VaYishlach 5767 -- Wrestling with Freud

This week we will look at the changing of Jacob’s name to Israel. As Rashi sees it, Jacob’s hand-to-hand combat on the riverbank is a clash with the ministering angel who represents the nation of Esau. As Rashi further explains, when Jacob asks the angel to bless him, he is really asking the angel to acknowledge that the b’rachot that Jacob received from Isaac were rightfully his, and were not obtained through noxious trickery. This is very important to Jacob, as he is terrified that Esau, whom he will meet in the morning, might still want to kill him because of the pilfered blessings.

The angel apparently consents and tells Jacob “your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Yisrael; ki sarita im Elokim v’im anashim vatukhal – because you wrestled with God and humans and you overcame.” Rashi explains the first part of this statement – your name will no longer be called Jacob – as an acknowledgement that Jacob deserved the b’rachot, because the name Ya’akov could connote trickery and deceit. By changing this name and wiping away the identity of Jacob as ‘the trickster,’ the angel acknowledges Jacob’s authentic right to the blessings. In a sense, then, the angel blesses Jacob with the certainty that Esau will not try to kill him when they meet.

But the second part of the statement is difficult. What does it mean to wrestle with God? At a more basic level, does Elokim really mean God here? There are several approaches in the commentaries. The RaSaG and Unkelos translate sarita im Elokim according to the most obvious definition: wrestling before God. (I’m not really sure what it means to wrestle ‘before’ anyone, but see RaSag (“lifnei Hashem”) and Unkelos (“Kadam Hashem”)). The Radak explains that wrestling with God refers to Jacob’s battle with the angel, and so associates Elokim not with God per se, but with the heavenly host. I am uncomfortable with all of these explanations for the following reason: they seem to glorify an attribute of Jacob – his physical strength and battle-hardiness – that is simply not worth memorializing in a momentous mid-life change of name.

I am similarly troubled by the explanations given for “v’im anashim vatukhal – and [you have wrestled] with humans and you have overcome.” According to Rashi and the Radak ‘humans’ is a reference to Esau and Laban, who contended with Jacob, but over whom Jacob ultimately prevailed. The mere fact of Jacob’s victory over and escape from Esau and Laban also does not seem worthy of grand memorializing in a divinely inspired name. In fact, Jacob’s cunning – by which he gained Esau’s birthright and blessing and escaped from Laban – seems awfully similar to the attribute of deception that was just removed from his identity through the name change! Why would it then be immediately restored by a new name that memorializes Jacob’s grappling with, and ultimate defeat of, other people?

It seems to me that in order for the new name Yisrael to make sense, it must evoke good moral qualities that have become the new essence of our Ancestor. This is certainly the case when Abraham and Sarah’s names are given; they are not given the names “He who pretends his wife is his sister,” or “She who mistreats her maid.” I argue that such utterly inappropriate names are fairly analogous to the explanations of Yisrael discussed above, which more or less amount to “He who has been physically stronger than angels and more cunning and successful than men” (or as my chavruta characterized it “He who is no longer a trickster but a Big Bad Dude”).

I want to suggest a re-reading of this verse that emphasizes the positive moral qualities that we would expect to inhere in a name, and that speak to Jacob’s experiences. “Ki sarita im Elokim v’im anashim vatukhal” should not be read to say that Jacob has wrestled with God and humans and has been victorious.

Instead, this verse commemorates Jacob’s wrestling with the demands of justice – Elokim – and with his own baser desires –the enoshi, or human, aspects – leading to the emergence of a refined character, representing his true soul – vatukhal. Put in psychological terms, Ki sarita im Elokim v’im anashim vatukhal refers to Jacob’s successful synthesis of the Superego, elokim, with the Id, anashim, thereby enabling, or granting yekholet to, his Ego to emerge.

This reading of Elokim as ‘justice,’ rather than ‘God,’ is quite reasonable. First, Elokim is associated specifically with God’s attribute of judgment. Second, Elohim sometimes just means judges, such as members of a beit din, and not God! (See for example Rashi to Exodus 21:5).

Moreover, this reading allows us to emphasize Jacob’s noble characteristics and the experiences that have forced him to grow. In his earlier days, Jacob seemed to want what he wanted, and to figure out a way to get it – he exercised his Id. He bought Esau’s birthright when Esau was vulnerable and deceived his father and stole Esau’s blessing. But Jacob also was threatened with, and indeed received, recompense for pursuing his inappropriate desires. Esau threatened to kill him, and just as Jacob had deceived Isaac, who could not see, Laban deceived Jacob at night, when he could not see, by substituting Leah for Rachel. Arguably, Esau’s threats and Laban’s deceptions were appropriate justice, midah k’neged midah – measure for measure – and reflect the demands of the Superego.

By the time Jacob is returning to Canaan, he has seen the error of his ways and has done teshuvah. He sends messengers ahead to curry favor and ask forgiveness from his brother. One of his instructions is to tell Esau “Im Lavan Garti – with Laban I have dwelled.” As Rashi notes, Garti is gematria for 613. To expand on Rashi, what Jacob is really telling Esau is this: “I used to give into my impulses, and that’s what came between us, but now I have mastered them. Know that I have changed by the fact that I managed to keep the commandments during my time with the idolatrous and thieving Laban. I am not the Jacob (trickster) you knew.”

As human beings we are emphatically not perfect, and it is not in our nature to be so. Our enoshi attributes are an indispensable part of our identities both as universal humans and as individuals. For this reason, the angel admiringly notes not that Jacob has acceded to perfect justice and vanquished his humanity – which would be impossible – but rather that he has wrestled with each, Superego and Id. At the end of the process: vatukhal – and a complete (kol) and able (yakhol) Ego was able to emerge.