Symbolically, the blow dealt by the angel to Yaakov’s leg serves to emphasize the importance of taking small steps in all areas of life.
Among the incidents told in Parashat Vayishlach is the injury that Yaakov sustained as a result of his nightlong wrestle with a mysterious assailant, who attacked him as he made his way back to Canaan after leaving the home of Lavan. Although Yaakov prevailed over the assailant, who turned out to be an angel, the angel managed to deal Yaakov a debilitating blow and dislodging his thighbone. Commentators and darshanim throughout the ages have advanced different theories to explain the significance of this particular injury and how it foretells the future history of Yaakov’s descendants.
Rav Yehuda Leib Ginsburg, in his Yalkut Yehuda (Denver, 1936), suggests that the significance of Yaakov’s injury lies in the fact that it caused him to limp and take small, slow steps as he walked (“ve-hu tzolei’a al yereikho” – 32:31). Symbolically, the blow dealt by the angel to Yaakov’s leg serves to emphasize the importance of taking small steps in all areas of life. Ambition is vital for success in any endeavor, but it can also be a person’s worst enemy, if it is not accompanied by patience. The angel made Yaakov limp to teach us, his descendants, that although we must walk persistently, we must walk slowly. We cannot expect to accomplish our goals in an instant, by taking large steps. Our aspirations – both individual and collective – are best realized by “limping,” by taking small steps, each moving us closer to our ultimate destination.
Yaakov had good reason to want to “rush” back to Canaan. After spending twenty years in the hostile environment of Lavan’s home, geographically and spiritually distant from the land of his father and grandfather, he was understandably eager to return to Chevron and begin the next stage of building the foundations of Am Yisrael. The angel, perhaps, was sent to deliver the message of “slow down,” to progress at a more relaxed, gradual pace. “He saw that he could not overcome him, and so he dealt a blow to his thigh socket” (32:25). The angel saw that he could no longer detain Yaakov, so he injured his leg, causing him to limp. His intent, it appears, was to force Yaakov to slow his pace, to progress more gradually to the next stage of his life and of Jewish history. At first he tried to simply obstruct his path, but when Yaakov proved too forceful to be detained, the angel resorted to injuring his leg. We, like Yaakov, must be vigorous enough to overcome all obstacles that we confront, but patient enough to move forward slowly. We may not let anybody or anything to get in the way of the realization of our goals, but, at the same time, we must ensure to pursue them one step at a time, at a gradual pace, rather than recklessly lunging forward to the finish line.