Renewal & Reflection
Adapted by Channie Koplowitz Stein
What's in a name? According to Jewish tradition, quite a lot. We are even told that when parents name their baby, they are infused with a hint of God's sacred spirit, and the name is an authentic embodiment of the child's essence. This idea takes on even greater significance when God Himself or His angel names the individual. Sometimes the individual retains his original name along with the new name, and sometimes the new name replaces the original name, providing a new identity. [Examples: Adding a name to someone ill vs someone who is undergoing conversion. CKS]
Our Torah provides us with instances of both. Our first patriarch was originally named Avram, but, after his circumcision, Hashem changed his name to Avraham to denote a change of his identity to "the father of many nations." The change is meant to be so definitive, notes Chazal and it is considered a sin to call Avraham by his original name. In contrast, after Yaakov Avinu fought with the angel considered to be the embodiment of the evil Esau, the angel gave Yaakov Avinu the name Yisroel, a name Hashem Himself later validated. Yet for this patriarch, both names are valid.
Part of this discrepancy can be attributed to the language used with the name change. For Avraham Avinu, Hashem says, "...Vehayah/And your name was Avraham," implying that the previous name never really existed. And Hashem supplies the reason, that you [were meant to be] the father of many nations. With Yaakov Avinu, the angel supplies a reason for the name change, "... For you have striven [sorisah] with God [el] and with man, and you have prevailed." But, when Hashem validates the name change, Hashem offers no reason for the change. In fact Hashem validates, "Your name is Yaakov Avinu, [but in the future] yikoreh/you will be called Yisroel, writes the Ibn Ezra. Both identities remain as part of this patriarch's identity and will remain part of the nation descended from him. Just as Yaakov Avinu was forced into struggle and confrontation throughout his life, so too Bnei Yisroel struggle throughout our history. Just as Yaakov Avinu rose to new spiritual heights through these struggles, so is our rising to new spiritual levels contingent on the struggle and on our rising above them. The Yaakov Avinu persona remains necessary to our essence. As Rabbi Mintzberg zt’l explains, Avraham became his real self, a new identity, after his circumcision, but Yaakov Avinu continues to struggle. Sometimes he is successful as Yisroel, but the struggles of Yaakov Avinu continue.
Although both Esau's angel and then Hashem give Yaakov Avinu the name Yisroel, each introduces the name change differently. The angel declares, "No longer will your name be said [to be] Yaakov Avinu," while Hashem first declares, "Your name is Yaakov Avinu," and then Hashem follows up with, "... but Yisroel shall be called your name." While Esau's angel wants an immediate name change, Hashem affirms the Yaakov Avinu name for the present but points to a future when the name Yisroel will prevail. Rabbi Bernstein explains that the angel wanted to undermine the power of Yaakov Avinu's merits. If Yaakov Avinu is only Yisroel, all those descendants who are not on the spiritual level of Yisroel would lose the protection of this patriarch. But the Omniscient one sabotages this plan; the name Yaakov Avinu will remain in effect, and at some far away time in the future, the name Yisroel will prevail.
While the angel attached a condition for Yaakov Avinu's name change, the name change does not remain in effect if the condition is not true. Hashem provided no condition for the name change, and therefore both names remain in effect as needed within any particular circumstance, both in the life of the Patriarch himself and in the history of the nation, writes Rabbi Weinberg zt’l in Shemen Hatov.
When Yaakov Avinu has been successful in containing the angel, the angel asks Yaakov Avinu to let him go, for dawn has come. Rashi explains that the time had come for the angel to sing praises to Hashem. Rabbi Lopiansky asks what the significance of song was and why the angel pleaded to be released to sing specifically now, after Yaakov Avinu had won this battle. Yaakov Avinu had succeeded but had emerged injured, and the war would continue. Nevertheless, that Yaakov Avinu could overcome the angel was a wondrous event and worthy of song.
Rabbi Lopiansky continues to explain that the essence of song is the expression of emotion when words themselves are inadequate. Words are the highest level of creation. Hashem created the world with words, and mankind rises above the rest of creation through its power of speech. Whenever anything new is created, one must sing, for above even speech is the spiritual dimension of song.
In Yechezkel's vision of the Dry Bones, the bones came together, stood on their feet, sang praises to Hashem, and promptly died again. Every creation is meant to sing its song to the Creator. Every new physical creation creates a parallel spiritual creation, an angel. Each angel, created for a specific purpose, fulfills its mission, sings, and ceases to exist. The dawn of each day is a new creation. Yet each is tasked with singing its song at the uniqueness of its mission. At the time of Moshiach, when the dead will be reincarnated and continue to live, that too will be a new creation, and they too will sing their song to Hashem. Yaakov Avinu vanquishing the angel was the dawn of a new day, warranting the angel's song.
We are all born with tremendous potential. This, suggests Rabbi Lopiansky, is expressed in Shema, to love Hashem with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all meodecha/your "very"ness. The yetzer horo, when in isolation, is evil. Yet, it can be harnessed for good. When it presents a struggle to rise above, it transforms into good, for it challenges us and forces us to dig deep to the hidden potential within ourselves. That was the tov meod that Hashem incorporated at the completion of creation.
Avram did not incorporate his earlier struggles, but was reborn anew with his new name. Avraham; Yitzchak was totally perfect; Yaakov Avinu incorporated the obstacles of the past into becoming a greater person in the present and future.
It is for this reason that the fight with the angel couldn't be final. Yaakov Avinu needs battles to grow. His mission is not to rest peacefully, but to constantly push forward, to constantly renew himself. The struggle itself is what makes Yaakov Avinu victorious. It is the source of the angel's singing. Yaakov Avinu remains part of this name. He will become totally Yisroel only in the future when the striving of his Yaakov Avinu aspect will be completely victorious.
It is through these challenges, when we are forced to give up something of ourselves, that we create our deepest bond with Hakodosh Boruch Hu, writes Rabbi Kluger. Each of us has his own personal battles, imperceptible to others, with which he struggles. And when we overcome, this is Hashem's greatest pleasure.
Actually, writes the Netivot Shalom, the yetzer horo presents itself through two different dimensions, through our heart and desires, represented by the name Yaakov Avinu, for we are meant to hold on and curb our desires, and through our intellect, through Torah, control the heresy and rationalizations within ourselves, represented by Lavan and the name Yisroel, writes the Netivot Shalom. We need to use the Yaakov Avinu aspect to uproot the Esau within us, and then focus on the Yisroel, on the emunah that comes with learning Torah.
This idea is furthered through our understanding of the redemption, beginning with Moshiach shel Yosef. This represents our victory over ta'avah/desire, as Yosef restrained himself from succumbing to the wiles of Potifar's wife. Moshiach ben Dovid is the actualization of our victory through emunah. While the snake of evil tries to entice us in our heel, tripping us up through desire, we will overcome it through the emunah embedded in our minds.
As Rabbi Eisenbergerer notes, the angel couldn't overcome Yaakov Avinu because he recognized the Yisroel aspect within him. Yaakov Avinu was able to stay pure in Lavan's house through his faith. We are still challenged in both the dimensions of physical desire and intellect, and we must call upon the strength inherent in both these names. We need to work on restraining our desires as well as strengthening our faith through Torah and through prayers like Shema.
Yaakov Avinu was able to overcome the power of Esau by using the aspect of the head, of Torah. The question Rabbi Eisenberger asks is how can we be struggling so when there is so much Torah study going on in our generation? Why does the yetzer horo still have such a pull over us? Rabbi Eisenberger explains that Hashem has gifted mankind with chochmah, with wisdom to discern differences and make wise choices. This human wisdom is the tzelem udmus Elokhim, the form and image of God that raises mankind above the animals. It is meant to be used to control his animal desires. After we train ourselves to use the logic of proper behavior, we can use the gift of the Torah's power to help us.
When man uses his natural intellect to discern good from evil, then Hashem gifts him with the further wisdom of Torah. That is what is meant by derech eretz/normative ethical behavior preceded Torah It is part of the essence of human wisdom, and must continue to be the basis upon which Torah knowledge and behavior is built.
But today we are undermining the work of the mind. We rely so much on technology to do our thinking for us that the power of our mind is weakened. Our struggle to overcome the yetzer horo becomes more difficult. We struggle like Yaakov Avinu, for our Yisroel aspect is diminished.
But we should not identify ourselves as strictly Yaakov Avinu personae, writes Rabbi Twerski Yaakov in Sefer Yiram Hayam. We are also Yisroel, an acronym for לי ראש, I have a head. We have the ability to reflect, to think things through, and to overcome. We must invest in ourselves, and recognize that our struggles are part of the process that helps us spiral continually upward. Yaakov Avinu and Yisroel are like the two intertwined strands of DNA that together are the essence of the nation descended from Yaakov Avinu/Yisroel.