Rabbi Uri Zohar once stated during a lecture, "You are looking at the happiest man in the world! I was forty years old and I had every thing imaginable. I was a movie star and producer and I had a tremendous amount of publicity. I rubbed shoulders with all the big guns in showbiz. Yet my life had no meaning. When I discovered the beauty of Torah and mitzvos, I gave up everything I had and I found new happiness and meaning worth more than all I had ever possessed. "If a person offered me a billion dollars to refrain from donning my tefillin for one day, it would not even be a test for me. There is no way I would succumb. I was there and I had it all, and I know that all the physical glamour of the world is empty and void."
    After years of living with Lavan, the greatest charlatan in the world, Yaakov packed up his belongings, gathered his family and braced himself for a confrontation with Eisav. On the way he was greeted by the angel of Eisav, i.e. the Satan/ Yetzer Hara, and was compelled to wrestle him. The pesukim (32:25-30) relate the enigmatic events that transpired: "Yaakov was left alone and a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. When he perceived that he could not overcome him, he struck the ball of his thighbone; and the ball of Yaakov’s thighbone became dislocated as he wrestled with him. Then he said, "Let me go, for the dawn has broken." And he said, "I will not let you go unless you have blessed me." He said to him, "What is your name?" He said, "Yaakov". He said, "No longer will it be said that your name is Yaakov, but Yisroel, for you have striven with the divine and with men and you have overcome." Then Yaakov inquired, and he said, "Tell, if you please, what is your name." And he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And he blessed him there."
     The confrontation of Yaakov and the angel of Eisav is symbolic of our eternal struggle with our evil inclination. Through understanding how Yaakov prevailed over the angel, we too can learn the secret of overcoming our own inclination.
    The Kli Yakar explains that the confrontation of Yaakov with the angel of Eisav transpired at night, when Yaakov was alone and vulnerable. This too is one of the greatest tactics of the Yetzer Hara. When one is gloomy and depressed, the Yetzer Hara pounces on him. He continues to diminish the person’s ego and when one feels so insignificant, the Yetzer Hara easily convinces him to perform the worst acts. In the sunlight when one feels an inner joy, the Yetzer Hara is powerless and waits patiently for his time to come.
    Why did the angel refuse to tell Yaakov his name? When asked, Yaakov immediately told the angel his own name, so why did the angel refuse to reciprocate? Also, Yaakov almost seems to beg the angel to tell him his name; why was it so important to Yaakov anyway?
    Rabbi Leib Chasman zt’l explains that the name of a person is much more than a mere title that people use to refer to that person. A name symbolizes and represents the inner essence and strengths of a person. The mystical Kabalistic seforim relate that every couple is blessed with a certain level of divine insight when they choose a name for their child. [A man once came to the Satmar Rebbe zt’l and asked him what he should name his newborn son. The Rebbe refused to answer stating that the father would be blessed with a certain level of prophecy when deciding the name that the Rebbe himself would not be privy to.]
    When Yaakov asked the name of the angel, he was not asking so that he could put in his diary that he overpowered "so-and-so the angel," rather Yaakov wanted to know the secret of the Satan to understand how he could overcome him.
    In overcoming the angel Yaakov had reached new heights of greatness and therefore the angel had to change Yaakov’s name to give him a more befitting title that represented the fact that Yaakov "strove with men and the divine and had overcome". After his own name was changed, Yaakov turned to the angel and asked him what his underlying strength was. In truth, the angel answered Yaakov’s question. He replied to Yaakov, "My name is: "Why do you ask my name?" That in fact is my title and essence. Do you know how I convince people to sin and fall prey to evil? I tell people not to ask for names and titles. I cause dark to appear as light and I cause evil to appear as good. I tell people they need things that will destroy them and I create mirages that confuse them. But my main strength lies in convincing people not to understand things clearly. Don’t ask questions! Just do it!"
    The Gemarah (Chullin 89b) records an argument between two Amoraim whether the sinew of the ball of the thighbone, which we do not eat in order to commemorate the wrestling match of Yaakov and the angel, has any taste. The Gemarah concludes that it is indeed tasteless. However if that is true why does the Torah forbid us from eating it; why would anyone care to eat it anyway?
    Rabbi Avigdor Nebezhal shlita, the Rabbi of the Old City of Yerushalyim, explains that the aforementioned question brings out the exact lesson the Torah is teaching us with this prohibition. We think our evil inclination wants us to enjoy life and ‘live it up’. We picture our evil inclination as being a fat guy relaxing on a couch with a beer and a steak watching a movie (give or take a little, everyone has their own image). However in truth, our evil inclination is our greatest enemy in the world.
    The Chovas Halivavos (Chapter Yichud Hama’aseh) explains that in reality, our evil inclination wants us to suffer in this world and in the next world. However he understands that if he would try to take everything away abruptly, we would not hearken to his calling. Thus he makes this world, with all of its pleasures, seem glamorous so that we fall prey to sin and exchange our eternal world for this flimsy and finite world. But when granted the opportunity, our evil inclination will seek to make us miserable with everything.
    Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetzky zt’l once said imagine if one searches high and low for a suit and goes through twenty stores until he finds something decent. Then he has it altered and checked for Shatnez and finally after all that trouble, he walks out of the store with the suit. At that moment when he should be so excited, he begins to have doubts about his non-refundable suit. Make no mistake; that is his Evil Inclination trying to strip him of the happiness he should be feeling at that moment.
    Our evil inclination takes things that are tasteless and void of meaning and spices them up. We carelessly follow his lead and strive for the false aspirations of our physical world. Then when we finally reach the pinnacle, the Yetzer Hara pulls the carpet out from underneath and we are forced to recognize that we have toiled and killed ourselves for emptiness devoid of purpose and meaning. Thus the Torah symbolizes that wrestling match with a prohibition of eating something which is tasteless and pointless.
    The essence of the Evil Inclination is "Why do you ask my name?" His name is the ability to falsify names and cause what is truly important and meaningful to seem boring, difficult, and not enjoyable. Yaakov overcame the angel because he detained him until the crack of dawn. Symbolically we too must investigate the issues that face us and wait until it becomes clear to us what we are up against. Then we will be able to vanquish the angel once and for all in the bright sunlight.
    All too often in life people become caught up in the infinitesimal pleasures and disturbances of life and become sidetracked from their ultimate goals and aspirations. Yaakov proved that the way to overcome this horrid enemy is to analyze and focus upon all we seek to accomplish and ensure that we really are traveling down the path of life that we desire. We must spit out the tasteless sinew of the thighbone that appears to be so appetizing and appealing. Then we too will merit to vanquish our evil inclination and join the ranks of our great sages in the eternal and truly enjoyable world.
[Stam Torah on Parshas Vayishlach was adapted from a shmooze given by Rabbi Chaim Zev Levitan shlita, Kislev 5751]