Vayishlach: The Gid HaNasheh
There is a commandment in this week’s Parsha not to eat the ‘Gid HaNasheh’ of an animal. In this D’var Torah, G-d willing, let us explain a little bit about what exactly the Gid HaNasheh is, its source, a few of its halachic ramifications and perhaps get a small taste of the reason behind it.
First and foremost, what exactly is the Gid HaNasheh? Literally: ‘Gid’ means ‘sinew,’ and ‘Nasheh’ is an expression of ‘jumping’ – as explained to us by Rashi – if not for whom, the Torah and even all of the Oral Law would have remained a closed book for those of many of the previous generations, and certainly for those of many to come. So in short, one could translate Gid HaNasheh as ‘the dislocated sinew’.
The background to the source of this somewhat unusual prohibition is to be found in Parshas Vayishlach, chapter 32. Yaakov is preparing himself to encounter Esav his brother on the way back to his parents’ in Canaan. That night, he finds himself making several trips transporting his family and belongings over the river of Sabek. As he makes his last trip, he is confronted by, and wrestles with, the malach of Esav, throughout the night. When dawn breaks, Esav’s malach (angel) realizes that it will not be able to overcome Yaakov, so he touches Yaakov on the socket of his hip, dislocating it. Saved by the break of dawn, the malach requests of Yaakov that he be permitted to sing ‘Shira’ – a song of praise – to G-d.[1] Yaakov agreed on the condition that he receive a blessing from the malach. The malach blessed him, and renamed Yaakov – ‘Yisrael.’ After the incident, Yaakov named that place Pni-el (‘the face of G-d) as he said: ‘For I saw G-d face to face.’ As the sun shone, Yaakov was healed from his wound.
The verse goes on that as a result of that, we do not eat the Gid HaNasheh – the dislocated sinew; the place Yaakov was wounded. On an animal, the Gid HaNasheh is found in the hindquarters, and various customs as to how to avoid transgressing the prohibition include either not eating the entire hindquarter at all, or actually removing the entire sinew, which is a very tricky task indeed, and must be done carefully.
Although this can be understood on a superficial and physical level, there are many explanations as to what exactly the confrontation between Esav’s malach and Yaakov was about, and what precisely took place. The Sefer HaChinuch explains that Esav’s malach wanted to get rid of Yaakov and all his descendents, but was unable to do so, although he did injure him. This can be understood as an eternal message through the ages: Esav’s descendents cause us a lot of distress during the period of the Exile, but we must always remember that they will never destroy us entirely, and just al the sun shone on Yaakov and healed him, so too the sun of Moshiach will shine and heal us from our distress and redeem us speedily in our days.
[1] A malach can only be carrying out one task at a given time. Once it has completed its assigned task, it sings a song of praise to G-d. Here, Esav’s malach had been assigned to confront Yaakov, so having finished doing so, it now wanted to be freed to return to G-d.
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