel comfortable with our avodas Hashem (Yaakov was
clearly victorious in this struggle), the Yetzer Ha-ra will desperately try to nick us
wherever he can find an opening. We must constantly keep up our guard and be
vigilant to protect ourselves from his attack. We cannot settle for being a “mostly eved
Hashem”. We need to make sure that even our most vulnerable points are covered.
Rav Elchanan Wasserman adds that this could easily refer to young children. Since
they are most impressionable, Sama’el attempts to infiltrate their thought process. Rav