Parashat: Vayishlach

Parashat: Vayishlach
Genesis 32:4–36:43

“Said [the angel]: Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with beings divine and human and prevailed.”

— Genesis 32:29

On the precipice of a reunion with his brother Esau, Jacob is filled with anxiety. He has divided his family up into smaller groups fearing Easu may attack, he has sent ahead gifts to try and soften Esau’s feelings, and has prayed to God for deliverance. Now he finds himself alone on the far side of the river and wrestles with a divine messenger until the break of dawn. When Jacob refuses to release the Divine being until he receives a blessing, he is offered this new name. Rabbi Avital Hochstein explains this perhaps unusual blessing in this way: [Jacob] is not blessed to become a victor and someone who never has to fight again. He is instead blessed to have the fight move inward, to be a person who wrestles with himself, with his God, face-to-face. A move from a battle in which there are winners and losers, blessed and unblessed, to above all being someone who is able. A person who survives and thrives despite his life’s tensions.

— Rachel Petroff Kesler