What, no sirloin?

 Sciatica is a painful condition.  Anyone who has experienced it will not forget the pain and the difficulty walking, and perhaps that memory will last a lifetime.  Well, there is one episode of sciatica that is remembered for many thousands of years.  Yaakov, the Torah tells us, on the night before his potentially dangerous meeting with Esav, fought with a “man.”  This man, our Sages taught, was Esav’s archangel.  Every nation has its “ministering angel” that provides protection and spiritual energy for the nation.  Esav’s angel was trying to beat Yaakov in advance of his meeting with Esav.

Yaakov wrestled with the angel and won, except that the angel was able to dislocate Yaakov’s hip and he suffered from sciatica.  This sciatica was cured soon after by the warming rays of the sun, which miraculously rose early on that day.  We remember this event not just by reading and studying about it.  There is a prohibition, one of the 613 Mitzvot in the Torah, that we are not permitted to eat the sciatic nerve of an animal.  This is one of the reasons it is almost impossible to find any kosher cuts of meat from the hindquarters of the animal.  The removal of the sciatic nerve is extremely complicated, time consuming and costly, and requires a skill that is almost non-existent today.

If you think about the story and the observance, it does seem a little strange that this detail of the story was picked to memorialize it.  Yes, there are some powerful messages here and our Sages discuss various lessons from this story.  The angel is, in addition to the real story that actually happened, a metaphor for our internal Yetzer Hara (evil inclination), as well as for the enemies throughout our history who have tried to destroy us and failed.  They may have injured us, but we are still here.  So the struggle that Yaakov had and his victory was the precursor to our resilience and a sign that Hashem would not allow us to be wiped out.  

But is the sciatic nerve really the singular point that we should be remembering?  Would it not have been better to focus on something more general and central to the story?  Somehow creating a rule not to eat the sciatic nerve as opposed to something that symbolizes the main struggle and victory seems to be missing the point.  In order to remember that Hashem protected our forefather we don’t eat the juiciest cuts of meat?

Well, Chassidus teaches that this is actually a fundamental part of the lesson!  The point of the message is being Hashem taught in a seemingly minor detail, to show that Hashem’s protection of His people is expressed in every detail.  Hashem’s providence is manifest not only in a general sense, but rather Hashem cares about and orchestrates every detail in our lives and in the events that happen in the world.

Yes, we may suffer pain, as Yaakov did when the angel dislocated his thigh, but he survived and thrived.  There are many events that have happened to us that are very painful, but here we are to talk about it.  We don’t understand why, but the Torah is reassuring us that no matter what, Hashem is with us every step of the way, in every little detail, assuring the survival and continuity of our people.