Rabbi's Blog

Yaakov יעקב

Anglicized version: Jacob

Meaning #1 - Related to the word heel עקב because Yaakov was born right after his twin brother Esau and came out grasping Esau’s heel (Genesis 25:26, Rashi)

Meaning #2 - “the one who outsmarted” (Onkelos Genesis 27:36) Esau by receiving the firstborn blessings first (which technically already belonged to Yaakov who bought their rights from Esau years earlier, but Esau was not going to honor the sale of the firstborn status).

Meaning #3 - A combination of the Hebrew letter YUD י (which symbolizes the the point of divinity of the core of the soul) &   (heel) עקב. The soul’s core permeates to the lowest elements of the person’s material life and and physical body, symbolized by the lowly heel.

The Torah verses above give us two interpretations of the name Jacob. Jacob was born grasping the heel of his elder twin, Esau; thus he was named "Jacob" (Yaakov, in the Hebrew), which means "at the heel." Years later, when Jacob disguised himself as Esau to receive the blessings that Isaac intended to give the elder brother, Esau proclaimed: "No wonder he is called Jacob ("cunning")! Twice he has outsmarted me: he has taken my birthright, and now he has taken my blessings."

Jacob is the Jew still in the thick of the battle of life. A battle in which he is often "at the heel"--dealing with the lowliest aspects of his own personality and of his environment. A battle which he must wage with cunning and stealth, for he is in enemy territory and must disguise his true intentions in order to outmaneuver those forces, both internal and external, who attempt to ensnare him. 

Threatened by a hostile world, plagued by his own shortcomings and negative inclinations, the Jacob Jew has yet to transcend the axiomatic condition of his humanity—the fact that "man is born to toil" and that human life is an obstacle course of challenges to one's integrity.

The prophet Balaam commented along these lines in his famous blessing about the Jews"[G‑d] sees no guilt in Jacob, nor toil in Israel." (Numbers 23:21)

G‑d sees no guilt in ‘Jacob’, for despite all that Jacob must face, he has been granted the capacity to meet his every detractor. Even if he momentarily succumbs to some internal or external challenge, he never loses his intrinsic goodness and purity, which ultimately asserts itself, no matter how much it has been repressed by the travails of life. But while he might be free of sin, he is never free of toil, of the struggle to maintain his sinless state. For Jacob, the war of life rages ever on, regardless of how many of its battles he has won.

Short Mystical Meaning of the Name: the name Yaakov or Jacob represent the very real Jew, who is a person of the world, who despite being involved in all aspects of a material life with its constant challenges and temptations, always manages to keep his or her head on straight to live an inspired life of Mitzvahs,ethics, and repentance.

Rivkah רבקה

Anglicized version of the name - Rebecca

Root Meaning of the Name 1: Fattened Calf (Sechel Tov)

Root Meaning of the Name 2: Harness/Yoke for Cattle Teams (Torah Ohr 18a of R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi)

Some of the root name meanings we have by other Jewish hebrew names have been easy to identify a noble trait. 

But Fattened Calf? Cattle Yoke? 

Let’s back up with who Rivka was and what she accomplished:

Rivka, or Rebecca, was the second matriarch of the Jewish nation. Although she grew up in Padan Aram, amongst pagans, she remained righteous and pure. Our sages applied to her the verse (Song of Songs 2:2): “As a rose among the thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters.” She married our patriarch Isaac, and gave birth to Esau and Jacob. It was she who orchestrated Jacob’s obtaining Isaac’s blessings (as described in Genesis 27).

Most importantly, as one of our matriarchs, her character is part of the spiritual genes that make us who we are.

Although the meaning of her name is not explained in the Written Torah, the Mishnah in tractate Eruvin uses the word revakot, the plural of rivkah, to describe “teams of cattle.”

The chassidic masters explain that becoming a “team of cattle” is a very Jewish aspiration, one that we can accomplish only because of the special soul-powers with which Rebecca endowed us all. We all have two distinct souls and consciousnesses animating our bodies: an “animal soul” and a “G‑dly soul.” The animal soul is driven by self-centeredness; the G‑dly soul, by the selfless quest to serve the Almighty.

Each of these souls has its own intellectual and emotional faculties, from creative wisdom to focused concentration, from discipline to loving and generous kindness. The difference is that all the emotional faculties of the G‑dly soul are dominated by the mind. As such, notwithstanding their extreme differences, the emotional faculties work together in harmony; they complement each other. Wisdom engenders compromise and cohesion. 

The animal soul, by contrast, due to its self-centered nature, is dominated by its emotions and impulses. Each one of these emotions operates independently of the others; they do not complement each other to work as a cohesive whole.

This condition, however, is not unchangeable. The mission of the G‑dly soul is to channel and focus the animal soul’s emotions toward its—the G‑dly soul’s—interest, the service of G‑d. (For more on this topic, see The Wild Horse.) When this is achieved, these formerly independent animalistic emotions can now unite, forming a harmony, or in the words of the Mishnah, “a team of cattle.”

This ability, writes Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of Chabad Chassidism, is the gift bequeathed by Matriarch Rebecca to her offspring—every child of the Jewish nation.

We all are Rebecca’s children, and we can follow in her ways by adding one more mitzvah to our daily schedule, transforming darkness to light, divisiveness to unity.

Rivkah represents the beautiful transformation that only the animal soul in the body can achieve. Yitzchak represents the aloof spiritual nature of the G-dly soul. Together, Animal soul and G-dly soul are fused into one person. And together they acheive an elevation for the body and physical world, which in turns even elevates the G-d invincible soul to a higher plane that it originated from.