The House of Jacob Shall be a Fire

"The house of Jacob shall be a fire.” Prophet Ovadia 1:18

Angels seem to appear at each pivotal moment in the life of Jacob. When heaven feels like it is about to collide with the earth under Jacob’s feet, he is met by these celestial visitors.

Imagine. A mother advising her child to take a blessing using subterfuge. The young man obliges by donning fur to deceive his aged and blind father. It is a highly emotionally charged moment. Jacob is caught in a tight web where, if he fails, the rest of his life will be a misery. If Jacob succeeds, phantasms or demons will crowd and hound him until he dies. It is an impossible situation. Almost blindly, mechanically, Jacob walks toward the inevitable.

Imagine. A throaty howl of anguish rises from his father’s bedside when Esau understands that his brother has collected the birthright prize. Wild and uncontrolled, Jacob knew that the target of the howl was directed at him. Jacob was the cause of the unleashed anger. Echoing through the valleys, the screeches of Esau reverberate through the universe. The anguished cries fill his ears. Jacob hears, understands, and believes the death threat against him by his twin, Esau. Imagine an interminable exile.

As Jacob fled from his home to escape the mark of death, he dreamt of a ladder bridging heaven and earth. Jacob felt the hollows of his stomach expanding. At once, the vision filled him with awe and a vast understanding. The vision could not have come at a better time. Shorn of love and protection; deprived of his home; alone and empty; Jacob is reassured by the heavenly angels that his exile is part of a greater plan. He called the place Bayt El, the House of God.

Was there a deeper meaning to this vision of Jacob? Was it only to assuage the awful feelings of betrayal and loneliness? Or was there something more? The Midrash 1 informs us that the angels ascending and descending the heavenly ladder represents something greater than the portal to heaven. It revealed the course of history or, more accurately, the future. Throughout the coming epochs, powerful nations would rise to great heights. They would conquer nations and despoil entire continents. Ultimately, each nation would falter and then disappear into the vast abyss of time. Jacob and his progeny, however, were promised that they would live throughout all the tumultuous times and survive beyond each nation. Jacob received an assurance, a guarantee that this exile was purposeful.
Question: Do we get what we need? Does God provide for us? Looking over past years has there been a guiding hand gently charting our course through life? Has our past been a random series of events or a pathway that can be seen only with from a distance?

A day rolls into years as Jacob ages and negotiates a long series of painful deceptions. Life is not easy for Jacob. Finally, the tortured past catches up with the painful present.

‘It is time,’ Jacob decides. Determined to recover the fragments of his past life, Jacob makes the choice he had carefully avoided for too long: he will return and confront the reason for the years of exile. A decision has been reached: the years have not dulled the ache. Putting off the inevitable reckoning does nothing to deaden the pain. Jacob has already tried that for more than two decades. Still, the nightmares continued.

If Jacob is ever going to be whole, he will have to face his nemesis- and the other part of his soul - Esau. Even this decision is not simple. Once again, Jacob finds that he must run from the clutches of another who seeks to destroy him. Nothing is linear for the patriarch. Each choice he makes is fraught with painful choices and great hurdles. In the final analysis, it is only through God’s intervention that the life of Jacob is spared.

On the eve of meeting his brother, Jacob has a second encounter with angels. In a camp called Machanyim, they come to Jacob. Jacob converses with the angels and asks them to guide him towards his ultimate confrontation.

The angels assure Jacob that he is not alone. In fact, they imply that they have been with Jacob all through his journey. They have provided guidance when Laban came to accost Jacob with the flocks of sheep. The angels watched over Jacob as he worked for his father-in-law. They were even responsible for his financial success as well as his survival. The angels protected and guided Jacob through the last treacherous encounter with Laban. Repeatedly, the angels materialize to suggest to the patriarch that he has never been entirely alone. It is not incidental or trivial that the angels now appear to Jacob. He is full of anxiety and they reassure him that his actions and his life matter.
Question: Is it possible that you are never truly alone? Could it be that our lives are criss-crossed with the footprints of heavenly beings? With enough insight, would he be able to see them like Father Jacob?


Finally, for the last recorded time in the Bible, Jacob encounters an angel. This time it is significantly different, however. The angel does not come to Jacob with comfort or support. There are no promises of deliverance. He offers death.

Jacob wrestles the angel until dawn. When the sun rises, Jacob gains a blessing from the heavenly messenger. The blessing? A name change. Now Jacob has become Israel.

What was the apparition that attacked Jacob? Was it really an angel? Rashi reveals that it was the protecting angel of Esau. Stealing across the river in the blank starless night, Esau’s angel stealthily crept up on Jacob, hoping to destroy him. The Talmud records that the fight was so ferocious that the dust kicked up by their engagement covered the land and traveled up to heaven. 2

Jacob refused defeat despite a hip injury. He clung to both life and hope throughout the long night. Giving up may have cost Jacob his life. Or perhaps it would have meant that his life was a tragic mistake. Either choice he would make led to a dismal end. Jacob refused either option. He grasped the destructive angel, tenaciously clinging to him and demanding that he be blessed. It is a blessing like the one that he coveted so long ago at his father’s bedside.


Alternative ending: Jacob endured the darkest moment of his life. That unlit night Jacob found and revealed truest self. In a remote land, naked and vulnerable, Jacob encountered his yetser hara, the darkest part of himself. The angel was actually a part of Jacob that was unwanted, unacknowledged. It now became unavoidable: Jacob had to face segments of his past that were guilty of connivance and duplicity. If was ever going to become whole, Jacob had to confront his soul and scourge the wounds festering there.
Question: The question sits at the door of our psyche and will not go away. It gnaws at our soul and saps our strength. The incessant demands can be ignored for so long, and no longer. When we ultimately open the door who wins? He who is ready for the dark night of reckoning.


Jacob announces to the angel: "I will not let you go unless you bless me." 3 The angel responds to Jacob’s demand with a question, "What is your name?"

How can it be that the angel does not know Jacob’s name? Has he not been sent on a mission to find and destroy Jacob? It is not possible that the angel does not know who his intended victim is.

Kalonymos Kalman Shapira, the rabbi of the Warsaw Ghetto, offered a novel insight. Hurt by the fight, the angel prepares to leave the wounded Jacob.

"Is that it?” Jacob is incredulous. “Is that all? Is this the fate of the Jewish people? We are forever to fight and be hurt and reviled? Our destiny is to suffer? Our lot is to endure hardship? Our future is pockmarked with struggle? We merely survive and then you turn your back and walk away from us? I cannot let this happen! It must nor be!

“Give me more. Bless me! I demand a blessing that will be worthy of a people yet-to-come, my descendents. Bless the future nation that resides within me. I want you to bensch me!

Jacob was not only seeking the survival of his people and a respite from their enemies; he was demanding redemption. It is not enough to endure and emerge from suffering; there must be a kernel of hope that lies at the end; a Divine promise.

The angel asked Jacob’s name because Jacob means "holds onto the heel." Jacob entered the world fastening on to the heel of his twin brother, Esau. Throughout his life, Jacob continued to grasp on to the heels of others. The angel now reveals that this will no longer be true. That is why the heavenly emissary asks, "What is your name?"

For too long Jacob was defined by his name. In order to change the future the angel changes the present. That is why the angel says to Jacob, This is my blessing; your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, “for you have striven with the Divine and with man and you have overcome." 4

In having the chutzpah to demand a promise from the angel, Jacob was rewarded. The future was determined by his willingness to open his heart. The angel promises redemption. To this day, we bear the name of that promise.
Question:What do we ask of God when we pray? As our hearts open for the Almighty what spills out? To what level does our soul aspire? For Jacob, it was nothing less than the ultimate redemption. For you?


1. Midrash Tanchuma, Vayetze 2.
2. Hullin 91
3. Ibid., 32:27
4. Genesis 32:29