The Blessing We Grow Into

Jacob Wrestling

This week we meet Jacob at a moment of raw fear. After twenty years of running from the harm he caused his brother, Jacob finally stops and turns back toward Esau. That turning is the beginning of teshuvah—not guilt, not self-punishment, but the first courageous step toward repairing a relationship he has avoided for far too long. Fear doesn’t push him away this time; it becomes the force that opens him to reconciliation.

It’s in the middle of that vulnerable night that Jacob begins to wrestle—whether with an angel, a man, or the very part of himself he has been unwilling to face. The struggle becomes the inner version of what he will have to do in the morning: meet the truth, stay present, and no longer hide behind disguises. Only then, after stepping fully into teshuvah, does he finally receive the blessing that had eluded him his entire life. It is the blessing of becoming someone who can actually receive blessing.

My theology class this week offered the perfect lens. Neil Gillman writes that teshuvah isn’t about feeling bad—it’s a shift in perception, a way of seeing everything differently. Jacob’s story embodies that shift, and his reconciliation with Esau becomes the very place where he encounters God. As we approach Shabbat, Jacob invites us to consider the same question: What blessing might be waiting for us on the other side of the hard conversations, the fears, and the unfinished relationships we’re finally ready to face?

,שבת שלום

Ben