The Symbolism of the Gid HaNashe - Sciatic Nerve

            The Torah in Parashat Vayishlach introduces the prohibition of gid ha-nasheh, which forbids partaking of an animal’s sciatic nerve.  As the Torah explains (32:33), this prohibition serves to commemorate the famous incident of Yaakov’s encounter with an angel as he made his way back to Canaan.  A mysterious attacker – who is later discovered to be an angel – wrestled with Yaakov through the night, and although Yaakov eventually triumphed, the angel managed to dislodge Yaakov’s thighbone.  We commemorate Yaakov’s injury by discarding the gid ha-nasheh, which is located in the area of the thighbone.

            Different theories have been offered to explain why this incident is worthy of commemoration.  The Rashbam presents what is probably the most intuitive explanation, namely, that this prohibition commemorates “Yaakov’s strength and the miracle that the Almighty performed for him, in that he did not die.”  Still, we might wonder why specifically this event is memorialized in the form of a Torah prohibition, and not the other events Yaakov experienced during his tumultuous sojourn away from his father’s home.

            Seforno suggests the following insightful explanation: “So that the injury resulting from the blow to the thigh socket will be an injury in something that is of no significance to us.”  According to Seforno, we refrain from, and thus discard, the gid ha-nasheh to demonstrate that we afford no significance to Yaakov’s injured leg.  By disposing of this part of the animal, we announce that we have no interest in this part of the body which the angel succeeded in injuring, that we can do without it.  The gid ha-nasheh prohibition is intended not to draw our attention to Yaakov’s injured thigh, but to the contrary, to draw our attention away from his injured thigh.  This halakha urges us not to be preoccupied with our patriarch’s injury, but rather with everything else.  We focus our minds not on Yaakov’s injury, but rather on his triumph.  When assessing this incident, we should think primarily of Yaakov’s victory over his assailant, and view his injury as simply a footnote, rather than directing the spotlight onto his dislodged thigh.

            Many situations in life require us to struggle and overcome difficult hurdles.  Often, these experiences leave us “injured” or scarred.  The message of the gid ha-nasheh is that we must try to focus our attention on our successes rather than our failures, to gain encouragement from our achievements rather than fall into despair due to the occasional setbacks that we all inevitably endure.