What does Israel Mean?

[FranklinMichaelV.3]

In the Christian Bible it is written that Israel means "He who struggles with God" and was the name that was bestowed onto Jacob. I am not sure if it is written the same in the Hebrew Bible.

I was curious to what that means. Jacob succeeds in holding an Angel (God?) from leaving unless he is blessed, despite the Angel having dislocated his Hip he persists until he receives his blessing.

And are there any commentaries that cover the meaning of that story? I of course have my own ideas of what it can mean, but I wanted to get it from those who have read and study the Torah, as well as avoiding to make it in to a debate.

 

[Akivah]

Israel, Yisrael in the Hebrew, means "he who prevails over the divine.")

There are many commentaries on every verse. Here are a few on this event (from the Chabad website):

Who is this man with whom Jacob wrestled? According to the Sages, he is the "angel of Esau," and their struggle, which "raised dust up to the Supernal Throne," is the cosmic struggle between two nations and two worlds -- the spirituality of Israel and the materiality of Edom (Rome). The night through which they wrestled is the long and dark galut ("exile"), in the course of which Jacob's descendants suffer bodily harm and spiritual anguish, but emerge victorious.

The struggle is conducted on two planes -- "with the divine and with men." It is a struggle with men: in nearly 4000 years of galut we have wrestled with the Egyptians, the Canaanites, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Romans, the Spanish Inquisition, Nazi Germany and Islamic terror. These and many others did their worst to destroy us, yet we have prevailed.

It is also a struggle with the soul of galut, with its Divine essence and purpose. Thrice daily we plead, protest and contest before the Supernal Throne: How much longer? Yes, it is true that these struggles have roused the highest and deepest potentials of the Jewish soul. Yes, it is true that galut has unearthed reserves of faith and wisdom such as would never have been actualized by a tranquil people enjoying a tranquil existence. Yes, it is true that we are fulfilling the cosmic plan in retrieving the Sparks of Holiness buried in the darkest reaches of G-d's creation. But how much longer must we linger over these "small jars"? And surely You, the essence of Kindness and Goodness, could have devised a way to achieve all this without all the evil and pain! It is a long and difficult struggle till dawn. But in the end we triumph over men and prevail over the divine as well. For this is the essence of Israel.

The commentaries point out that the fight described in this Parshah is the opening act of a battle that continues to this day between the Jewish people (represented by Jacob) and the enemy nations that seek its destruction (G‑d forbid). Indeed, throughout history many regimes have tried but failed to eradicate the Jewish people physically or spiritually; they may indeed be successful in “dislocating the hip joint,” damaging parts of Jewry, but the “body” as a whole remains intact.

This struggle will finally come to an end with the “break of dawn,” the era of the final Redemption, when Jacob’s victory will be complete and definitive. “Jacob,” as the Torah goes on to describe, “arrived whole in Shechem,” and so will it be with his descendants: despite all of the humiliation, pain and torture, the Jewish people lives on eternally and will arrive “whole” at its, and the world’s, ultimate destination.

The Zohar describes Jacob’s battle with the angel as symbolic of man’s struggle with his darker side. As morning was approaching, the angel knew that he had to act fast, for soon the night—the time when he has power—would be gone, and he would be powerless. He therefore struck Jacob’s thigh, the place where the evil inclination rests. And there he was able to wound him.
The Zohar teaches us that in every struggle, we are powerful and can overcome our evil urges if we so desire. There is only one place where the lust is so strong that even great men are powerless—the gid ha-nasheh. Its very name means “to forget,” because once it has been aroused, all rational thinking and religious scruples are left far behind. The only way to win that war is to stay far away in the first place, for once one is tempted, there is no knowing where things can lead. For this reason, the gid is not eaten at all, but utterly avoided.

 

[FranklinMichaelV.3]

Israel, Yisrael in the Hebrew, means "he who prevails over the divine.")

There are many commentaries on every verse. Here are a few on this event (from the Chabad website):

Thank you!

I had thought it was a reference to relationship between Israel and God a continual struggle as shown throughout it's history when looking at the stories of Kings and Chronicles.

The commentary indicating the Angel of Esau, reminds me of something I had read once about how there were Angels for every kingdom, and those were the ones against Israel (paraphrasing badly), I'm not sure if that was a Jewish Commentary as it was from a website.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

I believe it was Plaut who suggest that the term might originally have been Yeshar-el.