44 | NOVEMBER 18 • 2021

I

have often argued that
the episode in which the
Jewish people acquired its
name — when Jacob wrestled
with an unnamed adversary
at night and
received the
name Israel —
is essential to an
understanding
of what it is
to be a Jew. I
argue here that
this episode is
equally critical
to understanding what it is
to lead.
There are several theories
as to the identity of “the
man” who wrestled with the
patriarch that night. The
Torah calls him a man. The
prophet Hosea called him
an angel (Hosea 12:4-5). The
Sages said it was Samael,

guardian angel of Esau and
a force for evil. Jacob him-
self was certain it was God.
“Jacob called the place Peniel,
saying, “It is because I saw
God face to face, and yet my
life was spared” (Gen. 32:31).
My suggestion is that we
can only understand the pas-
sage by reviewing the entirety
of Jacob’s life. Jacob was born
holding on to Esau’s heel. He
bought Esau’s birthright. He
stole Esau’s blessing. When
his blind father asked him
who he was, he replied, “I am
Esau, your firstborn.” (Gen.
27:19) Jacob was the child
who wanted to be Esau.
Why? Because Esau was
the elder. Because Esau was
strong, physically mature,
a hunter. Above all, Esau
was his father’s favorite:
“Isaac, who had a taste for

wild game, loved Esau, but
Rebecca loved Jacob” (Gen.
25:28). Jacob is the paradigm
of what the French literary
theorist and anthropologist
Rene Girard called mimetic
desire, meaning, we want
what someone else wants,
because we want to be that
someone else. The result is
tension between Jacob and
Esau. This tension rises to an
unbearable intensity when
Esau discovers that the bless-
ing his father had reserved
for him has been acquired by
Jacob, and so Esau vows to
kill his brother once Isaac is
no longer alive.
Jacob flees to his uncle
Laban’s home, where he
encounters more conflict; he
is on his way home when he
hears that Esau is coming to
meet him with a force of 400

men. In an unusually strong
description of emotion, the
Torah tells us that Jacob was
“very frightened and dis-
tressed” (Gen. 32:7) — fright-
ened, no doubt, that Esau
was coming to kill him, and
perhaps distressed that his
brother’s animosity was not
without cause.
Jacob had indeed wronged
his brother, as we saw earli-
er. Isaac says to Esau, “Your
brother came deceitfully and
took your blessing.” (Gen.
27:35) Centuries later, the
prophet Hosea says, “The
Lord has a charge to bring
against Judah; he will punish
Jacob according to his ways
and repay him according to
his deeds. In the womb, he
grasped his brother’s heel;
as a man he struggled with
God.” (Hos. 12:3-4) Jeremiah

Rabbi Lord
Jonathan
Sacks

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

Be Thyself