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