The Meaning of “Israel”

What does it mean to be “Israel”?

On Shabbat, we read the origin of the name. Jacob struggles with a “man” and when “he did not prevail” (meaning Jacob’s opponent), the man/ angel injures Jacob’s thigh and passes on the message that he (Jacob) has received the name “Israel” because he has “struggled with God and prevailed.”

It would seem that the Torah has given us a clear and unambiguous meaning of the name “Israel”. Israel is one who struggles with God.

The text continues, “Therefore the children of Israel eat not the sinew of the thigh-vein which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day; because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh, even in the sinew of the thigh-vein.” (32:33)

There are many questions, of course, including who this man/ angel was who touched and injured Jacob’s thigh.

One interpretation is that this was an internal struggle – a person wrestling with his identity, his values, his past and his future. There is virtue in the struggle and the outcome is a painful but clear resolution to be someone different. Another line of interpretation is that this angel represents his twin brother, Esau, from whom he ran away more than twenty years ago and is about to encounter in the morning. Jacob prevails – but not without an injury, possibly representing that Jacob must live with the knowledge that he caused the enmity.

But the main question for me is why we have a permanent restriction on our eating to memorialise this wrestling match. What exactly are we supposed to remember that is more important than many other incidents involving our forefathers? Has it anything to do with the new name our forefather was given?

My teacher, Nehama Leibowitz, (z”l), provided us with a range of responses.

One approach, exemplified by the 12th Century exegete, Bekhor Shor, is that this is a case of human victory over predetermination. It is “a commemoration of glory and greatness” when human beings are able to determine their own destiny – and we need to have that in mind constantly. For him, the angel represented God, who gave human beings free will and then had to live with the consequences.

The Sefer HaChinuch (13th Century) saw the angel as representing the aggrieved brother, Esau, also known as Edom, who, in Jewish tradition becomes associated with the Christian world. For him, the injury represents the ongoing struggles and pain that this struggle between brothers will bring – pain which is ultimately healed with the coming of sunrise.

There are other explanations which see the injury as a punishment for children not protecting their parents, or read the entire incident as a metaphor and the rejection of the sciatic nerve as a reminder to steer clear of false knowledge.

However, the explanation which struck me this year was that of 19th Century Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch. The lesson he draws from the incident seems more pertinent today than even in his time.

Shimshon Raphael Hirsch lived in liberal Germany and did not experience the Shoah or the establishment of the State of Israel. Like some before him, he sees the struggle as representing the ongoing tension between Israel and the other nations, the angel as the representative of Esau. He insightfully links the name Israel with the injury to the thigh.

Rabbi Hirsch saw the Jewish condition as one of a people who achieved great things despite being in exile and without military or political strength. His view was that the wrestling continues, as does the “injury”: “During the whole wrestling, the archangel of Esau is not able to defeat and push Jacob down. However he was successful in displacing his tendons and preventing him from using his physical powers: So does Jacob march throughout history – as someone who limps without the ability to stand on his two feet; neither standing nor walking firmly.”

Israel was destined to limp. Had he been able to stand upright, he would have imagined that it was his physical strength that enabled him to prevail and not his moral power. Jacob becomes Israel when he uses his true strength – his ability to choose to do the right thing. During the struggle, he reflected on the type of person he had been and resolved to be better. The angel helps him by removing some of his physical strength, which was an impediment to proper achievement.

The achievement of Statehood for the Jewish people was not only an historical necessity; I believe it was the fulfilment of our people’s destiny as foretold by the Prophets. What Israel has achieved in the 76 years of her existence is remarkable. However, since October 7th, 2023, many of us have been asking where we went wrong.

Rabbi Hirsch’s interpretation of the meaning of “Israel” suggests that we have made a great mistake in equating physical or military strength with our achievements or, indeed, our survival.

He wrote, “When Jacob falls, the cause of his fall is not the insignificance of his physical power. He falls because he lacks the understanding to preserve for himself the guarding of his God. [But] when Israel is standing, the secret of his stand is not through the support of his great physical strength. Rather it is through power of his God, who ‘carries him upon the wings of eagles.’”

I would paraphrase him for our reality and say: If Israel falls, it will not be because our army is not strong enough. It will be because we have lost our moral compass. The secret of Israel’s achievements is not military power or even technological innovation but a recognition of a higher mission and holding ourselves to a higher standard.

Israel is strongest and worthy of the name when we are vulnerable and imperfect and ready to acknowledge our mistakes. Israel, the Children of Jacob, can prevail if and when we come to this realisation.