Diaspora as a Strategy for Jewish Survival
Jacob’s standoff with Esau, including dividing his camp in two so that if one should be attacked, “the camp which is left shall escape” (Genesis 32:9), is seen as a precursor and strategy for Jewish survival throughout the generations. This story and verse played a significant role in the attitude of Orthodox Jewry toward America.
Published: November 26, 2023
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Last Updated: September 7, 2026
The Hebrew-English Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, ed. Isidore Epstein and Judah J. Slotki, rev. ed., 30 vols. (London: Soncino Press, 1990). I have occasionally modified the English translation.
The Jewish Study Bible, ed. Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014). .
On the history of interpretation of Jacob and Esau, see my, Jacob & Esau: Nation and Empire in Jewish European History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019). This essay extends the book’s coverage to North America. Editor’s note: See also Barry Walfish, “The Denigration of Esau,” TheTorah (2020).
Editor’s note: See Malka Simkovich, “Esau the Ancestor of Rome,” TheTorah (2018).
See also Rashi, on the commandment to destroy Amalek (Exod 17:16). Rashi states that God’s name is not complete until the name of “Esau” is destroyed. (See MS Leipzig 1, considered by many the oldest and most reliable manuscript. Many Rashi MSS have Amaleq rather than Esau, possibly the result of self-censorship.)
נשבע הק' שאין שמו שלם ואין כסאו שלם עד שימחה שמו של עשו.
The Holy One, Blessed Be He, swore that His Name shall not be perfect, and His Throne shall not be perfect until Esau’s name is erased (Ex 17:16).
The idea appears first in Midrash Bereshit Rabba 40:6 (Midrash Rabbah: Genesis, ed. Chanoch Albeck and J. Theodor, 3 vols. (Jerusalem: Wahrmann Books, 1965): “Everything you find written [in Genesis] about Abraham, you will find written [later] about his descendants.” It is repeated frequently in medieval exegesis. The popular phrase in the text appears first in Samuel Eliezer Edels (Maharsha, 1555–1631), Sefer Ḥidushe Agadot (Frankfurt, 1682), p. 86a (Avodah Zarah 8b), and p. 46b (Ḥagigah 5b), http://HebrewBooks.org/40856. For a list of sources: Yair Ḥarlap, “‘The Patriarchs’ Deeds Are a Sign for Their Descendants’ as Typological Exegesis in the Rishonim (medieval exegetes)” (in Hebrew), Megadim 41 (2005): 65–92.
Editor’s note: See David M. Freidenreich, “What Does Sarah’s Expulsion of Hagar Signify for Abraham’s Descendants?” TheTorah (2018).
Naḥmanides, Commentary on the Torah, trans. Charles B. Chavel. 5 vols. (New York: Shilo Press, 1971–76). On Naḥmanides’ pivotal role in Jewish typology see Amos Funkenstein, Perceptions of Jewish History (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993), 98–120. Typology is the quintessential Christian exegetical tool, but there is a continuous and rich rabbinic tradition of typology. See Marc Saperstein, “Jewish Typological Exegesis After Nachmanides,” 158–70. Marc Brettler, The Creation of History in Ancient Israel (London: Routledge, 1998), 48–61, shows the working of typology in the Bible’s making, and underlines its Jewish character.
Dov ben David Ẓevi Eliakh, Jewels from High Tables (פנינים משלחן גבוה), 5 vols. (Jerusalem: Mekhon Moreshet Ha-Yeshivot, 1992, 1: 164. ״מבחר חידושים וביאורים הארות ופנינים על פרשיות התורה והמועדים: מדברי רבותינו הגאונים גדולי הדורות האחרונים: מכתבי־יד וספרים גם מפי השמועה.״
Email (21 February 2007) from Rabbi Avi Schochet, Headmaster at South Peninsula Hebrew Day School Sunnyvale, California, relating a late 1980s conversation with Elazar Simcha Wasserman, Elchonon’s son.
Wasserman believed that providence had chosen him and his colleagues to die as righteous martyrs, so they could remit the sins of the Jewish people, and, above all, the transgressions of the American Jewish Diaspora. The greater their righteousness, the more efficacious their sacrifice would be. Reported by his son Simha, based on a witness, R. Efrayim Oshri, in: Elchonon Wasserman, Kovetz shiurim, 3 vols., compiled with introduction by Simha Wasserman (Tel Aviv: E. S. Vaserman, 1964): vol. 1: np (p. 3 of introduction). Significantly, in his commentary on Genesis 32:9, ibid., pp. 40, 208, 306, Wasserman deploys Naḥmanides to recount the rise and fall of Torah centers but without any reference to America.
Dov ben David Ẓevi Eliakh, Jewels from High Tables (פנינים משלחן גבוה), 1: 164-65.
Ibid. This 1992 compilation of homiletics by “our majestic rabbis, leaders of the recent generations,” collected from “manuscripts, books and hearsay” is instructive about the metamorphoses of the American refuge in the Ultra-Orthodox imaginaire.
The story has been circulating in Ultra-Orthodox websites and online chat networks, e.g., https://www.bhol.co.il/news/757894, accessed 15 November 2023. It was apparently included first in one of Dov Eliakh’s compilations, possibly in Sefer Ha-Gaon: Life and Teaching of our Teacher and Rabbi, the Gaon Rabbi Elijah of Vilna (Hebrew), p. 1132 (I was not able to track). Apparently, Eliakh himself no longer considers the story likely.
Hayyim ben Isaac Volozhiner, Ruach Chaim: Rav Chaim Volozhiner's classic commentary on Pirkei avos, trans. Chanoch Levi (Southfield, MI: Targum Press, Feldheim Publishers, 2002), p. 22. Raphael Moshe Gettinger, Riff’s grandchild, is the short biography’s author.
