Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn….Said he: "Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with beings divine and human and have prevailed." (Genesis 32:25, 29) Read more...

During my reading of this week's parasha, parashat Vayishlach, and in particular chapter 32, I was struck anew by the image of Jacob - a terrified, emotionally broken man, writhing in his fear, anticipating not a reunion with his brother Esau, but a confrontation. Jacob's anxiety is palpable; his movements, frenetic. I feel for Jacob. But honestly, my sympathy falls to Esau. Read more...

Prof. Nechama Leibovitz's voice roared across the room and I shrank into my seat. It was a study seminar that Gesher (an Israeli organization that focused on bridging and binding together Jews of all lifestyles in Israel) was holding in Tzfat in the late Seventies. I was one of a dozen and a half Israeli teens that were blessed to learn Nechama's method of biblical commentary with Nechama herself. Yes, everyone called her "Nechama", even when speaking directly to her! Read more...

As this week’s Torah portion, Vayishlach, opens, we encounter Jacob, twenty years after splitting with his brother Esau, preparing to meet him again.  Jacob sends his men to try to pave the way; offering gifts – all in an effort to assess Esau’s mood and to ascertain what type of reconciliation he can expect with Esau.  Amidst the preparation for the epic showdown, the Torah records Jacob’s showdown with another: Read more...

Upon his arrival at Paddan-Aram, having wrestled with the angel, pacified his brother, survived the trauma of his daughter's rape and his sons' revenge on the men of Shechem, and having built an altar to God at the ancestral home-base of Beit-El, Jacob receives a surprising message from God: God appeared again to Jacob on his arrival from Paddan-Aram, and God blessed him. God said to him, "You whose name is Jacob, you shall be called Jacob no more, but 'Israel' shall be your name." Thus God named him Israel. Read more...