What’s In Our Name?
Names are not neutral. For many Jews today, a name can feel like a declaration: do you wear your Jewish name with pride, or do you feel embarrassed when the environment or circumstances feel hostile?
The modern State of Israel feels this strain as well. The name Israel has become a lightning rod. Yet historically it has stood for extraordinary achievement: pioneers who drained swamps, soldiers who stunned the world in 1967, scientists and entrepreneurs who turned a small nation into the Start-Up Nation. It evokes grit, ingenuity, and hope.
These tensions echo the Torah’s first use of the name Israel. To see how, we return to the moment the name Israel is first bestowed.
Twice Named
In Parshat Vayishlach, Jacob receives the name Israel twice. The first time, he has just wrestled through the night with a mysterious being—often understood as an angel or spiritual adversary. This encounter is physical and messy. The reward is not earned through contemplation but through struggle. At dawn Jacob is told: “Your name will no longer be Jacob but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans and prevailed.” Here, Israel denotes courage, perseverance, the refusal to give up.
The second time occurs at Beit-El, when God appears and confirms the new identity: “Your name is Jacob; you shall be called Jacob no more, but Israel shall be your name.” In this context, Rashi (1040–1105) interprets Israel not as struggle but as princeliness and nobility. Jacob stands upright before God and commands dignity. The name is a coronation, a signal of leadership and stature.
Taken together, the two scenes suggest that Israel is not simply a title or a reward. It is dignity borne of struggle—hard-won through effort and then recognized by God.
Dual Name and Jewish Destiny
Building on these themes, the commentator Nahmanides notes that at the end of Genesis, God uses the names Jacob and Israel interchangeably in a way that foreshadows the future of the nation: in Egyptian exile, Israel will exist in a state of vulnerability—as “Jacob”—before their honor and dignity as “Israel” is restored. The Torah’s continued use of both names forms a pattern that comments on the future of the Jewish people.
Similarly, reflecting on the ongoing relevance of both names, Rabbi Sacks found in the dual identity a powerful message for the modern Jew:
There are Jews at or near the top of almost every field of human endeavour today, but all too many have either abandoned their religious heritage or are indifferent to it…. I believe the challenge issued by the angel still echoes today. Are we Jacob, embarrassed by who we are? Or are we Israel, with the courage to stand upright and walk tall in the path of faith?
Hasidic thinkers read the dual name differently. For them, “Jacob” represents earthly, physical strength—the Jacob who lifts the heavy stone from the well, who achieves material success, and who prepares for battle with Esau. “Israel,” by contrast, embodies spiritual strength: wrestling with an angel and praying to God. Both names endure because both qualities are essential. Jewish life requires integrating the physical and the spiritual, the pragmatic and the elevated. This duality is not only a matter of biblical interpretation; it shapes how Jews respond to pressure and navigate the present.
Jacob and Israel Today
Against this backdrop, the dual names Jacob and Israel offer a lens for understanding two responses to contemporary antisemitism and anti-Zionism.
In the first interpretation, Jacob symbolizes the instinct to retreat: to hide our identity, shrink back, and protect ourselves through silence or invisibility.
On the other side stands Israel: the call to live with courage, dignity, moral clarity, and spiritual strength—to stand upright and walk tall in the world, faithful to who we are.
Yet the secret of Jewish survival may not lie in choosing one identity over the other, but in integrating them. We need the practical resilience and security embodied by Jacob, and the spiritual depth, prayer, and moral leadership expressed by Israel. Both are part of our collective calling.
When we embrace our full identity—physical security joined with spiritual purpose—we become Israel: a people who stand tall, who struggle and overcome, who lead with both strength and faith.
Rabbanit Karen Miller Jackson is a certified Meshivat Halacha, Jewish educator and writer known for her contributions to Torah studies and educational initiatives, including at Matan Institute for Torah Studies. She is a member of the second cohort of Sacks Scholars and a Matan Kitvuni Fellow, currently writing a book on aggada in Talmud Berachot. Karen is also the creator of #PowerParsha, host of the Eden Center podcast Women & Wellbeing, and is the founder of Kivun l’Sherut, a guidance program for religious girls before sherut le’umi or army service. She lives with her family in Ra’anana, Israel.