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Group Three: Brotherhood

This serigraph describes Jacob's struggle with the angel, while his family watches from the hilltop.
Jacob returns to Canaan after a long stay at the house of Laban, bringing with him a large family, servants, oxen, asses and flocks. His first act is to send a peace-making mission to his brother Esau. When the messengers return to Jacob telling him that his brother is coming to meet him with 400 men, Jacob is afraid: perhaps Esau has still not forgiven him for stealing the birthright and their father's blessing, and is coming to take his revenge? While he is waiting anxiously for his brother, a mysterious incident occurs at night.
"And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with until the breaking of the day." (Genesis 32:25)
In the morning the mysterious man is revealed to be an angel, who blesses Jacob:
"Thy name shall be called no more Jacob but Israel; for thou hast striven with God and with men, and hast prevailed" (Genesis 32:29)
The angel portrayed as a spiritual force, something undefined that appears from above. It has no body, and is all waving folds. The struggle is not depicted as the action of muscles and physical force, but rather as a kind of stylised dance. This fascinatingly enigmatic story is open to various interpretations, and the one I chose related to the struggle as kind of reflection of Jacob's inner struggle berween his fear and hatred and his feelings of brotherhood and longing for Esau. In the ned the nobler emotions prevail, and immediately after the angel's blessing he lovingly makes peace with his brother.
Shlomo Katz