Whose Angel Are You, Anyway?

He said, "Release me!" (Gen. 32:27)

The spiritual forces the likes of Esau possess whatever power they do only during the night, the period during which spiritually negative forces hold sway. With this in mind, G‑d told Jacob to assert himself over Esau during the day in order to not confer any additional glory upon him.

During daylight hours, Esau had no power anyway. Seeing that Jacob still entertained doubts that he had been wrestling a spiritual force, the angel told him that he must join the heavenly choir before daybreak. Jacob insisted that if the "man" was the spiritual representative of Esau his antagonist, he must, first of all, admit that he, Jacob, was entitled to the blessing he had received from his father Isaac. This is why he said "you have blessed me" and not "you will bless me".

Seeing that, theoretically, the source of the blessing could be [the angel] Sam-kel, a spiritually negative force, he did not want to be the recipient of a blessing from that source at all. He was only interested in confirming blessings already received from divinely inspired sources.

Once Jacob heard from "the man" [really Esau's angel] that he who overcomes him has already overcome the human being whom he represents, he was almost certain that he had been confronting Sam-kel. To make certain of this, he asked for the name of this being. All he wanted to hear was whether he had been confronting Sam-kel or Michael [the angelic messenger of purely holy forces]. Sam-kel was afraid that upon hearing the truth Jacob might inflict damage upon him, and therefore on his protege Esau. He replied that his name was of no consequence to Jacob, since the latter had already accomplished all that he had desired from this encounter, namely the admission that he was the rightful recipient of Isaac's blessing.

[Translated and adapted by Eliyahu Munk.]