A Limp to Remember
The Torah tells us of the battle between Yaakov and the ISH, the Man, that Tradition tells us was the guardian angel of Eisav. Although Yaakov seems to have won by a TKO, he walks away from the incident with a limp. That limp was caused by an injury to his hip or thigh, or to his sciatic nerve - which most definitely can cause one to limp.

This limp is immortalized by the Torah's prohibition - the only one counted from the book of B'reishit - forbidding us to eat the GID HANASHEH. In fact, the wording of the Written Torah makes it seem as if this was a voluntary undertaking by the sons of Yaakov - in order to remember Yaakov's injury at the hands of Eisav's angel. The Oral Law explains that this is one of the 365 prohibitions of the Torah, no less so that had it said: Thou shalt not eat...

Remembering the limp means remembering that Yaakov was injured. But it also means to remember that Yaakov was not killed, that he survived the encounter, that he subsequently recovered from his injury. Commemorating the limp helps us not to forget the injury, nor the victory, nor the encounter in the first place.

Tradition tells us that Eisav, when he realized that he could not vanquish Yaakov, instructed his grandson to keep on trying. As the Torah tells us in this week's sedra, his son Elifaz had a concubine named Timna. Rashi tells us the Midrash that Timna was from a royal family, but wanted so much to be part of Avraham's family that she consented to Pilegesh status to accomplish that goal. Their son, Eisav's grandson was Amalek. He has continued the fight against Yaakov's descendants; he fails to defeat us, but we occasionally walk away limping.

The clash of Yaakov and Eisav, the battles against Eisav, are perennial. Our ultimate complete victory is to come only with the Complete Geula.