Dawn Breaks and Name Change

Howards notes!

3 November 2012

27. And he (the angel) said, "Let me go, for dawn is breaking," but he (Jacob) said, "I will not let you go unless you have blessed me."

• More on 32:27 from Elie Munk – the being has only power at night; it’s a struggle between darkness and light.  As dawn breaks, angel begs to be leg go, but Jacob refuses until he has been blessed – how poignant.  
• Rashi writes, Acknowledge for me the blessings, [with] which my father blessed me, which Esau is contesting.  In other words, confirm that his father’s blessing was legitimate.  Is this “angel” Esau’s guardian angel?  Jacob wants to shed his self-image as a liar and cheat.
• Etz Hayim – need for parent to bless you as life is ending; cannot let go of the mother and father until there is a blessing.

28. So he said to him, "What is your name?" and he said, "Jacob."

• 32:28, Rabbi David Kimchi (Radak) - question is not an inquiry but an invitation to dialogue, like God asked of Adam, “where are you?”  In each case, angel and God knew the answer to this rhetorical question.  Jacob is reliving Adam’s primeval scene and attempting to grow from it.  The question is direct, not formal and not polite.

29. And he said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, because you have commanding power with [an angel of] God and with men, and you have prevailed."

• 32:29
• Nahum Sarna (JPS Torah Commentary,”) – name changes are always significant because they are tied up with personality and destiny.  
• To Jacob, his unsavory traits are finally purged.  Naming also implies a certain power over the one who does the naming.  Naming something makes it easier to categorize people or things.  Perhaps that’s why Jews never pronounce God’s name יהוה; it would imply a power over God.  
• Jacob is trying to escape his “nickname” of his youth, just like other people.  Jews change their Jewish-sounding names to more gentile sounding ones and change English sounding names to Hebrew names when emigrating to Israel.  Kings, Queens, and Popes take new names on their coronation.
• Sarna concludes in his “Excursus 25” in JPS Torah Commentary that the explanation of the word ישראל Yisrael, has escaped commentators thus far.
• Rashi – the name Jacob (meaning a heel, a sneaky dude) no longer suits you.  From now on you will prevail …

It shall no longer be said that the blessings came to you through trickery (עָקְבָה) and deceit, but with nobility and openness, and ultimately, the Holy One, blessed be He, will reveal Himself to you in Beth-el and change your name, and there He will bless you, and I will be there.“ He then acknowledged them (the blessings) as being his (Jacob’s). This is [the meaning of] what is written (Hosea 12:5): ”He strove with an angel and prevailed over him; he wept and supplicated him,“ [meaning that] the angel wept and supplicated him. With what did he supplicate him? ”In Beth-el he will find Him, and there He will speak with us“ (ibid). Wait for me until He speaks with us there. Jacob, however, did not consent, [to release the angel] and, against his (the angel’s) will, he (the angel) acknowledged them (the blessings) as being his (Jacob’s). This is [the meaning of] ”And he blessed him there," that he entreated him to wait, but he did not wish [to do so]. — [from Zohar, vol. 3, 45a]

• God will formally change the name later [in the next chapters, he is still called “Jacob.”] Robert Alter comments that the name “Jacob” continues to be use in subsequent chapters, unlike Abram-Abraham.  Perhaps Jacob never completely assumes his new identity.  
• From now on (in today’s prayers), “Yaakov” and “Israel” are used as synonyms.
• A messianic name?
• “Yisrael”- prevailed over them [Sarna, JPS Torah Commentary, unless noted]
• Radak – divine beings = angel; men = Lavan and Esau
• Meaning is not truly “wrestling with God”, but God prevails or God’s dominion (unlike Hosea 8:4)
• Link to “yeshurun” – from root for straight (ר–ש–י); people evolved from crookedness and developed a moral conscience.  Yeshurun is an antonym of Yaakov, connected to deceit and craftiness.
• Rabbi Neal Loevinger writes (in http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/Bible/Weekly_Torah_Portion/vayishlach_kolel5761.shtml; underlining added):

“Perhaps the question [in 32:28] is not merely a conversation-opener, but the main point of the conversation. In the case of Jacob, the messenger seems to want Jacob to think deeply about the meaning of his name, which we learned at his birth would represent the depth of his troubled relationship with his brother. (Cf. Genesis 25:25-27 and 27:35-37.)

“The messenger knows not just Jacob's name, but his history--he's asking if Jacob has wrestled sufficiently with his own identity. "What is your name," in this context, can be understood as "are you still Jacob, the deceiver, or are you ready to become Yisrael, the person of conscience?"

• Sarna on early archeological references to “Israel that refer to kings who believe they conquered and wiped out Israel.  Sarna writes, 

“The innovation of the name ‘Israel’ in the Bible is associated with struggle and triumph in the face of overwhelming odds.  Curiously and instructively, the earliest extra biblical document to mention Israel, the victory hymn of King Merneptah of Egypt (ca 1207 BCE) reports that ‘Israel is laid waste, his seed is not,’ while the second, the victory inscription of King Mesha of Moab (ca 830 BCE) declares ‘Israel has perished forever.’”

How wrong they were!

• Jacob is a man who is constantly seeking blessings from father figures.
• Munk - The Jews’ mission is to fight for a kingdom of God; however, the fighting is not with material things but with other people.  Munk writes,

Based on Onkelos [a converted Roman nobleman who translated the Bible into Aramaic in the first century CE], “Israel” means a fighter for God.  However, “no indication of the fight with men is to be found in the name ישראל, Israel.  And this is very significant for its [Israel’s] mission.  Jewry’s millennial struggle is within society and its goal is to establish the kingdom of God on earth.  But in this struggle Jewry fights only with spiritual weapons..  It fights for ideals and principles.  Jewry’s fight is never directed against human beings.”

• Munk also cites Jerusalem Talmud Midrash – king who attaches a string to a key lest he lose it.  God’s name is embedded in the word “Israel” – God is attaching himself to Israel so they won’t get lost amid other nations.

30. And Jacob asked and said, "Now tell me your name," and he said, "Why is it that you ask for my name?" And he blessed him there.

• 32:30, why asking my name
• Sarna – angels’ names are unknown in pre-Babylonian exile times, as in Judges 13:17-18, before Samson is born.
• Angels’ names are based on their mission – those names change.
• Sforno – Jacob thinks that angel is sent to teach something, which can happen only if Jacob knows his name.
• Nachmanides – name is no value; angel is not a genie to be summoned; angel works for God only.
• Blessing Yaakov
• Radak – Jacob did get the blessing for which he asked.
• Angel took leave of him [without blessing?].  Reference: Genesis 47:10 – Jacob blessed and departed from Pharaoh.  Anytime you leave someone, you bless him: “Goodbye” is a contraction of “God be with ye.”
• The blessing is getting the new name [and a new identity, image].

31. And Jacob named the place Peniel, for [he said,] "I saw an angel face to face, and my soul was saved.

• 32:31
• Jacob names the place – “face of God.”  Face to face can also mean combat.
• Sarna – name may have been based on grotesque rock formation named, “God’s face.”

32. And the sun rose for him when he passed Penuel, and he was limping on his thigh.

• 32:32 
• Name changes, yud to vav. Munk – my face vs turn to God
• Sun rose and limped
• Rashi – the sun rose especially for Jacob to heal his thigh: This is a common expression: When we arrived at such-and-such a place, the dawn broke for us. This is the simple explanation. The Midrashic Aggadah (Tanchuma Buber, Vayishlach 10; Genesis Rabbah 68:10) [explains]: And the sun rose for him-to heal his limp, as it is said: (Malachi 3:20): “the sun of mercy, with healing in its wings”; and those hours that it hastened to set for him when he left Beersheva, it hastened to rise for him.
• Sarna – a contrast with sunset when Jacob fled in Genesis 28.   Sarna writes, “Jacob’s ignominious flight from home was appropriately marked by the setting of the sun; fittingly, the radiance of the sunrise greets the patriarch as he crosses back into his native land.”
• Alter on limp – it’s scars of confrontations

33. Therefore, the children of Israel may not eat the displaced tendon, which is on the socket of the hip, until this day, for he touched the socket of Jacob's hip, in the hip sinew.

• 32:33 - Jump forward in time to a law about eating this part of an animal – sciatic nerve area.
• Talmud Chulin 89b, 96b discusses in great detail how this nerve can impart a taste to the entire mean dish.
• Many cuts of meat near this nerve are not sold in kosher butcher shops in USA.
• What’s the big deal?  According to the Zohar, this is a symbol of wrestling with our dark side.  Thigh signifies root of sexual desire.  Sin can be overcome except for lust; men are powerless in this area.  The strongest, most pious men often are helpless from sexual lust.  Avoid the temptation by not eating this part of the animal.