A Namesake of Jacob or Israel?

A Namesake of Jacob or Israel?
By Rabbi Ari Lorge

This week’s parshah, Miketz, is really something.

It has it all. As the grandfather tells his grandson in the Princess Bride “Are you kidding me? Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles!”

To be fair - there isn’t fencing… or giants… unclear about the torture. But the rest is there.

With so much action, so much drama, there is one character who is notably on the sidelines: our patriarch Jacob. And this is a big change. He was once the man who, time and again, took fate into his own hands, who controlled events, who defied his destiny. Now we find him a rather sad figure. Someone who the world acts upon. It has been this way since his sons sold his favorite child, Joseph, into slavery and told him Joseph was killed by a wild animal. From that moment to this one, he has been defined by inaction and passivity: he appears helpless and hopeless.

Our sages noted an important detail in the text. Even though Jacob was renamed Israel by God a few weeks ago in parshat Vayishlach, ever since the loss of Joseph he has been called Jacob rather than Israel. This is unusual. Abraham and Sarah never reverted to Avram and Sarai once God changed their names. Why does scripture vacillate between the names Israel and Jacob for this patriarch?

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, the famous German neo-Orthodox commentator noted that it communicates something important about his character.

What is the significance of being called Jacob rather than Israel? Jacob has a few meanings. But it is most often associated with the fact that he was the second born twin who held onto his brother’s heel - Jacob is a heel chaser. Rabbi Hirsch suggests he is called Jacob at this point in the story to represent the fact that he feels he is lagging behind. Instead of leading, he is dragged along after events.

We can understand why. Since losing Joseph, he has given up on the idea that he can shape the future. This man, who once drove the direction of his fate, is now convinced there is nothing to be done but wait for the next tragedy that will come his way.

However, it is here, in parshat Miketz (Bereshit 43:6), that he is once again called Israel. He stops being Jacob, who grasps after the heels of events, and earns the name Israel anew, deciding to lead his family.

Hirsch goes on to suggest Jacob and Israel are paradigms for every Jew. At any given moment we are either Bnei Yaakov or Bnei Yisrael; children of Jacob or children of Israel. The question we have to ask ourselves is whose namesake will we be?

It is natural to feel powerless in the wake of yet another antisemitic attack, this one ending in the murder of 15 souls, and 40 others injured, itself just the latest in a string of violence against Jews around the diaspora as “Globalize the intifada” moves from a dangerous slogan to a deadly reality, in the context of a war of survival for Israel against Iran and its proxies, all while Jew hatred inches into political power across the globe. By any honest assessment, we are beset by enemies seeking either our destruction, or our erasure, or our silence. It is natural to feel like the namesakes of Jacob - to feel we are swept up in events, rather than shaping them; like all we can do is sit and wait for the next tragedy.

But Judaism is unequivocal: we are never powerless. Each of us has a purpose. We have a mission and an aim. Children of Israel are never running after the heels of events - we are shapers of our future. God gave us commandments. God needs us - you and me. Through Jewish living we wrestle Godliness into this world. Never has that been more necessary.

What can we do right now? There are so many actions available to us.

• Light your Chanukiah. Put it in your window to shine out. That is a powerful act and a mitzvah. If you can, bring other people together. So many feel alone right now. We can banish Jewish loneliness and isolation. We can expose non-Jews to the beauty of our tradition and the generosity of our spirits. Don’t let this stop after Chanukah. You will find our calendar a powerful way to find meaning and purpose - to feel empowered.

• Learn and live Torah. Our identities cannot be built upon our tragedies - by what happens to us. They are forged in the rich and vibrant tradition we inherit. Antiouchus declared Torah learning forbidden. Here we are thousands of years later making it the heart of who we are. Torah learning has never been more accessible. לֹ֥א בַשָּׁמַ֖יִם הִ֑וא - it is not up in the heavens, it is very near to you, on your smartphone, and in this congregation. All around us are opportunities to lean into the tradition. If you need concrete suggestions for books or websites depending on your interest, email me. I’m serious.

• Dedicate some of your tzedakah to organizations that are fostering strong Jewish identity and Jewish community - Hillels, Jewish summer camps, Jewish youth movements. Invest in the Jewish future.

• Be visibly Jewish. We are not going to hide or cower - and we can do this as an act of solidarity with our fellow Jews whose practice makes them more visible and therefore a greater target.

• Continue to be not only a visible Jew, but even more fundamentally a visible Jewish blessing. When people truly see Jews, doing the work we do in the world, caring for one another, for our neighbors and neighborhoods, for the needy, then those who demonize us face an impossible task - asking people to believe lies rather than their lived experience.

This shift from Jacob to Israel in Miketz is the Torah we read almost every Chanukah. It is not a mistake. We spend this holiday valorizing the Maccabees who also chose Jewish identity in the face of oppression and persecution. The world we face today is alarming and disturbing, but not as dire. We are up to the task. We choose our namesake Israel.