Bible Says What? We must wrestle with God
Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild takes a controversial portion of the torah and applies a Reform Jewish angle
In Genesis 32:25 we read: “Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn”.
What happened at the Ford of Jabok was critical in Jacob’s life, leaving him physically marked for life and with another name.
He was alone, yet a ‘man’ wrestled with him till dawn. Who that ‘man’ was is open to interpretation but Jacob is in no doubt – he names the place P’niel, because he has met God face to face.
The Bible gives a dubious etymology for Jacob’s new name, Israel, but what is important is the meaning given – one who struggles with God and with other people, and is able to do so.
We take this name for ourselves; we are Am Yisrael, the people of Israel, and our defining characteristic is that we too must wrestle with God and with our world and make something of ourselves in that struggle.
Judaism is a religion of enquiry; questions are met with more questions, not with definitive answers.
Despite the systematizing work of Saadiya Gaon and Maimonides who responded to the doctrines of Christianity and Islam, Judaism remains a religion of deed, and not of creed.
We must keep on engaging with ideas, imagining possibilities, wrestling with God and with our world, in order to be truly alive.
This dynamic tradition of enquiry and analysis has kept us going over the centuries, adapting where necessary, accepting knowledge from outside sources and bringing it into our world view.
It is the life-source of progressive Judaism, as we keep our minds open to the world and its knowledge while grappling with our texts and their questions.
Jacob at Jabok is a metaphor for us in so many ways – fearful of the unknown future, struggling with the temptation to run back to the familiar, yet ultimately moving forward carrying the wounds of our struggle with us.
I’m proud to belong to a tradition that eschews doctrine and dogma, demands we struggle with God and with ourselves, and helps us aspire to be our best selves.
Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild has been a community rabbi in South London for 30 years
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