To understand geopolitics, go read the Torah
This week’s parashat Vayishlach teaches us, the Children of Yaakov, how to engage with “the other.”
Yaakov is about to meet Eisav, onetime brother now quintessential adversary. As Rashi relates, Yaakov prepares in three ways: tefillah, doron (gifts/diplomacy) and milchama (war).
Thousands of years later, this tripartite strategy still guides us.
While this parsha addresses conflict with Eisav (later identified with Rome and Christianity) what about our current enemy, the descendants of Yishmael (the Moslem nations)?
The Torah reveals a link between Eisav and Yishmael. At the end of parashat Toldot, Eisav takes Yishmael’s daughter, Machlat, as a wife — a point reiterated in this week’s parsha where she is called Basmat. Basmat’s son, Reuel, fathered leaders who ruled the land of Edom (or Seir), whose territory spanned the modern Negev, Eilat, parts of Sinai, and into Jordan. They had kings “even before there was a king in Israel.”
According to Yishmael’s genealogy at the end parashat Chayei Sarah, he had 12 sons (as did Yaakov, later), all becoming nesiim (chieftains) but not kings (because they had no specific land). They were wanderers, nomads dwelling “from Havila to Shur, which is near Egypt, towards Assyria.”
Then the verse there concludes with a curious reference, reporting that Yishmael “al p’nei kol eichav nafal (over all his brothers he fell).” The word nafal means to fall.
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Rashi cites the Midrash that rather than use the more common word for dwell — yishkon, as was used earlier in describing Yishmael’s dwelling — the Torah specifically gives us a subliminal message. Earlier when his father Avraham was alive, Yishmael, in Avraham’s merit, dwelt in comfort and confidence. Now, after Avraham’s death, he fell, dwelling in uncertainty, and in discord with his brothers.
Yet Kli Yakar (Rav Shlomo Ephraim Lunschitz) notes that Yishmael did teshuva before Avraham died. Why then use a negative word like nafal? Shouldn’t a penitent Yishmael dwell with confidence?
For this reason, Rav Yitzchak Hutner quotes the Baal HaTurim to establish that the last verse in parshat Chayeii Sarah is in direct juxtaposition to the first verse of the next parsha Toldot.
Thus Yishmael and Yitzchak are intimately connected, much like Eisav and Yaakov in the verses that follow. They have an “up and down dynamic” — Yitzchak is up when Yishmael is down, just as Yaakov is up when Eisav is down, and vice-versa. But for Yaakov and Eisav this relationship is spelled out explicitly (see verse 27:40), but not for Yitzchak and Yishmael. Why doesn’t it clearly spell it out in the Torah for them as it did with Yaakov and Eisav?
This reflects a clear difference in the essence of both Eisav and Yishmael and their descendants, despite their intermarrying.
Why? Because their essence differs. Yishmael’s sons are princes, Eisav’s are kings. Eisav inherited land, while Yishmael’s descendants remained nomads.
Rambam observed that Christianity, descending from Eisav, claims the written Torah but rejects the Oral Law. Still, they do not contest our claim to Eretz Yisrael. Yishmael’s descendants do not claim our Torah — but, having inherited no land, they contest ours.
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Rav Hutner suggests this is why Eisav’s struggle with Yaakov is detailed — it’s a fight over Torah. But Yishmael’s battle with Yitzchak is indirect — a struggle over land.
This explains nafal. With Avraham gone, Yishmael accepts his secondary status. According to Kli Yakar, Yishmael’s repentance included acceptance that Eretz Yisrael was not his inheritance. Tragically, many of his descendants rejected that view, as we saw on Oct. 7.
And yet — there is hope.
The Abraham Accords, by name and spirit, reflect shared ancestry. Perhaps the Gulf nations, like their forefather Yishmael, are beginning to recognize that the Land belongs to the children of Yitzchak. Peace with Israel may reflect repentance — religious reconciliation rooted in Torah.
Of course, we mustn’t be Pollyannaish. Iranian Shiites, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and some Palestinian nationalists still reject our very right to live. Yet their defiance may reflect the Torah’s prophecy: Yishmael “fell over his brothers” — not in defeat, but in recognition of Yitzchak’s destiny.
As Baal HaTurim teaches, when Yishmael falls, Moshiach ben David rises.
But where is Eisav in all this? Traditionally identified with Christianity, many of Eisav’s spiritual descendants — especially evangelical Christians — have acknowledged Israel’s divine claim. This belief, central to some Christian theologies, supports Jewish return to the Land as a prelude to redemption (even if we diverge on what comes next).
Still, we must recognize that some Christians, particularly in Europe or on the far right and left, who defy G-d’s will and are openly antagonistic to the Jewish people, the Jewish state and even the stunning Abraham Accords. For them there is no teshuva, they remain unrepentant.
But one thing is certain: If we remain true to our Torah principles and are strong and united, Hashem will bring miracles we cannot foresee, bimheira v’yameinu, amen.
Shabbat Shalom.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
