Read this week's commentary essay on #Vayishlach: 🇬🇧 bit.ly/2Eb76vW / 🇮🇱 bit.ly/35o02YQ / 🇪🇸 bit.ly/2YHn6Q6 / 🇫🇷 bit.ly/2YBnbEV. Family Edition: bit.ly/2Pd5BUk. Listen: spoti.fi/33Npq9s. #ShabbatShalom.
THREAD -> Having said twice that his name will no longer be Jacob, the #Torah continues to call him Jacob. So do we, every time we pray to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. How so, when the Torah twice tells us that his name will no longer be Jacob?
Read the angel’s statement to Jacob not as, “You will no longer be called Jacob but Israel.” Instead read it as, “Let your name no longer be Jacob but #Israel,” meaning, “Act in such a way that this is what people call you.”
Be a prince. Be royalty. Be upright. Be yourself. Don’t long to be someone else. This would turn out to be a challenge not just then but many times in the Jewish future. When you are afraid, and unsure of who you are, you are Jacob.
When you are strong in yourself, as yourself, you are Israel. The fact that the Torah and tradition still use the word Jacob, not just Israel, tells us that the problem has not disappeared. Jacob seems to have wrestled with this throughout his life, and we still do today.
It takes courage to be different, a minority, countercultural. I believe the challenge issued by the angel still echoes today. Are we Jacob, embarrassed by who we are? Or are we Israel, with the courage to stand upright and walk tall in the path of faith?
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