Duality
Aloneness
Multiplicity
Duality
And the final split
I see your face,
now pass my face
(For the full chapter, click here
the climactic, chiastic closing of Jacob's journey, the end of his second escape [barakh]
after the night's aloneness, Jacob once again splits to duality: the two wives, the two handmaids, and of course, the duality with which he was born: his twin.
This chapter is dominated by the imagery of faces: it is introduced by Penuel [lit. God's face] "for I have seen God face to face, and my life is saved"; Jacob goes "before the faces" [lifnei] his family; he sees Esau's "face as one sees God" and is not only saved, but "finds favor, desire" [ve-tirzeni--first time this root appears in the Bible]. After this brief contact, the brother's once again split, as Jacob tells Esau to "go before my face" [le-fanai])
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