ואל שדי יתן לכם רחמים. מה ראה יעקב לברכם באל שדי ללמדך שכמה ייסורין באו על יעקב עד שהוא במעי אמו עשו עשה מריבה עמו שנאמר ויתרוצצו הבנים בקרבה ואמרו שהיו מריבין על נחלת שני עולמות. יצא לחוץ עשו בקש להרגו שנאמר על רדפו בחרב אחיו ברח מפניו לבית לבן ראה כמה צרות היו לו שם הייתי ביום אכלני חורב וכו' יצא מבית לבן רדף אחריו לבן נמלט ממנו בא עשו להורגו והפסיד כל אותו דורון שהביא לו נמלט ממנו באת עליו צרת דינה אחר כן צרת רחל אחר כל הצרות הללו בקש לישב בשלוה שנא' וישב יעקב מיד בא עליו צרת יוסף אחר כן צרת שמעון אחר כן צרת בנימין וכן הוא אומר לא שלותי ולא שקטתי ולא נחתי ויבא רוגז לפיכך אמר עכשיו מי שאמר לעולם די כשבראו יאמר לצרותי די: ואל שדי יתן לכם רחמים לפני האיש, “and may G–d Almighty give you mercy before the man what prompted Yaakov to single out the attribute of G–d known as shadday when blessing his sons before they commenced this journey? It teaches you that Yaakov had already endured many trials in his life. These had commenced already when he was still in his mother’s womb and Esau fought with him to become the firstborn. (Compare Genesis 25,22, when his mother was distraught and asked G–d what was going on inside her womb.) The sages concluded that the two as yet unborn children had already struggled for possession of two worlds. Esau tried to kill Yaakov already as soon as he was born as is evident from Amos 1,11, על רדפו בחרב אחיו, “when he pursued his brother with the sword (simile for trying to kill him). He had to flee to Lavan to save his life, and had endured many problems while with his “uncle” for 20 years. As soon as he left there Lavan pursued him. He lists them during the encounter with Lavan. (Genesis 31,40) Esau then came towards him in order to attack him, As a result he lost a great deal of the wealth he had acquired by buying him off with a gift. Next his best loved wife died on the way and he could not even bury her in the ancestral gravesite. Next his daughter Dinah was raped, and then his beloved son Joseph was lost. When he felt that finally he could settle down to a normal life in one place, (Genesis 37,1) the problems with Joseph began. During the brothers’ first trip to Egypt Shimon, his second oldest son was incarcerated and he now had to Shimon being incarcerated and his sons forced him to allow Binyamin to travel to Egypt in order to secure the release of Shimon. He could have said, as did Job in Job 3,26: “I had no repose, no quiet no rest; trouble came.” (Based on Tanchuma on our portion, section 10.) In light of all this, Yaakov now called on that attribute of G–d to signal that he felt he had undergone sufficient tribulations, i.e. די, to warrant a favourite response to his blessing/prayer.