Israel

The name Israel is traditionally derived from Hebrew, meaning "God strives" or "he strives with God," stemming from the biblical narrative of Jacob wrestling with an angel or God. Blavatsky's interpretation links it to Eastern Kabbalistic roots, suggesting "Isaral" or "Asar" meaning "Sun-God," thus equating the struggle with the sun's interaction with matter.

The Eastern Kabbalists derive tne name from Isaral or Asar, the Sun-God. "Isra-el" sitrnifies "striving with god": the "sun rising' upon Jacob-Israel" means the Sun-god Israel (or Isarel) striving with, and to fecundate matter, which has power with "God and with man" and often prevails over both. Esau, ^saou, Asu, is also the Sun. Esau and Jacob, the allegorical twins, are the emblems of the ever struggling dual principle in nature — good and evil, darkness and sunlight, and the "Lord" (Jehovah) is their antetype. JacobIsrael is the feminine principle of Esau, as Abel is that of Cain, both Cain and Esau being the male principle. Hence, like Malach-Iho, the "Lord" Esau fights with Jacob and prevails not. In Genesis xxxii. the God-Sun first strives with Jacob, breaks his thigh (a phallic symbol) and yet is defeated by his terrestrial type — matter; and the Sun-God rises on Jacob and his thicjh in covenant. All these biblical personages, their "Lord God" included, are types represented in an. allegorical sequence. They are types of Life and Death, Good and Evil, Light and Darkness, of Matter and Spirit in their synthesis, all these being under their contrasted aspects.

Helena Blavatsky, in her characteristic synthesis of disparate traditions, posits an intriguing etymological and allegorical reading of "Israel." She bypasses the conventional historical and religious interpretations to unearth a deeper, cosmic drama. The name, she suggests, is not simply a designation for a people, but a signifier for a fundamental principle of existence: the perpetual wrestling match between the spiritual and the material. This is not a battle of annihilation, but a dynamic interplay, akin to the sun's relentless effort to penetrate the darkness, to imbue inert matter with its generative power.

The biblical narrative of Jacob wrestling with the divine, famously recounted in Genesis, becomes in Blavatsky's hands a profound allegory. The breaking of Jacob's thigh, a symbol of physical limitation and vulnerability, is not a sign of defeat but a mark of transformation, a necessary wound inflicted by the divine that paradoxically leads to a covenant. This echoes Mircea Eliade's work on the sacred and the profane, where encounters with the divine often involve a shattering of the ordinary, a rupture that opens the individual to a higher reality. The "Sun-God Israel" striving with Jacob, and ultimately rising upon him, speaks to the illumination that follows profound struggle, the dawn that breaks after the longest night.

This concept resonates with the alchemical pursuit of the prima materia, the base substance that must be worked upon, purified, and transmuted through arduous processes to yield the lapis philosophorum. The struggle is inherent in the transformation. Similarly, Carl Jung's exploration of the shadow self, the integration of one's darker aspects, involves a fierce internal wrestling match, a confrontation with the "Esau" within, to achieve wholeness. Blavatsky's interpretation invites us to see the "Lord" (Jehovah) not as a distant, absolute ruler, but as an immanent force engaged in this cosmic dance, a force that can be both overcome and, in its struggle, lead to a deeper, more intimate union. The "striving with God" is, in essence, the human condition viewed through a lens of divine engagement, a constant, often painful, but ultimately creative process.

This perennial theme of divine struggle and transformation finds echoes across traditions. In Sufism, the nafs (ego) is constantly at war with the divine will, a struggle that, when surrendered, leads to fana (annihilation of the self in God). The "sun rising upon Jacob" can be seen as the dawn of divine consciousness breaking through the clouds of egoic resistance. In this light, "Israel" becomes a universal metaphor for the soul's arduous journey toward its divine source, a journey marked by conflict, revelation, and ultimately, a profound and transformative union.

RELATED_TERMS: Duality, Spiritual Struggle, Divine Union, Transmutation, Revelation, Ego, Illumination, Cosmic Dance