names of Yaakov

Where the authorities disagree

When the Torah says Yaakov and when Yisrael. Many commentators, among them the Maharal and Rav Hirsch: the name marks the frame, Yaakov for the individual and Yisrael for the man in his role as father of the nation. Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk: the two names stand for two avenues of avodah, Yaakov for yiras Hashem and Yisrael for ahavas Hashem. The Ohr HaChaim works through the pesukim systematically and finds a different rule: Yaakov wherever the Torah shows him downcast or in distress, Yisrael wherever he is at peace and content. All three are workable lenses; the Bottom line quotes the Maharal and Rav Hirsch's rule because it is the one that bears on how a translator handles the nation's name, and flags the Ohr HaChaim's because it explains the switches inside a single narrative.

What Yeshurun means. Ramban (to Bamidbar 23:10, Devarim 2:10 and 7:12): yashar, straight, given precisely to counter Esav's claim (Bereishis 27:36) that Yaakov comes from ע-ק-ב in its other sense of trickery; Michah 7:20 pairs Yaakov with truth. A tradition preserved in Arugas HaBosem of Rabbi Avraham ben Ezriel, Peirush HaRokeach to the Siddur, and Eitz Yosef of Rabbi Chanoch Zundel of Bialystok reads it as yashar v'naeh, straight and fine, the two phrases matching in gematria when Yeshurun is spelled with two vavs. Rabbeinu Bachya: from shur, to gaze, since they came nearest to gazing on the Shechinah at Har Sinai. The Vilna Gaon: from shir, song, for the shirah at the Sea. Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg: from shirah as a name of the Torah (Devarim 31:19), since they alone accepted it. The column sets these side by side and does not rank them; the Bottom line leads with Ramban because his is the one reading that states why the name was given.

Whether Yeshurun is a name of the Jewish People at all. The Maharsha holds that Yeshurun is a Name of Hashem, and ascribes the view to Rashi. Rabbi Yechezkel Landau (Noda BiYehudah Tinyana, Orach Chaim §126) works out what the Maharsha meant; Rabbi Nosson Kamenetsky devoted an exhaustive essay to the question. The column itself brings the Maharsha only as a bracketed aside, and takes as its plain evidence that Yeshurun names Yaakov the pre-Shacharis passage that calls the Jewish People "the congregation of Your firstborn son Yaakov, whom from Your love that You loved him and from Your happiness that You were happy with him, You called his name Yisrael and Yeshurun," whose earliest source is Tanna DeVei Eliyahu (Seder Eliyahu Rabbah ch. 21).

Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk notes that apart from that prayer the Jews are almost never called Yeshurun in the liturgy, the exception being the Yom Kippur wording, "Forgiver of Israel and Pardoner of the Tribes of Yeshurun in all generations." He accounts for the doubled expression by taking "Forgiver of Israel" of sins between man and Hashem, typified by the Eigel, and "Pardoner of the Tribes of Yeshurun" of sins between man and his fellow, typified by the brothers' sale of Yosef.

Which name stands highest. The Zohar ranks them: Yisrael above Yaakov (Vayechi 222a), and Yeshurun above Yisrael (Vayishlach 177b). The Chasam Sofer (to Yoma 73b) gives the reason: Yisrael is yashar plus El, a high level reached with Divine help, while Yeshurun describes a people inherently straight, at their peak through their own effort. Megaleh Amukos of Rabbi Nosson Nota Shapiro maps the three onto the Arizal's worlds by the shape of the suffixes, angels of Beriah ending in -el and those of Yetzirah in -on/-ron: Yaakov in Asiyah, Yisrael in Beriah, Yeshurun in Yetzirah. Note that the article presents Yetzirah here as higher than Beriah, whereas its own listing of the four worlds puts Beriah above Yetzirah; the discrepancy is left as it stands.