No longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel. For you have lorded over angel and man, and have prevailed. (Genesis 32:29)
And [Esau] said: "Of course they call his name Jacob! He has twice deceived me..."(Genesis 27:36)
Jacob and Israel -- the two biblical names of the Jewish people.
Jacob (Ya-a-kov, Hebrew for "he who grasps the heel"; also "he who shall deceive"): the sly conniver who disguises himself in Esau's clothes and makes off with the blessings for "the dew of heaven and the fat of the land" intended for his material brother.
Israel (Yis-ro-el, Hebrew for "prince of G-d"; also related to sarita "you have lorded over"): the courageous knight who confronts his terrestrial and supernal challengers head on, wrestles with them through the night, and prevails.
Prince and conniver -- the dual identity of the Jew.
In his spiritual life, Israel is an uncompromising prince of G-d. He stares the mocker in the eye and lays all his cards on the table: these are my beliefs, these are my standards, these are my ethics; this is what I am, this is what I stand for, this is what I am here to teach the world. You may deride me, you may persecute me, you may slaughter me -- but I shall prevail. Israel, who lords over angel and man, and prevails.
But when it comes to his material existence, Jacob plays the field but keeps his true objectives close to his chest. He will be scrupulously honest in his financial dealings, but he'll be utterly dishonest as to why he's in the business. He eats, drinks, earns money -- for all intents and purposes, he's a full-fledged participant in the give and take of physical life. But he's unwilling to relate to the material on its -- the material's -- terms; refusing to care, refusing to become involved, refusing to pursue it for its own sake.
The Jew dresses in Esau's clothes, but he refuses to allow the clothes to remake the man. He seeks the dew of heaven and the fat of the land, only to manipulate them to serve a higher end. First he buys out his brother's stake in the spiritual, divorcing the mundane from any pretensions to import or significance. Then he disguises himself as a materialist, and claims materialdom's choicest bits for his own purposes.
Jacob, who has twice deceived me...
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