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Said he, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob/Yaakov, but Israel/Yisrael, for you have striven with beings divine and human, and have prevailed.” (Genesis 32:29)
A thread on coexistence based on last week's Torah portion.
A thread on coexistence based on last week's Torah portion.
The rabbinic tradition assumes that the "man" Jacob wrestled with that night was the Sar, or Ministering Angel of his brother, Esau, progenitor of the nation of Edom, which the rabbis associate with Rome (and, later, The West/Christendom)
The name "Yisrael" has sort of a double meaning. As a verb (Sarita), its root means to struggle for supremacy. As a noun (Sar) it means a minister or officer - one who *has* supremacy. The rabbis, creatively, take them together.
The Talmud, though, adds something else. Rabba, the 3rd-4th century sage, asserts that the angel was also telling Jacob that the double struggle refers to Jacob's own descendants who would struggle with each other: the Patriarch and the Exilarch.
The Patriach/Nasi was the head of the Jewish community in Roman Palestine. The Exilarch/Reish Galuta was the head of the Diaspora community in Babylon, modern-day Iraq and Iran.
Their respective communities struggled for primacy. The Israel community on the strength of its geography, its continuity, and its leader's claim to the Davidic line. The Babylonian community on the strength of its greater affluence and greater, more influential Torah scholarship
On the surface, this intramural rivalry between Jewish communities seems far removed from the existential, international conflict between Jacob and Esau. And yet, that is Rabba's very point.
The name Yisrael means "to struggle." The angel was telling him that the point is not to fight to win but to keep fighting, to prove able in competitions and rivalries that are ongoing, but actually have the potential to bring out the best in the participants.
Jacob didn't *beat* the man he wrestled with - they fought to a standstill, ultimately with neither prevailing. Likewise, the strength of the Talmudic era Jewish community was that it was able to live with conflict - and yet be big enough to encompass both centers.
Yisrael learns this lesson. When he finally encounters his brother Esau, they may not fully reconcile, but they do not fight. They at least tacitly agree to coexist. Esau heads to Se'ir, Jacob to Sukkot - but they are both still part of the same family. They bury Isaac together.
To quote #Hamilton, the world was wide enough. There would not be a climactic war as we might have expected, but the rivalry would not end. The competition seems good for both of them. Esau fathers a series of kings. Jacob eventually follows suit.
If you've followed this far, you may also be thinking about an American political system in which two parties struggle against each other perpetually. The "system" is not designed for one side trying to *win* - to dominate the other side completely and achieve true supremacy.
"Yaakov" may be about using tricks and breaking norms to win. "Yisrael" is recognizing that the struggle itself is important. In America, that is true for two reasons.
First, efforts to "win" are usually undemocratic. They are gerrymandering, packing courts with ideologues, and so on. They remind me of Jacob/Yaakov (literally, "heel") holding on to Esau's heel, looking for any way to trip him and move ahead.
Secondly, they miss the fact that competition drives discussions that make both political parties better. It is no accident that the party that stood for the exercise of raw power and breaking of norms DIDN'T EVEN PASS A PLATFORM leading up to a presidential election.
It is also no accident that all of the interesting policy discussions and debates are happening WITHIN the party that believes in norms and fair, democratic play. It's as though an angel told them not to try and *win* at any cost, but to always struggle to *be better*
Being "Yisrael" is having centers in Palestine and Babylon that struggled with each other but within the context of a people great enough to encompass both. So may we in America experience that with our own two political centers of gravity. Right now, only one of them gets it.
Related: in the #Fiasco podcast, @leoncrawl has a line about the 2000 recount. Democrats were trying not to be perceived as inconsistent or hypocritical. Republicans were trying not to LOSE.
